America’s Largest Medicaid Insurer to Help Build $1B of Affordable Housing

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.

Mexico City running out of water: Last year was Mexico’s hottest and driest in the last 70 years leaving the country short of water. And now the series of dams and canals that provides 27% of Mexico City’s water is at just 30% capacity, leading some to believe they could reach a day zero where they can’t reliably provide water sometime in June. The rainy season usually starts in June so many hope there will be some relief, but after several years of below average rain, there’s no guarantee. (Somini Sengupta, Emiliano Rodríguez Mega, James Wagner | New York Times)

Medicaid insurer takes on affordable housing: The philanthropic wing of America’s largest Medicaid insurer has pledged almost $1B towards affordable housing by offering below market loans to a development partner. 80% of health outcomes are driven by what happens outside the doctors office and are often referred to as the social determinants of health. Access to food, housing, and child care are seen as part of a system that starts before someone sets foot in a hospital. (Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez | Forbes via Yahoo News)

The buildings that could have been: A new book shows many grand buildings and architectural schemes that were never built. The Atlas of Never Built Architecture explores plans that were too weird, too expensive, or too politically motivated to be completed, but still keep the fascination of architects. 350 projects are shared from all over the world from some famous and non famous architects alike. (Oliver Wainwright | The Guardian)

Seattle’s new bike intersection: Seattle has recently opened a new protected intersection just a few blocks from the iconic Space Needle. The project connects the South Lake Union area with the Seattle Center by bike and is part of a larger set of improvements. Plans for this specific corridor originated in 2013 and the intersection includes concrete islands and sensors that allow bike riders to follow bike oriented signals. (Nicholas Deshais | Seattle Times)

Urban renewal ruined everything: The United States has had a hard time lately building large infrastructure and transportation projects and Darrell Owens believes this is due to the legacy of Urban Renewal in the 1950s and 60s. The stated goals of renewal including urban revitalization and improved access were never realized and the devastating side effects were a legacy of neighborhood destruction and a the decimation of government capacity to build large projects. (Darrell Owens | The Discourse Lounge)

Quote of the Week

It obviously affects me because it means more money disappears from my salary every day, but the worst part about it is that there is zero investment in the service. We commute in terrible conditions, cramped, delayed, and now we are paying more.

–Sofia Acosta in Associated Press discussing the 360% fare spike in Buenos Aires Argentina

This week on the podcast, we’re joined once again by Jarrett Walker to talk about the release of the revised edition of his influential book Human Transit.

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