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The American Institute of Architects has released a statement urging action on a number of key priorities related to architecture and the built environment for the 2024 presidential elections following Tuesday’s debate between candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. "Architects... View full entry
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has included hefty spending on infrastructure projects in its annual budget, looking to spur growth and improve its popularity just ahead of key state elections. The budget also includes a proposed 30% tax on income from cryptocurrencies. — ABC News
India also introduced a new digital rupee (after previously attempting a ban on cryptocurrencies) and plans to declare data centers and large energy storage systems as infrastructure in an effort to increase access to institutional funding. Hopes are that the investment in building projects will... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects has been one of the many vocal opponents to the House and Senate tax plans, which would gut historic tax credits and harm architecture firms, especially those smaller in size. However, after a concerted effort to lobby Congress, the AIA is newly "encouraged"... View full entry
Following recent developments the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made in various versions in both the House and the Senate, the American Institute of Architects announced that it would lobby aggressively against "significant inequities" the legislation currently represents. Back in September, the AIA... View full entry
Wednesday, President Trump and congressional Republicans rolled out a sweeping tax overhaul proposal that would radically slash business taxes, trim the number of individual tax rates to around three brackets, and expand the standard deduction and child tax credit for individuals. The plan has... View full entry
Tina Lam and Michael Cheng snatched up Presidio Terrace — the block-long, private oval street lined by 35 megamillion-dollar mansions — for $90,000 and change in a city-run auction stemming from an unpaid tax bill. They outlasted several other bidders.
Now they’re looking to cash in — maybe by charging the residents of those mansions to park on their own private street.
— San Francisco Chronicle
When the annual $14 city tax bill for the street on Presidio Terrace went unpaid for a little over thirty years, the frustrated municipality held an auction to recoup its lost monies. A savvy couple who live in the decidedly less swanky South Bay snapped it up and now are causing all of the... View full entry
A proposal by Gov. John Hickenlooper to direct marijuana revenue toward building affordable housing and curbing homelessness offers a glimpse into the potential the new revenue can have on public services and projects...To the chagrin of pro-marijuana activists, Hickenlooper believes there is a correlation between homelessness, a need for affordable housing and substance abuse, including impacts from marijuana legalization. — The Gazette
Gov. Hickenlooper requested $18.3 million ($16.3 million from marijuana taxes and $2.0 million from the General Fund) toward affordable housing as part of his FY 2017-18 State budget this past November. The Gazette reports that Hickenlooper and his administration “are hesitant to acknowledge... View full entry
“They spend $25,000 per employee per year on perks like free beer and pool tables and massages ... That’s great, but can they spend $1,000 to help the rest of San Francisco survive?”
As it turned out, they could not. Representatives of tech organizations reacted fiercely against the tax, saying that it would suppress growth in the industry that has made the city – parts of it, at least – wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice.
— The Guardian
Widening the gap between San Francisco's wealthy and poor, the budget committee of the city's board of supervisors rejected on Monday the tech tax, which “would have imposed a 1.5% payroll levy on technology companies that generate more than $1m in revenues a year, including Uber, Google... View full entry
California may be a capital of cosmetic surgery, but it’s not just noses and eyelids falling under the knife. A hot housing market is driving buyers to pay exorbitant sums for old, frumpy houses, knowing they’ll pay plenty more to remake them to modern tastes. Others currently own dowdy houses and choose to renovate rather than relocate. — Wall Street Journal
"While the dynamic is playing out in a number of U.S. cities, California’s plight is particularly intense because of Proposition 13, a 1978 amendment to the state constitution. It set property taxes based on 1975 assessments and capped future property-tax increases at 2% a... View full entry
Through the program, property owners will pay a small assessment that will go toward maintaining and improving parks, plazas, gardens, sidewalks and more. It’s modeled after the Community Benefit District (CBD) program, but geared toward greening a residential area, as opposed to promoting commercial shopping districts, like more conventional CBDs. [...]
“This provides a way for us to not only maintain them [the public spaces], but provide capital improvements over time.”
— NextCity
Targeted specifically in the Dogpatch and Northwest Potrero Hill neighborhoods of San Francisco, the impetus for the Green Benefit District plan began years ago, as development rates were quickly beginning to outpace public green spaces in the area. The GBD program would provide a continual source... View full entry
What a National Register [of Historic Places] listing really means is a 20% federal tax credit for structural investing, along with any state tax incentives, but that's often not enough to make preservation a more appealing option over razing and starting over. [...]
Listing on the National Register certainly gives something of an economic incentive for preservation, as well as a national profile for these sites [...]
However, what historic sites ultimately need is sustainable funding.
— Atlas Obscura
Last January, Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, did something that no other city its size had done before: It made all public transit in the city free for residents. [...]
One year later, this city of 430,000 people has firmly established itself as the leader of a budding international free-transit movement. [...]
What’s less clear on the first anniversary of free transit in Tallinn is whether it has actually changed commuting behavior all that much.
— Citiscope
As it turned out, Tallinn's bold move last year to offer free-transit to its residents did not have a very dramatic effect on its own ridership. But the experiment has clarified some subtle issues in public transit:Free-transit as a "second-best pricing scheme": if a city wants to curb... View full entry
The controversial artist has already received more than 6,000 yuan ($958,000) from more than 22,200 people.
While many have sent money via post and the internet, other have resorted to rather unconventional methods -- folding bank notes into paper planes and throwing them into Ai's garden at night.
— cnn.com
