Category Archives: Density

Debating the Stability of Neighborhoods Should Be Done Face to Face

By Victoria Witte I have lived in one of core Bloomington neighborhoods that is the focus of the city’s current upzoning proposal since 1981. This is a complicated proposal and one that needs an open forum — an in-person forum — to truly consider the ramifications of densification. The middle of a pandemic, with people’sContinue reading “Debating the Stability of Neighborhoods Should Be Done Face to Face”

The Most Destructive Housing Form

By Jean Simonian The latest round of debate on the rezoning of Bloomington’s core has focused a lot of attention on the proposal to allow development of large multiplex apartment structures in core neighborhoods now zoned for single-family houses. That’s understandable; quadplexes would be big and conspicuous, towering over most of their neighbors, and eachContinue reading “The Most Destructive Housing Form”

Call It ‘Rentrification’

By Chris Sturbaum Real estate is like mathematics. It is like science. You make single family zoned property eligible for conversion into multi-unit housing — now it represents multiple rental streams from the same footprint, and its value increases. This action alone prices many homes out of the range of potential homeowners.  Then increased rentalContinue reading “Call It ‘Rentrification’”

Liberalism and real estate reality: The long view

I am an older person. This means I learned about climate change 50 years ago. Since then we have had the Vietnam War, Nixon and Watergate, Carter (who took fuel conservation seriously), Reagan (who did not), Bush the Elder, and Clinton, who worried out loud about the climate before his Vice President Al Gore lostContinue reading “Liberalism and real estate reality: The long view”