Neighborhood Defenders
by Katherine Levine Einstein · first published 2019
13mentions
4recommended by
5HN commenters
2020–2025first – last mentioned
80% recommend20% neutral
"On October 18, 2016, the Cambridge Massachusetts Planning Board met, as they do every two weeks, to consider applications for new residential and commercial developments. Among other proposals, they examined an application from a developer who sought to convert a commercial warehouse on Regent Street into four residential units"--
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…of how systemic racism in government has been used to further single-use suburban planning: Segregation by Design by Jessica Trounstine https://urbanaffairsreview.com/2019/06/24/segregation-by-des... Neighborhood Defenders by Einstein, Glick, and Palmer https://www.politicsofhousing.com/neighborhood_defenders/ A World More Concrete: Real Estate and the Remaking of Jim Crow in South Florida by NDB Connolly https://history.jhu.edu/2014/02/19/a-world-more-concrete-rea...…
on “Put tiny businesses back into residential neighborhoods” ↗I would recommend looking into Katherine Levine Einstein's research on the concept of "Neighborhood Defenders".
on “Goodbye, New York, California and Illinois – Hello where?” ↗This is a great read for anyone who wants to learn more about how we got here: https://www.amazon.com/Neighborhood-Defenders-Participatory-... Katherine Levine Einstein was on The Weeds podcast a few weeks ago and gave a really good summary of her findings. She doesn't have an answer, but it at least frames the situation in…
on “California's housing bill SB 50 has died in the state Senate” ↗Three books that dive into the problems of our "local control" system, including how it can be anti-democratic: Neighborhood Defenders by Katherine Einstein et al Segregation By Design by Jessica Trounstine (recently won a planning book of the year award) And though it's not about loca control, as much, The Color of Law by Richard…
on “Redfin: Vacation real-estate ‘toast’ as Airbnb owners rush to offload homes” ↗…resources can be heard and have influence in the system, further cementing economic privilege rather than making it more equitable or democratic. For recent academic investigations of this, check out the book Neighborhood Defenders by Katherine Einstein et al: https://www.politicsofhousing.com/neighborhood_defenders/
on “San Francisco is spending $1.7M on one public toilet” ↗…homes in high demand areas. It has little if anything to do with capitalism. The main supporters of restrictive zoning are homeowners who oppose new homes in their neighborhoods. See Katherine Einstein, “Neighborhood Defenders’. http://tinyurl.com/mr394vbe House scarcity is a result of too little capitalism, not too much.
on “Emergence of stone-tool use behavior in a population of common macaques” ↗…too much traffic, too much noise, a burden on the school system, the wrong sort of people, blah, blah, blah… it never ends. These people simply don’t want new homes near them. See Katherine Einstein’s “Neighborhood Defenders” to get an overview of this phenomena. As I said, your focus on aesthetics is a distraction. The road forward is either to appeal to the personal economic interests of the three groups I mentioned, or…
on “Short-term rentals are hollowing out communities with loose restrictions” ↗I don’t know what YIMBYs like to cast people who oppose housing. I am pointing out an effect of the lack of new housing. I reccommend you read, if you haven’t already, Katherine Einstein’s book ‘Neighborhood Defenders.’ It accurately describes the housing politics in Massachusetts. Any housing analysis is incomplete without taking into the geographical effect: The only people who care strongly one way or the other…
on “The housing theory of everything (2021)” ↗…you see only the people who want to stop something at the hearings and all it really takes are a hand-full. The rest of the residents are impartial or just too busy to care. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Neighborhood-Defenders-Participatory-... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Gates-Fighting-Housing-America...
on “Homelessness rises faster where rent exceeds a third of income (2018)” ↗https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/voxs-the-weeds/e/66321406 Boston University's Katherine Levine Einstein explains the dysfunctional politics behind America's housing crisis. https://www.amazon.com/Neighborhood-Defenders-Participatory-... "Since the collapse of the housing market in 2008, demand for housing has consistently outpaced supply in many US communities. The failure to construct sufficient housing - especially…
on “California's housing bill SB 50 has died in the state Senate” ↗…people who vote in local primaries and show up to community meetings are older and wealthier than their neighbors and don't want to see anything change. Here's a book about it: https://www.amazon.com/Neighborhood-Defenders-Participatory-...
on “Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes” ↗https://www.amazon.com/Neighborhood-Defenders-Participatory-...
on “Goodbye, New York, California and Illinois – Hello where?” ↗https://www.amazon.com/Neighborhood-Defenders-Participatory-...
on “Goodbye, New York, California and Illinois – Hello where?” ↗