The brand new 10 min film from the 2007 Earthsharing Challenge. A dozen high school students interviewed local experts on the pressures of housing affordability. Questions are asked about whether holiday home owners, locals or speculators own Anglesea? …

Frank de Jong, Green Part of Ontario Leader

Frank toured Australia this time last year for the True Cost Economics Forum. He wrote this piece in lieu of exciting developments in Canada.

For the first time to my knowledge, Toronto will be collecting economic rent to pay for infrastructure — in this case to redevelop a section of a busy shopping street. (The wealth that accrues to locations is known as economic rent).

It was reported in the Globe and Mail as follows: “The city will borrow the money up front, to be paid off gradually by the businesses along the ritzy strip.”

Significantly, although the city has refused to pay for the street redevelopment out of property taxes, the adjacent businesses know the benefits to them will outweigh the costs, and are therefore willing to pay for it themselves. These Toronto businesses know that if infrastructure is warranted and beneficial it will raise the value of their land by more than the cost of that infrastructure. When redevelopment makes locations more desirable, more economic rent is attracted, over time, than the cost of the initial redevelopment.

Busting the myths of housing affordability

We’ve set up a competition to inspire film makers to look into the eyes of the housing and land affordability quagmire. There’s a $3000 cash first prize and more to come. We rarely hear …

The City of Greater Geelong has sent in an interesting submission to the Commonwealth Senate Housing Affordability inquiry. We could hardly have said it any better ourselves:
In the submission, the council says the capital being acquired by the private …

Victorian Premier Brumby has acted swiftly to be on the so-called front foot over late night violence. The 2am lock for 75% of Melbourne’s vibrant venues has opened up a slimy can of worms. Brumby has allowed 112 license …