Lower-income neighborhoods are often more dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists, but they are also often left behind when local officials redesign streets to make them safer. How can we change this?
Who Most Needs Access to Core Neighborhoods?
We have a limited number of dense core neighborhoods where getting around without a car and without a lengthy daily commute are possible.
NJ Pays Hospitals to Build Affordable Housing
New Jersey’s Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency offers significant subsidies to encourage local hospitals to build housing for low-income residents and frequent users of hospital services.
Generating Civic Power in North Philadelphia
An organization embarks on a community-driven design process to transform two vacant row homes into a site for residents, artists, and law enforcement to collaborate on new public safety strategies rooted in care rather than control.
Q: Do economic development incentives support small businesses?
A. Not very much. Despite the claims of many states, when you look at the numbers, the vast majority of taxpayer dollars directed to economic development go to big corporations.
The Inside World of ‘Change Makers’
Reading Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman alongside Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas is a fascinating thought experiment.
Anti-Displacement Organizing Should Start Here
Organizing in AAPI communities has challenges, but their location and composition make them key in the fight against gentrification. Here's why.
Blame Zoning, Not Public Transportation, for Displacement
As long as there’s a shortage of transit-rich, walkable neighborhoods, piecemeal solutions to address affordability issues won’t be enough.
New Writings Suggest Incremental Change is Best Path for CRA Reform
These writings suggest that careful reform of CRA regulations can build upon the progress in lending and investing if the reforms are incremental instead of “transformational."
What Do Housing Groups Think About Dems’ Affordable Housing Plans?
Despite the near silence about the housing crisis during the last five Democratic debates, several frontrunners have proposed serious housing legislation. But will the plans actually address the crisis? We talk with several housing groups to get their take.
Increasing Access to Affordable Housing in Indian Country
There is a strong desire for homeownership among Native households, but a set of obstacles specific to Native lands are getting in the way.
Connected Neighborhoods
Transportation is the second largest direct expenditure for American households, after housing. Of course transportation costs vary widely based on where you live, how...
Criticisms About Community Preference Policies Are Misguided
Community preference policies have been challenged by those inside and outside of government who fail to see or value the anti-displacement benefits of the policy.
The Opposite of Deficit-Based Language Isn’t Asset-Based Language. It’s Truth-Telling.
How do you describe the people you work for and with, or the neighborhoods you work in? Do you use primarily “deficit-based” language like...
“Welcome to Little Tokyo, Please Take Off Your Shoes:” Remembering Dean Matsubayashi
Sustained resistance to gentrification and displacement requires more than antagonism. It requires a community organized around an open, positive alternative vision that has both big ambitions and achievable, intermediary steps.
Move to the Front of the Line
Community preference policies, which give current residents preference for new affordable housing in their neighborhood, have become increasingly controversial. Supporters say these types of policies are a crucial way to fight displacement, but fair housing advocates argue that the policies are exclusionary. Different cities are balancing these two concerns in different ways.