Development

Philly Neighborhood Achieves Inclusive Development And Control Through Community Land Trust

May 15, 2018 Steve Dubb, Nonprofitquarterly.org Create! Development, Land, New Economy, Philadelphia

In Philadelphia, the Community Justice Land Trust is helping preserve a community in the face of rising land values and speculation in the city’s Eastern North section, near Temple University, reports Patrick Sisson in Curbed. Sisson notes that a decade ago, the area, “near Temple University and largely lower income and [Latinx], was beginning to feel the influence of nearby developments, loft-to-condo conversions that had been a harbinger of rising rents and displacement in similar neighborhoods.” The formation of a community land trust has helped provide long-term permanently affordable housing for residents while also allowing for long-term community planning of development.

Stopping Chain Stores From Dominating Communities

March 30, 2018 By Peter Moskowitz, Huffingtonpost.com Create! Capitalism, Development, New Economy

If you’re not looking for it, you might not notice what makes Candice Osborne’s Jersey City neighborhood different. Like so many other newly developed areas of American cities, it is filled with glass-clad condos stretching dozens of stories into the sky. But as Osborne and I walk around, she points out what isn’t there: no Starbucks, no CVS, no Chase Bank. Instead, on the ground floor of Osborne’s building, there’s an independent coffee shop called Beechwood Cafe, a hair salon, a public school and Downtown Pharmacy ― where Osborne picks up a packet of jalapeño-flavored Mary’s Gone Crackers, her new favorite snack. “They don’t carry this kind of stuff at CVS,” she says. The 39-year-old digital strategist can also get an omelet with whatever she wants at Beechwood and treats for her dog, things she couldn’t grab at a Starbucks. “It’s little things,” she says. “But they’re indicative of the fact that they understand the neighborhood.”

Strategies To Encourage Locally-Owned, Independent Businesses

March 30, 2018 Olivia Lavecchia, Ilsr.org Create! Development, New Economy, Small Business

In many U.S. cities, finding and keeping an affordable location has become a major challenge for independent businesses. Two years ago, we took an in-depth look at the issue in our report, Affordable Space: How Rising Commercial Rents Are Threatening Independent Businesses, and What Cities Are Doing About It. We examined what’s causing the problem — from real estate financing that compels developers to exclude independent businesses, to the declining supply of small spaces — and also outlined six strategies that cities were beginning to use to address it. Now, one of those strategies is catching on: Set-asides for local businesses in new development. It’s a strategy that requires developers to reserve, or “set aside,” space for small or local businesses in new construction, and it can help ensure that a built environment that’s suited to small businesses isn’t replaced with one designed for chains.

China Is Financing Petrochemical Hub In Appalachia

February 8, 2018 By Steve Horn, Desmogblog.com Educate! China, Development, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Investment

Over the past year, oil and gas industry plans to build a petrochemical refining and storage hub along the Ohio River have steadily gained traction. Proponents hope this potential hub, which would straddle Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky, could someday rival the industrial corridor found along the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana. Those plans center around creating what is known as the Appalachian Storage Hub, which received a major boost on November 9 during a trade mission to China attended by President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. At that trade mission, also attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the China Energy Investment Corp. announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to invest $83.7 billion into the planned storage hub over 20 years.

New Hopkins Hotel Gets Biggest Slice Of Neighborhood Grant Pie

February 1, 2018 Mark Reutter, Baltimorebrew.com Educate! Baltimore, Development, Gentrification, Uneven Development

With today’s approval of a resolution of support by the mayor and the Board of Estimates, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development will release another $800,000 of BRNI funds for the Marriott Residence Inn, a hotel that caters to patients and their families at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center. This money will supplement the $1.4 million the project was already awarded under the same program. The Baltimore Regional Neighborhoods Initiative was established by the legislature to provide strategic investments that lead to “healthy, sustainable communities” in Baltimore City and inner-Beltway communities. Traditionally, the funds have been divided into small parcels ($50,000 to $150,000) for local greening projects, business facade improvements, urban farming, homeownership incentives, trash removal, alley gating and public art.

Carillion Catastrophe & Limits Of Privatized Government

January 26, 2018 By Derek Royden, Nationofchange.org Educate! Corruption, Development, Government, Privatization

To say that British Prime Minister Theresa May has been having a rough time since rolling the dice on an early election and losing her party’s parliamentary majority in June, is probably a bit of an understatement. Headaches abound and multiply, from a widely covered speech being interrupted by a prankster, a falling back drop and a coughing fit, to Brexit ‘negotiations’ that seem to go nowhere, to buffoons in her own party, most comically the British version of Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, who recently suggested building a bridge over the English Channel to connect France and the U.K., a feat of engineering that could only be matched by the U.S. President’s proposed border wall.

A Public Bank Could Relieve Seattle’s Housing Crisis

January 20, 2018 Paul Alexander, Medium.com Create! Capitalism, Development, New Economy

Like hundreds of cities in America, Seattle is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. During a one-year period in 2015–16, Seattle rents increased by 9.7 percent — four times the national average. In 2017, the cost of an average two-bedroom topped $2,000. The results have been predictable: nearly half of Seattle renters are currently “housing-cost burdened,” meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent. They may be the lucky ones. A recent Zillow study cited the connection between even modest rent increases and resulting homelessness; meanwhile, King County’s 2017 One Night Count tallied 11,643 homeless people. The Seattle region’s unhoused population now trails only that of Los Angeles County and New York City — and the survey’s flawed methodology means the true count is almost certainly higher.

She Fought As Black Panther. Will Gentrification Force Her Out?

December 14, 2017 Sam Levin, theguardian.com Resist! Black Panthers, Development, Displacement, Gentrification

In America’s ‘hottest housing market’, one woman’s fight to keep her home has become a rallying cry against the displacement of communities of color. One by one, Frances Moore has watched friends and neighbors move into cars, tents and encampments. Many in crisis often turn to the 62-year-old Oakland woman, who provides free meals to the homeless, but she has found it increasingly difficult to hear their stories of displacement. That’s because she knows she could soon be next. Moore, known locally as Aunti Frances, is now fighting an eviction from the community where she was born and raised, in the heart of a neighborhood recently named the hottest real estate market in the US.

Taxpayer-Subsidized DC Wharf Creates Low Wage Jobs

October 14, 2017 Staff, www.dcfpi.org Educate! Development, Taxes, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Staff of DC Fiscal Policy Institute - The District of Columbia’s economic development efforts – including the enormous Wharf project – too often support creation of low-wage jobs with minimal benefits, because they do not link large public subsidies with requirements to create high-quality jobs, according to a new analysis by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute. This means that DC is failing to use its substantial economic development investments to reduce the city’s large income gaps or to ensure that benefits of DC’s growing prosperity are shared widely. The redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront is one of the largest real estate development projects in the history of the District. It is transforming an historic area of the city’s waterfront, while creating new retail, dining, entertainment and housing options within walking distance of the Mall. Yet the project faces growing questions about the type of jobs it is actually creating, and who truly benefits from large taxpayer subsidies for such developments. The District approved $300 million in public subsidies for the Wharf project, including public land and cash subsidies through DC’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and PILOT economic development subsidy programs.

The Importance Of The Fight For The South–And Why It Can And Must Be Won

September 20, 2017 Bob WIng, www.organizingupgrade.com Create! Development, South, United States

By Bob WIng and Stephen McClure for Organizing Upgrade - The importance of the fight for the South is a matter of considerable controversy. Whatever the rhetoric it's safe to say that most progressives outside of the South have put little time, energy or money into this struggle since the height of the southern Civil Rights movement. Many have outright given up on the South, considering it either a reactionary lost cause or simply unwinnable. We beg to disagree, and in this essay will make the case that failure to the fight for the South downplays the centrality of the Black struggle in U.S. politics, strategically surrenders the upper hand to the far right and the Republican Party and cripples the fight against poverty. The South is a dynamically changing region and the fight for it is absolutely crucial to defeating the far right and winning a progressive future. Specifically, we argue that as regards building the progressive movement into a powerful force in this country, the South is crucial. (1) Defeating the right and building a strong progressive movement in this country needs the leadership, experience and energy of African Americans, a growing majority of whom who live in the South. (2) Targeting the Southern racist rightwing in its own backyard, on issues of race, poverty, militarism, climate change and democracy, is a crucial part of a broad movement to defeat the right nationally in public opinion, on policy and in elections.

Houston Plots A Sustainable Path, Leaving This Neighborhood Behind

August 18, 2017 Raj Mankad, www.grist.org Educate! Development, Houston

By Raj Mankad for Grist - Juan Parras gives one hell of a tour of Houston’s east side. He’s charming and funny. Wearing a beret, he strikes an old-world look, like he might lead you to a cafe on a plaza. He doesn’t charge a fee for his services. After all, you’re on a “toxic tour,” and Parras is on a mission. Parras grew up in 1950s West Texas. He remembers segregated schools, the restaurants that wouldn’t serve him, the unpaved roads, and the people who lived closest to the local refinery. Those experiences led him to a career as a social justice advocate. The resident of Houston’s heavily industrial east side has worked in a city housing department, for a union, for a law clinic, and on a campaign that stopped a PVC factory from being built in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.” For the last decade, he has served as executive director of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (better known as t.e.j.a.s.). Part of his work is leading tours past the heaping piles of scrap metal along Houston’s Buffalo Bayou and by Cesar Chavez High School, which opened in 2000 within a quarter-mile of three large petrochemical plants.

Hempcrete Could Change The Way We Build Everything

August 9, 2017 Joe Martino, www.collective-evolution.com Create! Development, New Economy

By Joe Martino for Collective Evolution - First off, what is Hempcrete? As the name suggests, hempcrete is a building material that incorporates hemp into its mixture. Versatile and hardy, it can be used for wall insulation, flooring, walls, roofing, and more, and is fireproof, waterproof, and rot-proof, provided it’s used aboveground. Derived from the shiv or inside stem of the hemp plant, it’s then mixed with a lime base binder to create the final, negative carbon footprint product. Hempcrete is much more versatile and pliable than concrete, making it an easier material to work with. In fact, earthquakes cannot crack these structures, as they are three times more resistant to damage than regular concrete. Hempcrete also requires less energy to produce, since lime doesn’t need to be heated to the same degree as industrial concrete. What’s more, because it contains cellulose, Hempcrete also sequesters carbon. Through its growing life cycle, it takes in large amounts of carbon, which are then built into the home or building being constructed. Carbon is thus stored rather than released into the atmosphere, and as a result, a home can save about 20,000lbs of carbon when being built out of Hempcrete.

Maryland: African Cemetery Protests Win Government Response

March 22, 2017 Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, www.blackagendareport.com Resist! Development, Gentrification, Racism, Sacred sites

By Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo for Black Agenda Report. Bethesda, Maryland - After months of public pressure and protests, Montgomery County Government has reluctantly suggested to “bring all parties together to address the various concerns that have been expressed and seek a solution that all can agree upon before we move forward.” The suggestion was made in a March 16, 2017, joint letter from County Executive, Isiah Leggett, and Council President, Roger Berliner, issued to Casey Anderson, Chair of the Montgomery County Planning Board. Black Agenda Report has covered this struggle extensively. From outward appearances, the casual observer would never be able to discern the presence of the cemetery as every day hundreds of cars drive over what now is the Housing Opportunity Commission (HOC) apartment parking lot.

New Orleans’ Ninth Ward Fights Freeway Through Historic Black Neighborhood

March 21, 2017 Michael Stein, www.truth-out.org Resist! Development, New Orleans

By Michael Stein for Truthout - There were about 200 Ninth Ward community members in the Saint Mary of the Angels church that night to see what the Department of Transportation had planned for their home. This situation was unfortunately familiar for them. Ninth Ward residents continuously contend with infrastructure projects that disregard their well-being and ignore their input. It's these polices that isolated the Lower Ninth Ward from the rest of the city, robbed it of public resources and caused it to suffer the worst devastation during Hurricane Katrina. There was national recognition after Katrina that much of the storm's destruction was human-made

Battle For The Amazon: Tapajós Basin Threatened By Massive Development

January 23, 2017 Sue Branford and Maurício Torres, www.news.mongabay.com Resist! Amazon, Brazil, Dams, Development

By Sue Branford and Maurício Torres for Mongabay - The Tapajós River Basin lies at the heart of the Amazon, and also at the heart of an exploding controversy: whether to build more than 40 large dams, a railway, roads, canals and port complexes, turning the Basin into a vast industrialized commodities export corridor; or to curb this development impulse and conserve one of the most biologically and culturally rich regions on the planet. Those struggling to shape the Basin's fate hold conflicting opinions, but because the Tapajós is an isolated region, few of these views get aired in the media. Journalist Sue Branford and social scientist Mauricio Torres travelled there recently for Mongabay, and over coming weeks hope to shed some light on the heated debate that will shape the future of the Amazon.

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