The metaphor of the American melting pot has been around since the foundation of the republic, though the great breadth of peoples coming to the US did not really expand until the end of the nineteenth century. But along with the melting pot have come vociferous and sometimes violent resistance to immigrants – especially toward […]
Baltimore Finding Ways To Urban Renewal That Do Not Adversely Dislocate
In so many ways Baltimore spent much of the second half of the twentieth century as a city that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory: A vibrant industrial and trading city with a notable financial sector as well (in the decade after World War II), a city of some 2 million people who enjoyed […]
#Interview: Bernell Grier, CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City
The board of directors of the Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City recently appointed interim chief executive officer Bernell Grier as the CEO of the organization. Ms. Grier has built up an impressive resume as a banker having over her career serving as EVP, Retail Community Banking; SVP Middle Marketing Lending; Community Development Director; […]
NeighborWorks Week Draws To Successful Close
The NeighborWorks Week (June 5-12) that just finished (and that we promoted a couple of weeks ago) focused on educating homeowners to the danger signs of mortgage-assistance scams and predatory loan practices. According to the NeighborWorks website, “NeighborWorks America and local NeighborWorks organizations held more than 320 community revitalization and 150 loan modification scam awareness […]
Harvard Study Argues for Jobs, Then Houses – Which Is The Cart?
The financial crisis that began in earnest in 2007 and came to a head in 2008 has driven up unemployment to the highest point it has been since the Great Depression. Even with this statistic, though, we might want to appreciate how much has changed and how different the scale is (admittedly, cold comfort for […]
Jobs Report Suggests Slight Or Slighter Growth Depending on Source
The release of the government’s jobs report this past week was cause for about as much speculation as Apple Inc.’s World Wide Developers’ Conference is this week. And just as people pretty much knew about Apple’s fourth-generation iPhone weeks ago, so people were pretty sure what the jobs report would look like before it was […]
Kicking A (Housing) Market While It’s Down
We are not a glum group at MKCREATIVE by any means. We just believe ‘forewarned is forearmed.’ Yesterday we discussed the local (read: Baltimore-Washington region) housing market, which did not enjoy a notable bubble and (thus?) has not suffered a violent bust. Nevertheless, the region is seeing a striking deflation in home values as foreclosures […]
‘Resilient Baltimore’ Probably Needs Resilient Housing Market
Economists, reporters, politicians, and bloggers have all proclaimed and/or wondered if The Great Recession is over. Our blog has followed some of these statistics and claims at the national level, but today we want to look specifically at the situation in Baltimore and its housing market. Many (weak) signs suggest bottoms have been found in […]