Land Lines April 2014
Features
How Community Land Trusts Are Supporting Urban Agriculture
Community land trusts (CLTs) are providing an effective framework for urban agriculture—affording a locally controlled approach to land use, fostering community activism and engagement, and responding to evolving market conditions and neighborhood needs.
A Transparent Case of Excess Burden
The 17th-century British window tax, levied upon the number of windows in a residence, inspired extreme creative measures to avoid the tax. The authors describe the effects and calculate the costs of excess burden induced by this early antecedent of the modern property tax.
A City’s Spatial History Revealed
The authors’ sampling of data from Olcott’s Land Values Blue Book of Chicago provides a clear picture of the spatial evolution of Chicago from 1913 to 2010, demonstrating the strong role that history continues to play in the current structure of the city.
