Affordable Housing in New York


Book Description

A richly illustrated history of below-market housing in New York, from the 1920s to today A colorful portrait of the people, places, and policies that have helped make New York City livable, Affordable Housing in New York is a comprehensive, authoritative, and richly illustrated history of the city's public and middle-income housing from the 1920s to today. Plans, models, archival photos, and newly commissioned portraits of buildings and tenants by sociologist and photographer David Schalliol put the efforts of the past century into context, and the book also looks ahead to future prospects for below-market subsidized housing. A dynamic account of an evolving city, Affordable Housing in New York is essential reading for understanding and advancing debates about how to enable future generations to call New York home.




A History of Housing in New York City


Book Description

Since its emergence in the mid-nineteenth century as the nation's "metropolis," New York has faced the most challenging housing problems of any American city, but it has also led the nation in innovation and reform. Plunz traces New York's housing development from 1850 to the present, exploring the housing of all classes, discussing the development of types ranging from the single-family house to the high-rise apartment tower.




Capital City


Book Description

“This superbly succinct and incisive book” on urban planning and real estate argues gentrification isn’t driven by latte-sipping hipsters—but is engineered by the capitalist state (Michael Sorkin, author of All Over the Map) Our cities are changing. Around the world, more and more money is being invested in buildings and land. Real estate is now a $217 trillion dollar industry, worth thirty-six times the value of all the gold ever mined. It forms sixty percent of global assets, and one of the most powerful people in the world—the former president of the United States—made his name as a landlord and developer. Samuel Stein shows that this explosive transformation of urban life and politics has been driven not only by the tastes of wealthy newcomers, but by the state-driven process of urban planning. Planning agencies provide a unique window into the ways the state uses and is used by capital, and the means by which urban renovations are translated into rising real estate values and rising rents. Capital City explains the role of planners in the real estate state, as well as the remarkable power of planning to reclaim urban life.




Across the Spectrum of Socioeconomics


Book Description

The International Socioeconomics Laboratory™ (ISL) is a global research network of primarily students and young adults that strive to find the most adequate solutions to current socio-economic problems and those that may be just around the corner. We make use of existing records and data to create our own comprehensive models and studies to find plausible routes to the root cause of these problems and see what can be done about them or what knowledge can be acquired. However, our information collection is not limited to what is already in sight; though it may be more difficult given the unprecedented times, we also look to collect information and data through surveys and soon, types of experiments as well. The goal of the ISL is clear; assess and address the issues that face our society through the will and capability of the youth in order to foster a greater one. The work done in the ISL serves as the foundation for the work done by its sister organizations Finxspire and Finxerunt. We plan on having our research be used by Finxerunt to create real political policy that will address the shortcomings that stem from society and its current state. Our research will also be implemented by the committees within the ISL to serve as the basis for its campaigns, podcasts, and films. Both organizations share a common goal in giving their best efforts to bring about positive change in the world. The ISL will be the first and largest of its kind. This spring, the ISL looks to accept over 500+ applicants and aim for a long term goal of over 1000. Through our work, we can bring these students and young adults various benefits ranging from volunteer hours to PVSA awards signed by the President of the United States themself. As many struggle from the implications of the global pandemic, the ISL will serve as an incentive for them to move forward and look towards a brighter future. The ISL serves as an important venue for the youth; the youth are highly capable and intelligent; many of them are cognizant or can identify if their societies are headed in the wrong direction. However, as it stands, it is difficult for the youth to have a say, for they are often overlooked and shadowed. The ISL looks to change that however. The ISL will allow for the youth to have their voices and ideas heard; through us, the youth can look to envision the very change they believe would be necessary to implement or consider. Part of the future of their respective societies starts with the youth, and the future starts with the ISL. Every research paper here has been written by our Fall Staffers from our fall Finxerunt Research programs. For more information please go to www.finxerunt.org or www.socioeconlabs.org. You can also reach out to us at [email protected]




Measurement Error in Longitudinal Data


Book Description

Longitudinal data is essential for understanding how the world around us changes. Most theories in the social sciences and elsewhere have a focus on change, be it of individuals, of countries, of organizations, or of systems, and this is reflected in the myriad of longitudinal data that are being collected using large panel surveys. This type of data collection has been made easier in the age of Big Data and with the rise of social media. Yet our measurements of the world are often imperfect, and longitudinal data is vulnerable to measurement errors which can lead to flawed and misleading conclusions. Measurement Error in Longitudinal Data tackles the important issue of how to investigate change in the context of imperfect data. It compiles the latest advances in estimating change in the presence of measurement error from several fields and covers the entire process, from the best ways of collecting longitudinal data, to statistical models to estimate change under uncertainty, to examples of researchers applying these methods in the real world. This book introduces the essential issues of longitudinal data collection, such as memory effects, panel conditioning (or mere measurement effects), the use of administrative data, and the collection of multi-mode longitudinal data. It also presents some of the most important models used in this area, including quasi-simplex models, latent growth models, latent Markov chains, and equivalence/DIF testing. Finally, the use of vignettes in the context of longitudinal data and estimation methods for multilevel models of change in the presence of measurement error are also discussed.




Building the Skyline


Book Description

The Manhattan skyline is one of the great wonders of the modern world. But how and why did it form? Much has been written about the city's architecture and its general history, but little work has explored the economic forces that created the skyline. In Building the Skyline, Jason Barr chronicles the economic history of the Manhattan skyline. In the process, he debunks some widely held misconceptions about the city's history. Starting with Manhattan's natural and geological history, Barr moves on to how these formations influenced early land use and the development of neighborhoods, including the dense tenement neighborhoods of Five Points and the Lower East Side, and how these early decisions eventually impacted the location of skyscrapers built during the Skyscraper Revolution at the end of the 19th century. Barr then explores the economic history of skyscrapers and the skyline, investigating the reasons for their heights, frequencies, locations, and shapes. He discusses why skyscrapers emerged downtown and why they appeared three miles to the north in midtown-but not in between the two areas. Contrary to popular belief, this was not due to the depths of Manhattan's bedrock, nor the presence of Grand Central Station. Rather, midtown's emergence was a response to the economic and demographic forces that were taking place north of 14th Street after the Civil War. Building the Skyline also presents the first rigorous investigation of the causes of the building boom during the Roaring Twenties. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the boom was largely a rational response to the economic growth of the nation and city. The last chapter investigates the value of Manhattan Island and the relationship between skyscrapers and land prices. Finally, an Epilogue offers policy recommendations for a resilient and robust future skyline.







The Last Neighborhood Cops


Book Description

In recent years, community policing has transformed American law enforcement by promising to build trust between citizens and officers. Today, three-quarters of American police departments claim to embrace the strategy. But decades before the phrase was coined, the New York City Housing Authority Police Department (HAPD) had pioneered community-based crime-fighting strategies. The Last Neighborhood Cops reveals the forgotten history of the residents and cops who forged community policing in the public housing complexes of New York City during the second half of the twentieth century. Through a combination of poignant storytelling and historical analysis, Fritz Umbach draws on buried and confidential police records and voices of retired officers and older residents to help explore the rise and fall of the HAPD's community-based strategy, while questioning its tactical effectiveness. The result is a unique perspective on contemporary debates of community policing and historical developments chronicling the influence of poor and working-class populations on public policy making.




A Decade of Housing


Book Description




Golden Gates


Book Description

A Time 100 Must-Read Book of 2020 • A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice • California Book Award Silver Medal in Nonfiction • Finalist for The New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism • Named a top 30 must-read Book of 2020 by the New York Post • Named one of the 10 Best Business Books of 2020 by Fortune • Named A Must-Read Book of 2020 by Apartment Therapy • Runner-Up General Nonfiction: San Francisco Book Festival • A Planetizen Top Urban Planning Book of 2020 • Shortlisted for the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice “Tells the story of housing in all its complexity.” —NPR Spacious and affordable homes used to be the hallmark of American prosperity. Today, however, punishing rents and the increasingly prohibitive cost of ownership have turned housing into the foremost symbol of inequality and an economy gone wrong. Nowhere is this more visible than in the San Francisco Bay Area, where fleets of private buses ferry software engineers past the tarp-and-plywood shanties of the homeless. The adage that California is a glimpse of the nation’s future has become a cautionary tale. With propulsive storytelling and ground-level reporting, New York Times journalist Conor Dougherty chronicles America’s housing crisis from its West Coast epicenter, peeling back the decades of history and economic forces that brought us here and taking readers inside the activist movements that have risen in tandem with housing costs.