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Top Reads, Week of 9/4/2018

Check out our top three reads of the week connected to community development work. This week, we're talking gentrification, creative placemaking and land use. 

Have something to add to our list? Let us know on Twitter at @LISC_HQ


Here's How America Uses Its Land
By Dave Merrill and Lauren Leatherby, Bloomberg

There are many statistical measures that show how productive the U.S. is. Its economy is the largest in the world and grew at a rate of 4.1 percent last quarter, its fastest pace since 2014. The unemployment rate is near the lowest mark in a half century. What can be harder to decipher is how Americans use their land to create wealth. The 48 contiguous states alone are a 1.9 billion-acre jigsaw puzzle of cities, farms, forests and pastures that Americans use to feed themselves, power their economy and extract value for business and pleasure. Continue [+]...

What If All Community Development Started with Local Arts and Culture?
By Jared Brey, Next City

Dee Briggs was expecting to do a routine demolition when she bought the vacant house next to her art studio in Wilkinsburg, Pa. But when Briggs walked inside for the first time, she found a bunch of personal effects left behind by the families that had lived there before it was abandoned. It got her thinking about the long series of lives that had moved through and past the house since it was built in the 1870s, she says, and a normal, quick demolition soon seemed inappropriate. Continue [+]...

Gentrification: A Timeline
By Next City

The term “gentrification” turned 50 in 2014, when Next City first created this timeline. Originally coined to describe organic population shifts witnessed in London’s inner neighborhoods, “gentrification” has come to encapsulate cultural trends, economic cycles and discrete public policies. Since this timeline was first published, communities have wielded new tools and strategies in response to gentrification’s challenges. We think it’s worth a fresh look at the ideas that animate this conversation. Continue [+]...

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The views and opinions expressed in the articles above are those of the authors and publications we are listing, and do not necessarily reflect LISC’s perspective.