Equity: Page 2


  • A bus driver wearing a mask seen through the driver's side window.
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    Cindy Ord via Getty Images
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    Transit agencies document equity efforts in APTA report

    Hiring dedicated equity executives, requiring analyses prior to system changes and partnering on services for those experiencing homelessness are among the efforts named in the American Public Transportation Association report.

    By Oct. 15, 2024
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    Retrieved from Pixabay.
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    EPA requires lead pipes to be replaced nationwide within 10 years

    The landmark rule imposes the strictest limits on lead in drinking water since federal standards were set 30 years ago.

    By Julie Strupp • Oct. 8, 2024
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    rarrarorro via Getty Images
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    2025’s top smart city conferences

    Smart city technology, housing, climate action, road safety and more will take center stage at events in 2025.

    By Updated Jan. 31, 2025
  • Man wearing a helmet riding a bicycle on a trail in the woods.
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    Permission granted by Jon Lugbill
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    Q&A

    This former Olympian is bringing a 43-mile trail to life in Virginia

    Jon Lugbill, ardent trail user and executive director of a nonprofit that encourages active living, tells how the Fall Line Trail came to be and what it means for the communities it reaches.

    By Sept. 30, 2024
  • Miami-Dade County, Florida, postpones vote on new incinerator due to siting concerns

    The decision should not be taken lightly given the history of a waste incinerator that polluted one neighborhood for decades, a commissioner said. 

    By Jacob Wallace • Sept. 24, 2024
  • Aerial view of six-lane highway through a city.
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    Alex Potemkin via Getty Images
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    How one city plans to reconnect a historically Black neighborhood split by a 1950s interstate

    New Rochelle, New York, is one of more than 130 projects using funds allocated this year from the Reconnecting Communities Pilot program. 

    By Sept. 20, 2024
  • The back of a person who is pointing a remote at a wall-mounted air conditioner.
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    evrim ertik via Getty Images
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    Low-income families face high energy burden, prompting calls for more government action

    One in four low-income U.S. households spends more than 15% of their income on energy bills, finds an analysis by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Sept. 13, 2024
  • A person in a suit and tie waves in front of a crowd.
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    Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images via Getty Images
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    Q&A

    Cincinnati mayor says zoning overhaul reflects ‘generational change’ in how people think of cities

    Years of community engagement revealed Cincinnatians don’t support getting rid of single-family zoning altogether — but they were open to relaxing it in some areas, Mayor Aftab Pureval said.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Sept. 11, 2024
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    Brandon Bell via Getty Images
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    OSHA sets late December comment deadline for extreme heat standard

    The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s proposed rule would require employers to develop heat injury and illness prevention plans, among other actions.

    By Ryan Golden • Sept. 4, 2024
  • A woman holding a young child in a darkened room next to a fan.
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    Brandon Bell/Getty Images via Getty Images
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    Cooling is expensive, and more federal assistance is needed, advocates say

    The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program is “chronically underfunded,” argues a policy brief by the Natural Resources Defense Council and WE ACT for Environmental Justice. 

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Aug. 29, 2024
  • Passengers  with luggage standing by buses under a shed.
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    Tim Boyle via Getty Images
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    Intercity bus operators won’t be forced out of Chicago’s main bus terminal just yet

    As the owner of Chicago’s bus station gears up to sell the site, FlixBus and Greyhound have found a stopgap allowing them to continue using the terminal.

    By Updated Oct. 23, 2024
  • A person pushes a gurney with a person on it into a vehicle
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    John Moore via Getty Images
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    Cities assert tenants’ right to cooling in a warming world

    Grappling with fatal heat waves, local governments are passing laws that make landlords provide working air conditioning. Financial and other challenges remain, however.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Aug. 27, 2024
  • Two people carry equipment into a building on a busy city sidewalk.
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    Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images
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    Q&A

    Will New York City make landlords provide air conditioning? Its climate chief is optimistic.

    Coordinating any such mandate with the city's building decarbonization law requirements could reduce the burden it might create for building owners, Rohit Aggarwala explained.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Aug. 26, 2024
  • Rendering of modern train station with people on a plaza. Sign reads "Parkchester/Van Nest."
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    Retrieved from New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority on August 23, 2024
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    NYC rezoning allows transit-oriented development around four new train stations in the Bronx

    The New York City Council plan includes 7,000 new housing units around the stations in the East Bronx, currently considered a transit desert.

    By Aug. 23, 2024
  • View of a back alley lined with trash carts in Baltimore, with utility lines and tree branches overhead
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    peeterv via Getty Images
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    Focus on heat illness intensifies after death of Baltimore sanitation worker

    In the wake of the death of Ronald Silver II, a city employee, labor groups are calling for more heat safety protections — and fast. Pending state and federal heat standards could help.

    By Megan Quinn • Aug. 22, 2024
  • Window AC units in a large building from the outside.
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    Johan_Spinnell via Getty Images
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    Deep Dive

    An air conditioning law, the first in its region, changed tenants’ rights in this Maryland county

    Montgomery County began requiring landlords to provide AC in 2020 amid climate concerns and renter complaints. Despite a shaky start, officials say things are going smoothly now.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Aug. 22, 2024
  • Three people speak with each other in front of a large multifamily building.
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    Kent J. Edwards/Reuters

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    Deep Dive

    Should tenants have a right to cooling? More cities say yes amid record heat.

    As rental cooling standards pop up around the country, experts warn that they aren’t a perfect solution to the rising danger of scorching temperatures.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Aug. 20, 2024
  • Two people wearing yellow wide-brimmed hats and orange work gloves hold a solar panel leaning on a home's roof.
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    Mario Tama/Getty Images via Getty Images
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    $36M for low-income housing energy efficiency available from US DOE grants

    Local governments and other entities can get up to $2 million each for weatherization and workforce training efforts.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Aug. 1, 2024
  • Man and woman digging a trench in front of a home.
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    Permission granted by Healthy Community Services/The Kresge Foundation
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    Q&A

    How cities can work with philanthropies: Kresge Foundation CEO

    Philanthropies are not "a gilded ATM machine that you can access if you figure out the code," CEO Rip Rapson said. "Just try to understand them."

    By July 30, 2024
  • Workers installing solar panels on a house.
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    IPGGutenbergUKLtd via Getty Images
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    EPA releases $325M in environmental justice grants

    It’s not too late for other local governments to apply to the federal Community Change grants program, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accepting submissions into November.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • July 26, 2024
  • A row of electric vehicle chargers is seen from one end with a dark red vehicle parked and plugged in to the nearest charger.
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    Mario Tama via Getty Images
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    How cities are using Biden’s $4.3B climate pollution reduction grants

    The grants “put local governments in the driver’s seat to develop climate solutions,” a federal official said. Cities and counties plan to use the money for electrification, bike-sharing, solar power and more.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • July 23, 2024
  • Nighttime view of Chinatown Gate in Boston.
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    Maddie Meyer via Getty Images
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    $607M in US DOT grants available for reconnecting communities

    This will be the final round of grants under the Biden administration's pilot program to restore neighborhoods split by highways and other transportation infrastructure.

    By July 17, 2024
  • A person in a coat rides a bicycle holding a red DoorDash bag.
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    Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images via Getty Images
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    NYC delivery worker earnings up 22%

    The city says workers’ earnings shot up after it began enforcing its new $17.96 per hour app-based delivery wage. DoorDash, however, called the city’s report “misleading and blatantly biased.”

    By Aneurin Canham-Clyne • July 16, 2024
  • Eviction notice on door of house with brass door knob.
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    Bill Oxford via Getty Images
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    Opinion

    The White House just took steps to combat housing discrimination. States and local governments should follow.

    As the country’s eviction epidemic grows, lawmakers must take aim at tenant screening practices locking millions out of affordable housing.

    By Jasmine Rangel • July 9, 2024
  • A person ina black puffy jacket, black beanie and backpack walks along a street with residential brick buildings and parked cars.
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    Anna Kapustina via Getty Images
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    Boston was the first major city to pair fair housing with zoning. How’s it going?

    Community input was key to the policy’s passage but should be a larger part of the review process it created, advocates say. 

    By Kalena Thomhave • July 8, 2024