Madison Alderman Seeks to Curb Parking

“The west side City Council member wants to cap the amount of parking at new offices, shopping centers and medical centers. Currently, there are few limits on the size of commercial parking lots in the city of Madison, with developers basically free to build as much parking as they feel is financially feasible.” Meanwhile, New Yorkers resort to religion in the quest for a parking space.

DC Afforable Housing Demolished, But Not Replaced

“The former Marlaine apartment building on North Pierce Street in North Arlington is an unsightly dirt lot surrounded by a chain-link fence. It’s one of at least six Washington area buildings seemingly marooned by housing economics and changing times, representing more than 700 low-cost apartment units that have gone missing from the market during the recent real estate slump.

Former tenants, neighbors and housing activists say it is a shame that these places were destroyed or left vacant when the need for affordable housing is so acute.”

Coney Island to Become Shinier Version of Itself

“Locked in a stalemate with a developer over the future of Coney Island, New York City officials unveiled a new vision for the area that seemingly solves the problem: Make the disputed land into parkland. The parcel of Coney that includes the much-beloved Astroland would keep its current amusement zoning but it would be expanded to include music venues, an Imax theater and restaurants.”

Food Desert in Chicago

“Supermarkets followed middle-income families out of urban areas and into the suburbs 40 years ago, but the situation is steadily improving because grocers are returning to city neighborhoods that are gentrifying. And Chicago is considered a leader in trying to overcome its food desert because of Retail Chicago’s efforts to attract grocers to underserved areas, and a groundbreaking city ordinance that bans “restrictive covenants” that would prevent grocers and drugstores from moving in when major rival chains move out.”

Disenfranchised, Poor and…Violent?

“Remember the Palestinian intifada of the early 1990s, when thousands of frustrated young Palestinians took to the streets and threw stones at Israeli troops? Remember the French intifada of the summer of 2005, in which disenfranchised Muslim youths burned cars and stores in the suburbs of Paris?

If we are not careful, we may see something similar coming from the estimated 13 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, most of them Hispanic, who are increasingly vilified in the media, forced further into the underground by spineless politicians and not given any chance to legalize their status by a pusillanimous Congress.”