The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now has a remarkable record of grassroots anti-poverty and community development campaigns, writes David Morris.
Following the September 14th Senate vote to deny HUD funding to ACORN, David Morris defends the organization and its 50-year history of effective action on behalf of poor Americans:
"ACORN is one of the few grassroots neighborhood organizations capable of wielding power on a national scale....ACORN's bottom-up and coordinated structure has enabled it to confront national corporations in a way few other organizations can. When Reagan and the first President Bush's regulators failed to enforce the Community Reinvestment Act, ACORN and other groups conducted their own studies. They identified banks with patterns of discriminatory lending, exposed these practices to the media and then demanded regulators do their jobs. ACORN's provision of services has also enabled it to see national problems before they become national problems. Its mortgage counseling for lower-income households led it to sound the alarm about an industry that was manipulating families into taking out risky loans."
FULL STORY: ACORN: The Most Cost-Effective Investment the Government (and Foundations) Have Ever Made

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly
Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths
Citing “a challenging fiscal landscape,” the city will cease the program on the heels of 42 traffic deaths, including 24 pedestrians.

Adaptive Reuse Will Create Housing in a Suburban Texas Strip Mall
A developer is reimagining a strip mall property as a mixed-use complex with housing and retail.

Study: Anti-Homelessness Laws Don’t Work
Research shows that punitive measures that criminalized unhoused people don’t help reduce homelessness.

In U.S., Urban Gondolas Face Uphill Battle
Cities in Latin America and Europe have embraced aerial transitways — AKA gondolas — as sustainable, convenient urban transport, especially in tricky geographies. American cities have yet to catch up.
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