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.
A bill would allow local governments to devote up to a quarter of their homeless funds to residential programs that practice sobriety.
Cities keep lurching between electing their governing bodies from districts and choosing them at large. The district approach is gaining, but its fragmentation doesn't promote a broad view of community needs.
In the 18th annual Digital Counties Survey, leading jurisdictions had made investments in broadband, remote collaboration and digital citizen engagement long before COVID-19 tested whether they were up to the challenge.
The county hoped to become 20 percent renewable by 2022 but that may no longer be feasible. The pandemic has radically changed the county’s budget, funding sources and financial focus which may delay sustainability.
Thousands of residents have borrowed mobile Wi-Fi devices throughout Dallas to keep them connected to remote learning or working. But as school restarts, the demand still exceeds the number of available devices.
Community hospitals took loan money from Congress to cope with the surge in patients during the height of COVID-19. But the loans will soon fall due and many medical centers don’t know how they will pay the money back.
A new study suggests that age, gender and even the region of the country being targeted with virus-tracking technology could have a lot to do with its success rate. Experts urge a tailored approach.
Evacuation maps that are a year old, coding errors that stop emergency alerts and an emergency official who didn’t hear his phone that was set to vibrate are just some of the many errors in California’s emergency alert system.
Outdoor learning can slash the odds that in-person classes will put staff or students at risk of contracting the coronavirus. A national coalition is developing guidelines and resources to help schools in any climate.
Officials in Washington’s Puget Sound area are considering plexiglass barriers, mask-selling vending machines and ultraviolet light to disinfect stations as ways to ensure safety amid public transit during COVID-19.
Reading school board voted to spend up to $700,000 to provide broadband Internet to 10,000 households, with two months of free broadband from Comcast. “I hope this shows the importance of low-cost or free publicly held wifi.”
The pandemic has exacerbated building departments' chronic under-resourcing. We need to invest in technology to boost their efficiency and enable them to carry out their critical functions remotely.
Nearly 25 percent of students in the state do not have Internet access at home. Lawmakers are considering how they can address the problem, but until then, school districts are having to make temporary solutions.
Around this time each year, tens of thousands of “Burners” descend outside a small town in the Nevada desert, turning it into part carnival, part cultural experiment for the 21st century. But 2020 will be different.
For decades, we've embraced openness in everything from city planning to the way our homes are built and our schools and offices are arranged. But the age of openness may be winding down.
The Pennsylvania city’s council introduced a police initiative that doesn’t defund the department but does implement stronger programs for training on mental health, addiction and other social issues.
It can solve problems, but it also can address our communities' hopes and ambitions. Our urban endeavors always have a utopian edge to them, even if things don't always work out well.
The police department for the second largest city in Massachusetts has touted the benefits of the $11 million body cam contract for improving transparency. But the public still wants the city to defund the police.
The pandemic's disruptions have raised awareness of the digital divide and energized localities' initiatives to narrow it. To continue making progress, policymakers need to make sure the funding is there.
While Latinos are only 13 percent of Washington’s population, they make up 43 percent of the state’s positive COVID-19 cases. Public officials are struggling with why the rate is so high and what can be done to reduce it.
There are approximately 325,000 rural Marylanders and 40 percent of households in Baltimore that can’t access high-speed Internet. While digital equity isn’t a new issue, it’s now urgent as many work and learn from home.
It’s the country’s most famous road, and like so many other iconic pieces of mid-century Americana, it has been nearly obliterated by progress. But a few bits remain if you know where to look.
While the city’s Wi-Fi service will not be available ahead of this school year, officials hope that it will be ready before next year’s academic schedule. “We are getting closer to closing the digital divide.”
The focus has been on ensuring hard-to-count neighborhoods are included in the 2020 Census. But now wealthy neighborhoods aren’t responding due to COVID-19. Census workers have until Sept. 30 to get the full count.
Courts across the state made major hardware and software upgrades as the pandemic forced people to stay home and socially distance. After seeing the benefits, many courts will keep the improvements after the pandemic.
As voters stay home to avoid COVID-19 risks, the amount of absentee ballots has greatly increased. But election clerks must also prepare in-person precautions for the Tuesday primary. “You have to be prepared for the unknown.”
The city’s school district superintendent has pledged Internet connections for thousands of students by September. The current plan will continue virtual learning at least through Nov. 17.
Voter-mobilization groups are utilizing the pandemic and the protests following the death of George Floyd to encourage voter registration, and it’s working. In June, one nonprofit registered nearly 15,000 new voters.
In New Mexico’s deaf schools, e-learning loses the immersive environment that helps students learn American Sign Language. But even for in-person lessons, masks hide many of the facial expressions that ASL relies on.
Private investors want to build bullet trains across America, but in too many cases they're having trouble finding right-of-way. There's a lot that state and local governments could do to help them along.
SEPTA has required face coverings since June, but many riders aren’t adhering to the rule. Many are discouraged by the lack of masks and are opting for other forms of transportation. “I’m not jumping back on there for a while.”
