Housing and Urban Issues
Stresses on urban communities continue to affect housing, food security, child services, homelessness, business development and crime. Coverage includes stories about new solutions to how cities are run, how they develop as urban centers and about the people who live there.
They help a lot of individuals and their communities. The proposed cuts would just shift the burden to emergency rooms, shelters and already overwhelmed local systems.
The city’s police reported using force against Black people 502 times from January through June of this year, which is more than against Hispanic (311), white (223) and Asian (80) people. Black people make up 5 percent of the city’s population.
The attorney general’s office is ending its pursuit of criminal prosecution over the Flint water crisis after seven years of no convictions, following the state Supreme Court’s rejection of efforts to revive charges against former Gov. Rick Snyder.
Twenty bank branches closed across the city this year through Oct. 28, which is more than the previous two years combined and the most in a single year since at least 2000. Across the state, 277 bank branches have closed this year.
In September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will make child sex trafficking a serious felony starting on Jan. 1, marking the first time the state has added to the strikable offenses list in more than 20 years.
Pollution-control laws were never intended to block residential and transportation development. But that’s how they’re being misused all over the country.
A new report, using new, more granular data sets, compares the recovery of 26 downtowns. Those with a mix of land uses, jobs and residents are faring the best, it says.
Between May 1 and Sept. 17, over 2,000 vehicles were reported stolen to the city’s police department and, as of Sept. 26, the agency had ticketed 411 of those cars while they were still officially considered stolen.
From 2013 to 2022, the state saw significant growth in higher-paid taxpayers and gained about 63,000 young adults aged 18 to 24. Those who moved out of the state were more likely to be Black or from downstate.
North Carolina, where cities large and small are creating open-container “social districts,” is about to find out.
The Office of Independent Investigations was created to examine police use of deadly force and is the state’s first-ever attempt to erase the “thin blue line” controversy that arises when police investigate themselves.
The city wants to suspend its 42-year-old right to shelter because of the strain the migrant crisis has put on city resources. But many are worried what suspending the policy will do to homelessness in the area.
Proposed legislation would ensure, regardless of a person’s housing status, equal access to public services, including rights to personal property, emergency medical care and moving freely in public spaces.
For the past 30 years, state attorneys general have successfully sued major businesses across the country. Now cities and counties want to get in on the action.
The National League of Cities is helping mayors tackle the ways that challenges they face are connected to each other, and to public health.
Researchers found about 20 different species of wildlife across the city through the use of camera traps. For many animals, cities with lots of green spaces are havens from the urban heat island effect.
Many of our land-use policies have their roots in housing discrimination, and they continue to stand in the way of affordable and equitable housing. These policies need to change. Restricting single-family zoning is a place to start.
More than one-third of U.S. households are renters and the average national rent increased 18 percent between 2017 and 2022. Housing advocates and legislatures are working to provide renters more protections.
More than half a dozen businesses in the northeastern part of the city were broken into this week. Police say the acts of vandalism were carried out by opportunists looking to capitalize on the dismissal charges against Mark Dial.
The number of Black immigrants in the U.S. has increased from just over 2 million in 2000 to almost 5 million today, amounting to about one-tenth of the nation’s Black population. But even some Black Americans look down upon Black immigrants.
Six months after New Jersey state Attorney General Matthew Platkin took over the city’s police department, Paterson has seen a 57 percent reduction in murders and a 32 percent decline in shootings as compared to last year.
The city’s Health Department has ended its longtime sleep-off center contract with private security firm Securitas after safety and reliability concerns. But the costly replacement is just temporary, leaving the medical service’s future uncertain.
Ten California cities in the Bay Area will receive federal grants to plant, maintain and restore trees to increase the green canopy in poorer urban areas. Oakland and San Jose will receive $8 million and $6.6 million, respectively.
Mayor Eric Adams called the rules the strictest in the nation and has pledged to help building owners receive technical assistance and use government and utility-based financing and funding for building upgrades.
The plan is the largest EV charging incentive program in the country and the rebates for charging equipment can cover 50 percent of a project’s costs or up to $100,000. The state aims to have 250,000 public chargers by 2025.
Since April 2022, nearly 110,000 migrants have made their way into the city, with about 60,000 still in the city’s care. Without more support from the federal government, Mayor Eric Adams does not see a solution to the issue.
Superior Court Judge Rupal Shah dismissed a lawsuit against the state Police Union that attempted to stop the release of names of at least 130 troopers who potentially wrote more than 25,000 false or inaccurate traffic tickets.
Forces around the country are employing civilian investigators and online reporting to address workforce shortages among armed personnel.
A new report identified thousands of properties nationwide as physically suitable buildings to be converted into apartments, including more than 50 in Dallas-Fort Worth. But the typical conversion is only financially feasible in six cities.
The department’s database violates the civil rights of Black and Hispanic young people by being too quick to add names and too slow to remove them, putting youth at risk of false arrest and wrongful deportation.
The tree canopy coverage in the Florida city is at its lowest in 26 years, which, when coupled with increasingly warm summers, can make for deadly heat conditions, especially in lower-income neighborhoods.
