“One day at around eight in the morning, I was returning from the market when six of the developer’s thugs tackled me outside my home and pushed me into a car,” remembers Xi.

Several others, she says, climbed a ladder to her balcony. Xi says she screamed for her husband, but it was too late. There was a scuffle inside, and then black smoke poured out of their balcony window before the house went up in flames. Xi’s husband burned to death, and the developer’s men escaped. — marketplace.org

We are overloaded daily with new discoveries, patents and inventions all promising a better life, but that better life has not been forthcoming for most. In fact, the bulk of the above list targets a very specific (and tiny!) slice of the population. As one colleague in tech explained it to me recently, for most people working on such projects, the goal is basically to provide for themselves everything that their mothers no longer do. — Allison Arieff | the New York Times

Nearly 40 percent of Detroit residents live below the poverty line. In many cities, poor people rent — but the home ownership rate here is high. After the 2008 housing crash, it took the city of Detroit five years to start reappraising homes — and poor homeowners like Hicks, who lives on disability, struggled to pay their taxes. Over the past decade, there have been more than 100,000 tax foreclosures in Detroit. — Marketplace

The introduction of ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft hasn't had any impact on the number of fatalities related to drunken driving, a newly published study finds.

Researchers at the University of Southern California and Oxford University looked at the 100 most populated metropolitan areas, analyzing data from before and after the introduction of Uber and its competitors, and found that access to ride-sharing apps had no effect on traffic fatalities related to drinking alcohol. — npr.org

Special traffic regulations giving priority to athletes and VIP visitors to the Rio 2016 games have caused 20km (12.5 mile) traffic jams in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, days ahead of the opening ceremony.

Since the new dedicated Olympic lanes opened on Monday, traffic during the morning rush hour has been reduced to a crawl with average speeds of less than 15 km per hour, according to O Globo. — the Guardian

While zoning is a perfectly fine strategy to map new suburban cul-de-sac subdivisions and to stop growth, it backfires when we try to use it to guide the future of an evolving, dynamic city like Los Angeles. Zoning is a 20th century relic designed to “protect” existing residents from the encroachment of people and buildings they see as “undesirable.” [...]

we should be following Chicago’s approach by focusing on public spaces, infrastructure and other common assets. — latimes.com

there is a moat, of sorts, between the parking lot and the school. It’s planted with indigenous flowers and advertised as a learning opportunity for kids. The whole place has a playful, tree-house aspect, but indications of its impenetrability are everywhere: This sanctuary is a fortress, too. — NY Magazine

Howe Dell Primary in Hatfield could well be the UK’s most eco-friendly school. It has toilets that flush using rainwater, sedum roofs made of plants and vegetation, and classroom sink-tops made from recycled yoghurt pots. But the school’s design doesn’t just help protect the environment, it also uses nature to improve children’s academic performance and behaviour. — theguardian.com

London City Airport has been given permission to go ahead with a $450m expansion plan that will fit it with seven extra stands, a parallel taxiway and an extended terminal.

The plan, which was approved by the government yesterday, will increase the airport’s capacity from 4.3 million passengers to 6.5 million by 2025.

The airport said the expansion would create “world-class terminal facilities, more space and facilitate a greater frequency of flights”. — globalconstructionreview.com

It’s the all-too-common hazard that buyers of multimillion-dollar homes often overlook: Disagreements between homeowners can turn even the nicest neighborhoods into war zones. These disputes can happen anywhere, but in wealthy communities, the tendency to lawyer up quickly can ignite small sparks into all-consuming conflagrations. Collateral damage to neighbors can include legal costs, a soured neighborhood feeling and more difficulty in selling homes. — wsj.com

Lenders often give special treatment to the wealthy, of course, but the tech industry has created a particularly ripe crop of clients who are rich or on their way. [...]

“Lenders get so caught up trying to stay competitive and finding a market edge, they basically allow greed to overcome common sense ... Easy money does fuel and accelerate the inevitable bubble.” — bloomberg.com