(RECAP: The architect responsible for the master plot for the redevelopment of Friendship Court told the Charlottesville chapter of the Urban Land Institute on Thursday that the time is right to invest in dense, walkable downtowns. David Dixon, an architect with Boston-based Stantec, told ULI at a presentation at CitySpace that people with at least a four-year college education and an income in the top 40 percent nationally are increasingly heading to dense urban environments. Meeting the housing demand for that shift means trillions of dollars will be invested in downtowns across the country by 2030, and the investment will not fully satisfy demand.)

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(RECAP: Newport News city officials are holding a series of kick-off meetings next week to collect input from residents on how to improve the neighborhood surrounding Ridley Place public housing complex, stemming from a $500,000 plotting grant from HUD. The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative grant was awarded to the city in late June. It is awarded on the condition that a locality will seek suggestions from people in the community on how to transform the neighborhood. The funds will be used to start the plotting process on how to make and finance improvements in the area of 39th Street south to the harbor between Interstate 664 and Marshall Avenue.)

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(RECAP: The federal agency that enforces the nation’s honest housing laws said it is “in discussions” with Facebook to address what it termed “serious concerns” about the social network’s advertising practices. Heather Fluit, a spokeswoman for HUD, said in a statement that the department was “aware of published reports that Facebook’s advertising tool may allow users to discriminate in housing advertisements.” Fluitt said Facebook’s advertising policies will be examined by HUD’s office of Honest Housing and Equal Opportunity. ProPublica told last week that Facebook’s software allows advertisers to exclude people from seeing their ads whose habits on the social network suggest an affinity with ethnic groups like African-Americans, Hispanics or Asian-Americans.)

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