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YIMBY, White Privilege, and the Soul of Our Cities

Tuesday, March 19th, 2019
In This Issue: Lessons From Developing Tiny House Villages in Seattle ● Why We Must First Be Well Before We Can Do the Work of the People ● YIMBY, White Privilege, and the Soul of Our Cities ● Also: Jobs ● Shelter Shorts ● Events +
Fernando Martì, Council of Community Housing Organization
The YIMBY narrative about why there is a housing crisis ignores history and serves to assuage new residents’ guilty feelings. But we can craft a new narrative together. Read Full Article
Leslie Kimiko Ward, 1000 Cranes for Alaska
Organizations should make the mental and physical health of their staff a top priority. Here are some lessons from an Alaskan Native collective on how to do that.
Shelterforce Staff
This week: The Coming Funding Cuts | A Ban on Cashless | Kansas City Fights for Affordable Housing | Banks Divest from Private Prisons | Reality Checks for Landlords | And More Quick Takes From Our Editors
Sharon Lee, Low Income Housing Institute
Three years in, an initiative to build tiny homes for Seattle’s homeless population is growing. What are some of the lessons the project can teach other cities? Read Full Article
Industry News
The Center for Community Investment has announced that Phillip Henderson has joined as a senior fellow. Henderson most recently served as president of the Surdna Foundation for 11 years.

SPUR, a bay area planning and urban research association, has appointed Alicia John-Baptiste as president and chief executive officer. Formerly deputy director for three years, she succeeds Gabriel Metcalf.
Events
Wednesday, March 20, 10:00 a.m EST | Community-Driven Resilience Planning in New Orleans: Enhancing Equity and Inclusion Through Co-Creation | This webinar, presented by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, will discuss the main processes, successes, and lessons gained from working together with civic leaders, residents and urban planners to enhance the city's resilience in relation to flooding and water management. Register here.
Resources
The SOTA Transportation Training Do-it-Yourself Toolkit created by Americans for the Arts and Transportation for America walks through the steps to design and implement a transportation training to help communities gain a better sense of the role arts and culture can play in a transportation project, provide an opportunity to strategize about a transportation project with a group of people who may not typically work together, and develop a series of actionable steps that will help address the project and future collaborations.
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You Said It!
Chris: I have never met a so-called YIMBY who ascribes to this philosophy that locals should have less power. The challenge that I see again and again is the few loud homeowner voices in our neighborhoods use the power they’ve amassed to move the goalposts with every new development being proposed, which forces both developers and… Read More

Kristen: Gotta love these kinds of sweeping generalizations that newcomers like to make, without any clue as to conditions on the ground or the history of a place. But that’s sort of the YIMBY playbook–they come in with their assumptions and biases, and then it’s their way or the highway, without much consultation or or consideration for long-term residents. Just look what is happening in the Mission district of San Francisco. The same is happening in… Read More

Suzanne Bragdon: Writer to writer, I was struck by the storytelling aspect of the effort... Via Facebook

Christine Boylan Carr: Good article. The answer is (and has always been) to focus on the people. We often lose sight of that and want the “quick fix” Urban Renewal ala the Western Addition, is an example of that. Via Facebook

JS: I recall back in the '60s when my hardworking African-American parents tried to get a bank loan to buy a house. Their dream to buy a small modest home was denied. However, the owners agreed to “take back” a private mortgage and allowed my parents to pay off the loan. The price was a bit inflated and had a high interest, but they eventually paid it off. It still saddens me... Read More

Len Guenther: So much common sense here. And, yes, this deserves wide distribution. Thanks! Read More
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Senior Project Manager  The Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) seeks a Senior Project Manager to perform a wide variety of tasks related to planning and developing affordable housing for TNDC. The Senior Project Manager coordinates and implements all activities relating to project development from... Read Full Listing
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