Stach Pad (Andrew Rice, New York Magazine)
"And so New Yorkers with garden-variety affluence—the kind of buyers who require mortgages—are facing disheartening price wars as they compete for scarce inventory with investors who may seldom even turn on a light switch. The Census Bureau estimates that 30 percent of all apartments in the quadrant from 49th to 70th Streets between Fifth and Park are vacant at least ten months a year."
Friday, July 25, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Homicide Inequality in Chicago - in Maps (Daniel Hertz via The New Republic)
"But Chicago's crime was never distributed evenly across the city, and the decline hasn't been, either. In and around downtown, and on the North Side, neighborhoods with moderate numbers of homicides became some of the safest urban areas in the country. A million people in Chicago, the global poster child for first-world urban violence, now live in neighborhoods that together have the same homicide rate as New York City, the “safest big city in America.”
Meanwhile, much of the rest of Chicago has seen much more modest declines, or stagnation. In the case of two police districts on the South Side, the homicide problem has actually gotten worse. In the early 1990s, the most dangerous third of the city saw about six times more murders than the safest third. Over the last several years, the most dangerous third has seen between twelve and 16 times more homicides."
"But Chicago's crime was never distributed evenly across the city, and the decline hasn't been, either. In and around downtown, and on the North Side, neighborhoods with moderate numbers of homicides became some of the safest urban areas in the country. A million people in Chicago, the global poster child for first-world urban violence, now live in neighborhoods that together have the same homicide rate as New York City, the “safest big city in America.”
Meanwhile, much of the rest of Chicago has seen much more modest declines, or stagnation. In the case of two police districts on the South Side, the homicide problem has actually gotten worse. In the early 1990s, the most dangerous third of the city saw about six times more murders than the safest third. Over the last several years, the most dangerous third has seen between twelve and 16 times more homicides."
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Detroit Urged to Tear down 40,000 Buildings (Monica Davey, New York Times)
"The basic plan, Mayor Mike Duggan said, is to clean up neighborhoods with the fewest blighted structures first to prevent them from falling into more widespread decay. Neighborhoods with numerous dilapidated houses on every block will come later, he said."
"The basic plan, Mayor Mike Duggan said, is to clean up neighborhoods with the fewest blighted structures first to prevent them from falling into more widespread decay. Neighborhoods with numerous dilapidated houses on every block will come later, he said."
The Case for Reparations: Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole (Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic)
"According to the most-recent statistics, North Lawndale is now on the wrong end of virtually every socioeconomic indicator. In 1930 its population was 112,000. Today it is 36,000. The halcyon talk of “interracial living” is dead. The neighborhood is 92 percent black. Its homicide rate is 45 per 100,000—triple the rate of the city as a whole. The infant-mortality rate is 14 per 1,000—more than twice the national average. Forty-three percent of the people in North Lawndale live below the poverty line—double Chicago’s overall rate. Forty-five percent of all households are on food stamps—nearly three times the rate of the city at large. Sears, Roebuck left the neighborhood in 1987, taking 1,800 jobs with it. Kids in North Lawndale need not be confused about their prospects: Cook County’s Juvenile Temporary Detention Center sits directly adjacent to the neighborhood."
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Sprawled Out in Atlanta: What happens when poverty spreads to a place that wasn't built for poor people? (Rebecca Burns, Politico Magazine)
"Here’s the most complicated problem with poverty in the suburbs: It’s almost invisible. There are 86,000 people in Cobb County who live below the poverty level. But you could live in Cobb your whole life and never see them, or at least not knowingly. Cobb County covers 339 square miles and is home to 717,000 people. Its poor residents can be lost in the crowd—and lost in all that space.
The sprawling geography means that many commuters obliviously whiz by the entrance to a place like Castle Lake trailer park, or the entrance to a subdivision where families crowd into small 1960s brick ranches. In dense city blocks, outward signs of poverty are more visible—packed apartment buildings or large government-funded complexes."
"Here’s the most complicated problem with poverty in the suburbs: It’s almost invisible. There are 86,000 people in Cobb County who live below the poverty level. But you could live in Cobb your whole life and never see them, or at least not knowingly. Cobb County covers 339 square miles and is home to 717,000 people. Its poor residents can be lost in the crowd—and lost in all that space.
The sprawling geography means that many commuters obliviously whiz by the entrance to a place like Castle Lake trailer park, or the entrance to a subdivision where families crowd into small 1960s brick ranches. In dense city blocks, outward signs of poverty are more visible—packed apartment buildings or large government-funded complexes."
Friday, May 9, 2014
Is Something Wrong with Chicago's Suburbs? Aaron Renn, Urbanophile
"I previously talked about Connecticut becoming a suburban corporate wasteland as well as the rise of the executive headquarters in major global city downtowns. What we see is that high end functions have shown anecdotal signs of re-centralizing, while the more bread and butter – though still often well-paying – jobs are heading to less expensive suburban locales in places like Austin, Charlotte, and Salt Lake City. These leaves expensive and business hostile suburbs around global cities, like most of those in Connecticut, in a tough spot."
"I previously talked about Connecticut becoming a suburban corporate wasteland as well as the rise of the executive headquarters in major global city downtowns. What we see is that high end functions have shown anecdotal signs of re-centralizing, while the more bread and butter – though still often well-paying – jobs are heading to less expensive suburban locales in places like Austin, Charlotte, and Salt Lake City. These leaves expensive and business hostile suburbs around global cities, like most of those in Connecticut, in a tough spot."
Motor City Breakdown (Jerry Herron, Design Intelligence)
Another great artical about Detroit from Jerry Herron:
"Perhaps the most important question posed by Detroit, finally, is the question of access. Because the rest of the country has spent so much time viewing this city, and reading and writing about it, people looking in feel they’ve earned certain rights. The city ought to be transparent — much like so many of the buildings here have become literally transparent, ruins no longer capable of defending their interiors from weather or scrappers or camera crews. It’s easy to snatch off a piece, and think you’ve got the whole of it. But that would be a mistake. When America happens to a place, Detroit is the result, all of it, hard-scrabble urban core and suburban millionaire enclaves and everything in between."
Another great artical about Detroit from Jerry Herron:
"Perhaps the most important question posed by Detroit, finally, is the question of access. Because the rest of the country has spent so much time viewing this city, and reading and writing about it, people looking in feel they’ve earned certain rights. The city ought to be transparent — much like so many of the buildings here have become literally transparent, ruins no longer capable of defending their interiors from weather or scrappers or camera crews. It’s easy to snatch off a piece, and think you’ve got the whole of it. But that would be a mistake. When America happens to a place, Detroit is the result, all of it, hard-scrabble urban core and suburban millionaire enclaves and everything in between."
Post-Card Perfect: The Big Business of City Branding (Sharon Zukin, The Guardian)
"Branding, to be crass, is a means of selling a place –a building, a district or a city. Capitalising on image demands metrics, and metrics imply control – of the image, the message and, ultimately, the men and women who flesh out the image: us. In the end, the most important metrics in city branding are increases in property values and tourist spending. Yet these are not necessarily good for city dwellers, especially rental tenants and people who depend on public services that may be underfunded while municipal budgets are diverted to creating and maintaining tourist attractions."
"Branding, to be crass, is a means of selling a place –a building, a district or a city. Capitalising on image demands metrics, and metrics imply control – of the image, the message and, ultimately, the men and women who flesh out the image: us. In the end, the most important metrics in city branding are increases in property values and tourist spending. Yet these are not necessarily good for city dwellers, especially rental tenants and people who depend on public services that may be underfunded while municipal budgets are diverted to creating and maintaining tourist attractions."
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