• How to sell missing middle housing to neighbors

    In order to build a 'Missing Middle' development, a rezoning and/or a variance is typically required—which means the project must be sold to the neighborhood. This is what we have learned on how to do that.
    We spend a lot of time talking about Missing Middle Housing and its critical role in developing healthy and inclusive neighborhoods. Discussing the theory and design behind Missing Middle Housing is essential, but we also need to consider the hands-on process of making these projects real. One...Read more

  • Zoning reform is national priority, White House says

    Administration calls for local laws to allow accessory dwelling units and denser development and eliminate off-street parking requirements, among other changes.
    The Obama Administration is calling on cities and towns to reform land-use regulations to allow denser development by right while recommending actions that new urbanists have long supported. The administration released a “ toolkit ” on housing development that recommends eliminating off-street...Read more

  • The invasion of the schlub

    As techies transform the city—the city will transform them. It's part of the historical process that makes the continuous city a living organism.
    Surely there is no language other than Yiddish that has such a nuanced vocabulary to denote the many and varied forms of repulsive male humans: nebbish, nudnyik, putz, schlmazel, schlemiel, schlub, schmo, schmendrik, schmuck, schlump, schnook, schtunk. For some reason, members of the female gender...Read more

  • Ten years of marvelous Porchfest

    "Porches become stages, yards become venues, and radical generosity and good will rule the day."
    A couple recently went looking for a house in Ithaca, New York. When the real estate agent took them to Fall Creek, a 40-plus-block area north of downtown, she exclaimed "This is the Porchfest neighborhood!" while pointing out hand-painted signs in front of houses up and down the streets. What...Read more