it is quickly apparent that John Gilderbloom's statistics (about how historic preservation leads to lower rental prices) are irrelevant in Philly, because his statistics were for an area where historic preservation created additional triplexes and prevented the construction of more expensive apartment buildings with 100+ units. (Based on his comments about the weather, I assume it was somewhere warm where the US population is increasing.) The Historic Committee in our neighborhood will be working to prevent single-family homes from turning into triplexes, and obviously a single family home rents for more than an apartment in it would. And with Philadelphia inexorably losing population, I doubt any developers are eyeing West Philly as a good spot to build apartment mega-complexes. So, I suggest that Gilderbloom's statistics don't hold true for Philly.
Stephen Metraux wrote: > In going through my email, I saw that sandwiched between the weekend's > postings on the local HP initiative was this post from an urban history > list serve I subscribe to. I figure that the topic alone should make it > of interest to various folks in the neighborhood. > > I haven't checked the paper out yet nor does it necessarily reflect any > personal position I have on this matter. > > Steve Metraux > > Thorin R. Tritter wrote: > > From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon Mar 18 10:19:23 2002 > > Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (Win98; U) > > X-Accept-Language: en > > MIME-Version: 1.0 > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > Approved-By: "Thorin R. Tritter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 09:19:10 -0500 > > Reply-To: H-NET Urban History Discussion List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sender: H-NET Urban History Discussion List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > From: "Thorin R. Tritter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Organization: Princeton University > > Subject: Historic Preservation as a Smart Growth Strategy > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > From: John I Gilderbloom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > Donovan Rypkema has posted a paper on the internet concerning the link > > between economic development and historic preservation: > > Http://www.restorationandrenovation.com/RandR/newsletter/rypkema.htm. I > > urge everyone to read it. It is important, insightful and stimulating. > > It is smart thinking outside the box. Donovan has mustered some > > important numbers which should help us rethink urban policy and why > > historic preservation is important.. I find this paper one of the best > > I have read in the past few years. I am curious what other members of > > this list serve think of it as well. I would also like to add my own > > comments which compliment his work but extends it in the area of > > affordable housing strategy. In a book I co-authored with Richard > > Appelbaum, Rethinking Rental Housing (the book is available on > > Amazon.com), we did a inter-city rent differential analysis of 144 self > > contained rental housing markets in the U.S.. We wanted to know why > > cities had high, medium and low rents. Conventional wisdom concerning > > why rents rise was turned upside down by this study. Our study tested > > supply-side theory of former U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) > > Secretary Jack Kemp that more construction of housing leads to higher > > vacancy rates which causes rents to fall was found not to work that way > > in the real world. High rates of new rental construction often causes > > demolition of historic houses and rents significantly rise instead of > > fall. Another way of looking at the importance of preservation is the > > finding that cities with large percentage of older rental housing stock > > had lower rents. Higher rents were also associated with rapid increases > > in population, high household incomes, large mega housing apartment > > complexes of 100 of more units at an address, small number of "mom and > > pop" apartment units (accessory units, garage units, basement and attic > > units) , and pleasant climates. Bottom line: affordable housing > > advocates should embrace historic preservation. This also has > > implications for new urbanism which makes accessory units part of the > > planned development. Adding more "mom and pop" accessory units means > > lower rents which should be part of the new urbanist vocabulary. Hope > > you enjoy Donovan's article as much as I did. > > > > Cheers, > > John I. Gilderbloom > > Director, Center for Sustainable UrbanNeighborhoods > > Professor of Urban and Public Affairs > > University of Louisville > > > > -- > Department of Sociology Center for Mental Health > 3718 Locust Walk <and> Policy & Services Research > University of Pennsylvania 3535 Market St. #3131 > Philadelphia PA 19104-6299 Philadelphia PA 19104 > > (215) 746 7344 (phone) ** ** (215) 349 8715 (fax) > [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~metraux > ---- > You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the > list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see > <http://www.purple.com/list.html>. -- Richard Hotchkiss http://www.hotstrings-inc.com ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
