Getting Down to Business in Sicily

Organizer Training Organizing

            Catania           Working with the Catania University team of professors, instructors, post-docs, and PhD candidates, the dog-and-pony show about ACORN was done, the walking tour of San Berillo had been checked off, and the presentation and Q&A with interested people from their activist trainings and study groups had been completed as well, so it was …

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San Berillo Conundrum

Community Development Community Organizations International Housing Organizing

            Catania           San Berillo proper, we might say, is a historic district near the city center of Catania, the second-largest city in Sicily.  The narrow alleys and unique, but too often deteriorated and hardly habitable housing structures, all tell stories of life, history, and the culture of the community. Now as I walked for several …

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Making the Case for Tenants’ Unions

ACORN International Affordability Housing Organizing Poverty Unions

            New Orleans       In Scotland, ACORN’s tenant union chants “The rent is bananas.”  Affordable housing is a global issue.  Some cities concoct schemes to maintain affordable housing and block second homes and Airbnbs, but most don’t.  Few actually break ground for affordable apartment complexes or create equitable zoning rules to allow them.  Minnesotans voted …

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