Posts by Alan Mallach
Can Youngstown Make It On Its Own?
Originally posted on the National Housing Institute’s Rooflines blog Youngstown is a small city in the hills of northeast Ohio, once famous for steelmaking; and sadly, if famous for anything today, for economic distress and population loss. From a peak population of about 175, 000, it’s down today to maybe 65,000. In any event, last…
Read MoreThe March of the Millennial Generation to the Cities is Real
Originally posted on the National Housing Institute’s Rooflines blog This past fall, the Washington Post ran a series called “The March of the Millennials” about how this generation is changing Washington D.C. For those of you who have been out of the loop for the last few years, ‘millennials’ or the ‘millennial generation’ is what people are…
Read MoreThe Housing Recovery: Now You See It, Now You Don’t
Originally posted on the National Housing Institute’s Rooflines blog The housing market is coming back. Finally, after listening to false hopes and promises for the last few years, it may really be happening. New construction starts, existing house sales, and house prices have all been inching up steadily for long enough that it can actually…
Read MoreCan we demolish our way to revitalization?
Originally posted on the National Housing Institute’s Rooflines blog While the answer to that question in the title of this piece is obvious, there’s a strong case to be made that a lot of the buildings that make up America’s older cities may have to go, if these cities are to find a path to…
Read MoreThe feds bow out: We’re on our own
Originally posted on the National Housing Institute’s Rooflines blog Yes, the federal government is back in business. After 16 days and untold billions in lost earnings and wasted dollars, the Republican extortionists more or less threw in the towel, released their hostages on temporary parole until February, and snuffled back to their hiding places, bloodied,…
Read MoreProperty tax madness: Another part of the Detroit puzzle
There are many reasons that Detroit has filed for bankruptcy, and some have already been explored by others on Rooflines. Detroit’s problems have accumulated over decades, and are a paradigm of the trajectory of dozens of cities in the United States undone by suburbanization, flight to the Sunbelt, deindustrialization, and a political system that rewarded all three.…
Read MoreManufacturing may be coming back, but it won’t bring jobs
I finally got to see Detropia last week, the acclaimed documentary filmed in Detroit that’s been making the rounds of the film festivals and the indie houses. As someone who’s pretty deeply involved with Detroit, I’d been looking forward to seeing it. It turns out that it’s not really about that city at all. What Detropia’s filmmakers seem really to care…
Read MoreOp-Ed: ‘Demolition’ is not a bad word — Just keep it strategic
Cross-posted from Next City, this article is part of the 2013 Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference liveblog series. Check out all the in-depth content — even if you weren’t able to join us in Philadelphia from September 9-11, 2013, you’ll feel like you did! Vacant properties and otherwise blighted and deeply undervalued parcels are one of the key challenges…
Read MoreForget NSP, Tax Credits Will Save Neighborhoods by Alan Mallach, Senior Fellow, Center for Community Progress
Originally posted by Alan Mallach in the National Housing Institute’s Rooflines Blog, June 21, 2013. In my last two posts, I tried first to explain why NSP hasn’t revitalized many neighborhoods and why Project Rebuild won’t do any better; and second, to suggest some principles f or a program that actually might do a better…
Read MoreWhat Creating a Stable Neighborhood Really Means by Alan Mallach, Senior Fellow, Center for Community Progress
Originally posted by Alan Mallach in National Housing Institute’s Rooflines Blog, May 14, 2013. Community Progress Senior Fellow, Alan Mallach, discusses the basic principles of neighborhood stabilization and what actions cities should be taking to achieve it in Rooflines, the Shelterforce/National Housing Institute blog. Last month I wrote about why Project Rebuild is basically a…
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