In his article, the author is defining Redevelopment in California as a financing mechanism that let cities float debt and shower the proceeds on "blighted" areas — morphed into a scheme for transferring downtown properties to developers, and eventually a means for suburban cities to subsidize auto malls and shopping centers.
According to the state budget, redevelopment was diverting 12 percent of the state's budget from traditional public services toward "economic development" projects. Governor Brown shut them down to find cash during a budget crisis. But now that the short-term budget problems are fixed, the legislature is rebuilding the whole redevelopment edifice, however, the author argues that the capitol’s main focus is money not
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But the usual business groups are on the record favoring the bill. "Communities across California are searching for new tools to replace the loss of redevelopment agencies, which were intended to revitalize urban cores and build affordable housing, especially in those areas most economically and physically disadvantaged," according to letter from a wide coalition of business and trade groups that favor redevelopment. Moreover, the new paradigm is different than the old redevelopment approach. Newly created agencies can no longer unilaterally grab "property tax increment" from counties, fire authorities and school districts. That reduces the incentive for cities to create these districts given that their own budgets must sustain the new debt spending.
There's a public process before a redevelopment district is created. Members of the community will be on a panel overseeing the project. There's a mechanism to put the project to a vote and to shut down the agency at 10-year intervals. Opponents are skeptical these protections are anything more than window dressing given the project's influential supporters will make sure the "right" locals are on the oversight board.
In conclusion, this article’s main focus is the redevelopment process in California as the nations urban-renewal efforts were taking hold, including California’s own version of it. As riots spread across the nation, planners sought to revive inner cities with massive public investments as modern housing complexes-while wiping away-dilapidated
In Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U.S. 374 (1994), building a parking lot will increase the quantity and rate of storm-water flow from the property, thus keeping the floodplain free from the development would likely confine the pressures on Fanno Creek created by the new development. However, this was not enough for the city; the city wanted the land for itself. According to Justice Rhenquist, “the city must make some effort to quantify its findings in *396 support of the dedication it asks for” (Dolan v. City of Tigard 1994, 5). San Jose’s law does not solve the issue of increasing low-income housing, but instead harms entrepreneurs. The City of San Jose has made no effort to meet its burden to show that developers of new homes are somehow responsible for the astronomical prices of housing in the city. The law is an impediment to growth, an interference with the free market and an exceedingly expensive cost-per-unit way of integrating lower incomes into high land-value
Robert Soderbery was an enterprising entrepreneur who managed the public works department of a private business in Pittsburg, California. Pittsburg was known to have undergone a serious of identities over the years. Initially, Pittsburg was known to be an industrial city encompassed mostly of farms. Pittsburg essentially became a commercial ghost town during the ‘50s and it took recreating the city and building new developments to progress as a city. However, to every positive, there’s a negative. Although Pittsburg was progressing as a city, they were still struggling due to the 1978 tax initiative—Proposition 13—which affected many of Pittsburg’s revenue.
In 1969, Massachusetts fashioned the law 40B, famously referred to as the “Anti-Snob Zoning Act”, which allows developers to bypass land use restrictions in towns where less than ten percent of the housing meets the state definition of affordable. There are multiple positions and solutions to friction in Massachusetts largely inspired by controversy surrounding the State's affordable housing law, Massachusetts General Laws chapter 40B between housing advocates and open space advocates. This thesis reviews and critiques the current law, and diagnoses various legislative proposals for the progressive feud.
Eminent domain disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minorities, the elderly, and the economically disadvantaged. For example, in San Jose, California, 95 percent of the properties targeted for redevelopment are owned by minorities, even though only 30 percent of businesses are owned by minorities. These groups are disproportionately affected because they are easy political and economic targets. Condemnations in minority or elderly neighborhoods are often easier because they are less likely or able to resist. Areas with low property values are targeted because they cost less and the State gains financially when they replace areas with low property values with higher values. / / When an area is taken for "economic development," the
There should be an increment or flex pay plan for the residents who are suddenly constrained with higher property taxes. This way they can gradually increase their payments, instead of their payments ballooning at one time. There should be low-interest loans or funding for established small and minority-owned businesses wanting to upgrade their business. The community should be made aware of any funds that will allow them to improve their homes and keep in line with the revitalization.
When evaluating urban renewal projects, Professor Steven Cord found that “By far most of the housing destroyed was low cost housing,” (184). The statistics in Kelo also showed that 56 percent of nonwhites and 38 percent of whites displaced by urban renewal were qualified to receive public housing due to their low incomes. Further, the destruction of housing forces individuals to seek relocation housing. Relocation housing is not guaranteed to be readily available or to be superior to the housing destroyed (Cord 185). Eminent domain has broken up neighborhoods and forced out longtime residents (Cord 184).
According to The Oxford English Dictionary, gentrification is defined as the renovation and improvement of a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste (Oxford English Dictionary). This definition absolutely fits the description of the current transformation of the inner City of Baltimore. When we look at neighborhoods such as Westport, Federal Hill, and Canton, it is evident that gentrification is on the City of Baltimore’s agenda. During the last two terms that Mayor Martin O’Mally has presided over the city, there have been many changes in administration and the population that are causing devastating effects on the city’s blue collar residents. The Baltimore City
Over the past twenty years, San Francisco’s Mission District has experienced a tremendous amount of change. Similar to many neighborhoods across the United States, it has been undergoing a gentrification process in which increases in housing prices, redevelopment in buildings, and a shortage of rental units have left many of its low-income population homeless or on the verge of becoming homeless. In order to understand the controversial issue revolving around the gentrification process taking place the Mission District, it is essential to know the history of the Mission District, San Francisco’s geography and housing laws, and the socioeconomic impacts of gentrification.
When a neighborhood is gentrified it will not only change the image of it, but also the services available there (Al-Kodmany 2011, 62-63). In other words, gentrification does not only have an impact on the physical aspect of the land, but also the resources that lie there. During the 90s, the Near West Side neighborhood located near Loop, an up-scale neighborhood, sought drastic changes within the area. The changes in racial demographics in the Near West Side indicated that the health risks that affected minorities dropped in the past decade (1992-2002) (Al-Kodmany 2011,
People always wonder why the City of Angels is different from other cities. This paper will answer this question and explain the uniqueness that makes L.A., “L.A.” Los Angeles, since its birth as an embryonic city, has become one of the most diverse metropolises, offering to the public what no other city can. This paper will emphasize the relationship between the federal government and the western United States. It will also illustrate how capitalism has flourished because of the prevalent 19th century Laissez Faire ideology. It will describe how the free market prevailed and expanded Los Angeles outward, while cultivating new public institutions and private enterprises.
In the communities I grew up in, there were frequent changing circumstances that actually left my family not really as part of the community. From dingy, cheap and tiny places for rent, there has been significant points brought to the attention of the reader in this book that could attribute to the failure and success of neighborhoods. In Suburban Nation, the opening pages give a lot of insight on the issues that can come from these big and fancy, new housing developments.
A bill, SB 35, written by Senator Scott Wiener, streamlines the home building action by removing roadblocks to development. Instead of putting roadblocks in the way, we should be offering incentives for housing development. “The explosive costs of housing have spread like wildfire around the state,” said Senator Scott Wiener. This is not a problem with elite housing along the coast. This is a problem that covers huge areas of the state. It’s damaging the economy. It also damages the environment, as people are forced into longer commutes.
“Words are not passive; indeed, they help to share and create our perceptions of the world around us. The terms we choose to label or describe events must, therefore, convey appropriate connotations or images of the phenomenon under consideration in order to avoid serious misunderstandings. The existence of different terms to describe gentrification is not an accident, neither is the plethora of definitions for it” (Palen & London, 1984, p. 6). SAY SOMETHING Peter Marcuse (1999) argues that, “how gentrification is evaluated depends a great deal on how it is defined” (p. 789). Defining gentrification properly is necessary for anchoring an analysis of neighborhood change, particularly in light of recent scholarly efforts to replace the term (to describe the process) with less critical names like: ‘urban renaissance’,
Urban renewal is the demolition of houses and neighborhoods to make room for freeways and large public buildings. Some examples of urban renewal in Portland include Emanuel Hospital, Memorial Coliseum, Interstate 5, and the Fremont Bridge. “The Commission declared, ‘clearly urban renewal, largely clearance, appears to be the only solution to not only blight that presently exists in central Albina, but also to avoid the spread of that blight to other surrounding areas.’” (Ackerman) Urban renewal projects usually occur in low-income African-American neighborhoods. For instance in 1960 a freeway expansion cut down the size of the Albina District, and countless businesses and people were displaced. Resistance groups formed. They built a sense of communal spirit to resist ongoing and pending projects. Although efforts to resist urban renewal did exist, they never had a large
When new development or renovations on empty lots begin the citizens of the communities start asking amount them who will be the beneficiary of the gentrification. Even the displaced of mom and pop businesses are disappear. And the neighborhood no longer can afford to leave on such communities. The question is how does gentrification impact the government? Well, government plays a big role in serving low income to citizens. It create apartment that an affordable to them. It doesn’t impact the government on a negative way because they generate new policies and programs that help the people from the community. So, many types of local and states polices are design to accommodate affordable houses, even though the cost are increasing. One of the several program that the government had is one called “inclusionary zoning” (IZ). The characteristics for this program are: “(1) whether they are mandatory or voluntary, (2) what size or type of development projects are affected, (3) the required share of affordable units, (4) the