Local

Trees are a hallmark of vibrant neighborhoods. So why did nearly one-quarter of eligible residents in Detroit, Michigan, turn down free street trees? That’s the mystery University of Vermont researcher Christine Carmichael solves in one of the first studies to explore opposition to city tree planting programs. As cities from New York to L.A. embark...

Now that Amazon has announced the winners of its competition to host its second headquarters, a question on many minds is whether it’ll be worth the incentives offered. We have a different question: Why did so many cities play Amazon’s billion-dollar bidding game in the first place? One media narrative has portrayed the leaders of...

Governments across the U.S. and Canada have made strides in their food systems planning efforts, with many recognizing within the past decade that the issue of food insecurity is just as important as maintaining other public infrastructure like roads and water systems. Still, questions remain: How are local governments engaging in the food system? Who...

U.S. states with high levels of household gun ownership have higher rates of fatal shootings of civilians by police than states with lower gun prevalence, according to a new study led by researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Northeastern University. The study found that there was a link between rates...

In ethnic enclaves, Mexican immigrants tend to spend less on food per week while East Asian immigrants spend more, which could explain the difference in assimilation rates and contrast in ethnic population density among the two groups, according to a University of Kansas study. The findings address questions on consumer behavior in the ethnically dense...

Black Americans are nearly three times more likely to be killed by police than their white counterparts, with even larger disparities among those who are unarmed. The trend is also harming the mental health of the black community, according to new research published in The Lancet from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania...

Willow Village is a community planned for a 59-acre site in California’s Silicon Valley, between Menlo Park and East Palo Alto. It will have housing, offices, a grocery store, a pharmacy, and its developers say, maybe even its own cultural center. There’s one notable thing about Willow Village that makes it different from other new...

Suicide rates in the United States have traditionally been higher among whites than blacks across all age groups. However, a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics shows that racial disparities in suicide rates are age-related. Specifically, suicide rates for black children aged 5-12 were roughly two times higher than those of similarly aged white children. “Our findings...