After Kaid Benfield paints a rather grim retail outlook — where even retail bastions like San Diego are going dark — he suggests a series of actions for city leaders and planners.

Kaid Benfield provides a literature review of essential 2025 studies of U.S. retail in the post-pandemic age of Amazon and e-commerce, and provides some key recommendations:
- “Add housing density to commercial areas, putting more people – potential customers – within walking and easy driving distance of those establishments that remain viable…”
- “…an enlivened generation of ‘third places’ such as libraries, gyms, and small parks.”
- “… city nature integrated into urban fabric brings multiple benefits to neighborhoods and almost always makes them more attractive to pedestrians.”
“I don’t think we will ever get back fully to the retail environment of previous decades, except perhaps in a few special places.” Benfield writes. “The big counterforces – online shopping and a bigger degree of remote work practices – are here to stay. We’re in a different environment now, and new environments demand new ideas.”
FULL STORY: Traditional retail is hanging by a thread in the US. What now for city leaders and planners?

Manufactured Crisis: Losing the Nation’s Largest Source of Unsubsidized Affordable Housing
Manufactured housing communities have long been an affordable housing option for millions of people living in the U.S., but that affordability is disappearing rapidly. How did we get here?

Americans May Be Stuck — But Why?
Americans are moving a lot less than they once did, and that is a problem. While Yoni Applebaum, in his highly-publicized article Stuck, gets the reasons badly wrong, it's still important to ask: why are we moving so much less than before?

Research Shows More Roads = More Driving
A national study shows, once again, that increasing road supply induces additional vehicle travel, particularly over the long run.

Which US Rail Agencies Are Buying Zero-Emissions Trains?
U.S. rail agencies are slowly making the shift to zero-emissions trains, which can travel longer distances without refueling and reduce air pollution.

San Diego School District Approves Affordable Housing Plan
The district plans to build workforce housing for 10 percent of its employees in the next decade and explore other ways to contribute to housing development.

Lawsuit Aims to Stop NYC’s ‘City of Yes’ Zoning Reforms
A lawsuit brought by local lawmakers and community groups claims the plan failed to conduct a comprehensive environmental review.
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