RaleighForward Roundup

Sunday, July 16th

Hello,

This week the City Council is on summer break. We have information on our second in-person event this summer, which is entitled A Seat at the Table: Basic Development Finance for Planners, Urbanists and Housing Advocates. Ben Stevens, author of The Birth of a Building, will be our guest speaker. Details below!

RaleighForward is hosting its first in-person events this summer! Details below:

The first is scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, July 26, called Transportation, Traffic Impact Analysis and Safety: Keeping it all in Perspective featuring Eric Lamb, former City of Raleigh Transportation Planning Manager. The event will be from 6:30 - 8pm and is located at Trophy Brewing & Taproom on Maywood.
The second program features Ben Stevens, author of Birth of a Building. It is entitled A Seat at the Table: Basic Development Finance for Planners, Urbanists and Housing Advocates. Register here. This program is scheduled for 10am on Saturday, August 19, at the John Chavis Community Center.

Please mark your calendars and be on the lookout for more details.

As always, please reach out with any comments or suggestions, and consider making a donation to support our continued efforts to inform policymakers and the public.

Eric Braun, Founder

22 Websites on Housing Affordability, Urban Policy and Planning worth checking out:

Articles we found interesting this week:

What would an Amtrak Revival Look Like, via Bloomberg.
Boston Offers Tax Breaks to Turn Empty Offices into Housing, via Bloomberg.
Why Can’t We Stop Homelessness? 4 Reasons Why There’s No End in Sight, via NPR.
How Much Should You Really Spend on a House? Even the Experts Don’t Know for Sure, via The Atlantic.
Wealthy Suburbs are Crushing Housing Market Supply and Choking off Affordability, say Researchers Who Looked at Nationwide Data. Fortune reports.
ZONING: The Death of the Neighborhood Grocery Store, via Southern Urbanism.
Given the recent announcement that the Downtown Raleigh Alliance will lead a study exploring ways to revitalize downtown, particularly Fayetteville Street, this article seems relevant: How to Revive a Dying Main Street? One U.K. Landlord Offered Free Rent, via the New York Times.
URBAN DESIGN: Transit Follows Density, via Southern Urbanism.
As Downtowns Struggle, Businesses Learn to Love Bike Lanes. Read about it in Bloomberg.
Tax Increment Financing: Revitalization Tool, Developer Handout…or Both. Read it in Shelterforce.
Wait Lists for Subsidized Housing are Getting Longer, via The Boston Globe.

Long Read: Civic education in America is dreadful. People from all walks of life seem to have little to no understanding of government at all levels. This makes the job of policy makers and elected officials even harder. Governing Magazine has an interesting article exploring how improving civic education can lead to a community’s financial stability: If Civic Education Fails, the Business Community will Suffer, and here is a longer article on the same topic from The Harvard Business Review.

Be sure to check out these new additions to the RaleighForward data page:

Wake County median price of real estate rose $16,000 to $475,000, via the Wake County Register of Deeds.
Richmond Fed: Nonmetro Housing Affordability in Decline. Read it here.
Comparing the Costs of Manufactured and Site-built Housing, via JCHS at Harvard.

Upcoming meetings to keep track of:

City Council and many boards and commissions are on Summer Break, so we’ll be back with meetings and analysis in August!

22 Websites on Housing Affordability, Urban Policy and Planning worth checking out:

Articles we found interesting this week:

Upcoming meetings to keep track of:

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