Skip to main content

Congress for the New Urbanism in Providence


In the Chicago airport - returning from the CNU conference in Providence, RI. One of the highlights was to be able to spend lots of time with the CCDA folks including John Perkins, Philip Perkins and Mary Nelson. We had a great time scheming, eating, chatting... The photo is of Philip and John Perkins and Mary Nelson. We attended a workshop together.

Regarding the congress - have a lot to say about the experience. First off, thanks to a generous donation of a donor through CCDA I was able to go. It's always good to be exposed to new thoughts and ideas. Providence is a great city - old, historic. I love the East Coast. The CNU is a group of city planners, architects and non profit and for profit developers that are interested in transforming the city into a place that is livable in form and function. It's a response to urban sprawl and unchecked development. It's in many ways a return to looking at the city as an important resource. It call for mixed-use, mixed income development around transportation hubs. Walkable neighborhoods and the development of true neighborhoods and communities are a high value.

Topics were covered that were as diverse as city codes to the end of the oil industry. One especially interesting workshop I attended was around school segregation based on housing choice. Essentially, the speaker was contending that we essentially segregate our schools based on housing affordability. He (as a liberal) was advocating for school vouches as a vehicle to bring equity and solve inner city school problems. Check out Dr. Thomas Nechyba's info and research here. Interesting stuff. We've lived this issue with Samuel.

For me, I went with one thing in mind (and I suspect the other CCDAers did also) - to look at CNU principles in light of gentrification and the redevelopment that has been going on in our communities. It's a little premature for me to write at length about this issue right now. I have a lot to think about. What I can say is that it's almost inevitable that our communities will gentrify and we will have to figure out how those of us doing community development will respond. Bob Lupton coined a phrase recently, "Gentrification with Justice." He contends that a certain amount of gentrification must occur to bring resources into our community. Perhaps the CNU principles will help us bring justice to this issue?

I'm ready to go home... The plane boards soon... Keep praying for me!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PageMill, Wells Fargo and Sam Zell

Dear Friends,  Normal.dotm 0 0 1 888 5066 Northern California Urban Development 42 10 6221 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false As many of you know we've been in discussion recently with Wells Fargo and Equity Residential, the proposed buyers of the former Pagemill Properties on the west side of East Palo Alto.  As an East Palo Alto resident and leader I view this issue, and how Wells Fargo handles this important portfolio as a milestone event for our community and it’s residents. First, a little background (from my perspective):  A few years ago over 80% of East Palo Alto's multi family housing stock was purchased piece by piece by a predator equity group, Pagemill Properties. After the purchase Pagemill began systematically dismantling our rent control ordinances and aggressively evicting working class families. The community was in shock. However, the Pagemill group went bankrupt in 2009 and lost the property to Wachovia,...
1 comment
Read more

Non Profit Payday Loans?

Here's a recent New York Times article sent to me from Katie at NCHM on payday lending. I know that the NCUD / CTCU-EPA partnership is going to have to create the right program addressing the needs for short term lending for low income families. We don't have the answers yet, but it's definitely on our radar. APPLETON, Wis. — This city of 70,000 has five McDonald’s franchises, three Pizza Huts, four Starbucks shops — and 19 payday loan stores, brightly lighted storefronts with names like EZ Money and Check Into Cash that offer two-week loans without credit checks. Peggy Truckey, 53, knows the allure. Last year she owed nearly $1,300 to four of those stores, and was paying about $600 a month in finance fees alone. “I thought I was going to have to take a second job just to pay off the interest,” Ms. Truckey said. Then she heard about a new nonprofit program operated out of a Goodwill thrift store, one of several hundred lower-cost payday loan products that are now bein...
7 comments
Read more

Untitled

Posted via email from JOHN's posterous
Post a Comment
Read more