Tag: Housing
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How to Kill a City
Book Review In cities across America we are seeing the negative effects of gentrification and how it has the potential to destroy culture, heritage, and displace long time residents. People are being priced out of homes, forced to “drive until they qualify.” This phenomenon may seem relegated to high population centers like New York City…
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Cohousing: A Sustainable Solution for Modern Living
When I moved to the Metro area I bought a house that sits on almost half an acre in a first ring suburb. I also bought a newer car to save on gas for my 30 minute commute to work in another suburban town. The longer I spent in my daily commute, the more I…
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Understanding Density: The Future of Living Spaces
It is hard to keep pace with the ever changing trend of where people want to live. One week we seem to be moving back into cities, the next the suburbs are back on the rise. Larger trends like the suburban flight of the 1950’s and 60’s are easier to see, but the year to year…
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Evicted
Book Review As a city planner working with a rental licensing program I found Evicted by Matthew Desmond to be an eye opening and insightful book on the life of both renters and landlords. Desmond tells the story of the rental climate of Milwaukee in 2008 and 2009, just after the housing market collapsed and rents soared…
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Transforming Neighborhoods: Small Projects, Big Impact
I recently read an article by Robert Steuteville titled “Great Idea:Incremental Developers”. The incremental developer is someone who creates meaningful change in their own communities through small scale building projects. When I thought about this for a moment, I realized I was an incremental developer when I lived in Lubbock, Texas. My husband and I…
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Density vs. Preservation: the never ending battle
I began my career as a preservation planning intern in Lincoln, Nebraska. While there, I mostly worked on National Register nominations and local landmark designations. Lincoln was receptive to preservation and not in the business of demolition. There was no need to pack density into the downtown core at the expense of historic buildings because…
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The Planning Lady 