• From the wreckage, hope and opportunity

    Citizens have a chance to go beyond business-as-usual to achieve a higher potential through recovery from the historic 2017 hurricane season.
    The Southeast woke up this week to destruction from Irma, the second major hurricane to hit the United States in 2017, the worst hurricane season since 2005. In terms of loss of life, there is no comparison between that year ( about 1,700 deaths from Katrina alone) and 2017, but property damage may...Read more

  • Why we should take suburban poverty seriously

    As low-income people migrate further out to the suburban fringe, they become more isolated from services and transportation, according to a report by CNU focused on Seattle.
    Like most of America, the Seattle region is experiencing rising poverty in its suburbs. From 2005 to 2015, the suburban poverty rate grew by 29.7 percent in the Puget Sound region, a rise that is more than double that of the central city. At the same time, the total number of people in poverty in...Read more
  • St. Joseph Oakland Terraza Palmera

    Harmony of old and new delivers affordable housing

    An Oakland redevelopment shows how urban design and historic preservation can support a social agenda.
    A rare combination of National Historic Landmark buildings and infill a fordable housing, the St. Joseph’s Redevelopment transforms a dilapidated former convent and convalescent home into a mixed-use asset for a distressed Oakland, California, neighborhood. The physical pattern of St. Joseph's, the...Read more

  • Rethinking the future of state DOTs

    Here's six ways to transform communities and revitalize our economy by repurposing state departments of transportation, which are currently organized based on an outdated 1950s model.
    The modern state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) were created, by and large, in order to build the Interstate System and associated freeways . Most American roads were dirt until several decades into the 20th Century, and the idea that we needed specialized agencies created specifically to...Read more