Will Limited Access to Water Slow Arizona’s Sprawl?

Running Tap Water. Photo by Steve Johnson (Public Domain).

Every day at The Overhead Wire we sort through over 1,500 news items about cities and share the best ones with our email list. At the end of the week, we take some of the most popular stories and share them with Urban Milwaukee readers. They are national (or international) links, sometimes entertaining and sometimes absurd, but hopefully useful.

Arizona sprawl limited by water: The State of Arizona is restricting new development from using groundwater as a water source for new development, likely halting new developments on the fringe of large cities such as Phoenix. The move is based on long term projections that show a shortage of water over the next 100 years. 80,000 homes already with water certificates will be allowed to move forward but future development must find new sources of water. (Jacques BiWill lleaud and Suman Naishdham | Associated Press)

Telework and housing demand: New research surveys teleworkers in Scotland and their housing preferences to see if predictions of suburban shift and a preference for more in home work space were valid. Existing teleworkers are content with their current homes, but those who are new teleworkers looking to continue doing so, 20% of respondents, have a high intention to move and find a home with more space for work. (Rainer Schulz, Verity Watson, and Martin Wersing | Journal of Regional Science and Urban Economics)

We’re all bad neighbors now: As definitions of personal space continue to expand, people’s sense of entitlement to space elicits strong reactions to anything intersecting it. Recent upticks in noise complaints and road rage show are examples of people having strong negative reactions to anything that invades what they perceive as their personal space. Unfortunately of late, the idea that personal space must be protected at all costs has also led to violence as people extend their personal space to driveways and subway cars. (Eleanor Cummins | The New Republic)

Biometrics indicate urban design preferences: New biometric and machine learning tools are allowing researchers and scientists to look into people’s minds who consent with fascinating results. Researchers at Tufts found people do not like looking at cars in their urban environments and appear happier when looking at urban environments without them. It suggests that cities without cars and more natural design elements could elicit more positive physiological responses. (Justin Hollander et al. | Scientific American)

Tough road to bus electrification: Many transit agencies are finding it difficult to transition their fleets to zero emissions vehicles due to logistics and infrastructure issues. To fully convert fleets, discussions need to be had about new bus facilities, which routes work best for testing the fairly new technology, and even the amount of power electric companies can provide. While there is a push to focus on reducing emissions, transit agencies are currently being cautious about making big investments in electric buses. (Jared Brey | Governing)

Quote of the Week

What we are aiming to do is making sure that in every county in California where there is a survivor of violence that needs violence prevention services – those county health plans are working with the local violence intervention programs so that they’re being reimbursed in a fair, equitable and strong way that minimizes the bureaucracy.

-Physician Kyle Fischer, policy director for the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention (HAVI) in The Guardian discussing treating gun violence as a public health issue.

This week on the podcast we’re joined by Tufts professor Justin Hollander to talk about his new book The First City on Mars: An Urban Planner’s Guide to Settling the Red Planet.

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