Land Matters

City planners are emerging from behind the scenes to help address some of society’s most complex challenges, including building equity and fighting racism. This summer a coalition of planners came together to acknowledge past discrimination in urban development policies and commit to becoming “change agents” to help create more racially equitable communities. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/articles/2021-10-land-matters-addressing-structural-racism-urban-planning

In this summer of 2021, land is being ravaged. Wildfires burn in the western U.S., Canada and elsewhere, and the Amazon rainforest has been scorched so much for ranching and agriculture it now emits more carbon than it absorbs. Land conservation veteran Jim Levitt explains the central role of land, land management, and land conservation in confronting climate change, now and in the future.

Mayor Frank Jackson is happy about the myriad efforts to revitalize Cleveland – from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to the University Circle cultural center and the recent “innovation hub” activity in tech and life sciences. But as he finishes out his fourth and final term, Jackson says that the city’s ultimate success should be defined by one standard only – whether future regeneration is equitable for all. For links and resources, please visit our show notes at https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/podcasts-videos

Home to global tech companies and a record number of millionaires, Cambridge, Massachusetts has been trying to make the city more accessible for all. Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui talks about recent strategies, including an innovative affordable housing overlay that awards extra height and density and includes a streamlined permitting process for below market-rate residential projects. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/series/land-lines-magazine

As the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy marks its 75th anniversary, Board Chair Kathryn J. Lincoln and President George W. “Mac” McCarthy reflect on the past, present, and future of an organization that recognizes the central role of land in solving some of the world’s greatest challenges, from confronting climate change to making global cities better places for all.

Rising rents are straining family budgets now more than ever, says NYU professor Ingrid Gould Ellen, co-author of the Lincoln Institute report “Through the Roof” – and the pandemic has both revealed and exacerbated the affordability crisis. Local governments should establish comprehensive plans to create more housing, she says, but action at the state and federal level will help as well.

In the first of the year’s shows marking the 75th anniversary of the Lincoln Institute, environmentalist and author Bill McKibben breaks down the actions of the incoming Biden administration to confront the climate crisis, from rejoining the Paris accord to halting the Keystone XL pipeline. Land use and land policy, he says, are critical components as the planet readies for inevitable impacts such as rising seas, which is expected to trigger massive migration.

As the world prepares to bid farewell to 2020, taking stock of an unprecedented year involves both understanding the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic and looking ahead to what the future may hold. New York Times reporter Emily Badger and author Diana Lind reflect on the prospects for cities, housing, and transportation in the times ahead.

Recently reelected Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego reflects on a supercharged election season – and how, among other changes, Phoenix is becoming a more sustainable, and more urban, place. The nation’s fifth-largest metropolis is battling COVID, stepping up measures to conserve water, and providing new housing and transit options for its growing population.

With revenues down and pandemic-related expenditures up, state and local governments are facing a fiscal meltdown this fall and beyond. Experts from the Lincoln Institute talk about the options, including layoffs and cuts in services, and explain how leaving cities and states to struggle on their own might actually worsen a recession.

To make sense of the current discussion of affordable housing in cities or in suburbs, it is necessary to understand the history of discrimination that has been part and parcel of US housing policy and programs, says Lisa Rice, president of the National Fair Housing Alliance.

The coronavirus pandemic and growing outrage about racial injustice have underscored the centrality of healthy, well-located, and affordable housing in society. Author Kim Vermeer and smart growth advocate Andre Leroux assess efforts to create more housing options to address longstanding economic and racial disparities.

For Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, the coronavirus crisis began in earnest when California Governor Gavin Newsom asked to allow sick passengers to disembark from the Crown Princess cruise ship, in the West Oakland port area. And life as mayor of this Bay Area city of 435,000 has not been the same since. Schaaf oversaw a successful lockdown, placed the homeless in vacant hotel rooms, and closed sections of streets to vehicular traffic to encourage biking and walking. Now she is focused on making Oakland more sustainable and equitable than before the pandemic struck.

The coronavirus pandemic has utterly changed virtually all aspects of urban life, both now and for the foreseeable future. Cities like Detroit – before the crisis, arguably on the brink of a rebound -- now must make a wide range of adjustments in programs and initiatives in their quest for equitable regeneration. The long recovery ahead will move from near-term responses to a more holistic re-imagining of how communities function, according to two leaders at the Lincoln Institute’s Center for Community Investment.

Financing urban infrastructure and promoting decent, affordable housing were both big topics at the United Nations global cities summit, the World Urban Forum, recently held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Architect and urban planner Claudio Acioly helps explain the worldwide effort to improve conditions in fast-growing cities in the developing world, where one of four people live in slums.

The new year is a time to set goals for the future. But what happens when an entire planet tries to make a common pledge? Economist and Lincoln Institute President George W. “Mac” McCarthy takes stock of an impressive roster of global agreements, from the ozone-repairing Montreal Protocol to the Paris climate accord and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in the spotlight at the World Urban Forum 10 in Abu Dhabi.

A classic post-industrial city on the brink of bankruptcy, Hartford, Connecticut has overhauled its zoning and turned abandoned factories into craft breweries and makers spaces. Can the city be just as creative in replacing a crumbling 1960s-era highway through downtown? Planning commissioner Sara Bronin talks about the cutting-edge urban planning practices she hopes will put the city back on the map.

Cities around the world are hard at work on traffic congestion. Boston has established multi-modal street layouts and special drop-off zones for Uber and Lyft in high-volume areas such as around Fenway Park, for example. But the task is about to get more complex, with the advent of driverless vehicles, delivery robots, and AI-enabled trackless trams -- all of which will require a more wholesale transformation of the cityscape. In this episode, the Lincoln Institute’s Heather Hannon explains how the emerging practice of scenario planning can help design the future city.

Climate change can seem like an insurmountable challenge. But many tools and policies to decarbonize the economy and build resilience are readily available, says Billy Fleming, director of The McHarg Center and one of the editors of the new Lincoln Institute book Design with Nature Now. The green and blue infrastructure systems detailed in the book are proven solutions that need only be implemented on a larger scale – in a national mobilization similar to preparing for war or sending a man to the moon.

Minneapolis may seem like an unlikely place for the start of a revolution. But as City Councilor Lisa Bender explains, the Midwestern city has passed some of the most progressive housing policies and zoning reforms in the country. The measures, including banning single-family-only zoning, are based on one important idea: that when local government changes the rules of the game to allow more building, the public should get something back in the form of more affordability.