Voter registration data shows where Houston may have gaps
URBAN EDGE : March 15, 2024
When it comes to potential voter strength, not all areas of Houston are the same. More densely populated areas generally have more registered voters, and some areas have fewer registered voters than they could have if every adult were accounted for.
Election 2023 Survey
INITIATIVE : September 5, 2023
This report identifies the city's current challenges and opportunities and what issues residents would like to see the next mayor address.
Texas’ Proposition 2 gives counties, unincorporated areas an avenue to finance road and infrastructure projects
URBAN EDGE : November 17, 2021
Amid all the high-profile constitutional amendments in this year’s Texas election (no COVID restrictions for religious services, property tax breaks for families of veterans and the disabled), one seemingly nerdy amendment stood out as important for urban and suburban areas such as unincorporated Harris County. That was Proposition 2, which allows counties to issue tax-increment bonds for transportation and other infrastructure.
Two ballot measures—and no change to policing in Austin and Minneapolis
URBAN EDGE : November 9, 2021
Roughly one and a half years after George Floyd’s murder and the global protests that followed, local votes affecting local police forces came to the ballot box last week. In Austin, Proposition A would have mandated higher police staffing levels, but it failed by a very large margin, with 69% of voters rejecting the measure. Farther north in Minneapolis, a more narrow but still decisive vote rejected the disbandment of the Minneapolis police department (56% opposed).
In 2011, Houston created a district to boost Hispanic council representation. What happened?
URBAN EDGE : November 1, 2021
In November 1979, Houston City Council went from being almost exclusively male and white to being dramatically more diverse, literally overnight, as voters elected the council’s first two women and its first Mexican-American, and tripled the representation of African-Americans. The new council was also on average 10 years younger. It was a new day in city politics—thanks to federally required reforms that led to single-member districting—and Houston never looked back.
Playing on fears of crime and poverty by playing up the myth of the suburbs
URBAN EDGE : November 2, 2020
The image of the suburbs as being home to only white and wealthy residents whose ‘suburban lifestyle dream’ is being threatened doesn’t square with the reality of American life in 2020. Half of Black Americans live in the suburbs, which are much more diverse — both racially and economically — than many urban areas.
I vote because my father and grandfather couldn’t
URBAN EDGE : October 28, 2020
Roland B. Smith Jr. is from Washington, D.C., whose residents weren’t allowed to vote in a presidential election until 1964. Growing up, his mother would travel almost 500 miles by bus or train from D.C. to Asheville, North Carolina, where she grew up, just to vote. Roland B. Smith Jr. always votes.
Why does it take so long to vote?
URBAN EDGE : July 13, 2020
Overall, waiting times may be improving — but long waits are still common in Black communities. As the percentage of nonwhite voters in a precinct increases, so do wait times.
2019’s most-popular stories: Dockless scooters, the I-45 expansion and more
URBAN EDGE : December 24, 2019
The most-popular Urban Edge stories from the past year ranged in topic from dockless scooters and the growth rate of Dallas to the unequal distribution of trees in the city and the Opportunity Zone program. But the most popular topic of 2019 was TxDOT’s enormous I-45 expansion plan.