Subject: Advocacy

• Because we needed more fraud and foreclosure…

  This may be small in the grand scheme of the economic collapse, but I think it’s worth highlighting anyway: While there are dozens of reasons people are getting behind on their mortgages and entering foreclosure, there are also apparently some…

• Short-Term Stimulus and Planning for the Long Term

  Everyone’s excited about the money pouring, or rather trickling, out of the federal government in the form of economic stimulus. As is the case with many grants, loans and other funding sources, the money is meant to be used within…

• National Work Among Community Organizing Groups Is Growing

  Editor’s Note: This is in response to Randy Stoecker’s earlier post on community organizing on the national level. ACORN, PICO, and US Action are among the community organizing groups mobilizing people around health care reform. They are part of a…

• Franken, the Fourth of July, and Worker’s Rights

  Finally: Al Franken has been seated in the US Senate. After a grueling recount process, former Sen. Norm Coleman finally conceded defeat and congratulated Franken on his Senate victory in Minnesota. With the Democrats securing 60 Senate votes, the media…

• Growing The Community Development Vision

  Burgeoning Asian-American communities in places like Colorado and Georgia are not necessarily served by Asian-American-based community development corporations —though they should be, according to Jeremy Liu, Executive Director of the Boston-based Asian Community Development Corporation. Liu, who made his remarks…

• TARP for Community Development?

  Doris Koo, president and CEO of Enterprise Community Partners, brought up an interesting concept of using TARP monies returned to Treasury by various lending institutions and re-appropriating them toward community development financial institutions. Community Development TARP, as she called it…

• Social Innovation and Civic Participation

  We have some insight from Sonal Shah, the head of the new White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, who is advocating here at here at the 10th annual National CAPACD convention for government to play a limited…

• Keep It Local

  Mark Winston Griffith of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy is making a particularly keen point here at the National CAPACD 10th Annual Convention in Washington in regards to community organizers becoming too enamored with the Washington, DC lifestyle…

• A Squatter’s Discourse

  Spurred by the Bullet Space squat in Manhattan’s East Village making the transition to being a co-op, we find an interesting conversation on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show on squatting’s legitimate place in the housing field. The interview includes Andrew Reicher…

• Bring the Green to Rental Buildings

  Given all the emphasis on green jobs and energy efficiency in the Obama administration, it’s not surprising that these uses are targeted by a huge chunk of the economic stimulus money now flowing to the states and on to cities…

• Make Your Voice Heard

  What should you do if you’re politically progressive or even if you label yourself a liberal, or a Democrat but are unhappy about the direction of New Jersey’s government? You should attend a great conference on Saturday, April 18th being…

• Three Ways Not to Transform Parks — And One That Can Work

  Back when I was a local reporter, I witnessed the unfortunate demise of a beloved neighborhood park in Malden, Massachusetts. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. had been involved in the park’s design at the dawn of the 20th century. But local…

• Ease Guidelines=Market Rally

  It’s amazing what accounts for a market rally. Are we starting to see a pattern here? While the MSM still insists on using the Dow Jones Industrial Average in taking the temperature of public policy, it’s clear that the “markets”…

• Get Your Green On

  In general, most efforts to develop “green infrastructure” at the neighborhood level have been volunteer-led, grassroots efforts. City governments don’t tend to take the lead on creating pocket parks and planting trees or developing bike infrastructure. Seattle’s Green Factor is…

• Foreclosure Crisis: How Much Blame Falls On The Media?

  If you still have not watched The Daily Show, stop what you are doing and go on the Internet and watch last week’s clips of Jon Stewarts show. He was engaged in a weeklong battle with CNBC and Jim Cramer.…

• Despite Promises of Relief, Foreclosure Crisis Still Escalating

  In the Chicago metro area as across the nation, even with various public, private and nonprofit relief efforts underway, the foreclosure crisis continues to snowball. Foreclosures and foreclosed buildings going into real estate ownerships (REO) and hence likely remaining vacant…

• Task Force Calls for $4 Billion in NSP Funding

  Editor’s Note: The following is from the National Foreclosure Prevention and Neighborhood Stabilization Task Force. See the bottom of the page for a list of task force members. In 2008, approximately two million families faced the devastating impacts of foreclosure—and…

• This Land Is Your Land

  What was the best event at the inaugural celebration? Watching Barack Obama take the oath of office, of course, but the next best moment was watching Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen lead the nation in singing This Land is Your…

• Are You An Advocate?

  “Isn’t it true, Dr. Squires, that you are an advocate?” As an occasional expert for plaintiffs in fair housing lawsuits this is a question I almost always get during depositions. The implication, of course, is that as an advocate I…