A massive, abandoned skyscraper project in downtown Los Angeles has drawn attention due to taggers covering the two 40-story towers in graffiti and daredevil Ben Schneider walking between the buildings on a slackline 500 feet above the city.

The Oceanwide Plaza project stalled after its Beijing-based developer went bankrupt. “This $1.2 billion ruin of global capital sat untended all through the pandemic, quietly emblematic of overreaching speculative development,” writes Mimi Zeiger in The Architect’s Newspaper.

Zeiger criticizes the project as an example of “the banal aesthetics of market-rate capitalism” and doubts that luxury condominiums could ever address issues like homelessness, symbolized by the nearby Skid Row tents. The building is expected to be sold and completed before Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics.

• Project Cost: $1.2 billion

• Debts: Nearly half a billion dollars owed to lenders and creditors

According to Bloomberg, the brokerage Colliers and advisory firm Hilco Real Estate are searching for buyers who can act quickly, as Oceanwide Holdings must also repay the city.

Rents across the country are climbing after months of decline, reports Mary Salmonsen in Smart Cities Dive. “Overall, rents are up $12 this year to date, and only off by $2 from the all-time high of $1,727 set last summer,” Salmonsen notes.

• Single-Family Build-to-Rent: Rents hit an all-time high of $2,154, with occupancy at 95.4 percent.

• Boston: Year-over-year rent for build-to-rent properties increased by 20 percent.

Despite significant outmigration, cities like New York and San Francisco maintain low vacancy rates. “Meanwhile, occupancy has slipped slightly in Midwest and Sun Belt markets, owing to an abundance of new units coming online. However, as demand for these units is still high, negative rent growth is abating in some of these markets.”

The lease renewal rate is at its lowest in two years, indicating instability for renters.

Creating new parks is a powerful way to regenerate both the land and the communities that inhabit it. By restoring damaged landscapes, providing valuable green spaces, and fostering environmental education, parks play a significant role in healing and building more sustainable, resilient communities.

Park planner Clement Lau highlights how creating new parks, especially in areas affected by industrialization, urbanization, and environmental degradation, can be transformative. 

Los Angeles County's Parks Needs Assessment Plus (PNA+) focuses on conservation through an equity lens, aiming to protect natural lands and restore degraded lands, particularly in lower-income communities of color.

Parks are not just for leisure and recreation; they are sanctuaries of nature’s resilience and human hope. Former industrial sites and landfills can be transformed into vibrant green spaces with biodiversity. 

Thoughtful planning and restoration efforts improve soil quality, restore native vegetation, and create wildlife habitats, enhancing the ecosystem and mitigating environmental damage.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), which spends more on highways than any other state, has added 700 miles of new highways in the last decade, reports Nathan Bernier for KERA. TxDOT funds its road projects through a combination of sources.

• Funding Sources: Gas taxes, vehicle registration fees, state sales taxes, levies on oil and gas companies, and federal funds, including personal income taxes.

Historically, highway funding came primarily from a consumer gas tax feeding the federal Highway Trust Fund. Today, federal dollars constitute a smaller percentage of state road funding, and the Highway Trust Fund often runs out of money. The federal gas tax has remained at 18.4 cents a gallon since President Bill Clinton's first year in office, while the Texas gas tax has been frozen at 20 cents a gallon since 1991.

Texas voters have supported additional highway funding through measures allowing the state to use its Rainy Day Fund and allocate part of the state sales tax to road projects.

However, the true cost of highway construction includes external factors like traffic congestion, displacement, environmental impacts, and land use changes, all affecting local communities. Highways encourage sprawling suburbs, inefficient land use, and prioritize driving over transit and other transportation forms.