Social / Demographics
<p>With a surge in population and some large-scale retail and entertainment complexes in the works, downtown L.A. is in the midst of a major urban shift. But as this column from the <em>Los Angeles Times</em> argues, developers are shaping the growth.</p>
The Los Angeles Times
<p>Getting neighbors together for community events does more than prevent crime, according to the Project for Public Spaces.</p>
Project For Public Spaces
<p>At the edge of Portland's urban growth boundary, a clash of rural and urban lifestyles is causing disputes between homeowners, farmers, and hunters.</p>
The Oregonian
<p>The idea of creating "complete streets" for cyclists, pedestrians, mass transit, and cars is gaining popularity across the country.</p>
USA Today
<p>Numbers continue to rise in New Orleans, where multiple demographic sources show the population at 60% of the total population before Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005.</p>
Associated Press via The Clarion-Ledger
<p>Urban geographer Richard Morrill discusses the history of growth in Seattle, the influences that cause it, and which of the influences can be controlled.</p>
Crosscut
<p>The city of Jeffersonville, Indiana, has approved the annexation of more than 7,800 acres of nearby land -- a move that will increase the population by more than a third. Many of the people to be annexed are calling the move a land and money grab.</p>
The Courier-Journal
Blog post
I first visited the African American suburb of Country Club Hills, south of Chicago, as an interviewer for a research project. It seemed as though only race had been reversed: The Maryland suburbs I had grown up in were 80 percent white, these were 80 Black, but otherwise they were so utterly familiar, right down to the floor plan of the split-level ranches, that I knew the layout of every home before I went in.
In research I’ve begun on other Black, middle-class suburbs, however, it turns out that more than color has been reversed. In fact, race reverses many of the things planners have come to see as inevitable.
<p>In Los Angeles and much of Southern California, more multi-family homes are being planned and built than single-family residences.</p>
The Los Angeles Times
<p>In a national survey on the best Canadian cities, Vancouver finished with top honors. But other Canadian cities were also recognized for their strengths.</p>
The Vancouver Sun
<p>While diversity has usually been trumpeted as a positive aspect of many urban areas -- new research by Harvard professor Robert Putnam suggests that increasing diversity leads to decreased levels of civic engagement and cooperation.</p>
The Boston Globe
<p>Immigration has become a hot spot in the presidential primaries, with immigrants being blamed for crime and consuming vital social services. Now a Harvard study has analyzed how they have affected, and will affect, the for-sale housing market.</p>
AP vis San Francisco Examiner
<p>A recent poll shows the majority of Americans think the use of surveillance cameras in public spaces are a good idea.</p>
Angus Reid Global Monitor
<p>While American drivers are burning record amounts of gas to feed their motoring habits, a weird thing is happening in the freeway state – Californians continue to consume less gasoline. Sustained high gas prices may play a role by changing behavior.</p>
The Oakland Tribune
<p>In Marin County and other wealthy, liberal enclaves, many residents are vocally supportive of affordable housing and other causes -- unless its in their neighborhood.</p>
Mother Jones
<p>As roads become more congested, one congestion mitigation proposal would encourage state workers to telecommute.</p>
The Idaho Statesman
<p>Opponents to gentrification often have a romanticized view of neighborhoods that prevents them from seeing how development is beneficial to everyone in a community -- rich and poor.</p>
American Thinker
<p>Whether is a proposal for congestion pricing in 2007 or the advent of parking meters in the 1930s, Americans have a way of being hostile towards plans that interfere with their 'constitutional right' to free driving and parking.</p>
Streetsblog
<p>In Kalamazoo, Michigan, citizens of all ages are engaging each other to create and maintain safe and active neighborhoods.</p>
Kalamazoo Gazette
<p>William Fulton observes that while high-income households are flocking to the inner-city and gobbling up pricey condos, poor families are having to double and triple up just to afford a home in the suburbs.</p>
The Los Angeles Times
