The problems facing urban America can be exemplified by looking at the city of Las Vegas, according to this piece from the Brookings Institution's Mark Muro.
From housing to jobs to overconsumption, the woes of Las Vegas are largely the woes of the entire country, writes Muro.
"After all, Las Vegas' gargantuan problems and its necessary way forward mirror and take to an extreme those of our troubled nation as a whole.
Southern Nevada, for starters, may well stand at ground zero of a national economic crisis made massive by speculation, financial game-playing, and insufficient attention to the fundamentals. No large U.S. metro area has suffered house price declines greater than Las Vegas' 24 percent slump in the last year. No large metro has a higher concentration of home foreclosures. Gross metropolitan product has declined by 3 percent since its last peak in early 2007. And unemployment now exceeds 13 percent.
In this respect, Vegas exemplifies and exaggerates America's economic quandary."
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Large investors own 11 percent of single-family rentals in Las Vegas — far above the national average of 3 percent.
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Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
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Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
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US buildings threatened, destroyed by fires set to triple by 2060
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LA residents may be allowed to paint their own crosswalks
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky put out a motion instructing the Los Angeles Department of Public Transportation to study the feasibility of allowing volunteers to paint crosswalks.
Dallas moves to overhaul its zoning code
The city's zoning reform will allow more multi-family and mixed-use developments.
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