Social / Demographics

Urban Design Professor Suspended for Harassment and Intimidation
The field planning and urban design has seen relatively little in the way of controversy or consequences since the #MeToo movement gained a foothold in the public consciousness. The status quo ended this week.

China Population: From Explosion to Implosion
China's one-child policy, which compelled couples to seek abortions or undergo sterilization procedures, ended in October 2015. Yet the country's birth rate hasn't increased, and Communist Party officials are concerned about economic growth.

Lessons From Cities With Majority Black Homeownership
Locations with majority black homeownership have plenty to teach about closing the country's home ownership gap.

Federal Appeals Court Orders EPA to Ban Harmful Pesticide
The ruling puts another stain on former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's legacy as it rebukes his denial of a petition to ban a pesticide that causes neurodevelopmental damage in children. Pruitt had rejected his own scientists' recommendation.

Carrying Capacity, Population Growth, and Urban Planning
Breakthrough Institute co-founder, Ted Nordhaus, explores the etymology of "carrying capacity" from a shipping term to a biological term, but objects to its application to human population. Richard Heinberg of the Post Carbon Institute responds.

Where Care Meets Confinement
For doctors trying to provide mental health care to people who are incarcerated or detained by the New York City Department of Corrections, city jails pose a challenge — and provide an opportunity.

What Do You Do With Controversial Monuments and Statues?
Cities around the country are scrambling with ways to accommodate monuments to a past that many consider as oppressive.

'Move to Buffalo' Is No Excuse
One common argument against building new housing in high cost cities is that people priced out of those cities can always move somewhere cheaper. This post responds to that claim.

Why L.A.'s Boyle Heights Matters to Anti-Gentrification Activists
The historically Latino working class neighborhood is a frequent touchstone in debates over gentrification in Los Angeles. That history goes back decades and colors residents' perceptions.

How to Shrink the Racial Homeownership Gap
Following reports that Black Americans owned homes in 2017 than in 1983, banker Teri Williams offers recommendations to diversify homeownership across the United States.

A Third Court Win for Children's Climate Change Lawsuit
Strike three for the federal government in trying to dismiss a lawsuit launched by 21 children in Oregon who sued the Obama administration in 2015, claiming the government was endangering their future because of its failure to reduce climate change.

The Greening of California's Republicans?
One finding from a new statewide survey, "Californians and the Environment," suggests that the environment is becoming a more bipartisan issue, but that finding is still subject to interpretation. What isn't is the top environmental issue: water.

Study: Scooters Are Really Popular
The narrative of electric scooter users as affluent, entitled, and "tech bro-y" does not reflect the demographics of fans of the new mobility technology, according to a new study. Electric scooters are actually very popular.

Evidence of Race's Role in Land Use Decisions
Analysis of a city's zoning and land use decisions over seven decades reveals the role race plays in decision making.

Op-Ed: Pay Equity in Architecture Is Just a Math Problem
Unlike other measures of value, writes Jeanne Gang, pay is a number. And that should make it easy for architecture firms to address any existing wage gaps.

Optimism and Investment, Not 'Managed Decline," for the Rust Belt
Managed decline assumes that struggling cities will continue to struggle indefinitely. Is there a better way to plot neighborhood stabilization?

6 Rules for a More Equitable Transit System
Transit can advance social equity and provide access to opportunity—but only if agencies work for inclusive planning and resource allocation.

Debt and Rent Burden Keeping Millennials From Homeownership
Research from the Urban Institute finds that economic hurdles, not just lifestyle preferences, are stopping millennials from buying homes.

Sometime This Summer, California's Population Tops 40 Million
Rather than projecting when the 50 million milestone will be reached, demographic and political indicators predict the state's population is more likely to decline, according to Joe Mathews of Zócalo Public Square.

Debating the Qualities of a Changing New York
Is the gritty, diverse New York of yesteryear dying, vanishing, or otherwise ceasing to exist? Depends on who you ask and where you look.
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