Category: HOPE VI

Edward A. Fish, 1933-2010

28 June, 2010 (15:20) | Affordable Housing, Boston, Cities, Edward A. Fish, HOPE VI, Obituary | 5 comments

By David A. Smith The last time I saw Ed Fish, we were having lunch at the downtown Harvard Club and he was talking, in that heavy animated way of his, when I realized that the hands with which he was buttering a roll had limited flexibility; arthritis had taken them, calcium in the joints [...]

Not only better but also cheaper

3 March, 2010 (12:45) | Apartments, Construction, HOPE VI, New York City, Public housing, Theory |

By: David A. Smith   Would you rather spend $138 and get 360 brand-new objects, or spend $130 and get 269 used objects?   What is this, asks the reader, a trick question?    Not to the New York City Housing Authority, but perhaps to those whose willingness to believe and trust has been incinerated [...]

Distrust me just this once? Part 3, how to build trust

10 September, 2009 (10:15) | Communications, HOPE VI, Los Angeles, Public housing, Residents, Speculation |

By: David A. Smith   [Continued from yesterday's Part 2 and the previous Part 1.]    “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” – Oscar Wilde   In the first two parts of this post, we encountered (via a Los Angeles Times article) Los Angeles‘ Jordan Downs public housing property, and the ambitious [...]

Distrust me just this once? Part 2, the enemies of trust

9 September, 2009 (10:43) | Communications, HOPE VI, Los Angeles, Public housing, Residents, Speculation |

By: David A. Smith   [Continued from yesterday's Part 1].     “Who are you going to believe: me or your lying eyes?” – Groucho Marx, Duck Soup   To redevelop Jordan Downs, one of Los Angeles’s largest and worst public housing properties, requires gargantuan capital – the figure $1,000,000,000 has been bandied about – [...]

Distrust me just this once? Part 1, the need for trust

8 September, 2009 (09:50) | Communications, HOPE VI, Los Angeles, Public housing, Residents, Speculation |

“Trust me just this once.” – from Great Lies in Real Estate, Volume 3   “Trust me, I’m on your side”   Slums persist in part because they have defenders.  Among those defenders are many slum residents themselves, for whom a lifetime’s experience has taught them, Trust no one, especially any well-dressed or well-spoken newcomer [...]