Sprawl in Las Vegas by John ‘K’ licensed under Creative Commons.

Why is sprawl growing globally? More and more cities move toward all-electric. A plan to integrate the Bay Area transit systems. These are important stories in urbanism from around the country.

Sprawl continues to grow around the world: Even though streets with more intersections have been shown to have many health benefits for people, a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science points to a growing trend of increasing sprawl across the globe. (Laura Bliss | CityLab)

All-electric movement picks up speed: Berkeley, California, became the first city in the US to ban natural gas hookups in new construction last July, and the movement is quickly gaining steam elsewhere in the country. All-electric construction is now being mulled in large cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, as well as small towns like Brookline, Massachusetts, which passed a prohibition on new gas connections. (Jane Margolies | New York Times)

Bringing the Bay Area transit agencies together: California State Assemblyman David Chiu aims to unite the San Francisco Bay Area’s 27 transit agencies to help boost ridership. His new bill, The Bay Area Seamless Transit Act, will require cities and counties to charge the same bus fare, to apply the same discount for people transferring from one bus line to another, and to define populations, such as youths and seniors, in the same terms. (Rachel Swan | San Francisco Chronicle)

Denver’s massive riverfront redevelopment: Over the next 25 years, River Mile, a new development proposed along the South Platte River in Denver, may add between 12 and 15 million square feet of commercial and residential property to the city, equating to about 20% of the available space that currently exists downtown. The plan is to add 15,000 residents and connect downtown to its long-neglected waterway. (Robert Sanchez | 5280 Magazine)

Unaffordable rent is the new normal: The number of US households living in rentals surged to 43.7 million in 2018, up 21% from 2004. Of those, some 21 million are cost-burdened, defined as spending more than 30% of their income on housing. This number is 2.8 million more than it was during the 2008 recession. Property prices for rental apartments have now reached record highs, rising 150% between 2010 and late 2019. (Carey L. Biron | Reuters)

Quote of the Week

“In meetings, the Amazon.com Inc. chief [Jeff Bezos] expressed envy for how [Elon] Musk had pitted five Western states against one another in a bidding war for thousands of manufacturing jobs; he wondered why Amazon was okay with accepting comparatively trifling incentives.”

Bloomberg writers Spencer Sorper, Matt Day, and Henry Goldman expose the origins of the HQ2 sweepstakes.

This week on the podcast, Director Alice Bravo and Assistant Director of Miami Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works join to talk about innovation in Miami.