Finance
How Cities Can Leverage Financial Data for Smarter Urban Planning
Explore how cities can use financial data to enhance urban planning, improve budget allocation, and boost community services.
Making the Most of 'Opportunity Zones'
Created to speed investment in struggling communities, the federal Opportunity Zones program could also spur research into how capital can be better deployed on a district-by-district basis.
Los Angeles to Consider Public Bank for Housing and Cannabis
Voters will decide in November on the creation of a cannabis-friendly, publicly owned bank to invest in affordable housing.
Smart and Beautiful Paths to Sustainability
In a beautiful and inspiring new book, "S.M.A.R.T. – Paths to Sustainability" 34 artists and authors from five continents give their views on aspects of sustainable development.
Oakland Startup Trades Homes 'Like Stock'
Roofstock is an online marketplace where investors can buy, sell, and trade homes that tenants are living in.
After Brexit, London's Fintech Future Foggy at Best
Over half of Europe’s financial technology "unicorns" are in the London area. The decision to quit the EU is already threatening the ecosystem that allows London to trade within the EU, as well as its status as hub for fintech jobs and technology
Report Details Strategies for Energy States to Weather Booms and Busts
Some states relied more on the most recent energy boom than others, and some prepared more for the inevitable bust. A report by the Brookings Institution recommends actions for energy states to build resilience in the face of boom and bust cycles.
Unusual Arrangement Unites Local London Government, Finance Industry
Not many non-Londoners know what the City of London is. Even fewer know about its political ties to the finance industry.
Who Should Pay for Transportation Infrastructure? What is Fair?
Many people assume incorrectly that motorists pay their share of roadway costs through fuel taxes. Not so. Fairness would require much higher motor vehicle user fees to finance roadways.
Trainjacking America's Finance Industry
Acela has improved connectivity along the Northeast Corridor, but is that actually a good thing? Aaron M. Renn argues that high-speed rail has actually hurt America by giving the finance industry a stranglehold over fiscal and monetary policies.
The Kickstarter of Commercial Development Takes Flight
Two D.C. developers are giving people the power to finance development in their own communities, paving the way for a new, democratized approach to commercial real estate investment, Emily Badger reports.
Are Cities a Reflection of their Citizens?
As part of Bloomberg BusinessWeek's "Fix This" city planning series, the World Bank's Daniel Hoornweg considers how cities can often be a reflection of the cultural and institutional personalities of their citizens.
Can Manhattan Keep Up With Its Own Financial Industry?
Edward L. Glaeser looks back on the boom towns of yore and warns that, without a little balance, the dominance of finance in New York could spell trouble.
Will Safety Concerns Curb the Spread of Wind Power?
Speigel Online reports that wind turbines are proving to be prone to breakdowns and accidents. In Europe, the wind business is booming, but growing concern about safety could put a crimp in the growing industry.
Speaking of Clunkers
For serious transportation policy wonks lately every day is like Christmas. Climate change, bailout, deteriorating infrastructure, reauthorization, aging baby boomers, bailout, stimulus, new administration, economic development, global competition, urban redevelopment, bailout, etc. One has all they can do to just keep up with all the relevant news and positioning say nothing of understanding it. In fact, I don’t understand it.
Tight Budgets and the Need to Plan
Which of these families most needs to plan its family commitments and related budget items? Family 1: Wife is a bankruptcy lawyer whose business is booming; husband is an executive at a growing wind-energy company and has just received a nice raise, paid out of growing profits. The kids are grown. The couple's two Polish Lowland Sheepdogs are very healthy. Family 2: Wife is a plant manager for a U.S.-owned automobile company, facing mandatory unpaid time off this year; husband is a travel agent who sells high-end vacation packages to school teachers, planners and other middle-income individuals and families. Son has graduated from college but cannot find a job and is living at home and working part-time at a burger place. Daughter will be a college junior next year at an institution that has had its funding cut by the state and has thus announced a 15 percent tuition increase.
Travel Demands Are A-Changing: So Should Our Spending
Politicians and planners be warned: you will now be judged according to your ability to improve walking, cycling and public transit services.
Something Good To Say About California's Prop 13 In A Housing Slump
Long considered the source of California's fiscal and land use woes, Proposition 13, passed by voters in 1978, limits increases in property tax. However, it may prove to be an 'economic stabilizer' during the current housing slump.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Oxford
Caltrans - District 7
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
City of Cambridge, Maryland
Newport County Development Council: Connect Greater Newport