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News & Events
Furman Staff Present to City Planning Commission in Advance of Parking Requirement Decision
January 24, 2013 – Applauding the Department of City Planning’s willingness to reexamine parking regulations in the Manhattan Core, The Furman Center’s Josiah Madar and Simon McDonnell presented a letter to the City Planning Commission. Among the changes included in the Department of City Planning’s proposed zoning text change, parking built to serve residential development would no longer be restricted to the building residents, and earlier changes to minimum parking requirements would be extended to buildings built before 1982 when the changes were enacted. The Furman Center’s commentary notes that these changes would add flexibility to the use of current and future parking. Read the full letter here, and the Furman Center’s 2012 policy brief on minimum parking requirements here.
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Research & Policy
Furman Center Research on Neighborhood Integration Featured in HUD Journal
January 24, 2013 – A Furman Center paper identifying the pathways through which neighborhoods become and stay integrated appears in the most recent issue of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Cityscape Journal. Looking at all American cities, the paper finds the number of integrated neighborhoods has risen since 1990 from 20 to 30 percent. The paper also considers the factors that influence neighborhood integration and help neighborhoods stay integrated. Read the paper here.
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News & Events
Mark Willis Discusses Affordable Housing History with the Architectural League
January 24, 2013 – In 1986 Furman Center Research Fellow Mark Willis was the Deputy Commissioner of Development at NYC Housing Preservation and Development at the launch of Mayor Ed Koch’s initial 10-Year Housing Plan. In an interview with the Architectural League, Willis describes some of the challenges of creating affordable housing out of the stock of vacant buildings and vacant lots that had come into the City’s possession and some of the elements that made it possible for the program to succeed in reviving neighborhoods across the city. Read the full interview here.
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News & Events
Mark Willis Defends Record of Community Reinvestment Act
January 17, 2013 – Furman Center research fellow Mark Willis argued in a co-authored editorial Wednesday that the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) did not encourage risky loan practices in the lead up to the financial crisis. The CRA, enacted in 1977 and intended to expand access to credit and reduce credit related discrimination, is a regular target of groups aiming to place greater responsibility for the mortgage crisis on government. The editorial was prompted by a recent National Bureau of Economic Research article that claims to make a case against law. To clear the record, the editorial was accompanied by a report which clearly refutes claims that the law supported risky loan practices. Read the editorial here, and the report here.
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Research & Policy
FACT BRIEF: NYC’s Low Rental Registration Compliance Could Interfere with Emergency Response
January 15, 2013 – In emergency situations like Hurricane Sandy, the city’s system for tracking rental property owners can serve as a crucial resource. However, a new Furman Center report finds that the vast majority of landlords required to register with the city fail to do so. Only 23 percent of rental properties are registered with the city, and only 61 percent of NYC’s renters live in buildings with current registrations. The report outlines strategies for boosting rental registration to help make the registration ordinance a fully effective resource, including greater outreach and stronger penalties. See the press release or read the full report here.
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News & Events
Furman Center Presentation Shows Impact of Sandy on City’s Housing Stock
January 12, 2013 – Furman Center Researcher Max Weselcouch showed how Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge affected New York City’s housing stock at a seminar organized by the Municipal Art Society. With city and FEMA data, the presentation showed the type and distribution of housing in areas affected by the surge, paying special attention to the location of NYCHA and other affordable housing properties. See the full presentation here.
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News & Events
Furman Center Hosts Policy Breakfast on Transferable Development Rights
December 13, 2012 - The Furman Center hosted its second policy breakfast on the topic of transferable development rights (TDR), focusing on their role in achieving policy goals. Using two innovative ideas as the backdrop—one linked to affordable housing and the other to raising funds for landmarks–-the panel considered the advantages and disadvantages of loosening the rules governing the transfer of development rights; how to design new TDR programs so that they will be effective; and how to structure new TDR programs to co-exist with the broader city planning objectives for a neighborhood.
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News & Events
Furman Center Roundtable Discusses Impact of Foreclosures on Communities
December 12, 2012 - Growing out of research on how foreclosures affect neighborhood crime, funded by the National Institute of Justice, the Furman Center convened a group of experts to consider how to respond more effectively to the spillover effects that concentrations of properties in foreclosure impose on surrounding communities, like increased crime. Roundtable participants discussed what factors are driving these findings in New York City and also considered a number of innovative strategies to combat them, including community-based short sale programs and distressed mortgage purchasing programs, both of which might help homeowners avoid foreclosure and reach resolution of their default more quickly. Participants represented a broad array of stakeholders, including representatives from local government, nonprofit organizations, and academia.
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News & Events
Vicki Been Discusses Bloomberg’s Legacy
December 4, 2012 – Furman Center Co-Director Vicki Been discussed the urban planning legacy of the Bloomberg Administration at a symposium by Fordham Law and the New York City Bar on Tuesday. The discussion ranged from the extensive rezoning efforts undertaken in recent years, including the expanded use of transferable development rights, to sustainability projects embodied in PlaNYC. For more on understanding the Bloomberg administration’s impact, check out the Furman Center’s paper on New York City’s recent history of removing regulatory barriers and research on Bloomberg era rezoning’s relationship with park accessibility and transportation.
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News & Events
Ingrid Ellen Speaks on Assisted Housing at National Conference
November 28, 2012 – Furman Center Co-Director Ingrid Gould Ellen presented the latest research on rental housing policy in the U.S. at a national conference organized by the Ford and Open Society Foundations and hosted by the San Francisco Federal Reserve. The presentation synthesized a variety of Furman Center research including: a report on assisted households’ access to quality schools, research on crime rates experienced by poor renters, and the impact of low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) developments on surrounding property values. View the full presentation here.