Government / Politics
Fire Tests Enable New Timber Typologies
After a long time lost in the woods, architects and engineers are rediscovering timber. Recent fire tests have demonstrated that timber can be a viable building material and meet existing code requirements.
AVs and Real Estate - A Guide to Potential Impacts
AVs are more than a transportation issue and will have significant impacts on real estate. Expect AVs to affect parking, sprawl, housing prices, and transit.
Using Drones to Inspect Urban Building Façades
Many cities require the owners of multistory buildings to regularly inspect their façades, looking for problems that may lead to injury or property damage. Drones can potentially help ease the process and cost of doing so.
Praise for Gov. Andrew Cuomo from New York Times on Cordon Pricing
Thanks to the governor's support, there is reason for optimism that a plan to charge motorists entering Manhattan below 60th St. and toll the East River bridges will have a better outcome than Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan did in April 2008.
An Investigation Into Trump and Carson's HUD
You might have been waiting for this article, and its many revelations about life inside the Department of Housing and Urban Development, since January or November.
Putting Teeth into the California Housing Accountability Act
A 35-year-old law is not living up to its moniker, the 'anti-NIMBY law'. A bill co-sponsored by a group associated with the YIMBY movement would fine cities $10,000 per housing unit if they fail to comply with the law.
Two Housing Bills Will Exacerbate California's Housing Shortage
SB 35 (Wiener) and AB 199 (Chu) make it more costly to build housing by requiring prevailing wages where applicable, pleasing construction unions but making affordable housing less affordable, opines CALmatters political columnist, Dan Walters.
Could Public Art on Utility Boxes Displace Communication?
There will be important functions in public space that are not always “art” whose value is not in proportion to their prettiness.
More Signs of Trouble for Trump's Infrastructure Plan
Streetsblog USA ponders whether President Trump's $1 trillion big-ticket legislative item was dead before arrival.
Is the Era of the 'Free' Freeway Coming to an End?
No one's suggesting that freeways will be converted to tollways, but a pattern is emerging that when freeways are widened, express lanes, financed in part by user fees, are being added rather than mixed-flow lanes. Case in point: the Inland Empire.
Lax Regulation of Texas Air Polluters
Regular "emissions events" at Texas heavy industrial facilities cause a lot of unauthorized pollution. But few consequences mean the companies responsible don't have to crack down.
One Way Washington Could Move Forward on Infrastructure
The WIFIA federal loans program provides start-up capital to local water infrastructure projects. The program is designed to encourage experimentation and cost-effective construction strategies.
Car Crash Reporting Guidelines Prepare for Self-Driving Vehicles
The Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria's latest edition has new instructions for reporting the emerging sector of autonomous vehicles.
County Gas Taxes at Work in Florida
The Jacksonville City Council's decision in 2014 to renew a six-cents county gas tax is paying big dividends for road construction in Duvall County, Florida. Every county in Florida has a gas tax from five cents to a maximum 11.9 cents per gallon.
Trump's Infrastructure Plan Slow to Materialize Despite New Executive Order, Flow Chart
The original purpose of President Trump's press conference were lost as the discussion devolved.
Charlottesville and the 'War Against Public Space'
A think-piece published by CityLab argues that public space, and the ideals it embodies, are under threat from the racist groups that gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend.
Six States Considered Laws to Make it Legal to Run Over Protestors This Year
A day of reckoning has come for state lawmakers who proposed protections for motorists who attack protestors from behind the wheels of their car. A tragedy at protests in Charlotte has cast new light on the dangerous potential of such laws.
California's Housing Bills Fall Short
Three bills at the top of the Democratic leadership's housing agenda will have little impact on the state's chronic housing shortage according to multiple analyses, and wouldn't affect the outcome of a Bay Area mega-development controversy.
Virginia's New 395 Express Lanes Guaranteed to Fund Public Transit
The $500 million, eight-mile extension, mostly paid by private funds and express lane tolls, broke ground August 9. Transurban, the private company in the public-private partnership, will pay $15 million annually for public transit improvements.
Late Buses Threaten Seattle Micro-Unit Development—Guess Why
An approved, 55 micro-unit, mixed-use development with no parking sited on a transit corridor with 15-minute headways has been halted by a legal ruling after neighborhood opponents proved the bus was not meeting its schedule.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
EMC Planning Group, Inc.
Planetizen
Planetizen
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
