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In 1976, many Americans had given up on cities. HR&A was founded that year as a small California firm analyzing public budgets and grounded in the belief that cities were worth investing in. In the decades since, cities have proved the skeptics wrong, and they have kept us busier than ever. For 50 years, HR&A […]

Texas cities, including Houston, have powered the state’s rapid growth. But growth hasn’t insulated them from economic uncertainty, technological change, rising housing and energy costs, climate risk, and fiscal pressure. These forces are deepening inequity and leaving leaders with fewer tools to respond. As one of the country’s fastest-growing, most diverse cities, Houston is a […]

San Francisco sits along multiple active fault lines, making seismic resilience central to the City’s resilience planning. Financial feasibility is understood as a significant barrier to improving earthquake resilience across San Francisco’s seismically vulnerable concrete buildings. Responding to this challenge, the City and County of San Francisco engaged HR&A to lead the Policy and Financial […]

Flip a switch in New York, and the light comes on. Almost no one thinks twice about it. But that reliability powers an economy. HR&A is proud to have partnered with Con Edison on its 2025 Economic Impact Report: → $24.8 billion in economic output, about 1% of New York State’s GDP → 39,700 jobs […]

The private sector now owns more than 80% of AI supercomputer performance, while the public sector’s share has dropped from about 60% in 2019 to less than 20%. On the current trajectory, local government’s only relationship with AI compute may soon be to receive an invoice from a handful of consolidated owners. Principal Preston Rhea […]

Adaptation is not only a climate question. It requires finance, design, engineering, and policy to come together around infrastructure investment, land use, housing, and economic development. That is why our climate practice is built as a cross-disciplinary group rather than a specialty bench. Similarly, our decarbonization work charting effective pathways to reducing emissions also requires cross-sector expertise.

HR&A is supporting the Maine Governor's Office of Policy Innovation and the Future to build a proactive, durable funding and financing strategy for climate resilience in Maine. As flooding, sea level rise, and severe storms grow more frequent and costly, this initiative furthers Maine’s leadership in climate resilience and develops an opportunity for strategic, long-term investment to protect its communities, infrastructure, and progress.

367,000 homes. That’s what it will take to keep pace with growth in metro Atlanta over the next decade — and the region now has a plan to get there. HR&A Advisors is proud to have partnered with the Atlanta Regional Commission on Housing Forward 2035, the first-ever regional housing strategy for metro Atlanta’s 11 […]

For 20 years, the American housing debate was an argument over permission – who gets to build what, and where. That argument isn't over. But it is no longer who or what decides whether homes get built. Now, cost drives the conversation.

More than 300,000 households across East and South Los Angeles now have a path to affordable, high-speed internet. Los Angeles County and WeLink Communications announced that construction on the County’s first Community Broadband Networks is nearing completion, bringing internet service to residents and small businesses in East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Watts, Willowbrook, and dozens […]

When the private market fails to deliver fresh, affordable food to the communities that need it most, local government has to step in. That was the shared conviction behind a recent conversation hosted by HR&A Advisors, the Mayors Innovation Project, Mayors for America, and Local Progress Impact Lab.

California has never been short on ambition. But ambition without results leaves communities behind, and right now, communities across the state are navigating compounding challenges — aging infrastructure, a housing crisis, climate risk, a challenging job market, and an economy in flux.  What does it actually take to get hard things done in California? On June 18, HR&A Advisors hosted an […]