Mayoral Candidates’ Housing Plans | Reclaiming Vacant Properties | Fair Housing Act on Trial

A visitor to the vacant Divine Lorraine Hotel in Philadelphia reviews plans for revitalization.Credit: Paul Gargagliano

1. 2013 Mayoral Race: Where do the candidates stand on housing? In preparation for the NYC’s 2013 Mayoral primary, City Limits released three articles over the weekend that outline each candidate’s proposed strategies for dealing with three issues related to housing and urban development: Affordable Housing, Public Housing, & Homelessness [City Limits – 09/06/13]
2. Cash for homes: policy implications of an investor-led housing recovery. “Investors can play a key role in a housing recovery. By absorbing excess inventory, they establish a floor for home prices and jumpstart appreciation. Responsible investors can also offer quality, affordable rental opportunities to families who may be locked out of homeownership due to foreclosure or lost wealth from the recession. But while they can support communities, irresponsible investors can also destroy them by allowing properties to sit empty, declining to bring rental properties up to code, and neglecting tenants’ needs in instances where the home is occupied. ” [Center for American Progress – 09/06/13]
3. Reporting from the 2013 Reclaiming Vacant Properties conference.  “More than 700 people working in government, non-profit advocacy, historic preservation, agriculture and other related fields are convening in Philadelphia this week at for a conference held ever 18 months called Reclaiming Vacant Properties. To document and comment on this event, Next City has gathered a terrific cast of local live-bloggers whose perspectives we will publish throughout the three-day conference.” [Next City – 09/09/13]
4. A new era for skyscrapers. “Developer Michael Stern wants to build a stairway to heaven in Midtown Manhattan.Should it be built, the tower would be the latest entrant in the luxury condo-fueled skyscraper race that is reshaping the Midtown vista and ushering in a new era for skyscrapers in the city. Up until now, the city’s skyline has been dominated by office towers that house thousands of workers. But lately many of the new towers rising, particularly around Central Park, have been skinny apartment towers.” [Wall Street Journal – 09/08/13]
5. Boston mayor pushes plan to build 30,000 homes by 2020. “Mayor Thomas M. Menino is proposing to reach his ambitious goal of building 30,000 homes in Boston by allowing taller structures with smaller units, selling public land to developers at a discount, and using subsidies to spur development of more affordable housing, according to a blueprint to be released Monday.The plan, which calls for $16.5 billion in public and private investment, begins with a series of quick steps that could significantly alter the housing landscape before Menino’s term ends in four months. Those steps include selling large chunks of city property, increasing fees on developers to help fund affordable housing, and approving some of the 3,600 housing units awaiting city permits.” [Boston Globe – 09/09/13]
6. De Blasio mirrors Bloomberg policies on land use. “Bill de Blasio has risen to the top of the polls assailing the Bloomberg administration, but if elected he could pursue even more aggressive policies than his predecessor on a crucial issue: creating densely packed new residential towers through land-use decisions. Mr. de Blasio, the city’s public advocate, would push for mandatory affordable housing and fewer tax breaks for developers. But he wouldn’t differ from Mr. Bloomberg on a fundamental premise that building significant amounts of new housing is a top way to spur economic growth and control housing costs.” [Wall Street Journal – 09/06/13]
7. Housing discrimination case puts high court on hot seat. “Fresh from race-related rulings this summer on voting rights and affirmative action, the Supreme Court now faces another landmark civil rights case that could make it tougher for minorities to prove housing discrimination. At stake is the Fair Housing Act, a law enacted one week after Martin Luther King’s assassination in April 1968 during the race riots that followed. The justices are being asked to weaken the law as interpreted by the Obama administration and lower courts, and civil rights groups weary over this year’s battles are gearing up for another.” [USA Today – 09/08/13]
8. Wells Fargo says mortgage rate rises won’t stall housing rebound. “Rising mortgage rates probably won’t slow the housing recovery because new families are being created and homes are still affordable, Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) Chief Financial Officer Tim Sloan said.The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has risen more than 1.2 percentage points since hitting a low of 3.35 percent in May, according to Freddie Mac data. That hasn’t slowed U.S. home prices, which rose 7.7 percent this year through June, according to an August report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Freddie Mac’s and Fannie Mae’s overseer. ” [Bloomberg – 09/09/13]
9. Developers push for approvals before Bloomberg leaves. “A derelict sugar refinery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the world’s largest indoor ice-skating complex in the Bronx and a 63-story Ferris wheel on Staten ­Island are among a crush of projects that developers are trying to get through the Department of City Planning before the pro-­development Bloomberg administration comes to a close on Dec. 31, and its powerful chairwoman, Amanda Burden, steps down. Adding to the pressure on the department, the mayor himself is looking to win approval on a number of his own legacy projects, including a massive rezoning of midtown east.” [Crain’s New York – 09/06/13]
10. Picking death over eviction in China. “Over the past five years, at least 39 farmers have resorted to this drastic form of protest. The figures, pieced together from Chinese news reports and human rights organizations, are a stark reminder of how China’s new wave of urbanization is at times a violent struggle between a powerful state and stubborn farmers - a top-down project that is different from the largely voluntary migration of farmers to cities during the 1980s, ‘90s and 2000s.” [New York Times – 09/09/13]