Inequality

View down California Street in San Francisco, California with Chinatown pagoda buildings and golden hour sky in background.

Is Inequality Destroying American Cities?

A recent video claimed that high income inequality is the “Thing That Will Destroy Our Cities.” Is this true?

March 13, 2024 - Michael Lewyn

Homeless

Census Releases New Interactive Dashboard to Identify Underserved Communities

The new "My Community Explorer" interactive dashboard is intended to help drive data-based solutions to inequality in and between communities.

April 14, 2022 - U.S. Census Bureau

Maryland

19 of 1,036 Majority-Black ZIP Codes Are 'Prosperous,' Report Says

The Economic Innovation Group has released its 2020 Distressed Communities Index.

January 18, 2021 - Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research: The Urban Edge

Vacant Properties

The Legacy of Structural Poverty in Alabama

In rural Alabama, a long history of racial inequality and poverty has left people struggling to survive in uninhabitable housing.

November 18, 2020 - The New York Times

Southeast Asia

The Singapore Exception

Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong were credited early in the pandemic with having successfully contained the coronavirus without resorting to lockdowns. However, Singapore lost its standing in that elite group. Crowding vs. density may explain why.

June 9, 2020 - NPR - Goats and Soda

Seoul South Korea

The Basement Apartments of Seoul’s Urban Poor

The lives of Seoul's poorest residents in squalid below-ground housing are brought out of the shadows in the film "Parasite."

March 11, 2020 - The New York Times

Historic home of Louisa May Alcott

Lessons in Architecture and Development Found in This Year's Oscar-Nominated Films

A pair of articles mine the films nominated for Academy Award for lessons in design and development that could potentially benefit housing equality.

February 10, 2020 - Los Angeles Times

Detroit Vacant Properties

A Better Way to Tackle Social and Economic Inequality

Building community wealth from the bottom up is a more effective way to turn struggling communities around.

December 16, 2019 - CityLab

Manhattan Retail

The Growing Urban Inequality Gap, Visualized

Inequality is growing faster in large metropolitan areas, according to a New York Times data visualization.

December 2, 2019 - The New York Times

Chile Metro

How a Subway Fare Increase Kicked Off Chile's Largest Protest

For many residents, Santiago's subway system and its fare hikes became a nexus for anger over deeper inequities across Chilean society.

November 1, 2019 - CityLab

San Francisco Houses

Op-Ed: Only Half of San Francisco is Changing

Using a mid 20th-century painting as his point of reference, Benjamin Schneider points out that the vast, disruptive changes we often associate with San Francisco are only affecting the city's eastern side.

August 22, 2019 - San Francisco Chronicle

Boston Seaport

Boston's Seaport District Still Lacking Diversity

The glitzy new neighborhood doesn’t cater to all Boston residents, according to a new survey.

August 13, 2019 - The Boston Globe

Rural Texas

U.S. Economic Growth Shows Urban-Rural Divide

The economy is improving in places like Texas, but a closer look indicates that cities are taking off while rural areas are lagging behind.

July 20, 2019 - The New York Times

Texas residential

How Some Cities Are Losing People and Staying Prosperous

Population loss doesn't always equate to economic decline. Richard Florida discusses a study examining American metros that are retaining their economic vitality as they shrink.

July 1, 2019 - CityLab

Los Angeles

Unequal Distribution of Shade Is Environmental Injustice

A longread, written by Sam Boch and published by Places Journal, has been creating a stir online and is highly recommended for those with an interest in intersections between social justice and urban design.

May 3, 2019 - Places Journal

Boston Street

Mapping the Microcosms of Segregation

A new analysis of inequality looks at where people go and how they spend their time.

March 15, 2019 - CityLab

Automated Vehicles

Study: Self Driving Cars Could Worsen Congestion and Inequality

It's not all free flowing commutes and world peace in an autonomous vehicle-filled future.

February 28, 2019 - Futurism

Twin Cities

Mapping the Wealth Accumulation of Homeowners

Exclusionary zoning really pays off for people that already had enough money to buy a home. A new mapping project shows exactly where that's true int he area around Minneapolis.

February 9, 2019 - Nick Magrino

Hill District

Inequality Found in the 'Unstudied Neighborhoods' Too

A new journal article calls out the academic community of planning and urbanism for relying too much on the usual suspects when researching marginalization and inequality, and assuming too much about what makes a neighborhood "normal."

December 4, 2018 - Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research: The Urban Edge

HVAC

Extreme Heat Is an Inequality Issue

The Guardian sounds the alarm about deadly heat exposure in poor communities around the world.

August 23, 2018 - The Guardian

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HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

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HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

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