Urban Planning

Finding the small-scale urbanism his hometown lost to urban renewal

After a car-centric urban renewal plan irrevocably changed the town where he grew up, a young urbanist found the essence of Auburn, New York, in Southern California.

Urban renewal was supposed to save my hometown, instead it ripped it apart

A failed plan to breathe life back into the economy of the beautiful, walkable city where I grew up left it half the place it once was, broke my father’s heart and shaped me as an urbanist.

The rapid urbanization of Houston: How it happened and why it matters

From 1997 to 2016, almost 187,000 football fields of impervious surfaces such as concrete were added in the Houston metro area. A sociologist and an ecologist examined what drove growth during the period, which has had critical implications for humans and the environment.

To tackle pandemic racism, we need to take action, not just take to social media

Our public transportation systems were built on a foundation of racism, and the only way to truly fix them may be to raze them and rebuild from the ground up.

For more and more Houstonians, dreams of homeownership remain just that

In the past decade, as home prices and rents have increased faster than incomes for many residents of Houston and Harris County, buying a home has become increasingly difficult, according to Kinder Institute research.