YIMBY News for 7/16

[Eric Budd]

Chicago’s “People’s Cooling Army” Is Giving Tenants Free Air Conditioners

Next City

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KEYWORD SCORE: 37.42. apartment, development, gentrification, housing, income, project, rent, renter, supply, urban, zone, zoning

Perhaps the most basic demand of a tenant is that the living space they pay for is, in fact, livable. Yet as extreme heat becomes the norm, organizers claim that for many low-income Chicago renters, this basic condition is not being met. An initiative called the People’s Cooling Army, launched by the All-Chicago Tenant Alliance, aims to provide and install free repaired air conditioning units for low-income tenants in Chicago’s Humboldt Park, Garfield Park and Hermosa. “Tenants across the city have been left to bake in hot apartments,” organizers announced at a July 8 press conference. “Tenant

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A Remarkable School-Choice Experiment

The Atlantic

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KEYWORD SCORE: 29.70. construction, gentrification, gentrifying, growth, house, income, project, rent, segregate, segregation, urban, zone

In 2012, Los Angeles Unified School District set up an experiment. It offered parents in some parts of the city a new option: Instead of automatically sending their middle schoolers to their neighborhood high school, parents could instead pick between a few high schools in their area. School choice is usually about providing parents an option *outside* the traditional public-school system. From 2010 to 2021, public charter-school enrollment in the U.S. more than doubled, even as states across the country have made it easier for parents to use public funding for homeschooling and private-school

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Local company is among group charged with racial discrimination in a Denver housing appraisal

Denverite

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KEYWORD SCORE: 24.47. development, fair housing, growth, homeowner, housing, housing and urban development, housing discrimination, hud, urban

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has charged a group of appraisers and lenders with housing discrimination in Denver, alleging the companies involved undervalued a homeowner’s property because she is Black. HUD announced the charge Monday against the appraisal company Maverick Appraisal Group, appraisal management company Solidifi U.S. Inc., the lender Rocket Mortgage, LLC and appraiser Maksym Mykhailyna. In a statement, HUD claims that Mykhailyna and Maverick Appraisal group issued a low assessment of a Denver duplex owned by a Black woman, whose name was redacted in

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City Council elects Amanda Sandoval as new president and Diana Romero Campbell as new pro tem

Denverite

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KEYWORD SCORE: 22.94. affordable, affordable housing, density, development, housing, housing stock, rent, zoning

Councilmember Amanda Sandoval will be City Council’s next president after serving as pro tem for two years. Council newcomer Diana Romero Campbell will be the next pro tem. City Council unanimously elected Sandoval and Romero Campbell on Monday, and the changes take effect immediately. Each term lasts one year. In recent years, Council presidents have served two terms. Sandoval represents District 1 covering northwest Denver. Romero Campbell represents District 4 covering southeast Denver. Sandoval is replacing outgoing Council President Jamie Torres, who held the role for two years. “I think

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Community Transit Plans ‘Swift Gold Line’ Bus to Arlington

The Urbanist

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KEYWORD SCORE: 21.22. bus rapid transit, bus route, bus stop, comprehensive plan, density, downtown, growth, house, transit center, transportation, urban, walk

Community Transit has kicked off planning work for its fourth bus rapid transit lite line that could start service by 2029. Dubbed as the “Swift Gold Line,” the planned service will run between Everett Station and Smokey Point Transit Center in Arlington. This comes on the heels of the latest Swift line (the Orange Line) opening this past spring, which runs between Lynnwood’s forthcoming light rail station and McCollum Park Park-and-Ride. “We are focusing on bringing our flagship service to some of the most booming areas of Snohomish County and indeed in the country,” Ric Ilgenfritz, Community

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Cities Want To Give Worker’s Heat Breaks. States Are Stopping Them.

Next City

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KEYWORD SCORE: 21.08. construction, development, growth, house, housing, income, project, rent, rent control, urban

(Photo courtesy Ivette Carolina Agudelo-Lopez + Yerba Buena Engineering & Construction, Inc) This summer’s most recent heat wave has broken temperature records in nearly 50 cities across the southeast. As these blistering temperatures move east, cities across the Northeast are bracing for triple digits while Houston residents are preparing for scorching heat without power. Millions of Americans are suffering under a heat advisory, meaning that exposure to the elements for just an hour or two could severely impact their health. Across the country, cities are encouraging residents to stay inside

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Boulder County-area cone zones for July 15-21

Daily Camera Boulder News

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KEYWORD SCORE: 19.95. bike lane, bus stop, construction, development, mobility, multimodal, parking, parking lot, project, rent, transportation, walk, zone

Boulder • 28th Street improvements — Pearl to Iris. This project will improve multimodal travel along 28th Street from Pearl to Iris. Northbound 28th and Valmont Road RTD Stop #17992 serving 205 and BOLT routes will be temporarily relocated to just south of the Valmont intersection until Dec. 31. • 19th Street and Fourmile Canyon Creek Underpass: Crews will begin replacing the bridge over Fourmile Canyon Creek and construct a bike/pedestrian underpass. During construction at all times, seven days a week, 19th Street will be closed to northbound vehicles, bikes and RTD bus service at Sumac Aven

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What a big experiment giving money to parents reveals

Vox - Policy

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KEYWORD SCORE: 19.13. house, housing, income, project, rent

[image: A woman standing over her child, who is lying in a crib in a home nursery.] Brandi Ceci puts her 3-month-old daughter Alexis down for a nap on February 18, 2011, in Decatur, Illinois. | Scott Olson/Getty Images In 2018, a remarkable experiment was launched called Baby’s First Years, studying young children in the US. The main question it asked was simple: What does giving $4,000 a year, unrestricted, to families with young kids do for them? The first research from the experiment came out in 2022 and suggested that the cash might have led to more brain activity in infants whose families

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Public Defenders Look to Grow Their Presence on the Bench in Los Angeles

BOLTSmag

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KEYWORD SCORE: 18.05. affordable, development, growth, house, housing, rent, walk

*Last fall, Los Angeles started using new bail guidelines that required judges to set bail at affordable rates*, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it from sitting in court all day. In conjunction with her pretrial justice clinic, UCLA law professor Alicia Virani spent part of October 2023, the first month LA’s new bail schedule was in effect, observing court proceedings that seemed as quick and rote as an assembly line at LA’s largest courthouse. “They’re churning out pretrial decisions like a factory,” she told *Bolts. * Alongside volunteers from Courtwatch LA, Virani and her students witness

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