This page will be updated with news articles, photo essays, and other items for anyone who may be interested in urban issues.

Mar. 10, 2009

• PlanIt Calgary First Draft Feedback (Calgary.ca) – The first draft of the city’s new long-term growth strategy is available for feedback until April 17th. This will be the plan that defines the city’s growth strategy for the foreseeable future and is an important document for all Calgarians to see. Read the introduction (384kb), the municipal development plan (5MB), and the transportation plan (11MB).
• Canadian Oil Sands (National Geographic.com) – National Geographic did a piece on the development of the Athabasca tar sands, taking fantastic pictures and analyzing the environmental and economic pros and cons. The scope of these is shocking.
• Biggest Little Cities: Models for Urban Planning (Wired.com)- Metropolitan growth worldwide has sparked a renaissance in models for urban planning. With the failure of the city’s 3D computer models to attract support for redevelopment plans, these tangible models may be a new way to show potential developments to the public.

Feb. 11, 2009

• The Places We Live – A very well done documentation of slums and urban poverty in Indonesia, India, Venezuela and Kenya, done in collaboration with the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo. Essential viewing for anyone who wants to put on a face on the 1 billion+ currently residing in impoverished urban areas.
• East Village plans need overhaul (Canoe.ca) – Editorial by Ricky Leong examining the current state of the East Village redevelopment process after the University of Calgary decided to locate its downtown campus on the west end of the core instead of being a centrepiece to the new East Village.
• Brentwood Community Association – Read the monthly newsletter online, and stay connected with this group of residents hoping to make their community the best it can be.

Jan. 19, 2009

• The Power of Cities (TED.com) – A series of talks designed to highlight the big reasons cities are important to our society, and how we might make them better places to live.
• Sleepy City – A series of photographs that show that the tunnels, concrete, and other products of previous urban development are the foundations of our cities, and that there is beauty in the hidden underworld of our towns.
• Play SimCity Classic Online (EA.com) – Build your city up and tear it down just like real a real town, only without all the red tape.

Chicago by Bill Ross

Dec. 19, 2008:

• The Remains of Detroit (Time.com) -  A series of photographs by Time Magazine’s Sean Hemmerle that shows how far the once-mighty industrial city has fallen.
• Rebuilding Canada: Can fixing our crumbling cities save our economy? (CalgaryHerald.com) – A comprehensive & interactive look at the problems and issues facing Canada’s big cities as they keep growing through the global financial crisis. What are the priorities each municipality should have?
• Canada mocked for its green policies (Canoe.ca) – Apparently the rest of the world has noticed our hypocrisy with regards to the Kyoto Protocol and our nonexistent plan to deal with climate change, despite our deeply held belief that we are “world leaders”.