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Interesting Scoop from Planetizen



March 18 2010 Edition: A Service of Planetizen - The Planning, Design & Development Network
Freeways Responsible For Emptying Out Cities
A recent study shows that for every significant freeway that gets built in a major city, population declines by about 18%. Nathaniel Baum-Snow, author of the study, talks with Planetizen.

Read Full Story:
http://www.planetizen.com/node/43413

Recent Interchange Posts

Recent columns and commentaries from Interchange, Planetizen's blog written by experts in the field.

Samuel Staley
Conventional Planning May Be Contributing to Cleveland's Decline
Mar 16, 2010
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43388

Nate Berg
Inside the City of RVs
Mar 15, 2010
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43369

Todd Litman
Parking Policy Reform More Important Than LEED Certification
Mar 15, 2010
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43365

News Headlines

The 20 most popular headlines from the last three days.

"Real Simple" Cities That Save Time
Mar 15, 2010 -- Real Simple
Real Simple magazine offers its survey of America's top "time saving" cities, or those that make getting around and getting things done as easy (and green) as possible.
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43363

Ghetto-ization: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Density
Mar 15, 2010 -- myurbanist
At first glance, the historic Ghetto streetscene in Venice is an appealing new urbanist community. In another place at another time, the virtues of compact, walkable and dense were the very isolation we now abhor.
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43357

The Town That Lives Online Only
Mar 15, 2010 -- The New York Times
Elgin Park is a small city that doesn't exist. But online, through a series of photographs created from tiny models in the house of one Massachusetts man, the time-frozen industrial town of the mid-'60s has come to life.
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43360

Woonerfs Are Coming
Mar 16, 2010 -- The Toronto Star
"Woonerf" is a Dutch word for streets that mix cars and people, but with pedestrians as the dominant mode. Toronto planners are using the concept in their plans for the West Don Lands neighborhood.
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43366

'Sea-Change' Coming To Transportation Planning
Mar 16, 2010 -- League of American Bicyclists
That's what Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood wrote in his blog after attending the League of Bicyclist's 10th Anniversary Summit, March 9-11 in D.C. And he means it - as reflected in the DOT's Policy Statement on bike and ped accommodations.
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43379

Green Features Aren't Selling Houses
Mar 15, 2010 -- CNN Money
Green housing features like solar roofs and angled walls add cost to a development, and lenders don't see added value. So as CNN reports, green housing currently faces a stiff market. 
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43351

L.A. Transit: Up a Hill and Out to the Sea
Mar 16, 2010 -- True/Slant
The historic Angel's Flight funicular reopened yesterday, as Mayor Villaraigosa announces his vision to transform Los Angeles' transit system in 10 years. 
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43381

Remixing Architecture, Without Breaking the Rules
Mar 16, 2010 -- The Philadelphia Inquirer
Architecture critic Inga Saffron takes a look at what she thinks is "the most innovative take on the traditional rowhouse that Philadelphia has seen in years." Saffron remarks on how the building obeys the rules and innovates at the same time. 
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43367

Three High Speed Rail Lines Announced in UK
Mar 15, 2010 -- The Mirror
The three new high speed rail lines are being called the biggest advancement of the United Kingdom's public transit system in more than 50 years.
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43343

Charting Public Data Via Google
Mar 15, 2010 -- Los Angeles Times
Google has launched a new experimental effort to visualize much of the public data it now searches and displays. 
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43344

Why do People Choose to Ride Transit?
Mar 17, 2010 -- Psystenance
Do certain kinds of people - students, elderly, environmentalists - choose to ride transit because of who they are? Or does the proper infrastructure make the difference?
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43390

Density Uber Alles
Mar 16, 2010 -- The Architect's Newspaper
Is density a goal unto itself? John Parman argues that a 38-story building proposed for San Francisco has little to do with walkable urbanism, and continues "a sorry tradition of case-by-case rezoning."
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43380

How Prisoners Skew the Census
Mar 15, 2010 -- Citiwire
At Census time, America's prisoners have typically been counted as residents of the places they are imprisoned. But with nearly 1% of the U.S. population behind bars, where they're counted is counting more to the urban areas they came from.
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43359

Is GDP A Good Indicator of Well-Being?
Mar 15, 2010 -- The Globe and Mail
The Indian state of Kerala has earned an international reputation for its outstanding achievements in social planning. While its GDP typical for India, its social indicators rival many developed countries. 
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43364

TIGER Grants May Take Transit Off Endangered List
Mar 16, 2010 -- New Urban News
Less money for highways, more for transit and "complete streets" - New Urban News takes a look at where the $1.5 billion TIGER grants are going. 
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43317

WalMart Purchase Thwarted, Family Sues City of Rezoning - And Wins
Mar 17, 2010 -- The Saginaw News
WalMart made an offer to purchase a plot from a family in Frankenmuth, Michigan, but withdrew the offer when the City Council rezoned the land for a limited building size. The family sued, and a federal judge awarded them $3.6 million. 
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43400

The Fleeting American Dream
Mar 17, 2010 -- The Atlantic
The American Dream is a concept that's had a rough go for the past few years. A new survey shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans don't think that dream can become reality.
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43375

South African World Cup Stadium Costs Highlight Neighboring Poverty
Mar 15, 2010 -- The New York Times
The costs of a new stadium built for this year's World Cup in Nelspruit, South Africa have heightened tensions between the city's poor and its leading officials.
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43341

High Speed Rail from London to Scotland Planned
Mar 16, 2010 -- BBC News
Take a virtual (5-minute) trip on the 250 mph proposed train from London to Glasgow. All political parties agree on the need for what Secretary of State, Andrew Adonis, terms '21st century transport revolution', but the routing is less certain.
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43358

Redevelopment Agencies Circle the Wagons, Fight for Funding
Mar 15, 2010 -- California Planning & Development Report
Redevelopment agencies, lead by the CRA, are planning their strategy for how to keep their local redevelopment funding from the state. CP&DR blogs and tweets from the California Redevelopment Association conference. 
» http://www.planetizen.com/node/43296