Every day, The Overhead Wire collects news about cities and sends the links to their email list. At the end of the week they 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 D.C. region. They are national and international links, sometimes entertaining or absurd but often useful.
Current Houston urbanist thinking needs change: The mostly Latino Northside neighborhood of Houston avoided much of the change and gentrification that came to other parts of the city. But the urban growth of enclaves in and outside of the city, as well as annexation, has left it perpetually resource-constrained while developers are enriched. This growth has created more negative impacts on communities like the Northside and should make urbanists and neighborhoods ask what a city actually gains by focusing on what works best for monied interests. (Sam Russek | Texas Observer)
Car headlights getting brighter: With the introduction of LEDs, lights have gotten brighter, but none have been as noticed as car headlights, which have become ten times brighter over the last decade. Brighter lights and increased discomfort for many have brought an unusual band of opponents out to try and stop the blinding trend. (Nate Rogers | The Ringer)
Why it’s hard to quit driving: Commuters are creatures of habit, and shifting transportation modes away from driving takes discipline and time. A number of biases come into play, including sunk costs, underweighting long-term benefits and favoring the status quo. But researchers have also found that a major life change or event can create an opportunity to switch to new habits that may help people’s wallets and the planet. (David Zipper | Slate)
Real reason for the housing crisis: Over the last 60 years in Chicago, population growth has flatlined, but the number of housing units has grown 32%. During this same time household sizes have dropped. This trend in Chicago is likely to be seen all over the country and points to a larger discussion about the housing shortage. A growing population and smaller household sizes means more units are now needed to house fewer people than they did before. (Pete Saunders | Corner Side Yard)
Neighborhood dangers of formaldehyde: Not exclusive to mortuaries, formaldehyde is a chemical that is used in many applications that surround us such as furniture particle board and plastics binding. It’s also the hazardous material that leads to more cancer than any other air pollutant. Reporters looked into the actual risk of formaldehyde and found that the danger is much more pervasive than previously understood. (Sharon Lerner and Al Shaw | Pro Publica | Interactive Map)
This week on the Talking Headways podcast, Dani Simons, currently of Alstom (a transportation company investing in “inclusive, environmentally sustainable transportation systems”) and former director of public affairs at the U.S. Department of Transportation, joins us to look back at how Biden administration policies evolved from ideas to bills such as the IIJA and Inflation reduction act.
Quote of the Week
“When I left full-time work earlier this year to go freelance, I finally landed that totally flexible schedule with no annoying bosses or co-workers. I didn’t expect that working from home would initially mean a five-pound weight gain, and that I’d take my kids to school not just to make sure they made it to class — but to chat with other parents. It turns out that the simple obligation of going to a workplace, shop or school every day brought positive externalities that are vanishing from our lives.”
— Diana Lind in Slate discussing how our lives shifting online can have negative impacts