TheReview_July_Aug_2021

Pillars of Community Wealth Building We define community wealth building as strategies that build community and individual assets, creating resilient and adaptable systems to address social and economic needs. The League will work with our partners to provide thought leadership, training, advocacy, resources, and best practices to build community wealth.

Mail-Order Solutions The kind of manufacturing that drew migrants to cities during this era also scaled up to meet the residential sector. Several mail-order companies, such as Bay City-based Aladdin Homes and the Sears, Roebuck & Co., appeared in the market. People could save up the cash to purchase or access financing through the manufacturer for an entire home, which would arrive on a railcar ready for construction by the buyer or locally hired skilled trades. Casually and without fanfare, a modest array of “two-family houses” or small apartment four-plexes were offered by these manufacturers alongside small cottages, mid-sized models, and capacious single-family homes. In 1913, the Sears Model “No. 130” was described as, “a four-family apartment house with four rooms for each family that can be built at a very low cost and will make an exceptionally good paying investment.” The floorplan was neatly arranged as if two sets of mirrored shotgun houses were stacked upon one another with common wet walls, connected by a central hall, skinned with a confidence- garnering brick exterior, and accessed by a singular entry door on a shared porch. While the value of accommodating four households in one urban lot was sold as a sound investment, the visuals of unobtrusively fitting into the residential landscape was accomplished with form, massing, and shown siting nearly indistinguishable from single-family homes.

EUCLIDEAN ZONING is a system of zoning whereby a… community is divided into areas in which specific uses of land are permitted ( Merriam-Webster Dictionary ); also known as use-based zoning. R1 refers to single family residences in zoning codes.

JULY / AUGUST 2021

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THE REVIEW