The National Trust for Historic Preservation's new Atlas for ReUrbanization relies on a metric called "character" to explore the relationship between historic preservation and affordability.
Laura Bliss reports on a new set of maps from the National Trust for Historic Preservation that offers a "data-driven perspective" to the question of the effect of historic preservation on housing affordability.
"The Atlas of ReUrbanism charts 50 U.S. cities by the 'character' of their building stock," explains Bliss. Yes, the word "character" is charged in urbanist politics, but for the purposes of the Atlas of ReUrbanism, however, the word measures "the median age of buildings, the diversity of age of the buildings, and the size of buildings and parcels…"
The Atlas illustrates the perhaps unsurprising conclusion that "high-character blocks tend to have higher shares and numbers of affordable units of rental housing, compared to low-scoring blocks," writes Bliss, before noting that Kyle Shelton applied the Atlas to Philadelphia's example and nonetheless found some surprising results. Bliss concludes the article by making a few suggestions about how the tool could be improved.
FULL STORY: Mapping the Value of Neighborhood 'Character'
Less than 6% of California cities are building enough housing for very low-income households
Only five jurisdictions are on track to meet their housing goals for all income brackets.
Just 17% of San Diego households can afford the city's $1M+ median home prices
The city is becoming increasingly unaffordable to prospective homebuyers.
Indianapolis rents grew by 30% since 2020
The metro area has a shortage of roughly 137,000 affordable homes for the lowest-income households.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
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Mamdani overhauls NYC's Vision Zero plan with 100 new policy goals
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Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
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EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
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Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association