• Urban planning can’t happen without black people in the room—Yet it does

    Note: Charles Ellison spoke at CNU 25 in Seattle as part of a panel on Combating the Suburbanization of Poverty. Sit at the tables where people are deciding where the new high school will go, or whether to expand the bus depot, and you’ll probably need to ask, “Where are all the people of color?”...Read more

  • The urban anxieties of Richard Florida

    Grass-roots revitalization is taking place in many American cities, an antidote to the "winner takes all urbanism" described in The New Urban Crisis.
    When Richard Florida burst onto the North American scene nearly 20 years ago, he did so with a sunny urban vision. His breakthrough book, The Rise of the Creative Class , asserted that a growing class of knowledge workers, techies, artists, and other creative people was gravitating toward city...Read more

  • Transforming a ‘barracks’ into a neighborhood

    Connecting housing by using a neighborhood pattern improves the lives of moderate-income residents.
    Born as a public housing tract on Milwaukee’s northwest side, Westlawn Gardens was originally developed in the 1950s to provide affordable dwellings for families. Referred to as “barracks housing,” the site’s buildings were inefficient, undersized for many families in need, and isolated residents...Read more

  • Old buildings are made for you and me

    From California to the New York Islands—more business activity, affordability, and diversity can be found in neighborhoods with a range of old and new buildings.
    In a historic assets study of unprecedented scale, the National Trust for Historic Preservation looked at 50 cities in the US, examining more than 10 million buildings of all ages. Old buildings, and a diversity of scale and ages of buildings in a neighborhood, translate to more jobs and affordable...Read more