(Multifamily and single-family housing living in harmony in Seattle | Photo: Jon Geeting)

Yesterday, President Donald Trump announced he would pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement--the most significant international action taken so far to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. 

Philadelphia has been experiencing a spate of sustained growth in home prices in the post-recession period, leaving some observers to wonder where the ceiling is. The latest entry in this genre is a blog post from Jonathan Tannen at Econsult, which poses the question of whether our recent housing market trends are sustainable, or whether we're watching a bubble developing. 

(Spagnolo Group Architecture)

With Center City, University City, and the Navy Yard expected to continue their moderately strong recent growth, there's increasing interest among local elected officials in pivoting the City's attention toward stoking job growth outside of these places.

(Council President Darrell Clarke)

This Tuesday, Philadelphians awoke to scenes of arson and vandalism. After weeks of a campaign warning of impending “direct action” against “gentri scum”, the outside agitators acted. Dressed in all black, wielding weapons, and attacking indiscriminately, they burned homes in Point Breeze, broke windows in South Kensington, and continued their pattern of vandalism across the city.

("Better off as a vacant lot than a triplex" - Darrell Clarke, probably | Photo: Flickr/Jukie Bot)

We've got a cool event coming up on May 11th that we're partnering on with Urban Land Institute, where we'll be talking with some local experts about what happened in the 5 years since Philly passed zoning reform.

The discussion will be focused on neighborhood commercial corridors in particular, since corridor retail has emerged as a major priority area for Mayor Kenney, at least rhetorically.

(Philadelphia Central Business District | Photo: Jon Geeting)

If you liked last year's big land reassessment drama, get ready because the sequel--commercial property reassessment--is going to be even more action-packed. 

(The Claridge | Photo: Al Shapiro)

In Philadelphia, discussions about affordable housing tend to assume a binary world with "affordable housing" on one side, and "market rate" housing on the other. "Affordable housing," as the term is commonly used, assumes some form of public subsidy is going to be required, while "market rate" housing is assumed to be too expensive for the average person to afford, just by definition.

Council President Darrell Clarke once remarked, "This is Philadelphia. People drive to the corner store. This is what we do.” This attitude is common in his Council office, and it leads them to seriously misunderstand--and misrepresent--the interests of 5th District residents.

(Image: NYC.gov)

The recent saga over Toll Brothers' plans to build a residential tower on Jeweler's Row has invigorated Philadelphia's historic preservation movement, and touched off an interesting side debate about the alleged trade-offs between historic preservation and promoting sufficient housing growth.

(Photo Credit: Tom Gralish, Philadelphia Inquirer)

Mark Dent has a new piece up at Billy Penn looking at the phenomenon of "middle neighborhoods" in Philadelphia--areas marked by neither smoking hot property markets nor deeply entrenched poverty, but who are just trying to hold their ground.