Blog

Unique insights into what is happening in cities worldwide.

Rethinking Space to Increase Affordability and Quality of Life

Aug 24, 2020

Rising development costs and other market pressures are creating multifamily dwelling units that are less affordable and less desirable for everyday residents. In many places, it seems like a “race to the bottom”: ever smaller units that do little to foster community, contribute to less end-user occupancy, and perpetuate the idea that cities are reserved…

Zoning and Land Use Rules are the Key to Affordability

Aug 24, 2020

If there’s anything the year of 2020 has shown us, it’s that institutional structures and government policy really do guide what the outcomes are in our society. This is perhaps nowhere more vividly true than in the matter of housing, where racial disparities and lack of affordability persist, associated with years of rules and regulations…

The Human Aspect of Housing

Aug 24, 2020

When I was asked to speak at the 2020 New Housing Solutions event, I had no idea it would spark memories from almost 30 years ago. Memories of events in my life I have never shared with anyone, not even my closest friends. In the fall of 1992, my mother sat me down and explained…

Why Single-Family Suburban Housing Will Always Prevail….Unless

Aug 24, 2020

The pandemic has caught us all in surprise. Yes, Gates said it would happen, but we never believed it would affect developed and resourceful cities and countries. We hadn‘t anticipated the damage such a pandemic could cause to urban preferences. Density, variety, mixed-use, and urban sustainability became a curse, and the nemesis of good quality…

Spotlight on Texas: America’s Housing Crisis Comes to the Sun Belt

Aug 24, 2020

Speakers: Mahesh Aiyer, Director, Citi Community Capital Steffen Fuchs, Senior Partner, Dallas, McKinsey & Company Kourtney Garrett, CEO and President, Downtown Dallas Inc Eric Johnson, Chief of Economic Development and Neighborhood Services, City of Dallas Moderator: Catherine Cuellar, Director of Communications, Outreach and Marketing, City of Dallas 5 Key Takeaways 1. The lack of affordable…

New Housing Solutions LIVE Highlights

Jul 14, 2020

Participants convened virtually over three days in July 2020 to address pressing housing challenges in affordability, community, and health. Scroll down for the highlights, replays, quotes, and more! Day 3 – July 16 “We can house our homelessness by resetting our priorities. ‘Homes for All’ is an investment. It will employ thousands. We have the…

Resources and Non-Exhaustive Reading List

Jun 18, 2020

We center Equity and Inclusion in all of our efforts as an organization to confront and disrupt biases, stereotypes, and discrimination, and combat systemic racism and anti-blackness. We put together a non-exhaustive list of resources including live discussions, videos, books, organizations, profiles, and articles, that we listened to, read, followed, and discussed as a team.…

An Open Letter to Cities, Mayors, Members, and Ourselves

Jun 05, 2020

June 5, 2020 “The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights.” David Harvey, “The Right to the City” We are anguished and heartbroken at the recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and before…

The City At Stake

Mar 19, 2020

Public Health and Vital Budget were two concepts at the core of Patrick Geddes’ vision for a thriving city in his seminal 1910 essay “Cities in Evolution”. He was right, and this abrupt lockdown we are now experiencing forces us to reconsider both of them as priorities in the development of our cities. For twenty…

NewCities official statement on COVID-19

Mar 13, 2020

June 12, 2020 For the past ten years, NewCities has been committed to shaping a better urban future by curating and producing innovative content about the most important emerging urban trends through events, knowledge-sharing platforms, and actionable research. COVID-19 is an unprecedented challenge for urban societies everywhere. As an institution convening key stakeholders of the…

COVID-19: Learning Lessons About Local Action From Past Outbreaks

Mar 13, 2020

I am relatively new to the world of urban policy and research. My background is in anthropology and I’ve been researching health systems and diseases for the last 10 years. I came to the urban space via the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. I’d been working in rural Sierra Leone on another viral haemorrhagic fever…

Understanding the Urban Innovation Cycle: Eight Key Takeaways

Mar 09, 2020

In 2019, NewCities and UrbanLeap set out to establish a baseline for urban innovation. We wanted to better understand the ongoing, evolutionary journey of how public servants discovered, tested, and shared ideas to improve their city. Together, we surveyed 581 local and regional public sector representatives from all over the United States and Canada about…