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The Planetizen News Brief

16 October 2008 - 5:00am
Smart City Radio

The Planetizen News Brief is a weekly rundown of some of the most interesting and important news and issues of the past week.

The Planetizen News Brief airs every week on the nationally-syndicated radio program "Smart City", which is broadcast in cities across the U.S. Learn more about Smart City and listen to archived shows.

Full Transcript

Home values in the U.S. are on a steep slide. This fall in prices has put millions of Americans underwater, or owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. A recent article from MSNBC says that nearly one out of every six Americans has more to pay on their home than that home could sell for today. This has had a feedback effect on the economy, with spending plummeting nationwide. And with more and more homeowners underwater, many fear more foreclosures will follow and property values will dip even lower. The federal government’s financial bailout plan is expected to have some positive impact on the situation, but it may be a year or more before home values for those millions of Americans rise back above how much they still owe on their houses.

The downturn in the economy is being felt hardest among Americans with low incomes -- and not just because of falling home values. As a recent article from the Wall Street Journal discusses, nonprofit hospitals have been closing their doors in urban areas and leaving their low-income clientele with few options for health care. Nonprofit hospital groups like Ascension Health primarily offer services to the “poor and vulnerable”. But because those poor and vulnerable are often uninsured, the cost of providing services has gotten incredibly high in urban areas. So hospitals are doing the logical thing- they’re closing shop in the cities and moving out to the suburbs, where people are more likely to have insurance. With fewer inner-city facilities, people in low-income areas like downtown Detroit are having to search for new hospitals. But with low incomes and no insurance, what they find may not be as welcoming as the now-departed nonprofit hospitals.

And finally, despite recent press about the suburbs being abandoned, some suburban areas are still drawing development and people. One example is the suburban Houston town of Fulshear, where local officials are expecting huge subdivision developments to pop up over the next two decades. With some major housing projects already underway, the small town of just 716 people is expected to grow into a city of more than 40,000 within 15 years. Fulshear residents are mixed on the growth, but officials see this as an opportunity. As the Houston Chronicle reports, local officials are not going to let this growth catch them by surprise. In order to absorb growth gracefully, officials have enacted land use plans and regulatory ordinances more typically used in larger cities. As Fulshear goes from burg to boomtown, one planning commissioner says, "We're definitely aware that we could get run over with development," Residents are hoping that local planners are up to the task.

Stories discussed in this week's Planetizen News Brief

One-in-Six Homeowners 'Underwater'

Hospitals Flee Poor Areas

Growth Not Catching Suburban Houston Town By Surprise

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