Boston is facing an identity crisis, and it needs to grow up – literally. Is it a global city, with ample night life opportunities, or a New England town, shutting down with the MBTA before midnight? In many respects, Boston’s identity is based upon its backbone – its outdated, stressed transportation infrastructure. Relatively unique to […]
Tag Archives: affordable housing
Connect
It’s winter again in Boston. Anyone who was there last year during February and March knows what that means. The ability to move about the city could come to a screeching halt in the blink of an eye. . The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA, or the “T”) completely shut down last winter after repeated large winter storms, […]
Bridge the Gap
. New York City, arguably the world’s premier global city, is the largest in the richest country in the world. The metropolitan region hosts 23+ million people, more than the population of Australia, and New York’s population continues to rise. The MTA network spans 5,000 miles, with more than 2,000 miles of track—enough to stretch from New […]
A Riel (Estate) Plan for NYC
Riel, 2015 Born and bred in Brooklyn, I firmly believe that the New York region remains the cultural capital of the world. With more people in the metropolitan area than in the entire continent of Australia, New York continues to harbor diverse and creative opportunities due to its inherent dynamism and density, catalyzed by the […]
Extensions & Expansions
As local lore has it, when a relative asked Charles Tufts what he would do with his land, and more specifically with “that bleak hill over in Medford,” Tufts replied, “I will put a light on it.” The Universalist Church founded Tufts University in the 1840s with a gift of 20 acres of land from Boston […]
Mr. TOD
The Tale of Mr. TOD Once upon a time, Mr. Tod arrived in New York. And the rest was not yet history. The tale is still, obviously, unfolding. Will Mr. Tod be able to create mobile, accessible, and affordable neighborhoods? Or will Mr. Tod only support luxury? Mr. Tod, of course, is Mr. Transit-Oriented Development. He’s more and more popular these […]
Is the Singapore Housing Model Right for New York City?
Singapore is often touted as being an exorbitantly expensive place to live. It’s so recognizably pricey in fact, that the small city-state recently snatched first place in 2014’s list of Most Expensive Cities in the world. But as the Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times points out, perhaps this global Cost of Living exercise is […]
(In)formality (In)justice
As many New Yorkers know, the rent is too damn high. The neighborhoods of New York have always been dynamic and ever-changing, and today, this continues to be true, but perhaps, on a level unforeseen in recent memory. Many are being priced out of our neighborhoods that they’ve lived in, sometimes for generations. So I asked Jimmy […]
What’s the cap rate, buddy? How to get development your community actually wants
A brief summary/disclaimer: All too often, terms like gentrification and displacement are tossed around, community residents are treated as passive actors, and the ensuing conflict between market-rate developers and affordable housing non-profits plays out in the media, like a spinning, frustrating wheel with no clear concessions or answers. At the end of the day, market-rate […]
How to end the NYC housing emergency (Part 2)
New York City clearly has a housing emergency. The dire shortage of housing has created a market which overwhelmingly benefits existing landlords and property owners, by exacerbating demand at the expense of renters. As discussed in an earlier post, New York City averages a 3.12% rental vacancy rate, which is well below a minimum 5% […]
