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ULI leaders are using the Connecting Florida initiative, including a special report released in April, Connecting Florida: Transit + Florida’s Economy, to help leaders get answers to questions about where people work and live and to ensure that the organization plays a larger role in the transportation dialogue. Learn what transportation development is adding new urgency to the effort.

Austin is one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation, and has relatively low unemployment and a housing market that was spared the recession’s worst impacts. The city’s economy is doing fairly well in spite of the downturn, says Todd C. LaRue, principal in the Austin office of RCLCO Real Estate Advisors and member of the executive advisory board for ULI Austin. Read what else he and other ULI members have to say about the Austin market.

As the current Congress winds down with its overburdened lame duck session, attention is beginning to turn to what the new Congress may mean for housing finance. Even though the new Congress has not yet been organized and Committee chairs and members picked, read what John McIlwain, Senior Resident Fellow, ULI/J. Ronald Terwilliger Chair for Housing, believes to be some themes worth paying attention to in the coming months.

In the wake of the financial crisis, there has been some recent discussion of the role of real estate financial markets in contributing to the crisis. Jeremy Newsum, ULI chairman, has some pointed criticisms of closed-end funds. Simon Treacy, Group CEO of MPGA, and a ULI member, offers his views on the topic of closed-end funds and their role in providing investors access to otherwise inaccessible markets.

Over a two-week period this fall, I had the opportunity to attend two ULI meetings, in two very different cities, with two equally different formats: a ULI Europe Leadership Retreat in Istanbul, Turkey, followed by the 2010 ULI Fall Meeting and Expo in Washington, D.C. The backdrop for the two meetings could not have been more different. Read about what they shared despite being such seemingly different events.

China’s retail development and investment opportunities are progressively spreading to large second- and third-tier cities – all with populations above 1 million – which puts added importance on building the right contacts and partnerships in China’s real estate market, advises Rong Ren, chief executive officer of Harvest Capital Partners and a ULI member . Read about how retail has changed in China as a whole, as well as which markets the growth is spreading to and what might be required to invest if you are not from China.

Sales are slow. Leasing is sluggish. You need more activity, but your cash is tight. How can you squeeze more momentum from your marketing budget? Read what several ULI council members offer in terms of maximizing marketing using traditional and social media outlets.

The Better Block movement demonstrates without any public sector assistance the vitality that could be brought to struggling neighborhoods in cities such as Dallas, San Antonio, and Norfolk, Virginia.

In nearly every way, the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago does not fit the standard definition of a Whole Foods target market. And yet the high-end grocer announced this week plans to open a store there in 2016, having also opened a new store recently in midtown Detroit.