Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons^™

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Maximize “West End Opportunity” In America: Alternative Policy Options To Address Perceived Drawbacks Of Tax Increment Financing (Tif) & Opportunity Zones, Justin Avert, Samuel C Kessler

Commonwealth Policy Papers

In March 2021, the Kentucky General Assembly passed House Bill 321 (Acts Chapter 203) authorizing the creation of a tax increment finance (TIF) district within the West End of Louisville. Designed to spur community-wide economic development, it set up a public-private nonprofit partnership. Known as the West End Opportunity Partnership (WEOP), this 21-seat board include community representatives and has sole control over any fund disbursement. Funds can be used towards a broad array of investments including small business loans, financing affordable housing units, home improvements, etc.

Residents within the district have expressed opposition to the TIF, skepticism towards the board …

An Empirical Exploration Of Southeast Asian American Residential Patterns In The San Francisco Bay Area (2000–2019), Minh Q. Nguyen

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This paper explores three methods of reporting residential patterns: (1) concentration profiles, (2) density maps, and (3) proximity profiles. I analyze U.S. Census data to map and evaluate the residential patterns for Southeast Asian Americans in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. Drawing from the field of urban planning, I report two measures of segregation and concentration (a) dissimilarity indices and (b) spatial proximity indices, and I discuss their limitations. Since mapping and spatial statistics are essential to understanding the histories, development, and advancement of Southeast Asian American communities, it is important to promote their broad usage. …

Environmental Justice In Little Village: A Case For Reforming Chicago’S Zoning Law, Charles Isaacs

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Chicago’s Little Village community bears the heavy burden of environmental injustice and racism. The residents are mostly immigrants and people of color who live with low levels of income, limited access to healthcare, and disproportionate levels of dangerous air pollution. Before its retirement, Little Village’s Crawford coal-burning power plant was the lead source of air pollution, contributing to 41 deaths, 550 emergency room visits, and 2,800 asthma attacks per year. After the plant’s retirement, community members wanted a say on the future use of the lot, only to be closed out when a corporation, Hilco Redevelopment Partners, bought the lot …

Screened Out Of Housing: The Impact Of Misleading Tenant Screening Reports And The Potential For Criminal Expungement As A Model For Effectively Sealing Evictions, Katelyn Polk

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Having an eviction record “blacklists” tenants from finding future housing. Even renters with mere eviction filings—not eviction orders—on their records face the harsh collateral consequences of eviction. This Note argues that eviction records should be sealed at filing and only released into the public record if a landlord prevails in court. Juvenile record expungement mechanisms in Illinois serve as a model for one way to protect people with eviction records. Recent updates to the Illinois juvenile expungement process provided for the automatic expungement of certain records and strengthened the confidentiality protections of juvenile records. Illinois protects juvenile records because it …

Housing Policies In Maine: A Historical Overview, Frank O’Hara

Maine Policy Review

Frank O’Hara traces the evolution of Maine’s housing policies from Maine’s settlement after the Revolutionary War to the current era, where concerns about sprawl and the preservation of communities have come to the fore. In doing so, O’Hara points out that the approach to housing has always reflected more than a desire to ensure every person has adequate shelter. Rather, it reflects core values and beliefs about society, our sense of beauty, and our relationship to the environment and one another. O’Hara urges policymakers to keep these broader constructs in mind when addressing Maine’s future housing needs. As history shows, …