Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has developed an index to help identify the schools that are most in need of greening resources.

Many parents and advocates have called on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to implement more measures to reduce heat and provide shade over its school playgrounds, where asphalt can reach temperatures of 150 degrees Fahrenheit, as previously reported. To accelerate campus greening for students who lack access to green spaces and the benefits they offer, LAUSD has developed a Greening Index that assigns a “green score” to help identify which schools are most in need of greening resources.
The Greening Index combines two measures of need: 1) school site-specific need and 2) community-based need. A school’s green score is based on the percentage of green space on a campus compared with its total area; and a score derived from results of the Los Angeles County’s 2016 Parks Needs Assessment (PNA), a countywide study of the diverse parks and recreation facilities throughout LA County’s cities and unincorporated communities. Prepared by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR), the PNA gathered data to determine the scope, scale, and location of park need in Los Angeles County.
To learn more about Greening Index, please visit the source site.
FULL STORY: Greening Index

Florida Considers Legalizing ADUs
Current state law allows — but doesn’t require — cities to permit accessory dwelling units in single-family residential neighborhoods.

Manufactured Crisis: Losing the Nation’s Largest Source of Unsubsidized Affordable Housing
Manufactured housing communities have long been an affordable housing option for millions of people living in the U.S., but that affordability is disappearing rapidly. How did we get here?

HUD Announces Plan to Build Housing on Public Lands
The agency will identify federally owned parcels appropriate for housing development and streamline the regulatory process to lease or transfer land to housing authorities and nonprofit developers.

EPA Terminates $116 Million in Grants for Reducing Emissions from Construction Materials
C-MORE grants were earmarked for industry trade groups and universities.

BART Closes $35 Million Deficit
Cost control and revenue generation measures prevented service cuts.

The New Parisian Hearse is a Bicycle
Sleek, silent, and sustainable, a green trip to the graveyard has hit the streets of the French capital.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Moreno Valley
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
City of Piedmont, CA
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
City of Cambridge, Maryland