Ben Brown

Thinking a Little Bigger About the Tiny House Thing

Ben Brown
Ben Brown
I’ve never been much of a fan of the Tiny House movement, which seemed to me to be a solution in search of a problem. Squeezing marginally comfortable living space into something you can haul around with a truck didn’t seem to be much of a design challenge. After all, there’s a whole industry that’s been addressing... Continue Reading
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Fix Housing Supply, Save the City: Is it really that easy?

Ben Brown
Ben Brown
Planning wonks might have felt all warm inside when they noticed zoning topics wedging their way into broader conversations about community affordability and equity. Bring it on. Finally. (more…) Continue Reading
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Making Better Places to Fail: Take those jobs and . . (Part II)

Ben Brown
Ben Brown
First, let’s review: Of all the sub-topics in urban planning and design, the ones likely to generate the most anxiety are those where land use planning intersects with economic development. Old-school economic developers signal their nervousness pretty quickly when they sense planning strategies are heading in directions... Continue Reading
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The Unkickable Can: Towards a ‘Livability Synthesis’

Ben Brown
Ben Brown
Maybe it’s a brief glimpse, inspired by Pope Francis’s visit, of a collective will to be better humans. Or maybe it’s just the math. But I’m feeling more hopeful about future traction for arguments -- and for action -- for more meaningfully connected, livable communities. (more…) Continue Reading
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Take These Jobs and…
(You know the rest)

Ben Brown
Ben Brown
Cheerleaders for American business used to get peeved when cynics contorted a quote by General Motors CEO Charles Erwin Wilson in 1953. The popular, misinterpreted version: “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country.” What Wilson actually said: “I thought what was good for our country was good for... Continue Reading
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Remember that Katrina Cottages thing? Whatever happened to that?

Ben Brown
Ben Brown
This is the second of two parts addressing Hurricane Katrina 10 years after the storm. The first looked at issues in New Orleans. This one focuses on one hoped-for innovation in the storm’s wake in Coastal Mississippi. Right about now, a couple and their two children are getting much-needed affordable housing help... Continue Reading
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Katrina ‘Ten Years After’: And the band plays on

Ben Brown
Ben Brown
I guess it says something about where I am on life’s conception-to-compost journey that the phrase “Ten Years After” evokes a forgettable British group from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. But, hey, let’s at least credit Alvin Lee with capturing a timeless sentiment in his lyrics for the band’s 1971 hit, “I’d... Continue Reading
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Pope Goes Global: Let’s talk local

Ben Brown
Ben Brown
Even before last week’s official release of Pope Francis’s encyclical on climate change, advocates and defenders were honing their talking points. In April, liberal Catholic author Gary Wills upped the ante on what was anticipated -- accurately, it turns out -- as the the pontiff’s vigorous critique of global inequities... Continue Reading
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Ideas Converging for Housing Opportunity: Some sorta oldish, lots very NUish

Ben Brown
Ben Brown
When we look back on this period, we might discover that the effort to ramp up realistic approaches to the challenges of community affordability reached some sort of tipping point in the spring and summer of 2015. (more…) Continue Reading
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Need a Better Story?
Get a better to-do list

Ben Brown
Ben Brown
Let’s take a wild stab at a generalization: Success at building a business or growing a non-profit or making a community more livable depends a lot on trust. You have to keep delivering what you promise to get people to keep buying what you’re selling. (more…) Continue Reading
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