Urban thoughts on a Sunday morning

 

Crosswalk sign, New Bohemia, May 2023

Urbanist thoughts that arose from a coffee meetup this morning:

Capitalism vs. community? There's a lot to be said for the capitalist economic system, but there are a number of tensions between the needs of the market and the needs of the community. Do we see ourselves as consumers of our locale's amenities, or citizens participating a common project? And how do our employers see us? 

As someone who benefited from the tenure system in American higher education, I recognize that I possessed job security and continuity which most people in my town do not enjoy. The agility of producing firms allows for innovations that benefit consumers--compare the performance of the private and public sectors on this dimension--but from the workers' perspective, employment can seem like a perpetual mad scramble. This tends to push out people who have fewer competitive advantages: the poor, female heads of households, recent arrivals, and older workers. 

Stable careers allow people to make long-term decisions and commitments to their communities, which resound to everyone's benefit. Today, even though the pandemic-related surges in unemployment and inflation have largely returned to normal, the aroma of economic insecurity continues. Such insecurity inevitably turns people inward and less able to look at the big picture, either in their own lives or in the world around them. Towns, like stores, are reduced to using amenities to try to get people's money, rather than being a collective project. This is connected to...

The perils of drive-to urbanism. New Bohemia and Czech Village have sprung like miracles from the disastrous 2008 flood, though so far what has sprung forth have been predominantly commercial developments catering to visitors rather than organic neighborhoods serving residents. (There is a striking lack of connection between the shops of New Bohemia and the residential section of the Oakhill Jackson neighborhood on its eastern edge.) So despite the easily walkable proximity between shops and restaurants, there is a lot of car traffic as well. 

As a friend and I crossed 12th Avenue this noon, a driver anticipating a left turn onto 12th suddenly accelerated towards us. I am not proud of the expletive I yelled--my lizard brain apparently dwells in some dark places--and the young man at the wheel apologized, but this sort of thing is going to happen in any area that relies on car traffic in a city where "everybody" drives "everywhere"--even if pedestrians are thick as thieves.

Everybody makes mistakes, including me. Those mistakes are magnified when they're made in a heavy machine that can maim or kill a human being. We'll live longer and better if we rely on cars less. (And thank goodness it wasn't one of those gigantized trucks that are so popular these days.)

How to connect? A hyper-competitive economy and car dependency work against community building; is anything working in its favor? For those wanting to find out more about what is going on in their community, some suggestions emerged:

• neighborhood associations, where they exist, have monthly meetings that can serve as forum to discuss developments and issues of common concern;
• social media, if you can stand it, have groups dedicated to historic preservation, local restaurants, local government, performing arts events, and more;
• a print subscription to the Gazette, which despite losing staff does a pretty fair job of representing different points of view on local events;
• volunteering with an organization working in the community (I wonder if working at a bar or cafe would have the same benefit?)

Of course, regularly following the Holy Mountain blog is also a necessity!

Metro housing update

 

(L to R) Jennifer Pratt, Pat Parsley, Kim Downs, Drew Retz

My friend Eric Gutschmidt is fond of saying "You can't build a $100,000 house." That unpleasant reality underlay the lively discussion of housing issues Tuesday morning at the Gazette Business Breakfast in the Geonetric Building cafeteria. Various subjects fell into three major topic areas: supply, price, and neighborhood context.

Supply

Kim Downs, deputy city manager for the City of Marion, described slow progress on a variety of housing needs. She cited a need for multi- and single family housing at all price points, a need echoed by the other panelists. Pat Parsley, community development director for the City of Hiawatha, cited a 2020 housing study showing a particular shortage of rental housing, which has spurred development of 200 units built since then.

All three towns are actively building, with the assistance of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding as well as derecho recovery funds. Jennifer Pratt, community development director for the City of Cedar Rapids, reported five multifamily units underway, and previewed a program ("Roots 2.0") that will build 76 houses in the 2008 flood zone that will sell for $175,000; she also noted "growth corridors" in the northeast quadrant (mostly single-family) and to the south near the College Community School District megacampus. Hiawatha touted their first multifamily development in ten years and first senior living facility ever, to be located in their emerging Boyson Road complex. Marion mentioned the rehabilitation of the former First United Methodist Church downtown as well as an "aging-in-place" development east of Route 13 with options for all ages.

An audience member asked about the demand for all this new housing. Unfortunately, she drowned her own question in a sea of unrelated issues, so it never got properly answered. What is the occupancy rate of recently-constructed apartments? What is the evidence (besides the existence of regular housing surveys) that we are under-supplied? Drew Retz, vice president of Jerry's Homes, said that he knew anecdotally that some of their customers have moved from out of state to take jobs, and that their houses were occupied upon construction.

Price

Only two factors in housing inflation were considered: high interest rates and regulatory compliance costs. The Federal Reserve Board is maintaining the prime lending rate, from which all other interest rates derive, at a historically high 5.25-5.5 percent, at least for now (Lee and Heuer 2024). Rates were raised to combat inflation resulting from coronavirus pandemic disruptions to the economy, and thus represent a temporary if powerful factor in raising housing prices. Kim Downs said interest rates were driving potential homebuyers into the rental market, and inspiring homeowners to convert all or part of their houses to rent. To me that suggests these individuals are deferring their long-term purchases, rather than buying a smaller cheaper house now. When they come back into the market in the next few years, that will have an interesting effect on demand and hence on prices. 

Drew Retz cited an estimate, which no one contradicted, that 25 percent of the cost of new housing is due to government regulation, and that it thereby takes about 18 months to build anything, implying (probably accurately) that price reduction was within the power of the cities, should they choose to use it. The city people all said they were working on streamlining the approval process to make it faster and more predictable, but even Pat Parsley from "developer friendly" Hiawatha allowed they also had a duty to the public to make sure the streets, trees, and such were done for the benefit of the public. (Streets "wide enough?" If developers wants to build 16 foot streets, let 'em, I say.)

Retz made another point that's worth considering; Houses are built and sold by private businesses that need/expect a return on their investment, one that exceeds the return on financial instruments that don't require strenuous physical work. If buyers expect "everything," and cities are both willing to add to the cost with regulation and to subsidize some of the cost with public funds, what winds up being the right price? We seem to have lost the market price signals that could answer that question. Why wouldn't I want a big house with a big yard on a wide tree-lined street, a street that is plowed quickly after a snowstorm, located at an insulating distance from the madding crowd, yet near enough to parks and schools, if I didn't recognize that all of these have costs that must be borne by someone if not me? That's what my parents had!

We have difficulty, in both the private and public realms, talking about who pays for social costs not borne by the buyer or seller (known in the biz as "market failures"). Spreading out as we have done for two or three generations creates financial burdens for communities as well as environmental strains and all the problems attendant to car dependency. More demand raises the price of anything--that's simple economics, but problematic if we also consider a good like housing to be a necessary human right. These are awkward and unpleasant subjects to be broached in most spaces, and they were not broached on Tuesday.

Neighborhood Context

Social subjects did sneak in when the panel discussed "neighborhoods." Jennifer Pratt said Cedar Rapids is looking for "complete neighborhoods" as described in the 2015 plan EnvisionCR and subsequent updates. The adjective "healthy" was also used with respect to this, leading an audience member to ask what was meant by a healthy neighborhood. Pat Parsley defined it as a diversity of housing options, mixing uses within a walkable area (a radius of about one mile); such nodes are being built in his town of Hiawatha. Jennifer Pratt added that the cities also need to be mindful of what the market is looking for, which might include single use subdivisions.

Dorothy DeSouza Guedes of the Oakhill Jackson Neighborhood Association, which has seen a great deal of development since the 2008 flood wiped out a huge swath of it, asked if current residents could be engaged earlier in the development process. Consultation with the neighborhood is required by law, but large developers in particular have the reputation of doing the minimum so late that it's ineffective. Yet residents have reputations, too. They surely have an essential voice in development of their own neighborhood, but too often they have exercised or tried to exercise veto power over beneficial development. 

Neighborhood, in other words, is a slippery concept. I have no problem with people living in whatever type of neighborhood they wish, as long as they're willing to pay the social costs, and as long as there's room left for everybody else to live as well. This is maybe a more difficult discussion than we were ready for Tuesday.

The Gazette Business Breakfast series next moves to Iowa City in April for a discussion of state and local taxes.

SEE ALSO: "New Data on Housing Prices," 23 January 2024

10th anniversary post: the future of news media

 

The Gazette recently moved into the US Bank building

Ten years ago this month, Chuck Peters, then publisher of the Cedar Rapids Gazette, spoke at Coe College about the future of journalism. He noted that the flood of data available on the Internet meant that news media no longer had a monopoly on information, and that this required some reinvention. He argued that newspapers in particular could facilitate "authentic communications... about things that matter" to the community it serves. His specific brainchild, a section titled We Create Here, lasted a short while, but the Gazette's efforts in that direction continue today with the annual Iowa Ideas Conference, Business Breakfasts on topical issues (one is happening next week on the subject of housing development), and a periodic panel of political columnists called Pints and Politics.

Reports have long been dire throughout the world of news media, but seem to be getting even more dire (Grynbaum et al 2024, Fischer 2024). Large operations--the Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, the Washington Post--are making massive staff cuts. Corporate overlords that depended on, say, movie tickets to fund journalism, are slashing journalistic budgets when the tickets aren't getting sold. Cable news viewership is dropping; things are so bad that even the looming omnipresence of Donald Trump can't hold people's interest. But it's worst at the humble local level, where in contrast to feeling helpless about Trump and Gaza and Ukraine we should be feeling some efficacy; a widely-touted datum estimates five local newspapers shut down every two weeks. That doesn't count the ones that go from daily to once or twice weekly editions.

Jane and I still get daily delivery of the print edition of the Gazette, and I can remember when the New York Times printed transcripts of major public speeches, or when the Sunday paper had the list of baseball statistics throughout the season. A lot of institutions we grew up with, including churches, libraries, and four-year colleges, are struggling with identity crises as well, as revenues and audiences and respect dry up, while new generations find they can get along fine without relying on them.

Or can they? The disappearance of local media outlets removes a critical counterweight to local government officials, not to mention a way for people of all ages to learn about the community in which they live. As you are doubtless aware, national politics gets a lot more attention from everyone, but local politics has the most direct impact on our day-to-day lives. From small towns to big cities, decisions are being made about our future, but who is there to bring the discussions out of the conference rooms? Who has the credibility to question local power-brokers in an independent, informed way? Who can show a mirror to the community itself? Newspapers and other local media often fall short of the mark--it took the Gazette what seemed like forever to acknowledge climate change--but I don't think Reddit or City Council commenters can fill this role.

Perry Bacon Jr (from washingtonpost.com)

Perry Bacon, late of 538 and now a columnist with the Washington Post, argues that news organizations should go all in on their public service function, as they are forced to turn to foundation and individual donations to replace lost (maybe forever) advertising revenue. Given "the major crises in America," news media should focus on three major areas:

Government and policy news, particularly at the local and state levels; watchdog journalism that closely scrutinizes powerful individuals, companies and political leaders; and cultural coverage, from important books and movies to faith and spirituality. (Bacon 2024)

Football and celebrity gossip are fine, too, if they help to pay the bills, but local news should focus on helping people access information they need to function in community. 

Ownership is another issue. It should be local not national, for obvious reasons, and have an independent voice. I haven't noticed changes in content of the Washington Post since Jeff Bezos bought it, but a billionaire with an agenda (Rupert Murdoch? The guy who's buying the Baltimore Sun?) can do more harm than good. The local paper can, and in some cases has, become a tool of conservative insurgency instead of a means of unpacking/critiquing it.