Urban Life

Senior Housing That Seniors Actually Like – The New York Times

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Senior Housing That Seniors Actually Like – The New York Times

Forty-five years ago, Betty Szudy and her wife, Maggie Roth, both 70, bought a Craftsman bungalow in Oakland, Calif. In 2017, at the same time their son and his wife were fruitlessly searching for an affordable apartment in the neighborhood, California was liberalizing its housing laws to encourage so-called accessory dwelling units, or A.D.U.s.

So, the family looked into building one. The parents now live in the main house and the adult children in the A.D.U. — in this case, a once-decrepit garage transformed into a 400-square-foot studio with a kitchen and bath.

The arrangement makes it simple to share meals, planned or spontaneous, and to pick up items for the other household at Trader Joe’s. “I love having them around,” Ms. Szudy said.

This Maine home can stay 70 degrees without a furnace, even when it’s freezing outside | Maine Public

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This Maine home can stay 70 degrees without a furnace, even when it’s freezing outside | Maine Public

What if you could design a house that on a cold day in January would stay at 70 degrees inside — without running the furnace? Or even having a furnace?

It's already being done.

In fact, what's known as the passive house concept came to the United States in 2006, and is being used to construct buildings throughout the U.S.

Maine Public recently visited a passive house in the town of Hope to find out how it works — and what it costs.

NPR

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Traffic congestion got much worse in 2022 but is still below pre-pandemic levels : NPR

CHICAGO — Millions of Americans returning to the office but getting there primarily by driving instead of taking public transit led to a significant increase in traffic congestion last year, according to a new report.

The typical U.S. driver lost 51 hours to congestion in 2022, about an hour each week. That's 15 more hours lost to congestion than in 2021, and all that time wasted in traffic jams hit pocketbooks hard, costing the average American driver $869 in lost time, according to 2022 Global Traffic Scorecard by the mobility analytics firm Inrix.

But traffic congestion across the country is still only about half of what it was before the Covid-19 pandemic, as the report indicates the amount of time drivers lost on average in bumper-to-bumper gridlock was about 50 percent below 2019's.

 

Amid backlash, consumer safety commission chair says he’s not seeking gas stove ban | The Hill

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Amid backlash, consumer safety commission chair says he’s not seeking gas stove ban | The Hill

The chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), a Biden appointee, said on Wednesday that he is not seeking to ban new gas stoves.?

The statement from CPSC Chairman Alexander Hoehn-Saric comes amid significant backlash from both Republicans and some conservative Democrats.?

“I am not looking to ban gas stoves and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so,” said?Hoehn-Saric in a written statement.?

He clarified that the commission is “researching gas emissions in stoves and exploring new ways to address health risks.” He also said it is engaged in “strengthening voluntary safety standards” for the appliances.?