Andrew Small
Andrew Small is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C., and author of the CityLab Daily newsletter (subscribe here). He was previously an editorial fellow at CityLab.
Also: Relocating like LeBron, and the successes of “informal” development.
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What We’re Following
Family matters: City leaders are still wrapping their heads around the crisis created by separating migrant children from their parents in detention centers across the country. On Wednesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio visited a center in Harlem where the federal government had quietly housed 239 unaccompanied children away from the border (New York Times). In Portland, Oregon, protests against the “zero-tolerance” policy shut down an ICE office (CNN). And in Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced an executive order prohibiting the city’s jails from accepting new ICE detainees (Governing).
Back in Texas, there were about 4,000 children spread across 32 shelters in the state by mid-May, according to the Texas Tribune, which has mapped the detention facilities along with the number of children and health/safety violations at each center. We’re watching as U.S. mayors visit the port of entry in Tornillo, Texas, today to call for action on family reunification. Stay tuned.
More on CityLab
Trailers, Mapped
About 5.6 percent of all U.S. households (6.6 million households, or 17.7 million people) live in manufactured housing, commonly referred to as “mobile homes” or “trailers,” according to a new report from Apartment List. With one in 18 Americans living in a mobile home or trailer, the low-cost housing option is at its lowest share of total housing since the 1980s, after taking off as the Reagan administration slashed federal funding for affordable housing. The map above shows how common mobile homes are in metro areas around the country (larger circles mean more people, redder circles mean larger share of housing stock).
The top four states with the highest concentration of mobile homes are New Mexico (16.6 percent), South Carolina (15.7 percent), West Virginia (14.4 percent) and Mississippi (14.1 percent).
CityLab context: When it comes to affordable housing, mobile homes matter
What We’re Reading
Could architects help solve New York’s big, stinky trash crisis? (Fast Company)
When grudges build up, you get spite buildings (The Guardian)
Autonomous vehicles might drive cities to financial ruin (Wired)
20 ways cities can boost quality of life (Curbed)
Michael Bloomberg will spend $80 million on the mid-terms. His goal: flip the House. (New York Times)
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About the Author
