Affordable housing

How Building Expensive New Housing Actually Helps Create More Affordable Cities

Applying the term “housing crisis” to the fact that people increasingly cannot afford to live in many American cities makes it seem like a vast, unfixable problem. But the solution is actually easy: Build more housing. A lot more housing. As soon as possible. But what kind of housing? Several new studies point to a…

Airbnb Finally Admits to Purging Listings to Make It Look Less Commercialized

After being accused of tweaking data to make it seem like a larger percentage of its New York City hosts were innocently renting out their personal homes, Airbnb admitted yesterday that it did indeed remove “roughly 1,500” listings from its site before making the information public. In a letter to the New York State Assembly…

Can These Micro-Units Fix New York City’s Housing Problems?

Micro-unit developments—new apartments that are 400 square feet or smaller—are sprouting up all over the country as cities try to cram more housing into their neighborhoods. New York City’s first micro-unit development opened this month and it’s controversial—even in a city where people already pay top dollar to live in tiny apartments. We recently took…

These Infographics Use Objects on City Streets to Show Urban Statistics

There’s been no shortage of street art trying to make a point about the inequality of cities. But here’s a clever idea that not only illustrates some horrifying facts, it also gives some real-world context that’s impossible to ignore: These infographics have been wheatpasted onto actual urban infrastructure right out on the streets. Street Graphs…

San Francisco’s Plan to Turn Stadium Parking Into Affordable Housing

The affordable housing crisis in San Francisco has reached a fever pitch, with even George Lucas helping out. Here’s another smart solution that chips away at the problem: Swapping a parking lot with a new neighborhood, courtesy of one of the city’s most influential landowners, the San Francisco Giants. Right now, the swath of bayfront…

George Lucas Wants To Build Affordable Housing on His Skywalker Ranch

Having safely outsourced the Star Wars franchise, George Lucas can focus on his real estate projects. He’s got his museum in Chicago, and now, an affordable housing project proposed for his own Skywalker Ranch. Those who can’t afford San Francisco could live just over the Golden Gate Bridge in what’s otherwise one of the priciest…

How I Learned to Love Supertalls (And Why You Should Too)

The New York skyline is defined by two things: height and change. While Manhattan’s new buildings have always tended towards tall, the current wave of projects pushing the city back to the top of the global totem pole are “supertalls”: skyscrapers standing over 1,000 feet. This is a good thing. Supertall technology allows humans to…

Examining rap lyrics to measure quality of life in Compton. An ambitious housing plan from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. How Boston is changing thanks to one architecture firm. Why Atlanta is putting all its money on the BeltLine. Plus, Bike Month! All in this week’s Urban Reads! Why does all the rap and…

This Simple Change to New York City Zoning Could Help the City Grow Even Taller

Air rights—the ability to sell the invisible real estate hovering above your property—have become a big New York City issue in recent years as property values have skyrocketed. A new report recommends easing the city’s archaic restrictions to spur positive growth—including building more affordable housing. “Unlocking the Right To Build” is authored by NYU’s Furman…

An emerging maker culture building Cincinnati, a “Green Line” making a Mexican city healthier, and a car-free festival changing L.A.—all that, plus preserving post offices in an age of email and three plans to save San Francisco from a housing crisis, in this week’s Urban Reads. “In America, nearly every city and town has, or…

7 Smart New Affordable Housing Projects Making Cities Stronger

The looming affordable housing crisis will likely be the biggest issue facing our cities in 2014. A convergence of cataclysmic real estate prices, a development slowdown, and a weak job market are squeezing low-income residents out of urban areas. But all is not dire: I found seven new projects that are bright spots in the…

Here Is NYC’s Most Gigantic Affordable Housing Project Since the 1960s

In a week defined by a powerful story about poverty and homelessness in New York, a bit of a bright spot: The City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development chose a scheme for a truly massive affordable housing development in Queens—all told, the development it’s part of will add a whopping 5,000 units to the…