Category: blog
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Tax Day
April 15: It’s the day we’ve all been procrastinating for. But if you’re looking for a way to avoid thinking about your own taxes for a little longer, then take a look at this article referenced by Brookings earlier this month about a successful regional tax base sharing program in Minnesota. While we realize that…
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This old housing stock…
Is Buffalo’s peculiar housing stock in part responsible for its own decline? If you hang out in community development circles (and, let’s face it, if you’re reading this you most likely do), then you’ve heard Buffalo has among the oldest housing stock in the nation. In fact, Buffalo actually has the oldest housing stock for…
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Grassroots Gardens of Buffalo
Grassroots Gardens has long been Buffalo’s community garden support organization. Community Gardens are an incredible reuse of vacant or underutilized land in the city, and create neighborhood assets out of liabilities. In addition, they can provide fresh, healthy food in “food deserts” – communities where it can be difficult to access fresh produce. With more…
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Think Spring: Urban Roots
Posting will be light this week as Make Communities takes a very non-MTV-style spring break. In lieu of regular updates, we’ll be posting links to some of our favorite places and organizations that make us think of spring – even if the snow is still flying. First up: Urban Roots. Urban Roots Community Cooperative Garden…
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what are your five?
In addition to Monday’s reference to Simran Noor’s five actions the bike movement can take to advance racial equity, two other articles came across the screen this week with five points of advice for people-focused urban regeneration. The first, from Bloomberg Philanthropies Tommy Pacello who served as the Director of the Mayor’s Innovation Team in Memphis, TN.…
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Fair Housing Month
“…where one lives determines how one lives, influencing quality of life factors such as education, employment, transportation options, public services, safety, recreational access, and a general sense of community.” – CHICAGO METROPOLITAN AGENCY FOR PLANNING FHEA In last Thursday’s post on redlining, I touched on one of the major practices that has historically kept…
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Buffalo’s Best Google Pac-Man Maps
If you haven’t yet played the Google Maps Pac-Mac mash-up, then do yourself a favor and play it now before it’s gone. Just don’t expect to accomplish much else today… Here are some great places to try out in Buffalo, with thanks to both Ellicott and Olmsted, click the maps for the direct link: Niagara…
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Triptych Tuesday: A Legacy of Inequitable Infrastructure
If the people centered-transportation movement can become a champion for racial and economic equity, it will play a direct an important counter-point to 20th century infrastructure decisions. A major feature in Slate last month, the past and present of auto-centric infrastructure pockmarks nearly all U.S. cities with the brunt of the externalized consequences being shouldered…
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The Bike Movement & Racial Equity via the Center for Social Inclusion
“We define racial equity as both an outcome and a process. A racially equitable society is one in which race no longer determines one’s life outcomes and in which we recognize that when we address inequity, we all share in the benefits of increased fairness and justice.” For today’s post, Make Communities is going to…
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Complete Streets Plus ____(?)_____
Forgive us if the mind wanders a bit on a chilly spring Friday morning… but this is one of those posts about Copenhagen. We spend a lot of time thinking about Complete Streets here at Make Communities. Not only is it part of the day job to work to help communities make their streets safe,…