YIMBY News for 3/17

[Eric Budd]

Why Fossil Fuel Producers Should Fear Your Local Zoning Board

Governing

---

KEYWORD SCORE: 39.64. complete street, construction, density, development, downtown, housing, land-use, mixed-use, parking, preservation, single-family, urban, walk, zone, zoning

The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a case that could shut down one of the fossil fuel industry’s biggest headaches: climate lawsuits filed by cities and states. Exxon Mobil and Suncor Energy argue that the county and city of Boulder, Colo., have no right to sue them in state court for the costs of climate change. Climate policy, they insist, belongs in Washington — not in “fragmented” local actions. That word “fragmented” is doing a lot of work. To the fossil fuel industry, fragmentation means danger: dozens of lawsuits, dozens of judges, dozens of juries. It means unpredictability

Share via:

CDFI Assets Fell For The First Time In Years. Here’s What That Really Means.

Next City

---

KEYWORD SCORE: 28.09. development, growth, homeowner, house, housing, income, project, rent, urban

[image: The Bottom Line] A customer uses an outdoor ATM at a Hope Credit Union branch in Jackson, Mississippi in 2021. Hope Credit Union, a federally-certified CDFI, has nearly tripled in size between March 2020 and the end of 2025. (Photo by Rogelio V. Solis / AP) After decades of consistent growth, assets of community development financial institutions (CDFIs) fell 6% — a drop of $19 billion — from December 2023 to June 2025, according to a new report issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Even through each of the past two biggest economic crises, the Covid-19 pandemic and the Globa

Share via:

What If The Rising Costs of Car Dependency Were As Visible As Gas Prices?

Streetsblog Net

---

KEYWORD SCORE: 27.80. growth, housing, housing crisis, project, rent, transportation, walk

Another day, another “energy crisis.” Sky-high gas prices resulting from President Trump’s attack on Iran are sending drivers spiraling across America — but what if the high costs of car dependency commanded the same level of attention? Yes, motorists are reacting to $7-plus-per-gallon prices at the pump.with rage. But that anger is only a part of the broader cause of driver anxiety: the high cost of forced vehicle ownership. Because so many American cities are so heavily car-dependent, most U.S. residents have no choice but to pony up the cash and drive anyway. Indeed, even when gas prices cl

Share via:

Grand Junction’s primary homeless shelter just closed. WEShelter can fill only some of the void.

Colorado Sun

---

KEYWORD SCORE: 24.92. development, house, housing, rent, zoning

[image: Several people lie on cots and mattresses in a room labeled "West Wing," with blankets, pillows, and personal belongings visible.] By Sharon Sullivan Seven men gathered around a table on Christmas morning for a special home-cooked breakfast of egg-cheese-sausage-potato casserole, fresh fruit, homemade sweet rolls and orange juice. Check-in time at WEShelter, a Grand Junction winter emergency shelter, is usually at 5:30 p.m., with check-out at 8 a.m. However, the site remained open during the day on Christmas, allowing guests to sleep in, enjoy a leisurely breakfast and spend the day in

Share via:

Metro Launching All-Door Bus Boarding as Part of Spring Service Change

The Urbanist

---

KEYWORD SCORE: 22.38. bus route, bus stop, downtown, housing, real estate, rent, urban

[image: Metro Launching All-Door Bus Boarding as Part of Spring Service Change] King County Metro is officially allowing all-door boarding on buses systemwide starting Saturday, March 28. The agency is pitching the change as making the bus system faster and easier use, helping prepare the region for a busy summer of large events, including the FIFA World Cup. The new boarding policy will take place on the same day as Metro's spring bus service change and Sound Transit's big crosslake 2 Line launch – a monumental day for the region's light rail system. Metro's service change adds earlier mornin

Share via:

Legislature Turns to $1.3 Billion in Debt to Address Highway Maintenance Backlog

The Urbanist

---

KEYWORD SCORE: 20.48. house, preservation, project, rent, transportation, urban, walk

[image: Legislature Turns to $1.3 Billion in Debt to Address Highway Maintenance Backlog] Governor Bob Ferguson's proposal to bolster state transportation spending by issuing $3 billion in new bonds came out of the other end of the legislative process looking much more svelte. In approving supplemental budgets before adjourning for the year on Thursday, legislators authorized $1.3 billion in new bonds as part of a $16.6 billion two-year transportation budget. Those new bonds include an additional $500 million to cover cost increases on the 520 Bridge Replacement project, and $800 million for b

Share via:

Why Transit Advocates Aren’t 100% Behind This Senator’s Bold Bill To Slash Highway Funding

Streetsblog Net

---

KEYWORD SCORE: 20.05. construction, downtown, house, housing, multimodal, project, transportation, urban

A Republican proposal to rein in out-of-control highway spending surprisingly *isn’t* winning the full-throated support of advocates to end car dependency — because without further reforms, it could take down transit systems across America along with it. Sen. Mike Lee (R–Utah) recently introduced a bill that would take the simple but radical step of prohibiting the federal Department of Transportation from spending more money each year than the gas tax brings in. It’s radical because the department has overspent its Highway Trust Fund coffers *every year* since 2008, when Congress began bailin

Share via: