Nowak Metro Finance Lab

In the US, an overabundance of single-family zoning limits housing supply, raises prices, and prevents economic mobility. Mallory Baches, President of The Congress for the New Urbanism, shared promising solutions to the housing crisis, from a grand boulevard strategy in California converting commercial property to affordable housing to transforming single family homes in Atlanta into multi-housing units. Meanwhile, 1/3 of households spend 1/3 or more of monthly income on housing. Accelerator for America (AFA) and the Nowak Metro Finance Lab have launched the National Housing Crisis Task Force to leverage knowledge and expertise of city leaders and housing researchers to find and scale innovations in housing production, preservation, and finance. AFA President Mary Ellen Wiederwohl moderated our panel and invited city leaders to engage with this effort, which will publish its first report in Nov. 2024. Some highlights from our city speakers:  > Use every tool: In Lansing (MI), Mayor Andy Schor is using a combination of local incentives, federal ARPA, LITEC, and CDBG, and state appropriation to revitalize downtown and create hundreds of residential units. In Knoxville (TN), Director of Housing and Neighborhood Development Kevin DuBose said that since 2019 the city has invested $40M into affordable housing while leveraging more than $600M in investment, resulting in 2,300+ new units. Waterloo (IA) Mayor Quentin Hart shared that while his first instinct was to remove blighted properties, he realized that restoring existing housing - especially with high construction costs - is key to housing affordability. > Use data to focus on equity and address redlining: In Lansing, data revealed one area in the city was falling behind: lowest test scores, highest concentration of poverty, lowest service delivery. In response, it was designated an “Area of Focus,” allowing for an influx of investment. Knoxville developed two data dashboards tracking housing assistance and housing trends to inform the public and policy makers about housing needs and programs to address them. > Asset rich housing: Lansing’s Walter French Adaptive Reuse project will convert a former junior high into 76 apartments at or below 80% AMI, with 17 units for those experiencing homelessness. The building is convenient to transit and will include first floor childcare and social services. The Walnut Neighborhood Restoration Project in Waterloo is transforming a disinvested area of the city into 55 new homes adjacent to a grocery store and community center. > Workforce is key: The City of Lansing is growing the pipeline of BIPOC developers through its Equitable Economic Development Program. In Waterloo, the Hawkeye Sustainability Initiative, a partnership with Hawkeye Community College, makes building science part of the curriculum, allowing students to work on construction projects in neighborhoods where they grew up. Find all resources for this panel on our website: bit.ly/mip-s24.

Explore the current real estate market on the new episode of WHYY's Studio2. Kevin Gillen, Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation Senior Research Fellow, and Mike Coleman, realtor and teacher at Temple University Real Estate Institute, discuss the challenges facing first-time homebuyers. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/d6kWFYYT

Excited to share another in Accelerator for America's Transformative Project Case Story for the #LocalInfrastructureHub -- our fifteenth in the series!! This time we're going to the beautiful City of Chattanooga and their SMART Grant. Mayor Tim Kelly has been working every day to ensure the innovation and tech achievements Chattanooga is now known for are improving the lives of his city's residents and making them safer. Chattanooga's SMART Grant will allow the city to deploy vehicles that communicate with the infrastructure around them to ensure safer, pedestrian conscious streets, more efficient commutes, and so much more. AND, with their close partners at the The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, they are working to ensure any community, no matter their tech capability, can scale and deploy this work as well. Thank you to our partners at the Nowak Metro Finance Lab, Results for America and Bloomberg Philanthropies for helping us do this work! https://lnkd.in/eHuiN6g4

Read "Laboratory of the World" by Charles McElwee for City Journal and Manhattan Institute featuring Lab Director Bruce Katz on University City's role as an innovation and research hub in Philadelphia. https://lnkd.in/g9zNrenU

The National Housing Crisis Task Force Earlier this week, Nowak Metro Finance Lab and Accelerator for America launched the National Housing Crisis Task Force. The Task Force, chaired by Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb and Fifth Third Bank’s Susan E. Thomas aims to craft and catalyze an ambitious housing action plan for the nation, building from the state and local innovations bubbling up across the country. The other 24 Task Force Members are a remarkable group of practitioners, a “coalition of the exceptional” (https://lnkd.in/eqHamwRc). They span sectors and geographies and bring specific innovations to the table, with a sharp focus on how to norm and scale policies, practices and products across the U.S. The need for this Task Force is blatantly obvious. Housing conditions in our country have worsened markedly over the past few decades due to a perfect storm, among other things, of market and household dynamics, rising construction costs and the financialization of the sector. What was once a crisis concentrated in a few coastal cities has now spread to all segments of the population and all sections of the nation. The Task Force’s ambition is not to issue another report. We plan, on one level, to put forward a bold set of recommendations for the next Administration and Congress. Federal programs and policies, for the most part, remain highly rigid and fossilized, unchanged for decades. Our federal government needs to “treat the housing crisis like the crisis it is,” building from the examples set by bipartisan leaders in our states, cities, suburbs and rural areas. But we are not waiting for the feds. Our strong conviction is that sub-national actors have more power than they know, more capital than they think and more solutions than they realize. This sets a strong platform for transformative impact, which we will capture in a new practicable toolkit. Benjamin Preis, Michael Saadine and I lay all this out in the attached newsletter. We welcome input and engagement. https://lnkd.in/ephrYwdM

The New Industrial Geography Macro forces and unprecedented federal investments are driving the reshoring of manufacturing across multiple sectors of the economy. As a result, a new industrial geography is emerging in the U.S. I recently explored how this geography is playing out across, within and beyond metropolitan areas. This new geography warrants a lot more attention than it’s getting. It necessitates major investments in workforce, R&D, energy and infrastructure today … and sets a platform for growth going forward. On the inter-metro scale, some metros, particularly those in the defense and auto industries, are building on existing strengths and expanding their production prowess. But others, including state capitols like Columbia OH and Phoenix, are punching their way into next generation manufacturing. On the intra-metro level, some older industrial facilities, around submarine production for example, are located in the cores of metros, along rail lines and shipping lanes. But newer facilities, around semiconductors and EVs, are often being built at the periphery of metro areas. Location matters, determining how workers access … and literally get to … jobs. But metropolitan areas, defined in the U.S. by commuting patterns, no longer fully captures the new industrial order’s dependence on talent pools, supply chains, technological innovations and energy power. Metros are being stretched to metro regions and beyond. The new industrial geography is complex and varies across the country. All of this is happening in real time and will affect and stress investment patterns, governance structures and economic performance. The reindustrialization of the U.S. economy, in short, forces public, private and civic leaders to think anew about place, space and opportunity. https://lnkd.in/eWNq4VtY

"Downtowns and the New Economic Geography," the latest newsletter from Lab Director Bruce Katz discusses how the rebound of U.S. central business districts, threatened by the rise of hybrid work and remote work, necessitates economic diversification. A new economic geography is emerging, driven by reshoring production, decarbonizing the economy, and government investments in infrastructure and technology. Some cities are successfully using these investments to revitalize downtowns, fostering innovation and transforming urban areas to align with broader economic changes. Read the full newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/erU6-8J4

Kalamazoo's efforts to strengthen its transportation network through the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-saving Transportation (PROTECT) grant program also focuses on resilience against climate impacts. The project includes constructing a new bridge over the Kalamazoo River, improving existing infrastructure, and integrating sustainable practices. By focusing on these aspects, Kalamazoo aims to ensure long-term sustainability and accessibility of its transportation system. Read more about Kalamazoo's transportation network here: https://lnkd.in/eGiXJDqN

Philadelphia's efforts to improve bridge sustainability in Northwest Philadelphia are funded by a $14.25 million grant from the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-saving Transportation  (PROTECT) program. The city plans to rehabilitate the Bells Mill Road and Valley Green Road Bridges to increase its resilience against climate change and flooding. This rehabilitation will ensure the bridges continue to serve critical transportation roles, providing access to Wissahickon Valley Park and essential services in the area. Read more about the PROTECT program and plans for bridge sustainability in Philadelphia here: https://lnkd.in/eRF_JnBk

Last week, the Nowak Metro Finance Lab and Accelerator for America launched the National Housing Crisis Task Force. The Task Force is co-chaired by Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb and Fifth Third Bank’s Susan E. Thomas and served by another 24 interdisciplinary Task Force Members. The linked Task Force website includes more information including our presentation - Treating the Housing Crisis Like a Crisis - from the launch, and Bruce Katz, Benjamin Preis, and I offer more context in the linked newsletter. I am grateful to serve as a Senior Advisor to the Nowak Lab to help launch this effort to combat an increasingly worsening crisis. We are committed to producing more than just “another report”; please stay tuned and share any input and engagement! https://lnkd.in/ejGDkz3Z  https://lnkd.in/evY8Tzd4