The Dark Roof Lobby is Winning

A white (cool) roof on a Walmart in Las Vegas. Photo by Walmart Corp. (CC BY 2.0)

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. Each 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.

Regional rail could benefit urban riders: In the United States commuter and regional rail lines are often built for suburban commuters but Alon Levy argues that in other cities around the world the benefits of these types of lines accrue more to urban riders. On Berlin’s S Bahn, only a quarter of the ridership comes from suburban locations suggesting there’s a benefit to the suburbs from having really good connections to urban networks. (Alon Levy | Pedestrian Observations)

Supreme Court likely starts a permitting revolution: An 8-0 Supreme Court decision could change the way projects approach NEPA and environmental impacts going forward. Second order effects downstream of a project are not up for consideration the court said, and in this case specifically means a new railroad that would make it easier to export crude oil could only be examined for its local impacts, not global including climate change. (Robinson Meyer | Heatmap)

The dark roof lobby winning: Cool roofs including those painted lighter colors have been shown to increase energy efficiency of buildings by reducing temperatures by up to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. But roof builders that rely on black materials have successfully lobbied a rollback on rules and laws across the country. Research has shown that a cool roof can cut annual energy costs 20% and darker roofs are more likely to increase costs for those who can least afford them. (Ames Alexander | The Guardian)

What is a third place really?: As bars and restaurants disappear there are many commentaries and lamentations on the disappearance of third places. But this has also brought up a definitional question of what a third place might actually be. If it is everything, it also might be nothing. Is it a place where people can socialize or somewhere a person can avoid strangers, something that people have always worried about, even before the pandemic. Perhaps everyone just needs a place to hang out and be social but also feel safe. (Jaya Saxena  | Eater)

NIMBYs rather airplanes than people: Some residents near the Santa Monica Airport, set to close for good in 2028, would rather allow the airport to continue to operate instead of building more housing on part of a site that was originally designated all park space. The site represents an opportunity to redevelop 200 acres in a city known for high housing costs and opponents don’t want any of that land to be available for allocation before the next state housing element is due in 2029. (Jack Ross | Fast Company)

Quote of the Week

The basic premise of the paper is, ‘Can rising rents help explain why you’re losing transit ridership?’ And it seems to be that they can, because they reduce the likelihood that very high transit riders will live near transit stops.

-UCLA planning professor Michael Manville in CalMatters discussing a recent paper on the connections between rising rents and lower transit ridership.

This week on the Talking Headways podcast, we’re joined by Kevin Krizek and Tila Duhaime to chat about an idea called Emergency Streets which focuses on the proper response from cities after a fatal crash.

Want more links to read? Visit The Overhead Wire and signup.