TOWARD A JUST METROPOLIS: From Crises to Possibilities - Latest Blog Entries

Planners Network workshop at GAFFTA

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:50:00 -0500

Planner's Network Workshop at Gray Area Thursday, June 17, 1:30-3:30

City Centered: A Festival of Locative Media and Urban Community

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:36:00 -0500

This festival has already passed, but it was unique and a huge success all around. Locative media allows for direct responsive interaction with the urban environment. Please see People page to read about the artists involved and check out the projects. There were some complex urban planning/design approaches to utilizing mapping, for example, registering all kinds of urban data and GAFFTA, hosting gallery, opened with a retrospective of data visualization by MIT Senseable Cities lab - they have incredible resources. It would be interesting to hear some responses to 'urban data' as a political idea from progressive urban planners and designers/thinkers.

Spatial Justice

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 12:50:00 -0500

"Spatial justice, a proclaimed priority in many territorial policies, is a notion worthy of discussion and elaboration. It seems so obvious it has hardly been questioned. Yet it is as potentially fruitful as it is relatively unexplored. The objective of JSSJ journal is to provide an arena for research, debate and controversies around the idea. It builds on discussions started with the Spatial Justice conference held at the Université Paris Ouest Nanterre in March 2008, and is a response to the need felt to share thoughts about the relations between justice and space, beyond disciplinary, linguistic and cultural boundaries. JSSJ is edited mostly by geographers but aspires to become a meeting place for representatives of many disciplines of the social sciences (geography, planning, urbanism, urban sociology, history, philosophy, political science…). This bilingual journal published both in French and English in electronic form twice a year aims to become an arena of international debate in spatial justice, in an interdisciplinary perspective. It is open to any practitioner of the social sciences who wishes to contribute: theoretical approaches and empirical case studies are welcomed. We hope they will establish social sciences as grounded in reason, and therefore socially relevant".

For more information, visit http://www.jssj.org.

Decoding Military Landscapes

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:10:00 -0500

UPDATED w/ LINKS FIXED | What should a public archival practice for researching military urbanism look or be like? Here is some info on the "Decoding Military Landscapes" participatory panel (see schedule for details). An agenda is posted here If you have any ideas of what might be links we'd want to check out, please tag them #demilit on Twitter. The panel is being held by a small group of researchers, archivists, bloggers and artists...

Current Candian Court Case Argues: Affordable Housing is a basic human right!

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:31:00 -0500

A coalition of social welfare organizations in Ontario is preparing a legal case compelling the federal and Ontario governments to provide affordable housing as a human right.
Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees Canadians' equality and rights to life, liberty and security. A court case now being prepared in Ontario will argue that affordable housing is a right under the Charter, which will force governments to provide it.

via Planetizen

Full Story: Charter challenge aims to force governments to create public housing

Eco-villages for the Homeless

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:17:00 -0500

Fresno architect Arthur Dyson has thought outside of the box for his solution to housing for homeless, creating of small homes (some only 80 sq ft) for the homeless made of recycled materials. Dyson, who is currently working with Fresno city officials for a suitable location for his homes describes his ultimate vision as "an 'eco-village' that would include housing units set up in a field surrounded by trees and gardens, a central building with a kitchen and bathrooms and another larger building for the sale of goods created or grown by residents."

Full Story: Tiny Buildings for Fresno's Homeless Need a Home

Thinking of Ownership Differently: The Land Trust to promote a Sustainable Housing Future

Sat, 22 May 2010 02:00:00 -0500

Community land trusts are an unusual but growing method of ownership, where the land is shared but members own their own homes. According to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, they're good for neighborhood stabilization and rarely foreclose.
A new book from the Lincoln Institute explains the long history of community land trusts (CLTs) and why they're a good idea today.
"Community land trusts are at a critical turning point, and many opportunities lie ahead," said Gregory K. Ingram, president of the Lincoln Institute, which maintains a partnership with the National CLT Network to support training and research on community land trusts. "This book aptly frames an approach that can counter today's tumult in housing markets and provide sustainable affordable housing."
via Planetizen
Full Story: The origins of the CLT

Check out our Group Post in Polis!

Tue, 18 May 2010 16:52:00 -0500

Our freinds at Polis were so kind to mention us in a recent group post.

"We were inspired by 'Toward A Just Metropolis: From Crisis to Possibilities,' a conference that our very own Alex Schafran is helping to organize at UC Berkeley from June 16 to 20. The first joint conference of five, well-known planning organizations, it will bring together progressive urban leaders from across the country to discuss how economic and environmental crises can be opportunities for making cities more equitable. The event will involve over 300 on-site sessions and participatory 'mobile workshops' held in cooperation with local advocates in the East Bay to increase community access. It will end with an 'adventure wandering game' that will take participants on a journey across diverse urban zones."

Check out the full post here.

Housing + Transportation Affordability Index = (no more than) 45% of your income

Sun, 16 May 2010 12:31:00 -0500

30% of your income has been federally regarded as the maximum amount one should spend on (affordable) housing; anything greater is unaffordable.

The Center for Neighborhood Technology had done just that through research, dubbed "H+T Affordability Index"that shows that "the combined cost of housing and transportation shouldn't exceed 45 percent of your income."

See: Feds Begin Redefining 'Affordable Housing' to Include Transport Costs

Schooloscope: New School Evaluation System in England

Sat, 15 May 2010 13:22:00 -0500

Schooloscope is a new project from BERG, and I want to show it to you.
What if a school could speak to you, and tell you how it's doing? "I have happy kids," it might say. "Their exams results are great."
Schools in England are inspected by a body called Ofsted. Their reports are detailed and fair -- Ofsted is not run by the government of the day, but directly by Parliament. And kids in schools are tracked by the government department DCSF. They publish everything from exam results to statistical measurements of improvement over the school careers of the pupils.
via BERG blog
Check out Schooloscope

Cities Built for Children

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 17:47:00 -0500

Polis discusses the European project, City of Children, which

"seeks autonomy, participation, safety and mobility for children in the city, to make it possible for them to leave their home without being accompanied by an adult so that they can meet friends and play in public spaces of the city: from courtyards to sidewalks, from public squares to parks. Through children's proposals and ideas, participation in decision-making and realisation of their projects, the project aims at building a children's culture in the minds of adults and especially in administrators so that they know how to make their decisions, having interiorised children's thoughts and needs. The project believes that only when adults understand that spending for the good of children is not a cost but an investment that will bring returns many times over will it be possible to think seriously of the future of our cities."

Full Story Here

How Urban Planning Can Improve Public Health

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:09:00 -0500

"Public health was an early impetus for better urban planning. But over the years, it has faded into the background. This piece from Miler-McCune looks at how health concerns are moving their way back into mainstream planning."

Research has linked a lack of green space to clinical depression, surbia to the sedentary behavior that contributes to obesity and diabetes and local food resources to malnurtion.

Full Story Here via Planetizen

Also See:

2 Lists: 12 Innovative Cities & 10 Cities in Economic Free Fall

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:10:00 -0500

Fast Company's Most Innovative Cities

*Fast Cities: Renaissance Neighborhoods: Savannah

From Fast Company: "In three pilot neighborhoods, Savannah fixed up abandoned homes with an eye for eco and historical concerns, selling and renting them to people interested in putting down roots. The city also partnered with local businesses to lure commerce back to those areas and invested heavily in parks and community centers."

Forbes' Ten U.S. Cities in Free Fall

"Economic indicators in these metros have gone from bad to worse, with no sign of recovery."

1. MSA: Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL
2. MSA: Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
3. MSA: Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif.
4. MSA: Jacksonville, Fl.
5. MSA: Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
6. (Tie) MSA: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA
6. (Tie) MSA: Orlando-Kissimmee, FL
6. (Tie) MSA: Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Roseville, CA
9. MSA: Las Vegas-Paradise, NV
10. MSA: Providence-New Bedford-Fall River, RI-MA

Read Full Story Here, See Slideshow with Economic Stats Here.

Chicago's $1.3 Million Participatory Budgeting Experiment

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 16:58:00 -0500

On Saturday, April 10, Chicago's Voting Assembly was held where all 49th Ward residents, age 16 and over, regardless of citizenship or voter registration status, were eligible to vote on how to spend the entire discretionary capital budget of more than $1.3 million, voting on various projects ranging from street lights and bike paths to public art and community gardens.

"Participatory budgeting" has been used worldwide in Brazil, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Full Story: Spending out in the open for 49th Ward

View the complete list of projects on the ballot here.

Participatory Budgeting in the 49th Ward's Blog

J is for Justice! Link Roundup

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:21:00 -0500

The Planning Comissioners Journal has been blogging the "ABC's of Planning" and J is for Justice providing a short history of justice's role in planning. For the full ABCs of Planning, see Here.

"The most innovative take on the traditional rowhouse that Philadelphia has seen in years"

South Africa's new $137 million dollar World Cup stadium has heightened tensions in a country where 1/2 the population is living below the poverty line.

Urban Harvesters Scavenge Backyards to Feed the Hungry: Community gleaning groups have sprung up around the country.

Tel Aviv, Israel Approves Affordable Housing Plan

Feds Begin Redefining ‘Affordable Housing’ to Include Transport Costs

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:17:00 -0500

The process of expanding the federal government's definition of "affordable housing," a stated goal of the Obama administration's sustainable communities effort, began in earnest yesterday with the introduction of a new index that integrates transportation prices into the cost of living for hundreds of metro areas.

The Housing and Transportation Affordability Index, assembled by the Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), offers details on housing and transport bills for prospective residents of 330 metro areas in the US.

But the index also aims to give an updated look at the scarcity of affordable housing. Almost seven out of 10 American neighborhoods are considered affordable using the current federal metric -- that housing should cost no more than 30 percent of income. When the CNT added transportation to the mix, however, for a combined metric of 45 percent of income, the number of affordable neighborhoods dropped by 30 percent.

Full Story

The Housing and Transportation Affordability Index

10 Land-Use Strategies to Create Socially Just, Multiracial Cities

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:31:00 -0500

Submitted for your approval, Carl Anthony, founder of Breakthrough Communities and the Urban Habitat Program, recently compiled a list of 10 Land Use strategies to promote a just city in an YES! Magazine's Spring 2010 issue America: The Remix.

Develop a widely shared, long-range vision for social justice and set targets.
Find short term soultions for marginalized communities that benefit society as a whole in the long term.
Redevelop older inner-ring suburbs as an alternative to sprawl.
Manage vacant properties (with non-profits.)
Replace aging or underused commercial strips with revitalized corridors.
Set aside 20% of new residential development for affordable housing.
Build and strengthen social justice institutions.
Reduce the patterns of concentrated wealth/poverty in neighborhoods.
Advocate metropolitan growth strategies.
Create opportunities (business etc.) for marginalized popultations.

Full Story/List = Here

A Family Affair: Improving Inner-city Neighborhoods

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:51:00 -0600

Ron Haskins states that the strategy of combining personal responsibility with community and government support could help millions of residents of some of the nation's worst neighborhoods - and simultaneously demonstrate to a skeptical public that a new war on poverty can be won.

via Brookings Institution

Full Story: Family Matters

Two related Obama Adminstration neighborhood strategies to improve living conditions in the inner city and to boost the development of poor children:

HUD's Choice Neighborhoods (an expansion of the HOPE VI Program)
The Dept. of Education's Promise Neighborhoods modeled after Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone (see Video below)

HUD - Transforming the Built Environment

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:27:00 -0600

The Department of Housing and Urban Development's recently created Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities is working to help make every American community more sustainable and to support the “government’s vision for a healthier built environment”.

The Office’s Sustainable Communities Initiative sees sustainability as a direct route to economic recovery – cities that are working to invest in transit and have focused on place-making have weathered the downturn most successfully according to Office Director Shelley Poticha. Some of the Office’s new goals include creating more housing near jobs, influencing land use decisions that will decrease transportation costs, reducing energy consumption in the residential sector (which will lead to new green jobs and economic growth) and encouraging more sophisticated regional planning that will lead to reform land use on the local, city and state levels.

The department’s initiatives call for unprecedented collaboration amongst federal agencies including the DOT and the EPA in order to assist communities in becoming more livable and sustainable, to be achieved through a number of grant programs that will enable and equip communities with the tools to create new strategies.

Read an interview with Director Shelley Poticha on land use policy and HUD’s role in transforming the built environment.

Why the Poor Pay More

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:22:00 -0600

According to Professor Debabrata Talukdar's 2008 paper "Cost of Being Poor: Retail Price and Consumer Price Search Differences across Inner‐City and Suburban Neighborhoods" prices on everyday items, such as groceries, are often higher in poor areas and with reduced access to cars, comparison shopping is harder. The paper's abstract explains:

This research undertakes a carefully designed and detailed empirical study to gain insights into (1) the extent of price differentials between wealthy and poor neighborhoods; (2) what induces such differentials, especially the nature and intensity of competitive environments, including mass merchandisers like Wal‐Mart; and (3) their relative impacts. It finds a price differential of about 10%-15% for everyday items. Even after controlling for store size and competition, prices are found to be 2%-5% higher in poor areas. It also finds that it is not the poverty level per se but access to cars that acts as a key determinant of consumers' price search patterns.

The National Center for Policy Analysis summarizes Talukdar's findings as "the Poor Tax":

Even though poor inner-city residents have access to more locally owned stores than do inhabitants of wealthier big-box suburbs, they have to pay more for the same groceries, says researcher Debabrata Talukdar.
The cause? Competition:
Prices at the independent corner stores that dot city streets run about 7 percent higher than those at chain supermarkets -- effectively levying a "ghetto tax."
In wealthier neighborhoods, there are more chain stores, and customers are more likely to have cars, making it easier to price shop; thus, driving down prices.
Moving the nearest chain store closer by 1 mile to a particular neighborhood store being the neighborhood store's prices down by 1-3 percent.

via Economybeat.org

Source: JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH