Has the Housing Movement Found Something to Unite Around?
I've been around the affordable housing field for a little while (not as long as many of our readers though I realize), and I've sat through a lot of discussions […]
A Light in the Voting Rights Darkness
When we wrote last year about the fights to preserve voting rights and voter turnout against mounting attacks leading up to the presidential election, I think even in our darkest […]
Building Codes: The Good and the Bad
Recently, Rosanne Haggerty of Community Solutions argued here on Rooflines that outdated building codes—including things like minimum sizes and parking requirements—were limiting the amount of affordable housing that could be […]
Places of the Heart
Everyone has a story about third places—those gathering places that are not home or work—in the communities they have lived and worked. I wrote about some of mine in my […]
Bloomberg Thinks You Profited from the Housing Crisis
The following is, sadly, not a spoof, but a real cover illustration on an article about the housing market: Now, we here at Rooflines were wondering too just the other […]
Health and the Spaces Inbetween
Last year, we published a focus issue on health and community development. We called the package “Are Our Neighborhoods Making Us Sick?“ and pulled together a wide range of authors […]
More than Hair: Barbershops
Last year when I was walking my neighborhood, flyering for the Tale of Two Cities march and feeling out of place as writer trying to be an organizer (in other […]
Do Denser, Poorer Areas Need More Third Places?
“In Kibera, the streets are truly the public spaces, and people are out all day, every day: selling, socializing, trading. People make their living—they live their lives—right out in the […]
“Where Are They?” Do We Think of Third Places When We Make Decisions?
“No community should be without these kinds of spaces. Therefore, when we think about planning or revitalization efforts or development, we [should be] saying, ‘Where are they?’, because it’s that […]
Where are people returning to the community from prison supposed to live?
The United States is incarceration happy. Our incarceration rate is five times as high as comparable countries, and has been the highest in the world since 2002. This means a […]
Hearts of the Neighborhood: “Third Places”
Several years ago, the family-owned florist two buildings down from my house closed. There was great consternation in the neighborhood about what would happen to the building. The small red […]
Elizabeth Warren Embarrasses Bank Regulators
If you haven't watched this yet, you probably want to. Here's the Huffington Post synopsis. How do you think Elizabeth Warren's presence on the Senate banking committee is going […]