The ‘infrastructure decade’ is here, but challenges loom for local governments at the helm

“Money is flowing, grant applications are live, private capital is ready to move. But there are real constraints to achieving public goals,” Brookings Metro Senior Fellow Adie Tomer said at an event last week.

By Ysabelle Kempe • May 23, 2023

In San Jose, city climate plans must have ‘the cool factor’

After winning a national climate leadership award, the city’s chief sustainability officer discussed how libraries can win over electric stove skeptics and how house parties might boost community engagement.

By Ysabelle Kempe • May 22, 2023

Explore the Trendline➔

Top 5 stories from Smart Cities Dive

From worsening climate change to a shifting transportation landscape and the housing affordability crisis, cities have their work cut out for them.

By Smart Cities Dive staff

Los Angeles mayor announces next steps in plan to build shelters, housing on city properties

Mayor Karen Bass said she would spend the rest of her term trying to make “the disposition and development of City owned land faster, cheaper, and more streamlined” in a Tuesday letter to the public.

By Ysabelle Kempe • May 18, 2023

How NYC is preparing its infrastructure for extreme weather

Thu-Loan Dinh, who helps lead infrastructure design for the city’s Department of Design and Construction, discusses the agency’s biggest resilience concerns and how to address them.

By Julie Strupp • May 17, 2023

Why Boston is turning bus stops into digital pop-up libraries

Users are not required to have a library card or download an app to access the primarily English- and Spanish-language offerings.

By Ysabelle Kempe • May 16, 2023

NYC hotel reopens as asylum seeker center

The reopening of the Roosevelt Hotel will give the city a space to offer resources and short-term housing to a rising number of asylum seekers.

By Jenna Walters • May 16, 2023

NREL energy audit tool may help cities meet climate, building decarbonization goals

Local governments often lack the staff and resources to conduct energy audits on thousands of buildings, an engineer at the National Renewable Energy Lab said, but technology can help overcome those challenges.

By Joe Burns • May 16, 2023

Parking minimums will soon be history in Austin, Texas

“Our priority should be allowing space for people rather than mandating space for cars,” City Council member Zohaib Qadri said.

By Michael Brady • May 12, 2023

Bank failures could slow new apartment construction

Last year’s interest rate hikes have made it more challenging to get construction loans, which could slow multifamily construction starts by 60%, one real estate executive said.

By Leslie Shaver • May 9, 2023

Dallas restores core emergency dispatch systems after ransomware attack

“At this point, we do not have evidence or indication that there has been data removed during this attack,” Dallas CIO Bill Zielinski told city officials Monday.

By Matt Kapko • May 9, 2023

Advocates push for housing owned by communities, rather than by investors

It’s still unclear what broad-scale programs would look like, but there is some evidence that decommodifying housing can work.

By Gaby Galvin • May 4, 2023

How governments are updating ‘operational technologies,’ including AI, and the challenges that remain: survey

Over half of the survey respondents reported their agency plans to upgrade systems by 2025, a Center for Digital Government and Samsara survey found. Operational efficiency and cost savings are a big reason why.

By Michael Brady • May 4, 2023

California spent $1.3B in cap-and-trade funds on climate, equity projects in 2022

The California Climate Investments funding addressed affordable housing, transportation, energy costs, extreme heat, fire, access to clean drinking water and more, a California Air Resources Board official said.

By Kalena Thomhave • May 2, 2023

Affordable, all-electric and energy-efficient housing gets $15M boost from NYC initiative

The initiative “will demonstrate to the affordable housing market a highly replicable new construction solution,” said Doreen Harris, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

By Ysabelle Kempe • May 2, 2023

Flying taxis are coming. Cities will need dozens of vertiports.

By 2030, just one eVTOL operator could operate nearly seven times as many flights per day as the nation’s second-largest airline, estimates McKinsey and Co.

By Dan Zukowski • May 1, 2023

Women, people of color, renters underrepresented on land-use boards: report

Homeownership and other requirements could create barriers to participation that “function as inexplicit racial filters,” an Urban Institute report found.

By Gaby Galvin • April 28, 2023

First state law banning gas in new buildings passes in New York

The law does not include a “poison pill” provision backed by the oil and gas industry, which environmental and social justice advocates had worried would make its way into the measure.

By Ysabelle Kempe • Updated Dec. 21, 2023

Asphalt art grants of $25K available from Bloomberg Philanthropies

“It’s amazing what a few cans of paint — and a forward-looking community — can achieve,” Bloomberg Philanthropies founder and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.

By Michael Brady • April 27, 2023

Worried about gas ban litigation? After court tosses Berkeley rule, legal experts look at cities’ options

Other “totally lawful opportunities” exist for local governments to phase out gas in new buildings, such as through building codes, said a senior fellow at Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.

By Ysabelle Kempe • April 27, 2023

Elon Musk’s company town plans worry some locals, urban planners

The plans for Snailbrook, near Boring Co. and future SpaceX manufacturing facilities in central Texas, raise questions about local governance, environmental impacts and more.

By Adina Solomon • April 24, 2023

$562M for coastal resiliency projects announced by Commerce Department

The money from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law will fund nearly 150 projects across the country focused on bolstering the country’s response to climate change.

By Jennifer Goodman • April 24, 2023

ARPA funds used to fill city budget gaps, Brookings analysis finds

Spending American Rescue Plan Act funds on “revenue replacement” allowed localities to free up money for long-term priorities, such as economic development, a Brookings Metro researcher said.

By Kalena Thomhave • April 21, 2023

Cybersecurity best practices for smart cities issued by CISA

Smart city technologies are at risk “of exploitation for espionage and for financial or political gain by malicious threat actors,” according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

By Michael Brady • April 21, 2023

On infrastructure jobs, OSHA steps up workplace safety enforcement

As federal funds flood into construction projects thanks to the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is concerned about protecting workers in the infrastructure sector.

By Julie Strupp • April 12, 2023

How Jersey City’s resiliency plan preps them to weather the storm

How the leaders of Jersey City ensure that their community remains safe and healthy for generations to come.

April 10, 2023