There are many assumptions that come with the words “intern” and “nonprofit” – interns make coffee, run around, and print stuff, and nonprofits have cramped offices and few worker benefits. My past two months at Right To The City have proved that these assumptions couldn’t be more wrong. At Right To The City, I have…
Week
Alternative Land and Housing Models – Research
See interactive map here.
Amalgamated Housing Cooperative – A Short History
One of the sites I am studying as a researcher on Right To The City’s alternative land and housing report is the Amalgamated Housing Cooperative in Bronx, New York. The oldest limited equity housing cooperative in the United States, its birth cannot be understood without acknowledging the context of labor and immigration struggles in New York…
Interview with the Director of Community Relations at Champlain Housing Trust
As a part of my research, I have been conducting several interviews with organizers and members of alternative land and housing models. One of the most fascinating and arguable successful models is the community land trust, of which the Champlain Housing Trust (formerly Burlington Community Land Trust) is one of the best examples. To find…
The Right To The City (RTC)/Homes For All (HFA) Leadership Assembly
After an intense week of prepping, I was flown down to Atlanta on the 15th of July as a member of the logistics team for The Right To The City (RTC)/Homes For All (HFA) Leadership Assembly. This Leadership Assembly was a critical space for the development of Homes For All, Right To The City’s most…
Demanding a Shared Right to the City
My research is about alternative land and housing models, and such models are built on the foundational principles of the right to the city, such as participatory democracy and, in Harvey’s own words, “democratic control over the production and utilization of the surplus”. Some of the models (“urban groups”) I am looking at include Community…
Research Resources
My research is for a report about alternative land and housing models, to be used as an educational and informational tool to all the aspiring CLT/LEC/Tenant Union/Socialist Cooperative-starters out there. My specific role is to outline these models and provide case studies that discuss the practical and more logistical aspects of their establishment, management and…
Right to the City’s 10th Anniversary
Last week was a whirlwind; it was Right to the City’s 10th Anniversary! It was a huge deal at Judson Church, a space with great historical meaning for social movements, and we saw over 200 scholars, activists and supporters come to support us. It was the first time I have helped with an event…
Research “Field”
“Right to the city” as a right is a ‘field’ that in and of itself consists of collaborations between different ‘fields’ such as human rights, tenant rights, land use, democratic government, participatory democracy, minority rights, affordable housing – the list goes on. It relies so heavily on interactions between these different fields that it cannot…
Positionality
As a queer Indian feminist working at Right to the City Alliance (hereafter “RTTC”), in many ways I fit right in: my politics align exactly with the vision that RTTC promotes: a world in which everyone can live peacefully, fairly, and democratically. RTTC believes strongly in uplifting the marginalized by offering beyond-market and community-oriented solutions…
