On Our Radar

Black-majority cities are rising amid a national conversation surrounding whether they can improve and develop while retaining their black majority.

Equifax announced a data breach that resulted in over 150 million people’s information being stolen. Credit bureaus play a vital role in lending decisions and the financial services industry will not sit idle in the midst of the privacy debates.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said he will leave office at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term, saying he could have a greater impact in the private sector.

Nationally, banks have shut 1,915 more branches in lower-income neighborhoods than they’ve opened in the four years through 2018, according to S&P Global Inc. The three largest consumer banks — JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Bank of America — led the way, S&P said.

2020 Democratic candidates have policy plans to invest in communities that have been a victim of discrimination, but the question of whether these policies are a form of reparations has yet to be answered. One must first define what “reparations” actually means.

Oregon is poised to become the first state in the nation to impose statewide limits on how much landlords can raise rents after state lawmakers passed a sweeping measure on Tuesday.

Race appears to trump ethnicity when it come to predicting wealth, according to a new report examining the economic disparities among Miami’s diverse population.

In the mid-Atlantic, increased tidal flooding from 2005 to 2017 extracted $862.1 million in relative property value, the researchers found. Maryland saw a loss of $555.7 million, Delaware almost $300 million and Pennsylvania roughly $10 million.

Researchers found that high-poverty districts serving mostly students of color receive about $1,600 less per student than the national average. That’s while school districts that are predominately white and poor receive about $130 less.

Amazon saw which way the wind was blowing. On Thursday, three months after announcing the results of its pageant of civic debasement, the company changed course.

The three barriers to building trust in financial services are: inconsistent reputations, transactional mindsets, and conflicting interests.

Running in Baltimore traces the blueprints of divisions that have stood for a century. While other cities close their chapters on segregation, Baltimore languishes. Here, running breaks no boundaries.

In many local markets, the arrival and expansion of Airbnb is raising questions about its potential negative impacts on local housing costs, quality of life in residential neighborhoods, employment quality in the hospitality industry, and local governments’ ability to enforce municipal codes and collect appropriate taxes.

On Wednesday, Patagonia announced it has an additional $10 million in profits on its books for 2018 as a result of Trump’s “irresponsible tax cut” last year, which lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Instead of investing the additional dollars back into its business, Patagonia said it would give $10 million to grassroot groups fighting climate change, including organizations that work in regenerative organic agriculture to help reverse global warming.

Homeownership has lots of pros, of course – but some cons, too. Rather than viewing homeownership as an goal in and of itself, policymakers should create more pathways to economic opportunity and financial security for both owners and renters.