The recent announcement that Ian Jacobs, a scion of the famous Toronto-based Reichmann real estate clan, was coming to buy upwards of $900 million of San Francisco real estate, has offered the beleaguered California city a rare moment of hope. read more »
Urban Issues
Rethinking the Housing Affordability Crisis, Part 2
If you haven't read Part 1 yet, you can find it here.
Yonah Freemark, a senior research associate with the Urban Institute in Washington, DC, is someone I had the occasion of meeting a couple times in my career. A little more than ten years ago he worked for Chicago’s Metropolitan Planning Council, an independent nonprofit organization created in 1934. MPC’s mission then, and since, has been to challenge inequity and create stronger Chicago neighborhoods and communities. read more »
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A Piece of Civic Infrastructure That Works
How communities choose to shape their built environment and neighborhoods can powerfully impact a place’s sense of connectedness and how local relationships develop. However, in our time of digital distractions and social distrust, so many projects designed to promote social capital fail to meaningfully bring people together. read more »
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Rethinking the Housing Affordability Crisis, Part 1
Let’s talk about the nation’s housing affordability crisis.
I recently downloaded some 2023 third quarter data from the National Association of Realtors. read more »
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The Benefits of Congestion Relief
Data published by the University of Minnesota Accessibility Observatory a few months ago reveals some of the benefits of congestion relief that resulted from the COVID pandemic. read more »
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Progress Traps, Snap Crap, and A Plasma Bank Called Freedom
There is a strip mall not a stone’s throw away from my house that contains a Georgio’s pizza, a daycare center, and a plasma bank called “Freedom”. I live in a neighborhood in Cleveland that has a poverty rate upwards of 50%. For those not in the know, plasma banks are places where people sell their blood from which plasma is extracted through intermediaries, such as Freedom, to be sold at scale to pharmaceutical companies for various research and development purposes so it ultimately translates into high-end products that can be sold on the knowledge economy market. read more »
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What's Happening in Oregon and Vermont?
A few weeks ago, I noted that there appeared to be correlation between government efforts to get more people into multifamily housing and low fertility rates. read more »
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Elites Want to Ban Gasoline Cars, Gas Stoves
Urban elites are far more likely than other Americans to oppose gasoline powered cars, SUVs of all types, and gas stoves, according to a survey released last week by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. read more »
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I Used to Believe Planning was R&D for City-Building
Frequent readers here may have seen me write about my experience growing up in 1970s Detroit. I’ve often said that seeking ways to improve the city and not abandon it, is what propelled me into a career in urban planning. read more »
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The California Whimper
As the glint of the Golden State - rub worn by misdirection, doubt, and fear - fades just another little bit each day read more »
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