Federal Government
If it emulated and adapted the scope of its predecessor, the Green New Deal could transform the country in fundamental ways, with builders, planners, and architects playing central roles.
Fast Company
A couple of questions are fundamental to the debate about the housing affordability crisis.
Urban Institute
Details about what the federal infrastructure plan would spend money, or where it would get the money to spend, have yet to be revealed.
The New York Times
With infrastructure and housing prices in the national discussion more than ever before, the federal government still doesn't seem ready to really change its ways.
Route Fifty
Blog post
Maybe, just maybe, Trump might also be willing to consider the decaying condition of U.S. infrastructure a matter of national security. And if Congress played along, perhaps we'd get a 2019 Infrastructure bill. That's how Eisenhower did it.
The APA noted that the 115th Congress was "marked by divisive rhetoric, partisan stalemates, and threats to programs on which local communities rely." At the end of the year, however, it could still celebrate substantial victories.
American Planning Association
Plans for temporary facilities designed to house between 25,000 to 45,000 people have been revealed by Time Magazine. Sites in Alabama, Arizona, California,
Time
Despite the increasing number and intensity of natural disasters, some vulnerable states are relaxing building regulations and leaving the federal government to pick up the tab when tragedy strikes again.
Bloomberg
The agency's report shows that inland-dwellers are just as likely as coastal types to be deeply affected by climate change.
The Courier-Journal
A budget shortfall for Census 2020 has already claimed one victim: the timely delivery of the five-year Economic Census.
Politico
As the largest commercial property holder int he United States, the federal government's development plans can contribute to the economic and cultural success of communities.
Governing
The WIFIA federal loans program provides start-up capital to local water infrastructure projects. The program is designed to encourage experimentation and cost-effective construction strategies.
Brookings
How much do we have to fear from the president-elect's policy plans for urban America? We can hope that he will follow his party's playbook and largely ignore the cities, but potential changes to housing policy are more serious.
Shelterforce/Rooflines
A new policy from the Obama Administration asks government to calculate, and attempt to lower, their carbon emissions.
Washington Post
Bruce Katz argues that federal investment in urban areas fosters a public/private ecosystem that can prioritize long-term thinking, minimizing the "short-termism" endemic to corporations and governments acting alone.
Brookings
Alan Mallach unpacks a remarkable project currently underway in Toronto, suggesting that sometimes higher, rather than lower, density may be the best way to go.
Shelterforce/Rooflines
Bruce Katz has an idea: "A year out from next year’s presidential election, let’s dispel the pervasive myth that the federal government runs the country."
Brookings
By focusing their criticism on the federal government, argues Jonathan Chait, Republicans fail to address the real problem: over-regulation on the state and local level.
New York Magazine
U.S. politics are "...beginning to sound like a mash-up of Greek tragedy and Groundhog Day. All hubris and irony, over and over again. But the pragmatism required in cities and states is starting to look like an exit strategy."
PlaceShakers
A new report by Bruce Katz of Brookings Institute discusses the federal government’s role in spurring and aiding the innovation districts found in many cities across the country today.
Brookings Institution
