Housing Starts: Brooklyn Bridge Park Design | Foreclosure Starts Hit Low | Parking & Affordability

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1. Designs Emerge for Brooklyn Bridge Park Project “The city has received 14 designs for two new towers on the southern edge of Brooklyn Bridge Park that have been at the center of a debate about whether to add affordable housing to what some community groups view as a waterfront oasis. Some designs for the development play off the park’s location near Dumbo with industrial touches. Others look more like Midtown office towers. Some add flourishes of foliage to anchor the buildings to the park.” [Wall Street Journal – 08/05/14]
2. Gentrification and the Persistence of Poor Minority Neighborhoods “When we talk about why some places gentrify and others don’t, there’s often a pressing, underlying question at stake: To what degree is gentrification bound up with and shaped by race? This is the subject of a path-breaking new study by Harvard doctoral student Jackelyn Hwang and urban sociologist Robert Sampson published in the August issue of the American Sociological Review. Hwang and Sampson organize their research around a perplexing paradox. For all of these dollars flowing back into downtowns, how has the inequality of neighborhoods by race and class remained so persistent?” [CityLab – 08/07/14]
3. In Brooklyn, Developers Can’t Find People Who Qualify for Affordable Housing “Is Brooklyn so gentrified that there aren’t even people to fill affordable housing? Barika Williams, policy director at Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD), talks about the state of affordable housing and the report that there aren’t enough local residents who qualify for some Brooklyn units.” [The Brian Lehrer Show – 08/07/14]
4. Bank of America Offers U.S. Biggest Settlement in History over Toxic Mortgage Loans “After months of lowball offers and heels dug in, it took only 24 hours for Bank of America to suddenly cave in to the government, agreeing to the largest single federal settlement in the history of corporate America.The tentative deal — which people briefed on the matter said would cost Bank of America more than $16 billion to settle investigations into its sale of toxic mortgage securities — started to take shape last week after the Justice Department rejected yet another settlement offer from the bank. Then, a wild card entered the fray.” [New York Times – 08/06/14]
5. How Outdated Parking Laws Price Families Out of the City “Many cities want to encourage the production of family-sized apartment units, but few two and three-bedroom apartment units are being built. Most new apartment projects continue to be developed primarily with studios and one-bedroom units.So how can cities meet these needs and encourage the private sector to build affordable urban housing for families? Well, they can start by changing their parking policies.” [CityLab – 08/07/14]
6. Foreclosure Starts Hit Pre-Crisis Low “The proportion of home loans that entered foreclosure in the second quarter of this year hit its lowest point since early 2006, before the crisis began, according to data released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association.The low rate is another sign that higher home prices and an improving job market are helping to put the mortgage crisis in the rearview mirror, said MBA Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni. At the crisis’s worst point, in the third quarter of 2009, servicers started foreclosures on 1.42% of home loans. Last quarter, they began foreclosures on only 0.4% of loans, the lowest rate since the second quarter of 2006.” [Wall Street Journal – 08/07/14]
7. Officials Say D.C. Is Halfway to Goal of 10,000 Affordable Housing Units “Concerns about the cost of housing in Washington are rising about as fast as the rents have in recent years. The issue hasn’t gone unnoticed by Mayor Vincent C. Gray. He has committed to building or preserving 10,000 affordable units by 2020, following the recommendation of a housing task force he assembled early in his administration. He has committed $100 million to the effort. And he unsuccessfully tried to get the federal Height Act lifted, which could have increased housing supply over the long term. With fewer than four months remaining in office, Gray’s staff says the mayor is already more than halfway to the 10,000 goal, with 5,938 units built or under construction. They tally a pipeline of another 5,861 units he would like to see built or preserved.” [The Washington Post – 08/07/14]
8. Rich Kid, Poor Kid: For 30 Years, Baltimore Study Tracked Who Gets Ahead “Education is historically considered to be the thing that levels the playing field, capable of lifting up the less advantaged and improving their chances for success. “Play by the rules, work hard, apply yourself and do well in school, and that will open doors for you,” is how Karl Alexander, a Johns Hopkins University sociologist, puts it. But a study published in June suggests that the things that really make the difference — between prison and college, success and failure, sometimes even life and death — are money and family. Alexander is one of the authors of “The Long Shadow,” which explored this scenario: Take two kids of the same age who grew up in the same city — maybe even the same neighborhood. What factors will make the difference for each?” [NPR – 08/07/14]
9. Planning ‘Oracle’ Robert Yaro to Retire from Regional Group “Robert Yaro, a fierce advocate for the New York City region in an era that included a deep disinvestment in public infrastructure, rugged recessions and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, is retiring from his post running the Regional Plan Association. He will be succeeded by Thomas Wright, the organization’s executive director. Mr. Yaro is “kind of like an oracle for the industry. Everybody wanted to hear what he wanted to say on any subject,” said Janette Sadik-Khan, a principal at Bloomberg Associates, an international consulting organization, and a former New York City transportation commissioner. She is a former board member of the Regional Plan Association.” [Wall Street Journal – 08/06/14]
10. Airbnb Pushes to Modify San Francisco Housing Laws “Airbnb’s is intensifying its campaign to change San Francisco housing rules. The home-sharing start-up introduced a new lobbying effort this week, aiming to change how San Francisco regulators treat local housing laws. The initiative, Fair to Share San Francisco, is being pushed by a coalition of local home-sharing advocate groups, including Airbnb, Peers and Home Sharers of San Francisco. They have banded together to push for housing laws that would allow residents to rent out their homes without fear of retribution from local government agencies.” [New York Times – 08/01/14]