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By the time the first passengers boarded Cincinnati’s streetcar in September, its advocates had already been on a wild 15-year ride that included surviving two ballot initiatives to derail the project. The Cincinnati Bell Connector—the streetcar’s formal name, thanks to that company’s ten-year, $3.4 million naming-rights deal signed in August—began clanging through Cincinnati’s streets at a time when construction continues ramping up in the city center.

In a volatile year, the FTSE/NAREIT All REIT Index posted a modest total return of 9.3 percent in 2016, while the S&P 500 saw a total return of 12 percent. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) enjoyed a pleasant opening to the year, followed by a skittish second half as interest rate concerns applied downward pressure.

Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design recently released a report examining how urban planning and design interventions can help improve housing and urban development practice in Mexico, including densifying existing population centers with infill development and retrofitting infrastructure and services in areas where existing homes have been abandoned.

A new report from ULI Europe and JLL finds that food and beverage (F&B) and leisure offerings are essential to the success and future competitiveness of shopping centers. The report finds that retail sales in a sample of shopping centers analyzed for the study increased by 6.2 percent in the previous 12 months with the addition of leisure and F&B, with retail sales per square meter growing by 1.2 percent over the same period.

In the six years since Philadelphia began to slowly reverse decades of population loss, the city has seen its share of real estate development controversies. Most of these—involving questions of gentrification, tax abatements, and density—would be familiar in any number of U.S. cities that have undergone a resurgence in the past few years. But lately, discussions about the preservation and demolition of the city’s thousands of historic properties have been particularly pitched.

The growing involvement of the real estate industry in helping municipalities manage stormwater runoff with systems using natural resources is explored in a new ULI publication, Harvesting the Value of Water.

Former vice president Joseph R. Biden Jr. sounded an optimistic note in his address to ULI Spring Meeting attendees in Seattle, showing some of the populist spirit that earned him the nickname “Uncle in Chief.”

The evolution of “smart” cities is about solving specific problems more than sweeping urban transformation, panelists emphasized during the 2017 ULI Spring Meeting. Targeted programs with clear benefits are defining smart cities, not the widespread embrace of new technology, they said. In Seattle, “smart” means expanding the network of low-cost sensors, which is allowing for adaptive traffic signals and detailed weather mapping that can track microclimates and rain surges.

The first 100 days of the new U.S. administration has been marked by uncertainty and ambiguity—and while foreign real estate investors are concerned, they still believe the United States is a good place to invest. But panelists speaking at the ULI Spring Meeting in Seattle said they are optimistic about reforms to FIRPTA and more investment in infrastructure.

At ULI’s 2017 Spring Meeting in Seattle, attendees heard from voices from outside the land use industry, including Daniel James Brown, author of the New York Timesbest-selling book The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Goldat the 1936 Berlin Olympics. “This is a story that reminds us of who we are at our best,” said Brown.