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Also, a programming note: We’ll be skipping next week’s edition and will be back in our inboxes on July 12. Now onto the briefs!

Hawaii Youth Win Climate Settlement

Hawaii reached a settlement with climate activists for the state’s Department of Transportation to rapidly eliminate transportation-related carbon emissions by 2045, The Guardian reports. The agreement essentially makes a previous statewide goal to decarbonize by 2045 mandatory. The lawsuit, filed in 2022 by 13 young climate activists, most of whom are Indigenous, claimed that the state’s transportation policies violated their rights under Hawaii’s state constitution, including by prioritizing highway expansion instead of promoting walking and biking. (The federal infrastructure law has exacerbated this problem in some states: In New York, most of the $1 billion of flexible spending went to highway expansion.) The state also passed a law in 2015 requiring its energy sector to end carbon emissions by 2045.

Congestion Pricing Casualties: 100,000 Jobs and a Subway in East Harlem

The group Reinvent Albany estimated that Governor Hochul’s “pause” on congestion pricing could cost the state 100,000 jobs due to lost funding for the MTA. That includes $3 billion that would have gone to union labor. According to a statement from Reinvent Albany, “The Governor’s pause of congestion pricing risks good paying jobs because there is no viable or realistic source of funding to replace congestion pricing.” And Curbed reports on funding that was meant to go to the Second Avenue subway extension in East Harlem, “part of a subway expansion that’s been promised on and off for 80 years.” According to polling obtained by Curbed, the benefits of the congestion toll to public transportation users had not been communicated well, despite previous studies that found it best to link the funds to specific projects. Many East Harlem residents supported subway improvements but were skeptical of the toll. Just under 60% of respondents approved of the toll if told that it would support elevators for people with disabilities.

Pittsburgh Zoo at Center of Debate on Whether We Should Have Zoos

Public Source reports that the Pittsburgh Zoo is working on regaining its American Zoological Association accreditation, which it lost in 2015 due to its use of bullhooks and dogs to herd elephants, practices that it has since ended. The incident spurred a larger conversation about whether animals belong in urban zoos rather than in the wild or in wildlife sanctuaries. Some animals like elephants have shorter life expectancy in zoos and exhibit visible signs of distress. Zoos claim that keeping animals there promotes wildlife conservation to the public, but studies have shown most visitors are no more likely to support conservation after a visit.

Birth Defects Rise in Texas After Total Abortion Ban

A Johns Hopkins University study published Monday shows that infant mortality increased by 8% as a result of Texas’ 2021 abortion ban. Texas’ SB8 banned all abortions, with no exemptions for congenital abnormalities. The study shows infant deaths stemming from congenital anomalies increased 23% after the law went into effect, suggesting many are forced to give birth to babies with life-threatening birth defects.

Lack of Childcare Harming Small Business Growth

According to the 19th, small businesses are strained as employees are quitting due to a lack of childcare options. Goldman Sachs polled 1,259 business owners in 47 states as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. and found one-third of small business owners say employees had either reduced hours or left their jobs due to the lack of childcare. About 38% said that a lack of affordable childcare hindered their ability to grow their business. More than 75% of small business owners said they would support federal policy to make childcare more affordable and 70% support increasing a tax credit for businesses that provide childcare from $150,000 to $500,000. Childcare costs have been outpacing inflation each year, costing families on average $11,582 a year in 2023.

Curated by Deonna Anderson and Roshan Abraham

MORE NEWS

• An Amtrak project could destroy businesses and residences in a vibrant majority-Black neighborhood in Baltimore, according to a civil rights complaint. The 19th

• Evictions of Palestinian families in the illegally occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah have accelerated amidst Israel’s attack on Gaza. (Many families were placed in Sheikh Jarrah by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees following the Nakba, or the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948.) New Lines

• Barcelona will ban apartment rentals to tourists by 2028 to help solve its housing crisis. Arch Daily

RESOURCES

• The National Low Income Housing Coalition just released its latest report: Out of Reach 2024, which highlights the gulf between people’s wages and the price of modest rental housing in every state, county, and metropolitan area in the U.S. Access it here.

EVENTS

• July 2 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern: Anticapitalism for Artists is hosting a group study session about guaranteed income for artists. The conversation will address these questions: What is possible when you have your basic needs met? What choices would you make? What art would you make? Register here to be part of the study session.

• July 17 at 3 p.m. Eastern: Policy Link is hosting a conversation with the Center for Ethical Land Transition. Presenters will discuss “how communities, funders, and landowners can work to transition land out of the speculative market and into collective stewardship, so that we may all deepen our relationships to land and upend the logics of dispossession that underpin our property system.” Register here.

Roshan Abraham is Next City's housing correspondent and a former Equitable Cities fellow. He is based in Queens. Follow him on Twitter at @roshantone.