Social / Demographics
<p>St. Louis is an older American city that may share more in common with Detroit than perhaps any other city in the U.S. from an urban growth perspective. However, the population decline appears to finally be halting as downtown shows signs of rebirth.</p>
The New York Times
<p>While long solo car commutes are tough on the environment (and increasingly the pocketbook), new research shows they has a negative effect on a person's health as well.</p>
Austin American-Statesman
<p>Experiencing a rebound of smart growth and urban development, Jersey City, New Jersey, is becoming an example for other growing cities.</p>
The Baltimore Sun
<p>With stores in Canada already successfully selling its environmentally friendly products, the Home Depot looks to become the largest retailer of eco-friendly products in America.</p>
The New York Times
<p>A consultant's report recommends Atlanta codify the protection of artists' spaces in new zoning. Many cities are trying to redress the "Catch-22" of gentrification -- the displacement of artists from neighborhoods they helped turn around.</p>
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
<p>Away from New York City's gentrified neighborhoods, there exists the middle class, ethnically diverse, and incredibly unglamorous neighborhoods of Brooklyn's Jamaica Avenue.</p>
The New York Times
<p>On its MemphisCrimeStories.com site, the Memphis Commercial-Appeal utilizes GIS technology to allow residents to plug in their street name or zip code and see recently reported crimes in their areas.</p>
Memphis Commercial-Appeal
<p>Working-class families priced out of urban areas and a squeezed middle class facing shrinking wages and unaffordable housing, are among those living in poverty in the suburbs.</p>
AlterNet
<p>In an effort to bring 1,000 buildings up to code and to perhaps preserve the modicum of affordable housing left in the city, Mayor Bloomberg is supporting a bill that forces land lords to pay for improvements.</p>
The New York Times
<p>California has the highest amount of minorities living near industrial facilities in the nation. Los Angeles alone has more than 1 million living within two miles of hazardous waste facilities.</p>
The Los Angeles Times
<p>With tax abatement for 5 to 15 years for renovated properties, the City of Richmond, Virginia, loses $14.6 million each year in real estate taxes. Meanwhile, long-time residents are pushed out by high taxes for unrenovated houses they own or rent.</p>
Style Weekly
<p>Statistics provided by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commisison (SEWRPC) at the request of the American Civil Liberties Union show that SEWRPC's technical advisory committees are 98% white.</p>
The Capital Times
<p>Despite vastly higher levels of federal affordable housing tax credits awarded to Louisiana, developers are pulling out of projects because they can't make sufficient profits.</p>
The Wall Street Journal
<p>An interview with Keith Ernst, senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending, on the devastating impact of subprime loans on home ownership.</p>
Democracy Now!
<p>The population in Houston has passed that of Miami, making it the sixth-largest city in the United States. Between 2000 and 2006, the city saw a 17.5% growth rate.</p>
The Houston Chronicle
<p>Randall Crane offers a blog post about his research of an exception to the gender gap: the trip linking work and home, which is consistently and persistently shorter for women than men.</p>
Urban Planning Research / Randall Crane's Blog
<p>Residents in Cleveland, Ohio, may be putting their tax dollars towards relocating a strip club. The relocation is part of an effort to acquire the club's current location for reuse as a homeless shelter.</p>
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
<p>For those who can't get to the coast, tons of sand have been trucked into a park in Mexico City, where residents flock to spend a day at the "beach". But critics see the effort as a wasteful in a city where many residents still have no running water.</p>
The Guardian Unlimited
<p>After many years of lagging population growth many attribute to the bust of the dot-com boom, the San Francisco Bay Area has shown a positive population growth rate for recent years.</p>
The San Francisco Chronicle
<p>Confirming what Atlanta residents have long sensed based on mind-numbing traffic and high-rise condo towers breeding like bunnies, the Census Bureau announced that the Atlanta region has added more residents since 2000 than any other U.S. metro.</p>
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
