Spring ’23 Issue – The Wagner Planner

Labor Issues are Holding Up Transit Improvements in Metro Detroit

Amid staffing challenges, Detroit is reimagining its beleaguered bus system while its suburbs risk allowing transit to languish The city of Detroit and its surrounding suburbs are headed in opposite directions on bus transit. At the root of the issue: labor and leadership. Despite persistent staffing challenges, leaders in Detroit are showing increased willingness to… Read more Labor Issues are Holding Up Transit Improvements in Metro Detroit

Posted on May 2, 2023May 2, 2023 by Calley Wang

What We’re Reading – May 2

Five articles curated by the Wagner Planner staff: Here’s what the Wagner Planner staff is reading. This week: implications of the budget deal, a three-part investigation of ‘ghost tags’, and a Rent Guidelines Board debate. M.T.A. Averts Fiscal Crisis as New York Strikes Budget Deal (The New York Times) – “Janno Lieber, the authority’s chairman,… Read more What We’re Reading – May 2

Posted on May 2, 2023May 2, 2023 by Edwin Jeng

What We’re Reading – April 18

Here’s what the Wagner Planner staff is reading. This week: a rising tenant movement, technology could effectively deter dangerous drivers, a new approach to renovating public housing, and meager impacts of up zonings on housing affordability. The Revolution Against Shady Landlords Has Begun (The Nation) – “Anh-Thu Nguyen, a labor organizer in Brooklyn, told me,… Read more What We’re Reading – April 18

Posted on April 18, 2023April 16, 2023 by Edwin Jeng

Suburban Skylines: One tech suburb’s struggle to grow and keep its character

The fight over housing affordability and density in Cupertino captures the struggle for the soul of suburban America. Cupertino, California is in some sense, not special at all. It’s a classic postwar suburb with leafy subdivisions of single-family homes connected by arterial roads and freeways and a population of 60,000 people. An hour south of… Read more Suburban Skylines: One tech suburb’s struggle to grow and keep its character

Posted on April 4, 2023April 5, 2023 by Calley Wang

Reopening subway station bathrooms is the right move, but the MTA can do more

The MTA should commit more resources to maintaining bathrooms’ cleanliness and to improving nonexistent wayfinding to help bathrooms succeed. As recently as early last year, the MTA’s subway bathrooms were “not a priority” for the agency. Since then, they have reversed course and reopened bathrooms in nine stations as of January 2023 and announced that… Read more Reopening subway station bathrooms is the right move, but the MTA can do more

Posted on April 4, 2023April 4, 2023 by Edwin Jeng