Portland just passed the best low-density zoning reform in US history
Portland’s city council has set a new bar for North American housing reform by legalizing up to four homes on almost any residential lot. It’s the most pro-housing reform to low-density zones in US history. Portland’s new rules will also offer a “deeper affordability” option:…
Grassroots group eyes Belgrade on route to toppling Serbian President
A grassroots movement in the Serbian capital has its eye on 2022 local elections as the next turning point in a battle to bring down the country’s ruling Progressive Party and President Aleksandar Vucic. In power since 2012, the Progressives have been stung by an…
Reclaiming public health: the communalist healthcare model
While city and state government could do more to keep hospitals stable, by combining the latest practice and theory, we have the potential to develop a functional health system that serves the community and values healthcare workers. Yet this requires a reconstructive and radically democratic…
Why COVID-19 might not change our cities as much as we expect
COVID-19 impacts provide an opportunity for our cities to shift to new ways of urban living. But only if we couple this opportunity with technology and deliberate collective action will sustained and equitable change happen. What is imperative, therefore, is that governments similarly couple technology…
Barcelona’s latest affordable housing tool: Seize empty apartments
Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power to force the sale of empty properties. The city’s housing department wrote to a number companies that collectively own 194 empty apartments, warning that if they haven’t…
In historic move, North Carolina city approves reparations for black residents
In an extraordinary move, the Asheville City Council apologized for the North Carolina city’s historic role in slavery, discrimination and denial of basic liberties to Black residents and voted to provide reparations to them and their descendants. This resolution called on the city to create…
Tenants of five Minneapolis buildings now own their homes. Here’s how they did it
A group of five famílies, fed up with the state of their houses, the repairs not being done thought they should be their own landlords. This group, dubbed the Corcoran Five, not only have been a major part of winning a landmark $18.5 million class-action…
Interview with Ethan Earle about the Gilets Jaunes and French democracy
New focus of protest has clearly emerged in France in these past years—bringing together Nuit Debout and the Gilets Jaunes, hospital and health care workers, pensioners and trade unionists, climate justice activists, Black Lives Matter activists. This locus has the attention of Macron, and of…
After coronavirus, Lisbon is replacing some Airbnbs and turning holiday rentals into homes for key workers
Essential workers and their families have increasingly been forced out as Airbnb-style holiday rentals have taken over a third of Lisbon’s city centre properties, pushing up rental prices, hollowing out communities and threatening its unique character. Now the city wants to bring the people who…