March 2009
A Rail Line Toward Community Development
Amid the growing acknowledgment that strong centers make healthier regions, it’s increasingly clear that the argument for providing opportunities for transit oriented development, or green development, is gaining major traction not only in community development circles, but neighborhood circles as…
Strong Centers Make Healthier Regions
The signs continue to mount that the housing market continues to move in favor of central locations, and away from sprawl. It’s all a matter of degree, of course, but the signals are real. Recently, I wrote about new data…
It’s Time To Adjust To The Metropolitan Reality
One of the recurring themes of my writing (for example, here) has been that, to achieve sustainability in our cities, suburbs, and rural areas, we need to get beyond the accidents of history that comprise our local jurisdictions. Environmental, economic,…
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Read All About It…While You Can
Another major daily faces major cutbacks. This time it’s the Atlanta Journal-Constitution cutting its full-time news staff by about 90 people, or roughly 30 percent. Most of the cuts, according to the AJC article, will be in production and management.…
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Missing Priorities In HUD/DOT Sustainable Communities Initiative
At a US House of Representatives hearing last week on “Livable Communities, Transit Oriented Development, and Incorporating Green Building Practices into Federal Housing and Transportation,” HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced an new partnership.…
National Train Day (Trainiacs Unite!)
I thought this was an interesting tidbit: in an effort to highlight trains as convenient, energy efficient, environmentally sound ways to travel, Amtrak will hold its second annual National Train Day in May to mark the 140th anniversary of the…
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Job Quality & The Stimulus Package
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—the Stimulus Package—passed by Congress in a painful process in February, proposes to create or retain at least 3.5 million jobs—green jobs, construction jobs, infrastructure refurbishment jobs. But with all the drama surrounding the bills…
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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…
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An Inconvenient Greed (AIG)
It was hard to pick a winner in The Chicago Sun-Times’ March 20, 2009 Acronym Test, What Should AIG Really Stand For? I’m casting my vote for the title of this blog posting. The outrage over AIG bonuses is certainly…
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Going Mainstream With the Obama Vegetable Garden
I’m a cynic when it comes to The New York Times and its reporting on culture, trends, dining, and style. Though I’m a fan of what is now seemingly one of the few print newspapers left in the world, normally,…
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HUD & DOT Team Up To Promote Sustainable Communities
This is awesome. Here is an excerpt from yesterday’s joint press release from HUD and DOT: “WASHINGTON—U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood today announced a new…
Just Because His Sleeves Are Rolled Up, It Doesn’t Mean He Means Business
I’m a little late weighing on on this, but this retrial of Jon Stewart v. Tucker Carlson is not sitting well with me. Countless investors have lost life savings, IRAs, and more “skin” in any game that I’ve ever seen…
Giving Community Organizing A Good Name In East Hollywood
Through the combination of my insatiable curiosity and the wonders of the Internet, I have stumbled upon a magic kingdom in Southern California. No, not that magic kingdom, but the vibrant, down-home, very Web-savvy, it’s-happening-here community of East Hollywood. East…
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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.…
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NLIHC Budget Chart Outlines HUD Appropriations
Here’s a handy resource released today by The National Low Income Housing Coalition today assembled following last week’s Senate passage of H.R. 1105, the omnibus FY09 appropriations bill. The bill includes nine FY09 spending bills, including the Transportation, Housing and…
Donovan Eyes Change to Mortgage Credit System; Bringing HUD to the Forefront
WASHINGTON, DC—HUD chief Shaun Donovan yesterday championed an overhaul of the existing infrastructure of the mortgage finance and economic system in allowing low- and moderate-income individuals to be approved for mortgage loans that remain affordable. Donovan pointed to an “enormous…
Rep. Frank Promises an “Improved” Subprime Bill
WASHINGTON, DC—House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) today announced a bill, slated for an April vote, that aims to impose tougher penalties on securitizers who have sold bad loans, along with other restrictions that said would limit the “possibility…
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NJ’s COAH: Finding Common (and Vacant) Ground
As New Jersey’s Council on Affordable Housing, or COAH, continues to defend its plan to use a growth-share model to encourage towns to build working class and affordable housing, we’re reminded of one thing that became clear a long, long…
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ACORN’s Home Defenders
Should have posted this sooner, but here’s interesting news from ACORN ACORN members in 16 kicked off the “Home Staying Campaign the week of February 23. These cities include San Mateo County, Calif.; Denver, Colo.; Bridgeport, Conn.; Wilmington, Del.; Broward…
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Blog-Heavy, Link-Heavy, (and Some) Breaking News
It’s now a regular exercise where we report the demise of another respected, long-standing, print media outfit and while news that the Hearst Corporation-owned The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will likely to turn into a Web-only enterprise does not fall into that…
National Housing Institute
