First hour: The impact of new luxury housing on the supply of affordable housing
Second hour: Giving new meaning to atheism
Can building new, high-end housing units help increase the supply of affordable housing? A new working paper says it can. Economist Evan Mast of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research studied the effect that luxury housing construction had on relieving pressure on rents across the housing market. His research shows that when a household moves into a new, more expensive unit, it creates a so-called musical chair effect, vacating an existing unit at a lower price point. The chain-like effect continues down the line until it reaches a city’s lowest-income neighborhoods. Mast says this increases the supply of affordable housing. Critics of the research say building more high-end housing in already wealthy neighborhoods increases segregation in cities. So what could happen in Rochester? The question comes as local developers build new high-end apartments across the city. This hour, our panel discusses the research and the possible impact of luxury housing on the local community. Our guests:
- Evan Mast, economist with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
- Kent Gardner, economist with the Center for Governmental Research
- Don Riley, vice president of Mark IV Enterprises
Then in our second hour, a new book from a Swedish philosopher aims to give new meaning to atheism. Martin Hagglund argues that for too long, atheists have allowed their views to be maligned as having no sense of meaning. Instead, he writes that when there is no everlasting life to come, every hour of every day becomes imbued with deep meaning. His book is not only a call for a reevaluation of meaning; it’s a call for a fresh look at economic systems that allow some people more freedom of time than others. Our guests will discuss it:
- Matthew Brown, family doctor in Rochester
- Lawrence Torcello, associate professor in the department of philosophy at RIT
