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.
Congestion pricing gets more challenges: U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has written a letter to New York State, first sent to the New York Post, asking the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to cease their congestion pricing program under shaky pretenses and hypocrisy. The MTA almost instantly filed a lawsuit to stop USDOT from getting its wish and observers believe they have a good shot at pushing back against this apparent overreach. In announcing the letter, Trump referred to himself as “King.” (Gersh Kuntzman | Streetsblog NYC)
Canada announces HSR plans: Canada has launched a $3.9B planning phase for a high speed rail line between Toronto and Quebec City. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that the line will span 1,000 kilometers and trains will run as fast as 300km/hour (186mph) taking riders between Montreal and Toronto in just three hours, a journey that takes six hours in a car today. Much of this progress however will depend on coming elections in the country. (Peter Zimonjic, Mathieu Prost, Stéphane Bordeleau | CBC News)
Americans are stuck: In his new book Stuck, deputy executive editor of The Atlantic Yoni Appelbaum argues that geographic mobility in the United States has ground to a halt, and that reduction in movement has had wide ranging impacts on American life and politics. In this interview with Rachel Cohen, he also discusses how housing policy has contributed to the lack of mobility and why people are moving to places with cheap housing but less opportunities. (Rachel Cohen, Yoni Appelbaum | Vox)
The first eco-burb: The Woodlands, Texas, was lauded for its initial design done by Ian McHarg, the famed landscape architecture whose book Design with Nature changed the way we think about land development and planning. After a slow start, the 50-year-old Houston suburb has changed the center of gravity in the region, attracting businesses and entertainment. But for all its success, it hasn’t reached initial goals set for affordability and walkability. (Greg Flisram | Planetizen)
Social housing tax: An excess compensation tax on employees paid more than $1m per year would fund social housing in Seattle if a ballot measure that is currently passing is certified today. The program would give the Seattle Social Housing Developer approved in a previous election $50 million per year for land acquisition, construction, and administration. The measure was opposed by the local chamber of commerce and big companies like Microsoft and Amazon, which supported a competing measure with less funding. (Josh Cohen | Cascade PBS)
On the Talking Headways podcast, Ben Ross and Joe Cortright join us to discuss their article in Dissent Magazine discussing how modeling is being used to expand highways around the country.
Quote of the Week
“But I have input into every neighborhood and traffic plan, and into every housing construction project. I make sure that no more lopsidedly male-centered designs will be set in concrete in the future.”
— Linda Gustafsson, Umeå, Sweden’s urban development expert in NZZ, on how she’s embedded into the city planning department to make the city safer and planned with equity in mind.