AALS Section on Poverty Law Panel Announcement

The AALS Section on Poverty Law has announced the details of the coming AALS panel.

Section on Poverty Law Program
“Privatization: Promise and Pitfall at the Intersection of Law, Markets and Poverty”
Friday, January 9, 2009, 3:30-5:15 pm; A meeting of the Section on Poverty Law will immediately follow the session.

This session will explore the challenges and opportunities of market-based approaches to poverty relief in light of more than a quarter century of government disinvestment from low-income neighborhoods. The panel will feature a description of San Diego's Market Creek Plaza, a 10-acre real estate partnership in a culturally diverse, underinvested neighborhood that represents one of the first commercial development projects designed, built and (ultimately) owned by community residents. Panelists will also describe innovative banking and housing efforts designed to expand tenant ownership and access to capital and credit in urban communities.

A commentator will encourage panelists and participants to consider practical, political and philosophical pros and cons of such approaches. Are market-based approaches the “new urban renewal?” Can the market deliver where the government has failed? What are some of the unintended consequences of even the most well-meaning, well-designed programs? What do these projects portend for local residents who all too often have been the objects of reform but not its subjects? What lessons can we draw as the country prepares to usher in a new administration in Washington that might take seriously a renewed anti-poverty agenda?   

Moderator

• Susan Bennett, American University Washington College of Law

Panelists:

• Barbara Bezdek, University of Maryland School of Law
• Louise Howells, UDC David A. Clarke School of Law
• Jennifer Vanica, Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation (San Diego)

Commentator:

• Angela Harris, University of California, Berkeley School of Law

-Thanks to Jeff Selbin for the heads up. E.R.  erosser@wcl.american.edu