housing crisis

Eight ideas for future-proofing the suburbs

Author: Alissa Walker
Outlet: Curbed
Published: November 11, 2019
Link to Article Articles 0

CURBED captures EIGHT IDEAS for rethinking suburbia, from eliminating single-family zoning to densifying sprawl to reducing carbon footprints. The results include undoing the long-term impacts of segregation and addressing the realities of rising poverty.

  1. WALKING
  2. EMISSIONS
  3. AGING
  4. LAWNS
  5. LAND USE
  6. POVERTY
  7. SCHOOLS
  8. ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

Article: curbed.com

Photo: Hampstead, AL

 

 

How the Green New Deal Could Retrofit Suburbs

Author: Amanda Kolson Hurley
Outlet: Citylab
Published: February 11, 2019
Link to Article Articles 0
Schools and amenities within walking distance of homes, Greenbelt, Maryland, 1942. Photo Credit: Marjory Collins/Library of Congress

Offering an alternative to wasteful suburban sprawl, the Greenbelt-Towns Program was a Government-led urban planning approach that began in the late 30’s. Although short-lived, lessons can be drawn from the goals, scope and reaction to the suburban demonstration towns that embodied a mix of housing, walkability, and a traditional downtown.

The Bipartisan Cry of ‘Not in My Backyard’

Author: Emily Badger
Outlet: New York Times
Published: August 21, 2018
Link to Article Articles 0
A view of suburban Houston. Credit: Josh Haner/The New York Times

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, wants to spur construction of mixed-income, multifamily housing. With more built, the Department believes that housing will become affordable, and there would be more options of where to live. The approach is not without its challenges. The kind of housing described is often impractical, doesn’t accord with regulations, or simply too costly to build in suburbs and big cities alike. While many see rolling back regulations as a way to open up opportunities, nimbyism continues to provide reason for tightly regulated development. Further, its homeowners of both political parties that support restricting development around them and they do so often in spite of their own ideologies. The fear that such development threatens property values motivates homeowners as voters to protect them. The instinct may simply be too deeply ingrained and politically sensitive in America to change.

Southern California’s dead malls could be places to live

Author: LARRY WILSON, lwilson@scng.com, Pasadena Star News
Outlet: The Orange County Register
Published: June 24, 2017
Link to Article Articles 0
Carousel Mall Photo by Will Lester-SCNG-Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
The Carousel Mall, built in 1972, has very few tenants as seen Tuesday June 6, 2017 in San Bernardino.

Larry Wilson of the Pasadena Star News suggests converting malls to multifamily housing with commercial uses as a way to provide affordable housing and inject new life into failing malls.

“Merchants and shopping-center developers are wondering what to do with these huge pieces of real estate that seemingly have outlived their usefulness.

For once, there is an unusually easy answer: If you can’t shop in ’em, live in ’em.

“… the factor that most aggravates Southern California’s housing crisis is the lack of supply for the demand. Developers aren’t building nearly enough new multi-family to meet the need because of a combination of lack of open land and zoning codes and NIMBYism that make it hard to expand on existing sites.

Just as ground-floor retail, grocery stores, restaurants and bars still thrive in eastern cities more accustomed to density, there will still be room for some commercial in these repurposed places — especially when more people live right next door.

And, yes, that answer includes providing subsidized former-mall housing for those now living in cardboard-tent cities in our riverbeds and on our sidewalks.”