Linking magnet schools with public housing redevelopment: HUD’s most important public housing redevelopment tool, the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, was designed “to help transform high-poverty, distressed neighborhoods into mixed-income neighborhoods with the affordable housing, safe streets, and good schools every family needs.” While the program has had some success in transforming neighborhoods, less attention has been paid to the transformation of local schools. This new PRRAC policy brief proposes that HUD and the Department of Education should coordinate efforts to bring economically and racially diverse magnet schools into these newly revitalized public housing communities.
Race, Social Justice and the Arts in DC: Fortunately, we recorded last week’s excellent conversation between Howard professor Natalie Hopkinson and PRRAC Board member Sheryll Cashin on the course of gentrification in Washington DC through the prism of Go-Go music. PRRAC’s Megan Haberle presented Dr. Hopkinson with the PRRAC “Voice for Racial Justice” Award. You can watch the conversation here.
Other news and resources
The dark side of the Community Reinvestment Act: Journalist David Schechter developed this story for WFAA in Dallas on an all-too-common misuse of the CRA – worth watching!
Another blow to single-family zoning: Last week the Berkeley City Council voted to eliminate single-family zoning in the city by 2022, permitting duplexes, triplexes, and other multifamily properties in formerly single-family zones. The City Council’s decision-making drew, in part, from recent research on single-family zoning from Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute.
School integration advances in Massachusetts: Massachusetts State Senator Brendan Crighton recently introduced three new bills to promote integration across school districts: SD2150 (a new study commission), SD2162 (a school integration grants program), and SD2172 (linking school construction reimbursement to school integration efforts). Similar proposals have recently been discussed in Virginia, and last year the National Coalition on School Diversity circulated a set of model bills for other states to consider.
