In rising to meet America's changing housing needs and demands, not every community is positioned to pull it off. What to do? Painful though it is, Ben Brown suggests triage.
"The good news about making the redevelopment of American neighborhoods more responsive to 21st century American needs is that we seem to have a pretty good grasp on the problem:
"We have a lot more isolated, supersized, energy-sucking housing than we want or can afford. And we have a lot less compact, close-in, energy-efficient neighborhoods than we need. The data is in, reported and summarized in a bunch of different places, including PlaceShakers posts here and here."
"The bad news is how tough it is to turn around a half-century of misplaced investment and start delivering the sort of housing choices America’s changing demographics and economic realism demand. The fact is, we’re addicted to housing policies and processes that are sapping our wellbeing and future prosperity. And to make rehabilitation even more challenging, we’ve organized whole industries around supporting and prolonging the addiction."
Ben Brown goes on to report the goings-on this week at the New Partners for Smart Growth conference in Kansas City. And the conversations and efforts happening to effect change in the housing market.
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