Manufacturing May Be Coming Back, But It Won’t Bring Jobs
I finally got to see Detropia last week, the acclaimed documentary filmed in Detroit that’s been making the rounds of the film festivals and the indie houses. As someone who’s […]
Property Tax Madness: Another Part of the Detroit Puzzle
There are many reasons that Detroit has filed for bankruptcy, and some have already been explored by others on Rooflines. Detroit’s problems have accumulated over decades, and are a paradigm […]
Hung Up on Gentrification? Don’t Be
In my last post I described an approach—centering on a tax credit for families to buy substandard houses in targeted neighborhoods, fix them up, and occupy them as owner-occupants for […]
Forget NSP, Tax Credits Will Save Neighborhoods
If we want to revitalize neighborhoods, we must recognize that it’s a multiyear project. It should be an income tax credit program for three reasons:
What Creating a ‘Stable Neighborhood’ Really Means
Last month I wrote about why Project Rebuild is basically a bad idea, and why the Obama administration is making a mistake by trying to refloat it once again, rather […]
Project Rebuild in the 2014 Budget: Beating An All-But-Dead Horse
I must admit I was surprised to see Project Rebuild resurface in the Obama administration’s 2014 budget proposal. If there was ever an idea whose time had come and gone, […]
5 Things Cities and CDCs Don’t Get About Code Enforcement
In most circles, all you have to do is say “code enforcement” and people start mumbling about previous engagements. As I’ve been increasingly immersed in thinking about the future of […]
The Heavy Hand of Demographic Change
Washington Ave St. Louis (credit: Google Earth) As I continue to wrestle with the future of cities and urban neighborhoods, and about how to go about reversing the decline that […]
Getting the Mortgage Market Back on Track
Of all the things government can and should do about housing, creating a strong, responsive mortgage market may be more important for the future of American families, neighborhoods and cities […]
Thinking About a Second Term Federal Housing and Urban Agenda: Part I
President Obama has been re-elected, and hope springs eternal. I’ve started to think about a second term housing and urban agenda. Frankly, there wasn’t much of one during his first […]
Is Las Vegas Coming Back?
I recently spent a few days in Las Vegas meeting with housing and real estate people of various stripes. Compared to a similar visit about two years ago, the difference […]
Can These Neighborhoods Be Saved? More Thoughts from Detroit
In my last post, I described the picture in what I call Detroit’s ‘middle-ground’ neighborhoods. In recent decades, those neighborhoods, mainly single family homes, have housed the city’s solid working […]