A reasonable proposal
Much has been made of the recent proposal by the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform to modify the current, virtually unlimited mortgage interest deductions available to homeowners. The NAHB, The National Association...
Sell smarter
One look at the apartment industry today quickly tells you this is not your father's business. Aided by widespread adoption of technology and driven by new standards of accountability, performance, and professionalism, the industry...
Trailblazer: Laurie Lustig-Bower
Laurie Lustig-Bower is a driven woman. As a teenager, she submitted 57,000 entry forms to win a horse at a national competition. It took a year to create the submissions, tireless hours working with...
Pillars of the Industry Awards
It's official: the basic box is dead. That holdover from the fifties, the flat-roofed, flat-walled rectangular building that passed for multifamily housing for so long is nowhere to be found among the finalists of...
Diversity factoids
WOMEN MORE COMMITTED TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP Women entrepreneurs, 26.6 percent, are more likely than their male counterparts, 17 percent, to stick with their self-employment plan even if a desirable job opportunity comes along, according to the...
How will the new spending bill impact affordable housing?
As I write this column, the Senate is close to considering the omnibus appropriations bill to fund HUD and other programs for FY 03/04. Passed by the House of Representatives December 8, 2003, the...
The new Sun Valley
Imagine an apartment unit with a view of snow capped mountains and a shimmering mountainside lake. Imagine skiing in and out of your apartment or condo right onto the slopes of a world-class ski...
Civil rights and wrongs: Fair Housing isn’t always fair
Having once prosecuted fair housing cases for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, I would be the first to tell you that housing discrimination is hardly a laughing matter. Between 1990...
The changing face of work
Want to maximize your competitive advantage? Access new markets? Groom a competitive workforce? Make smarter decisions? Outperform your competitor and “Do the right thing?” Think Diversity. It’s not just a numbers game. “Inclusion programs”...
Race-based discrimination in housing market rises
In its 2003 report, the NFHA found that 30 percent of all housing discrimination complaints were race-based, followed by disability and familial status, which accounted for 27 percent and 15 percent, respectively, of all...
The science of personality: How hiring practices impact employee equality and diversity
Hiring practices are designed to detect individual differences in job applicants. Based upon those differences, a hiring manager selects the best person for the job. Unfortunately, hiring practices vary almost as much as the...
Media relations that work-in the long run
If you need proof that the brouhaha between Historic Restoration Inc., and some locals was a big story for this New Orleans development company, maybe the proof is that HRI’s $300 million project got...
Unlocking the potential of XML
When HTML, the language that makes the Web work was introduced, it revolutionized the ability to display information and data on different computers using different operating systems and hardware. Now HTML’s step-cousin, XML is...
Yes, no, maybe. Avoid sexual harassment and Fair Housing violations
In our legal system a person is considered innocent and it’s up to the complaining party to prove guilt. Right? This is not true in Sexual Harassment complaints and lawsuits. If a sexual harassment complaint...
Diversity scorecard: Is the industry keeping pace with the population?
The signs are everywhere: French instructions on tissue boxes and laundry detergent. Choices for Spanish at the ATM or during call routing. Somalians now populate Portland, Maine and recently opened a shopping mall in...
