Urban Edge

Insights, perspectives and stories about building better cities and better lives

Housing, disasters, money and education: The Urban Edge in 2024

Extreme weather, the shortage of affordable housing and the benefits of prekindergarten were of greatest interest to Urban Edge readers this year, especially as they pertain to the Houston region.

Bilingualism is a strength Texas is failing to nurture for hundreds of thousands of students

Nearly one-fourth of all students in Texas public schools are emergent bilingual, meaning their home language is something other than English. Spanish is the most common home language among emergent bilingual students in the state, but over 60 languages are represented.

Making the case for increasing funding for Texas schools that need it most

Seventy percent of Houstonians believe schools need “significantly more” money to provide a quality education to students, a sentiment that has grown stronger since the Kinder Houston Area Survey began asking this question in the early 1990s.

Partnership with Houston Housing Authority offers an opportunity to rethink ‘opportunity’

In late 2023, the Houston Housing Authority received a $5 million federal grant to help move some of its families to so-called “opportunity neighborhoods,” areas with low poverty, high-quality schools and other amenities.

How a Houston Yellow Cab brownfield became a green light for affordable housing in Near Northside

Before ride-hailing services like Lyft and Uber emerged in Houston, outposts like the Yellow Cab headquarters, just north of downtown, dispatched taxis to people in need of quick transportation.

‘We have to move faster’: Grappling with Harris County’s maternal health crisis

Maternal death rates in Harris County, particularly among Black and Hispanic women, have been among the highest in the country since 2016, according to a report released earlier this year by Harris County Public Health.

How public pre-K sets Houston’s students on a path to success

In 2023-24, over 50,000 children attended public prekindergarten in the Houston area, bringing overall enrollment near to pre-pandemic levels.

Houston’s new homes: Smaller, more expensive and farther away

In 2023, Harris County saw a record number of new homes sold — nearly 10,000 — highlighting the region’s growing housing supply amid a broader affordability crisis.

Over $20 million in federal grants boost Houston’s investment in parks

Houston has over 1,200 parks and nearly 65,000 acres of greenspace. Keeping them adequately funded requires a combination of public-private partnerships, tax increment reinvestment zones and ballot initiatives.

Hispanics and young adults could reshape politics in Houston and beyond. They just need to show up at the polls.

Recent research from the Kinder Institute suggests more than 6 in 10 eligible voters in Houston are expected to vote in the upcoming election. But if past turnout trends and our data are valid guides, we are looking at another election in which the voices of young adults and Hispanics will be underrepresented.