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.
As part of the city’s new $7 billion budget, the City Council approved bonding authority for Mayor Cherelle Parker's plan to create or preserve 30,000 housing units.
The 2021 Clean Energy Scorecard from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy ranks progress in 100 major U.S. cities, and the findings show there’s plenty of room for improvement.
An increase in theft has spurred the City Council to propose increasing the areas in which electric fences would be allowed, including the downtown, commercial and mixed-use districts. They would still be prohibited in residential zones.
The state Department of Transportation has received a $10 million grant to transform an Amtrak station into a centralized transportation hub with retail opportunities and exhibits. The new station is expected to open in 2025.
The top performers in this year’s Digital Cities Survey from the Center for Digital Government pushed through the challenges of COVID-19 while continuing to innovate and engage with residents.
The legislation would create a statewide incentive to develop and retain businesses in an increasingly competitive market. Five Democrats and 16 Republicans voted against the bill.
As pandemic regulation creeps beyond privacy to protect public health, South Korea is developing an entire “smart city” to better understand how to regulate technology to keep the benefits of smart living without losing data privacy.
Jeffersonville’s $19 million project will widen roads, add sidewalks and increase lighting to ease driving issues and improve child safety. Construction will begin in 2024, with hopes for completion two years later.
The telecom giant has agreed to a settlement with residents of Dewey Beach that it will remove five 5G poles from oceanside sand dunes and beach entrances. But there are still seven poles that are unaffected by the settlement.
The governor’s office has requested that companies submit proposals for building and operating an all-electric, self-driving microtransit system in Trenton that could serve as many as 90,000 people.
A Bloomberg report ranked the city as a standout city in the nation for crypto-related job hires, averaging 1.9 crypto hires per 100,000. Three of the top 10 cities were located in New York state.
Holiday markets, along with farmers’ markets, festivals and other pop-up retail events, are an underappreciated resource for identifying home-grown entrepreneurs who could fill vacant storefronts.
As use of new technology by government continues to increase, experts and advocates in the space say that public servants should be keenly aware of the potential to exacerbate long-standing biases.
When cities reject new projects because they don’t fit an ideal notion of “affordability,” they further worsen the housing shortage.
Pembroke Park is determined to separate from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office even though the department building project is stalled and costs have increased. Now the town may not have its own force until 2023.
Smart cities’ focus on technology has made the digital divide worse, not better. The new infrastructure law could change that.
For rural communities like St. Helena, the billions the state will receive from the infrastructure bill for Internet and road repairs could have a massive impact. The community sits about 34 percent below the national income average.
CalEnviroScreen maps “disadvantaged communities” by Census tract to determine which communities will receive billions in public and private funding. But the mapping is imperfect, making many communities miss out on funding.
In responding to the pandemic, state and local governments quickly put in place new program infrastructure to distribute housing aid with flexibility and expediency. We need to build on that for the future.
A study surveyed 2,000 Latino and Asian immigrants to better understand what drives social and health inequities. California is home to approximately one-quarter of the nation’s immigrant population.
The nine-station light rail line will connect some of the region’s most popular areas with hopes of providing greater access to jobs, health care and educational opportunities. The 11-mile trolley line cost nearly $2.2 billion.
The state’s Department of Commerce has awarded eight tribal governments and organizations with grants of up to $30,000 each to help plan for business development and economic opportunities.
The new federal funds should be targeted to projects that protect communities from climate change and promote social and economic mobility. Cities have hundreds of such projects ready to go.
Building energy use accounts for nearly 30 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions. The latest energy codes can reduce carbon dioxide, but many states continue to use standards that are outdated.
With $65 billion on the way from Washington to expand Internet access, it’s time for businesses, research organizations and others to join with the public sector to shape strategies to make the most of the funds.
The 2021 Ideas Challenge recognizes innovative public policy that positively impacts local communities and the NewDEAL leaders who championed them.
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission has been working with several other organizations to establish a regional clearinghouse for broadband policy development and implementation with federal infrastructure funds.
State officials urged city residents to avoid drinking and cooking the city’s tap water as testing has revealed high-levels of lead. Benton Harbor is also a majority low-income, Black community.
With the passage of the federal infrastructure bill, transportation leaders in Illinois are gaining hope that the high-speed rail project that would connect Chicago to St. Louis can gain momentum.
The Build Back Better Regional Challenge aims to boost local economies through $1 billion of federal grants, $100 million of which will be used to support coal communities. Logan County is just one of the 10 applicants from West Virginia.
Too much of the space in our downtowns is taken up by parked cars, and requiring developers to provide so many parking slots inflates the cost of housing. It’s becoming clear that those mandates are irrational.
