Housing

Hurricane victims on the Gulf Coast can still live in government-provided trailers to buy their temporary homes for only $1, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

June 5, 2009 - Los Angeles Times

The consensus seems to be that its so bad, we must have hit bottom. But "a drop in housing starts might actually be good news," says one economist.

May 24, 2009 - Business Week

DOT and HUD announce a joint effort to merge land use and planning to improve livability. CNU's John Norquist comments on the merger.

May 2, 2009 - New Urban News

Watching Slumdog Millionaire, the Oscar winning film of 2008 that is being released on DVD today, can be a bracing experience for those accustomed to the conveniences of Western living. The destitute living is accurately and graphically depicted and is all too real for those that have seen it. Yet, the real danger is letting the poverty obscure a larger, perhaps more important lesson about urban places: Many of these urban slums are functioning, productive cities in their own right, and represent an intergenerational path toward economic improvement.

March 31, 2009 - Samuel Staley

The planning profession’s ambivalence toward Houston has always been a little frustrating. In part, the profession’s attitude is understandable. Houston hasn’t embraced planning’s conventions, so why should the profession embrace Houston? Fair enough. But the downside is losing the opportunity to look at core issues and problems from a completely different lens. This is especially true when it comes to housing development where Houston performs remarkably better than its peers.

March 20, 2009 - Samuel Staley

In January 1992, The New York Times Sunday Magazine ran a piece by Columbia’s Nicholas Lemann, titled “The Myth of Community Development”.  It was then - timed to provoke critical thinking about the Clinton Administration’s vanilla urban policy of Empowerment Communities (EZ/EC) - a poignant evaluation of community development, and it asked hard questions. Questions about the capacity of local organizations, the wisdom of economic development efforts in the hands of anemic CDCs.  Neither wholly right nor wrong, the piece put on the table a necessary skunk:  was it sensible to try to revitalize the inner city using the tools and thinking then at hand?

March 10, 2009 - Charles Buki

With housing values and sales continuing to plummet along with other major economic indicators, the concern should be about preventing a second great depression, not paying down the deficit, writes Dean Baker.

March 9, 2009 - Guardian (UK)

 As the economy continues to lumber through the most protracted period of recession since the early 1980s, the financial sector has received the brunt of the blame. It’s been easy for the planning profession to distance themselves from what seem at first to be macroeconomic trends. That view, however, is becoming increasingly difficult to uphold.

March 7, 2009 - Samuel Staley

The deepening of the housing market crisis is certainly a big deal in California. But the land use story of the year was the Legislature's passage of a measure mandating regional planning.

January 1, 2009 - California Planning & Development Report

City Limits breaks down the differences between the two presidential candidates with a focus on urban issues.

November 2, 2008 - City Limits

James Howard Kunstler has been saying for some time now that when our "ponzi scheme" economy finally crumbles around us, people are going to be very angry, and looking for someone to blame.

October 14, 2008 - Michael Dudley

The on-going foreclosure and subsequent credit crisis should offer important lessons for housing policy and public policy more broadly. Chief among these lessons might be the falsity of the notion that government regulation is always bad. But some conservative commentators cling to the dogma that government intervention is the root of all evil. An explanation being offered by some is that government intervention in the form of Community Reinvestment Act encouraged irresponsible lending and led to the subsequent housing bust.

September 23, 2008 - Lance Freeman

The cost of commuting is beginning to trump federal policies favoring exurban development, and transit ridership is at a fifty year high.

August 12, 2008 - The Washington Post

Author Alan Ehrenhalt says that conditions are ripe for the permanent return of downtown residential neighborhoods, and that a "demographic inversion" has already begun in Manhattan, Chicago and Washington, DC, among other cities.

August 1, 2008 - The New Republic

Moscow tops an annual ranking of the world's most expensive cities. The survey examines housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment for corporations and government agencies determining living costs for expats.

July 25, 2008 - Forbes

The Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae crisis is resurrecting the debate over the role the federal government should play in the housing market.

July 18, 2008 - The Christian Science Monitor

The Chicago Tribune examines what became of an ambitious city project, led by Mayor Daley, to revolutionize public housing. Private developers received public funding to tear down old projects and replace them with mixed-use neighborhoods.

July 9, 2008 - The Chicago Tribune

What do the residents of Vancouver's False Creek North think of living in one of the largest centrally located, high-density, pedestrian- and family-oriented mixed-use neighbourhoods in the world?   

July 1, 2008 - Gordon Price

The economics of long commutes are forcing many to the conclusion that suburban living is no longer viable, and suburban housing prices are falling accordingly.

June 26, 2008 - The New York Times

A recent L.A. Times series suggests that we should build more Southern California freeways for long-distance commuters, and prevent additional job development in employment-heavy areas. Bill Fulton suggests a different approach.

June 23, 2008 - California Planning & Development Report