Envy Apartment

At the ribbon cutting this month for the Wesley Village affordable housing complex in Garden Grove, Laura Archuleta couldn ’t resist referencing Joni Mitchell ’s 1970 environmental protest “Big Yellow Taxi.” Built on underused land that’s part of the Garden Grove United Methodist Church campus on Main Street, Wesley Village offered Archuleta , president of the nonprofit community organization Jamboree Housing Corp ., a chance to riff on one of Mitchell’s most famous lyrics. Where Mitchell sang “They paved paradise/And put up a parking lot,” Archuleta told about 300 people packed into the steamy church sanctuary on a hot afternoon that “Today we are going to learn how a group of dedicated organizations and individuals re-purposed a parking lot and put up a paradise.” Then she and others who spoke, including a single mom with six children who now reside at Wesley Village , told how the project became reality through a unique collaboration that involved the church, Jamboree and other...

Is the cost of 16 new apartments too high for its Napa neighbors? City Council members found themselves divided in their answers on Tuesday, but scraped together just enough votes to keep alive a rental housing building planned for the edge of Old Town. Two months after the Planning Commission rejected the Bridgeview Apartments, a split council revived the project on a 3-2 vote despite concerns it would worsen parking and traffic on the narrow streets around Riverside Drive. The vote sets up a final decision by the council on approving the apartments, a move that will require finalizing an agreement with its developer to set aside three units for families earning less than the local median income and guarantee that other tenants can continue using federally funded Section 8 vouchers to pay their rent. Architect Stephen Cuddy , who is representing the landowner, Peter Dwares, predicted final approval could come to a vote May 2. Bridgeview would occupy the same 1.4-acre property w...

The long retail spine of Sydney Road, Brunswick, just north of Melbourne's CBD, was once a prosperous trading outpost on the way to the goldfields. These days it's a bohemian mix of variety stores, op shops, halal butchers and Lebanese bakeries. Take a side street to the west, however, and a different picture emerges. Sandwiched between Sydney Road and the Upfield train line is an area undergoing rapid and widespread transformation. Light industry is fast being replaced by mid- rise apartment buildings , their inhabitants attracted by the short commute into town and cheaper prices than in the city's south-east. The quality of these units is, on the whole, depressingly bad; think poor ventilation and bedrooms that "borrow" natural light (a weasel word for being dark and windowless). The occasional jazzy façade tries feebly to make up for otherwise cheap construction amid a chorus of greys. At ground level, carpark roller doors alternate with mean pocket garden...

The Montclair Planning Board finished hearing one application and punted two more into September at its August 14 meeting .  But the application that wrapped up and was subsequently approved was a big leap in the board’s efforts at getting larger projects resolved , as it was local developer Steven Plofker ’s application for a five-story, 11- unit apartment building along North Willow Street that will incorporate the former Diva Lounge on Bloomfield Avenue as modest retail space .  The property is a lot merged several years ago. Holding up a rendering of developer Steven Plofker ’s proposed apartment/retail project for the corner of North Willow Street and Bloomfield Avenue at the August 14 Montclair Planning Board meeting , board member Martin Schwartz asks about possible changes to the details of the design. Professional planner Christine Nazzaro Cafone of the Red Bank- based Cafone Consulting Group testified on behalf of the relevance of the variances being requested, especia...

Juan Parras gives one hell of a tour of Houston’s east side. He’s charming and funny. Wearing a beret, he strikes an old-world look, like he might lead you to a cafe on a plaza. He doesn’t charge a fee for his services. After all, you’re on a “toxic tour,” and Parras is on a mission. Parras grew up in 1950s West Texas . He remembers segregated schools, the restaurants that wouldn’t serve him, the unpaved roads, and the people who lived closest to the local refinery . Those experiences led him to a career as a social justice advocate . The resident of Houston’s heavily industrial east side has worked in a city housing department , for a union, for a law clinic, and on a campaign that stopped a PVC factory from being built in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.” For the last decade, he has served as executive director of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (better known as t.e.j.a.s.). Part of his work is leading tours past the heaping piles of scrap metal along Houston’s Buffalo Ba...