Chicago’s new 606 park stirs gentrification fears

Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune - The 606 trail in Chicago is filled with people on opening day, June 6, 2015.

Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune – The 606 trail in Chicago is filled with people on opening day, June 6, 2015.

In an article about potential gentrification in neighborhoods along the newly opened 606 linear park, the Chicago Tribune quotes Lauren Nolan, economic development planner for CUPPA’s Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement. Nolan says that although rising property values are good for homeowners, only 35 percent of housing units are owner-occupied in Humboldt Park and Logan Square.

Gentrification has been occurring for years on Chicago’s Northwest Side, spreading along the Blue Line tracks toward Logan Square, said Lauren Nolan, economic development planner for the Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

While it’s difficult to determine The 606’s exact impact on that trend, Nolan said, “any kind of touted amenity” can drive up prices. And though rising property values can be good for those who own property, she said, only about 35 percent of units are owner-occupied in Logan Square and Humboldt Park.

That means renters make up about 65 percent, Nolan said, and they’re particularly vulnerable to being priced out.

Full Story from Chicago Tribune »

2015’s Safest States to Live In

WalletHub interviewed Kheir Al-Kodmany, professor of urban planning and policy, for its survey of the safest and least safe states in the U.S. in terms of workplace safety, emergency preparedness, home and community stability, road safety and financial security.

Al-Kodmany recommends discouraging street crime through mixed-use developments and pedestrian-friendly activities that encourage more “eyes on the street.”

Full Story from WalletHub »

Transforming Public Housing: 15 Years Later

WGN 9 interviewed Janet Smith, Voorhees Center co-director and associate professor of urban planning and policy, on the progress of the Chicago Housing Authority’s 15-year-old Plan for Transformation to relocate former tenants of public housing that was demolished. Smith says the plan didn’t include input from the residents or address their needs in relocation.

Smith speaks at 3:20 in the video clip.

Full Story from WGN 9 »

Boston Olympic bid draws fire over funding omissions

JESSICA RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF/FILE - Mayor Marty Walsh sought to tamp down the alarm Thursday, saying he would not allow the city to borrow money to build a stadium.

JESSICA RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF/FILE – Mayor Marty Walsh sought to tamp down the alarm Thursday, saying he would not allow the city to borrow money to build a stadium.

A Boston Globe story on that city’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics quotes Rachel Weber, GCI fellow and associate professor of urban planning and policy, on the risks to taxpayers if tax increment financing is used to fund infrastructure improvements.

The risk to taxpayers depends on how the deals are structured, said Rachel Weber, an associate professor of urban planning at the University of Illinois Chicago. Across the country, she said, there have been very few instances of default.

“If the project is generally successful and the property values in the area increase at the rate that was projected, these are not innately risky,” Weber said. But if the project falters or a recession hits, most municipal borrowing arrangements require the city or state to step in and pay down the debt, by shifting money from other parts of its budget or by raising taxes, Weber said.

Full Story from Boston Globe »

South Siders lobby for promises in writing as Obama library takes shape

WBEZ quotes Rachel Weber, GCI fellow and associate professor of urban planning and policy, on community benefit agreements such as the one South Siders seek for the Obama library. Weber defines a CBA as a binding agreement by a developer to implement specific community benefits as part of a large project. She says they are rare in Chicago, where the city government relies on tax increment financing for such benefits.

University of Illinois at Chicago professor Rachel Weber studies CBAs, which started in California.

“These were attempts to have community organizations often in a coalition negotiate a separate and legally binding agreement with the developer over some large-scale redevelopment project,” Weber said.

In exchange for certain provisions, community groups agree to get behind the project.

Full Story from WBEZ »

 

CAN TV Cablecast: Building Local Economies Through World Trade

Sunday, May 17th, 9:00 AM, CAN TV21
Tuesday, May 19th, 8:00 AM, CAN TV19
Wednesday, May 20th, 12:00 PM, CAN TV21

Maria Belen Loor, advisor to the Ecuadorian Minister of International Trade, discusses Ecuador’s alternative growth strategies. Her talk is followed by a discussion on the relationship between poverty, economic growth strategies, urban development, the environment and international trade at this event hosted by the UIC’s Great Cities Institute. This program was recorded by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

Categories:

CAN TV Cablecast: Building Local Economies Through World Trade

Sunday, May 17th, 9:00 AM, CAN TV21
Tuesday, May 19th, 8:00 AM, CAN TV19
Wednesday, May 20th, 12:00 PM, CAN TV21

Maria Belen Loor, advisor to the Ecuadorian Minister of International Trade, discusses Ecuador’s alternative growth strategies. Her talk is followed by a discussion on the relationship between poverty, economic growth strategies, urban development, the environment and international trade at this event hosted by the UIC’s Great Cities Institute. This program was recorded by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

Categories:

Why integrating America’s neighborhoods and cities is harder than we think

White homebuyers are reluctant to look past their preconceived notions of class. Photo by Marilyn Volan/Shutterstock

White homebuyers are reluctant to look past their preconceived notions of class. Photo by Marilyn Volan/Shutterstock

Several residential segregation and racial attitude studies by Maria Krysan, for GCI scholar and professor of sociology, are cited in a Slate.com article examining issues of race and neighborhood preferences.

The main vehicles for this finding are a series of experiments from Maria Krysan, a sociologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In more than a decade’s worth of studies, Krysan and her collaborators have looked at the relationships among neighborhood desirability, class, and race, drawing from surveys and interviews with whites, blacks, and other groups.

In one experiment Krysan and her researchers developed 13 videos showing five neighborhoods of different social class levels: lower working class, upper working class, blemished middle class, unblemished middle class, and upper middle class. Participants would infer the wealth and income of neighborhoods in the short videos by aesthetic qualities: the size of the lots, the conditions of the homes, and so on. A blemished middle-class neighborhood would have homes with overgrown yards and boarded-up garages, while an unblemished one would have neither.

Full Story from Slate »

CAN TV Cablecast: Building Local Economies Through World Trade

Sunday, May 17th, 9:00 AM, CAN TV21
Tuesday, May 19th, 8:00 AM, CAN TV19
Wednesday, May 20th, 12:00 PM, CAN TV21

Maria Belen Loor, advisor to the Ecuadorian Minister of International Trade, discusses Ecuador’s alternative growth strategies. Her talk is followed by a discussion on the relationship between poverty, economic growth strategies, urban development, the environment and international trade at this event hosted by the UIC’s Great Cities Institute. This program was recorded by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

Categories:

Building Local Economies Through World Trade

Maria Belen Loor, advisor to the Ecuadorian Minister of International Trade, discusses Ecuador’s alternative growth strategies. Her talk is followed by a discussion on the relationship between poverty, economic growth strategies, urban development, the environment and international trade at this event hosted by the UIC’s Great Cities Institute. This program was recorded by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).