Place Matters, But Place Changes
“Place matters, but place changes,” University of Southern California professor Manuel Pastor observed at the opening plenary at PolicyLink’s 5th Equity Summit, held this week in Los Angeles. This can […]
Is Rags to Riches the Right Measure?
Comparative income quintiles don’t tell us very much about the material conditions of people’s lives. When someone rises into the top fifth, someone else falls into the bottom fifth.
Land Trust Conference Models Better Ways to Get People’s Attention
Folks who present on and moderate panels: We can no longer claim that a meaningful presentation can’t be done in three minutes and that
you need longer.
The Best Thing I Didn’t Hear All Week
I’m in Lexington, Ky., this week for the National Community Land Trust Network conference, hosted by the Lexington Community Land Trust. The Lexington CLT had an unusual start—it was created […]
On Beyond Anniversaries
When I visited New Orleans last June for the NeighborWorks Comeback Cities event, many of the people I spoke with were ambivalent about the approaching 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina […]
Organizing and the Community Land Trust Model
What happens when organizers win a campaign for community control of land? That depends a lot on the choices they make about how to exercise that control.
Dispatches from Whose City?
City by City: Dispatches from the American Metropolis, edited by Keith Gessen and Stephen Squibb. N + 1. 2015, 496pp, $18 (paper). Purchase here.
Community Development and School Reform: Odd Bedfellows?
In my couple decades hanging around the community development field, I can’t count the number of times conversations about what’s needed to really bring back a struggling neighborhood or move […]
Leveling the Information Playing Field Between Advocates and Developers
Inclusionary housing has been around for decades. It encompasses a range of policies that call on developers to contribute toward creating affordable homes, either within their new developments, offsite, or […]
Unfriend Your Neighbor to Get a Loan?
Want to be that one person who bootstraps themselves out of poverty and makes it, against all odds? Not if Facebook has anything to do with it. Now, we already […]
Suing the Suburbs
Fights against the displacement caused by rapid gentrification tend to focus on the gentrifying neighborhoods themselves. But some housing advocates in the Bay Area are wondering if the idea of […]
Can’t Be in the Gulf for the Katrina Anniversary? Watch These Films Instead
Tomorrow is the 10th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, leading to all sorts of reflections on how far the city has come, what recovery means, and what lessons there are to […]