Podcast appearances and mentions of jenny schuetz

america university conversations washington southern california nyt senior fellow fixer uppers brookings ezra klein federal reserve board jenny schuetz brookings metro suburban women problem

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 22, 2022 57:04

Today we are talking with Jenny Schuetz! In addition to being the author of the phenomenal book Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing Systems, she is a Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro and is an expert in urban economics and housing policy. Before joining Brookings, Jenny worked at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. and taught at the University of Southern California.Wanna buy FIXER-UPPER?Wanna know more about FIXER-UPPER? Wanna know more about America's dysfunction(al housing policies)? To hear Jenny in her own words, you can catch her interviews with Ezra Klein on his NYT podcast and with Rachel, Jasmine, and Amanda on The Suburban Women Problem.Come check out our episodes and transcripts at our website, annarboraf.com. Keep the conversation going with fellow Ann Arbor AFers on Twitter and Facebook. And hey, if you wanted to ko-fi us a few dollars to help us with hosting, we wouldn't say no.Support the show

Conversation with FIXER-UPPER author Jenny Schuetz

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Play Episode Listen Later Oct 22, 2022 57:04

How to Repair America's Broken Housing Systems

Top of Mind

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 19, 2022 49:16 Very Popular

In this episode of the Top of Mind podcast, Mike Simonsen sits down with Dr. Jenny Schuetz, Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro, to talk about the impact of policy on the housing market. Dr. Schuetz provides insights into how policy can help make housing more affordable, which cities and states are doing a good job with housing policy, and reasons to be optimistic about fixing our housing crisis. She also shares some of the key findings from her recent book: Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing Systems. About Jenny Schuetz Dr. Jenny Schuetz is a Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro and is an expert in urban economics and housing policy. She has written numerous peer-reviewed journal articles on land use regulation, housing prices, urban amenities, and neighborhood change. Dr. Schuetz has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, the PBS NewsHour, The Indicator podcast, Vox, and Slate. Dr. Schuetz is the Author of Fixer Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing Systems. Topics of recent research include: how statewide zoning reform could improve housing affordability, local strategies to help renters during the COVID-19 crisis, rethinking homeownership incentives to narrow the racial wealth gap, and how housing costs exacerbate economic and racial segregation. Before joining Brookings, Dr. Schuetz served as a Principal Economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. She was also an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California and a Postdoctoral Fellow at NYU Furman. Dr. Schuetz is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at GWU's Center for Washington Area Studies and teaches in Georgetown's urban planning program. Dr. Schuetz earned a PhD in public policy from Harvard University, a master's in city planning from MIT, and a bachelor's with highest distinction in economics and political and social thought from the University of Virginia. Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn: Which policies have contributed the most to the current housing inventory crisis? How policy can help make housing more affordable The challenges caused by using homes as a source of wealth How we should be thinking about climate risk and housing Which cities and states are doing a good job with housing policy? Reasons to be optimistic about fixing our housing crisis Featuring Mike Simonsen, CEO of Altos Research A true data geek, Mike founded Altos Research in 2006 to bring data and insight on the U.S. housing market to those who need it most. The company now serves the largest Wall Street investment firms, banks, and tens of thousands of real estate professionals around the country. Mike's insights on the market have been featured in Forbes, New York Times, Bloomberg, Dallas Morning News, Seattle PI, and many other national media outlets. Resources mentioned in this episode: Dr. Jenny Schuetz on LinkedIn Dr. Jenny Schuetz on Twitter Brookings Metro Fixer Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing Systems by Jenny Schuetz Homelessness Is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns by Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern Mike Simonsen on LinkedIn Altos Research Follow us on Twitter for more data analysis and insights: https://twitter.com/altosresearch https://twitter.com/mikesimonsen See you next week!

How to repair the housing crisis (with Jenny Schuetz)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 4, 2022 34:00 Very Popular

The United States is in the midst of a housing crisis. Prices are skyrocketing, supply is dwindling, and wages haven't kept up with cost of living. It's a complicated problem, but the good news is that many of its solutions are relatively simple. Jenny Schuetz literally wrote the book on how good policy solutions can help resolve some of the worst pressures on our stressed housing market. Jenny Schuetz is a Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro, and is an expert in urban economics and housing policy. She's also the author of a new book, Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing Systems. Twitter: @jenny_schuetz Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing Systems https://www.brookings.edu/book/fixer-upper Don't Think of a Recession https://civicventures.substack.com/p/dont-think-of-a-recession Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick's twitter: @NickHanauer

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Conversation with Aaron Lubeck in Durham, N.C.

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Play Episode Listen Later Sep 24, 2022 55:33

It's a new season of Ann Arbor AF, and with the new season comes a new format! Today we are talking with Aaron Lubeck of Durham, N.C. about Jim Crow zoning, why some advocacy feels so taboo in community conversations, and how churches might be coming to save the day on housing. We also dropped a hint about the next interview coming to the pod…Here are links to the books we mentioned - Snob Zones by Lisa Prevost, Fixer-Upper by Jenny Schuetz, and Arbitrary Lines by M. Nolan Gray - in case you'd like to pick up copies for yourself. And remember that Economist interview Aaron mentioned? Here's the link to that, too.Come check out our episodes and transcripts at our website, annarboraf.com. Keep the conversation going with fellow Ann Arbor AFers on Twitter and Facebook. And hey, if you wanted to ko-fi us a few dollars to help us with hosting, we wouldn't say no.Support the show

Conversation with Aaron Lubeck in Durham, N.C.

conversations economists durham jim crow fixer uppers lubeck nolan gray jenny schuetz

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 24, 2022 55:33

Why Housing Is So Expensive — Particularly in Blue States

The Ezra Klein Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 19, 2022 76:21 Very Popular

America is experiencing a housing crisis — or, more accurately, multiple housing crises. A massive housing shortage in major cities has resulted in skyrocketing rents. Low- and middle-income individuals find themselves priced out of the places with the most opportunity. Homelessness is rampant in cities across the country. Developers often face the steepest obstacles to building in the places where new housing is needed most. And young people are increasingly viewing homeownership, once a vital part of the American dream, as hopelessly out of reach.These outcomes weren't inevitable. Plenty of other countries supply their populations with high-quality housing at lower prices. And the solutions here are incredibly simple: Build more housing in places where it's needed, build cheaper forms of housing, build housing alongside public transit, provide more housing vouchers. So why don't we act on them?Jenny Schuetz is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of the new book “Fixer Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing Systems,” which is perhaps the best, clearest overview of America's housing problems to date. We discuss why the states with the highest homelessness rates are all governed by Democrats, the roots of America's homelessness crisis, why economists believe the U.S. gross domestic product could be over a third — a third! — higher today if American cities had built more housing, why it's so hard to build housing where it's needed most, the actual (and often misunderstood) causes of gentrification, why public housing has such a bad reputation in the U.S.; how progressives' commitment to local democracy and community voice surprisingly lies at the heart of America's housing crises, why homeownership is still the primary vehicle of wealth accumulation in America (and the toxic impact that has on our politics), what the U.S. can learn from the housing policies of countries like Germany and France, what it would take to build a better politics of housing and much more.Mentioned:“The Left-NIMBY canon” by Noah SmithThe Homevoter Hypothesis by William A. FischelThe Paradox of Democracy by Zac Gershberg and Sean IllingRecommendations:Crabgrass Frontier by Kenneth T. JacksonNeighborhood Defenders by Katherine Levine Einstein, David M. Glick and Maxwell PalmerMaid (Netflix series)Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.“The Ezra Klein Show” is produced by Annie Galvin and Rogé Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Mary Marge Locker, Kate Sinclair and Rollin Hu; mixing by Sonia Herrero and Isaac Jones; original music by Isaac Jones; audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin and Kristina Samulewski.

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House Reps Ask Investors: “Where Have All the Houses Gone?”

Real Estate News: Real Estate Investing Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2022 4:54

Members of Congress are taking a deep dive into the single-family housing market to find out “Where Have All the Houses Gone?” In this investigation, they took a close look at the business practices of the nation's largest landlords – the institutional landlords that buy huge lots of homes at one time. Although the results show an adverse impact on certain communities and potential homebuyers, housing experts argue that investor ownership of rental property is more of a symptom than a cause. (1)Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review.This investigation began last fall when a subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services sent a survey to five of the largest single-family rental companies in the U.S. Asked to participate in this survey were Invitation Homes, American Homes4Rent, FirstKey Homes, Progress Residential and Amherst Residential. The survey dug into things like where they are buying homes, what they are paying, how much rent they are charging, etc. The final analysis used that information along with government data to come up with a few conclusions.Mass Predatory PurchasingThe subcommittee just held a hearing on the results last week. Subcommittee Chair, Representative Al Green, said during the hearing: “We have found that private equity companies have bought up hundreds of thousands of single-family homes and placed them on the rental market.” He referred to this practice as “mass predatory purchasing.” He also said:“These corporate buyers have tended to target lower-priced starter homes requiring limited renovation; these homes would likely have been bought by first-time buyers, low- to middle-income home-buyers, or both.” (2)The investigation also found that a disproportionate number of homes have been purchased in communities of color, and communities with a higher number of single mothers. An examination of the top 20 zip codes where institutional investors have purchased show that about 40% of the population is Black while just 13.4% of the overall population is Black. The number of single mothers is reportedly about 30% higher than average.Other findings include rents that are up 40% over three years from 2018 to 2021, and a doubling of the number of tenants who are behind on their rent. Lawmakers were also critical of automated property management, often used by institutional investors. They say if tenants can't get a hold of someone about a problem, they could be at risk of mismanagement and eviction when problems occur. (3)Investors as a Symptom, Not the CauseEven though the numbers have grown, Representative Tom Emmer sided with landlords, and reminded hearing attendees that 8.6% inflation is having a big impact on housing. He also said that institutional investors still account for a very small percentage of single-family rentals, which appears to mean that they couldn't possibly be a huge part of the problem.Jenny Schuetz of the Brookings Institution also testified that these big investors are not the cause of the housing gap. She says they are a symptom, because of the high demand for rentals and the critically low inventory of affordable homes. She says: “Private equity firms and other institutional investors benefit from tight housing supply, but they did not create the problem. Local governments across the U.S. have adopted policies that make it difficult to build more homes where people want to live.”The Executive Director of the National Rental Home Council, David Howard, also spoke out at the hearing. He answered the question about where all the houses have gone in a similar way – that they were never built. He also says that “single family rental home providers are not influencing local and national housing market dynamics.” In other words, they are “responding” to housing market dynamics. Collaboration to Find a Solution Howard says that these large landlords along with The National Rental Home Council have been working with the committee, and welcome the opportunity to continue with that collaboration to find meaningful solutions to this problem. In the meantime, landlords are needed to help fill the housing gap. You can find out more about the housing market, the rental market, and the economy by listening to one of my recent webinars. You'll find a replay for my Q2 2022 Housing Market Update at newsforinvestors.com under the “Learn” tab. And please remember to hit the subscribe button, and leave a review!Thanks for listening. I'm Kathy Fettke.Links:1 - https://financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4096112 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/institutional-investors-have-bought-hundreds-of-thousands-of-single-family-homes-many-in-black-communities-critics-say-its-creating-a-generation-of-renters-11656514935 3 - https://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news/congressional-committee-exploring-where-have-all-houses-gone

How to fix the housing market

The New Bazaar

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 21, 2022 62:28

Jenny Schuetz is a scholar of the housing market, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She has a new book out called Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing System. In her research and in her book, Jenny considers the housing market in all of its complexity, the reasons it's broken for so many people, the entrenched barriers to fixing it – and some ideas that just might work. She and Cardiff cover all of this in their chat. Related links:Jenny Schuetz's expert page at the Brookings InstitutionJenny's book, Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing System See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Episode 378: Repairing America's Broken Housing System

Talking Headways: A Streetsblog Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2022 42:52 Very Popular

This week we're joined by Jenny Schuetz, a senior fellow at Brookings Metro to talk about her new book Fixer Upper. We chat about making housing decisions at the wrong scale, where housing reform would make the most sense around the United States, and how we could use MPOs to better organize regional housing. Follow us on twitter @theoverheadwire Support the show on Patreon http://patreon.com/theoverheadwire Buy books on our Bookshop.org Affiliate site!

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Who Should Be Able to Veto New Housing Production?

Upzoned

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2022 26:17 Very Popular

Should states and counties push back against local governments to crack open more options for housing? Will that be counterproductive? How much do multiyear litigation strategies by “Neighborhood Defenders” affect new housing production in tight markets? A recent post in the DCist blog written by Ally Schweitzer got a lot of traffic from the housing, transportation and urbanist communities, who debated this nuanced question. A zoning battle ten years ago in the affluent Maryland suburb of Silver Spring was so contentious it's still hot as a coal today and provides the infrastructure for this debate. “Fights like this play out every day in cities and suburbs across the country, “ Schweitzer wrote. “But in the D.C. region, where local governments are struggling to address a severe housing shortage that is driving up prices, elected officials are under growing pressure to push back against civically engaged homeowners who mobilize against new housing construction. Montgomery County, an affluent D.C. suburb that has experienced transformative growth and demographic change in the last 30 years, exemplifies how hard that can be.” Jenny Schuetz, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who examines the national housing shortage in her book Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing Systems, told Schweitzer: “We have this system where local governments are the gatekeepers for new housing production…local governments, in turn, have outsourced a lot of their authority to existing residents, so existing homeowners in particular have essentially veto power over proposals to build new housing.” Upzoned host Abby Kinney and her guest, Strong Towns Content Manager Jay Stange, discuss how to respect local neighborhood's choices about where and how new housing options should be considered in tight markets. Top down solutions rarely work, but change has to be greater than zero or communities will stagnate.

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Yes In My Back Yard! (with Dr. Jenny Schuetz and Erinn Grube)

The Suburban Women Problem

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2022 48:41 Transcription Available

Today, we're talking about all things housing policy. What makes a neighborhood a good place to raise a family? How can we say “Yes In My Back Yard” instead of “Not In My Back Yard”? But first, hosts Amanda Weinstein, Jasmine Clark and Rachel Vindman talk about the news. Jasmine just got out of session in the Georgia Legislature and her Republican colleagues passed some really bad bills. And new abortion bills and “Don't Say Gay” bills are sweeping the nation. But in some much-needed good news, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed to the Supreme Court! Erinn Grube, the Village Council President in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, joins the pod to talk about how they were able to put up some new housing developments while still keeping the cute and historical character of their town. Erinn discusses the importance of walkability and what her kids have learned about local government by watching her work.After that, Amanda gets to chat with economist and housing expert Dr. Jenny Schuetz about her new book, Fixer Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing System. They discuss what suburban women should know about housing policy, how it affects our daily lives, how a history of racism has affected housing in America, and how affordable housing is good for everyone.Finally, Rachel, Amanda and Jasmine raise a glass to big milestones for their kids, to a little alone time for themselves, and to people who say “Yes In My Back Yard!” in this week's “Toast to Joy.”If you want to check out Red Wine and Blue's “Parent Playbook,” you can find it here. It's a fun guide full of helpful advice for moms who want to organize in their communities.For a transcript of this episode, please email theswppod@redwine.blue.

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March 14, 2022: Albemarle launches online permitting software; Council to pay land use consultant for more community engagement, housing model

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2022 14:37

The United States of America is only one of a handful of places on Earth that puts the month before the day when listing a date numerically. There are likely arguments for why the other way around would be more appropriate, but the best argument in favor of the American way is that today is Pi Day, thus named for 3/14. This is likely the least significant fact contained within this installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement, but perhaps the most salient. Does it matter that I’m your host, Sean Tubbs?Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On today’s programVirginia to receive $74.2 million in the latest auction carbon cap-and-trade programCharlottesville to pay Cville Plans Together Initiative consultant additional funds for community engagement and a housing modelAlbemarle County has a new portal to file for land use applications online Charlottesville Area Transit gets state funding to study alternative fuel sourcesThe General Assembly adjourns without passing a budget and several bills, but a special session will soon be called First shout-out goes to Mulch Madness! In today’s first subscriber-supported shout-out, are you ready for Mulch Madness? The Rivanna Solid Waste Authority has a free mulch giveaway through April 16. In between all the big games, the RSWA wants you to get your yard ready for spring. If you have a way to transport mulch, head on over to the Ivy Material Utilization Center between 7:30am and 4:00pm, Monday through Saturday, where you can pick up up to two tons free. Rivanna staff are available to help load, but ask that you bring a covering. Mulch is double ground and derived from vegetative materials brought to Ivy for disposal. That’s Mulch Madness at the Ivy Material Utilization Center. Visit rivanna.org to learn more. Virginia nets $74.2 million in latest carbon cap-and-trade auctionThe Regional Greenhouse Gas initiative has held its latest auction of carbon allowances to organizations that generate electricity. Virginia will receive $74.2 million in proceeds from the latest sale last week. That’s the fifth time Virginia has participated since joining the interstate compact in 2020 for a total of $301,855,695.52. “RGGI is a cooperative effort among eleven states – Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia – to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” reads the nonprofit’s website.Those states have received nearly $5 billion in proceeds. By law, Virginia is required to direct 45 percent of its funding to the Community Flood Preparedness Fund and 50 percent to support energy efficiency programs for low-income households. RGGI has no enforcement authority and exists to facilitate each state’s carbon dioxide trading program. Governor Glenn Youngkin wants Virginia to end its participation in the program, but legislation to to allow that to happen failed in the General Assembly session this year. To learn more, read Sarah Vogelsong’s story posted this morning at Virginia Mercury. The headline is As Virginia nets another $74 million, RGGI uncertainty lingers. Council to allocate additional money to Cville Plans Together initiativeIt’s been three years since Charlottesville City Council opted to hire a consultant to create an affordable housing strategy, update the Comprehensive Plan, and rewrite the zoning code. Rhodeside & Harwell has been working on the Cville Plans Together initiative for over two years, and has accomplished the first two tasks.Work is underway now on the zoning code and the Department of Neighborhood Development Services is seeking additional resources. “The first part is for $143,810 for community engagement and projects management as an ongoing activity,” said James Freas, the director of NDS. “And then the second part is for a housing market outcome modeling at $45,000.”Freas said the community engagement work is necessary because the original scope with Rhodeside & Harwell was for them to do that work for 25 months. “And now we’re in month 28 with another 12 to 13 months or so left to go,” Freas said. Freas said the work to actually rewrite the zoning is funded, but the additional funding will go to create the model, which is intended to predict how the housing market might respond to the land use changes already embedded in the Comprehensive Plan as well the new zoning.“That would be essentially looking at what would be the scale or pace of new housing development that might happen, what types of housing, what level of affordability, etcera,” Freas said. “And we really consider this essential work for both the Council, the Planning Commission, and the public to get an understanding of what these changes in zoning would produce on the ground.” Freas said subcontractor HR&A will look at housing trends and data to attempt to project what might happen when the zoning code is rewritten to enable more units on every residential lot across the city. “To put it more clearly, how many housing units will we see on a year-by-year basis with the changes in zoning,” Freas said. “What types of housing units? Is it going to steer more toward two-families or more towards [AccessoryDwelling Units]? Looking at different parts of the city, is it going to lead to tear-downs or is it going to lead to reuse of existing buildings?” This model will be developed as HR&A is also working on a build-out analysis of what can now be built under the Comprehensive Plan. This is the first phase of the zoning process. In August, Council allocated another $165,000 to the firm HR&A to further work on ways to ensure the zoning rewrite is “inclusionary” and to audit how Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund has been used since it was created in 2007. This funding will come from money in the city’s Capital Improvement Program budget for small area plans. Freas recommends the city produce a small area plan for the Tenth and Page neighborhood as well as the Preston Avenue corridor. However, that work would not begin until after the new zoning code is adopted. The second reading of the item will be on the consent agenda for the March 21 meeting. See also: Council moves forward with long-range planning package, February 5, 2019Council discusses tax increases to help cover $60 million Buford upgrades, August 2, 2021Council briefed on affordable housing funds, December 31, 2021Anonymous group of city property owners files suit against Comprehensive Plan approach, January 12, 2022Charlottesville releases Zoning 101 presentation, February 22, 2022Fourteen months of anecdotal summaries of property transactions in CharlottesvilleAdditionally, the Steering Committee for the Cville Plans Together initiative met on March 2. You can watch that event here: Charlottesville Area Transit to study alternative fuelsThe Commonwealth Transportation Board is expecting additional funding due to more favorable revenue forecasts, and agencies such as Charlottesville Area Transit will receive additional money this fiscal year. CAT Director Garland Williams told City Council on March 7 that his agency will receive an additional $980,599. About a third of that will be used for a study Williams told Council about at a work session on January 18. (watch the entire work session) “We talked about doing alternative fuel vehicles as priority vision number two,” Williams said. “The $300,000 that will be earmarked will complete the feasibility study and help us to also develop the integration plan.” The remaining funds would be added to this year’s operating budget. Today the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation has launched a new campaign to try to encourage people to return to public transit. The Rediscover Your Ride program is part of the DRPT’s Transit Recovery Initiative. “We know there’s a lot to consider as you head back to work, school, or anywhere else,” says the narrator of a television spot. “For over a year, public transportation providers have put your health first by working hard to make your ride as safe as possible. As you think about getting on board, you can trust we’re taking care of the big things.”For more information, visit vatransit.org.Today the Virginia Department of Health reports another 350 new cases and the percent positivity is 4.2 percent. Today’s second shout-out goes to a Livable Cville eventIn today’s second subscriber supported shout-out, Livable Cville wants you to know about an online presentation coming up on Wednesday, March 16. "Can Zoning Create a More Affordable Charlottesville?" That’s the question to be explored by Dr. Jenny Schuetz of the Brookings Institute. She’s the author of Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America’s Broken Housing Systems. The event is free but you’ll have to register at EventBrite. Albemarle launches online portal for land use applicationsThis segment was updated with new information at 6:50 p.m. after the newsletter was sent outThis morning Albemarle County announced the public launch of software intended to make it easier for builders and developers to apply for land use permits and changes. Camino will allow for online submission of “building permits, architectural review board applications, home occupations, subdivisions and applications relating to our water protection ordinance.” “Camino will create a more streamlined and automated front-end interface, resulting in complete applications prior to submission,” said Jodie Filardo, Director of Community Development. “It will enable faster processing times and implements the first of many technology-oriented process improvements within the department.”The system will cost $40,000 for the first year, according to Emily Kilroy. She’s Albemarle’s Director of Communications and Public Engagement. The new software is one of many projects under the county’s Core Systems Modernization initiative. Kilroy said other examples include a new Human Resource Information System, an Enterprise Resource Planning system, and a Customer Relationship Management system. The current way to track and monitor land use applications, CountyView, will continue to be available. Earlier this month, Charlottesville awarded a contract to the Timmons Group to develop software to accomplish the same goals. NDS Director James Freas told the City Planning Commission that information at their meeting on March 8. “That’s going to be probably up to a year of implementation time,” Freas said. “Hopefully there will be aspects of this project we can roll out periodically through that time but it is moving us toward a digital permitting system.” General Assembly adjourns without adopting budget The last day of the regular session of the Virginia General Assembly was on Saturday, and both houses adjourned without passing a budget. Governor Glenn Youngkin said he was encouraged about progress between the Republican-controlled House of Delegates and the Democrat controlled Senate. “We still have work to do,” Youngkin said in comments recorded by political reporter Brandon Jarvis. “We need to get taxes down and we need to make some investments in some important areas like education and law enforcement and behavioral health. There’s still work to do.”There are a number of bills that remain in conference. The budget and those bills will carry over to a special session that will likely be declared later in this week. Pending legislation includes:The elimination of sales tax on groceries and personal hygiene products (HB90) (SB451)A bill to require witnesses of absentee ballot signatures to provide their date of birth and last four digits of their social security numbers (HB177)A bill to establish lab schools in partnerships with institutes of higher education (HB346)A bill to make hazing a Class 5 felony if it results in someone’s death (HB993) (SB440)A bill to create a Virginia Football Stadium Authority (HB1353) (SB727)A bill to create a School Construction Fund (SB473)I’ll have a wrap-up segment on the General Assembly in a future installment. In the meantime, here are some other resources:They left without a budget, Virginia Political Newsletter, March 14, 2022General Assembly to adjourn without a budget, Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, March 12, 2022Southwest ‘really flexed its muscle this year’, Cardinal News, March 14, 2022Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

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March 11, 2022: Charlottesville acknowledges there is work to do to create climate action plan; City using RGGI money to prepare for greater amounts of flooding

Factually! with Adam Conover

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2022 19:00

March Eleven. 3/11? 3-1-1? In some places you can dial that number to get information, a valuable commodity in a complex world. On this 70th day of 2022 and in this installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement, you can find out a lot of odds and ends about what’s happening. How many of each? Stick around and find out. I’m your host, Sean Tubbs. For all the odds and ends, please sign up for free and consider becoming a paid subscriber!On today’s program:Charlottesville City Council will get an update on efforts to create a long awaited climate action plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions The city will use funding from a carbon cap and trade program to prepare for future flooding Charlottesville Area Transit wants your input on the next generation of bus sheltersCharlottesville is close to hiring a new communications director, and is seeking college students to apply for internshipsA brief update on the pandemic First shout-out if for CBIC’s C-E2 eventIn today’s first subscriber-supported shout-out, the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council wants you to know that after two years, they’re holding their Charlottesville Entrepreneurs and Espresso event in-person on the morning of Tuesday, March 15 at the CODE Building? What is Charlottesville Entrepreneurs and Espresso, or C-E2? It’s a casual, caffeine-fueled gathering of learning at all stages of venture creation. Get inspired, meet fellow entrepreneurs, share lessons learned, and become a part of Charlottesville’s vibrant and growing entrepreneurial ecosystem. Visit cvilleinnovation.org to learn more about this free event or sign up on Eventbrite. Pandemic turns 2 Tomorrow marks the two-year anniversary of the declaration of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic in Virginia. The seven-day percent average for new COVID tests is at 4.7 percent, around a level not seen since late last July when the Delta variant caused a surge that has not quite receded until now. Still, the Virginia Department of Health marks another 1,272 new cases today. The agency has also made changes to its COVID dashboard and no longer is listing case counts by locality. That data, as well as deaths reported by date, will continue to be available on Virginia’s open data portal.The Blue Ridge Health District does report local case data and there are 48 new cases today and the percent positivity is at 4.5 percent. The Centers for Disease Control now list Albemarle, Charlottesville and the other Blue Ridge Health District localities as medium. (review the map)“We were anticipating that we would be dropping to a medium level when we were looking at the numbers earlier this week so those were born out yesterday when the CDC updated their calculations,” said Dr. Costi Sifri, the director of hospital epidemiology at the University of Virginia Health System.Dr. Sifri said he would recommend that those with underlying conditions or who are immunocompromised to remain masked indoors and to make sure their mask offers enough protection. Dr. Sifri said there is a lot of immunity in the community through both vaccination and infections, but he said there is still opportunity for another variant to happen in the future. When will be determined on a number of variables. “And I think clearly for a lot of people after two years of living through this pandemic, they are at a point where they’ve been vaccinated, they’ve taken precautions, but have now sort of have come to a point where its an understanding there will be some level of circulation likely going forward for the foreseeable future and we could anticipate this may become another seasonal virus,” Dr. Sifri said. As we hit the two-year mark, there have been 19,212 COVID deaths in Virginia, and 431 in the Blue Ridge Health District. It’s been two years since I launched a podcast to cover the response. Go back and listen if you’d like to revisit any of that recent past. (Charlottesville Quarantine Report)Charlottesville sets April 18 work session for work session on climate action Nearly all functions of government in most Virginia localities can be derived from their Comprehensive Plan, which lays out broad steps to turn a community’s vision into action. The new Comprehensive Plan adopted by Council in November calls upon the city to create a specific plan to demonstrate how Charlottesville will meet specific reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The nonprofit Community Climate Collaborative wants City Council to spend more money to get a plan in place as soon as possible. Executive Director Susan Kruse posted a blog entry on March 3 saying Charlottesville has fallen behind on efforts. She read from this post at Council’s meeting this past Monday. “This July will mark three years since Charlottesville set its sights on climate leadership,” Kruse wrote in the post. “Three years, and we have no Climate Action Plan, our GHG emissions inventory is four years out-of-date, and the window to reduce emissions to prevent catastrophic impacts is rapidly closing.” On Monday, Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders acknowledged that the city has not been able to move swiftly to create a plan. “I just want to be upfront with everyone and acknowledge we know there’s work to be done there,” Sanders said. Sanders said there will be a Council work session on April 18 and staff in the city’s sustainability division will present what they have been working on since Council adopted reduction targets on July 1, 2019. That stated the city would work towards a “community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 target from its 2011 inventory year” as well as to be carbon neutral by 2050. (read the minutes)At the time, then-city manager Tarron Richardson was less than two months on the job and two other people have held that position since. Sanders has only worked for the city since last July. “There have been significant impacts from the COVID pandemic and organizational staffing changes that have prevented them from moving as originally planned,” Sanders said. “Our goal would be to try to get back on track so this would be a moment to reboot that effort.”Sanders said groups such as the Community Climate Collaborative will be involved in the work. After Sanders gave Council an update, Kruse read from her prepared letter during the city’s Community Matters portion. She acknowledged the April 18 work session, but pushed for a deadline to complete a Climate Action Plan. .“If current resources are not enough to complete the plan, it’s time for Council to bring in some outside help,” Kruse said. Last November, City Council adopted an update of the Comprehensive Plan, a document for which state code requires periodic revision. Review of this plan took nearly five years and its completion required the city to pay a consultant over a million dollars.One of the guiding principles in the plan is under the heading Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability. (look for it on page 22)“The City government will reduce its carbon footprint and other environmental impacts,” reads that guiding principle. “The Charlottesville community will be empowered and encouraged to reduce their environmental footprint and benefit from energy-efficiency efforts.”The various chapters of the Comprehensive Plan are embedded with many directives, strategies, and goals. For instance, Strategy 3.4 of the land use chapter (page 38) is to “encourage sustainable, energy efficient building designs and low impact development as complementary goals to historic preservation, including through support for adaptation, reuse, and repurposing of the built environment.” Goal 4 of the housing chapter has four strategies with steps toward addressing energy efficiency in new and existing housing (page 50)The transportation chapter (page 55) seeks to expand alternatives to driving and encourages the “adoption and support of new and emerging transportation technologies will further expand travel options throughout the city and will contribute toward the City’s climate goals and improving public health by reducing vehicle-related emissions.” There is an entire chapter with the title Environment, Climate, and Food Equity (page 65) that repeats the July 1, 2019 greenhouse gas emissions goal of which the first goal is dedicated to reaching the reduction targets, with eight strategies. The first listed is to create a Climate Action Plan.The environmental chapter also includes directives to prevent further degradation of the tree canopy, continue work in the city’s Water Resources Protection Program, and to encourage use of sustainable materials. The Community Facilities and Services chapter (page 79) covers community infrastructure and strategy 2.4 calls for the city “to employ innovative technology and green building practices for all eligible capital construction and renovation projects” and strategy 4.10 to “participate in and complete Climate Hazard Risk Assessment activities, to follow finalization of the Climate Action Plan.” Goal 1 of the Community Engagement and Collaboration is to “empower community members by providing and actively sharing the information they need to participate in a meaningful way.” Albemarle County adopted a Climate Action Plan in October 2020 that has much more specific details about how to get there. That work session will be held on April 18. Make sure you’re reading the Week Ahead newsletter each Sunday to know what’s coming up and follow along with stories on climate action at the Information Charlottesville archive. Today’s second shout-out goes to a Livable Cville eventIn today’s first subscriber supported shout-out, Livable Cville wants you to know about an online presentation coming up on Wednesday, March 16. "Can Zoning Create a More Affordable Charlottesville?" That’s the question to be explored by Dr. Jenny Schuetz of the Brookings Institute. She’s the author of Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America’s Broken Housing Systems. The event is free but you’ll have to register at EventBrite. Charlottesville seeking firm to model Moores Creek watershedA changing climate has meant the likelihood of more flooding across the Commonwealth, and Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) has meant more funding to help with preparation. Charlottesville is currently seeking an engineering firm to update models from 2008 for how stormwater flows in the Moores Creek watershed.Back then, the city partnered with the United States Army Corps of Engineers to produce that model, as well as ones for the portions of the city in the Rivanna and Meadow Creek watersheds. Now Charlottesville will use $153,000 from the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Grant program to further study the Moores Creek watershed, which makes up a third of the city’s land along the southern border with Albemarle. “The stormwater management model will be a critical tool for planning and project implementation efforts administered under the umbrella of the City’s Water Resources Protection Program,” said Andrea Henry, the program’s administrator. “This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of models to support the development of stormwater management and flood resiliency plans for the City.”The more detailed information will help determine best locations for stormwater pipe upgrades, and to develop flood inundation maps for the various tributaries of Moores Creek including Lodge Creek, Rock Creek, Pollock’s Branch, and Quarry Creek. Goal 10 of the Community Facilities chapter of the Comprehensive Plan relates to stormwater conveyance infrastructure, with strategy 10.3 related to modernization efforts. Virginia joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the summer of 2020, which means companies that generate electricity through fossil-fuel companies must pay to exceed caps on the amounts of carbon dioxide. In Virginia, more than half of the proceeds go to pay for flood preparedness programs. Governor Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order soon after being inaugurated to withdraw Virginia from RGGI, but legislative approval is needed and so far efforts to withdraw have been blocked by the Senate, where Democrats have a 21 to 19 majority. So far, Virginia has received $227.6 million in proceeds from four auctions, including $85.6 million in December.Charlottesville Area Transit seeking input on future bus sheltersThe area’s primary fixed-route transit service is seeking your input into how their future bus shelters will look. “Charlottesville Area Transit (CAT) seeks to develop a bus shelter design that will serve as a unique and universal identifier of transit in the Greater Charlottesville Area,” reads an announcement for a public survey seeking input on three designs.All three come out of a charette held last August, and CAT’s architectural consultant wants more comments in order to come up with one single concept. Another round of presentations will be held when that’s ready for public review. City seeking applications for internships, close to hiring CAPE director Do you know someone younger who could use an opportunity to gain some real-world experience? The City of Charlottesville is accepting applications from college students to work as paid interns all across the municipal government. “This is developmental work designed to provide university students and recent graduates with meaningful entry-level professional work,” reads the press release for the opportunity. “The assignments require application of university-level knowledge typically gained in profession-specific curriculum typically found in local government.” The release goes on to state that interns will be closely supervised and will work on a specific project during their temporary employment. Departments seeking interns include the City Manager’s office, the Office of Communications, Neighborhood Development Services, and the Police Civilian Oversight Board. Applicants need to have completes sixty hours of coursework and to have a grade point average of 2.0. Anyone interested can apply here. Speaking of jobs, the city still has several top vacancies that are still being filled. Deputy City Manager Ashley Marshall have City Council an update on Monday, March 7. “The city is making some progress on some key hires,” Marshall said. “Interviews are underway for our director of communications and public engagement. And yes that title does sound a little different because we are going to emphasize public engagement within our communications’ professional team.”That matches the same job title as the equivalent job in Albemarle County. Marshall said the city is also reviewing resumes for the Director of Human Services and the Director of Informational Technology. The position of Human Resources Director is still being advertised. “We expect to move forward to interview phases on all three of those last director positions shortly,” Marshall said. Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

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Why Is Housing So Expensive In America? with Jenny Schuetz

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2022 69:26

Why is housing so expensive, when other human needs like food are relatively cheap? Brookings Senior Fellow and author of Fixer-Upper, Jenny Schuetz, joins Adam to explain why our entire system is tilted to protect wealth rather than provide housing, and how we can change the system to fix that. Pick up her book at http://factuallypod.com/books

america housing expensive fixer uppers jenny schuetz brookings senior fellow

March 8, 2022: Council directs staff to prepare plan for hybrid meetings; City leadership addresses business community at Chamber event

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 8, 2022 17:24

There are 298 days left in the year, but let’s pause for a moment to mark International Women’s Day and the spirit in which it was founded over a hundred years ago. This is Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter and podcast created two years ago in the spirit of bringing information to as many people as possible. I’m your host Sean Tubbs, approaching my fourth decade as a reporter filled with a spirit of public service. On today’s program:Charlottesville’s new leadership is introduced to local business leaders at the Chamber of Commerce’s State of the Community eventThe city hires the Timmons Group to implement software to improve the development review processCharlottesville City Council get an update on the pandemic, and directs staff to create a safety plan to guide the transition to in-person and hybrid meetingsToday’s first shout-out goes to a Livable Cville eventIn today’s first subscriber supported shout-out, Livable Cville wants you to know about an online presentation coming up on Wednesday, March 16. "Can Zoning Create a More Affordable Charlottesville?" That’s the question to be explored by Dr. Jenny Schuetz of the Brookings Institute. She’s the author of Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America’s Broken Housing Systems. The event is free but you’ll have to register at EventBrite. Blue Ridge Health District director briefs Council on pandemicThe director of the Blue Ridge Health District told Council last night that the region is experiencing a “strong downswing” in the number of COVID cases. “So, overall a downward trend but we are still seeing spikes occasionally,” said Dr. Denise Bonds. (view her presentation)Today the seven-day average for new cases in Virginia is 1,177 and the percent positivity has declined to 5.9 percent. Since Dr. Bonds’ last appearance, the Centers for Disease Control have altered their guidance on the use of masks to slow the transmission of COVID. (CDC website)“The CDC has lowered it down to three levels, low, medium, and high, and you can see in Virginia right now, most of northern Virginia and the Tidewater / Eastern Shore area is actually moved into the low area, with most of the Southwest tail in the high area.”Charlottesville is also listed as high, so recommendations are to wear a mask indoors and stay updated on boosters, and to get tested if you have symptoms. “And I am really highly encouraging everyone If you have not gotten your booster to please do that,” Dr. Bonds said. “It’s really important to have that additional shot to have full immunity.” The community testing center at the Pantops Shopping Center will close on March 15, but Dr. Bonds said rapid tests can be picked up at the health department or at local pharmacies. The community vaccination center at Seminole Square Shopping Center will close on March 12. Visit the Blue Ridge Health District’s vaccine webpage to learn more about where you can get a shot or a booster. Council directs staff to plan for return to in-person and hybrid meetingsCouncil discussed a potential return to in-person meetings at the end of last night’s meeting. Dr. Bonds said she would like to see a hybrid-option for people to participate. (staff report)“Because it is still quite risky for some individuals who are immunocompromised, who can’t get vaccinated for whatever reason, or who have been vaccinated and are just not mounting a strong immune response, it’s really critical that those individuals still have they opportunity that they’ve had over the last two years with Zoom meetings to participate,” said Dr. Bonds. Dr. Bonds suggested that masks still be required for attendance, or to hold Council meetings in a larger space than the City Council Chambers. Council took about half an hour to discuss whether to extend a local ordinance to allow for the continuing operations of city government during the local declaration of emergency. That declaration expires on April 7 and Council will have to decide whether to renew. A continuity of government ordinance expires on March 18. “The reason it’s on your agenda tonight is because March 18 will happen before your second meeting in March,” said City Attorney Lisa Robertson. Robertson said staff wanted input on how to proceed with meetings. The continuity of government ordinance can still be in place even after the emergency declaration ends, allowing for electronic meetings to continue. One idea is for Council to convene and meet in person with people being able to view remotely. This would require creation of a safety plan and Robertson explained some of the questions that would need to be answered. “How that meeting would be managed in terms of COVID precautions, things like how many people would be in the room, would there be a mask requirement, how will compliance with the rules be monitored, what would the spacing be,” Robertson said. “All of those things that we haven’t really had the chance to nail down specifically.” Another issue is where boards and commissions would meet. Many of the meeting rooms in City Hall are too small to fit many people with spacing rules. That will also be factored into the safety plan. Interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers said staff is examining what it will take to make City Council Chambers work under the safety plan. “And there are some estimates that we are waiting to get back so I would say that probably in the next two weeks we should have the information that we need with respect to that,” Rogers said. Rogers said CitySpace is being considered as another place for meetings to occur as are school auditoriums. Another item under consideration is how Councilors could participate remotely. Council adopted the motion unanimously to extend the continuity of government with the addition of the need for a safety plan. “I would like to see us open as much as we reasonably can with reasonable safety, and this is going to sound utterly lawyerly, but with also reasonable safeguards available to people who have different medical needs.”See also: Albemarle Supervisors briefed on eventual end of the local COVID emergency, March 4, 2022Councilors address Russia’s war against Ukraine The invasion of Ukraine continues this week and City Councilors touched upon the crisis at their meeting last night. “I’ve had many constituents reach out to me to see what we could do, a statement or something,” said Vice Mayor Juandiego Wade. “I think what we can do is if you are the type to pray, please pray. I think we’re doing as a nation what we can at this point I know it’s an ongoing crisis.”More than two million people have fled Ukraine to escape Russian bombardment according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Mayor Lloyd Snook said it is likely some of that number will come to this community in the near future.“Charlottesville is a place where a lot of refugees come,” Snook said. “We’ve got the International Rescue Committee and a lot of other folks who know that Charlottesville is hospitable to refugees and immigrants and when the opportunity presents itself I know that Charlottesville and Charlottesvilians will be generous and welcoming.”Visit the IRC website at rescue.org to learn more about how you can contribute. I’ll have more from this City Council meeting in a future Charlottesville Community Engagement. Second shout-out goes to Mulch Madness! In today’s second subscriber-supported shout-out, are you ready for Mulch Madness? The Rivanna Solid Waste Authority has a free mulch giveaway beginning tomorrow through April 16. In between all the big games, the RSWA wants you to get your yard ready for spring. If you have a way to transport mulch, head on over to the Ivy Material Utilization Center between 7:30am and 4:00pm, Monday through Saturday, where you can pick up up to two tons free. Rivanna staff are available to help load, but ask that you bring a covering. Mulch is double ground and derived from vegetative materials brought to Ivy for disposal. That’s Mulch Madness at the Ivy Material Utilization Center. Visit rivanna.org to learn more!Chamber of Commerce explores the State of the Community: Charlottesville edition On February 18, the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce held its first ever State of the Community event with speakers from Albemarle County, Charlottesville, and the University of Virginia. Elizabeth Cromwell is the president and chief executive officer of the Chamber. “These institutional anchors are responsible economic development decisions that affect all of us in our businesses,” Cromwell said. Cromwell said the Chamber’s mission is to strengthen the business community, and the purpose of the event was to move forward on that pathway.“Our goal is to engage our business stakeholders with the institutions that have crucial oversight and the ability to leverage opportunities for regional economic prosperity,” Cromwell said. The event was also the first ever held in the auditorium at the new CODE building on the Downtown Mall. “It’s hard to believe that this space used to be an ice park just a few years ago,” said Chris Engel, the city’s director of economic development. “As an economic developer, I think about the built environment and changes to it and watching cities evolve and change all of the time. Going back a little further, this space was a parking lot in 1995. And then it served as a community ice park for more than 20 years. And then it has obviously transitioned again.”Engel said the city has changed a lot over the years as well, including a string of city managers in the past four years. Interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers represented city leadership at the event. “I have been in local government and the private sector over my career for more than 30 years,” Rogers said. “I have had the fortune of working for some very complex organization which means that I have been in the midst of dealing with some very complex and challenging problems in the public sector.” Rogers said he enjoys being part of the solutions of helping organizations in conflict through strategic planning as well analyzing the values to see if they are oriented toward success. “I look at things that are not doing well and try to figure out how we can do this better for the people that we’re supposed to do it for,” Rogers said. “And in the public sector, that’s the citizens of the community that you serve.” Rogers said there has been instability in the city’s bureaucracy because of the turnover at the top position, and one of his first goals is to help reverse the trend. He acknowledges that morale has been low.“The other priority is working with the staff to return to boring government,” Rogers said. “I think that no-drama government that’s focused on bottom-line problem solving is one that can deliver effective services to the citizens of this community.” There are currently two deputy city managers in Charlottesville, and Ashley Marshall has been the deputy for Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion since last May. She comes from a family whose members have served in local government. “Local government has the opportunity [and] it has the honor of making someone’s day better,” Marshall said. “We have the chance to dig in to our communities and to really focus on their needs, what we can help, what we can provide, who we can lift because all boats rise together.” Sam Sanders has been the Deputy City Manager for Operations since last July after working for a community revitalization nonprofit in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He called himself a disruptor. “I disrupt the status quo,” Sanders said. “It is not my friend and I have made it a mission to do my best to help people see that we don’t just have to do it that way if that way doesn’t get us to where we want to go.” Sanders said he believes it is possible to help Charlottesville overcome its problems and that can be done by making sure the basics of government are functioning. “We need to pick up the trash, we need to make sure the water flows, we need to make sure the buses are running, that we get snow off the ground, and that the basics of the community environment are adhered to and that the parks are clean, available, and accessible,” Sanders said. Sanders said the city also needs to ensure that it can respond when major projects are underway at the University of Virginia. That will take process reform in the Neighborhood Development Services Department. “And I want to make sure that we also are doing the same level of collaborative work for the everyday citizen that is trying to come in and make something happen,” Sanders said. I’ll have more from the State of the Community Event in a future installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement. Watch the event on the Chamber’s website at cvillechamber.org. Timmons Group hired to build software for city’s planning departmentThis segment was updated on March 16, 2022 with new information on the procurement contract The city of Charlottesville has hired a civil engineering firm to build a new software platform to help speed up the development process. The Timmons Group will be paid $902,337.50 over five years for the work, according to material obtained from the city’s procurement office. The city issued a request for proposals (RFP) in November 2020 seeking a firm to provide a GIS-Centric, cloud-based Enterprise Land Management software system. “The City realizes that part of the modernization effort of becoming a “Smart City” includes strategically aligning People, Process and Technology in order to manage work more efficiently and effectively,” reads the RFP. The software will be used by the Department of Neighborhood Development Services to replace programs from 2008 that track the permitting process. The RFP states that the older software lacks provisions for automated workflows, which creates “bottlenecks in the comprehensive Development Process” with a reliance on paper. “The lack of citizen self-service capabilities through the current system limits the local development community’s ability to engage remotely with the City by applying for permits electronically,” the RFP continues. “The City expects NDS to achieve substantial gains in productivity, accuracy, mobility, and capacity to make data-driven decisions through the implementation of the ELM software.” The hope is to have the software functional and live by May 2023. I know this might be “inside baseball” but I am very excited about the prospect of being able to view land use applications remotely, as we can already do with Albemarle County’s Community Development Department. So, I will be tracking this with great enthusiasm! Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

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March 4, 2022: Major development proposed near junction of U.S. 29 and I-64 in Albemarle; Several projects in mix to alter 5th Street corridor

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 4, 2022 15:55

The name of today is also a command. March Forth! The world has changed a lot in the past several years, and it will change again as our future quickly becomes history. With so many potential choices and pathways, sometimes all you can do is march forth, and today is a good day to ponder what that all may mean. This is Charlottesville Community Engagement and I’m your host Sean Tubbs, fervently hoping that you will find your way. Sign up to get every edition in your inbox!On today’s program:Area transportation planners are submitting three projects to VDOT to improve the Fifth Street Corridor in both Albemarle County and CharlottesvilleRiverbend Development has filed plans for a mixed-use community near the intersection of U.S. 29 and Interstate 64Another update on the waning of the omicron surgeAlbemarle County may soon return to in-person meetings Today’s first shout-out goes to Mulch MadnessIn today’s first subscriber-supported shout-out, are you ready for Mulch Madness? The Rivanna Solid Waste Authority has a free mulch giveaway beginning tomorrow through April 16. In between all the big games, the RSWA wants you to get your yard ready for spring. If you have a way to transport mulch, head on over to the Ivy Material Utilization Center between 7:30am and 4:00pm, Monday through Saturday, where you can pick up up to two tons free. Rivanna staff are available to help load, but ask that you bring a covering. Mulch is double ground and derived from vegetative materials brought to Ivy for disposal. That’s Mulch Madness at the Ivy Material Utilization Center. Visit rivanna.org to learn more.Pandemic update: Omicron continues slow declineThe Omicron surge of COVID-19 that began in mid-December continues to slowly recede. Today the Virginia Department of Health reports a seven-day percent positivity of 7.2 and the seven-average of new cases is 1,326. In the Blue Ridge Health District, there are 81 new cases reported today and the percent positivity is 7 percent. Dr. Costi Sifri is the director of hospital epidemiology at the University of Virginia Health System and he said he expects the numbers to remain on a steady decline, but people should remain vigilant. “I think we can anticipate that in the spring and hopefully the summer, COVID is going to be much less of an issue for us on a day-to-day basis,” Dr. Sifri said. “But we should anticipate that it could come back.”Dr. Sifri said there are no new variants of concern on the horizon, but a substrain of omicron continues to spread. He said monitoring efforts must continue and also be strengthened. “The genome surveillance systems around the country and around the world have continued to improve,” Dr. Sifri said. “There needs to be continued investment in those to beef those up so that we can have better early warning signals for variants of concern.” This week a new law went into effect allowing parents and guardians let their children opt out of mask mandates in public schools. The Centers for Disease Control lists this region as having a high level of transmission. “It seems very prudent to me that students continue to mask indoors until those case counts come down to a low level,” Dr. Sifri said.Tonight, the UVA Medical Center’s South Tower will be illuminated in blue and yellow to support members of the community who are affected by the Putin administration’s invasion of Ukraine. That will continue on Saturday and Sunday night. Dr. Sifri called the invasion a humanitarian catastrophe that could be compounded by COVID. “I do think about the intersection between the pandemic and what is occurring with displaced peoples,” Dr. Sifri said. “Ukraine has a populace that is I think only 40 percent vaccinated and they are having to flee their country and their cities and their homes on buses and trains and we can anticipate will be living in challenging situations with multifamily settings and the opportunities in that setting for infectious disease like COVID are tremendous.”Dr. Sifri said the world’s response to COVID as well as other challenges speaks to the need to be prepared for crisis before it happens. Albemarle Supervisors briefed on eventual end of the local COVID emergencyAlbemarle County and Charlottesville remain underneath a local state of emergency, which has meant virtual meetings for the past two years. On Wednesday, the Board of Supervisors were briefed on the steps to move forward. “The local emergency has allowed the county a number of advantages in addressing timely issues related to mitigating the spread of the COVID virus during the emergency,” said Doug Walker, the deputy county executive. “We now believe that those advantages are no longer needed and we are in the progress of returning to a more normal operation.” The Board will be asked to vote on a resolution to end the emergency while also allowing the “continuity of government” ordinance to remain in place. That would allow for some meetings to remain virtual for a period of time. However, if they adopt the ordinance, the Board of Supervisors, Planning Commission, and the School Board would begin holding hybrid meetings beginning with the first week of April. Other groups such as the Economic Development Authority would begin hybrid meetings in June, and others would have up to the end of March 2023 to meet virtually. Lane Auditorium would be reconfigured to allow distanced seating on the left hand side of the room and normal seating on the right hand side. Total visitor capacity would be capped at 200. The ventilation system has been upgraded to refresh the air in the auditorium ten times an hour. The resolution will be voted on at the March 16 meeting. Rezoning sought for land near Virginia Eagle distribution facilityThe highway-like character of U.S. 29 in Albemarle County southwest of Charlottesville will further change in the near future now that a rezoning has been filed for around 63.5 acres around the Virginia Eagle distribution center. Riverbend Development is seeking a rezoning to the Neighborhood Model District to build several hundred apartment units. “This project will include a mix of residential and commercial units, as anticipated by the Comprehensive Plan for this location,” reads the narrative for the application. “Approximately 475 residential units are proposed, primarily multifamily.”Also proposed are a hotel, a congregate care facility, office buildings and retail. The Board of Supervisors adjusted the county’s growth area boundaries in September 2015 to add 51 acres as part of an incentive package to attract a brewery to locate on the site. That was a lower amount than had been requested, and only extended to land that already within the jurisdictional area for public water and sewer. (read the minutes from the September 23, 2015 meeting)“At 64.36 acres, the Sieg property is strategically positioned at the crossroads of Interstate 64 and Route 29 and within the growth area of Albemarle County,” the narrative continues. “This land is ideally situated for a new mixed-use community with a variety of housing options, office sites, aging in place and retail destinations.” The Comprehensive Plan designates the land as Regional Mixed-Use. Riverbend Development will pay to extend water and sewer to the properties. U.S. 29 is considered by the Virginia Department of Transportation to be a Corridor of Statewide Significance.A traffic light was installed in late 2020 on the southern side of the U.S. 29 and I-64 interchange as part of a Smart Scale funded effort to make the junction safer. That signal is about 1,400 feet away from Gold Eagle Drive, which would serve as one primary access point to the property with Shepards Hill Road serving as the second. The plans propose a “Green T” intersection which would halt southbound traffic on U.S. 29 at a second traffic light in the area. Second shout-out goes to a Livable Cville eventIn today’s second subscriber supported shout-out, Livable Cville wants you to know about an online presentation coming up on Wednesday, March 16. "Can Zoning Create a More Affordable Charlottesville?" That’s the question to be explored by Dr. Jenny Schuetz of the Brookings Institute. She’s the author of Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America’s Broken Housing Systems. The event is free but you’ll have to register at EventBrite. Review process continues for next round of Smart Scale candidate projects Efforts are underway to secure funding to transform the character of Fifth Street and Fifth Street Extended between Ridge Street and Ambrose Commons. There are at least three projects being considered for the next round of the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Smart Scale process. “Smart Scale is the process that the state uses to prioritize and fund transportation projects,” said Sandy Shackelford, the director of planning and transportation for the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. The deadline for the fifth round is approaching later this spring. Each locality can submit up to four projects, and regional planning bodies also get four. “Projects are evaluated and given a benefit score based on how well the project meets needs in areas like safety, congestion relief, and economic development,” Shackleford said.Project pre-applications need to be submitted by March 31 with a final application is August 1. The results will be presented to the Commonwealth Transportation Board next January. Funding is limited. The TJPDC held a workshop on February 28 to present candidates to the public. (watch the workshop)Charlottesville will only submit one application this year. That will be for safety improvements on Fifth Street Extended that could be coordinated with a previous Smart Scale project. (read that application)“We do currently have a funded project at the intersection of Cherry [Avenue] and Elliott [Avenue] so we are looking to kind of connect to that already-funded project and continue south,” said Brennen Duncan, the city’s traffic engineer. How far south depends on how much funding would be available. Earlier this year, the City Council dropped the speed limit on 5th Street Extended to 40 miles per hour to try to slow down traffic after a series of fatalities in 2020. “We’re primarily focused on safety, congestion, pedestrian access, and bicycle access,” Duncan said. Duncan said public meetings will be held in April to shape this project and there is no current cost estimate. There are other previously awarded Smart Scale projects along the corridor. Further to the south, the Metropolitan Planning Organization will submit an application to make improvements for a four-tenths of a mile long stretch where Albemarle County is on one side of the road and Charlottesville is on the other. (read details)“The Fifth Street improvements include adding a left turn lane south into Fifth Street Station Parkway, median adjustments into the Willoughby Shopping Center across from the Willoughby residential neighborhood, construction of a left-turn midblock into Willoughby Shopping Center, [and] traveling north, restricting south turn lane into the Willoughby Shopping Center,” said Ryan Mickles, a regional planner with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District. A shared-use path is also suggested in this project as are other elements. There’s no cost estimate yet for this project. Another project would see bicycle and pedestrian improvements between Ambrose Commons to Stagecoach Road south of I-64. These would provide a way to get to Southwood on foot or bike while passing by the Albemarle Business Campus and Albemarle County’s southern office building. (read those details)“We’re going to basically install a shared-use path on the west side of the road offset by a six foot buffer strip,” said Chuck Proctor, a transportation planner with VDOT. In the fourth Smart Scale round, Albemarle County won $5.263 million in funding for a roundabout at the intersection of Old Lynchburg Road and Fifth Street. The Board of Supervisors committed a $2 million match to the project to help improve its ranking under Smart Scale. I will have more from this workshop in future installments of Charlottesville Community Engagement. Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

February 28, 2022: Nonprofit group wraps unfinished Dewberry skeleton; Council upholds BAR review of apartment building

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 28, 2022 16:39

It’s the final day of February, but 2022 still has a long way to go. In fact, after today there is 83.8 percent left before it’s time to change the yearly calendar once more. Tomorrow may be heralded by a lion, so be on the listen-out for a roar. But for now, it’s time for another Charlottesville Community Engagement, and I’m your host, Sean Tubbs.This newsletter and podcast is free to sign up for, but your paid subscription ensures this one-person operation will continue well into the future! On today’s program: A new group called Friends of Cville Downtown launches by wrapping the Dewberry structure with a muralCity Council upholds a decision made by the Board of Architectural Review One Charlottesville tax relief deadline is approaching, and the city is looking for more people to serve on advisory panelsA University of Virginia epidemiologist weighs in on what’s next with COVID First shout-out goes to a Livable Cville eventIn today’s first subscriber supported shout-out, Livable Cville wants you to know about an online presentation coming up on Wednesday, March 16 at 5:30 p.m. "Can Zoning Create a More Affordable Charlottesville?" That’s the question to be explored by Dr. Jenny Schuetz of the Brookings Institute. She’s the author of Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America’s Broken Housing Systems. The event is free but you’ll have to register at EventBrite. Pandemic update to begin the weekToday the Virginia Department of Health reports the seven-day percent positivity is now at 7.3 percent, another indicator the Omicron surge is continuing to wane. The seven-day average for new cases is now at 1,621 with 764 new cases reported today. However, the death count from the Omicron variant continues to grow with a cumulative total of 18,771. Ten days ago, that number stood at 18,016 but the VDH always stresses that it takes a while for COVID deaths to be officially recorded. The Blue Ridge Health District now has a total of 419 deaths from COVID, and that number was at 386 ten day ago. There are 26 new cases in the BRHD today. What’s next? Dr. Costi Sifri is director of hospital epidemiology at the University of Virginia Health System. He said a majority of people in the Charlottesville area are either fully vaccinated or have had COVID. “I think in the near term we can and are expecting that we will see a continued diminution of cases going forward and I think that’s likely to occur not only over the next couple of weeks but perhaps and hopefully the next couple of months,” Dr. Sifri said. However, Dr. Sifri said COVID can be unpredictable and there are many parts of the world have low vaccination rates, allowing further mutations to occur. He said the current question is how long immunity through vaccination or previous infections will last.“Will there be future differences with the virus?” Dr. Sifri asked. “Does it evolve or change to overcome some of these protective immune responses that we’ve developed? And how robust or how prolonged are those immune responses?”Tomorrow is also the day that a new law goes into effect allowing parents to opt out of school mask mandates. This morning the UVA Health System announced that the drop in case counts will result in additional visitation at the UVA Medical System. To see the details of what has changed, visit the UVA Health System.Tax relief deadline is tomorrow Tomorrow is the last day for elderly and disabled property owners in Charlottesville to apply for tax relief. “If you own and are living in your home in the city of Charlottesville, if you are over 65 years of age, or are permanently disabled, and if you have a yearly household income of $55,000 or less, and a net worth of $125,000 or less excluding the value of the home, you may qualify for tax relief under this program,” said City Councilor Sena Magill. Visit the Commissioner of Revenue’s website for more information and to find the application. Residential property is up 11.69 percent in 2022. In addition, Council has advertised an increase of ten cents on the property tax rate. City Council will be presented with the budget on March 7. Want to be on a Charlottesville board or commission?With spring here perhaps you’re looking for a fresh hobby. Why not consider being on a Charlottesville Board of Commission? There are several vacancies and Council is taking applications through March 12. Charlottesville Economic Development Authority - one openingCitizens Transportation Advisory Committee - two openingsCommunity Policy and Management Team - two openingsHistoric Resources Committee - four openingsHousing Advisory Committee - one vacancy (specifically for a member of a neighborhood association)Measurements and Solutions Group - eight openingsPersonnel Appeals Board - one opening (for a non-city employee) Region Ten Community Services Board - one openingSocial Services Advisory Board - two openingsTree Commission - four openingsVendor Appeals Board - one openingYouth Council You can apply here. Council will next make appointments on March 21. Council upholds BAR approval at 605 Preston Place The Board of Architectural Review approved what’s called a “certificate of appropriateness” to allow for an apartment complex to be built in the side yard of a 19th century structure. Council was asked to hear the appeal from neighbors who argue the city’s architectural design control (ADC) rules were not followed. At the beginning of the appeal, city historic preservation planner Jeff Werner described the project.“The project is a proposed three-story apartment building,” Werner said. “It’s located on a parcel at 605 Preston Place. The property is within the Rugby-Road-University Circle-Venable ADC district. Also on this property is Wyndhurst which is a home constructed in 1857 and it was formerly the manor house for a 102-acre farm.” The appellants sent in a 19-point letter to make their arguments. Point number two argued that the footprint and massing of the new building would not be not in harmony with the district. Werner disagreed.“To be clear, the design guidelines are intended to be flexible and flexible enough to both respect historic properties and to embrace future new design,” Werner said. Werner recommended the Council uphold the BAR’s determination. Larry Getty represented the appellants. “We actually feel the Board of Architectural Review did not really explain their decisions as to why the number of elements that Jeff Werner discussed actually do satisfy the guidelines,” Getty said. “It is totally out of place with the buildings that are on three sides of the site.” Breck Gastinger is the chair of the BAR and before he spoke he told Council a little about what the panel does. “We are made up of nine citizens of Charlottesville,” Gastinger said. “All of us are volunteers and we are appointed by City Council. We work on your behalf for the city. We’re made up of design professionals, business owners, residents of properties within historic districts.”Gastinger said BAR members must follow the guidelines as they make their determinations. He said the city’s architectural story is always changing. “Our guidelines for the BAR do not mandate particular styles of architecture or prevent new buildings from being added within historic districts,” Gastinger said. “As Charlottesville continues to grow and evolve as a city, we want to make sure it’s going to be done in a compatible way.”Gastinger said the BAR helped inform the project through multiple hearings and their approval was a unanimous 8-0 vote. Mayor Lloyd Snook said he sided with the BAR.“I was struck by the fact that some architects for whom I have a great deal respect were looking at it quite critically and praising what was being done and I would have to say that if those architects are saying good things about it, that’s a very strong recommendation for me,” Snook said. The vote to uphold the BAR was unanimous. Patreon-fueled shout-out to LEAPWhen you think of romance, you might not immediately think of energy efficiency - but the folks at LEAP think keeping your family comfortable at home is a great way to show you care during the month of love. Your local energy nonprofit wants to make sure you are getting the most out of your home all year round, and LEAP offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If someone in your household is age 60 or older, or you have an annual household income of less than $74,950, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!Friends of Cville Downtown launches with unveiling of mural on Dewberry building It was a warm morning for this last day of February and several dozen people gathered in Central Place outside the Dewberry Hotel, an unfinished structure for which construction stopped over 13 years ago when the previous owner ran out of money. A group called Friends of Cville Downtown has raised funds to wrap the skeleton of the unfinished hotel with artwork. The official reveal was a chance to also launch the organization. Board member Michael Caplin called a “placemaking partnership” to increase economic development downtown in an inclusive manner. “Friends of Cville Downtown is raising private money to fund the costs of a campaign for Main, an array of projects that can invigorate the downtown environment with lights, art, paintings, seating, events, banners, sanitation, safety add-ons, and a rich array of events with something for everybody,” Caplin said. “We will accomplish this by working together with one another and with city government in the spirit of goodwill and common purpose.”The first project is the Music Box on Main, which is the name for the temporary installation by the artist Eric Waugh which covers all nine stories of the unfinished Dewberry. “Eric’s paintings, Jazzmaker 1 and Jazzmaker 2, were enlarged and printed on a 13-foot-wide vinyl mesh banner wrap,” Caplin said. “Ten giant rolls of wrap were carried to the roof.”Crews rappelled from the top affixed the wrap to the building, and the goal is to cover up the skeleton for at least the next year. Caplin said the work has been done in conjunction with the Dewberry Group, who even donated $10,000 to the project. “I hope you will say to yourself, ‘what wonderful thing shall we do next, and how shall we get it done together?’” Caplin said. Mayor Lloyd Snook said he welcomed the effort. “We lost sight of the fact that so many of the businesses on the Downtown Mall are operating on very thin margins and the last few years have been very tough for them,” Snook said. “To have people who have the ability to step up to make significant contributions to be able to do the kinds of things the Friends of Cville Downtown are talking about doing is really exciting. It’s exciting for the city government to know that there are going to be people out there who are able to help and willing to help.”Ludwig Kuttner is the vice chair of the Friends of Cville Downtown board. He said he wanted to take action to cover up visual blight and to restore what he described as “positive energy” to the mall.“I think people have complained about it now for over 12 yeers, and it’s ugly and there have been complaints and we just decided let’s do something about it,” Kuttner said. Caplin came up with the idea for the wrap, which includes a wrap on 2nd Street SE. He saw the black façade of the old Boxer Learning building as being like the black keys of a piano.“So I envisioned the windows white and then a swirly jazz thing at the top and I had a friend of mine photoshop it for me to see what it would like when it was done and we sent that image to the Dewberrys and said ‘would you give us permission to do this to your building?’ and Jaimie Dewberry called up and said ‘this is genius, go right ahead!’” As for the future of the Dewberry, Caplin said he was not privy to any information but that they had full permission to apply the temporary measure. “It’s now a positive element of our skyline instead of a ‘what’s happening’ element of our skyline,” Caplin said. Stay tuned for more information as it develops. What do you think? Leave a note in the comments. Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

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Fixing America's Housing ft. Jenny Schuetz

The Neoliberal Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2022 56:31

What's gone wrong with America's housing market, and how can we fix it? Economist Jenny Schuetz joins the podcast to discuss her new book about housing policy, 'Fixer Upper'. We discuss state vs local control of housing policy, the history of housing and NIMBYism in America, and which policies would help and which would hurt in fixing our housing market. Check out Fixer Upper - https://www.amazon.com/Fixer-Upper-Americas-Crumbling-Housing-Policies/dp/0815739281 To make sure you hear every episode, join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/neoliberalproject. Patrons get access to exclusive bonus episodes, our sticker-of-the-month club, and our insider Slack. Become a supporter today! Got questions for the Neoliberal Podcast? Send them to mailbag@neoliberalproject.org Follow us at: https://twitter.com/ne0liberal https://www.instagram.com/neoliberalproject/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/1930401007051265/ Join a local chapter at https://neoliberalproject.org/join

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How to fix America's broken housing systems

The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 11, 2022 22:02

On this episode of the Brookings Cafeteria, an expert on housing policy discusses her new book that addresses America's housing challenges and proposes practical changes to make more housing available and affordable for all Americans. Jenny Schuetz is a senior fellow in Brookings Metro and author of the new book, “Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing Systems,” publishing this month by Brookings Institution Press. You can find it on our website, Brookings.edu. She's interviewed by Brookings Press Director Bill Finan. Show notes and transcript: Follow Brookings podcasts on Apple or Google podcasts, or on Spotify. Send feedback email to , and follow us and tweet us at on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the .

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Real Estate Market After the Pandemic

Art of Discussing

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2021 73:33

In this episode, we discuss with our guest, Mike, from Biglane Mentoring, what impacts the COVID-19 pandemic had on the real estate market and economy including what to expect in the future. Join us and our guest for our discussion about the real estate market and economy after the pandemic.Check out our website at http://www.artofdiscussing.com, on Facebook at Art of Discussing and on Instagram @artofdiscussing. Got a topic that you'd like to see discussed? Interested in being a guest on our show? Leave us a comment below or contact us at info@artofdiscussing.com!! We'd love to hear from you! Keep Discussing!To find Biglane Mentoring online:Website: www.biglanementoring.comEmail: mike@biglanementoring.comLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mike-biglane-5978626a Research/Resources Notes:What to Expect in the Housing Market After the Pandemic by Zillow. Published in PRNewswire website on April 14, 2021 and available on https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/what-to-expect-in-the-housing-market-after-the-pandemic-301268452.html The Impact of COVID-19 on the Residential Real Estate Market by Charles S. Gascon, Jacob Haas. Published in Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis October 6, 2020 and available on https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/fourth-quarter-2020/impact-covid-residential-real-estate-market The COVID-19 Pandemic Has Fueled A Crisis In the House Market by Sai Balasubramanian, MD, JD. Published in Forbes website April 27, 2021 and available on https://www.forbes.com/sites/saibala/2021/04/27/the-covid-19-pandemic-has-fueled-a-crisis-in-the-housing-market/?sh=447934f45928 The U.S. real estate markets that are poised for a post-pandemic boom in 2021 by COVID-19 by Jacob Passy. Published in Market Watch website last updated December 26, 2020 and available on https://www.marketwatch.com/story/these-u-s-real-estate-markets-are-poised-for-a-post-pandemic-boom-11608578024 The housing market stands at a tipping point after a stunningly successful year during the pandemic by Diana Olick. Published in CNBC website March 12, 2021 and available on https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/12/housing-market-covid-one-year-anniversary.html What the Great Recession can teach us about the post-pandemic housing market by Sarah Crump and Jenny Schuetz. Published in Brookings website March 29, 2021 and available on https://www.brookings.edu/research/what-the-great-recession-can-teach-us-about-the-post-pandemic-housing-market/ What Will HappeCheck out our website at http://artofdiscussing.buzzsprout.com, on Facebook at Art of Discussing and on Instagram @artofdiscussing.Got a topic that you'd like to see discussed? Interested in being a guest on our show? Just want to reach out to share an opinion, experience, or resource? Leave us a comment below or contact us at info@artofdiscussing.com!! We'd love to hear from you! Keep Discussing!Music found on Pixabay. Song name: "Clear Your Mind" by Caffeine Creek Band"

Explaining the Housing Shortage

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 7, 2021 24:48

Home prices rose sharply in the past few years in many parts of Ontario, and across the country. It prompted all the parties in this year's election campaigg to put forward ideas for dealing with what is routinely called a housing shortage. And, as it turns out, it's not just a problem here. With us to explain what's going on: Jenny Schuetz, senior fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution's Future of the Middle Class Initiative; and Mike Moffatt, senior director at the Smart Prosperity Institute think tank and an assistant professor at Western University's Ivey Business School. If you love getting your in-depth current affairs analysis through The Agenda podcast, consider making a donation to support TVO's unique model of local journalism at www.tvo.org/supportpods. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The eviction ban has been extended — for now. What comes next?

The Current

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 5, 2021 10:26

Although the CDC's eviction moratorium has been temporarily extended, approximately 6 million households are behind on their rent and potentially at risk of eviction, while states and cities have struggled to distribute the billions in emergency rental assistance allocated by Congress last year. Jenny Schuetz examines the challenges in getting aid money to renters and how to better support renters and landlords when federal and local eviction bans eventually expire. Show notes and transcript: https://brook.gs/3xraSuB Follow Brookings podcasts on Apple or Google podcasts, or on Spotify. Send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Current is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

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Rental Markets Around the World with Jenny Schuetz

Freddie Mac Multifamily

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2021 41:35

In this episode, Corey and Steve welcome back Jenny Schuetz, Senior Fellow within the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. Jenny is an expert on urban economics and recently released a report titled “What the US can learn from rental housing markets across the globe.” This report gathers institutional knowledge from real estate scholars who have lived and worked in these areas and gives some great insights into the way six different markets operate around the globe.

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Proposals for US climate leadership and managing built environment risks and costs

housing crisis brookings brookings institute metropolitan policy program jenny schuetz

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 12, 2021 41:17

On this sixth and final episode from the Blueprints for American Renewal and Prosperity project, two Brookings experts discuss their blueprints for climate and resilience. Nathan Hultman is a nonresident senior fellow in Global Economy and Development at Brookings and also the director of the Center for Global Sustainability and associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. He is the co-author with Samantha Gross of “How the United States can return to credible climate leadership.” Joseph Kane is a senior research associate and associate fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, and is co-author with Jenny Schuetz, Shalini Vajjhala, and Adie Tomer of “How a federal Climate Planning Unit can manage built environment risks and costs.” Also on this episode, Alan Berube, senior fellow and deputy director of the Metropolitan Policy Program, shares some insights from the new Metro Monitor, an annual assessment of growth, prosperity, and inclusion in nearly 200 metro areas around the country. In this Metro Lens segment, Berube highlights the progress some places have made in shrinking significant racial economic gaps over the last decade, but also says that despite some progress, the path to racial equity in America will long and complicated. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

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How to destroy the suburbs

The Weeds

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 3, 2021 59:38

Matt and Dara are joined by Vox Politics and Policy Fellow Jerusalem Demsas to talk about how to take on America's housing problem, exclusionary and discriminatory zoning restrictions, message against NIMBYs, and ultimately, to sue and destroy the suburbs. Then, research is analyzed that confronts the effects of rising prescription drug prices on patient behavior. Resources: "America's racist housing rules really can be fixed" by Jerusalem Demsas, Vox (Feb. 17, 2021) "How to convince a NIMBY to build more housing" by Jerusalem Demsas, Vox (Feb. 24, 2021) "How George Floyd's death is fueling a push for affordable housing in mostly White parts of D.C." by Paul Schwartzmann, Washington Post (March 1, 2021) "Homeowners and Opposition to Housing Development" by William Marble and Clayton Nall (Feb. 6, 2020) "HUD can't fix exclusionary zoning by withholding CDBG funds" by Jenny Schuetz, Brookings (Oct. 15, 2018) "Stuck! The Law and Economics of Residential Stability" by David Schleicher, Yale Law Journal (Vol. 127, 2017) The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, by Heather McGhee (2021) White paper Hosts: Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Slowboring.com Dara Lind (@DLind), Immigration Reporter, ProPublica Jerusalem Demsas (@JerusalemDemsas), Politics and Policy Fellow, Vox Credits: Erikk Geannikis, Editor and Producer As the Biden administration gears up, we'll help you understand this unprecedented burst of policymaking. Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter. The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production. Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts About Vox Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Follow Us: Vox.com Facebook group: The Weeds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Sacramento Could Be One Of First Cities To Reform Single-Family Home Zoning. Here’s How It Would Work.

PolitiFact California

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 25, 2021

By Chris Nichols For years, California state lawmakers have pushed ideas that would allow developers to build small apartment buildings, duplexes and triplexes in neighborhoods zoned almost exclusively for single family homes. These bills, meant to address the state’s severe housing shortage and create more inclusive communities, have gained some traction. But following strong opposition, they ultimately failed at the state Capitol. Just blocks away, a local proposal is moving forward that would make the city of Sacramento one of the first in California and the nation to eliminate rules that allow only for single family homes in neighborhoods. This zoning change would permit “missing middle” housing, a term that describes duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes, in these traditionally residential neighborhoods consisting of almost all single family homes. An existing triplex in the North Oak Park neighborhood.City of Sacramento 2040 Report But there are questions and confusion about what eliminating single family zoning actually means. The misunderstanding is sometimes fueled by false and out-of-context claims about the plans, as we examined in a fact check last year when then President Donald Trump and Housing Secretary Ben Carson claimed California was trying to “abolish” single-family zoning, which we found was Half True but leaves a misleading impression. Last week, the conservative website Breitbart falsely claimed the city of Berkeley “may end single family housing” and “the ability of families to live in a home where only their family resides.” Those are both distortions of the plans, which the city voted to move forward with this week but would not bring an end to the traditional housing type. PolitiFact California spoke with Sacramento city planning officials to learn more about how their proposal would work, how fast the changes might take place and debunk some misconceptions about it. What Is ‘Single Family Zoning’ And Why Is It Contentious? Single family zoning is a neighborhood model that allows only one housing unit per parcel, though duplexes are often allowed on corner lots, and is often defined by low-traffic streets and quiet cul-de-sacs. The city of Sacramento’s reform proposal is part of its long-range general plan and won’t receive a final vote until late this year. But it’s drawn praise from some of California’s leading voices on housing policy, including the San Francisco lawmaker who has pushed for similar changes at the Capitol. “Sacramento did a great thing,” State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said at a press conference last week. “I just really want to commend Mayor Darrell Steinberg and every member of the Sacramento City Council. … That’s a great model for other cities to look to.” San Francisco and San Jose are considering whether to move ahead with similar plans, while Wiener proposed legislation last week to make it easier for cities statewide to allow duplexes and small apartment buildings. Sacramento would join Minneapolis and Portland as the only major metros to end single family only zoning. Supporters of Sacramento’s plan say it will create much needed lower cost housing while also breaking down the legacy of exclusionary zoning in some of the city’s wealthiest and whitest neighborhoods where racially restrictive covenants were used in the first half of the 20th century to keep minority groups out. The proposal has also stirred fear. Some who live in single family home areas say they’re worried higher-density homes, along with added traffic and parking issues, could change the character of their neighborhoods. Some also reject the notion that it will lead to more affordable housing, noting there is no mandate to require that. “This is not doing anything for affordable housing,” said Maggie Coulter, president of the Elmhurst Neighborhood Association, which represents homeowners in one of the city’s older single-family areas. “To suggest that this is doing that is nonsense.” What Does It Mean To Eliminate Single Family Zoning? Housing experts and lawmakers describe Sacramento’s initiative and others like it as an effort to do away with single-family zoning. As we reported last year, non-housing experts find those descriptions confusing. “It sometimes gets repeated as ‘abolish [or ban] single-family homes,’ which implies that someone will take a wrecking ball to existing homes. Not the same thing at all!" Jenny Schuetz, who studies housing policy at the Brookings Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, told PolitiFact California last year in an email. For these reasons, Sacramento’s city planners do not use the phrase eliminating single family zoning, said Matt Hertel, the city’s acting long range planning manager. Instead, here’s how Hertel explains the proposal: “We’re changing our zoning to go from allowing exclusively single family homes to a greater variety of housing types that do still include single family homes.” An existing fourplex in the Land Park neighborhood.City of Sacramento 2040 Report Would Single Family Home Construction Be Banned? No, this is a misconception. “We would not do that,” confirmed Greg Sandlund, acting planning director for the city of Sacramento. “We are not banning single family construction.” Sandlund added that future subdivisions will still have single family homes, “but we would likely encourage a variety of housing types, not just only single family zones.” Sacramento also wants to create more housing sizes “to create a variety of income levels or rent levels and sales prices to make that area more accessible and inclusive,” he said. What Percentage Of The City Is Already Zoned Single Family? In Sacramento, 70% of residential neighborhoods are zoned for single-family only, though duplexes are allowed on corner lots, according to a Frequently Asked Questions document produced by the city. Altogether, 43% of the city’s land mass is designated as single family zoning, an area covering about 43 square miles. But in the past, some of Sacramento’s older neighborhoods allowed more variety of housing types, including the “missing middle” options. “We know there are over 2,300 duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes in our older neighborhoods,” Sandlund added. Small multi-unit housing such as duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes are often called “missing middle” options because they’re more affordable than single family homes and less dense than large apartment buildings. Over the past 50 years, most cities across America have built either single family homes or apartment buildings, and “not something in between,” explained Sandlund. Property owners in Sacramento’s single family neighborhoods can also build up to two accessory dwelling units, also known as granny flats, up to 1,200 square feet each on their lots. How Does This Plan Address Racial Equity? City officials say the proposal would break down the legacy exclusionary zoning in Sacramento’s single family neighborhoods by ensuring people of all races and a greater share of socio-economic backgrounds can live in areas with good schools, parks, proximity to jobs and transit. These are “zip codes,” Sandlund said, “where it’s been shown that you live longer if you live there versus other areas.” “They’re also highly segregated, mostly white, more affluent because folks [people of color] were not allowed to buy into those communities and build equity,” he added. Racially restrictive covenants, which were part of a racist system called redlining, were used in the first half of the 20th century as a way to keep African-Americans, Asian-Americans and other residents of color out of certain neighborhoods in Sacramento and in cities across America. They appeared in the Sacramento region as early as the 1920s in what is now the Land Park neighborhood and Elmhurst and quickly spread to other parts of the city, according to a housing report by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled these racist covenants unconstitutional in 1948, but the Jim Crow-era language survives in the property records of many houses in Sacramento and across California, often without owners realizing it. “Now those covenants are no longer in effect,” Sandlund said. “But also if you want to live in a nice area, your only option is to rent one of these homes or buy them. And those rents and those sales prices are really high right now and they just continue to grow.” Would This Zoning Change Lead To Large Apartment Buildings? The fear that giant apartment buildings will pop up in single family neighborhoods is misplaced and wrong, according to city planners. “We want to check the size of development in these areas,” Sandlund said. “Because in doing so when you check the size but allow more density, you get smaller, more affordable units. And we want the size and the look of these fourplexes, triplexes, duplexes to reflect the scale of the neighborhood.” An existing triplex in the Curtis Park neighborhood.City of Sacramento 2040 Report What’s The Timeline For Sacramento’s Proposal? The city council is expected to vote on the general plan in December 2021. After, the city will need to update its zoning code in 2022 and could start allowing duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes in single family neighborhoods later that year. How Will The City Decide Height And Size Limits? Sacramento’s zoning code and citywide design standards would set the rules for how tall and large the new housing options could be. Right now, the maximum height for homes in the city’s R1 single family zone is 35 feet. Additionally, homes must be set back at least 20 feet from the street and 15 feet from the back fence. They can only cover “only cover typically 40 percent, not to exceed 50 percent of the lot,” Hertel said. “So, you have to have open space on the lot.” “I haven’t seen the [city] council express a desire for large buildings in these areas, actually the opposite. They are concerned about their constituents. They are concerned about the scale,” Sandlund said. Should the city council approve the general plan this year, planners expect to update the zoning code in 2022 to define limits for the new housing options. “We’re going to work diligently with the community and consultant team to really get those development standards correct for duplexes and triplexes and fourplexes,” Hertel said. “The [building] envelope as you see it today won’t change substantially. It will be the same type of envelope. But the number of doors on that envelope could change. It could go from one to two to three doors.” Would This Actually Lead To More Affordable Housing? Some opponents of the plan say it won’t create affordable housing given California’s exorbitant housing construction costs. But Sacramento city planners say the change will lead to “lower cost housing options,” emphasizing it’s not a traditional, government-subsidized affordable housing program. Still, dividing up a large home into multiple units leads to “some naturally affordable housing” that’s less expensive than renting or buying the whole house, Hertel said. The change should produce “maybe not the affordability level for low and very low income communities,” he continued, “but adds to the overall housing stock something that can be rented at a lower price than a 2,000 square foot unit.” Hertel said the city expects many of the initial housing options will come from existing homes that are retrofitted into duplexes, triplexes or fourplexes. Others would come from new construction on vacant lots. Coulter, of the Elmhurst Neighborhood Association, said it’s not realistic to think that property owners who spend money to retrofit their homes into duplexes or triplexes will do anything other than charge market rate for the units, making them unaffordable for most Sacramentans. She said Sacramento is already addressing its affordable housing shortage by building dense new apartment buildings in Midtown and downtown. Residents who moved to places like Elmhurst should be able to preserve the calm and quiet that attracted them in the first place, she continued, rather than have it transformed by added density, noise and cars. “People want to have a choice,” Coulter said. “Not everyone wants this.” How Many New Homes Would This Create? In the first few years, city planners estimate perhaps 100 new units would be built annually. They emphasized the plan is a long-term policy meant to return greater housing diversity to existing neighborhoods. Officials say this is one small slice of the city’s overall strategy to address the tremendous need for more housing in Sacramento. The state requires the city to accommodate and plan for 45,580 new housing units by 2029, including 17,000 that are affordable to the lowest-income residents. How Would Parking Be Affected? Sacramento’s single family R1 zoned neighborhoods require lots to include at least one off-street parking space per unit. Under the current parking standards, a duplex would require two off-street parking spaces, a triplex would need three spaces and a fourplex would require four, according to a city report on the plan. How Does The Plan Address Climate Change? Supporters say permitting more homes within existing neighborhoods will cut down on the need for sprawling new housing development. That, in turn, will reduce commutes and the vehicle emissions that make climate change worse. “Having more housing opportunities near transit, near jobs, near schools,” Hertel said, will help “reduce our carbon footprint.” How Can Sacramentans Get Involved? Officials expect the city’s long-range planning document, the Draft 2040 General Plan and Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, will be available for public review in summer 2021. More information about it is at sac2040gpu.org. People can also sign-up for email updates at the end of this city FAQ document. What are your questions about Sacramento’s plans to eliminate single family only zoning? Email PolitiFact California at politifactca@capradio.org. We’ll consider them in future updates to this news article. Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of square miles zoned in Sacramento for single-family homes. The correct number is 43 square miles. Source List Matt Hertel, City of Sacramento’s acting long range planning manager, video interview, Feb. 18, 2021 Greg Sandlund, City of Sacramento’s acting planning director, video interview, Feb. 18, 2021 State Sen. Scott Wiener, news conference, Feb. 18, 2021. City of Sacramento, Frequently Asked Questions document, accessed February 2021. City of Sacramento, General Plan 2040 website, accessed February 2021. Sacramento Area Council of Governments, Housing Policy Toolkit, June 2020 PolitiFact California, Trump Claims California Lawmaker Pushed To 'Abolish Single-Family Zoning.' Is He Right?, Aug. 17, 2020 Los Angeles Times, Sacramento may allow apartments in single-family home areas, Feb. 10, 2021 Sacramento Bee, Sacramento CA new housing proposal angers some neighborhoods, Jan. 10, 2021. Sacramento Bee, Sacramento moves forward with controversial zoning change designed to address housing crisis, Jan. 19, 2021 Mercury News, Will San Jose move to densify single-family neighborhoods like Sacramento just did?, Jan. 25, 2021. UC Berkeley Terner Center For Housing Innovation, Sacramento Leapfrogs State Capitol in Zoning Reform Race, Jan. 28, 2021 City of Sacramento, City Council Shows Strong Support For Allowing More Housing Types In Single-Family Neighborhoods, Jan. 25, 2021.

Fixing the Housing Crisis ft. Jenny Schuetz

The Neoliberal Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 15, 2020 58:21

How did America's housing crisis get so bad, and what can be done about it? Housing policy expert Jenny Schuetz of the Brookings Institute joins the show to discuss. We chat about how exclusionary zoning makes housing shortages worse, why overly-long approval processes might be an even bigger factor than zoning, and how the political dynamics within different neighborhoods of big cities make it difficult to change policy. Further Reading: Gentle Density - https://www.brookings.edu/research/gentle-density-can-save-our-neighborhoods/ Golden Gates - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/585765/golden-gates-by-conor-dougherty/ Who Participates in Local Government? - https://open.bu.edu/handle/2144/34276 Zoning Rules! - https://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=1190 To make sure you hear every episode, join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/neoliberalproject. Patrons get access to exclusive bonus episodes, our sticker-of-the-month club, and our insider community Slack. Become a supporter today! Got questions for the Neoliberal Podcast? Send them to mailbag@neoliberalproject.org Follow us at: https://twitter.com/ne0liberal https://www.facebook.com/groups/1930401007051265/ Join a local chapter at https://neoliberalproject.org/join

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#58 Josh Zakim + Jenny Schuetz on Solving The Housing Crisis

Real Estate Addicts

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2020 45:52

This week we are excited to be joined by Former Boston city councilor Josh Zakim who recently started a new nonprofit called Housing Forward-MA as well as Jenny Schuetz who is an expert in urban economics and housing policy and a fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings. Jenny walks us through a recent report from the Brookings Institute that she helped to author called, “Zoned Out Why Massachusetts Needs to Legalize Apartments Near Transit”. We discuss the current real estate market as well as land use regulation, housing prices, urban amenities, and neighborhood change. This was an interesting and thought-provoking conversation throughout! We’re grateful to Josh and Jenny for joining us and to all our listeners for sharing the Podcast with a friend.

Series Preview: Densely Speaking - Infrastructure Costs

Talking Headways: A Streetsblog Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 3, 2020 59:58

This week we're doing another series preview sharing a podcast we enjoy here at The Overhead Wire. Densely Speaking is a podcast by Jeffrey Lin and Greg Shill discussing cities, economics and law. You can subscribe to Densely Speaking wherever you get your podcasts. On this episode! Professor Leah Brooks, economist and Associate Professor of Public Policy and Public Affairs at the George Washington University's Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Affairs, joins the show to discuss Infrastructure Costs, her working paper (joint with Prof. Zachary Liscow, Yale Law School). Jenny Schuetz, a fellow at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, joins as a guest co-host. Note: The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

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Ep.2 – Leah Brooks: Infrastructure Costs

Densely Speaking

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 7, 2020 58:40

Professor Leah Brooks, economist and Associate Professor of Public Policy and Public Affairs at the George Washington University's Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Affairs, joins the show to discuss Infrastructure Costs, her working paper (joint with Prof. Zachary Liscow, Yale Law School). Jenny Schuetz, a fellow at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, joins as a guest co-host. Appendices: Leah Brooks: Riots Long Ago, Luxury Living Today (Emily Badger, NYT) Jenny Schuetz: I’ve Seen a Future Without Cars, and It’s Amazing (Farhad Manjoo & visualization collaborators, NYT) Jeff Lin: Vestiges of Transit: Urban Persistence at a Microscale (Leah Brooks & Byron Lutz, Review of Economics and Statistics) Greg Shill: Discourses of Climate Delay (William Lamb et al, Global Sustainability) (thanks to Giulio Mattioli for sharing on Twitter) Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill, @jenny_schuetz. Producer: Schuyler Pals. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

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Housing, Zoning, and Transit Policies to Help Communities Recover after COVID-19

Mercatus Policy Download

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 25, 2020 43:19

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a great deal of economic uncertainty at the state and local levels. Whether or not the virus is contained in the near future, local governments must provide flexibility in housing, zoning, and transit policies to help their communities recover. Karen Czarnecki, Vice President of Outreach at the Mercatus Center is joined by Emily Hamilton, Research Fellow and Co-Director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center, Salim Furth, Senior Research Fellow and Co-Director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center, and Jenny Schuetz, Research Fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution to discuss how urban communities can strengthen their economies in uncertain times, how housing restrictions make the United States less resilient during a pandemic, handling traffic congestion and embracing non-vehicular congestion in the long term, and what should be done about missed rent payments. If you would like to speak with one of the scholars or learn more about future webinars, please reach out to mercatusoutreach@mercatus.gmu.edu

Cities are Not Dead, the Stock Market's Bizarre Recovery, and the Boom in Precious Metals

Market Banter

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 21, 2020 31:15

The inaugural episode of Market Banter hits on the S&P 500's bizarre rise to a brand new all-time high, the supposed death of big cities, and the boom in precious metals. Jenny Schuetz, an urban economist and Fellow at the Brookings Institute, joined us to explain why claims that cities are going to die are grossly exaggerated and to discuss how the pandemic is threatening affordable housing. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/market-banter/message

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Affordability Strategies with Jenny Schuetz

Freddie Mac Multifamily

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 30, 2020 37:13

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, there wasn’t enough safe, affordable housing to meet the need, and 10+ million renters were spending more than half their income on housing. In this episode, Steve and Corey talk with Jenny Schuetz – fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings and a leading voice on urban economics and housing policy. Together, they take a closer look at strategies for increasing affordable housing beyond the COVID-19 economic crisis.

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Jenny Schuetz on Land Regulation and the Housing Market

EconTalk

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2020 75:12

Jenny Schuetz of the Brookings Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about zoning, boarding houses, real estate development, and the housing market.

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America’s housing crisis and the gatekeeping of opportunity

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Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2020 49:32

Jenny Schuetz, a fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program and an expert on housing issues, interviews Conor Dougherty, an economics reporter at the New York Times and author of the new book Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America. In his book, Dougherty reports on the housing crisis as seen in the San Francisco Bay area and what it may mean for the nation’s future. Also on this episode, Senior Fellow Jonathan Rauch answers a student’s question about how to combat extreme polarization in our politics. This is part of our ongoing Policy 2020 Ask an Expert feature. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts on iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

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Aligning the stars for transit-oriented development

The Podcast @ DC

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 25, 2020 37:39

Policymakers often hope that transit stations will spur real estate and economic development in surrounding neighborhoods, but the results of empirical research on transit-oriented development (TOD) is mixed. In Los Angeles, which has built a substantial intra-city rail network since 1990, most new stations were added to an already dense built environment, with auto-oriented zoning and established land use patterns. Through case studies of five LA Metro stations, Jenny Schuetz from the Brookings Institution assesses the relative importance of land markets, zoning, and other policy interventions in facilitating or constraining changes in development patterns after the stations opened. We want to know what you think about The Podcast @ DC! Take our quick listener survey here: tinyurl.com/thepodcastatdc. Transcript: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YLJSjZFgIGNeOLyLoqcaKc7yN_HNfTcb/view?usp=sharing Music from filmmusic.io "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) License: CC BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Jenny Schuetz: Who's To Blame for High Housing Costs?

The Strong Towns Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 24, 2020 48:25

The affordable housing crisis is affecting not just people in coastal cities like Boston, New York, San Francisco, L.A., Seattle, and Portland. The crisis is spreading geographically and rippling throughout the economy. In the midst of such a crisis, it’s natural to want to assign blame; it’s also natural to look for a silver bullet solution. But is that even possible with a phenomenon as massive (and massively complex) as the housing crisis? Is development a rigged game, open only to the largest and best-connected firms? To help us get some answers we talked to Jenny Schuetz, a fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at The Brookings Institution. Schuetz is an expert in urban economics and housing policy, with a focus on housing affordability. In this episode of the Strong Towns podcast, Strong Towns president Chuck Marohn talks with Schuetz about her recent article on the factors driving up housing costs. She and Chuck discuss the role of uncertainty—both “time uncertainty” and “success uncertainty”— in the soaring cost of homes, why only the biggest developers can afford to build in some major metros, and why local housing discussions often pit the homeowner class against the renter class. They also discuss what city officials and local advocates can do to loosen the housing market in their places—including allowing the next increment of growth by right, similar to the recent change in Minneapolis. This is a masterclass on the housing crisis from one of the nation’s foremost experts. Additional Show Notes: Read Jenny Schuetz’s article: “Who’s to blame for high housing costs? It’s more complicated than you think.” Follow her on Twitter: @jenny_schuetz Jenny Schuetz at The Brookings Institution Subscribe to the Brookings Metro Newsletter Recent Housing Articles from Strong Towns “Why Are Developers Only Building Luxury Housing?” The 5 Immutable Laws of Affordable Housing 8 Things Your Town Can Do to Add More Housing (Without Spending a Dime) Can We Afford to Care About Design in a Housing Crisis? We Used to Just Call These Houses

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The presidential candidates' housing plans, with Jenny Schuetz

Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 17, 2020 46:09

Which presidential candidate's housing plan will do the most for you, dear California voter? On this episode of Gimme Shelter, Matt and Liam breakdown the housing proposals of the major remaining presidential candidates and discuss how eerily the policies resemble many California proposals. First an Avocado of the Fortnight compares Detroit and San Francisco real estate (2;10). Then a breakdown of the Trump administration's approach to housing (5:10). Liam and Matt then present the "Gimmie" awards to various Democratic presidential candidates' housing plans (11:00). Finally, an interview with Jenny Schuetz, a fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institute on the role of federal policy in California's housing crisis (23:30). Special thanks to our producer/intern, Jakob Lazzaro

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Challenges and opportunities for Africa’s next decade