» Monthly Archives: January 2008
Political Ignorance and Post-Kelo Eminent Domain Reform
When the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of condemnations for "economic development" in Kelo v. City of New London, it ignited a firestorm of political outrage greater than any other Supreme Court decision in decades.
Yet, post-Kelo eminent domain reform is ineffective, and public ignorance can make it easy for politicians to pass off cosmetic ...
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LA urban blight, enlightened developer, towering ambitions
Take a sprawling site of low-rise Depression-era apartments in Los Angeles, add a Miami investment firm that wants to do a complete overhaul of the 1,200 existing units with 4,400 condos, rentals and retail, and you have a towering ambition for urban blight.
The undertaking by Fifteen Group aims to quadruple the 1930s Wyvernwood site ...
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Public Distrust of Development in U.S. Grows; First Time in Two Years
Winter 2008 Land Development THE NATIONWIDE THEME OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC SEEMS TO BE: NO NEW DEVELOPMENT, ACCORDING TO THE LATEST DATA FROM THE SAINT CONSULTING COMPANY. Our firm's latest Saint Index© found that 78 percent of Americans believe new development should not occur in their hometowns—which is up 5 points from the 2006 ...
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Are malls are dying — impact on retail planning and how people live
Shopping malls, according to recent stories in USA Today and the Baltimore Sun, are closing, dying or evolving into a new form of open-air shopping. Britain's Economist adds that as malls spring up around the world, "they are dying in the country that pioneered them."
The Economist reports an ethnic shift that as suburbs become more ...
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Reston homeowners want town status to save crumbling legacy
The "smart growth" dream of Reston, Va. was founded 45 years ago to blend city and suburban strengths in a new community development with open space and urban convenience. But land use politics means, in part, being able to pressure local elected officials to influence development decisions. Some of the 60,000 Restonians, who say their ...
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Land-use power eludes LA’s local panels
The city of Los Angeles' experiment in grass-roots democracy -- its system of far-flung neighborhood councils -- is by many accounts at a crossroads nearly a decade after its birth, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Although some of the 89 locally elected councils can point to worthy community projects and slick websites, others have been branded ...
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St Paul blocks waterfront project — a tale of what can go wrong
As manufacturing declined across the country, cities from Baltimore to San Francisco have reclaimed waterfronts for recreation and development. But in St Paul, along the Mississippi River, an unusual situation has emerged, according to The New York Times.
A well-known local developer, proposing the largest project in St. Paul’s history, has been prevented by the ...
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