r. carey gersten » housing

Slumburbia

Carey — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 02:30:38 +0000

By Timothy Egan | The New York Times | February 12, 2010

A new housing development in Lathrop in 2006. One in eight houses in the town are now in some stage of foreclosure. (Photo by Jim Wilson/The New York Times)

LATHROP, Calif. — Drive along foreclosure alley, through new planned communities that look like tile-roofed versions of a 21st century ghost town, and you see what happens when people gamble with houses instead of casino chips.

Dirty flags advertise rock-bottom discounts on empty starter mansions. On the ground, foreclosure signs are tagged with gang graffiti. Empty lots are untended, cratered with mud puddles from the winter storms that have hammered California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Nobody is home in the cities of the future.

Read on: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/slumburbia/?th&emc=th

Cisco’s Big Bet on New Songdo: Creating Cities From Scratch

Carey — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:25:34 +0000

By Greg Lindsay | FAST COMPANY | February 1, 2010

Cisco's Wim Elfrink and developer Stan Gale plan to standardize many elements of New Songdo (rendering above) in other cities. (Photograph by James Whitlow Delano)

The world is bracing for an influx of billions of new urbanites in the coming decades, and tech companies are rushing to build new green cities to house them. Are these companies creating a smarter metropolis — or just making money?

Stan Gale is exultant. The chairman of Gale International yanks off his tie, hitches up his pants, and mops the sweat and floppy hair from his brow. He’s beaming like a proud new papa, sprung from the waiting room and handing out cigars to whoever happens by. Beckoning me to follow, he saunters across eight lanes of traffic toward his baby, delivered prematurely days before.

Read on: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/142/the-new-new-urbanism.html

Green homes red-hot: 17% of new builds get Energy Star seal

Carey — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:03:09 +0000

By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY, December 4, 2009

The home building industry is struggling, but one sector is booming: green homes.

The number of homes winning the government’s Energy Star designation since the program began in 1995 has crossed the 1 million mark. Despite an overall housing slump, 75,000 have been added so far this year for a total of 1,024,200.

Last year, Energy Star homes accounted for nearly 17% of all single-family homes built, up from 12% in 2007.

The Energy Star label means a house is at least 20% more energy-efficient than other new homes.

“They are better homes,” with more efficient windows, lighting, appliances, insulation, heating and cooling, says Maria Vargas of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program.

Read on: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2009-12-03-green-house-energy-star-new-homes_N.htm