Metropolitics

Depending on a Curse: What History Tells Us About Property-Tax Reform in New York City

Daniel Wortel-London — 2022-07-12T05:00:00Z

Daniel Wortel-London discusses New York's discriminatory policies and taxes and asks: can a tax system as cumbersome as New York's possibly be changed? And if it can, what unanticipated consequences might follow?
For decades, New York's local government has inflicted upon its people both discriminatory policies and discriminatory taxes. This discrimination takes two forms. On the one hand, New York taxes different classes of property at different rates. Single-family homes made up 51.27% of

- Debates / taxation, tax reform, real estate, New York, housing, discrimination, property

The House is Ours: How Moms 4 Housing Challenged the Private-Property Paradigm

Lauren Everett — 2020-10-06T05:00:00Z

In the midst of a global housing affordability crisis that has been heightened by the Covid‑19 pandemic, it is time to reconsider how the right to profit from property ownership is privileged in policy, funding, and ideology in the United States. Oakland-based Moms 4 Housing's bold direct action presented a concrete challenge to the status quo.
On November 18, 2019, in west Oakland, California, Dominique Walker and Sameerah Karim started moving their families into the vacant three-bedroom

- Essays / housing, affordable housing, community land trusts, property ownership, property, homeownership, private property, real estate, speculation, California, United States, Oakland

Does Rent Control Prevent Investment in Real Estate?

Loïc Bonneval & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-02-08T06:00:00Z

While rent-control measures kept private rental housing in France affordable for much of the 20th century, it has been massively rejected since the 1950s, on the grounds that it discourages investment in real estate. Here, Loïc Bonneval utilizes an unpublished historical survey to demonstrate the highly debatable nature of these criticisms—as rent control did not stop rental investment being profitable in the past.
The question of how to keep private-sector rents in check has become ever more

- Debates / France, housing, real estate, property, Lyon, rent control, rental, housing crisis, housing markets, rent, 20th century, 19th century, rental housing

Can the Commons Pave the Way to Greater Land Security?

Irène Salenson & Claire Simonneau & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-06-22T05:00:00Z

Experiences of collective forms of ownership, based on the concept of the commons, have flourished throughout the world. Irène Salenson and Claire Simonneau ask what opportunities they offer for reducing the precarity of the most disadvantaged city dwellers in the Global South.
---- Series: Land Rights in the Urban Global South. Regularization and Land-Ownership Policies in Low-Income Neighbourhoods A large proportion of urbanites in the Global South live in informal neighbourhoods – around a

- Debates / property, land, Africa, Global South, community land trusts, Latin America, land tenure, land rights, property ownership, land use, land insecurity, land regularization, commons, land commons, urban land commons

Land Insecurity in Khartoum: When Land Titles Fail to Protect Against Public Predation

Alice Franck & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-06-06T05:00:00Z

The unstable economic and political context in Sudan has encouraged people to invest massively in land in urban areas. In Khartoum, the land rush concerns everyone, from the elite to the working classes – and, above all, the authorities, who maintain a stranglehold over these precious assets. Title deeds are regularly disputed, suggesting that land insecurity is on the increase.
---- Series: Land Rights in the Global South. Regularization and Land-Ownership Policies in Low-Income

- From the Field / property, land, Africa, Global South, insecurity, land tenure, land rights, land titles, property rights, property titles, property tenure, Khartoum, land titling, property ownership, public land, land use, title deeds, land insecurity, Sudan

Land Titling: A Tool, not a Panacea

Kareem Ibrahim & Deena Khalil — 2016-12-20T06:00:00Z

The government of Egypt has long relied on land titling to limit the growth of informal urban residential settlements. Kareem Ibrahim and Deena Khalil argue that while titling addresses problems stemming from informality in some cases, the benefits of this strategy are exaggerated, particularly given that low-income households are excluded from formal credit markets regardless. In Egypt as elsewhere, titling initiatives fail to address more fundamental issues of poverty and marginalization.

- From the Field / property, land, Africa, Global South, informality, Egypt, North Africa, Cairo, land tenure, land rights, land titles, property rights, property titles, property tenure, land titling, informal housing, access to credit

Securing Land Tenure in Egypt: Who Needs Registered Titles?

David Sims — 2016-06-14T05:00:00Z

David Sims challenges popular wisdom on property-rights regimes in non-Western nations by questioning the relevance of formal property titling for poor urban households in Egypt, where informal and semi-formal solutions provide the majority of households with surprisingly secure forms of possession. In light of this—and in the absence of a strong national state—can something as complex and culturally idiosyncratic as property relations be objectified as a development problem in need of a

Occupy Mall Street?

Anthony Maniscalco — 2015-04-21T04:50:00Z

The quintessential suburb is home to the shopping mall, an indoor space of anchor departments stores, small specialty shops and food courts. This multi-tiered site of commerce is sometimes repurposed as a senior exercise track, a meeting place for holiday festivities, or YouTube-inspired flash mobs. However, as Tony Maniscalco explains, coordinated efforts and legal precedents have curbed the possibility of freedom of expression and assembly at shopping malls.
When the suburban shopping mall

- Debates / consumption, public space, United States, property, suburbs, retail, commerce, shopping mall, First Amendment, assembly, supreme court

Why isn't there enough housing in France?

Jean-Claude Driant & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-01-11T06:00:00Z

The idea that France is experiencing a serious housing deficit, requiring a massive home-building policy is the starting point for many debates. Previously in Metropolitics, Jean-Claude Driant questioned the relevance of this solution, asking “Why build new housing?”. Here, he re-examines the causes of the affordable housing deficit and, in particular, the notion of a lack of available land.
What is the true extent of the housing deficit in France? In the initial analysis, if there really

- Debates / construction, housing, social housing, real estate, property, local urban development plan, land, intercommunality