Keeping Houses Occupied
Most of the problems foreclosed properties cause come because they tend to become vacant and stay vacant for a while. Often a homeowner flees at the first notice of a […]
Buffaloonly Problems
I was a little premature in celebrating New York’s modest land bank bill, it seems, as it has not yet been signed by the governor. Some sources say he is […]
Small Cities: Stepchildren No Longer
What do you know about New Bedford, Altoona, or Terre Haute? Should we figure that big-city revitalization work will just trickle down to these former industrial hubs? A new report […]
“No Pain,” But Lots of Spin
Columbia Deal Avoids Eminent Domain Pain trumpeted yesterday’s New York Post headline. After all the struggle over Columbia University’s plan for a new campus in the Manhattanville neighborhood, which I […]
Memphis’s Unwelcome News
Hanna Rosin has caused quite a stir with her dramatically titled Atlantic Monthly article American Murder Mystery. (For the record, we writers rarely get to write our own headlines, so […]
Good News—New York State Style
New York state has been described as having the most dysfunctional legislature in the country. Gerrymandering that keeps the houses continually in the hands of opposing parties, and rules that […]
Injury to Injury
I don’t have any links to post on this, because I haven’t found it being covered anywhere, but in some conversations I’ve been having with state housing trust fund managers, […]
The Limits of Federalism
Responding to Andrew Macurak’s post on Pennsylvania interfering with its counties’ right to pass strict smoking bans and but allowing them opt out of paying for transit: On all of […]
Massachusetts is watching
Given the interesting but not widely known fact that foreclosure rates in the current crisis are lower in neighborhoods with a larger percentage of CRA-regulated institutions, it’s promising to see […]
Free Transit?
New York City’s attempt to pass a congestion pricing plan like those that have been so successful in London and elsewhere was killed a while back by the New York […]
Diverse Workplaces Work, Why Not Neighborhoods?
To continue the collective efficacy discussion, I want to throw the work of Professor Scott Page, author of The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools […]
Collective Efficacy: Who’s in the Collective?
Kari Lydersen’s post on the challenges of mixed-income communities yesterday reminded me of some things I’d wanted to bring up regarding the conversation Alice was starting on collective efficacy. I […]