National Links: A New Kind of Power Company

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.

A new electric company: Ann Arbor Michigan is creating a power company that would build renewable energy inside the city limits through microgrids and rooftop solar. The existing power company didn’t want to focus on renewable energy, so the city set out to build something that would help them reach their climate goals faster. The new power company won’t have to worry about legacy infrastructure maintenance. (Adele Peters | Fast Company)

Harder to afford a home: A new report from the National Housing Conference finds that middle class people are finding it harder and harder to buy a home. 32% of tracked metropolitan areas require double the salary needed to afford a home in 2024 than in 2019, and 45% require an income above $100,000 per year. The changes are not just in high cost coastal areas, but in areas that previously were seen as affordable.  (Brittany Webb | National Housing Conference) 

Why China builds faster: A new book by Canadian Dan Wang suggests that the reason why China can build while the US seems stuck is the difference between society being led by engineers in China and lawyers in the United States. In a podcast discussion with Vox, he suggests that both mindsets have their drawbacks. In the United States our crumbling infrastructure is a sign of a system that works for the rich, whereas in China the engineering mindset spurs project development but also treats people as a math problem. (Sean Illing | Vox)

30th street porch goes permanent: An experimental public space at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia is set to become permanent. The program run by the University City District, which turned a parking lot into an important public space for residents in 2011, has become a successful example of rethinking space, especially during the pandemic. The plaza will now be managed by Amtrak which serves the station. (Alan Garry, Nate Hommel | Philadelphia Inquirer)

Dutch cities want to regulate e-scooters, fatbikes: Five large Dutch cities are asking the Netherlands for the ability to regulate e-scooters, big wheeled bikes, and other motor powered conveyances that have been using bike lanes. Local transportation officials have noted that bike lanes are not safe for the increasingly different vehicles that have been using them and would like a 30km/h speed limit. Mopeds and super fast e-bikes have already been banned from center cities. (DutchNews.nl)

This week on the Talking Headways podcast we’re joined once again by Colin Parent of Circulate San Diego to discuss a new report entitled The Powerless Brokers: Why California Can’t Build Transit.

Quote of the Week

“If there is one thing that can be described as a phenomenon of the City of Brno, it is the night departures. They are a symbol of reliability, safety and the availability of transport even at night. I am proud that we have been operating this system for 25 years and people are satisfied with it.'”