Per-pupil spending for poor students is too low in Texas
URBAN EDGE : June 2, 2020
Researchers have developed a cost model to estimate the amount of funding needed to achieve national-average outcomes for poor students in each state. Their research shows Texas falls far short of adequate funding, and the Houston Independent School District spends less than half of what would be needed to achieve national-average outcomes.
How Houston can reinvent itself and be bigger and better
URBAN EDGE : May 26, 2020
As the city faces an economic crisis brought by the coronavirus pandemic and the downturn in oil, it needs to recognize the enormous opportunity to make changes that are necessary to become a leading 21st-century city.
A minimal approach to regulations may lead to Houston becoming the nation’s next dense city
URBAN EDGE : April 21, 2020
In the past several months, the density of urban areas has been demonized by more than a few because of the COVID-19 crisis. While understandable, it’s not completely accurate when it comes to the current pandemic, which has ravaged New York but hasn’t affected other very dense cities like Hong Kong and Singapore in the same way. In Houston, the city’s light touch when it comes to land-use regulations and its relative affordability are leading to greater density. That trend is likely to continue when the pandemic ends.
We shouldn’t let this disaster go to waste
URBAN EDGE : April 16, 2020
As the COVID-19 crisis continues, planners and urbanists should be considering the lessons we’re already learning during the pandemic and think about solutions that will improve our future cities. Those include things like urban farming, neighborhoods that are less drivable and more walkable, and better, safer shared-use of city streets.
Boom likely to resume but leaders need to square disparities in the Texas Triangle
URBAN EDGE : April 6, 2020
Despite the current coronavirus-driven economic slowdown and drop in oil prices, Houston continues to be one of the fastest-growing and most prosperous metropolitan areas in America. The metro area continues to add about 100,000 residents annually and has a gross domestic product of a half-trillion dollars per year.
Coronavirus puts those living in flood-damaged homes at greater risk
URBAN EDGE : March 31, 2020
Many families in the Houston region live in homes with flood damage, of which they may or may not be aware. These residents may face high levels of mold exposure that can lead to lung damage that puts them at a greater risk of severe complications should they become infected with the novel coronavirus.
How the COVID-19 pandemic will change our cities
URBAN EDGE : March 30, 2020
The SARS-CoV-2 virus has forever changed the world and life as we know it. Once the current pandemic is over, it will also change our approach to where we work, how we get there and more.
Is non-gentrification the real threat to neighborhoods?
URBAN EDGE : March 10, 2020
Why are there so few studies charting displacement and cultural decline in non-gentrifying neighborhoods? According to this commentary, the implicit assumption in most gentrification research is that if a neighborhood doesn’t change, it stays the same. And that displacement by decline is much more common and more harmful than displacement due to gentrification.
Sharing the road isn’t radical thinking. Let’s slow down and consider the possibilities.
URBAN EDGE : March 3, 2020
All day long, cars and trucks speed down Rushmore Boulevard, a high-traffic roadway that separates a pair of lifelong friends in the book “The Busiest Street in Town.” That is, until they decide to take matters into their own hands to slow the traffic and make the street safe for everyone. It may be a children’s book but the story doesn’t have to be a fairy tale.