Social / Demographics

Report: Expect to Live with Two More Years of Social Distancing
As a majority of states relax stay-at-home restrictions, a prestigious team of experts from the University of Minnesota, Harvard and Tulane universities warns that the coronavirus will likely last 18 to 24 more months, returning in successive waves.

Owner-Renter Hybrid, a Viable Homeownership Alternative?
In the co-investing model, companies are part owners of homes. While this arrangement gives potential homebuyers more options, this isn’t a real solution to the country’s housing affordability crisis.

Urban Planning Resources for COVID-19
Online misinformation has been unavoidable, but the Internet is also full of tools essential for understanding the changed world of COVID-19.

In L.A., Coronavirus Increases Landlord-Tenant Disputes
Los Angeles renters are facing challenges in coming up with rent payments as unemployment rates continue to rise. As a result, police are responding to significantly more calls about conflicts between landlords and tenants.

How Public Spaces Can Better Support Houseless Communities
Project for Public Spaces urges seven tangible actions for public space managers to support unhoused people during the coronavirus pandemic right now, and moving forward.

Urbanism Pays the Price for High COVID Death Toll in New York and New Jersey
Opponents of dense housing and public transit have seized on the disproportionate death toll originating from the epicenter of the nation's coronavirus outbreak. Is it time for the leaders of New York and New Jersey to admit they acted late?

COVID-19 and Big, Dense Cities That Aren't New York
As in metropolitan New York, big, dense cities don't always suffer from coronavirus to a greater extent than their car-oriented suburbs.

Racial Equity, Starting With Planning Departments
A recent journal article argues for planners to lead on racial equity.

States to Train Public Health Armies to Move Beyond Mitigation to Containment
As some governors open nonessential businesses, subjecting workers and customers to potential viral infection, others move beyond social distancing to the next steps, boxing in the coronavirus with testing, contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine.

Density Debate Rages Alongside the Pandemic
Questions about how highly contested questions about the future of the built environment will reference COVID-19 for years to come. The question about whether that debate will achieve any actual change is still very much up for debate.

Pandemic and the Ills of Age Segregation
Older generations have increasingly segregated over the past century-plus of U.S. history, and the pandemic is only one more example of why that's a problem for young and old.

Census Bureau Launches Data Collection Projects to Track COVID-19 Effects in Real Time
Three new projects will help provide a better sense of the economic and societal effects of the pandemic.

Coronavirus Spreading to the White, Trump-Voting Suburbs
The spread of coronavirus doesn't fit a tidy demographic narrative, according to new analysis by William Frey.

Late Action, Local Opposition Frustrate Emergency Homeless Shelter Plans
Some progress, but not nearly enough, has been reported as California and its cities scramble to procure temporary shelters to house homeless people during the pandemic.

Clean Water Crisis Exacerbated by Coronavirus
Communities have demanded access to clean water for decades, in some cases. The coronavirus pandemic is compounding the struggle and illustrating the inadequacy of most local government responses.

'Glaring' Racial Disparities Revealed in Louisiana COVID-19 Data
New data from the Louisiana Department of Health provide the most detailed look at the disparate impacts of the coronavirus across racial lines.

U.S. Needs to More Than Triple Testing Before States Can Open, Study Says
The United States currently tests about 145,000 people daily. A Harvard study calls for a minimum of 500,000 daily, but that's on the low end if the country wants to prevent shutting down again due to a second wave of the coronavirus.

Subway-Coronavirus Connection Suffers From Lack of Evidence
There is little evidence that the New York Subway is spreading the coronavirus, according to analysis by Alon Levy.

Demand Expected to Slow in U.S. Rental Market
Analysis from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University predicts the pandemic will reduce rents, but only at the top of the market.

Seattle Needs Walk-Up Testing for People Without Access to Cars
Disability rights advocates and people who rely on public transit put pressure on Mayor Jenny Durkan to develop a plan for pedestrian access to coronavirus testing centers in Seattle.
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