Urban Edge

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

Black neighborhoods have led the Houston area’s surge in start-ups during the pandemic

Economists studying the dramatic growth of new business activity found that the proportion of Black residents in a ZIP code had the greatest impact on the rate of increase and that business formation coincided with the stimulus payments.

Concentrated poverty in schools is redlining’s legacy. Undoing it should be ours.

As the school year ends, the relief is palpable. Let’s acknowledge what we went through during the pandemic. Many of us are feeling burnt out, but this is not the time to stop paying attention. Now is the moment to think big about the future of education.

Houston, the city of no zoning, lives to plan another day

The Texas Supreme Court has settled it: Houston's historic preservation ordinance is not a form of zoning, which is expressly banned in the city charter. The decision seems to clear the way for more local experimentation with urban design and development rules. Just don’t call it zoning.

The return to work will determine the fate of downtowns. Is Houston ready for what’s next?

Central Houston President Bob Eury has been tracking COVID-19 case counts since the early days of the pandemic and has the spreadsheet to prove it. It was a ritual that he says helped him stay on top of the virus and how far off “normal” might be. But there may be one number he is tracking even more closely: how many of downtown’s estimated 168,000 workers are returning to the office.

Is Houston underrated as a bike city?

The city has eight months of ideal cycling weather each year and has taken some sizable steps in building out its bike infrastructure in the past decade. But is anyone outside of Houston paying attention?

Where are we going? Remote workers, RVs and the new calculus of where we live and why

After COVID-19 lockdowns and stay-at-home mandates, anywhere with fast broadband became a viable place to call home. But for Houston natives Alex Jimenez and Hayley McSwain, the choice was to move—and keep moving.

In its 10th year, Community Bridges projects confront ever-apparent inequalities in Houston

The inequality that exists across Houston neighborhoods has perhaps never been more evident than it has over the past year.

The struggle to preserve the Black experience in Houston

The National Register of Historic Places lists 290 entries for Houston. Of those, only 13 focus on the history of African-American residents.

Surveying Houston’s progressive shift through 40 years of data

Houston, a quintessentially free-enterprise, anti-government city, is increasingly recognizing the critical role of government in strengthening the safety net, expanding opportunity and building resiliency, according to the Kinder Houston Area Surveys.

Maternal deaths are public health and health equity problems. They’re also preventable.

The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is rising, and Black women have the highest risk. Extending access to postpartum health care would prevent deaths.