Public Health

A summer fellowship is the bridge to AmeriCorps service in Fifth Ward

The Kinder Institute’s Community Bridges program provides Rice University students an opportunity to both study and work to address urban inequality in Houston. Here’s Susanna Yau’s story of how working with the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation changed her life.

Public transit has lost its momentum during the pandemic. Can it be regained?

Since mid-March, ridership has plummeted and there’s concern about a “transit death spiral.” But new studies show that public transportation isn’t a major source of coronavirus transmission.

Talking about walking: A conversation with Houston’s first chief transportation planner

David Fields is the City of Houston’s first chief transportation planner. Leaving the Bay Area for this newly created position, he arrived in Houston at a time, though, when transportation was changing.

Traffic dropped 66%, but it came back and the coronavirus followed

Traffic levels fell dramatically throughout the Houston metro area as people were ordered to stay at home and businesses were closed to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 — and it worked. But, as the economy was reopened and people returned to work, restaurants, bars, beaches and more, traffic levels and infection rates increased.

Imbalance, inequality and the growing burden on working parents with school-age kids

While children attend K-12 public schools for an average of 1,195 hours per year, a full-time working parent averages twice as much time, about 2,450 hours per year, working and commuting. Now, as school districts prepare to reopen for the fall semester — whether in-person, virtually or a combination of both — administrators, teachers, parents and students are having to adjust their plans based what’s possible during the coronavirus pandemic.