Monthly Archives: September 2012

Top stories:

Downtowns enjoying robust population growth
USA Today – September 27, 2012
“People recognize the lower cost of living near things,” says Ilana Preuss, vice president and chief of staff at Smart Growth America, a national group that fights suburban sprawl. “The trend toward downtown living is both in big cities and small cities. … Suburban tracts have lost a huge amount of their values.”

Relic of an Era, Revitalized
New York Times – September 25, 2012
Once a dormant area of empty warehouses, the River North section of Chicago has evolved into a nexus of dining, night life and, most recently, an aspiring rival to Silicon Valley. Its 45 square blocks are home to the headquarters of Groupon, the Chicago offices of Google and several hundred technology start-ups.

Vitality Reborn, New Orleans Draws Developers
New York Times – September 25, 2012
It has been seven years since Hurricane Katrina brought New Orleans to its knees and a month since Isaac threatened to push the city down again. But the region’s new $14 billion levee system held back the tide and within hours of Isaac’s departure the city sprang back to life to host Labor Day visitors. A deeper sign of the city’s resilience can be found in the national developers and retailers now coming to town as first-time investors.

Regional transit still on table in Legislature
The Detroit News (MI) – September 28, 2012
Legislation creating a regional transit authority to coordinate public transportation in southeast Michigan has been jump-started in the state House after stalling in the Senate.

Top stories:

City living will feel like a blast from the past
USA Today – September 18, 2012
In the next American metropolis, people will live in smaller homes, relax in smaller yards, park their smaller cars in smaller spots. They will be closer to work, to play and, above all, to one another.

Judge will consider request for high-speed rail injunction
Fresno Bee (CA) – September 26, 2012
A Sacramento judge will consider a motion for a preliminary injunction that could derail California’s high-speed rail project in the central San Joaquin Valley.

San Francisco Is America’s Best City in 2012
Business Week – September 26, 2012
For the ranking, Businessweek.com once again teamed up with Bloomberg Rankings to evaluate data on 100 of the country’s largest cities.

‘Smart City’ Planning Needs the Right Balance
The Wall Street Journal – September 26, 2012
In the pantheon of Next Big Thing trends, the concept of “smart cities” is one of the trendiest.

Top stories:

Consulting team helps Eastport chart an eco-friendly course for the future
Bangor Daily News (ME) – September 26, 2012
Eastport is one of 15 cities and towns nationwide selected by the EPA to work with planning consultants from Smart Growth America. The Washington, D.C.-based firm advocates for comprehensive planning that can help communities such as Eastport maintain and sustain its small-town charm in economically viable and eco-friendly ways.

Bike/pedestrian plan could make San Clemente ‘a model for everybody’
Orange County Register (CA) – September 26, 2012
Implementing road-use projects that put cycling and walking on a par with cars will be a challenge but will produce ‘demonstrable results’ in encouraging people to forgo driving, advocates tell the Planning Commission. More discussions will come next month.

Uptown district proposes transit project
Houston Chronicle (TX) – September 25, 2012
Hoping to link residents, shoppers and workers to Metro transportation options, Uptown Houston officials have voted to commit $85.5 million toward a project that would provide transit-related improvements along Post Oak Boulevard and construction of a transit center near Bellaire.

Seeing the back of the car
The Economist – September 22, 2012
A growing body of academics cite the possibility that both car ownership and vehicle-kilometres driven may be reaching saturation in developed countries—or even be on the wane, a notion known as “peak car”.

Top stories:

Data Barns in a Farm Town, Gobbling Power and Flexing Muscle
The New York Times – September 23, 2012
Set in the dry hills and irrigated farmland of Central Washington, Grant County is known for its robust harvest of apples, potatoes, cherries and beans. But for Microsoft, a prime lure was the region’s other valuable resource: cheap electrical power.

Chrysler workers move to new downtown Detroit office space
Detroit Free Press (MI) – September 24, 2012
Chrysler Group leased nearly 33,000 square feet of space encompassing the top two floors of the 23-story former Dime Building. The employees of Chrysler’s Great Lakes Business Center relocated to the 23-story office tower near downtown’s Campus Martius Park over the weekend.

Urban apartment living becoming popular
Ventura County Star (CA) – September 20, 2012
What’s trendy in housing? Apartments and in-town living. So said industry leaders in real estate who gathered Thursday for the Ventura County Housing Conference in Camarillo.

Recession worsens brownfields backlog in Wisconsin
The Post Crescent (WI) – September 23, 2012
Long after a red icicle’s discovery, industrial pollution haunts a Lake Michigan neighborhood.