California and Oregon both consider state housing bills that will allow dense development near transit. Can this become model housing legislation elsewhere?

Many planners have their minds made up on which cities do and don't work. But multiple factors make the debate complicated.

I took a 3-year, 30-city cross-country tour to study American cities. Here's what I learned along the way about our nation's demography, housing and culture.

Selling air rights above public facilities would create financial windfalls for city governments, and encourage more efficient land use.

New Yorkers' quality-of-life suffers from the negative impacts of cars. This is partly because residents themselves won't relinquish car ownership.

The agencies were sewers of waste and abuse. So why are state lawmakers trying to revive them?

Zoning reform is evolving from an economics issue into a social justice issue.

Texas' "Big 4" have rivalries in food, sports and economic development. But which of them is the best place to live?

In installment #7 of the America's Progressive Developers series, a Memphis arts non-profit turns a gargantuan former Sears warehouse into a "vertical urban village."

Home prices are growing higher and faster in Austin than other Texas cities. The cause is regulation.

The Bay Area would likely be denser - and a lot more urbanized.

As Los Angeles shows, the cities with the most immigrants also perform best economically.

By following good accounting practices, Oklahoma City's MAPS program built more public infrastructure at a fraction of the cost.

A new report shows that regulations stopping outward housing expansion are crippling urbanization worldwide.

Hyper-local government is good in many cases. But not for housing policy.

Federal transportation money gets redistributed to rural areas - amounting to a raw deal for major metros.

Portland's UGB limits development in the suburbs right around the city. This appears to be causing leapfrog sprawl throughout the larger metro.

Canadian lumber is integral to the U.S. housing market. Will sticking duties on it hurt U.S. homebuyers?

Unlike a lot of U.S. metros, different cities across greater Miami are building densely along the waterfront.

Cities remain interesting when they resist American-style "modernization".

Installment #4 in the monthly cross-country series America's Progressive Developers.

Atlanta has largely been an affordable housing success story. But its housing market is still tough for the working class, namely in the central areas.

Miami has inequality. But that is an innate feature of the local demographics - and may even be helping the city.

The city could be accused of policing too much and too little.