“Starter homes” for first-time buyers once accounted for 40 percent of America’s housing supply, but now it’s more like 7 percent. The US supply of affordable entry-level homes is not meeting demand, and zoning laws ensure things stay that way. A Vox video by Ranjani Chakraborty.
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One reaction to Amazon’s pending HQ2/2 project in New York’s Long Island City.
More:
“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not thrilled about Amazon coming to Queens,” Melissa Locker, Fast Company
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Presidential candidate Donald Trump already has a home on Pennsylvania Avenue, a few blocks from the White House. It’s a $200 million hotel project he’s developing in the Old Post Office Building, a historic property owned by the federal government and leased to the Trump Organization for 60 years.
As Steve Perlstein observed, it’s “curious” the government “… would choose to pass over established, deep-pocketed hoteliers such as Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton in order to choose a lead developer who has spent so much time in U.S. Bankruptcy Court that he qualifies for elite frequent-flier status.” Part of the appeal might have been due to Trump’s financial bait-and-switch. Trump’s bid included funding from his Californian investor pal Tom Barrack, the guy who had sold him the Plaza (Trump sold it for a huge loss). After Trump got the Old Post Office contract, Barrack pulled out and Trump off-shored the financing, borrowing $170 million from Germany’s Deutsche Bank instead. The collateral? The federal lease on the tax-payer-owned property.
Remember, the historic Old Post Office Building’s landlord is the General Services Administration (GSA), a federal agency.
“You’d be kidding yourself if you don’t think the president of the United States has influence over this. And [Trump’s] taken no affirmative steps to separate himself from this conflict of interest. I don’t know how this is not a bigger issue. It’s crazy.”
— Jessica Tillipman, George Washington University Law School
South Park takes on the hip New Urbanism.
More:
“The SoHo Effect,” 99% Invisible
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