The Henry George Program

Christopher England is the author of "Land and Liberty: Henry George and the Crafting of Modern Liberalism", a history of the land reform movement in the time of Henry George and after‒today on the program, we talk about the contours of the political strategy and history covered in this text, in particular the make-or-break years of 1900-1920. How were "the interests" addressed, and what lessons does this have for us today?

Kevin Burke from East Bay for Everyone is here to talk about the latest in Housing Elements; we get into the weeds on how different jurisdictions have complied and struggled against the process, get into details on quantifying fair housing standards, talk about land value, and of course get into Builder's Remedy (which Kevin wrote about in the SF Chron in 2022.

Robert Fairbanks is here to talk about his 1988 book, "Making Better Citizens: Housing Reform and the Community Development Strategy in Cincinnati, 1890-1960"; we discuss the rise of the anti-slum movement, how it evolved from decade to decade owing to different ideological and political shifts, and how it resulted in wide-scale urban renewal and the displacement of countless residents. The environment here is Cincinnati, but with fairly universal relevance.

Rohin Ghosh has moved on to school in DC, and has been keeping busy by acquiring public office (!); he informs us all about how DC's ANCs work, as well as larger dynamics of housing in our nation's capital. Also talk on tenant organizing, as well what this means for democracy more generally.

Are you aware that it's possible to power trains from wires? It's more likely than you think; this and more, as our guest Adriana Rizzo (of Common Ground California and Californians for Electric Rail) writes in a new Streetsblog article. We talk all about electric trains, plus overall dynamics of the Inland Empire, and what UC grad students are doing to organize.

What can you find in Marin County other than redwoods? Is there is a future for people and nature co-existing? Is growth possible in such a slow-growth hotbed? Jenny Silva of Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative and Warren Wells of the Marin County Bicycle Coalition tell us all.

Professor David Colander was a co-creator of MAP: "A Market Anti-Inflation Plan", in the context of stagflation. We talk about the history and theory of this technical approach, how inflation can be understood as a political and institutional problem, and some of the other ways in which economics must be informed by an understanding of philosophy. Also featuring discussion on inflation for asset prices, including the conundrum of real estate.

New York City (famous city) is also famous for having notoriously screwy property taxes; we talk about the details of this convoluted system, how we got here, and how people are trying to make the system more equitable.

Everybody is talking about single stair reform AKA vertical shared access AKA point access blocks AKA skinny apartments etc etc etc... what's the big deal? Ed Mendoza of the Livable Communities Initiative is here to explain what it's all about, including a deeper dive about how it alleviates concerns over safety, etc, and what the costs of land assembly premiums are today. (Link to an article on land assembly mentioned in the ep)

Cincinnati is the only city that owns a railroad; they're looking to change this by selling it off permanently. Josh Junker is here to talk about all the ways this is imprudent. Discussion also about other transportation issues, including the incomplete subway, and working with hostile state government.