November 30: Civic Design that works | Preservation and healthy cities | DOT under Elaine Chao

The city announced $700,000 for services and 50 more beds for young people, aged 18 to 24, experiencing homelessness. Julia Terruso reports that as of the most recent count, “527 unaccompanied young adults lived in emergency or transitional housing in the city, and a point-in-time count found 25 sleeping on the streets. Those who track youth homelessness say the number of young people with ‘unstable housing’ is much higher, likely 4,000 to 6,000.”

Sandy Smith finds an example of civic design review that really works at Lincoln Square: a design process that evolves in response to public feedback aimed at creating buildings that contribute to communities and the city.

A survey by the National Trust for Historic Preservation Green Lab looked at 50 cities and found that historic character meaningfully contributes to healthy cities on measures from density to diversity, growth to affordability. Next City reports that “The Atlas of ReUrbanism examines more than 10 million buildings of all ages, scoring urban areas by the median age of buildings, the diversity of ages in an area, and the size of buildings and parcels. According to the report, areas with only new buildings are less likely to promote entrepreneurial activity, density, and diversity than areas with a mixture of new and old.”

Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao is Donald Trump’s pick to run the Department of Transportation. City Lab looks at Chao’s experience, ideology, politics, and personal beliefs.

Now that we’re seeing mass transit represented on TV, a Morning Edition piece wonders if mass culture reflections of mass transit can influence our politics?