Land Matters

Highlights from the Lincoln Institute’s Journalists Forum: Innovations in Affordability reveal emerging solutions to the extraordinary challenge of the housing crisis—reforming statewide zoning to increase supply, outmaneuvering institutional investors, shifting the property tax to a land value tax, and changing the home financing system.

An assessment of what was accomplished at the recent COP28 climate summit in Dubai, including more prominence for the critical issue of land use and cities, by four members of the Lincoln Institute staff who were there

Mayor Paige Cognetti is guiding the postindustrial reinvention of Scranton, a coal-mining crossroads in northeastern Pennsylvania that is President Biden’s hometown—and has gained notoriety as the setting for the TV comedy series “The Office.” 

Jim Holway, who retired as director of the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy this summer, reflects on decades of trying to solve the puzzle of sustainable water resources in the West, and looks to what the future may hold.

Record-breaking heat, out-of-control wildfires, and eye-stinging smoke have made the impacts of climate change inescapable for millions of people this summer. Containing the destructive fires is mostly a matter of land use management, says Canadian science journalist Ed Struzik.

The job of the urban planner is getting tougher these days, as cities confront climate change and a shortage of affordable housing, amid increasingly divided constituencies. Veteran journalist Josh Stephens shares insights from his interviews for the book Planners Across America.

The former President and First Lady of Costa Rica, taking a year in the United States after being in power from 2018 to 2022, reflect on their home country’s record of leading by example on climate, from rainforest conservation to electric buses.

As a relatively affordable city protected from some of the worst effects of climate change, Cincinnati is poised for growth. In the this episode of the Land Matters podcast, Mayor Aftab Pureval reflects on the challenges he is confronting—including fending off predatory real estate investors—and discusses how the city can grow thoughtfully and equitably. For links and resources related to this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/articles/2023-03-land-matters-podcast-pureval-housing-hope-cincinnati   [WJ1] Not yet live (ETA Monday afternoon)

Three scholars retiring from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy – Armando Carbonell, who led programs in urban planning and land conservation; Daphne Kenyon, an economist studying the property tax and municipal finance; and Martim Smolka, director of the Latin America program – share thoughts on what it takes for a nonprofit organization to have real-world impact.

The mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone, Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, explains her appointment of Africa’s first chief heat officer, fighting climate change with land use planning and planting a million trees, and an overhaul of the property tax system to ensure fiscal sustainability.

Zoning may not be something most people think about every day. But behind the scenes, local land use rules have been blocking affordable housing, hindering climate action, and exacerbating racial segregation, according to author M. Nolan Gray and Cornell University professor Sara Bronin.

Berkeley, California, is a classic case of a built-up city facing tensions over future development. In this candid interview, Mayor Jesse Arreguín talks about the need to make the city more affordable by clearing the way for new housing and discouraging speculation among owners sitting on vacant lots and properties.

Thirty journalists on the climate beat came to the Lincoln Institute recently to consider global warming’s impact on land, whether deforestation, inundation, or drought. The conclusion: new policies and practices in land use planning will be required to head off a worsening crisis. A full recap of the 2022 Journalists Forum is available here.

On the South Side of Chicago, Rev. Otis Moss III has led initiatives in green building and community empowerment that are having a ripple effect across the city and beyond. This interview follows his delivery of the keynote  address for the Lincoln Institute’s 75th anniversary celebration.

Burlington, Vermont – already sourcing 100 percent of its energy from renewables – is pledging to end all use of fossil fuels by 2030. Mayor Miro Weinberger says he has the political support to eliminate planet-warming emissions across all sectors.

Randall Woodfin, Birmingham’s “millennial mayor” and rising star in Alabama politics, has launched an urban mechanic’s agenda for revitalizing that post-industrial city: restoring basic infrastructure on a block-by-block basis, setting up a command center so federal funds are spent wisely, and providing guaranteed income for single mothers.

The big technology companies could do big things to address climate change, says Silicon Valley chronicler Kara Swisher, host of the “Sway” podcast at The New York Times. New inventions await in manufacturing, materials, batteries, growing food, sequestering carbon – and using artifical intelligence to understand climate data and land use changes.

The cane toad, introduced in Australia in the 1930s to control pests, quickly became a major problem itself – one of many examples of human interventions in natural systems that scientists should keep in mind while trying to tackle the climate crisis, says New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future.

Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez talks about local climate action, land value capture for more equitable urban development, and the importance of supporting women in society, in an interview as she was en route to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

As world leaders descend on Glasgow, Scotland for the COP26 climate summit, the critical role of land and water isn’t getting enough attention, says former Arizona Governor and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. The destruction of forests is spewing emissions and taking away natural carbon sinks. And dwindling water supplies – seen in real time in the looming crisis in the Colorado River Basin – demands immediate action, he says.