Archive for the ‘ Housing ’ Category
[Straight from Metafilter] Tishman Speyer Properties is defaulting on its $5.4 billion, high profile acquisition of the enormous Stuyvesant Town apartment complex in Manhattan, resulting in million in losses for investors and possibly “signaling the beginning of what is expected to be a wave of commercial-property failures”. The failure is the result of an aggressive [ READ MORE ]
The link. And a contextual comment from another contributor: Just wanted to pass this along to situate the article in the movement that brought the UN Rapporteur and the way the tour was used as a movement building tool. Here’s a link to the movement’s mission blog http://restorehousingrights.org, The civil society portion of the tour was [ READ MORE ]
This page presents an underground desert world for the future Southwest US. Exceptionally good looking. Seems as though the future of the Southwest is to finally just move into the shopping mall. [ READ MORE ]
The NYTimes reports that Flint may be about to aggressively shrink itself down to a most cost effective and attractive form. [ READ MORE ]
The NYTimes reports that banks are increasingly walking away from foreclosed homes. Particularly at the lower end of the housing market, houses that fall into disrepair through lack of maintenance and vandalism are being abandoned by banks and burdening the original homeowners with clean up costs. This, of course, puts a double whammy on already [ READ MORE ]
AM highlights this NYTimes piece on the rising Hoovervilles. While comparisons to the housing options of the Depression are surely apt, I think we would approach the situation better by making comparisons with the slums of the developing world. These tent cities are the expression of systemic marginalization that is slowly leveling the conditions of [ READ MORE ]
Claim property for low-income neighbors, demand action from city government From Picture the Homeless: El Barrio/East Harlem, NYC. —Homeless people have taken over an empty building in East Harlem, as part of a coordinated push-back against city policies that let buildings stay empty. The building, which is owned by the city, has been completely vacant for decades. Deborah [ READ MORE ]
I’ve got a 2pm interview, but I think I’m going to have to stop here on the way in. For those who haven’t heard, Picture the Homeless, an awesome non-profit run by homeless and previously homeless folks in NYC, is going to *occupy a building tomorrow.* They are starting off a “housing not warehousing” campaign, addressing [ READ MORE ]
New Urbanism comes to India, to a spot not too far from Mumbai. Most of the partners appear to be Indian, with the exception of HOK and a few others. Lavasa, of course, looks lovely. [ READ MORE ]
On the basis of Barry Wellman’s ComUrb listserve recommendation, I just listened to The Giant Pool of Money, a production of This American Life. It’s an excellent insight into the people and system that generated the current crisis. Highly recommended. [Update: Looks like Blumberg and Davidson are back with a new program called Bad Bank on [ READ MORE ]
The ComURB listserve has initiated a debate about the responsibility for the “reverse redlining” that led to poor and minority neighborhoods being targeted for subprime loans…even when lenders would have qualified for standard loans. My contribution follows: If we want to ascribe responsibility to individuals, to institutions, or to individuals in institutions, it seems to me [ READ MORE ]
The NYTimes reports today that ACORN has initiated a new campaign to assist homeowners resist eviction when they are being unjustly foreclosed upon. [ READ MORE ]
Bloomberg announced that the city would get involved in sustaining the city’s housing market by financing rehabilitation of foreclosed homes for resale to families making $80–90,000 a year. “What we’re trying to do is to not acquire a lot of land and properties and have it just sit there,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “What we’re trying to [ READ MORE ]
SG sent a link to this brief piece by Allison Arieff in the NYTimes out to the UP crew. It purports to explore ways in which we can attend to the half-built and increasingly abandoned homes of the suburbs and exurbs. It starts by presenting the success of adaptive reuse of abandoned sites like the [ READ MORE ]
A group of activists called Take Back the Land is moving homeless people into peopleless homes in Miami. This group seems to be inspired by the MST. Their mission: First, feed and house people. Taking control of land to feed and house those impacted by the crisis of gentrification and low-income housing is the ultimate in [ READ MORE ]