Land Matters

Those in the "Yes in My Backyard" or YIMBY movement have a simple goal: increase the supply of housing in cities across the US, and sky-high prices should come down. But they face a growing backlash from neighborhood activists fearful of gentrification and displacement. In California, a bill to fast-track more height and density near transit stations was derailed, even with a provision to require affordable homes through inclusionary housing, a land value capture mechanism. In this episode, Randy Shaw, a San Francisco-based tenants advocate and author of "Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in Urban America," talks about the multi-pronged efforts needed to confront the affordable housing crisis in cities nationwide. For further reading, see Backyard Brouhaha in Land Lines magazine.

Tax increment financing is one of the most widely used – and least understood – public finance mechanisms in the U.S. today. David Merriman, author of the Lincoln Institute report Improving TIF for Economic Development, talks about what communities can do to avoid the pitfalls. For further reading, see also The Hidden Costs of TIF in Land Lines.