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.
Matt Privratsky was appointed to serve as an interim city council member in St. Paul after the previous member resigned. He’ll cast some consequential votes.
State law gives Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson the right to work directly with private partners. For years, he’s been using this freedom to make the most of city resources.
Voter turnout is lower in rural places, something researchers say is a symptom of unequal amounts of civic infrastructure.
The category 5 storm was the costliest hurricane in Florida history, causing $112.9 billion in damage and 66 direct deaths. Many residents cut their losses and left, but for those who remain, recovery is slow and ongoing.
More than $1.73 billion will go to 603 Community Development Financial Institutions nationwide, with three in San Diego County receiving funds. Much of the money will go to small-business lending in low-income regions.
Texas has seen more anti-LGBTQ+ protests than any other state besides California and accounts for about 12 percent of all protests nationwide. But many business owners aren’t going to let protesters stop them from hosting drag events.
Agencies are spending new money — lots of it, in some cases — to crack down on fare evasion, with new fare gates, updated collection systems and beefed-up policing. But some experts question the cost.
With more than 80 nonwhite members, this year’s General Assembly is the state’s most diverse ever. The Legislature is beginning to reflect the state’s population, which narrowly remained majority white in 2020.
Laws that were enacted to provide community-based alternatives to the state’s youth prisons may actually be fostering a new “shadow” juvenile system in which officials are circumventing transparency laws behind closed doors.
Gov. Jay Inslee proposed a plan to “transform the state’s mental health system” by 2023, but the state has failed to meet its deadline and the repercussions are frustrating families, advocates and law enforcement.
Water intelligence supports a shared approach to solving water challenges.
A new report from the Urban Institute attempts to measure the impact of a broad array of zoning reforms on housing supply and cost. The effects are significant, but very small, researchers found.
More than 14 percent of homes in Mecklenburg County do not have Internet access, which means many residents cannot accomplish daily tasks, like pay bills, check public bus times or schedule health appointments.
The Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine and Alquist 3D will soon begin construction on Iowa’s first 3D-printed homes. The initial four builds will just have the external walls printed with traditional wood framing interiors.
The six districts will give residents a way to regulate certain aspects of development, such as building height and size, off-street parking, architectural style and more. But experts think it will make neighborhoods less affordable.
The state’s Community Affairs Committee approved a bill that would allow people to file lawsuits if they believe they have “lost history” or the ability to teach about the past because of a monument’s removal or damage.
Mayor Elaine O’Neal, City Manager Wanda Page, City Attorney Kimberly Rehberg and Police Chief Patrice Andrews share how they came to lead the North Carolina city.
The state's lawmakers adopted a broad-based package of housing reforms in a fast-moving legislative session. But a provision that bans local rent control has angered tenant advocates.
Many of the agricultural workers in Pajaro, Calif., are not fluent in English or Spanish and so relied on interpreters to get proper assistance and services after a levee broke, flooding the farm town and sparking evacuations.
A radical planning idea that is well-known in Spain is taking root in Africa and South America.
Between the 1999-2000 and 2015-2016 school years, the number of school librarians decreased 19 percent and, in some states, many schools don’t employ librarians, either full or part time.
A complex web of factors impacts the health of these important water sources.
New research points to the policy and market conditions that help spread these small rental units which can be added to existing properties and ease housing shortages.
Although Black women and girls make up just 13 percent of the female U.S. population, they account for 35 percent of all missing women in 2020. “Ebony Alerts” would help ensure resources to California’s Black women and girls.
City and county governments in Colorado are not allowed to banish the psychedelics industry from inside their borders, even if their residents don’t want it. They may, however, regulate the time, place and manner of its existence.
Decades of underinvestment in streetcar, bus and train service coupled with an increase in public funding and planning priorities to make roads fast, smooth and far-reaching, help explain today's transit situation.
The 2016 ruling prohibits government-funded travel to states with anti-LGBTQ laws. State Sen. Toni Atkins argues the ban hasn’t worked as intended and instead recommends an acceptance campaign in red states.
A report found that the country’s five largest cities experienced net increases in the amount of residents ages 18 to 24 and decreases for all other generations in 2021; Philadelphia gained a net 6,200 young residents.
The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning is preparing a series of recommendations to address the transit fiscal cliff and governance challenges. State lawmakers told them to "be bold."
The project will focus mostly on digitizing items from the colonial and Revolutionary era, though documents from other time periods will be stored as well. The state’s Historical Society has amassed 3 million documents since 1838.
They have to maintain finances as they try to avoid damaging service cuts and, at the same time, push for new bus and train lines. That will require new ideas, because the old ways aren’t going to work.
