April 2009

  • History of the Housing Market

    Here’s a cool animation of something we’re all too familiar with. subprime from beeple on Vimeo. more

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    Considering the Role of Density in Sustainable Development

    Later this week, I am going to be participating with my friend David Dixon and marketing whiz Laurie Volk in a seminar on development density at the annual meeting of the American Institute of Architects. Our session is titled “Making…

  • Flint: The Un-Sprawl

    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…

  • Donovan Touts Administration’s Housing Policies, Though Acknowledges “Daunting Set of Challenges”

    WASHINGTON—Addressing a crowd of low income housing advocates, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan promoted the Obama administration’s housing policy here, but acknowledged that while “there’s great opportunity in crisis, there’s also crisis in crisis.” Donovan’s remarks were delivered to several hundred…

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    My Favorite Revitalization Story: The Rebirth Of Old North

    My view is that no other single category of activity is more important to sustainable development than revitalization. When done properly, it’s great for residents old and new, great for cities, and great for the environment. One would be hard…

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    Rail Time Enthusiasm

    Summoning the ghost of Eisenhower, President Obama announced yesterday “a new era in American train travel” involving an $8 billion “down payment” for, and subsequent billion-dollar supplements every five years on a comprehensive high-speed rail system.The funding is part of…

  • 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…

  • How Much Bailout Money Did Your Bank Get?

    Here’s an informative resource assembled by The New York Times online that outlines the hundreds of banks, automakers, and insurers that have applied for funding from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program Is your bank, automaker, or insurer on…

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    Giving New Meaning to “Green Transit”

    In the US, we tend to think of public transportation as inherently green, which of course it is compared to our addiction to driving. It becomes even more so when old diesel buses are replaced with models running on natural…

  • 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…

  • Gonzo Realty

    I hate when I’m late to arrive on a story, but here’s an excellent profile from The Los Angeles Times on Jim Klinge, the Realtor-cum-blogger who, expressing pre-burst housing bubble incredulity, started taking his message to the Web. The broker,…

  • Banks Sitting on Foreclosed Homes

    Here’s an interesting piece from the San Francisco Chronicle reporting on a “shadow inventory” of foreclosed houses—possibly 600,000 nationwide—that have not been placed on the market. Lenders nationwide are sitting on hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes that they have…

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    When the Market Recovers, Smart Growth Will Claim a Larger Share

    Even before the recession began, the market for residential and commercial property in the US was changing away from a model of unmitigated suburban sprawl and toward one of more central locations, urbanity, and walkable neighborhoods. The foreclosure crisis, spike…

  • Foreclosure Holiday at Fan & Fred Comes to an End

    There weren’t any splashy headlines like there were when, just before the holidays, GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced a foreclosure moratorium, but last week, that freeze came to an end. The ban applied to foreclosure sales and evictions…

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    Great Falls And The Silk City

    PATERSON, NJ—It’s early February and the air temperature hovers in the low teens—never mind the windchill that could only be tolerable to a Midwesterner. But despite the cold temperatures, the Great Falls, a geological oasis in these urban environs located…

  • Big City Papers: Do We Even Need Them?

    There’s been a number of news items on Rooflines in recent months about how the recession has finally led to the demise of many big-city newspapers that for years have tottered on the brink. Add my hometown paper, The Boston…

  • Mapping the Meltdown (And Some Possible Exits)

    If you’ve ever had occasion in your life to stop and ask yourself “How did I end up HERE?” you already know you don’t say that when good things are happening. Listening to economic news lately is the same thingso…

  • 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”…

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    Modern Community Development for a Modern Crisis

    NEWARK, NJ—Urban Essex County, New Jersey, one of the hardest hit areas in the state by the ongoing foreclosure crisis, could be the laboratory for an ostensible reinvention of community development, as a local CDC there announced today the successful…