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 programs depend on temporary sources of funding from Washington and the state that may be drying up. Finding sustainable funds has been a challenge.
Lawmakers will devote considerable time this year to perennial concerns such as crime and education.
The Yes In My Backyard movement is barely a decade old. But it has set the terms of the debate over state and local housing policy.
The city’s planning office won’t approve conversion of single-family properties into multiple units in six neighborhoods. The desire to protect Latino neighborhoods from gentrification runs counter to the city’s housing goals.
State officials face challenges from shrinking revenue and major changes from Washington in shared programs such as education and Medicaid.
Black drivers, in particular, are stopped at disproportionate rates, a study of 5 million traffic stops found. Police officers say the analysis was flawed.
Both suspects appear to have military backgrounds and both used the same app to rent vehicles.
Every few decades, we have an opportunity to change what our cities can be. This is one of those moments.
New Haven was sliced and diced by highway and urban renewal projects. A series of smaller initiatives are gradually knitting the city back together.
Local foundations have gone beyond funding charities to changing economic activity and strategies in several major cities.
St. Louis voters rejected a $60 million proposal for a new soccer stadium, but the city got one anyway. Here’s how it did that with minimal public funding.
Eight states and the U.S. Justice Department have sued over the practice. The company whose software is used by many landlords says it helps renters as well.
Cities in California and other states offer unhoused people transportation to somewhere else. But the number of people who can benefit is small, and it’s hard to tell what happens to them where they end up.
Critics of liberalizing housing construction are concerned that looser zoning rules could make existing houses more expensive. Fortunately, this worry is somewhat overblown.
With a fifth of the nation’s office space sitting empty, cities from Atlanta and Seattle are easing or ending regulations to make conversions more affordable and therefore more likely.
After tearing down high-rises and building more townhomes, the city is trying a mixed-used approach that blends towers with other amenities.
The approach, mostly adopted in Central Florida municipalities, allows prosecutors to waive court sentences in exchange for homeless people getting treatment, housing and jobs.
The Salt Lake City Public Library's in-house social workers and suite of other services help the unhoused find their way.
The county has spent billions on homeless programs only to see problems worsen. A proposal from two county supervisors would create a new department to consolidate and oversee services.
More than half of California renters spend at least 30 percent of their income on housing, making it the fifth-highest rate in the country. But a measure that would have lifted restrictions on local rent control failed this month by 22 points.
The pandemic prompted many downtowns to rethink their futures. Omaha’s evolution beyond a traditional business district was already underway.
The meat industry’s multimillion-dollar lobbying fight succeeded in stopping the city’s slaughterhouse ban, which will result in the continued operation of one of the nation’s largest lamb processing facilities.
Thanks to a celebrated book, we know all about Robert Moses’ dictatorial misdeeds in New York City. But the truth is that many of his worst visions were being realized in cities across the country.
For decades, young people chose to move to cities and large metros for greater opportunity. Since the pandemic, that migration has reversed.
After years under progressive measures aimed to reduce incarceration, California, Arizona and Colorado voters will all decide measures aimed at cracking down on crime.
Cities are pulling on a variety of tools to remake post-pandemic downtowns as multipurpose neighborhoods.
Major sources of federal support are about to expire. Investing money will save lives, so several states are stepping up their own efforts.
Many of the environmentally-friendly upgrades that turn a home into an energy efficient one are cost-prohibitive for builders outside of luxury homes. As popularity for efficient housing grows, can Maryland find a way to bring down costs?
The unanimous vote supports the removal of a rule that allows renters to be evicted when landlords remodel their buildings.
Five states and Washington, D.C., recently enacted bills dealing with fully autonomous vehicles on public roads. About half of states already have statutes in place for when self-driving cars are actually on the road.
“Valet trash,” boiler management, pest control and service fees are some of the many “junk fees” that landlords are adding to rents in Denver, which can significantly inflate costs. Rental advocates want more transparency.
