Cleveland's EcoVillage: Green and affordable housing through a network alliance
January 1, 2011|Urban Planning and Environmental Studies, Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
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Abstract
This article presents a case study of the inter-organizational network that formed to produce four housing projects in Cleveland's EcoVillage designed to integrate social equity and ecological stewardship as the basis for neighborhood redevelopment. Our paper builds on concepts of community development and housing production through inter-organizational networks spanning nonprofit, public, and private organizations that developed and supported four green and affordable housing projects. We are interested in understanding how development of the housing projects changed and connected traditional neighborhood development and ecologically-oriented organizations and how their interaction changed the practice of housing production and environmental and sustainability advocacy locally and regionally. The results of the study reveal that the marriage of green and affordable housing in Cleveland, despite some challenges, was viewed as important and beneficial by the organizations…
Maintaining Diversity In America’s Transit-Rich Neighborhoods: Tools for Equitable Neighborhood Change
October 1, 2010|Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy
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More than 3,000 transit-rich neighborhoods (TRNs) in U.S. metropolitan areas have fixed-guideway transit stations and hundreds more such neighborhoods could be created over the next decade if current plans for new transit systems and stations are realized. Americans are increasingly using transit and showing more interest in living in transit-rich neighborhoods. For neighborhood and equity advocates from Atlanta to Seattle and Minneapolis to Houston, however, this good news is tempered by a growing concern about gentrification and displacement. Will current neighborhood residents, many of them low income and/or people of color, benefit from planned transit stations? Or will they be displaced by wealthier and less diverse residents lured not only by transit but also by the other amenities that come with transit-induced neighborhood revitalization?
The ARC Effect: How Better Transit Boosts Home Values And Local Economies
July 4, 2010|Regional Plan Association
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Executive Summary
A statistical analysis of the effect of three recent improvements to NJ TRANSIT’s rail system on home values predicts that ARC – a new commuter rail tunnel to Midtown Manhattan – could add a cumulative $18 billion to home values within two miles of NJ TRANSIT and Metro-North Port Jervis and Pascack Valley train stations. This, of course, is just one of ARC’s several long-term economic benefits, which also include an overall increase in the region’s economy, new jobs on both sides of the Hudson, higher personal incomes, higher commercial property values, and reductions in driving and air pollution.
Hedonic price modeling of 45,000 home sales within two miles of train stations shows that three improvements to the NJ TRANSIT rail system – Midtown Direct Service on the Morris & Essex Line, the Montclair Connection for the Montclair-Boonton Line and Secaucus Junction for the Pascack Valley and Main/ Bergen/Port Jervis Lines – increased the value of…
Putting Schools on the Map: Linking Transit-Oriented Development, Families, and Schools in the San Francisco Bay Area
June 1, 2010|The Center for Cities & Schools
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The report begins by describing “Ten Core Connections” among TOD, families, and schools relevant to creating complete communities and ensuring ensure high quality educational opportunities for all children. We then describe the unique demographic and policy context in which schools and school districts operate in California. From there, we present and analyze the experiences from five Bay Area TOD planning processes. These case studies illustrate a range of issues and represent different points in a planning and development time frame. Combined with our years of research in the region, these exploratory case studies guided our development of the “Ten Core Connections” between TOD and education, and informed the findings that conclude the paper.
The Effect of Gasoline Prices on Household Location
June 1, 2010|Federal Reserve Board Finance and Economics Discussion Series
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Gasoline prices influence where households decide to locate by changing the cost of commuting. Consequently, the substantial increase in gas prices since 2003 may have reduced the demand for housing in areas far from employment centers, leading to a decrease in the price and/or quantity of housing in those locations relative to locations closer to jobs. Using annual panel data on ZIP codes and municipalities in a large number of metropolitan areas of the United States from 1981 to 2008, we find that a 10 percent increase in gas prices leads to a 10 percent decrease in construction after 4 years in locations with a long average commute relative to locations closer to jobs, but to no significant change in house prices. Thus, the supply response may prevent the change in housing demand from capitalizing in house prices. Because housing is durable, the resulting change in construction has a long-lived impact on the spatial distribution of housing units.
The Economic Impact of Low Income Housing Tax Credit Development Along Transit Corridors in Metro Denver: Income, Jobs, and Taxes Generated
June 1, 2010|Housing Policy Department, National Association of Home Builders
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This report presents estimates of the metro area impacts of new units built using the housing tax credit during the six-year period starting in 2004 and running through 2009, in the five- county area (Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson) in the Denver metropolitan area. The comprehensive nature of the NAHB model requires that the local area over which the benefits are spread be large enough to include the places where construction workers live and spend their money, as well as the places where the new home occupants are likely to work, shop, and go for recreation. In practice, this usually means a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Based on local commuting patterns, OMB has identified the Denver MSA as a metro area consisting of the five counties mentioned above, plus five others (Broomfield, Clear Creek, Elbert, Gilpin, and Park) in Colorado (see map on the following page).
Choosing Where We Live: Attracting Residents to Transit-Oriented Neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area
April 4, 2010|Metropolitan Transportation Commission
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This briefing book summarizes the results of a yearlong study that examined what attracts home-seekers to transit-oriented development (TOD) in the San Francisco Bay Area, and how to improve TODs to better attract these groups.
ABSTRACT: Reexamining The Influence Of Work And Nonwork Accessibility On Residential Location Choices With A Microanalytic Framework
April 3, 2010
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Abstract
The concept of accessibility has long been theorized as a principal determinant of residential choice behavior. Research on this influence is extensive but the empirical results have been mixed, with some research suggesting that accessibility is becoming a relatively insignificant influence on housing choices. Further, the measurement of accessibility must contend with complications arising from the increasing prevalence of trip chains, nonwork activities, and multiworker households, and also reconcile person-specific travel needs with household residential decisions. With this paper we contribute to the literature by addressing the gap framed by these issues and present a novel residential choice model with three main elements of innovation. First, we operationalize a time – space prism (TSP) accessibility measure, which we believe to be the first application of its kind in a residential choice model. Second, we represent the choice sets in a building-level…
Penny Wise Pound Fuelish: New Measures Of Housing + Transportation Affordability
April 2, 2010
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Executive Summary
Penny Wise, Pound Fuelish serves as a guide to CNT’s H+T Index (www.htaindex.org), which includes 337 U.S. metropolitan regions. The Index demonstrates that the way in which urban regions have grown in the last half century has had negative consequences for many Americans:
The number of communities considered affordable drops dramatically in most regions when the definition of affordability shifts from a focus on housing costs alone to one that includes housing and transportation costs;
Families who pursue a “drive ‘til you qualify” approach to home ownership in an effort to reduce expenses often pay more in higher transportation costs than they save on housing thereby placing more, not less, stress on their budgets;
Residents of “drive ‘til you qualify” zones are most sensitive to jumps in gas prices because of the distances they must drive; and
The longer distances associated with sprawl also translate into more congestion on our highways, less…
Making Affordable Housing at Transit a Reality: Best Practices in Transit Agency Joint Development
April 2, 2010
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Key Findings
FRESC: Good Jobs, Strong Communities and Enterprise researched transit agency approaches to affordability in joint development in 24 cities in the U.S., and this report summarizes the best practices and outcomes among these agencies.
Transit agencies’ primary mission is to provide transit service; however, most recognize that affordable housing can play a key role in supporting their mission. Many agencies have written policies or plans on affordability that guide their joint development activity while others do not have written policies but achieve joint development with affordable housing in practice based on strong agency and community expectations. Successful transit agencies do not substitute for the role of the local government in creating affordable housing but can play a critical complementary role, often initiating projects that include affordable housing that would not have otherwise been possible.
At least nine transit agencies have joint development…
