Land Lines July 2015
From Stigma to Housing Fix
Comfortable and attractive, today’s factory-built abodes are energy-efficient, less than half the price of site-built houses, and five times faster to build. They’re also permanently affordable when owners form cooperatives to buy the land around them.
Illegal But Rational
Nearly one-quarter of residential units in Chinese cities are illicit, built and sold by village collectives on land that the state has not yet approved for urban use. The authors consider the legal, economic, social, and political factors driving and enabling this widespread and burgeoning form of development.
Community Land Trusts Grown from Grassroots
An increasingly popular tool to prevent displacement of low-income households in gentrifying neighborhoods, community land trusts often develop from grassroots neighborhood organizations—a natural progression that poses challenges nonetheless. The authors explore how five communities made the transition.
This issue highlights eco-friendly and affordable manufactured homes of the 21st century; burgeoning yet illicit residential development in China; and the evolution of community land trusts from grassroots groups. It also looks at WalkYourCity.org, a digital tool intended to boost communities’ walkability; and sheds light on the impacts of land use regulations in Latin America from the perspective of an Argentinian-based urban economist.