Social Equity
Two years after voters in the nine-county Bay Area agreed to hike tolls on the region's seven state-owned bridges, regional business leaders are hoping they will approve a one-cent regional sales tax to fund $100 billion in transportation projects.
San Francisco Chronicle
Blog post
Transportation and land use planning decisions affect economic opportunity and mobility—the chance that children become more economically successful than their parents. We can help create more equitable communities.
The American Planning Association (APA) makes a clear statement that planners are especially suited to address matters of social equity.
American Planning Association
Cordon pricing applied to Manhattan's Central Business District, approved by the state legislature on March 31 and signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on April 1, has the ability to be a game changer for other cities considering similar programs.
The New York Times
Putting a price on carbon emissions is widely viewed as an effective tool to reduce emissions. It can also be applied to help those who stand to lose the most from climate change, thus enabling a socially just transition to a low carbon economy.
World Resources Institute
Some "Opportunity Zones" will deliver more social end environmental benefits than others.
MAPS
Feature
Urban sustainability efforts have historically failed to advance all three E’s of sustainability: environmental action, economic development, and equity. However, a movement is underway to put equity—the oft-ignored E—at the forefront.
How to design a transit system that is safe, green, and beautiful.
ASLA The Dirt
Transit can advance social equity and provide access to opportunity—but only if agencies work for inclusive planning and resource allocation.
Streetsblog USA
The new group will challenge the unequal distribution of mobility resources to low-income communities of color.
Chi.Streetsblog
The new plan tackles housing affordability and food justice alongside water supply and greenhouse gas emissions.
Saporta Report
With experts predicting widespread autonomous vehicle (AV) adoption in the not-too-distant-future, many policymakers, designers, and ordinary citizens are left scratching their heads, uncertain of what to expect and how to prepare.
Doggerel
The new, Detroit-based sponsor will help pay for a ten-fold expansion of the Bay Area's regional bike share program coming this spring and a new Palo Alto program. Low income residents will be offered discounted rates to join Bay Area Bike Share.
Metropolitan Transportation Commission
Environmental advocacy is not enough. Environmental and social justice must play a role in California's legislative effort to battle climate change, opine two professors from UC Berkeley and USC in the San Francisco Chronicle.
San Francisco Chronicle
A new FHWA report, "Pursuing Equity in Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning" identifies practical ways to achieve social equity by better responding to the active travel needs of currently underserved populations.
Pursuing Equity in Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning
The APA blog issues a call to action to promote park equity.
American Planning Association
Climate action plans cannot succeed without bona fide action on social equity and job creation, argues Murtaza Baxamusa who teaches planning at USC and develops affordable housing Murtaza Baxamusa.
UrbDeZine
Urban planners should take a leadership role in placing social equity at the top of planning goals, argues planner, teacher, and affordable housing developer Murtaza Baxamusa. He looks at five socio-economic problems planners should strive to solve.
UrbDeZine
Feature
An op-ed counters concerns about the social equity consequences of Uber by allowing the possibility of public benefits arising from transportation network companies.
Blog post
The Center for Opportunity Urbanism has a wonderful goal—to improve economic opportunities for working class households—but uses terrible research to reach confusing recommendations about which policies are best. Please do better!
