Tulsa’s $10K Reward for New Residents Pays Off—and Everything Else You Need to Know About This Week
California’s proposal to ban plants around homes is under fire, Disney steps into the affordable housing market, skaters revitalize San Francisco’s bleakest plaza, and more.

California’s proposal to ban plants around homes is under fire, Disney steps into the affordable housing market, skaters revitalize San Francisco’s bleakest plaza, and more.
- Since 2018, as part of a program to attract new residents and bolster its economy, Tulsa, Oklahoma, has paid more than 3,400 remote workers $10,000 each to move to the city—and it seems to be working. (Bloomberg)
California’s proposed ban on plants within five feet of homes intends to curb wildfire risk, but experts warn it may backfire, stripping away green buffers that can actually slow blazes and protect homes from embers. (The Los Angeles Times)
Disney is building a nearly 1,400-unit affordable housing project near Disney World in Florida that’s aiming, in part, to serve the very workers who keep the magic running behind the scenes. Here’s why the entertainment behemoth is building the development. (Dwell)

Disney is building an affordable housing development in Horizon West near Orlando, Florida.
Photo courtesy of Disney
U.S. cities are quietly being stripped of one of their cheapest tools to keep buildings cool and cut energy costs: light-colored, reflective roofs. The enemy? The "dark roof" lobby. (The Guardian)
Skateboarders are breathing life into San Francisco’s long-failing U.N. Plaza. With $2 million, a rail, and a few small embankments, the city turned a fentanyl-ridden wasteland into a thriving community space. (The New York Times)
Top photo by Dee Liu/Getty Images