June 15, 2005
CA Unused Property as Real Estate Developments?
The State of California owns a range of undeveloped properties with several prospects:
State Treasurer Phil Angelides has come up with an idea to put the land to use instead of selling it. Angelides, a former developer, proposes that state lands "be managed like a high-quality real estate business." He would channel the proceeds through a public trust agency to help more California students go to college. Angelides says the endowment could generate $250 million a year for scholarships, counseling, college preparation and other programs. Despite the lack of an inventory, he sees most of the property as commercially viable for business and housing.
May 16, 2005
Article: Students Try Their Hand at Urban Design
Y-Plan made the Oakland Tribune yesterday! Congratulations Team Holloway, and, of course, Team Smith -- it was a long semester, but we made it. The next big question is sustainability; how will students stay involved with the station and see the design ideas to fruition in a decade?
Students Try Their Hand at Urban Design
central station, education, historic preservation, planning articles, urban design
May 06, 2005
Article: Democracy Takes Command
Harvard Design Magazine takes a look at the changing role of "citizen planners" . . . how has the community development process changed over time, and where is it headed?
For designers who would be urbanists, the challenge is to move beyond the general knowledge of citizens engaged in planning their communities. The future of urban design now lies in the development and use of information systems and tools that all players in the community-making process will use. Understanding and supporting these knowledge bases and tools so they are integral parts of the democratic planning process is one of the great opportunities for the planning and design professions and portends a shift of historic proportions with regard to the means by which cities are planned, designed, and built, a shift as important as the design of any piece of infrastructure. As opposed to advocating urban design education for the masses or leading the people to the city on the hill of good design, planners, architects, and landscape architects, acting as urban designers, must associate themselves and their specialized activities with everyday people to do everyday planning.
community and housing development, planning articles, urban design
May 02, 2005
Article: A Crack in the Broken-Windows Theory
Researchers looked at racial bias as a determinent of neighborhood perception --
As the proportion of black residents in a neighborhood increased, white residents' perception of disorder also soared -- even in neighborhoods that the raters had judged to be no more ramshackle than others with a smaller proportion of black residents. The researchers found the same thing when they looked at the percentage of families living in poverty: In neighborhoods with more poor people, residents perceived more disorder, regardless of the objective condition of the neighborhood.
The answer, they argue, seems to be that blacks had bought into the same negative stereotypes as whites, and have come to associate black neighborhoods -- any black neighborhood -- with decay and dysfunction, regardless of the objective condition of the area.
A Crack in the Broken-Windows Theory
Article: Train Station Revival on Track
The West Oakland Train Station made the Oakland Tribune's front page today. The story puts a positive spin on the planned redevelopment just in time for tomorrow night's City Council meeting.
The stately Beaux Arts-landmark was closed after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 and vandalized by squatters in the years since. The empty land around it has been used to park trucks, store shipping containers and basically, collect trash. Reynolds and many of her neighbors are tired of looking at it and annoyed at activists who may hold up the new residential project.
Train Station Revival on Track
For a bit of contrast, check out the Just Cause Train Station Campaign, which takes a dramatic counter position.
central station, historic preservation, planning articles
April 26, 2005
Article: Wells Fargo Mortgages Discriminatory?
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has published a study accusing Wells Fargo of predatory lending. The bank responded by claiming the research is invalid.
Are financial institutions still red-lining based on race and class? Perhaps, but I've not read the study myself...
Wells Fargo Mortgages in Milwaukee Criticised as Discriminatory
Article: TN, Mayors, and Saving CDBG
For the 2006 budget, Bush has proposed consolidating CDBG with 17 other grant programs and moving them all to the Commerce Department as the "Strengthening America's Communities Initiative." Changes also include cutting 30% of the total budget for these programs combined. A variety of groups are protesting -- the House budget added $1.1 billion for community development (total of $14.2), and the Senate adopted an amendment to allocate $15.2 billion.
The Bush proposal is more than a simple consolidation or cost-cutting move. The administration aims to fundamentally change the direction of urban and rural anti-poverty policy by more directly focusing federal efforts on boosting private enterprise and away from the diffuse aid programs that currently serve low-income people and communities.
The Bush camp labeled CDBG "ineffective" and points out a lack of evaluation of the system.
Officials from Small City Fight to Save Community Development Grant Program
Article: High Rents Drive Away CA Mobile Homeowners
Mobile homeowners being forced out by rising rents -- these days, even mobile home communities show signs of gentrification.
The Housing Authority has been studying the possibility of seeking an eminent domain court order on the property, purchasing Monte del Lago from Equity Lifestyle Properties, then selling it back to a collective of the park's tenants.
High Rents Drive Away California Mobile Home Park Residents
CV studio, land use, planning articles
Article: Smart Growth at Tysons Center
An example of Smart Growth infill development -- converting an office park into a downtown with high-density housing. The article also points out a disconnect between the proposed "downtown" ideal of smart growth presented as the reason for further development in the area, and the likelihood of actually achieving such a community.
"We support more density in Tysons Corner and more homes in Tysons Corner, because that is the only way we can create a walkable, transit-friendly community," said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, a consortium of environmental groups.
Soaring View of Tysons Center on a Downtown
April 21, 2005
Article: Lawmaker Steps in on Va. Growth
When the legislative branch takes it's work home with it at night.
Rep. Thomas M. Davis III said he will intervene in a contentious local issue by proposing legislation to scale back a massive development planned next to the Vienna Metro station, a project he acknowledges is near his own neighborhood.
Washington Post: Lawmaker Steps in on Va. Growth
Articles: Community Development Society
The CD Journal's next issue will be focused on the role of youth in community development. Issue 33-34 centered around theories of community development, but also included some school related papers.
- Investing In Communities: Social Capital's Role In Keeping Youth In School ~ Israel and Beaulieu (Vol.34, No.2)
Many community leaders view economic development as the primary strategy for improving social well-being. One approach to economic development is enhancing the local labor force’s human capital through formal education. In this article, we use a social capital framework to analyze how local institutions, specifically families and schools, affect educational achievement among public school students. We explore how social capital in the broader community context mediates the effects of family and school social capital on keeping students in school. Using hierarchical linear models to estimate these contributions, the results reaffirm the vital role of family social capital. They also show that attributes of school and community social capital make important contributions to staying in school. Our results suggest strategies that community development practitioners and local leaders can use to enhance educational outcomes and, in turn, the economic vitality of communities.
Article: Tax Breaks and Business Climate
How to woo big business to your state:
The truth is, a healthy civic culture makes a "good economic climate." The state that offers an educated work force, clean environment and fair tax structure need not beg for jobs. Local pride is a virtue that "pro-business" think tanks almost never measure.
There is also a great nod to funding for public schools:
My favorite idea for creative school funding comes from Nevada. Brothel owners there have offered to pay taxes, mainly as a goodwill gesture. Anything for the schools.
Seattle Times: A Healthy Business Climate Takes more than Tax Breaks
April 20, 2005
Paper: Do State Growth Management Regulations Reduce Sprawl?
Jerry Anthony, University of Iowa.
Thirteen states in the United States have adopted state growth management legislation that aims to preserve environmentally sensitive areas, improve the quality of urban areas, and reduce urban sprawl. Although there is a considerable amount of literature describing such policies, there is very little that examines the effectiveness of such policies. The author researched the efficacy of state growth management laws in controlling urban sprawl by examining the change in urban densities in 49 states over a 15-year period. He found that growth-managed states generally experienced a lesser density decline than states without growth management. However, regression analysis revealed that state growth management programs did not have a statistically significant effect in checking sprawl. The author concludes with several suggestions for modifying state regulations to curb sprawl more effectively.
Do State Growth Management Regulations Reduce Sprawl?
Paper: Displacement or Succession?
Lance Freeman of Columbia:
This article examines the extent to which gentrification in U.S. neighborhoods is associated with displacement by comparing mobility and displacement in gentrifying neighborhoods with mobility and displacement in similar neighborhoods that did not undergo gentrification. The results suggest that displacement and higher mobility play minor if any roles as forces of change in gentrifying neighborhoods. Demographic change in gentrifying neighborhoods appears to be a consequence of lower rates of intra neighborhood mobility and the relative affluence of in-movers.
Displacement or Succession? Residential Mobility in Gentrifying Neighborhoods
Article: Givings - The Flip Side of Takings
Kevin sent along an article about Oregon's November vote on establishing a takings law that grants private property owners the right to just compensation for any public action that decreases their property value. The author points out that private property owners (under this schematic) should be required to compensate the government for public actions that increase their property value -- a system of "givings"...
Givings: The Flip Side of Takings
April 19, 2005
Paper: Home Insecurity
After reading Mike Davis's article on the housing bubble this morning, here is an even more thorough survey of property value inflation, but this time based on corruption within the appraisals market. What a cold shower, to borrow against your property value only to learn that you can't sell your house for the amount of your mortgage (even without a downturn in the market).
Predatory lending targeting minority and sub-prime borrowers often involves appraisal fraud. Low-income aspiring homeowners are also targeted by developers who collude with dishonest appraisers in the aggressive marketing of new homes offered at inflated prices.
Home Insecurity: How Widespread Appraisal Fraud Puts Homeowners at Risk
Article: Showdown at Showplace Square
The Next American City's Urban/Rural Edge issue includes a discussion of a moratorium on non-industrial construction in San Francisco's Showplace Square.
TNAC: Showdown at Showplace Square: Does San Francisco Have Room for Industry?
Article: Riotous Real Estate
This clip was sent along to the planning list this morning. Mike Davis paints the painful state of housing demand (connected to public schools) in the nation's largest cities:
The bubble has already burst in San Francisco, and the April 11th issue of Business Week headlined fears that a general deflation – perhaps of international magnitude – is nigh. What will life be like in the United States (or Britain or Ireland) after the home-equity ATM shuts down?
TomDispatch: Riotous Real Estate
March 23, 2005
Article: Vibrant Cities Missing One Thing - Children
This New York Times Article charts the decline of childhood populations in American cities as though the journalist had discovered something shockingly new.
Vibrant Cities Missing One Thing: Children
City policies for redevelopment favor construction of "affordable" and market rate housing units with one or two bedrooms. America's historical bias towards suburban single family homes (Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co., U.S. Supreme Court, 1926) finds reflection in a bias towards singles in cities.