Every day, The Overhead Wire collects national and international news about cities and sends the links to their email list. At the end of the week they post some of the most popular stories to Greater Greater Washington, a group blog similar to Streets.mn that focuses on urban issues in the D.C. region.
Who really runs Irvine, California?: One developer owns 75% of the apartment units in Irvine, California, and has built many of the owner-occupied homes there. The operation is the work of Donald Bren — the nation’s “wealthiest real estate baron,” according to Forbes — who runs the properties he owns like a homeowners’ association (HOA), controlling design decisions and deciding which tenants can operate in the commercial spaces. (Michael Waters, John Gittelsohn | Bloomberg Businessweek)
Office-to-residential conversions: The pandemic accelerated a move away from 9-to-5 work, which has forced cities to rethink their economic models — especially for downtowns. Through six case studies, the Brookings Institution created a potential framework to convert more office towers to residential uses in a way that promotes equitable development. (Cara Eckholm, Tracy Hadden Loh, Jonathan Meyers, and Steven Paynter | Brookings)
Walking in Paris: In a low-turnout election, nearly 67 percent of Paris voters opted to make 500 more streets in the city pedestrian-only. Traffic in the city has been cut in half since the turn of the century, and several votes since have likewise related to urban quality-of-life issues, including higher parking charges for SUVs. The city will remove another 10,000 parking spaces, which equals the number already removed since 2020. (Michaela Cabrera and Clotaire Achi | Reuters)
Pandemic-era block party continues: During the pandemic a group of neighbors in a Philadelphia suburb decided they needed to see people’s faces and started having socially distanced block parties. At first they sat in driveways and yelled across the street at one another, but the events eventually turned to driveway gatherings. The tradition has now continued for 260 consecutive weeks and brought everyone closer together. (Kenny Cooper | WHYY)
Curtailing reckless drivers: Virginia lawmakers have approved a bill that would allow judges to require reckless drivers to install speed limiters on their vehicles. The bill aims to help start a larger conversation about reining in reckless driving while giving offenders an option other than jail time or a suspended license. (Aaron Short | Streetsblog USA)
On the Talking Headways podcast, a two-part series features Yonah Freemark, a housing and transit expert at the Urban Institute, for our annual predictions show! Enjoy Part 1 and Part 2, from this past March.
Quote of the Week
“He was brainwashed that we should only have grass. When we didn’t immediately comply, he started creating all these narratives that we were crazy.”
— Homeowners Janet and Jeff Crouch, who planted a biodiverse garden and then told Noema Magazine how their HOA’s attorney ordered them to put their lawn back.