Author: Marc Stier

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Learning from Jane Jacobs

  By Philadelphia, Urbanism, Zoning

Vern Anastasio is sponsoring another in a series of meetings on zoning and land use planning issues tonight at the Fleischer Art Memorial at 719 Catherine Street. I am still out of town so I won’t be able to make it. I had a family emergency in the middle of the first one and had to leave early. But it was interesting and useful. And, at one moment, it turned scary. The whole issue of zoning is quite complicated and I want to write about it at length. I very much think we need to reform the way we make land use decisions in the city. But I don’t want to see us go from a system that is already problematic to one that is disastrous. And this exactly what will happen if, as some folks suggested at the previous meeting, we return to the days when Philadelphia had an… Continue reading

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The case for inclusionary housing

  By Housing, Neighborhoods, Urbanism

Philadelphia Daily News (PA), June 19, 2006 RIDE UP AND down the streets of Philadelphia these days, and almost everywhere you’ll see housing construction and rehabilitation.  This is wonderful. It brings new people into the city. Creates jobs. And helps revive neighborhoods that for too long have been in decline. New development also has tremendous potential for ameliorating social problems. Poverty, to start with, means low wages and frequent unemployment. But that’s perhaps not the worst of it. Low wages and unemployment are made much worse when you live in a neighborhood that is declining commercially, that lacks city services, parks and recreation facilities; that suffers from housing deterioration; and that is constantly threatened by crime. Children there are cut off from mainstream economic and political life and have little hope for the future. New development offers a chance to create a city of economically, ethnically and racially diverse neighborhoods,… Continue reading

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Taking a break

  By About me

I will be out of town for the next two weeks so blogging may be less frequent than usual. This is, however, a working trip. We will be traveling to Cape Cod where I hope to explore ideas for how best to use waterfront properties. Perhaps I will come up with something better than casinos. I may also start posting some of the ideas I have saved up that have little to do with politics, such as the last post. Or, if after a week of R&R I have the energy to think about politics, maybe I will get back to some of the more general ideas about how to improve our political life that I was writing about two months ago. We shall see. At any rate, I just check the stats for my blog and I was surprised to find out that a thousand or fifteen hundred of… Continue reading

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Advice for young people: be careful what you listen to

  By Music

I am of the age where young people in their late teens and twenties, and especially my students at Temple, ask me for general advice about life. I can give plenty of advice, but most of it would take a long time to explain and I save it for articles and books I write. Here is the one piece of advice I can give quickly: choose the music you listen to when you are young—that is, when you are falling in the love for the first time—wisely because that is going to be the music that rocks you for the rest of your life. These days, the music I listen to is mostly jazz. I love the classics-Duke, Parker, Monk, Trane, Sonny, Ornette and, most of all, Miles. But I also spend time exploring new avant garde jazz made by people whose names are not widely known and who, in… Continue reading

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Saving the housing trust fund

  By Philadelphia

Last week I wrote here about the fight to save the Housing Trust Fund. I’ve meant to write about our success, but have been busy with preparing for the next round of Affordable Housing Issues. In case you haven’t seen the results: here is a brief recap. The Transfer Ordinance Passes First, the all important transfer ordinance, which is necessary to put Trust Fund money back into the account from which it can be spent on affordable housing projects, was unanimously voted out of committee. We expect it to be adopted this Thursday. The Other Bills Fail Second, Councilwoman Blackwell withdrew both her bill to divided Trust Fund resources equally among each of the ten council districts and her bill to kill the Trust Fund entirely. As we had suspected, these two bills were Councilwoman Blackwell’s way of creating a crisis atmosphere around housing issues, and allowing her to hold… Continue reading

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Coming attractions: inclusionary housing

  By Housing, Philadelphia, Social Justice

One of the most interesting ideas for neighborhood development is coming to Philadelphia—Inclusionary Housing. It is being brought to you by a new alliance, the Campaign for Housing Justice. You can be there for the premiere if you come to a Rally for Housing Justice Tomorrow, Thursday, June 14, 9:30 at the Clothespin (15th and Market). Inclusionary Housing is a policy that requires residential developers who are getting a tax break, zoning variance or other benefit from the government to provide affordable housing in return. Developers of large projects are required to set aside a certain percentage of their units for affordable housing. Developers of small projects are required to contribute to a fund for affordable housing, such as our Housing Trust Fund. (The policy is called inclusionary zoning in other places, but for reasons we don’t need to go into here, we have adopted another name in Philadelphia.) The… Continue reading

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Housing trust fund testimony 2: the power of Council

  By Housing, Philadelphia

This is the second part of my testimony on the Housing Trust Fund. During the course of the hearings Councilwoman Blackwell complained about how district Council members did not have enough control over housing project in their district. This issue will definitely come up again, as Councilwoman Blackwell has proposed an ordinance that would require the Trust Fund advisory board to report to Council as well as the Administration. This might not be a bad idea as the advisory committee does make recommendations about how Housing Trust Fund money should be distributed between, for example, new construction and the rehabilitation of existing housing units. As Councilwoman Tasco pointed out during I interchange I had with her in the hearing, this does seem to be a role for Council. However whether Council should approve each project is, I think, a different matter as I explain below. Continue reading

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Housing trust fund testimony 1: don't divide the fund

  By Housing, Philadelphia

This is the first part of my testimony before City Council on the Housing Trust Fund. My argument here is against Councilwoman Blackwell’s proposed ordinance to divide the Housing Trust Fund money equally among the ten council districts. While this idea died in committee, it may come back again. So I thought it might be a good idea to post it. Chairwoman Blackwell, Members of the Committee Thank you for giving me an opportunity to testify about this ordinance. Continue reading

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Why and how we should make voting easier

  By Elections and Voting, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Yesterday I joined a group of political activists who met with the leadership of the Committee of Seventy to urge the group to take the lead in pushing some new efforts to make it easier for people to vote. We hope a number of new initiatives will come out of our conversations, including greater efforts on the part of our city and state government and public and private businesses organizations like PGW, the Water Department, Comcast, and Verizon to inform citizens about when and how to register to vote and about when and where to vote. Continue reading

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Rally for the estate tax

  By Taxation

There will be a vote in the Senate on Thursday on the Estate Tax. As an excellent editorial in the Inquirer on Monday pointed out, ending the Estate Tax makes no sense. The Estate Tax only taxes a tiny proportion of people in this country. It takes a relatively small proportion of the estates of people until those estates get very large. It is an important source of federal revenue. And, one thing the Inquirer editorial did not point it, it is critical if we want to prevent a hereditary oligarchy—rule by the rich–from arising in the United States. (I know, sometimes it seems we have an oligarchy already. But a hereditary oligarchy would be worse.) Here is the plan, which I just got from Craig Kaufman and Jeff Garis of PA Action: Continue reading