Blog Archives

Abolish HUD?

Posted on July 28, 2008 by Peter Dreier — No Comments ↓

Last Friday, Columbia University sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh published a provocative op-ed column in the New York Times headlined, “To Fight Poverty, Tear Down HUD“. In this column, he argued that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is…

Tagged with: affordable housing, labor movement, planning, poverty
Posted in Housing Justice

Poverty, Crime, Housing, Race, — What’s the truth?

Posted on July 24, 2008 by Peter Dreier — 1 Comment ↓

Colleagues: When journalists and social scientists write about poverty, crime, race, and housing policy — especially when they stir them together — it is bound to provoke controversy. Journalist Hannah Rosin recently stirred up a hornet’s next with her cover…

Tagged with: affordable housing, hannah rosin, peter dreier, poverty
Posted in Housing Justice

Strengthening the “right to organize”

Posted on June 20, 2007 by Peter Dreier — 1 Comment ↓

A sure sign that progressives are changing the political debate in the country is the fact that the New York Times devoted its entire June 10 magazine to articles about inequality and poverty. The issue includes an article on an…

Tagged with: economy, living wage, poverty, unions
Posted in Labor

The New Gilded Age and the Burgeoning New Progressive Era

Posted on June 15, 2007 by Peter Dreier — No Comments ↓

America’s new Gilded Age — widening inequality and deteriorating social conditions — is triggering a new Progressive Era, an upsurge of progressive organizing, ideas, and electoral shifts. This is reflected in several ways, including: This year’s LA Business Journal look…

Snapshots in the struggle for social justice….

Posted on February 6, 2007 by Peter Dreier — No Comments ↓

Los Angeles’ hotel workers — and their allies in the labor movement, community groups, and faith-based communities — won a major victory last week when the LA City Council voted to extend the city’s living wage law to the 3500…

Tagged with: ACORN, affordable housing, gentrification, labor movement, lax, living wage, poverty
Posted in Housing Justice, Labor

John Edwards and the Politics of Poverty

Posted on May 9, 2006 by Peter Dreier — 1 Comment ↓

In a walnut paneled conference room, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with Georgian chandeliers, Remington-style bronze reproductions, 17th century Flemish art and Persian carpets, including one woven by servants of the Shah of Iran, John Edwards sat in the same…

Tagged with: john edwards, poverty
Posted in Politics & Elections