ARTICLE
If you are anything like us, then you eat, drink, and breath land use and zoning. Your Government Affairs team spent the last year reviewing buildable land inventories, haggling over stormwater management construction and design standards, reengineering park system master plans, and talking endlessly about housing affordability and construction regulation. That is why we are excited to recommend a book as this years HBA stocking stuffer. The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein argues with exacting precision and fascinating insight how segregation in America - the incessant kind that continues to dog our major cities and has contributed to so much recent social strife - is the byproduct of explicit government policies at the local, state, and federal levels. Zoning tools and federal lending guidelines not only shape the world around us, but were used by previous generations to exclude minorities from home ownership opportunities and single family neighborhoods. Given the current conversation about race in America, The Color of Law will help inform conversations so we can ensure that all Oregonians have an opportunity to access new housing. Previous Article