I happen to be in New York City during the final throes of its mayoral race. The race itself doesn't seem to amount to much. Michael Bloomberg appears to be coasting to an easy re-election.  But it was a good excuse to sit down and talk with Fred Siegel, the nation's most astute student of big-city politics, particularly New York's. I wanted to discuss the intriguing question of how big cities go bad, with an eye toward things about which Phoenix should be alert as it continues to get bigger and more politically mature...

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If Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has his way, Los Angeles County is about to embark on a commuter rail building boom the likes of which the region has never seen.  On Friday, the mayor will unveil an ambitious but politically risky transportation plan that fast-tracks several high-profile rail projects to be completed within the next decade. That's a big speed-up because officials have generally been talking about completing them within 30 years......

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The plans, visions and proposals that have poured forth over the years about reviving downtown Mesa might, if piled together, reach as high as one of the skyscrapers that never got built there.
But now, armed with a $300,000 federal stimulus grant, Mesa is making another run at it. This time, unlike a hapless Charlie Brown condemned to perpetually whiff at Lucy's football, the city hopes to finally connect....

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Milwaukie has developed a vision to anchor the south side of its downtown by building a plaza adjacent to the impending light rail station and developing new storefronts leading up to the revitalized and slowly growing north end of town.....

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Kevin Rudd wants to seize greater control of urban planning by denying infrastructure funding to states and councils that won't agree to improve public transport and ban haphazard housing development.
Planners might also have to prohibit development of land subject to possible inundation from rising sea levels and agree to slash carbon emissions to qualify for federal funding.....

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In the 2009 legislative session in Olympia, density and transit-oriented development (TOD) advocates tried and failed to pass a controversial bill that would have mandated increased density around high-capacity transit stations.....

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The debut of Sound Transit's light rail line already has been the impetus for plans to build new clusters of high-density development around transit stops, giving future residents quick access to reliable transportation...

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As Dublin considers how to position itself for the future, an expert in land use and development says city officials need look only as far as one Columbus neighborhood for guidance. ...

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