• Compact urbanism more resilient than sprawl

    We can lower our vulnerability to climate change by promoting more compact, walkable communities instead of sprawling development.
    Climate change is not just a problem of carbon in the atmosphere and its impacts. It also relates to the built environment. Because, as temperatures and sea levels have risen over the last century, we have made ourselves more vulnerable by building sprawl. Automobile-oriented development tends to...Read more

  • An agenda for the housing crisis

    A Delaware Senator, Lisa Blunt Rochester, offers wide-ranging solutions to the US housing problem.
    The New Way Home Agenda , a report by US Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) on solutions to the US housing crisis, is a remarkably common-sense document on a complicated issue—the kind that an individual senator or member of Congress doesn’t often produce. The 35-page document released last week...Read more

  • In the Ozarks, a greenway inspires change

    The Razorback Greenway and a Design Excellence Program are transforming the small cities of Northwest Arkansas.
    Northwest Arkansas (NWA) is a unique metropolitan region—without one dominant city. Instead, the rapidly growing Ozark Mountain area is centered on four small cities stacked south to north—Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville. The valley is linked by Interstate 49, which provides good...Read more

  • Mixed use thrives, mixed income often doesn’t

    Challenging some of the assumptions underlying mixed-income housing.
    On the ground, mixed-income redevelopments promote order and safety. These are real successes. Urban Institute’s HOPE VI research documented significant drops in fear of crime after relocation and rebuilding. 1 But the same work finds weak cross-class ties and persistent stigma—different rulebooks...Read more