Subject: Communities
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The Ford Foundation has announced a five-year, $200 million effort to help “transform the way that cities, suburbs and surrounding communities grow and plan for the future” by anchoring housing, transportation, and land-use policy to promote economic growth.
The program also aims to build on successful collaborations and policy innovations Ford has supported in communities throughout the country, providing models that can be adopted and adapted in other metropolitan regions.
The initiative was announced by Ford Foundation President Luis A. Ubiñas to some 300 local, state, and federal leaders gathered to discuss the revitalization of American communities that once relied almost solely on the auto industry for jobs and growth. Urbinas said metropolitan communities should plan together and collaborate on challenges that include affordable housing, infrastructure investments, education and job creation.
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Why all the paranoia about the 2010 Census? If you listened to the far right, the data collected from the census could result in a scene similarly portrayed in the Clash’s “Guns of Brixton,” with brown shirts kicking in your…
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You probably received your census forms in the mail last week, and it’s not going to come as any surprise to Rooflines readers that filling out these forms is imperative. Not only does the federal government dole out more than…
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A Detroit-based community development trade association, The Community Development Advocates of Detroit, has released a report that, among other proposals, suggests that certain residential areas be transformed into “green venture zones,” “naturescapes,” and “green thoroughfares,” in addition to commercial hubs, and traditional residential sectors.
The report, Neighborhood Revitalization Strategic Framework comprises a number of neighborhood revitalization recommendations and “is the work of a unique, multi-sector collaborative representing over 85 community development organizations, government, funding institutions, businesses, educational institutions, and city-wide and regional nonprofit organizations,” according to a CDAD press release
With more than 30 percent of the city’s 139 square miles vacant, the idea of handling what are not only long-term, but permanent changes to Detroit’s physical and socioeconomic makeup, has long been on the radar of city government, CBOs, and local planners. Early last year, Dan Pitera, a Dan Pitera, a professor of architecture at University of Detroit Mercy, assembled a map that illustrates how to fit the land mass of Manhattan, San Francisco, and Boston and their combined populations into Detroit — roughly 3 million people.
According to Tim Thorland, chairman of the CDAD board:
“It is only when we understand the conditions and strategies necessary for the entire city, that we can begin to make decisions about specific neighborhoods. Furthermore, we can’t simply ignore areas of the City without understanding what their new purpose might be. We must determine what entity should own and manage that land. Otherwise crime, environmental dumping and other negative factors will surely result.”
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On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as one of the lucky ones who actually had the day off to reflect on this great man’s legacy, I started thinking about what’s actually happening around race in the United States today.…
I’m sure many in the Rooflines readership are familiar with the inspiring story of Melrose Commons and Nos Quedamos in the South Bronx. It is much less known in my world of environmental advocates, so I chose it as my…
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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced this morning the long-awaited list of grantees for the second round of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP2) — $2 billion in available funds set aside in the American Recovery and Reinvestment…
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HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan is expected to announce the NSP2 grantees, benefitting from nearly $2 billion of neighborhood stabilization program funds made available in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Donovan will hold a press conference today in Detroit to…
New end-of-year data confirm what some of us have been reporting for a long time: central cities in the US are no longer in decline. This is great news for the environment, since it is more evidence that sprawl is losing its hold on the American psyche.
In Washington, DC, where I live, a steady trend of population growth in the last decade has reversed years of population loss caused by middle-class flight to the suburbs. In 2009, that growth (a net gain of 9,583 residents) was larger than anything seen since the 1940s. A story in The Washington Post, written by Carol Morello and Tim Craig, further reports that last year’s gain was due in significant measure to residents moving into DC from other US municipalities, not just immigration from other countries as in previous years. more
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On a trip yesterday into Richmond, Va., I made sure to pick up some of the free media that clutter the doorways of bookshops and cafes and provide a reason for those ubiquitous multicolored news boxes on the sidewalks and…
The Knight Foundation, sponsor of Soul of the Community, a three-year study that asks people in 26 communities about their perceptions of their city when it comes to things like crime, schools, beauty, nightlife, and roads, has released some interesting…
A great story is emerging in Rose Town, Jamaica, a community in the process of being reborn with the help of HRH the Prince of Wales and The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment. My very favorite writings since becoming…
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My friend Hank Kalet offered a prescient look last week about the potential pitfalls of Chicago being awarded the 2016 Olympic games. The following day, the IOC sent Chicago packing in the first round of voting in a move that…
Every summer, Boston’s Asian Community Development Corporation has been hosting an informal grassroots Asian film festival in a vacant lot near the city’s Chinatown Gate. The final night this year was held in the nearby Chinatown Park. As has been…
A major challenge that has come with sprawl over the last half-century has been that growing up, maturing, and growing older has required, more often than not, moving to a new community at each new stage. This is largely because…
Wow. Last Monday, before heading out to toss the first pitch at Tuesday’s baseball All Star Game, the president kicked off a White House forum on urban policy by criticizing past federal measures that have encouraged sprawl and promising a…
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According to the Sierra Club, of the 31 million tons of food waste tossed each year in the United States, only 3 percent is actually recycled, so I was particularly happy when I read the report on Ecorazzi.org that the…
The eyes of the world were focused on Gary, Indiana in the days following Michael Jackson’s June 25 death. People marveled at the tiny house where Michael spent his first 11 years. Spending the two days after his death in…
Smart Growth Schools expert Nathan Norris lists eleven key principles for measuring how well schools and school policies fit in with their communities. I really like them: Restoration Preference: Will old schools be restored rather than replaced so long as…
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You’ve probably seen the most recent story in The New York Times about the troubles facing Flint, Mich. and the latest in an ongoing dialogue examining shutting down parts of the city: an exercise in “planned shrinkage.” Planned shrinkage became…
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National Housing Institute
