Urban Edge

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

Electric bike subsidies would empower more people to use cars less

A rebate program for e-bikes would make them more affordable for residents who can’t afford an electric car and give others greater incentive to choose a mode of transportation that isn’t powered by fossil fuel.

Race determines home values more today than it did in 1980

New research shows that 50 years after laws were put in place to stop the use of race in real estate appraisals, homes in neighborhoods of color are still being undervalued.

We’ll overcome COVID-19, but can we overcome 400 years of wrongs?

There has been a lot of discussion and speculation about the future of cities and how they will change following the pandemic. What will that future look like for Black Americans, who have been abused, exploited, ground down and lied to in the past? As we move into the future, what will change? And what will stay the same?

Residential segregation rewards whites while punishing people of color

From 1980 to 2015, homes in white neighborhoods increased in value, on average, $194,000 more than in neighborhoods of color, according to new research. And the rate of the gap in assessed values of these comparable homes in comparable neighborhoods is getting larger over time.

How 420 households can reveal COVID-19’s prevalence in Houston

Using a random sample designed by Rice University researchers, the results of the COVID-19 antibody testing survey will provide an accurate count of infections among the 2.3 million people living in Houston.

Update: Evictions cost Harris County over $240 million a year — that was before COVID-19

Researchers at the Kinder Institute estimated the annual cost of evictions to Harris County, where more people are evicted each year than anywhere in the U.S., with the exception of New York. The increasing costs of evictions eat up funding that could go toward improving the county’s public health, transportation, public safety and education infrastructure.

COVID-19 has hit Houstonians harder financially than NYC, LA and Chicago residents

Overall, 63% of Houston households have faced serious financial problems related to the COVID-19 crisis. And the overwhelming majority of Black (81%) and Latino (77%) households report having major financial troubles, according to a recent survey.

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.

What transit equity means to a transit-dependent rider in a car-centric city

Janis Scott cares deeply about transit equity. Known in the community as the “Bus Lady,” Scott has been riding METRO all of her life and considers public transit her lifeline to the world.