Diana Ionescu wrote:
According to McLean, “Houston worked with surrounding county governments, various community stakeholders and nonprofit service providers to develop a model that, despite operating with a small budget, has decreased the area’s homeless population by roughly 63% since 2011, according to a recent city report.”
Houston’s success is attributed to three main factors...
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Diana Ionescu wrote:
“In July 2020, three-quarters of Americans told pollsters that being within walking distance of destinations like shops and parks were important to them, yet too many new developments still assume a car-dependent lifestyle.” Consequently, developers are starting to build denser, mixed-use suburbs in an effort to provide both more spacious living quarter...
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Diana Ionescu wrote:
“Urban designer Peter Calthorpe has a plan for the shuttered and financially troubled strip malls that dot the suburban landscape: Convert the malls into housing that would be part of green communities where people could be closer to their jobs and get out of their cars.” As Jacques Leslie writes for Yal...
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Diana Ionescu wrote:
"Developed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Homekey provides local public entities with large, capital grants that can be used to purchase existing buildings and convert them into housing for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness."
According to the blog, "All told, Homekey 1.0 added 6,000 rooms and/or units t...
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Catie Gould wrote:
What can you do with half-empty parking lots at struggling strip malls and shopping centers?
A lot, according to a report released last month by Boston’s Metropolitan Area Planning Council. MAPC’s analysis of the region’s 3,024 strip malls found that redeveloping just the best-suited 10 percent of them per town into mixed-use housing an...
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Cullum Clark wrote:
Lessons from history and from the relative success stories of the present point to clear priorities for today’s cities:
Get the urban basics right: schools, safety, livability.
Strengthen local anchor institutions in higher education, health care, and other areas.
Invest aggressively in local quality-of-life amenities.
Rebuild and expand critical infrastructure.
Work towa...
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Michael Andersen wrote:
Building owners paid Metro Transit $14 per month for each unit and offered one pass per household as part of their leases. (A regular Metropass for unlimited rides costs $83 per month.)
In case you were wondering, that comes to an 83 percent bulk-rate discount being offered by the transit agency.
...
“We also provide a community car fo...
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Daniel Herriges wrote:
There’s no large city in America that’s doing a better job of pivoting to a Strong Towns approach than Memphis, Tennessee. And there are many working from easier starting points. For decades, Memphis aggressively annexed outlying land, juicing cheap suburban growth while older neighborhoods suffered poverty and blight. In recent years, cit...
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Rachel Dalrymple wrote:
The Public Infrastructure Act allows for low-cost funding for parks, roads, infrastructure, and water via investment groups, companies, etc. Traditionally, cities and neighborhoods funded by PIDs are developed in bits and pieces as the money for the infrastructure becomes available.
So far, Utah is becoming a hotbed for such spots thanks t...
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Diana Ionescu wrote:
While many locals in Colorado struggle to find affordable housing near their jobs, census data show that 34 to 71 percent of housing across 15 Western Colorado counties is vacant, serving as vacation rentals and second homes for wealthy investors and out-of-towners. As Bruce Finley reports, the vacancy rate, coupled with th...
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