Housing and the Pitfalls of Public Meetings
Wilson’s principle is being tested right now in Seattle, where Mayor Bruce Harrell has proposed an update to the city’s Comprehensive Plan that, among other things, would create as many as 30 “neighborhood centers,” a new zoning type that would allow multifamily housing in areas with a concentration of single-family homes.
Few Mayors Connect the Dots Between Zoning and Homelessness
Last January the Boston University Initiative on Cities, drawing on data from the 2021 Menino Survey of Mayors, reported that only 1 in 5 mayors felt they had more than “moderate” control over homelessness in their cities. Six in 10 pointed to limited funding as the biggest barrier, and close to 7 in 10 had the view that zoning was a barrier of little or no consequence, despite the impact of zoning codes on housing development.
Mayors Face a Reckoning With Racial Wealth Gaps
A national survey of 126 mayors of cities with more than 75,000 residents found that two out of three are concerned “a great deal” or “a lot” about the racial wealth gap in their communities. This concern was shared by twice as many mayors in large cities as in smaller ones; surprisingly, more mayors (52 percent) of cities where housing costs are low had stronger concerns than those in cities with high cost of living (32 percent).
Can Tech Help Turn the Tide on California’s Housing Problem?
“I think a lot of software companies are trying to think about ways to restructure these conversations,” says Katherine Levine Einstein, professor of political science at Boston University. “It helps solve a really fundamental problem at public meetings, which is that you’re presenting a project and asking people if they like it or not — which essentially invites nitpicking.”