July 2009

  • The Bicycle Mandate

    New York City Council approved a measure, the Bicycle Access Bill, that requires buildings with freight elevators to allow for bicycle access. The measure, which was overwhelmingly passed, is just another example of New York City government taking aggressive action…

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    Awesome Choice: Shelley Poticha to Take Sustainability Post at HUD

    Wow. Only a week after I wrote a post celebrating how well the Obama administration seems to be getting its act together on smart growth and sustainability, they have done it again. My friend Shelley Poticha has accepted a senior…

  • 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…

  • Renting From the Bank?

    Alyssa Katz, author of Our Lot: How Our Real Estate Came to Own Us, is skeptical of the proposal to have foreclosed homeowners stay on as renters. Katz, like the rest of us in this field, is well aware of the value of vacant housing prevention to a neighborhood, but she points out that giving foreclosed homeowners the right to stay indefinitely is more protection than your average renter ever gets and asks “why former owners [should] be entitled to a vital protection that most of the nation’s renters don’t have?” She predicts that resentment against troubled homeowners, which is often misplaced in the face of modest attempts to rescue people with abusive loan terms, would be even stronger, and, she argues, more legit in this case. I confess to being more concerned about what’s best for the neighborhoods than keeping any individual with getting away with something. (What we’ve let the banks get away with in the name of “financial stability” is mind-boggling.) Besides, still-solvent homeowners and renters in high foreclosure neighborhoods have quite a bit of stake in seeing that those areas are stabilized, and lowering vacancy rates is a prime way to do that. Still, is there a way to make this work that’s practical and (more) fair? Would offering normal one-year leases (a privilege at least many regular renters enjoy) be enough to encourage ex-homeowners to stay put for long enough to make a difference? Can the landlording be outsourced to a company (or, say, local CDC) that’s good at it? Has anyone heard any reports from Freddie Mac’s modest efforts in this direction? more

  • White House Hosting ARRA Web Forums

    The White House Office of Management and Budget has announced a series of forums geared to help recipients of funding appropriated through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to “better understand and comply with the Act’s transparency guidelines.” White House…

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    The Obama Administration’s Remarkable Week on Sustainable Cities, Smart Growth & Revitalization

    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…

  • A Rental Option for Homeowners?

    Reports are surfacing indicating that the administration is considering a rental option for troubled homeowners. Could homeowners rent their homes in lieu of eviction? According to Reuters: Officials have been frustrated as red tape and rising interest rates have slowed…

  • 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…

  • Urban Policy: Just Getting Started

    Xavier de Souza Briggs, the Associate Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and the subject of an upcoming Shelterforce interview, wrote in Shelterforce last fall that “Urban policies are the rules and incentives that shape the prosperity, equity, and environmental sustainability of the metropolitan regions in which 8 in 10 people live.” So, if that’s the case, it’s somewhat interesting to witness the White House’s quiet unveiling of its Office of Urban Affairs. Why the muted fanfare? Will this office, as Next American City Editor Diana Lind told The Root’s Dayo Olopade, not “be as serious and as powerful a role as many urbanists had hoped”? Olopade’s piece goes on: “Under the Recovery Act, federal funding is flooding state governments — by formula and through competitive grants. A robust and powerful Office of Urban Policy, local leaders say, could handle city-specific conflicts that currently fly under the White House’s radar.” As Briggs says, urban policy “cannot be airmailed from Washington via one-size-fits-all blueprints. It requires local adaptability as well as public/private coordination, operating under clear standards and oversight.” Hopefully, Director Adolfo Carrion Jr. and his Office of Urban Affairs (once referred to as Urban Policy), will take this slow roll out, with its seeming impressive list of attendees, and create the aggressive, promising office it has the potential to be. more

  • 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…

  • How Much Is Too Much Neighborhood Data?

    Individual behavior plays a significant role in perpetuating residential racial and ethnic segregation. Illegal discrimination, including racial steering, and housing affordability both play a role, but neither can fully explain the severe segregation that plagues so many of America’s metropolitan…

  • 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…

  • Community Organizing Going National?

    There are several things that I’ve been noticing out in the community organizing world that I find increasingly intriguing. I first noticed it over the past year with PICO’s push on national health care legislation. Now I am also noticing…

  • Extra! Major Funding Is Provided By…Congress?

    The print media industry, we all know, has been in rapid decline over the past few years, but recently, we’ve truly begun to see the manifestation of that decline as regional newspapers from around the country are drastically changing their…

  • Compost Bins on the South Lawn

    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…

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    Gary Never Forgot: A Suffering Steel Town Clings to Jackson Legacy

    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…