On Our Radar

Think polarization and inequality are bad now? Buckle up: big cities are poised to get bigger, richer and more powerful — at the expense of the rest of America, a new report by McKinsey Global Institute shows.

Opendoor, which pioneered a new way for homeowners to sell their abodes, is partnering with rival Redfin Corp. in a move meant to help both companies reach more customers in a still evolving segment of the real estate industry.

In recent months America’s affordable housing crisis, a long-simmering issue for people of low and moderate incomes, has burst onto the front page. Rents are rising much faster than income, while the median home price in some 200 cities is $1 million. After a decade of decline, the number of homeless Americans is ticking back up.

Dozens of universities announced today that they are declaring a climate emergency, along with educational networks representing more than 7,000 other schools.

The Point, a waterfront neighborhood in Newport, Rhode Island, is one of the largest, best preserved and most important Colonial-era communities in the United States, but rising oceans and further climate change, people have been thinking again about how to preserve the neighborhood.

The central question in the minimum-wage debate has shifted. Where economists once asked, “Will raising the wage floor kill jobs?” they now ask, “Just how transformative could a higher minimum wage be?”

As a conservative, this is not the kind of thing I usually find myself saying, but the situation is dire and the consequences for our democracy are immense.

Some borrowers default on their student loans at much higher rates than others — and they’re not the borrowers with the highest debt.

Seattle is not the only city where locals are losing their minds over issues related to housing, zoning and transportation. Ugly public meetings are becoming increasingly common in cities across the country as residents frustrated by worsening traffic, dwindling parking and rising homelessness take up fierce opposition.

In the contest to become the Democratic candidate for president, Joseph R. Biden Jr. is being asked to confront his record on race, including past positions that some in his party now see as outdated and unjust.

Some Democratic presidential candidates are emphasizing the need to build more housing. That could make a big difference.

California Sen. Kamala Harris unveiled a $100 billion plan to invest in black homeownership — a proposal the 2020 presidential candidate said that, if elected, would set in motion her broader plan to tackle the US racial wealth gap.

“I’ve never seen pushback in such a fashion before,” Terry Schilling, executive director of the American Principles Project, told NBC News.

Thousands would be temporarily displaced; complexes would be locally owned and could be privately managed.

Here’s what might happen if Congress doubles the minimum wage.