June 4: What we’re reading this week
Some articles we found interesting this week:
Great to see Raleigh aggressively trying to acquire the old DMV site downtown. This would be a gamechanger for affordable housing. Read about it in the N&O.
A Tale of Paradise, Parking Lots and My Mother’s Berkeley Backyard. Read it in the New York Times.
While there are many advocates for expanding housing supply in the face of rising demand, housing advocates often suggest that building new housing contributes to displacement. This San Francisco Federal Reserve study suggests that displacement rates are not as high as feared, but also suggests complementary strategies for minimizing displacement that does occur.
What Really Doomed ‘Black Wall Street.’ Read it in Bloomberg.
Sustainable Wood Buildings may be the Next Frontier for Carbon Offsets. More from Bloomberg.
The Richmond Federal Reserve published a paper suggesting that rising office vacancies are unlikely to be as severe as past economic slowdowns like the Great Recession. “Out of the Office, Into a Financial Crisis?”
How the Affordable Housing Crisis Drives Homelessness. Read more.
Why are so many Luxury Condos Built in Cities that Face an Affordable Housing Crisis? More from Forbes.
To Address the National Housing Crisis, We Must Confront Exclusionary Zoning. Read it in The Hill.
What Can Fort Worth Learn from Other Land Banks Across the Country? Read more here.
While we often focus on the historical use of legal / regulatory barriers to exclude Blacks and low income people from vast swaths of American cities, this Yale Law Journal article explores how architectural design tactics and the resulting built environment contributed to isolating Blacks and low-income residents in areas of concentrated poverty.
Bonus content for history buffs: If you are inclined to read an old, long and detailed research paper, this is a fascinating 1931 journal article discussing the history of zoning. The article contains an interesting anecdote about the exclusionary purpose of an 1830s San Francisco zoning prohibition on Chinese laundries, which the author notes was intended to discriminate against Chinese immigrants.