A few things to know this week: August 13, 2021
This week’s things to know:
Vehicles Are Still Firmly in Control of City Streets
via Governing.com We're coming up on the 10-year anniversary of publication of Jeff Speck's Walkable City, one of my top ten recommended books for city leaders. Governing interviewed Jeff about how things have changed in the last decade, including the impact of COVID-driven street reforms, why the traffic engineering profession is so resistant to reform, and how remote work can boost urban fortunes. Lots of nuggets in this one!
via NLIHC.org The deepening divide between wages and housing costs should be concerning to every city - of all sizes - around the nation. This is a masterful report put together by the National Low Income Housing Coalition that is chock-full of data that you can use in pursuit of missing middle housing, rental programs, and intentional investment. In our state of Texas, for example, a household must earn $21.98 hourly (compared to the current minimum wage of $7.25) in order to afford the Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom rental unit, without paying more than 30% of their income. The study's graphics are free for download and reuse, and the information can be easily narrowed down to any state or county. Another powerful illustration provided at any of these geographic levels is a comparison of wages needed for various sizes of housing to the average hourly wage of specific jobs. If you're looking for some powerful tools to educate and spark conversation about needed policy reexamination, this is an excellent resource.
Why It Is Time to End Mandatory Parking Minimums in Dallas
via D Magazine The city of Dallas is currently taking time to review their parking ordinances, hoping to make it easier for businesses to pass through review and eliminating the pattern of creating way too much parking on their plot of land. Many months in the making, the City's Advisory Committee received feedback from the community. With only 33 people speaking through virtual meetings, only 0.0025% of the city’s population was active in participating. The issue of parking will always be one that brings up some points of contention, but in order to have the public's input there might need to be a little more than 33 people's voices in the room. What would you think would be a better place to get more voices heard? What can we all do better to be more active participants in our local governments plans and processes?
The Kissimmee: A River Re-Curved
via NPR What do you get when hubris exceeds common sense? A billion-dollar fix to a problem 60 years in the making. In the 1960's the Kissimmee River was channelized to drain swaps for developments like Disney World. These days the area sometimes finds itself without enough water for the people that live around this system. So a 20-year project to restore the Kissimmee is in progress. I find this to be a reminder that our engineering abilities sometimes outpace our reasoning abilities.
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