Photo by Stephen Masker on Flickr.

Antonin Scalia’s legacy has roots in a land use case, Atlanta’s mayor says he’ll kill a regional tax initiative if at least 50% isn’t promised for transit, and professional sports team owners are starting to demand more from cities than just stadiums. Check out what’s happening around the world in transportation, land use, and other related areas!

Scalia on land use: A land use case helped establish Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s legacy. In Nollan vs. The California Coastal Commission, Justice Scalia made his mark when he ruled anything a person exchanged for a government permit, like an easement, must relate directly to the purpose of that permit. (Urban Edge)

No MARTA, no roads in Atlanta: Atlanta’s Mayor Kasim Reed wants to make it perfectly clear that if MARTA doesn’t get at least half of a sales tax measure that’s expected to go before voters this fall, he will oppose it. “The future of this city and this region is going to be transit based,” he says. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

A stadium, plus some: US sports teams have long been been reliant on public support for stadiums. Now teams are starting to ask for entire neighborhoods so they can benefit from spillover, too. The Atlanta Braves will control $400 million of mixed-use development surrounding their new stadium site, and plans for a soccer stadium and village in St. Paul came out yesterday. (Bloomberg View, Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Scary strangers: Recent research on the psychology of neighborhood opposition to density found that, rather than different architectural styles, people were most afraid of the “unpredictable social interactions” and increased crime they perceived diversity to bring. (Chicago Policy Review)

Ford wants to reinvent the… commute: Ford Motor Company wants to work in commuting but branch out from more than just cars. It’s working with design firm IDEO and banking on concepts of archetypal commuters to help. (New York Times)

The Spanish Big Empty: Before 2008’s recession, cities in Spain were preparing for lots of new residents. They never came. These striking images show downsides of planning for an expected boom rather than actual demand. (Huffington Post)

Quote of the Week

”…your whole work as a political reporter is based on the premise that power in a democracy comes from being elected. And here’s a guy who has never been elected to anything and he has more power than anyone who was elected, and he has more power than the mayor and any governor or any mayor or governor put together.” Robert Caro, author of The Power Broker, a book on controversial New York planner Robert Moses. (Gothamist)