In 2018, Austin adopted a “preference policy” to sell homes to families displaced by gentrification. Six months ago, the city finally got around to actually putting a house on the market. It remains unsold, despite the fact that the house is selling for about 40 percent of Austin’s median sales price. The program is just…
Those with a political agenda often distort facts to suit their purpose. Opponents of rezoning in New York City are an example. They claim that rezoning displaces people of color and are citing a report published by the Churches United for Fair Housing (CUFFH). That report concluded that, While displacement trends existed before the zoning…
City council members in Boulder are pushing for more housing. At a recent meeting, they demonstrated that they are a major obstacle to that occurring. A developer wants to build fifty-nine new homes on a parcel of land. Fourteen will be townhomes with a price tag of $2.4 million. The developer is required to include…
City council members in Denver recently became the latest legislative body to demonstrate that a basic knowledge of economics is not necessary to hold an elected office. The council is considering a proposal to require that all new housing developments include below market-rate units in the project. The proposal would also increase the “affordable housing…
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently denounced a real estate company for its “predatory” practices in buying more than one-hundred apartment buildings in Brooklyn. Speaking to a group of tenants and other disgruntled rabblerousers, Schumer said, There is nothing more despicable than these predatory real estate equity firms trying to make billions of dollars on…
Housing activists frequently demand that long-time residents of a community have a voice in new development within a neighborhood, particularly when gentrification threatens to change the character of the area. In many instances, they lobby government officials to force a developer to “negotiate” with community representatives. But these “negotiations” are simply a cover for extortion….
A professor in San Diego has concluded that Yelp reviews of ethnic restaurants are contributing to gentrification and displacement. The reviews “contribute to the transformation of urban foodscapes — the physical, symbolic, cultural, lived, and imagined food environments — that have been built by people of color….” And because the reviewers are “primarily young, white,…
A Los Angeles apartment developer is suing the city for losses incurred as a result of the city’s eviction moratorium. He correctly claims that the moratorium is a “taking” per the Fifth Amendment and compensation is due to him. He is asking for $100 million. Sadly, the courts usually defer to legislators during a crisis,…
Across the nation, individuals want to live closer to the central city. They want easy access to restaurants, retail stores, and entertainment. They want shorter commutes to work and “walkable” communities. In response to this growing demand, developers and entrepreneurs are investing in neighborhoods, many of them impoverished, near the central city. As these investments…
A coalition of residents, activists, and students is conducting a public shakedown on Rice University because of its Ion technology development building in Houston’s Third Ward. Rice has already given tentative approval to an agreement with the city that would have the university establish a venture fund to provide financing for black and Latino entrepreneurs,…
In a post about systemic racism, John McWhorter writes: A science teacher conference in Washington state last year included a PowerPoint slide preaching that “If you conclude that outcome differences by demographic subgroup are a result of anything other than a broken system, that is, by definition, bigotry.” This should have been corrected: “If you…
Like many cities in America, St. Paul, Minnesota, is suffering from a severe shortage of affordable housing. And, as happens in many cities across the nation, some neighborhood groups in St. Paul are opposing a project that would provide homes for 144 low-income families. Opponents to the project would prefer a vacant lot rather than…