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Centrist Dems sweat DSA NYC candidate
Presented by With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine and Ali Bianco Good Saturday morning. This is Adam Wren. Get in touch. TODAY: President Donald Trump flies back to Washington today from Bedminster, New Jersey, to attend another national security meeting in the Oval Office at 6 p.m. THE CONVERSATION: Ever since Trump's victory in November, Democrats have been asking some variation of one question: Why did we lose the election? Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) has a few answers. 'Well, one, we became the party of war,' Khanna tells Playbook's Dasha Burns on this week's episode of 'The Conversation,' which comes out tomorrow morning. 'I think the Gaza situation really hurt us with a lot of young people, certainly in Wisconsin and Michigan. We would have won those two states, but for that. 'Second, inflation,' Khanna continued. 'We were too late in recognizing how much people were hurting. We kept calling it 'transitory.' We didn't have the urgency of a plan of what we were gonna do to tackle inflation. Let me give you one example. Donald Trump, erroneously, is calling in the National Guard to Los Angeles to deal with the situation there. I oppose that. Did we ever call in the National Guard to say, you know what, we've got a supply chain shortage, we don't have enough people manning the ports, we're going to have an all-out mobilization and call the National Guard to deal with these supply chains shortages? …I think people just thought we weren't on top of it.' More from Jacob Wendler DRIVING THE DAY EMPIRE STATE OF MIND: Centrist Democrats are sounding the alarm that a surging democratic socialist mayoral candidate in New York City's Tuesday primary could further set back the party's already beleaguered national brand. Third Way, the center-left Democratic think tank, wrote in a memo Friday that they are 'deeply alarmed' by Zohran Mamdani, whom they argue holds positions 'that border on anti-semitism' and scan as if they were 'cooked up in the offices of a Trump-aligned ad maker.' At a time when the Democrats are searching for a way out of the wilderness, moderates in the party say that given New York City mayors' outsized role in national politics — three of the last four have run for president — Republicans could exploit Mamdani's positions for their gain up and down the ballot. 'We've seen the MAGA right's ability and eagerness to weaponize over steps by the left,' Third Way's executive vice president Matt Bennett tells Playbook. 'If you just think about the way the Trump campaign attacked [former Vice President Kamala] Harris, the way the MAGA right has attacked Democrats generally, it is by attaching them to ideas that are outside of the mainstream. Flipping [Minnesota Gov.] Tim Walz on its head: It turns out, they made us into the weird ones, and nothing's weirder than the stuff that's in the DSA platform, and we just cannot hand that to the Republicans.' The Third Way memo highlights defunding the police, closing jails, banning private healthcare and operating city-owned grocery stores as positions American voters would find beyond the pale. In a statement, campaign spokesperson Lekha Sunder said 'Mamdani's campaign is a model for the direction our party must head in: towards the people.' And Mamdani has repeatedly pushed back against the antisemitism label. 'I've said at every opportunity that there is no room for antisemitism in this city, in this country,' he said at a press conference earlier this week, adding the reason he does not have a more visceral reaction to being labeled that is because it has 'been colored by the fact that when I speak, especially when I speak with emotion, I am then characterized by those same rivals as being a monster.' At a post-election retreat for Democrats in Virginia earlier this year, Third Way conceded in a memo that the 'party needed to own failures of Democratic governance in large cities and commit to improving local government.' STATE OF THE RACE: Playbook checked in with one of our top POLITICO New York reporters, Emily Ngo, to get a pulse on Tuesday's primary, which she tells us is 'chaotic' and 'expensive.' 'The super PAC backing Andrew Cuomo has $24 million in contributions as of Friday, a third of that from former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who does not want a democratic socialist as one of his successors,' Ngo writes in. 'The race is effectively between Cuomo, a former governor who resigned in disgrace in 2021, and Mamdani, a DSA state lawmaker who's 33 and was an unknown until he surged toward the front of the pack. But Brad Lander, the progressive city comptroller, is in the mix after grabbing national headlines upon being detained by federal officers while protecting a defendant outside immigration court.' Ngo also notes that the race has become a 'proxy battle' between progressives and moderates nationally: Mamdani has not just the endorsements of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), but Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), while Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) backed Cuomo Friday. 'It's also a proxy battle in the sense that Israel and antisemitism have come up again and again, which Cuomo wants to keep the spotlight on the topic,' Ngo tells us. 'In these final days, Cuomo has focused on Mamdani's response to a podcast question on whether the phrase 'globalize the intifada' makes him uncomfortable. Mamdani did not reject or condemn the phrase. He has said it means different things to different people and reiterated that he would protect Jewish New Yorkers and combat antisemitism.' 5 MINUTES WITH Welcome to '5 Minutes With,' a new Playbook weekend segment featuring a quick chat with a newsmaker. Rep. Greg Casar, the 36-year-old Texas Democrat, is backstage as the nu-cumbia DJ El Dusty warms up a crowd for another stop on Bernie Sanders' 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour. On Friday evening, in McAllen, the Congressional Progressive Caucus chair is getting ready to introduce the Vermont senator in Hidalgo County, in South Texas, which Trump flipped last November. It's part of the outreach Casar has been doing in red spaces — including three stops in GOP congressional districts, two town halls in Texas, Fox News, and Truth Social. 'We have to go talk to all the folks that voted for Trump and were lied to—all these folks that are feeling betrayed by a president who put corrupt billionaires first,' Casar says. 'At these rallies, I'm asking the thousands of attendees to go do the exact same thing that Bernie and I are doing — go and talk to their friends and coworkers who voted for Trump, who now have been betrayed by the president and his party.' Casar isn't afraid to punch right, including at those in his own party who argue the abundance approach can help Democrats win again: 'I saw Josh Barro the other day at this corporate Walmart fest — or whatever it was — out there saying that abundance means going and crushing labor unions,' Casar says. 'That's absurd. I think it's just like the 1988 Republican platform trying to disguise itself in abundance.' In the crowd, Casar can see people dancing as they wait for Sanders to speak. Casar says Democrats must nominate a progressive in 2028 to find their way back. 'If we don't transform the brand of the Democratic Party into an economically populist one, and one that is about everyday people's economics first,' he says, 'it won't matter who our candidate is, we'll lose.' FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who is speaking at the Florida Democratic Party dinner today in Hollywood, Florida, is expected to burnish his ability to win in red parts of the country ahead of a possible 2028 presidential campaign, according to excerpts first shared with Playbook: 'The actions of the Trump administration are providing a huge opportunity for Democrats to go out and regain the trust of the American people — to be the party of common sense, common ground and getting things done,' Beshear is expected to say. 'To do that, we have to talk to people and not at them. And we have to explain our 'why.' That's how I won counties in Eastern Kentucky that normally vote for Republicans by large margins. Including Breathitt County, which is the county JD Vance pretends to be from.' He continues: 'For me, my 'why' is my faith. As governor, I restored voting rights to almost 200,000 Kentuckians who had paid their debt to society and deserve to have their voices heard at the ballot box. I got medical marijuana passed because no one who is going through cancer or dealing with PTSD should have to suffer instead of having access to relief. I removed the statue of Jefferson Davis from our State Capitol, because a glaring symbol of bigotry and division does not belong in any Capitol in our country, and that includes here in Florida. The current federal administration wants to make diversity a dirty word. They want people to believe that equity means everyone isn't worthy of opportunities. They want to rewrite the hard truths of our history.' 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US 1. IRAN-ISRAEL LATEST: As the conflict between Israel-Iran hits a full week mark, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fearful of being assassinated, now mostly communicates with his commanders through a trusted assistant and 'has picked an array of replacements down his chain of military command in case more of his valued lieutenants are killed,' NYT's Farnaz Fassihi scoops. Khamenei also named 'three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, as well — perhaps the most telling illustration of the precarious moment he and his three-decade rule are facing.' The Iran leader's extraordinary precautions come as Israeli officials announced today they had killed a veteran Iranian commander, Saeed Izadi, in what Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called 'major achievement for Israeli intelligence and the Air Force,' per Reuters. Though Trump has given Tehran a two-week deadline to reach a deal that will claw back its nuclear program, the country reiterated it will not enter into negotiations while under threat. Meanwhile, Israeli officials insisted yesterday that they will keep up their bombing campaign against the country until they believe their nuclear capabilities are fully eliminated, POLITICO's Nahal Toosi and Eli Stokols report. Iran has threatened to retaliate if the U.S. decides to strike, and the Iran officials have also suggested Washington may be using talks as a 'cover' for attacks: 'So they had perhaps this plan in their mind, and they just needed negotiations perhaps to cover it up,' Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News. 'We don't know how we can trust them anymore. What they did was, in fact, a betrayal to diplomacy,' Araghchi said. And the distrust goes both ways: FBI Director Kash Patel is reportedly ramping up surveillance of Iran-backed operatives and sleeper cells in the United States, CBS News' Jennifer Jacobs scoops. And from the West Wing: Trump publicly dismissed Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard's assessment of Iran's nuclear capabilities for a second time this week, flatly telling reporters 'She's wrong' about the existing program, per Eli. 2. THE HEAT IS ON IN CALIFORNIA: In a visit with state and federal officials in Los Angeles yesterday, VP JD Vance used a planned news conference to go after California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, suggesting they had encouraged violence during the recent slew of anti-ICE protests across the city, per the LA Times: 'What happened here was a tragedy,' Vance said. 'You had people who were doing the simple job of enforcing the law, and you had rioters, egged on by the governor and the mayor, making it harder for them to do their job.' Bass clapped back at Vance's characterization yesterday in a separate news conference: 'Unfortunately, the vice president did not take time to learn about our city and understand that our city is a city of immigrants from every country and continent on the planet … How dare you say that city officials encourage violence … We kept the peace.' Vance also accused Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) of indulging in 'political theater' after the senator was handcuffed and removed from a DHS press conference last week, referring to the lawmaker he served in the Senate with by the wrong name: 'Well, I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question, but unfortunately, I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn't the theater,' Vance said. 3. MAHMOUD KHALIL LATEST: Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil has been released from an ICE detention center in Louisiana, where he has spent more than three months after he was arrested outside his apartment on Columbia University's campus, per CNN. Exiting the center wearing a keffiyeh, Khalil pumped his fists in the air, grinning: ''Although justice prevailed but it's long, very long overdue, and this shouldn't have taken three months,' Khalil told reporters outside the detention center, adding he couldn't wait to reunite with his wife and newborn son.' Khalil's release came hours after U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz ordered yesterday he was not a flight risk or a danger to public safety, adding his detainment was 'highly unusual.' As a reminder: Khalil has not been charged with any crime, though the Trump administration wants to deport him via a 'rarely used provision of immigration law that allows the government to deport any non-citizen,' Erica Orden and Kyle Cheney report. 4. SCHOOL DAZE: Trump posted on Truth Social yesterday that Harvard is in active settlement talks with the White House, suggesting a possible resolution could be announced within the next week: 'If a Settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be 'mindbogglingly' HISTORIC, and very good for our Country,' Trump wrote. 'It was not clear whether Trump was referring to formal settlement talks in one of the University's two ongoing lawsuits against the federal government, or informal discussions around the Trump administration's demands on Harvard,' The Harvard Crimson's Dhruv Patel reports. The post comes after the Trump administration launched a 'multi-front war' against the Ivy League institution, where it's 'accused Harvard of perpetuating antisemitism; terminated $2 billion in grants; and tried to ban the school from granting admission to foreign students,' POLITICO's Cheyanne Daniels and Josh Gerstein report. The supposed detente also comes after a federal judge directed the administration yesterday to restore 'every visa holder and applicant to the position that individual would have been' before the ban was enacted per NBC News. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs 'issued the preliminary injunction after having granted a temporary restraining order against the federal government this month.' 5. NEW RULES: In an effort to curb an alleged 'surge of improper enrollments' and reduce insurance prices, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced proposed rule changes that would further limit eligibility for Obamacare coverage, POLITICO's David Lim reports. In a press release yesterday, Kennedy suggested the administration would save $12 billion by changing the eligibility rule, though critics say the changes will 'cause eligible people to miss out on a chance at subsidized health insurance and increase the uninsured rate.' More on the numbers: 'CMS estimates about 725,000 to 1.8 million people will lose coverage as a result of the final rule. In January, CMS said about 24 million people had signed up for Obamacare coverage for 2025.' The final rule also 'shortens the annual open enrollment period from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31. The previous enrollment period ran from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15.' 6. SUNSHINE STATE UPDATE: A Senate disclosure form shows that Florida state Judge Ed Artau was already meeting with Senate staff about securing a nomination to the federal bench when he sided with Trump in a case, raising serious doubts among legal groups about his objectivity, POLITICO's Hailey Fuchs scoops. The Florida district court nominee 'met with staff in the office of Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott to angle for the nomination less than two weeks after Trump's election last fall,' Hailey writes. About two weeks after Artau published his opinion in favor of Trump's case against members of the Pulitzer Prize board, 'he interviewed with the White House Counsel's Office. In May, Trump announced his nomination to the federal judiciary.' 7. A LOOK AHEAD: 'Trump wants one thing from the NATO summit. Europe is going to give it to him,' by Eli Stokols: In a major win for the president, the '32-nation transatlantic military alliance will pledge to dramatically increase spending on defense to 5 percent of gross domestic product — 3.5 percent on hard military expenditures and 1.5 percent on more loosely defined defense-related efforts. … But Trump's victory won't prevent him from pressuring countries to do even more, faster, which could prove difficult for some in the alliance.' 8. THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN: 'Stephen Miller's Fingerprints Are on Everything in Trump's Second Term,' by WSJ's Josh Dawsey and Rebecca Ballhaus: '[White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen] Miller's portfolio covers almost every issue Trump is interested in. In recent months, he talked to CEOs about a coming tariff announcement; joined a meeting between Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Trump about the company's antitrust case; and met with other tech companies on artificial intelligence. … Several White House staffers said Miller always takes the most 'extreme' view of any issue, and his positions have cost the administration in court.' 9. IMMIGRATION FILES: 'Abandoned by Trump, a farmer and a migrant search for a better future,' by WaPo's John Woodrow Cox, Sarah Blaskey and Matt McClain: 'Swept up in the freeze was JJ [Ficken] and the $50 million grant program he'd signed up for along with 140 other farmers across the country. All of them had agreed to hire and, in many cases, house domestic workers or lawful immigrants willing to take jobs that Americans would not, but with the reimbursements in doubt, farmers worried they'd miss payrolls, default on loans or face bankruptcy. Many feared the checks would never come.' CLICKER — 'The nation's cartoonists on the week in politics,' edited by Matt Wuerker — 15 funnies GREAT WEEKEND READS: — 'MAGA and the single girl' by WaPo's Kara Voght: 'What do the young women of the modern right want? It's complicated.' — 'The Cost of Passage: Violence and Death on the Atlantic Route to Spain,' by POLITICO Mag's By Tim Röhn, Marie-Louise Ndiaye and Antonio Sempere: 'Every year, tens of thousands of migrants set off to Europe from Africa in fragile wooden boats. But there's growing evidence that these perilous journeys are marred by horrific crimes.' — 'What Happened to the Women of #MeToo?' by The New Yorker's Alexis Okeowo: 'Tina Johnson accused Roy Moore of sexual assault. Then the world moved on, and left her behind.' — 'The Army Was the Only Life She Knew. Trump's Trans Ban Cast Her Out,' by NYT's Greg Jaffe: 'Maj. Erica Vandal's superiors called her 'a superb officer.' The president said transgender soldiers like her lack the 'honesty,' 'humility' and 'integrity' to serve.' — 'Threat in Your Medicine Cabinet: The FDA's Gamble on America's Drugs,' by ProPublica's Debbie Cenziper, Megan Rose, Brandon Roberts and Irena Hwang: 'The Food and Drug Administration's 2022 inspection of the Sun Pharma factory in India warned of contaminations and deficiencies. But the plant received permission from the FDA to continue shipping more than a dozen generic medications to Americans.' — 'The Myth of the Gen Z Red Wave,' by The Atlantic's Jean Twenge: 'The best available evidence suggests that the youth-vote shift in 2024 was more a one-off event than an ideological realignment.' TALK OF THE TOWN FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Second Lady Usha Vance recorded her first longform, on-camera interview with Meghan McCain on 2Way and it is set to publish Wednesday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-N.C.) … Chad Wolf … Maury Riggan … NYT's Elizabeth Williamson and Elizabeth Dias … Mary Beth Donahue … WaPo's Laura Meckler … Cody Uhing … Shara Mohtadi … Madeleine Morgenstern … David Makovsky … Bully Pulpit's Caroline Weisser … Sanam Rastegar … POLITICO's Delece Smith-Barrow, Wiktoria Brodzinska and Rachel James … Axios' Mike Allen … Gary Maloney … Jake Maccoby … Forbes' Emma Whitford … Max Clarke … Greg Hitt … Sam Nunberg … former Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Marjorie Margolies (D-Pa.), Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) and Dan Burton (R-Ind.) … Kate Kochman … Jill Farquharson … former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown … Brian Kamoie… Tony Carrk … Iyanla Kollock of Rep. Shomari Figures' (D-Ala.) office THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here): POLITICO 'The Conversation with Dasha Burns': Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). FOX 'Fox News Sunday': DHS Secretary Kristi Noem … Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) … Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). Supreme Court panel: Tom Dupree and Jonathan Turley. Panel: Matt Gorman, Stef Kight, Roger Zakheim and Juan Williams. CBS 'Face the Nation': Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) … Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) … Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter … retired Gen. Frank McKenzie. NBC 'Meet the Press': Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) … Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). Panel: Lanhee Chen, Ashley Etienne, Jonathan Martin and Andrea Mitchell. ABC 'This Week': Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) … Steve Ganyard … Karim Sadjadpour … Chris Christie. 'Powerhouse' Roundtable: Donna Brazile, Reince Priebus and Sarah Isgur. CNN 'State of Union': Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Panel: Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Kristen Soltis Anderson, Xochitl Hinojosa and Scott Jennings. NewsNation 'The Hill Sunday': Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) … Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.). Panel: Ian Swanson, James Hohmann, Molly Ball and Jasmine Wright. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
San Francisco Chronicle
11-06-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Family homesteads with tangled titles are contributing to rural America's housing crisis
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) Imagine your parents leave you and your siblings a share of land that's been in your family for generations. Several of your relatives already live on the land, and you'd like to do the same; but you can't get a loan to build or renovate a home without permission from all the relatives who also share ownership. And at any moment, another heir could sell their share, triggering a court-ordered sale that could force you off the land – and lose everything you've invested in. This is the reality of what's known as heirs' property: land passed down informally, without clear wills or deeds, which results in a ' tangled ' or ' clouded ' title. It's more common than you might think in the U.S., especially in rural areas, and it presents significant challenges to long-term housing stability. Research shows that within 44 states and the District of Columbia, there are an estimated 508,371 heirs' properties, with an assessed value of US$32 billion. (There wasn't reliable enough data in six states.) It's more of an issue in some states, such as Alabama. But it's also a problem in cities such as New York City and Philadelphia. Because it's so difficult to finance home construction on this land, sell it or leverage it, heirs' property can leave families vulnerable to exploitation and perpetuate cycles of poverty. Despite these challenges, many families have nonetheless lived together and supported one another on shared land for generations. As faculty and collaborators with Auburn University's Rural Studio, we study heirs' property and its role in shaping housing access. Based in Hale County, Alabama, Rural Studio has completed over 200 projects – many of them homes built on heirs' property – providing critical housing for families facing complex land ownership challenges. Land with no clear owner The lack of a clear will or deed often happens due to inadequate access to – and distrust of – the legal system. Once the land is passed down to the next generation, the heirs are known as 'tenants in common,' meaning they own an undivided interest in the entire property. As the property continues to pass down from generation to generation, the number of tenants in common increases exponentially. Without clear title, no single person or group can make decisions about the property. Every heir must legally sign off on any action, which makes it nearly impossible to secure traditional forms of financing, obtain insurance, access disaster relief, or use the land as collateral. Those living on the land often pay their share of property taxes, but distant or unaware heirs might not, which puts the entire property at risk of being lost through a tax lien sale. This leaves families with property in 'tangled' status exposed to predatory land acquisition practices that often lead to land loss. Any tenant in common can sell their share to an outside party. These outside parties – either individuals or companies – can then request a court to order what's called a partition by sale, which can push every other owner off the land. Imagine three siblings inherit a piece of land from their parents and are now tenants in common. One sibling sells their share to a real estate investor. That investor then goes to court and requests a partition by sale. The court then orders the entire property sold and the proceeds split among the owners, effectively forcing the other two siblings off the land, even if they wanted to keep it. Such tactics are especially common in the Black Belt region of the U.S., which covers Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina; as such, they disproportionately affect Black Americans. Why family-owned land matters Our research in Hale County, Alabama, finds that Black families in particular have supported one another for generations while living on heirs' property. These multigenerational kinship networks rely on one another for child care, elder care, food, transportation and shared utility costs. But the value of this sort of living situation goes beyond social and economic benefits. The land can be woven into family lore or be steeped in the history of the surrounding area. So, despite the legal and financial challenges, many extended families will do whatever they can to continue living together on their land. Even a small stake in heirs' property offers connection to the past and a place to return home in the future. These informal kinship networks can provide support and resilience in ways that traditional forms of land and homeownership do not. Putting all of the people who own the land on the title – what's known as 'clearing title' – is not only costly and time-consuming, but it also often requires dividing up the property into smaller parcels, which can prevent some family members from living on the land altogether. Meanwhile, traditional legal and financial products – think mortgages and land-use agreements with farmers – tend to be structured with sole ownership in mind. Most banks and institutions simply won't lend to heirs' property with tangled titles. There have been recent efforts to protect these informal arrangements. The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, which has been enacted in 25 states, ensures due process and sets up safeguards against immediate partition by sale actions. For example, if a suit is brought by a co-owner, a fair market value appraisal – or an agreed-upon value by all parties – must be conducted. The other shareholders of the land also have the option to buy out the shareholder bringing the suit. Under the statute, additional partition methods may be considered. And if a sale is required, it's done on the open market. Many organizations are working to address issues related to heirs' property and tangled titles. Most of the work centers on clearing title, establishing shared land agreements and teaching landowners how to avoid having their property fall into a tangled title situation. For example, the Florida Housing Coalition, Housing Assistance Council and the Alabama Heirs Property Alliance are actively engaged in community education, legal support, data mapping and policy advocacy. Build first, ask permission later Many rural families on heirs' property have limited pathways to homeownership. Financial constraints, limited access to quality housing options and lot restrictions have often forced residents to settle for older, substandard, manufactured homes. Small utility sheds have even begun to replace broken-down trailer homes in many rural areas. There's clearly a need for safe, durable housing that enables these families to build generational wealth. And that's where Rural Studio comes in. Building new housing or renovating existing structures means dealing with a web of zoning laws, building codes and land development ordinances, which are all tied to financing and lending systems. While many efforts to address heirs' property aim to change legal policies, we approach this issue through housing. We use what we call a 'build first' strategy. Using funds from research grants and donations, we simply start building on heirs' properties with the permission of families. In the process, we show that if tangled titles were no longer an obstacle, much more housing could be built. One of our recent Rural Studio projects is the 18x18 House, a compact, multistory home built for a young man living on heirs' property in Alabama. The home is nestled between several other family members' homes. We had to work around existing electrical lines, a septic field, roads and steep topography. Despite these site constraints, the house is an ideal starter home: big enough for the young man and a future partner to live comfortably on the family plot. If he ever decides to leave, other family members can move in. Rather than focusing on one-off products, our goal with the 18x18 House is to develop replicable housing prototypes that respond to the realities of intergenerational living on family land. We also hope that tangible housing will help policymakers understand the value of reform. The question isn't whether design can respond to these challenges, but how it can lead by pushing antiquated regulatory and legal frameworks to evolve.
San Francisco Chronicle
11-06-2025
- Science
- San Francisco Chronicle
What is the summer solstice? An astronomer explains
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Stephen Schneider, UMass Amherst (THE CONVERSATION) The summer solstice marks the official start of summer. It brings the longest day and shortest night of the year for the 88% of Earth's people who live in the Northern Hemisphere. People around the world traditionally observe the change of seasons with bonfires and festivals and Fête de la Musique celebrations. Astronomers can calculate an exact moment for the solstice, when Earth reaches the point in its orbit where the North Pole is angled closest to the Sun. That moment will be at 10:42 p.m. Eastern Time on June 20 this year. In Europe, Africa and points eastward, the moment of the equinox falls on June 21 locally, making that the day of the solstice. From Earth, the Sun will appear farthest north relative to the stars. People living on the Tropic of Cancer, 23.5 degrees north of the Equator, will see the Sun pass straight overhead at noon. Six months from now the Sun will reach its southern extreme and pass overhead for people on the Tropic of Capricorn, and northerners will experience their shortest days of the year, at the winter solstice. The Sun's angle relative to Earth's equator changes so gradually close to the solstices that, without instruments, the shift is difficult to perceive for about 10 days. This is the origin of the word solstice, which means 'solar standstill.' This slow shift means that daylight on June 20 is only about 2 seconds longer than on June 21, at mid-northern latitudes in the United States. It will be about a week before there's more than a minute change to the calculated amount of daylight. Even that's an approximation — Earth's atmosphere bends light over the horizon by different amounts depending on weather, which can introduce changes of more than a minute to sunrise and sunset times. Monuments at Stonehenge in England, Karnak in Egypt, and Chankillo in Peru reveal that people around the world have taken note of the Sun's northern and southern travels for more than 5,000 years. From Stonehenge's circle of standing stones, the Sun will rise directly over an ancient avenue leading away to the northeast on the solstice. We know little about the people who built Stonehenge, or why they went to such great effort to construct it — moving multi-ton stones from rock outcrops as far as 140 miles away. All this to mark the spot on the horizon where the Sun returns each year to rest for a while before moving south again. Perhaps they, like us, celebrated this signal of the coming change of seasons. Leer en español.
San Francisco Chronicle
11-06-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
American slavery wasn't just a white man's business − white women profited, too
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Trevon Logan, The Ohio State University (THE CONVERSATION) As the United States continues to confront the realities and legacy of slavery, Americans continue to challenge myths about the country's history. One enduring myth is that slavery was a largely male endeavor — that, for the most part, the buying, selling, trading and profiting from enslavement were carried out by white men alone. While white women certainly interacted with enslaved people in household management and day-to-day tasks, historians once argued that they weren't active owners and had very limited involvement in transactions. This was once widely believed to be a reason why Southern white women supported the institution – they were assumed to be blind to its darker side. As an expert in the economic history of slavery, I know the story is far more complex. In fact, slavery was unique in economically empowering women. It was, in essence, an early feminist institution – but exclusively for white women. A lasting myth The myth that women didn't profit from slavery has endured for several reasons. First, before the American Civil War, married women generally owned nothing of their own. The legal institution of coverture made the property a woman brought into her marriage into the property of her husband. This also meant that if a husband was in debt, a creditor could claim the wife's property for payment. In addition, there are very few surviving records that show Southern white women discussing the business of slavery. And finally, in cases where women were owners of enslaved people – say, through the death of a husband – they often used agents or male relatives to handle their affairs. Added together, there's very little to suggest that white women were deeply involved in the slavery business. Researchers have started to challenge this view by moving beyond the traditional archival sources. The innovative historian Stephanie Jones-Rogers has documented how regularly white women were seen in all aspects of American enslavement. Her most compelling evidence comes from interviews with the formerly enslaved people themselves, who noted who they were owned by and explained how belonging to the 'misses' affected every aspect of their life. The 'white feminism' of American slavery Historians have also started grappling with the ways American slavery was uniquely gender-egalitarian – at least for white women. While Northern women were trapped in coverture, Southern states were bypassing coverture specifically for the purpose of giving married women rights to own enslaved people. The earliest such act passed in the United States was the Mississippi Married Women's Property Law of 1839. This law explicitly awarded married white women ownership status over enslaved individuals. Slavery was the driver of this change: Four of the five sections of the act refer only to property in enslaved people. Similar acts were passed by other Southern states in the antebellum era to shield married women from responsibility of their husband's debts and also to allow women to independently accumulate wealth during marriage. Of course, laws on the books may not reflect how people actually behaved. But new research shows that white women were very involved in the business of slavery. In states where enslaved people were titled property – like a house or car today – sales were recorded with names of buyers, sellers and the names of the enslaved people in the transaction. White women in states where legislation formally protected their property rights to enslaved property were much more likely to be active in the market. Further analysis of these records shows that white women were involved in nearly a third of all transactions, buying and selling in equal proportion. White women were especially likely to buy and sell enslaved women, making up nearly 40% of the people doing the buying and selling. Enslaved women were especially economically valuable because if someone owned an enslaved women, they automatically became the owner of all of her children. For slave owners, owning an enslaved woman was an intergenerational wealth-building activity. A historical irony We are left to confront a deep irony in American history. Slavery gave white women in the South significantly more economic independence than those in the North, and they used this freedom with remarkable regularity. Women in slave states had legal rights to property that was half of the wealth in the southern United States at the time. Women in the North could only dream of such economic independence. While historians once claimed that white women supported the Confederacy because they were blind to the reality of slavery, researchers now know that they could have been motivated by the same economic impulses as their husbands. Slavery was actually a more gender-egalitarian institution than other forms of property or wealth accumulation, so it's not surprising that white women would have a vested interest in it.
San Francisco Chronicle
11-06-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Could a bold anti-poverty experiment from the 1960s inspire a new era in housing justice?
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Deyanira Nevárez Martínez, Michigan State University (THE CONVERSATION) In cities across the U.S., the housing crisis has reached a breaking point. Rents are skyrocketing, homelessness is rising and working-class neighborhoods are threatened by displacement. These challenges might feel unprecedented. But they echo a moment more than half a century ago. In the 1950s and 1960s, housing and urban inequality were at the center of national politics. American cities were grappling with rapid urban decline, segregated and substandard housing, and the fallout of highway construction and urban renewal projects that displaced hundreds of thousands of disproportionately low-income and Black residents. The federal government decided to try to do something about it. President Lyndon B. Johnson launched one of the most ambitious experiments in urban policy: the Model Cities Program. As a scholar of housing justice and urban planning, I've studied how this short-lived initiative aimed to move beyond patchwork fixes to poverty and instead tackle its structural causes by empowering communities to shape their own futures. The Model Cities Program emerged in 1966 as part of Johnson's Great Society agenda, a sweeping effort to eliminate poverty, reduce racial injustice and expand social welfare programs in the United States. Earlier urban renewal programs had been roundly criticized for displacing communities of color. Much of this displacement occurred through federally funded highway and slum clearance projects that demolished entire neighborhoods and often left residents without decent options for new housing. So the Johnson administration sought a more holistic approach. The Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act established a federal framework for cities to coordinate housing, education, employment, health care and social services at the neighborhood level. To qualify for the program, cities had to apply for planning grants by submitting a detailed proposal that included an analysis of neighborhood conditions, long-term goals and strategies for addressing problems. Federal funds went directly to city governments, which then distributed them to local agencies and community organizations through contracts. These funds were relatively flexible but had to be tied to locally tailored plans. For example, Kansas City, Missouri, used Model Cities funding to support a loan program that expanded access to capital for local small businesses, helping them secure financing that might otherwise have been out of reach. Unlike previous programs, Model Cities emphasized what Johnson described as 'comprehensive' and 'concentrated' efforts. It wasn't just about rebuilding streets or erecting public housing. It was about creating new ways for government to work in partnership with the people most affected by poverty and racism. A revolutionary approach to poverty What made Model Cities unique wasn't just its scale but its philosophy. At the heart of the program was an insistence on ' widespread citizen participation,' which required cities that received funding to include residents in the planning and oversight of local programs. The program also drew inspiration from civil rights leaders. One of its early architects, Whitney M. Young Jr., had called for a ' Domestic Marshall Plan ' – a reference to the federal government's efforts to rebuild Europe after World War II – to redress centuries of racial inequality. Young's vision helped shape the Model Cities framework, which proposed targeted systemic investments in housing, health, education, employment and civic leadership in minority communities. In Atlanta, for example, the Model Cities Program helped fund neighborhood health clinics and job training programs. But the program also funded leadership councils that for the first time gave local low-income residents a direct voice in how city funds were spent. In other words, neighborhood residents weren't just beneficiaries. They were planners, advisers and, in some cases, staffers. This commitment to community participation gave rise to a new kind of public servant – what sociologists Martin and Carolyn Needleman famously called ' guerrillas in the bureaucracy.' These were radical planners – often young, idealistic and deeply embedded in the neighborhoods they served. Many were recruited and hired through new Model Cities funding that allowed local governments to expand their staff with community workers aligned with the program's goals. Working from within city agencies, these new planners used their positions to challenge top-down decision-making and push for community-driven planning. Their work was revolutionary not because they dismantled institutions but because they reimagined how institutions could function, prioritizing the voices of residents long excluded from power. Strengthening community ties In cities across the country, planners fought to redirect public resources toward locally defined priorities. In some cities, such as Tucson, the program funded education initiatives such as bilingual cultural programming and college scholarships for local students. In Baltimore, it funded mobile health services and youth sports programs. In New York City, the program supported new kinds of housing projects called vest-pocket developments, which got their name from their smaller scale: midsize buildings or complexes built on vacant lots or underutilized land. New housing such as the Betances Houses in the South Bronx were designed to add density without major redevelopment taking place – a direct response to midcentury urban renewal projects, which had destroyed and displaced entire neighborhoods populated by the city's poorest residents. Meanwhile, cities such as Seattle used the funds to renovate older apartment buildings instead of tearing them down, which helped preserve the character of local neighborhoods. The goal was to create affordable housing while keeping communities intact. What went wrong? Despite its ambitious vision, Model Cities faced resistance almost from the start. The program was underfunded and politically fragile. While some officials had hoped for US$2 billion in annual funding, the actual allocation was closer to $500 million to $600 million, spread across more than 60 cities. Then the political winds shifted. Though designed during the optimism of the mid-1960s, the program started being implemented under President Richard Nixon in 1969. His administration pivoted away from 'people programs' and toward capital investment and physical development. Requirements for resident participation were weakened, and local officials often maintained control over the process, effectively marginalizing the everyday citizens the program was meant to empower. In cities such as San Francisco and Chicago, residents clashed with bureaucrats over control, transparency and decision-making. In some places, participation was reduced to token advisory roles. In others, internal conflict and political pressure made sustained community governance nearly impossible. Critics, including Black community workers and civil rights activists, warned that the program risked becoming a new form of ' neocolonialism,' one that used the language of empowerment while concentrating control in the hands of white elected officials and federal administrators. A legacy worth revisiting Although the program was phased out by 1974, its legacy lived on. In cities across the country, Model Cities trained a generation of Black and brown civic leaders in what community development leaders and policy advocates John A. Sasso and Priscilla Foley called ' a little noticed revolution.' In their book of the same name, they describe how those involved in the program went on to serve in local government, start nonprofits and advocate for community development. It also left an imprint on later policies. Efforts such as participatory budgeting, community land trusts and neighborhood planning initiatives owe a debt to Model Cities' insistence that residents should help shape the future of their communities. And even as some criticized the program for failing to meet its lofty goals, others saw its value in creating space for democratic experimentation. Today's housing crisis demands structural solutions to structural problems. The affordable housing crisis is deeply connected to other intersecting crises, such as climate change, environmental injustice and health disparities, creating compounding risks for the most vulnerable communities. Addressing these issues through a fragmented social safety net – whether through housing vouchers or narrowly targeted benefit programs – has proven ineffective. Today, as policymakers once again debate how to respond to deepening inequality and a lack of affordable housing, the lost promise of Model Cities offers vital lessons. Model Cities was far from perfect. But it offered a vision of how democratic, local planning could promote health, security and community.
