Commentary

This week, Planetizen named City Observatory one of its 10 best urban websites of 2015, adding that “every single post is essential reading.” We’re extremely grateful for the recognition, and are excited about continuing our work into 2016! (Check out the other great websites Planetizen highlighted at the link, too!) What City Observatory did this […]

Cities are becoming more important to the economic health of the country. How do we know? We can boil the answer down to four charts, each of which plots a key indicator of urban economic strength. 1. The Dow of Cities The market value of housing in urban centers is increasing much more rapidly than

Houston doesn’t have much of a reputation for public transit, although about 300,000 rides are taken on trains and buses in the region every weekday. Recently, though, the local transit agency, Metro, has been making some big moves. First, the agency worked with transit consultant Jarrett Walker and a local team led by TEI to

We could extend housing vouchers to every very-low-income household—and expand housing support to the middle class, too — if we were willing to take away just one of the big housing subsidies to people making over $100,000 a year. But let’s back up. Previously, we’ve made the case that the SNAP program, or food stamps,

Here are Daniel Kay Hertz’s five favorite posts of 2015: 5. Undercounting the transit constituency When we only look at the number of people who commute on transit, we’re missing others—especially students and the retired—who rely on transit for other reasons.   4. A modest proposal: treat affordable housing more like food stamps Comparing two well-known

Over the last two days, we’ve give you readers’ favorite posts from 2015. Now we’re choosing our own. Here are Joe Cortright’s five favorite: 5. Want to close the black/white income gap? Work to reduce segregation The income gap between black and white households is one of the major racial inequalities in American society. It’s also

6. Why aren’t we talking about Marietta, Georgia? While stories about displacement in gentrifying neighborhoods abound, more direct, egregious examples of displacement in suburban areas are often left behind. We focused on one particularly galling example of an Atlanta suburb using eminent domain to demolish an apartment complex predominantly occupied by lower-income people of color, to

12. Let’s talk about neighborhood stigma In the last year or two, there has been a resurgence of awareness and debate about the big, structural issues facing America’s persistently poor neighborhoods. But one part of the equation has largely been left out: stigma. A large body of research has shown that stigma and reputation, above and

What City Observatory did this week 1. The Katy isn’t ready for its closeup. When the Texas Department of Transportation tried to sell the public on its Katy Freeway expansion project, part of the story was that it would ease congestion. We covered how that worked out last week. (Not well, is the answer.) Another

Back in July, we published a three–part series about what exactly it means for housing to be affordable. Our basic argument was that the most standard measurement—whether your housing costs are more or less than 30 percent of your income—is inadequate to the task, for several reasons: First, it doesn’t allow for lower-income people to