Oscar Perry Abello

New York City is going to explode tomorrow

Could I crash some of this conference tomorrow? Some of these presentations sound really interesting. Wish I was there for that one in particular.

Oakland Figure Skater Alysa Liu’s Gold Medal Story Has a Surprising Lesson for Cities A joyful, ebullient performance on ice provides a reason to look back at a landmark community investment program that no longer exists.

Read more in my story today for @nextcity.org

nextcity.org/features/oak...

What do you think? Should California bring back some version of its redevelopment agencies without TIF? Should cities elsewhere consider finding ways to play a much more active and intentional role in local economic and real estate development?

How Social Housing Won in Seattle, Despite a Flood of Big Tech Money Advocates say the influx of Big Tech spending proved to voters that social housing was in their own best interest: “Frankly, Amazon donating was a godsend for us."

Seattle's ~20 public development authorities (city & county) own the historic Pike Place Market, museums, historic cultural venues like Washington Hall, a portfolio of properties in the Chinatown-Intl District.

The newest? The city's social housing developer.

nextcity.org/urbanist-new...

In other places, notably Seattle, independent but public or quasi-public local authorities actively acquire and manage all kinds of real estate in service of the common good — and without the controversial tax-increment financing mechanism that spelled the demise of CA's redevelopment agencies.

They made room for trial and error on projects that private actors might have given up and walked away from much sooner, projects like the Oakland Ice Center, where #AlysaLiu still trains.

The redevelopment agencies did more than just fund projects. For all their flaws and missteps, they allowed the public sector in California to play a much more active role in economic and real estate development than it does today.

The Life and Death of America’s Biggest Redevelopment Program How California pulled the plug on a $5.6 billion tax increment financing-powered program.

@nextcity.org previously dubbed California's redevelopment agencies “America’s Biggest Redevelopment Program.”

It had a complicated origin in the “urban renewal” era.

It met a complicated demise due to a state budget crisis.

nextcity.org/features/tax...

It turns out California’s now-defunct redevelopment agency system had a key role in the making of the Bay Area’s newest local heroine, Olympic gold medal figure skater #AlysaLiu

This moment still lives rent free in my head

🫥🫥🫥

In State of Union, Trump lies about most restrictive voting bill in U.S. history If it became law, the bill would disenfranchise millions of eligible voters.

If you were a sane person who didn't watch the SOTU but wanted to find out about some of the lies that were stated during it, check this out!

www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

'Birdbrain' benefits: How being an expert birdwatcher may boost cognition New research shows that seasoned birders — including older adults — had denser tissue in parts of the brain tied to attention and perception.

“…the brains of expert birders…were more dense in areas related to attention & perception. Such tissue density may indicate increased communication between neurons…structural differences associated w/ more accurate bird identification.” Cc @rachelholliday.bsky.social www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Anybody I know who used to work at a California redevelopment agency? Especially the Oakland one. Email me immediately so we can talk about #AlysaLiu. oscar@nextcity.org

& yes I know the clip is about people still experiencing homelessness on these streets in a blizzard but there’s a reason why they feel safe to stay in Washington Heights & yes it would be great if we could build more housing that isn’t owned by private equity (or Columbia U for that matter).

🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

PS this is two blocks from my building
PPS the independent locally owned grocery store behind this guy isn’t even the closest one to my building. Thanks in part to limited equity co-ops the Heights is still such a vibrant & dense working class neighborhood there are local grocers everywhere

I understand if a source isn’t media trained or doesn’t speak with many journalists, there is a warranted desire to feel at ease with doing so and therefore some advance conversation about it. I often make that kind of effort willingly.

But if you are a PR PROFESSIONAL working for a client? WTF???

I’m once more compelled to ask, is there some epidemic out there of journalists sending lists of interview questions to sources before scheduling an interview? I understand sometimes it’s necessary for TV or radio. Where do professional PR or comms staff get the idea any journalist would do that?

Atlanta Beltline Inc. has hired a new "vice president of transit innovation" despite signs it may never do any actual light rail (& hasn't since Beltline began in 2005.) But when your $260M budget is >25% of entire City of Atlanta's general revenue budget, you can keep hiring those C-suite folks.

Good news: after 390 years of manels, single-gender events are officially forbidden at Harvard.

Oh. Never mind. Single-gender events are fine as long as all participants are men and occur "accidentally".

White folks get all upset at the notion of “reparations” but don’t seem to mind that we continue to have what are essentially reverse-reparations in this country, especially in much of the South, where folks whose wealth came from slavery continue to strip Black families of land and property. 1/2

The past is ever dead. It’s not even past.

Here's a cleaner version of the graphic with my error omitted.

There are almost innumerable things I could have included in this graph, and maybe I'll make a version with many of them, but I didn't want to assign too homework. The point is to demonstrate how recent these events are.

The Carlyle Group is the majority owner of the Seattle Reign. 🤦‍♀️

Murals And Money — palabra. Residents in San Diego’s historically Latino Barrio Logan sound the alarm over gentrification and a threat to the neighborhood’s landmark murals

“It is essential to invest in impoverished/historically neglected communities, Hernández added, but too often investors’ interests are not in sync with those of a neighborhood’s original residents.”

Lenders to Commercial Real Estate Owners: Pay Up Now The delinquency rate for office building owners jumped to a record high last month.

"Lenders, to office owners in particular...increasingly believe that structural changes around the workplace and hybrid work have permanently reduced demand for most office space." www.wsj.com/real-estate/...

‘He gave me my wings’: Jesse Jackson opened doors for Black women in politics Jackson, who died Tuesday, worked to diversify the electorate and brought Black women into Democratic politics who ascended to positions of power.

"His campaigns helped to normalize Black women’s leadership beyond the ballot box as organizers, decision-makers & strategists. In the years since... Black women have shaped party leadership & helped define the direction of American politics." Rest in Power, Rev. Jackson 19thnews.org/2026/02/jess...