The Daily News Does It Again: Editorial Recognizes Dense Areas Need Progressive Planning

10:27 AM PDT on March 29, 2012

The Daily News Editorial Board has been on a role recently. The paper, which is the second largest daily newspaper in Los Angeles behind the Los Angeles Times but well ahead of the Daily Breeze or The Wave papers, is undergoing a livable streets renaissance in its editorial page.

Today's editorial, not the one on a certain baseball team and a certain point guard, focuses on the need to plan transportation networks differently for areas that are densely packed with residents. Especially when residents are growing older, and are less likely to drive, and the younger generation is turning away from having driver's licenses.

An excerpt:

But most of the region's cities - including downtown Los Angeles, where 70,000 people now live - are poorly set up for what planners call "the first and last mile" of getting to public transit. The sidewalks are narrow. The streetscapes are entirely designed for automobiles and trucks, not for walkers or bicyclists. They are not at all ready in our infrastructure for the way the future generation says it wants to live.
Southern California has some planning to do.

I don't know what's going on in the Daily News newsroom, maybe Dakota Smith is spiking the water, but a paper known for its conservative views may actually be the most progressive when it comes to planning for livable communities.

Damien Newton

The Daily News Does It Again: Editorial Recognizes Dense Areas Need Progressive Planning

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