An analysis from ResiClub and BatchService reveals that California leads the nation in residential rooftop solar installations, reports Lance Lambert in Fast Company.

“The state has led the nation with renewable energy policies, including generous state and local incentives, tax credits, and mandates such as the 2020 building code requirement for all new California homes to include solar panels,” Lambert explains. Santa Clara County, whose utility offers an additional incentive for solar panels, has the most permits in the state, followed by Los Angeles County and Riverside County. “In 2019, Zillow economists found that homes that year with solar-energy systems sold for 4.1% more on average than comparable homes without solar panels.”

The state with the next-highest number of permits is Arizona, followed by Texas.

• Solar Panels
• Rooftop Solar
• Solar Energy
• Solar Power
• Renewable Energy
• Clean Energy

In a piece for The Atlantic, Stacy Mitchell explains the rise of “food deserts” — communities with limited or non-existent access to fresh food options — in the late 1980s as a result of a federal policy change.

“Food deserts are not an inevitable consequence of poverty or low population density, and they didn’t materialize around the country for no reason,” Mitchell writes. They occurred because the Reagan administration stopped enforcing the 1936 Robinson-Patman Act, allowing large grocery retailers to strong-arm suppliers and centralize their national purchasing power, pricing small retailers out of the market.

This led to a “massive die-off” of independent stores, Mitchell explains, and not just in the grocery sector: “From 1982 to 2017, the market share of independent retailers shrank from 53 percent to 22 percent.”

For Mitchell, “If you were to plot the end of Robinson-Patman enforcement and the subsequent restructuring of the retail industry on a timeline, it would closely parallel the emergence and spread of food deserts.” Small stores couldn’t keep up with product prices, and their customers couldn’t afford to pay more. “But once the independent stores closed, the chains no longer had to invest in low-income areas. They could count on people to schlep across town to their other locations.” 

Mitchell asserts that enforcing the Robinson-Patman Act again is the key to eliminating food deserts and ensuring that all Americans have convenient access to fresh foods in their communities.

• Food Deserts
• Grocery Stores
• Grocery Gap
• Robinson Gardens

• Third-generation Apple TV 4K: October 2022


• Second-generation Apple TV 4K: April 2021


• First-generation Apple TV 4K: September 2017


• Apple TV HD: September 2015


• Third-generation Apple TV: March 2012

A new high-speed rail route connecting Berlin and Paris began service on Monday, offering an 8-hour trip between the European capitals.

According to an article in DW, “The once-a-day service with German rail operator Deutsche Bahn's (DB) high-speed ICE train — operated in collaboration with France's SNCF — comes amid a strong appetite for more rail options.” DB has struggled to keep its trains reliable, but the company says it is aiming to improve that. 

One-way tickets on the new route cost as little as €24.99, but go up in price to €99 or more based on amenities and demand. The train makes stops in Frankfurt, Karlsruhe, and Strasbourg.

• Paris
• Berlin
• High-Speed Rail
• Trains
• Passenger Rail

In a piece for Curbed, Clio Chang probes the origins of New York City’s income requirement for apartment rentals, which typically asks for 40 times the rent in annual income.

“The financial crash of 2008 seemed like a plausible theory, so I started looking at newspaper archives to see if I could find early mentions of the income requirement. After a little poking around, I found a New York Times piece from 1997 in which a broker told the paper that “strict” buildings require up to 50 times the monthly rent while a more “liberal” landlord accepts 40 times.” A tenant lawyer told Chang that the requirement could also be related to the 30 percent figure that most government agencies use as the maximum percentage of their income a household should spend on housing.

Looking further into where the 30 percent rule comes from, Chang found that the concept first came about in the early 1900s, when housing activists called for rents not exceeding 20 percent of family income. “When the Section 8 program started in the 1970s, it was considered standard that households would only pay 25 percent of their income, which under Reagan was later raised to 30 percent, and today, that number pops up in all kinds of housing policies.”

Chang concludes, “A big problem is that rents are simply too high — a recent report found that between 2019 and 2023, median rents rose by 18 percent while incomes grew by just 11.5 percent. Today, a fifth of New Yorkers now pay 50 percent of their income on rent.”

• New York City
• Housing Costs
• Rent
• Renters

How do people bike in 32F weather? If you’re a Chicagoan, easily. As John Greenfield writes in Streetsblog Chicago, “If you dress in warm, rain-and-snow-resistant layers, and your bike has lights and fenders (or you just use an affordable Divvy membership), cycling short distances year 'round here is at least as comfortable and convenient as other modes.”

According to Greenfield, he counted at least 18 people riding bikes on new protected bike lanes on Milwaukee Avenue during a 45-minute period on December 5 despite 25F degree weather. On a later, warmer day, another Streetsblog reporter counted 47 northbound cyclists in an hour.

With Milwaukee Avenue being the city’s deadliest bike route, Greenfield notes that there is an “urgent need” for protected bike lanes on the entire 10.6-mile street. “That's going to become more obvious in the future, as Chicago gets closer to having a citywide network of connected, protected lanes, and our city's bike and e-scooter mode share continues to grow. As that happens, more residents learn that using those vehicles during the winter is easier than one might think.”

• Chicago
• Bike Infrastructure
• Protected Bike Lanes
• Bike Lanes
• Winter Cycling

Downtown San Antonio will get a new two-way cycletrack after the city made an agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), reports Mason Hickock for KSAT.

The Market Street Cycle project will run from Flores Street to Interstate 37 and include pedestrian improvements. “The project, currently in its design phase, is expected to begin in the fall of 2026 and be completed by winter 2028, according to the city.”

The city received TxDOT funding for seven road safety projects, including this one. “Funds totaling nearly $16 million was sourced from TxDOT’s Transportation Set-Aside Program to cover the full estimated cost of preliminary engineering and construction.”

• San Antonio
• Bike Lanes
• cycle tracks
• Protected Bike Lanes
• Bike Infrastructure

Statement on Filing Application for Emergency Injunction Pending Appeal with the Supreme Court:

""The Supreme Court has an established record of upholding Americans’ right to free speech. Today, we are asking the Court to do what it has traditionally done in free speech cases:…