Mayor R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis is changing the rules of urban economic redevelopment, mainly by not handing out large tax incentives to big businesses.
"You can drive around Minneapolis and see the results pretty quickly. Businesses are opening in depressed neighborhoods. Parts of town where no one lived in the 1990s are suddenly hot condo locations. The long-neglected Mississippi riverfront is undergoing a transformation.
But there also are doubts. Some say this sort of progress would have occurred even without action from the city. Retail is struggling downtown, and there's some thought that the city's center would benefit from a more conventional approach. Rybak insists the only route to genuine growth and progress is to stick to the methods he's chosen."
FULL STORY: Radical Renewal

Florida Considers Legalizing ADUs
Current state law allows — but doesn’t require — cities to permit accessory dwelling units in single-family residential neighborhoods.

Manufactured Crisis: Losing the Nation’s Largest Source of Unsubsidized Affordable Housing
Manufactured housing communities have long been an affordable housing option for millions of people living in the U.S., but that affordability is disappearing rapidly. How did we get here?

HUD Announces Plan to Build Housing on Public Lands
The agency will identify federally owned parcels appropriate for housing development and streamline the regulatory process to lease or transfer land to housing authorities and nonprofit developers.

EPA Terminates $116 Million in Grants for Reducing Emissions from Construction Materials
C-MORE grants were earmarked for industry trade groups and universities.

BART Closes $35 Million Deficit
Cost control and revenue generation measures prevented service cuts.

The New Parisian Hearse is a Bicycle
Sleek, silent, and sustainable, a green trip to the graveyard has hit the streets of the French capital.
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