In a recent 48 Hills post, housing activist Peter Cohen aimed a couple rounds of return fire at SPUR's Gabriel Metcalf. The post comes in response to Mr. Metcalf's own article critiquing progressive housing policy. Mr. Cohen bounces around a bit, but he does repeat some frequently used talking … [Read more...]
The History of Progressive Housing Policy
Maya Dukmasova recently published at Slate an interesting piece about the potential for current trends in affordable housing policy to tear apart the social capital of low-income people. She makes the Ostromian point that policymakers' lack of understanding of the informal institutions that govern … [Read more...]
Urban Renewal in Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Housing Authority will seize nearly 1,300 properties for a major urban renewal project in the city's Sharswood neighborhood. The plan includes the demolition of two of the neighborhood's three high-rise public housing buildings -- the Blumberg towers -- that will be replaced with a … [Read more...]
Market Fundamentalism in the Mission?
There’s a proposal to place a moratorium on all market rate construction in the Mission District, one of San Francisco’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. Needless to say the proposal has sparked a debate. And Dan Ancona’s Putting Market Fundamentalism On Hold is another rock hurled into that … [Read more...]
Why Money for Schools Means No Permits For Housing
Housing has a lot going against it in the California. But amidst all the legal, political, and regulatory roadblocks, there’s one law that sneaks by largely unnoticed: Prop 98.Prop 98 guarantees a minimum level of state spending on education each year. Sacramento pools most city, county, and … [Read more...]
Urban[ism] Legend: The Free Market Can’t Provide Affordable Housing
![Urban[ism] Legend: The Free Market Can’t Provide Affordable Housing](https://i2.wp.com/ec2-34-201-95-206.compute-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CityCenter_DC_-_construction_06_-_2011-12-30.jpg?fit=2000%2C1333)
Over at Greater Greater Washington, Ms. Cheryl Cort attempts to temper expectations of what she calls the “libertarian view (a more right-leaning view in our region)” on affordable housing. It is certainly reassuring to see the cosmopolitan left and the pro-market right begin to warm to the … [Read more...]
Only 2 Ways to Fight Gentrification (you’re not going to like one of them)
Gentrification is the result of powerful economic forces. Those who misunderstand the nature of the economic forces at play, risk misdirecting those forces. Misdirection can exasperate city-wide displacement. Before discussing solutions to fighting gentrification, it is important to accept that … [Read more...]
Gentrification in Reverse
Co-authored with Anthony Ling, editor at Caos Planejado Gentrification is the process through which real estate becomes more valuable and, therefore, more expensive. Rising prices displace older residents in favor of transplants with higher incomes. This shouldn't be confused with the forced … [Read more...]