Architecture & Urban Planning

As the dust settles on President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to critical transportation funding, Bay Area leaders are calling the plan hypocritical in light of the administration’s frequently touted but as yet unseen $1 trillion infrastructure spending plan.

The sleepy East Bay suburbs of Newark, Union City, Castro Valley and Fremont may seem like an unlikely locale for the latest battleground between public transit operators and ride-booking services, such as Uber and Lyft. But it’s here that AC Transit, which operates buses in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, is going bumper-to-bumper with the tech darlings, offering a competing service that blends on-demand rides with traditional bus routes. And, the agency says, it may just be working.

Fellow Sarah Reed argues for providing local communities in Colorado with the resources they need — including information about where important wildlife habitats are located, and planning tools and technical assistance to protect those habitats — to achieve a reasonable balance between conservation and development.

About Grove's work and the Baltimore Ecosystem Study:

Fellow J. Morgan Grove writes that within some neighborhoods, scientists are documenting a connection between trees and a specific social improvement: a reduction in crime. These studies combine modern mapping technology with spatial and economic statistics to compare crime levels between similar urban neighborhoods in the same city.

Last November, Portland Metro voted for the first time not to expand its boundary. It wasn’t much of a surprise; people want to live near downtown, not on the fringes, and the Metro area has plenty of developable land. But you could also say it was a vote to preserve the essence of Portland by protecting what it was not willing to risk: the pristine Willamette Valley land that surrounded it.

Mara Baum will teach an online continuing education course for landscape architects this fall. Course overview: If you love life and the living world, you're experiencing biophilia. There's a new facet to design that is based on the biophilia hypothesis. It's called biophilic design. Incorporating this concept will enrich your designs, reconnect us with nature, and improve the well being of the natural world and the human population.

Following a 10-hour hearing Thursday at the North Tahoe Event Center, the Placer County Planning Commission voted 4-2 to recommend the Village at Squaw Valley Specific Plan for approval, to move ahead with the 94-acre proposed redevelopment project for the resort and to certify the plan’s final environmental impact report. ... Sierra Watch Attorney Isaac Silverman, who was in attendance for the meeting’s duration, said he was surprised by the outcome because he’d met with Roccucci and Johnson prior to the meeting.