Archive for the ‘ Planning ’ Category

$700b for whom?

Another conference note. David Harvey advocated in his opening talk that the $700b bailout go not to the banks and financial institutions but to municipalities. The idea is to get the money to the foundation of the crisis, which he seems to suggest lies not in financial institutions’ liquidity issues but in the inability to [ READ MORE ]

Practice

So, today was one of those days that leads to reflection. As the very last panel of theis year’s TGK-Berlin conference in New York, Searching for the Just City editors summarized our book along with Tom Angotti, who presented his new book New York for Sale, and three people from the Right to the City [ READ MORE ]

Foreclosure and eminent domain

I’m really sick right now, so this’ll be brief. I was wondering before if cities couldn’t use eminent domain to take over properties that have been foreclosed on and turn them into social housing. To the extent that foreclosed properties tend to deteriorate and bring down property values and living conditions in any given neighborhood, [ READ MORE ]

John Reps rocks

  • September 12th, 2008
  • Posted in Planning

I just found this website by Cornell urban planning professor emeritus John Reps. It basically functions as a history of urban planning from 1794 to 1918. Here is his major book. [ READ MORE ]

Section 8 ghettoizing the suburbs?

The NYTimes reports on the relation between Section 8 vouchers and the mortgage crisis in Antioch, CA. The upshot seems to be a mix of increased crime and increased profiling, both illegal. [ READ MORE ]

The Olympics Effect

I haven’t read it, but here is a quick summary of the impacts of the Olympics on their host cities over the years. Curmudgeonly contrarians may claim that the Olympics is not about sports, it’s about politics. But we know better: The Olympics has always been about improving the appeal of the host city. You let [ READ MORE ]

Bad GIS

JS sends this example of pretty poor GIS work from Crain’s. This map of restaurants per zipcode is what I mean. The problems: 1. The pull-out map really conveys no useful information. It doesn’t add streets or anything of use. Who really needs to know the actual zipcodes if you know where it is? Sending mailers [ READ MORE ]

Demographic inversion and Jane Jacobs

Alan Ehrenhalt at The New Republic argues that for all the media’s focus on the war and gentrification, it has missed the larger story of demographic inversion. The flipside of gentrification of the inner city, he rightly argues, is the movement of poorer and less white residents to the outer limits of cities. He then [ READ MORE ]

MTA and congestion pricing

The mayor and the MTA must be reading my blog. (Where else could they possibly have gotten the idea?) Congestion pricing is being reconsidered as an alternative source of revenue to offset the MTA’s plan for increasing transit fares. Clearly a match made in heaven. [ READ MORE ]

Moore Street Retail Market

The Moore Street Retail Market seems as though it will have another five years. The neighborhood plaza was under threat of redevelopment into residential condos, but political action has reestablished the priority of its social value as a place over its individual value as a site. [ READ MORE ]

Subway fares to go up again

The MTA is likely to initiate a ’significant’ fare increase for the coming year. Now why wasn’t congestion pricing revenue redirected toward the MTA? Would that not have made incredible political sense and have led to better service and lower fares? [ READ MORE ]

Vertical farms in NYC?

MWP sends this link, which suggests that Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is investigating what it would take to build skyscraper farms in Manhattan. Imagine looking out your window and seeing the vegetables you’ll soon be eating for dinner rather than your neighbor eating dinner! [ READ MORE ]

Even more urban gardening

In Detroit. [ READ MORE ]

60s faculty fading

The NYTimes has a somewhat lackluster article on a purported generational shift in university faculties as the massive baby-boomer hires begin to retire. The basic claim is that the historical crucible that forged a generation of left academics is no longer a tangible aspect of younger professors’ personal political experience. Instead, the end of the [ READ MORE ]

More urban gardening

Urban gardening in East Cleveland. [ READ MORE ]