Iowa
Iowa City's Mayor, Jim Throgmorton, opposes changes to the state's rental occupancy limits, arguing that these limits protect the state's elderly. The amendment's supporters say it's giving Iowans the freedom to live the way they want to.
Iowa City Press Citizen
Des Moines is considering an ambitious complete streets makeover of its downtown streets.
The Des Moines Register
Adding insult to injury in a bad week for environmental causes, the Dakota Access pipeline began shipping oil this week.
Chicago Tribune
What do Rochester, Cedar Rapids, Grand Rapids, and Chattanooga have to do with each other? According to Federal Reserve Banks, they are all examples of cities doing growth right.
Chicago Federal Reserve
A proposal by the Greater Des Moines Partnership is the latest bid redevelopment idea transforming downtown Des Moines.
Business Record
Des Moines' Downtown Chamber of Commerce expects the city's 2016 development boom to continue into the new year.
Des Moines Register
Surprisingly, legislators are rewarded for supporting new gas taxes: they get reelected, according to a new analysis by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association. What's more, they overwhelmingly hail from red states.
The Hill
Climate researchers are hoping to coordinate the efforts of Midwest cities toward creating plans and working toward more holistic approaches to climate change.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Next City examines the fruits of a Department of Justice effort to force cities to bring their sidewalks and other public spaces into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Next City
Good jobs, affordable housing, and quality of life rarely come in a total package. In fact, according to new analysis from the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis, only three cities in the United States combine all three.
Gizmodo
A new report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration documents the increasing frequency of nuisance floods and "clear-sky flooding."
USA Today
Sharrows and 3-foot passing laws are meant to make biking safer in streets in the absence of bike lanes. Bike activists in Iowa want to take safety a step further by requiring motorists to move to another lane, just as they would if passing a car.
Globe Gazette
Fairly or unfairly, Des Moines has a solid reputation as one of the nation's least interesting cities. But unbeknownst to the rest of us, this quiet working town might become the Midwest's answer to Austin, Texas.
Politico
The only major candidate, Democrat or Republican, to call for an end to the contentious ethanol mandate won the Republican caucus, clearly beating Donald Trump. That could doom what many even in Iowa, among even some farmers, call a boondoggle.
The New York Times - Politics
A former EPA official makes the case in a New York Times op-ed that the ethanol mandate, a major issue in Monday's presidential caucus in Iowa, the nation's top corn producer, is implemented so poorly that it is not benefiting the environment.
The New York Times - The Opinion Pages
All eyes are on Iowa's caucuses today, but presidential campaigns will be touring communities all over the country for months. The APA wants planners to be ready to explain the importance of planning when such rare opportunities arise.
APA Policy News
The fuel tax increases in the Beehive State by 4.9 cents on Friday. But don't count on gas prices increasing. Not only are prices dropping due to plummeting crude oil prices, but service station owners may be reluctant to pass on the increase.
The Salt Lake Tribune
The strategy of Iowa's Department of Transportation chief, Paul Trombino III, for maintaining the state's "25,000 bridges, 114,000 miles of roadway, and more than 4,000 miles of rail" is not to do so. In a word, "shrinkage" is part of the solution.
KCRG-TV9
Urban agriculture has long been a staple of sustainable urbanism—in theory. Can policy changes help it become much more than that? This guidebook offers tactics and policies that planners can use to promote urban farms.
APA-FIG
Aaron Renn scours the Internet to find 12 maps that attempt to do the impossible: define the geographic and cultural expanse known as the American Midwest.
The Urbanophile
