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.
The landmark environmental bill, CEQA, has been credited with preventing irreversible damage to natural habitats. But it’s also provided an avenue for resistant neighbors to block new housing in urban areas.
You can build all the subways you want, but they won’t produce city life without attention to what’s around them.
A coalition of community-based organizations will select 330 families to receive a guaranteed basic income of $500 a month for a year. Applicants must be a member of an undocumented or mixed immigration status family.
They include $64 million to increase police numbers, reduce juvenile crime and revive a gun-tracking task force. The Connecticut governor also wants police to be able to check gun permits for those who openly carry firearms.
His legacy has mostly slipped through the cracks, but his ideas provided a blueprint for re-creating the city as a center of modern social life, laying the groundwork for today’s New Urbanist movement.
A bill would connect the state’s emergency response system to the national suicide prevention hotline system and provide several other response services for mental health emergencies.
The COVID-era Veteran Rapid Retraining Assistance Program has capacity to train more than 17,000 unemployed veterans, yet less than 700 have graduated from the program and it is set to expire in December.
A Washington state bill that would create an office to address homeless encampments around state-owned rights of way passed its first committee vote last Wednesday. There are 871 homeless camps documented in Seattle.
The small city of Hamtramck used to be a Polish American enclave. In the 21st century, it has morphed into something that couldn’t be further from its past.
TuSimple has run seven semi-truck trips between Tucson and Phoenix without a driver since December and this spring it will expand those deliveries by partnering with Union Pacific to autonomously transport actual freight.
Despite arriving first in affluent areas, Los Angeles County’s communities of color soon had the highest rate of COVID-19 cases. Only about 52 percent of Black and Latino residents are vaccinated.
The number of cash transactions on the Maine Turnpike has dropped significantly since the introduction of E-ZPasses and high-speed electric toll lanes. Officials plan to end cash collection in the coming years.
Preliminary data suggests that accidental drug overdose deaths decreased from 2020 to 2021, but it is unclear if the drop is due to the city’s response programs. In many ways COVID-19 has made help more accessible.
Deindustrialized regions, smaller towns and rural areas don’t have the resources prosperous metros have to go after the new federal money. We need to focus on closing ever-widening opportunity gaps.
With 44 percent of state residents living in a child-care desert, there aren’t enough options. Child care for two children uses 27 percent of a family’s income. The Tri-Share program aims to reduce those obstacles.
After a payment issue nearly shut off power to the Buckfield Fire Station, legislators are considering a ban on disconnecting utilities for public safety buildings without a 60-day warning first.
The bill will provide the Department of Finance and Administration $50,000 for state agencies to assess if they need language access plans so those with limited English skills can access their services.
Nashville is growing remarkably fast — and encountering serious growing pains. The next steps the city takes could mean the difference between transformation or having the infrastructure of an overgrown small town.
Omicron has hit MARTA, the region’s transit system, hard as drivers get sick or have to quarantine, which can sometimes cause last-minute trip cancellations. Passengers are suffering from the reduced service.
The California governor last year poured $12 billion into homeless housing and services and wants to invest another $1.5 billion next year. But advocates want long-term investments instead of one-time grants.
The practice has become a focus of housing reform but eliminating it might not make much difference if other regulations aren’t considered.
Deputies from the Alabama county’s sheriff’s office often fasten monitors on about 25 people weekly and many of those haven’t been convicted of anything. Some say the monitors are financially and emotionally burdensome.
Citizen volunteers rescue a stormwater project gone awry in the historic town of Frederick.
As billions for infrastructure flow from Washington, moving away from dependence on the automobile will require new cooperation between federal grantmakers and state and local recipients. Are carless cities in our future?
The state will receive millions in federal aid over the next five years to invest in its bridges, 21.2 percent of which have been deemed structurally deficient, more than 14 percent higher than the national average.
State prisons quickly adjusted policies and procedures when the coronavirus pandemic hit to ensure the health and safety of the incarcerated individuals and staff. If these pandemic changes become permanent, states could save $2.7 billion annually.
The New York City mayor has appointed his younger brother, Bernard Adams, as the head of his security detail, a step back from earlier proposals to give him a high-ranking NYPD job. Many are worried about the ethics.
Turning storefronts into online-commerce fulfillment centers or pop-up spaces for artists isn't likely to bring downtowns back. But even remote workers need places to go when they take a break from their keyboards.
Much attention has been given to the billions the bill will put toward bridges, cybersecurity and more. But behind the big-ticket items are many small projects. Here are some that will impact state and local government.
Highway construction was at its peak when the nation’s capital conceived and built one of the most comprehensive rapid transit systems in modern America. Zachary Schrag explains how and why it happened.
The pandemic caused many courthouses to pause or limit in-person sessions, forcing staff to get creative. Those struggles proved a breeding ground for innovation and turned new focus on digital equity.
