From the Latest Issue of Poverty & Race: The latest issue of our journal Poverty & Race is now available online and will be arriving in print subscribers’ mailboxes soon. Professor Danielle Wingfield’s Massive Resistance: Then and Now invites us to consider the parallels between efforts to stymie school integration in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education and current classroom censorship attempts. In Thoughts from an Insider on the Legal Response to the Trump Administration’s First Nine Months, our Executive Director’s former boss (and legendary civil rights litigator) Jon Greenbaum provides an overview of how public interest litigators are standing up to the lawlessness of the Trump Administration and highlights what factors are helping those efforts and which ones are hindering their success. Lastly, in Poppy Seed Bagel Progressivism or What We Talk about When We Talk about Affordable Housing Development Costs, our Executive Director Thomas Silverstein attempts to bring some nuance to the overheated abundance discourse in the hopes that good faith actors can arrive at a consensus that enables us to demonstrate to the public that the juice of a multiracial, social democracy is worth the squeeze.
Transitions at PRRAC’s Social Science Advisory Board: PRRAC recently welcomed two brand new members to its Social Science Advisory Board (SSAB) and re-welcomed a colleague returning from a period of public service. At the same time, Margery Austin Turner of the Urban Institute – a long-time member of the SSAB – stepped down from the Body. We are so appreciative of her incredible contributions both to the field and to PRRAC over the years. To keep some continuity, our two brand-new additions – Michael Neal and Yonah Freemark – are both affiliated with the Urban Institute, with Michael also serving as the Research Director for the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights at Boston College Law. Our third addition is Vincent Reina, of the University of Pennsylvania, is returning to the SSAB after a few years working on housing policy in the Biden White House.
Other news and resources
A Kernel of Potential Consensus in the Center for American Progress’s Housing Strategy: Since its publication last week, the Center for American Progress’s report Build, Baby, Build: A Plan to Lower Housing Costs for All has inspired spirited reactions and reactions to the reactions, both supportive and skeptical; however, one specific proposal from within the strategy deserves to be pulled out as an idea that housers might embrace regardless of their broader views on housing supply: Advanced Research Projects Agency-Home (ARPA-Home). Given our struggles with high construction costs (as discussed in the current issue of Poverty & Race), deploying state capacity for research and development into innovative building technologies that could help green our housing stock and reduce the price tag of meeting housing needs at scale, whether through social housing or through the market, is an idea worthy of serious consideration.
A Break from the Parade of Horribles – Holiday Gift Guide: Building on the success of our team’s recommendations from Martin Scorsese’s filmography, we are keeping up the momentum with more distractions. This time of year, figuring out the perfect gift for a relative, friend, or randomly assigned co-worker can be tricky. We at PRRAC have stepped in with some ideas that are sure to land well:
- Audrey: Olive oil is a great gift that can be tailored to the recipient. It can be high quality that cooks will appreciate; come in beautiful aesthetic bottles that can be displayed; or come from someplace meaningful. My personal favorite is Al’Ard.
- Dave: Enjoy the fastest heating and highest temperature with a coffee warmer. Keep your beverages consistently warm from the first sip to the last
- Tessa: For anyone who thinks their pet deserves a shrine – your pet as a ceramic candle holder.
- Thomas: A few years ago, my aunt and uncle bought me the Rancho Gordo Desert Island Sampler. It was life-changing. As a long-time vegan, I love beans and eat a lot of them, but, over time, I had fallen into the lazy habit of using canned beans. This gift re-inspired me to use dried beans on the regular, thereby upping my flavor quotient significantly. This is a particularly good choice for people in your networks who have a pressure cooker.
