Infrastructure

Preparing for the next 100 million Americans: Renewing fast-growth regions.

Key Reports/ Recent Commentary
Bringing Equity to Transit-Oriented Development: Stations, Systems, and Regional Resilience
By Rolf Pendall (in Urban and Regional Policy and its Effects, volume 4, Brooking Institution, forthcoming) An earlier version, presented at Urban and Regional Policy and its Effects, Washington, DC, May 21, 2010 is available here.Read more
Regional Resilience: Building Understanding of the Metaphor
By Kathryn Foster, Rolf Pendall, and Margaret Cowell (Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economics and Society 2010).Read more
Vulnerable People in Precarious Housing: An Exploratory Analysis
By Rolf Pendall et al. (BRR working paper, pdf, 2011).Read more
Key Questions

  • How do fast-growing metro areas respond to transportation, housing, and water supply demands?
  • How do federal, state, and local institutions interact to make regions more or less resilient in the face of fast growth?

Key Findings

  • Political coalitions focused on new rail systems also spark support for mixed-use and mixed-income development.
  • Few regions are planning for the coming “handoff” of older baby boomer neighborhoods to new working-class and low-income households.
  • Regions are more resilient region when local, regional, and larger institutions work to support vulnerable households during periods of fast growth.
  • Some of the biggest water challenges may be found in the East, in particular Atlanta.