Alexander von Hoffman, senior fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, has been named a visiting fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, charged with developing a foundation for future work on redevelopment. He joins several other new visiting fellows studying such topics as value capture, TIFs, and global urbanization.
The author of House by House, Block by Block: The Rebirth of America’s Urban Neighborhoods (Oxford University Press, 2003), von Hoffman will be researching a paper on lessons from redevelopment in the U.S., with a particular focus on the troubled cities of the 1970s, such as Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Seattle, and San Francisco. The factors leading to the recent trajectory of economic resurgence may inform how redevelopment is linked to recovery, for cities here and abroad.
In the current issue of the quarterly journal Land Lines, Lincoln Institute president George W. McCarthy explores the theme of redevelopment – improving land that is already developed or occupied – as the major planning and development challenge of the 21st century.
The Lincoln Institute also announced these appointments:
-- David Vetter, a former vice president of Dexia Credit in Latin America, is a visiting fellow in the Latin America program, conducting research on value capture as a way to help finance Brazil’s considerable urban infrastructure needs, seeking to define the dimensions of Brazil’s urban infrastructure needs.
-- David Merriman, from the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at University of Illinois Chicago, is a visiting fellow in the Department of Valuation and Taxation, researching local and state-imposed business property taxes, economic efficiency, and the political economy of state business taxation. He will also research on tax increment financing and contribute to the Lincoln Institute database Significant Features of the Property Tax.
-- Enrique Silva, an assistant professor and program coordinator at the City Planning and Urban Affairs program at Boston University, has joined the Lincoln Institute as senior research associate in the Latin America program. An expert in comparative urbanization, metropolitan governance, and the institutionalization of planning practices in North and South America, he will supervise and evaluate research, and organize research seminars. He will present on new strategies to mitigate informal settlement at the Urban Thinkers Campus next week organized by UN-HABITAT.
-- Scott Campbell, executive director of the Palmer Land Trust in southern Colorado, is this year’s Lincoln-Loeb Fellow, studying how conservation and natural resource allocations intersect.