How Urban Housing Politics are Changing

File photo by Jeramey Jannene.

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.

Navigation for the blind: Blind and low vision commuters often struggle with navigation to destinations as infrastructure often built in the early 20th century hasn’t been updated according to modern accessibility standards. New technology like phones have brought advancements but changes in the built environment aimed at safety can also bring initial confusion and safety concerns. More funding for change is coming available and awareness is riding, but more is needed. (John Surico | Bloomberg CityLab)

US transit expansion hasn’t kept up: Expansion of rail lines in the United States hasn’t kept up with the rest of the world. As more countries build and expand metro systems, they become less exposed to system shocks like oil prices while US population growth and lack of transit entrenches car dependence even further. Additionally, the problem is made worse as the FTA has stopped moving new lines forward and funding them. (Yonah Freemark | Urban Institute)

A love letter to the articulated bus: Most transit buses are around 40 feet long but sometimes you need extra passenger carrying capacity with one driver. Enter the articulated bus which often stretches around 60 feet but can be longer in some locations and can reduce dwell time at stations over double decker buses. The first articulated bus was launched in Milan Italy in 1937, but they continue to proliferate along high ridership routes in cities around the country to this day while inspiring love from transit fans and riders alike. (Joshua Woods | Planetizen)

Changing urban housing politics: Housing politics has been an interesting place over the last few decades and only got more intense with the invention of social media. But factions that have been at each other’s throats for decades are seeing signals from emerging leaders that there are many ways forward in fighting against the housing shortage that has beguiled cities. Both robust tenant protections and the construction of new housing could be a way forward, but skepticism is always around the bend. (Liam Dillon and Janaki Chadha | Politico)

Chrono-urbanism evolves: In addition to spatial layouts of cities, they also function with a temporal or time component. Since the industrial revolution, time has only become more important as people’s schedules are synchronized by time. But as technology uncouples schedules from movement and people begin to see time as distance through the use of chronotypes, the importance of good urban places emerges. (Landzine)

Quote of the Week

If an improvement reduces the likelihood of someone being killed or seriously injured, but reduces vehicle throughput, we support that improvement. No safety countermeasure will be eliminated because it worsens vehicular throughput.

-Santa Monica Councilmember Dan Hall in the Santa Monica Daily Press discussing the council’s rejection of a street design plan because it wasn’t safe enough for cyclists and pedestrians.

This week on the Talking Headways podcast, Yonah Freemark is back for the annual prediction show and part 2 of this year’s discussion.

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