Social / Demographics

It's hard to avoid tales about the country's urban boom; then the U.S. Census goes and releases data that totally backs it up.

May 23, 2014 - Governing

Austin has experienced spectacular rates of growth in recent decades, growing by more than 20 percent between 2000 and 2010. Among quickly growing cities, however, Austin was the only that also saw a decline in African-American population.

May 21, 2014 - KUT

Communities have a growing number of technological resources available to face the challenges posed by a growing population and a resource constrained world.

May 20, 2014 - Tom Spengler

Recent studies have found that trends born of the Great Recession have left Millennials stuck in place. A recent article places the current milieu in context by comparing historic rates of mobility.

May 19, 2014 - Bloomberg View

Emily Badger examines the role of housing segregation in obstructing the promise of Brown v. Board of Education.

May 19, 2014 - The Washington Post - Wonkblog

Los Angeles is coming of age, and with many cultures inhabiting many waves of development over the course of its settlement, the city's history is deep and rich. Recent articles detail multiple planning efforts aimed at preserving the city's history.

May 16, 2014 - PBS NewsHour

A local Tea Party type is making a passionate pitch for what his group considers Constitutional guarantees against government planning, and I get this deju vu tug. I’ve been here before. I’VE BEEN THIS BEFORE.

May 12, 2014 - PlaceShakers

"We can’t understand what’s working in America’s cities unless we also look at what’s not working in the vast suburbs that surround them," writes Rebecca Burns.

May 12, 2014 - Politico Magazine

Researcher Chris Ives suggests that rather than relying solely on economic gains to justify urban nature and biodiversity, community values may be more effective in gaining public support.

May 11, 2014 - Sustainable Cities Collective

Public health was one of the many topics to merge from the American Planning Association's recent national gathering. Here's a look at the proceedings from the conference's Planning Healthy Communities Symposium.

May 10, 2014 - APA Conference Blog

A writer points to surprising statistics about Brooklyn—mainly that much of the borough is growing poorer as real estate prices fall—to make a point about how the common gentrification narrative fails cities.

May 9, 2014 - City Notes

Recent commenters have described cities as the locus for a new type of liberalism that benefits a broader swath of demographics. Dissenters wonder whether certain progressive cities, enabled by privilege, are merely drivers of inequality.

May 9, 2014 - New York Times

Richard Florida opines that among many factors in the most walkable neighborhoods, "[who] our neighbors are, and how similar or different they are from us, matters too."

May 8, 2014 - Atlantic Cities

"The inaugural Guardian Cities brand barometer ranks world cities on everything from transport and weather to crime and social 'buzz.'" Guardian Cities released a trio of posts in connection with the rankings.

May 7, 2014 - Guardian Cities

Impact investing isn't just a new source of funding for nonprofits from the private sector. The government can (and should!) be a catalyst in shaping the market through policies that support investments with a greater social impact.

May 7, 2014 - Shelterforce

Data in Virginia shows that more young families are choosing to stay in urban areas to raise their children. This is causing a rapid increase in school enrollment and fueling the fastest growth Virginia's urban areas have experienced since the 1950s.

May 5, 2014 - University of Virginia Center for Public Service

Toyota's April 30th announcement that it would take its headquarters from Torrance to Plano, Texas is proof-positive that California's high regulatory, high tax, and high cost of living environment is unfriendly to business. Or is it?

May 5, 2014 - The Wall Street Journal - U.S. News

Research around the United States has found gentrification to produce public health risks. Will lessons from Oakland and New York City be enough for a rapidly gentrifying city like St. Louis to escape poor public health outcomes?

May 5, 2014 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Having lost their CEQA appeal with the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the "tech bus" opponents are taking their case to the court, arguing that environmental impacts from the large, luxury private buses using public bus stops must be addressed.

May 4, 2014 - The San Francisco Examiner

China's rapid urbanization has been built by a class of citizens called "nongmin," or peasants, many of which have migrated to urban areas for work but retain their legal status as residents of the countryside.

May 3, 2014 - China File