Development

The Case For Returning Disaster-Prone Areas Back To Nature

September 29, 2024 Jonathan Rosenbloom, Next City. Create! climate crisis, Development, Rewilding, sacrifice zone

This week there were three wildfires burning within 100 miles of Los Angeles. Sadly, this isn’t breaking news; it’s the opening salvo of California’s new reality. Each year, wildfires trigger a predictable sequence of events: the fires burn, homeowners flee, firefighters battle the blazes often to catastrophic loss and, once the ash settles, people rush to rebuild grander homes, frequently in the exact same spots and typically directly or indirectly funded by taxpayer dollars. Despite the increase in frequency and intensity of wildfires and other natural disasters, people continue to be drawn to high-risk areas.

Western Climate Agenda Goes Against African Development

March 6, 2024 AL. Sene, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Africa, Conservation, Development, Neoliberalism

The exuberance of carbon and biodiversity offsets reached its pinnacle in Africa with several governments signing deals to concede vast sections of their primary forests to global carbon markets. Essentially, carbon and biodiversity offsets are premised on the flawed logic that forests, rangelands, mangroves and other important ecosystems of the world peripheries can serve as carbon sinks and neutralise the ecological effects of the unsustainable economic growth of the imperial core. The 2022 Land Gap Report estimates that the total area of land needed to meet climate pledges is almost 1.2 billion hectares globally.

State Senator Seeks To Unearth Hidden Costs Of Developer Tax Breaks

February 6, 2024 Taya Graham and Stephen Janis, The Real News Network. Educate! Accountability, Baltimore, Development, Tax Breaks, Transparency

For decades, Baltimore has doled out tax breaks intended to spur development. But the increasing use of incentives has not been matched by scrutiny of how much they cost the city, and who is benefiting. State Senator Jill Carter intends to correct that imbalance with a bill she has introduced to study a variety of tax breaks in-depth, with the purpose of determining if their use is both equitable and cost effective. “I think it’s important that people pay attention to how much money is thrown out to wealthy developers with no accountability,” Carter said. The bill would authorize a task force to gather data and recommend processes to increase transparency and accountability for how tax breaks are used.

California Is Showing The Potential Of Strip Mall-To-Housing Conversions

December 11, 2023 Ahmad Abu-Khalaf, Next City. Create! Affordable Housing, California, Development, Housing

State and local jurisdictions are desperately looking for new ways to speed up affordable housing development as the supply of homes falls short of demand nearly everywhere in the U.S. This fall, the Biden-Harris administration announced new resources to support commercial conversions to create affordable housing. While much of the focus is on office conversions, an idea that swept the nation as millions of Americans transitioned to remote work, relatively few office buildings are physically suitable for conversion. The costs can be incredibly high and the surrounding neighborhoods, often in business districts, are not necessarily conducive to new housing and the needs of residents.

Community Investors Are Doing What Big Dollar Retail Investors Won’t

July 20, 2023 Oscar Perry Abello, Next City. Create! Crowdfunding, Development, Local Economy, Urban Design

Lyneir Richardson has been helping Black people buy the block since 1991 or 1992. Then a new lawyer at the First National Bank of Chicago, Richardson occasionally had to take on pro-bono assignments that popped up related to the bank’s community reinvestment obligations. One such pro-bono assignment sent him to his childhood neighborhood on the West Side to work on loan documents for a $100,000 loan from a community-based organization to a barbershop on Chicago Avenue. “The amount of the loan, $100,000 or $100 million, didn’t matter. It was the same documents, a promissory note, a mortgage,” Richardson says.

World Needs A New Development Theory That Does Not Trap The Poor In Poverty

July 14, 2023 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Development, Poverty, Sustainability, Transformation, United Nations

In June, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network published its Sustainable Development Report 2023, which tracks the progress of the 193 member states towards attaining the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ‘From 2015 to 2019’, the network wrote, ‘the world made some progress on the SDGs, although this was already vastly insufficient to achieve the goals. Since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020 and other simultaneous crises, SDG progress has stalled globally’. This development agenda was adopted in 2015, with targets intended to be met by 2030.

Focus On What’s Strong, Not What’s Wrong

April 13, 2023 Eric Ortiz, SW Connector Organize! community building, Development, Minnesota, Sustainability

Everyone has a gift. That gift is a talent or passion. But not everyone gets to use their gift, talent or passion. Sometimes, people are not invited to share their gifts. We see this a lot. There is a problem. It could be big or small. Some people or groups are labeled as the source of the problem. They are called a nuisance, incorrigible, incurable or worse. They get cast aside, then forgotten. And the problem never gets solved. That doesn't mean the problem no longer exists. It just means "it's not our problem anymore." We may choose not to see it, but it's still a problem. This way of thinking is how we get unsolved problems and why we have the same longstanding issues that don't change.

US Push To Strip China’s Developing Country Status

April 7, 2023 Danny Haiphong, Black Agenda Report. Educate! China, Development, Global Economy, New Cold War, US Imperialism

On March 28, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the "PRC Is Not a Developing Country Act" by a unanimous vote of 415-0 in yet another demonstration of the solid bipartisanship that exists in the United States when it comes to containing and isolating China. Under the terms of the bill, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken would be directed to seek the removal of China's status as a developing country from international organizations and institutions. The United Nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank all recognize China as a developing country for good reason. China's GDP per capita, while rising, is $12,700 or about five times smaller than the U.S.'s.

Why Baltimore Kept Cutting Deals With A Developer Who Didn’t Deliver

August 21, 2022 J. Brian Charles, The Real News Network. Resist! Baltimore, Development, Displacement, Housing, Land Rights

Sweat trickled down Dan Bythewood’s forehead under the hot July sun. He promised the West Baltimore crowd he would keep his comments short so the 100 or so people who watched—activists, press, residents, and political leaders—could quickly retreat from the heatwave gripping the city. The developer, who is Black, stood behind a podium placed in front of the technicolor homes on Sarah Ann Street, a narrow stretch of concrete not wide enough for two cars to travel in opposite directions. Bythewood, president of the New York development firm La Cité (“the city” in French), trained his sight on the historic Sarah Ann Street homes almost two decades ago, with plans to redevelop the houses and the surrounding Poppleton neighborhood.

Haudenosaunee Chiefs Declare Development Moratorium

April 21, 2021 Brett Forester, APT News. Create! Development, Indigenous Sovereignty, Land grabs, Treaty Rights

Traditional Six Nations chiefs have declared a formal moratorium on development within the Haldimand Tract, a broad swath of land spanning 10 kms from either side of the Grand River as it winds its way from Dundalk, Ont. down to Lake Erie. Standing outside the Longhouse, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council said construction can’t proceed without the people’s consent — doubling down on their support for the land reclamation in Caledonia that now enters month 10. “The Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council endorses, supports and recognizes that development should not be proceeding on our lands,” Deyohowe:to Roger Silversmith, Snipe Clan chief of the Cayuga Nation, told reporters on Tuesday.

Indigenous Women Lead Land Struggle Against Wealthiest People In The US

November 29, 2020 The Red Nation. Resist! Development, Indigenous Sovereignty, Land defenders, New York (NY)

While the United States shudders in the shambles of another election year, whether from a collective sigh of relief or fear of what’s to come, a different system of governance blooms in a swath of woodlands jutting into the Atlantic Ocean. This sandy shoreline now part of what is called Long Island has always been home to the Shinnecock people. A group of Shinnecock women, organized as the Warriors of the Sunrise, are called to rise up in the face of invasive settlement. This is not their first battle. Members of the Shinnecock Nation know of a time before there was a Southampton

Groups Call For Federal Investigation Of City Over Toxic Industry

November 19, 2020 Brett Chase, Chicago Sun Times. Resist! Chicago, Development, Environmental racism, Industrial pollution

The city of Chicago’s role helping General Iron move from affluent white Lincoln Park to a majority-Latino Southeast Side neighborhood to make way for the Lincoln Yards redevelopment violated federal fair housing laws and should be investigated, community groups say. The move is an example of years of unfair zoning and land-use practices that discriminate against Black and Latino residents while benefiting white neighborhoods that have seen their home values soar, the groups said in a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Wednesday.

How Government And Private Industry Let The Main Street Of A Black Neighborhood Crumble

November 12, 2020 By Tony Briscoe, Haru Coryne, and Mick Dumke, Pro Publica. Educate! Chicago, Development, Disinvestment, Inequality, TIF

Growing up in Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood in the 1960s, Annette Britton spent a lot of time on Madison Street. She picked up produce for her mother at N&S Certified Food Mart, skated at the Albany roller rink and went to movies at the Imperial Theatre. A neighborhood pharmacy, Sacramento Drugs, not only filled prescriptions but served customers ice cream at a diner in back. Durham’s, an appliance store, sold washing machines and refrigerators. Back then, stores, often with apartments above them, lined Madison Street from downtown west to the city limits.

County Must Stop Development Of Moses African Cemetery

November 12, 2020 Catarina Ieronimo, The Diamondback. Educate! African Cemetery, Development, Liberal class, Racism

As someone who grew up in Montgomery County, I’ve heard and seen countless declarations from acquaintances, teachers and government officials that the county is incredibly progressive when it comes to racial justice. In my experience, many of those who sustain this claim will back it up with references to the diversity of county residents or to progressive legislation such as the CROWN Act, which prohibits discrimination based on natural and protective hairstyles. In addition, praise for Montgomery County’s progressivism has almost always included some kind of juxtaposition to more “backwards” parts of Maryland or Southern states.

Police Use Violence Against Land Defenders At Land Back Lane

October 23, 2020 Christopher Curtis, Ricochet Media. Resist! Development, Indigenous Sovereignty, Land defenders, Police violence

Six Nations, Ontario - An argument between police and land defenders erupted in violence Thursday when officers tried to arrest someone outside a protest camp on Haudenosaunee territory. Witnesses say police fired at least six rubber bullets and tasered a young man after someone threw a rock at their cruiser. In the ensuing chaos, Ontario Provincial Police fell back to a reinforced position about 500 metres from the camp’s back entrance. “I was hit right in the fucking back,” said one young man, who did not want to be identified.

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