Two men outside a senior living facility by Senior Guidance licensed under Creative Commons.

What will senior living look like in the future — and can it be safer? Portland makes important zoning code changes. Some small cities are thriving during the pandemic.

How can design improve living conditions for seniors?: In the US and across the globe the impact of the coronavirus has been acutely felt by those living and working in long-term care facilities. But, how can design help make it safer for people living in these facilities, while preserving a sense of community? (Patrick Sisson | CityLab)

Portland makes important changes to zoning code: Portland, Oregon will be the first city in the country to legalize the construction of at least four units on every city lot with the option to build more if they are made affordable. Additionally, 3/4 of the city will not be required to build parking and home driveways won’t be required for the first time since 1973. (Michael Anderson | Sightline Institute)

The small cities thriving during the pandemic: Owensboro, Kentucky is the only metropolitan area in the country where the employment rate over the past months has increased. This is in part due to a gamble made by the biggest regional employer to keep employees instead of laying them off during the initial months of the pandemic. Logan Utah and Idaho Falls share a similar fortune due to their employment mixes which include health care and food processors, two thriving industries during the country’s slowdown. (Alan Greenblatt | Governing)

BlackSpace keeps communities of color in the conversation: BlackSpace, a collective of 200 Black architects, artists, urban designers, and planners aims to bridge the gap created when communities of color are neglected in urban planning processes that can make cities inequitable. (Nate Berg | Fast Company)

MPOs are making little progress on climate change: A recent study of MPOs in California, Florida, and North Carolina by researchers at Duke University found that Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) seemed to be paying very little attention to their role in climate change mitigation. Larger goals surrounding climate change such as reduced VMT, reduced fuel use, and lower GHGs were hardly found and often not addressed in Long Range Plans. (Eric Sundquist | SSTI)

Defining “communities of concern” in transportation planning: A new report by the Urban Institute looks into how transportation planners define “communities of concern” during project planning as required by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Because there is no standard definition of communities of concern, methods for implementing environmental justice are scattered. (Richard Ezike/Peter Tatian/Gabriella Velasco | Urban Institute)

Vanya Srivastava contributed to these summaries

Quote of the Week

“The bullying works not because they are unionised, but because in the public’s racial imagination if we don’t have police, we’re going to descend into chaos. They can play that card, which makes mayors shake in their boots and the media pay attention. That gives them enormous power, because we’ve already drunk the Kool Aid that we need a massive militarised police force in this country or we’re going to fall apart at the seams.”

University of Michigan professor Heather Ann Thompson in City Metric discussing why police unions can often get away with bullying elected officials.

This week on the podcast, we’re joined by Andre Perry, who chat’s about his book Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities.