Every day at The Overhead Wire we collect news about cities and send the links to our email list.  At the end of the week we take some of the most popular stories and post them to Greater Greater Washington, a group blog similar to streets.mn that focuses on urban issues in the DC region.  They are national links, sometimes entertaining and sometimes absurd, but hopefully useful.

NIMBYs tend to be homeowners — of all political stripes: Studies show that homeowners of both parties prefer restrictions to development, and those who purchase homes are more likely to vote, especially on local zoning matters. This fact alone begins to explain why places that started out as exclusive have stayed that way over time. (Emily Badger | New York Times)

The future of memory care is a special city: Nord Architects out of Copenhagen is building a series of centers for patients with dementia and alzheimer’s disease. The design of these centers supports a kinder type of care with villages that have everything a person would need from their neighborhood, rather than rooms in a hospital. (Katharine Schwab | Fast Company)

Autonomous grocery delivery is the future: Kroger will be trying out autonomous vehicles for delivering groceries in Mesa, Arizona in the fall. They’ll eventually be using pod cars designed for ferrying goods, but to start they’ll use an autonomous Prius. (Andrew Krok | CNET Roadshow)

SimCity 2000 with a planner: UC Berkeley PhD candidate Dave Amos recorded a video himself playing SimCity 2000, the legendary game that got many planners into cities by believing they could build the perfect one even in real life. His commentary is interesting, not only because he gives away the key to more taxable land value: the four-by-four grid. (Mark Wilson | Fast Company)

A transportation guide for landscape architects: The American Society of Landscape Architects has released a transportation guide that looks at the subject from different geographies. It has also developed aspirational goals for sustainable transportation projects. (ASLA)

Quote of the Week

“According to the GAO, FTA officials said they “did not have immediate plans to address the outstanding statutory provisions” in part because the Trump White House wants to phase out federal transit capital grants entirely. But the president’s wishes are not law.”

Angie Schmitt at Streetsblog USA discussing the FTA’s refusal to follow the wishes of congress.

This week on the podcast: Andrew Salzberg, Head of Transportation Policy and Research at Uber