Housing Starts: In Defense of Gentrification | Housing Choices & Friendship

November 2nd 2015

City Residents (TheAtlantic.com, Lucas Jackson AP)

  1. In Defense of Gentrification While gentrification can cause social discord and make residents anxious about the future, it neither produces measurably more departures from neighborhoods, nor does it usually make residents economically worse off. If anything, residents of improving neighborhoods see greater wealth (as measured by their credit scores) and higher incomes ($3,000 to $4,500 higher for residents of public housing in New York City) [The Atlantic – 10/31/15]
  2. How Our Housing Choices Make Adult Friendships More Difficult Our ability to form and maintain friendships is shaped in crucial ways by the physical spaces in which we live. ‘Land use,’ as it’s rather aridly known, shapes behavior and sociality. And in America we have settled on patterns of land use that might as well have been designed to prevent spontaneous encounters, the kind out of which rich social ties are built. [Vox – 10/28/15]
  3. NYCHA Agreement More Costly, Argue Nonunion Shops The Housing Authority, known as NYCHA, signed a so-called project labor agreement effective this year with union shops to perform work on its residential buildings. Now the agency is considering an expansion of that accord to include projects such as sidewalks and playgrounds, known as site work. But the Associated Builders & Contractors Empire State Chapter is calling on the Housing Authority to drop the idea. The group argues that by excluding its members who have performed such work in the past, along with those who might want to do it in the future, the financially struggling authority will end up paying more. [Crain’s NY – 10/30/15]
  4. New York Not Among Cities in Danger of a Housing Bubble The report is quick to stress that being expensive is not the same as being bubbly. And New York is plenty expensive—it takes the average worker 11 years of income to buy a place in Manhattan. But inflation-adjusted prices are still below their 2006 peak, and affordability measures are in line with long-term averages, too, suggesting that there is little risk of a crash any time soon. [Quartz – 10/31/15]
  5. Community Boards React to the Mayor’s Housing Proposals With limited time—each district must vote by the end of November—community board members are scrambling to understand these proposals, scheduling extra meetings and town halls. While their vote is not legally binding, their opinion, as well as those of each borough president and the City Planning Commission, could influence how City Council makes the final decision next spring. [City Limits – 11/02/15]
  6. Bronx Policy Pushers From rezonings to infrastructure projects and financial incentives, stakeholders have knit together programs that helped to generate more than $1.1 billion in residential, institutional and commercial development in 2014, a 26 percent jump from the prior year, according to a report from Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.’s office. “We’re investing because we need businesses to get bigger, smarter and employ our residents,” said Marlene Cintron, president of the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation. [The Real Deal – 11/01/15]
  7. Locking Heads over Preservation and Property Rights in Queens In 1968, Roger and Frank White’s father received a letter from the City of New York. It informed [them] that the family’s 1865 whitewashed farmhouse in Douglaston, Queens, was being condemned to make way for the extension of 39th Avenue.After years in court, the city relented in the 1980s, but it was not until 2006 that the family was able to retake possession of the house. Barely a year later, as Roger White was preparing to restore the house, another surprise arrived in the mail, from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.‘For 30-odd years, the city wanted to tear down our house,’ Mr. White said last week. ‘Now they want to turn it into a shrine. It’s unbelievable.’ [New York Times – 11/01/15]
  8. Nashville Juggles Demand for Affordable Housing with Demand for Market Rate Developments With the price to live in gentrifying Nashville continuing to climb, Metro planners have begun drafting a new policy to try to increase and retain Nashville’s affordable housing stock. As they do, some of Tennessee’s Republican lawmakers are keeping a close eye — and could decide to intervene legislatively if they believe Metro, or some other local government, goes too far to restrict private enterprise. [The Tennessean – 10/31/15]
  9. Queens Councilman Proposes Smoking Ban in Housing The federal government has been encouraging housing authorities to go smoke free, and if the Department of Housing and Urban Development issues a nationwide policy restricting smoking in coming months it would preempt the city move for NYCHA properties. “We’ve done bars. We’ve done the parks. This is the last frontier in the debate about smoking,” Richards said of the proposal, which would push beyond the broad anti-smoking policies passed under former Mayor Mike Bloomberg. [Daily News – 10/28/15]
  10. Architects Begin Contest to Design Affordability to Housing Affordable housing is once again among the major topics of discussion for architects and designers, especially in New York City, where most residents have felt the squeeze of exorbitant rents.Designing Affordability: Quicker, Smarter, More Efficient Housing Now, on view at the Center for Architecture through January 16, delivers a wide-ranging survey of potential solutions for the world’s housing woes, with a focus on 23 conceptual and built projects curated by Marc Norman, a Loeb Fellow at Harvard GSD. [Metropolis – 11/02/15]
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