Bike lane on 1st Street, NE by BeyondDC licensed under Creative Commons.

Ranking the best new bike lanes in the US. Hedge funds are the big housing scapegoat. Pittsburgh pioneers a climate-focused budget process.

The best new bike lanes in the United States: More and more bike lanes and low-stress bike networks were built around the country in 2022, but PeopleForBikes wanted to pick the best executed that were worth copying. They found wonderfully designed protected lanes from Jersey City to Spartanburg South Carolina. They, however, saved the top spot for car-free streets implemented in cities around the country. (Martina Haggerty | People for Bikes)

Hedge funds are the big housing scapegoat: As housing prices and costs around the country have skyrocketed in recent years, people are looking for someone to blame. There are plenty of conspiracy theories and leads as to what the issue might be, but Jerusalem Demsas writes that institutional investors like hedge funds are not the boogeyman many made them out to be, buying up just 3% of homes on the market. Even if hedge funds and AirBnB are generally bad actors, the problem, she states, is persistent undersupply. (Jerusalem Demsas | The Atlantic)

Pittsburgh rethinks its budget process for climate and equity: Pittsburgh is redesigning its budget to fund climate and equity priorities that previously had little money available. By rethinking the whole budget through a priority-based process, the city is able to make sure its spending was supporting its priorities. The program, however, isn’t meant to remove departments that aren’t focused on climate, but to realize how changes can be made over time to align with city climate and equity goals. (Claire Elise Thompson | Grist)

Changing thinking on gender mobility: Language about ‘vulnerable users’ in gender mobility discourse needs to be rethought. By placing women into a ‘vulnerable user’ category, even though they make up half the population, male transit habits become the norm while keeping women on the fringe. Women also need to be in leadership positions in the transit sector so they can shape conversations around important transit-related decisions. (Isobel Duxfield | Eltis)

What should rent control accomplish?: As housing gets more expensive for renters, governments are looking for ways to protect tenants through regulations like rent control. But how rent control should be used and implemented is a bone of contention between government officials and activists. In Boston, activists are upset about a 10% rent control proposal from the Mayor’s office, saying it doesn’t go far enough to keep people from being displaced. (Jared Brey | Governing)

Quote of the Week

“The privilege of vetoing virtually any housing in rich neighborhoods is so ingrained in American culture that many people believe it is one of their inalienable rights. However, new state laws and the willingness of housing activists to pursue legal remedies have changed the game.”

Jeremy Levine, Sonja Trauss, and Jordan Grimes in the San Francisco Chronicle discuss the ways communities in California reject housing and the reckoning that might come soon.

This week on the podcast, Michiel Huijsman, the managing director of Soundtrackcity in the Netherlands joins to talk about how to think about the positive aspect of urban soundscapes.