Community / Economic Development

A Realistic Approach Needed With Programs like HUD's New EnVision Centers
Secretary Ben Carson's vision for the Department of Housing and Urban Development focuses on a new workforce development program called EnVision Centers.

A 'Redlining' Bike Tour
All it takes a map, a bike, and a desire to learn the history of racial segregation in the United States.

Starbucks Targeting Stores In Minority Neighborhoods
Starbucks is launching a long-term effort to create local jobs, provide training opportunities for youth, and invest in local minority-owned businesses.

Where Population Declines but the Economy Grows
While the scale of Detroit's population loss is well known, the lesser known that the city's economy has grown steadily in recent decades. It's not alone.

No More Toys R Us, Kids
Toys R Us will shut down all its remaining stores in the final blow of a process that began with bankruptcy filing in September 2017.

California Spends $6.5 Billion on Homeowner Subsidies, 15 Times Less on Renters
A new report from the California Housing Partnership "revealed a wide gap between state support for homeowners and renters."

Study: L.A. County's Urban Oil Wells Are Too Close to Homes and Schools
The Department of Public Health recommends taking action to better protect residents from oil operations that are sometimes only a few feet from where people live, work, eat, play and study.

Former President Barack Obama Addresses Gentrification
Former President Barack Obama is facing a new kind of politics while working to support the development plan for the Barack Obama Presidential Center.

Climate Challenge: Not Enough EVs or Too Many SUVs?
Both are problems, but globally, sports utility vehicles sales are proliferating far faster than cars, be they electric or petrol-powered, posing a major challenge for governments committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

An Orlando Business District Revitalization Success Story
Mills 50, just northeast of Downtown Orlando, has been reborn as the city's Main Street and has helped spur development, investment, and interest in Orlando's urban core.

Austin Proposes Using Blockchain Technology to Help Its Homeless
The city wants to give its 7,000 citizens without permanent homes "[u]nique digital identifiers" to help them get reliable access to services.

Chicago Police Still Targeting Black Cyclists
A year after a report showed a giant discrepancy in enforcement of bike regulation between white and black riders, data the Chicago Police Department continues to target black bikers.

California Has Been Shedding Residents—For Decades
The state Legislative Analyst's Office looks at California's out-migration data. Every year since 1990, more Californians left for other than states than arrive. Which states are sending their residents here, and where are Californians fleeing to?

After Harvey, Texas Tries State-Run Disaster Relief, With Mixed Results
The scale of the housing recovery effort means some jobs normally handles by FEMA have fallen to the Texas General Land Office.

Innovative Approaches May Save Physical Retail
In places like San Jose, "new approaches to the storefront" are paying dividends for physical retailers willing to experiment.

Homeownership Rates for Black Americans Unchanged for 50 Years
There has been precious little progress over the past 50 years in bridging gaps of inequality for Black Americans.
Soccer Brings Development Hopes, and Displacement Fears, to Cincinnati
A proposal for a Major League Soccer (MLS) stadium in Cincinnati's West End is raising displacement concerns among residents.

Guess Who's Disrupting the Parking and Valet Business
Ride hailing reduces the need for parking services, as well as parking spaces, and parking companies are feeling the effects. New data comes from a major U.S. parking management company based in San Diego, thanks to the Union-Tribune.

Mapping Potential 'Opportunity Zones'
The GOP tax reform bill enabled a potentially powerful new funding mechanism for struggling communities.

How a Central Florida Suburb Transformed Into a Walkable Destination
Along US 17/92, in the northern Orange County suburbs of Orlando, suburbia is being retrofitted.
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