January Must-Reads: Top 10 Articles From Last Month

The sweeping and immediate impacts of the election dominate much of the news in January, with executive orders already affecting infrastructure funding, clean energy projects, housing programs, and transportation grants. Our top story documents the effects of last year’s Grants Pass v. Johnson Supreme Court ruling in Nevada, where lawmakers now feel empowered to enact harsher policies against unhoused people. Other top stories focused on how the Safe System approach to road design can improve traffic safety, the potential of small supermarkets to serve as neighborhood anchors, and how urban design and architecture affect the human psyche.

The full list of January’s most-read stories:

1. Nevada Cities Pass Punitive Anti-Homeless Laws

State legislators rejected a proposed bill that would have enshrined a “Homeless Person’s Bill of Rights” in state law, while multiple jurisdictions passed harsher laws against camping in public space.

2. How the Trump Presidency Could Impact Urban Planning

Changes in federal policy and funding could have major effects on housing, transportation, and infrastructure around the country.

3. How Smaller Supermarkets Could Transform American Communities

Small-scale neighborhood stores have the power to boost local economic development and promote community.

4. National Housing Group Criticizes Executive Orders

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), the actions, if implemented, “would make it harder for our nation to ensure that everyone has access to an affordable, accessible place to call home.”

5. Research Links Urban Design and Human Happiness

How the study of “neuroarchitecture” is making new revelations about the links between architecture, public space design, and human emotions.

6. Save Lives on Our Roads Using the Safe System Approach

How centering a strategy that acknowledges and accounts for human error can make roads safer for all users.

7. Executive Order Pauses Infrastructure, Clean Energy Funds

In the early days of the administration, President Trump issued an order freezing federal funding disbursements, putting infrastructure and energy projects around the country into jeopardy.

8. 2024: The Year in Zoning

A roundup of key zoning stories from last year that tackled parking minimums, state preemption, modular housing, and more.

9. Midburbs: A New Definition of Suburbs

Walkable, compact communities connected by transit to larger cities aren’t suburbs; they’re something else entirely.

10. San Diego Housing Assistance, Homelessness Programs Facing Major Cuts

Over a dozen programs that provide supportive housing and other services will see drastically reduced budgets as federal and other outside funding sources diminish.