September 17: What we’re reading this week
Some articles we found interesting this week:
According to a recent report, downtown Raleigh’s population may double by 2028. With office vacancies and work from home hurting the vitality of downtown, adding residents should help. From CBS17.
Although published in February 2022, this article examines the impact eliminating parking mandates has had on Fayetteville, Arkansas since it did away with them in 2015. It has been just around 1 year since Raleigh did this, so the results in Fayetteville could have lessons for Raleigh. Via Sightline.
Sometimes listening to the people most impacted by homelessness and housing insecurity can lead to possible solutions. Here is an interesting article supporting such an approach. Also from Sightline.
Housing affordability is about to get worse as mortgage rate impact lags. From Business Insider.
When the Homeowners Association Comes for your Home, from Bloomberg.
In many cities, civic leadership was often found among various business leaders, developers and political kingmakers. That has eroded over time. Charlotte is one such example as banking executives have ceded their once firm grip on leading community initiatives. This opinion essay from the New York Times examines this fading component of civic leadership.
This article reflects a bit of what may be starting in NC. The Hostile Takeover of Blue Cities by Red States, via Bloomberg.
Southern Urbanism recently published an article extolling the potential of the pop-up mobility experiments, from Southern Urbanism.
The Ground floor Window into what’s Ailing Cities, via the New York Times,
Bonus Read:
Given recent reports of Durham’s experiment with direct cash transfers, here is a Vox article that takes a look at a Canadian study exploring how 1,100 poor residents would use direct cash payments of $7,500. The results indicated that most recipients spent the money on clothes, housing and food. From Vox.
Long Read:
This is an interesting study from HUD’s Cityscape publication that explores the effects in Houston since they implemented regulatory reform by allowing townhomes to be built on most single-family lots. The authors conclude that such reforms don’t exacerbate gentrification. Another conclusion: such reforms create the conditions for incremental change rather than rapid, disruptive change across the city. In light of the controversy surrounding Raleigh’s Missing Middle reforms, we encourage readers to take some time to read the results here.
From the Data Department:
The median price of real estate in Wake County decreased by $9,750 to $455,000. More from the Wake County Register of Deeds.