Urban News

(MIAMI) -- Hotel owners in Miami say that they did better than the national average in recent weeks in attracting visitors. A new report, released in the Miami Herald, shows that during the first half of this month occupancy rates were high enough to show that the "tourism rebound is under way."

The average hotel occupancy in Dade County was 64.3 percent during the first half of December. Much of the reason is "weather-based."

Nationally, and for the rest of Florida, the occupancy rate during the same period was just above 52 percent.

As far as rates go, the Miami area did better than the national average even though rooms are more expensive there, just over $95 per night, vs. a state and national average of about $80.

One analyst noted that the south Florida numbers are so strong that hoteliers should be happy as the new year approaches.

(DENVER) -- The homicide rate in Denver has leveled off, mirroring national figures. The latest crime statistics show that even though some urban areas saw huge increases during the past 12 months, Denver police report numbers that are close to those registered in 2001.

So far, according to the Denver Post, there have been 106 murders in the seven-country Denver urban area this year. The total numbers were assembled by the newspaper from information supplied by local police jurisdictions.

Even though the "no-increase numbers" are considered to be good news, Denver police point out that half of all the homicides in the urban area were within the limits of the Mile High City.

Boulder, a medium-sized city far from the Denver metropolitan area, has had five murders this year -- its first homicides since 1998.

(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) -- Fire experts in Kansas City, Mo., have had to declare a no-burn rule in the city this week. The Kansas City Star says that dry weather and strong wind conditions prompted the Kansas City Fire Department to declare the ban on Monday.

Officials tell the publication that the decision on extending the ban will be made on a day-to-day basis.

While some parts of the Midwest have been inundated in snow, conditions in and around the Kansas City metropolitan area have been bone-dry, with strong wintertime winds making the situation worse.

The city is working with the National Weather Service and local fire experts in assessing the fire threat.

Although there is not much burning in the area this time of year, some companies do outdoor burning and residents are still coping with leaves and fall trash in some areas.

(BLOOMINGTON, Ind.) -- At least one medium-sized national urban area says it does not want to be on an Interstate highway. Many people in Bloomington, in southwestern Indiana (home of Indiana University), say that they do not want the planned completion of Interstate 69 to pass near that city. That missing part of the national I-69 scheme is a missing "spoke" in the asterisk of Interstate highways that converge on Indianapolis, an hour away.

Plans call for the completion of the missing segment, and a hundred or so miles in other states, to create a seamless corridor from Detroit to the Mexican border, near Brownsville, Texas.

But while many small towns in southern Indiana, such as Washington (a city of 10,000) are spending money to lobby for the highway to be built near them, many in Bloomington say they don't want the eventual sprawl that would come with the construction of the highway through its suburbs.

Meanwhile, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal, people in the Evansville area say that they want a better way to get to Bloomington, and eventually, to Indianapolis. One plan would take the I-69 corridor on an "L-shaped" route, north from Evansville to Terre Haute, then east on I-70 to Indianapolis. The so-called "Bloomington route" would cut the corner, forming the hypotenuse of a triangle formed by it and the through-Terre Haute routing. It would cut travel time, but double the cost of construction.