Blogs

Last year, there were twice as many people in the 25-to-39 age group moving into the city as leaving, according to Charles Rynerson, a demographer with the Population Research Center at Portland State

Last year, there were twice as many people in the 25-to-39 age group moving into the city as leaving, according to Charles Rynerson, a demographer with the Population Research Center at Portland State

Cities that are “walkable,” workable and livable add up to the “s” word: sustainable.

Leaders from CNU's Southern and Northern California chapter groups participated in a debate at the APA California chapter's annual conference earlier this month about whether California is ready to turn around it's development patterns. The consensus? The state still has a long way to go.

Austin, Texas is a city known for its unique people and settings. In this ever-evolving and "weird" place, people are constantly innovating their own swatches of the urban fabric.

CNU's effort to enable urbanism on Buffalo's downtown waterfront continues to build momentum. This week, the Buffalo City Council asked the State to delay the awarding of construction contracts that would maintain the embanked Route 5 freeway and expand a major frontage road on the Outer Harbor. Councilmembers state that the current NYSDOT plan does not promote long-term economic development because it maintains the main barrier to the waterfront -- the elevated freeway. Instead, they call for a single, at-grade boulevard that would be complemented with a system of streets and blocks to set the stage for the building of valuable urban neighborhoods. Read more about the Council's decision in the Buffalo News article, "Buffalo council unanimous in opposing high-speed Southtowns Connector."

Russ Sikes, founding member of the CNU North Texas Chapter writes in the Dallas Morning News about the need to provide better connectivity between islands of New Urbanism and surrounding suburban development.

In an October 16 commentary titled Lightrail in Portland Is Successful, Notwithstanding CATO Criticism & FTA Lack of Support, Free Congress Foundation Chairman & CEO Paul M. Weyrich offers another perspective on Randal O'Toole's recent CATO Institute attack on land use and transportation policies in the Portland area. (See Debunking Cato for more background.) Weyrich stresses that light rail, unlike the bus systems favored by O'Toole and others, moves more passengers and offers much greater potential for private transit oriented development.

"At least two people died and 10 were injured in a fiery multi-vehicle crash in an Interstate 5 tunnel south of Santa Clarita late Friday, closing the freeway in both directions until at least Tuesday

The Nobel Committee’s decision to award this year’s Peace Prize for environmental activism reminds us that the environment has become a pressing political topic in recent years. The critical question is what kind of practical changes such publicity about global warming will affect.