TOPIC

Real Estate

The Value of Land: How Community Land Trusts Maintain Housing Affordability

Oksana Mironova charts an alternative strategy to land ownership and property management that helps communities solve a broad range of problems — including widening inequality and decreasing community control over housing costs — that affect residents across the country.

Growing Long Island's Downtowns: The Regional Benefits of Better Parking Design

Kaja Kühl and June Williamson explain how improved parking design can spur suburban downtown development in line with community goals of attracting young people, providing affordable housing, and stimulating local economies.

What Is Zoning?

Christine Gaspar of the Center for Urban Pedagogy walks us through the core concepts of New York City’s zoning code and describes the strategies the organization employs to break down its complexity.

Typecast: Towers in the Park

Smith Houses: A Legacy of Activism

Sarika Bansal investigates how local traditions of advocacy, a history of community tensions, and the chronic underfunding of public housing inform residents' opposition to a controversial new development proposal at Smith Houses.

West of Nathan's: Planning Coney Island's Residential Community

Housing advocate Oksana Mironova investigates the planning policies and housing developments that have shaped the often-overlooked residential side of Coney Island and calls for investment in a neighborhood facing challenges of poverty, climate change, and affordability loss.

Daylighting Rivers in Search of Hidden Treasure

Restoring paved-over waterways is rightly celebrated for its environmental benefits. Zach Youngerman explores the practice in terms of post-industrial urban revitalization strategies.

Profiles in Public Service

Affordable and Attainable: A Conversation on Housing with Lindsay Haddix

The Chief of Staff for the Office of Development at HPD explains the agency's strategies for funding, incentivizing, developing, and preserving affordable housing in New York City.

The Armory and the City: Civic Spaces of the National Guard

In advance of The Architectural League's Beaux Arts Ball on September 28th at the 69th Regiment Armory, we take a look back at the civic and social role of National Guard armories in the American city.

The Big Squeeze: Illustrating Micro-Unit Housing

Center for Urban Pedagogy teaching artist Chat Travieso works with high school students in Bushwick to simplify and illustrate the complexities of micro-unit housing.

Urban Omnibus Writing Competition: Fuzzy Math

The Ricotta Index

Deborah Helaine Morris, one of two runners-up of the Fuzzy Math writing competition, charts the shifting demographics of one pocket of Brooklyn through the dairy aisle of her local supermarkets, delis, and specialty food stores.