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The Planetizen News Brief - 12/6/07

6 December 2007 - 7:00am
Smart City Radio

The Planetizen News Brief is a weekly rundown of some of the most interesting and important news and issues of the past week.

The Planetizen News Brief airs every week on the nationally-syndicated radio program "Smart City", which is broadcast in cities across the U.S. Learn more about Smart City and listen to archived shows.

Full Transcript

Preserve historic buildings or build parking lots. What to do? Preservationists and concerned citizens in the central California city of Stockton say preserve historic buildings, but city councilors and the city’s redevelopment director say parking is the prudent choice. According to The Stockton Record, 127 parking spaces could be created by demolishing as many as seven historic hotels in downtown Stockton, a possibility the city sees as a boon to help out its downtown merchants. But the preservationists say the hotels are too valuable a part of the city’s history to be destroyed. Built between 1870 and 1930, the hotels were all closed in 2001 after they failed to pass code inspections. The city says the costs of preserving the dilapidated hotels far outweighs their historic value, and the city council voted last month to tear four of them down. But the preservationists are not giving up and have now filed a lawsuit against the city, ensuring a long and drawn out battle over parking lots and preservation.

Meanwhile, in New Orleans, the broken city is trying to preserve itself, but having a pretty hard time. As the city slowly recovers a major issue is holding it back – the low supply of rental housing. According to The New York Times, more than half of the city’s households were rented before the storm, and many of those had to be evacuated and demolished. Now, the shortage of housing has kicked rental prices to almost two times what they were before Katrina, leaving many unable to afford what little is available and doubling the city’s homeless population. And with the Federal Emergency Management Agency planning to phase out its emergency trailer camps by the end of May, 900 more families will be on the hunt for housing in the city. But with a demand that is already overwhelming, few expect the city’s housing supply will be able to keep up come May.

And finally, two property owners in Boulder, Colorado, have a little less space to call their own now, after neighbors partially occupied part of their property long enough for the courts to grant them partial ownership. The Los Angeles Times reported recently on the land acquisition, which is legal in many states under what is called adverse possession. By demonstrating occupancy for long enough, legal rights to land can be acquired. But for the property owners who lost some of their piece and for many in their community, ethics are more important than legal precedent, and the resulting protests over the land grab show little signs of dissipating.

Stories discussed in this week's Planetizen News Brief

Preservationists Sue The City Of Stockton To Save Historic Hotels

Rental Shortage Hurting New Orleans

Your Land Is Now My Land: The Doctrine of Adverse Possession

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