The frustration of trying to invest in my hometown

Every policy you can create will have differential impact on any group you create. The question is, was the policy created with the intent of racism.

And this is for policies in the abstract. Debt is an incredibly dangerous tool. It is not charity to give someone a loan they cannot afford - I've personally experienced it and I've personally seen it destroy lives. When I see someone get denied for a loan or a mortgage in my circle of friends - in every case, that was a good thing. It would have killed them.

>that doesn't change the fact that the thing discriminated PoC.

Intent matters. Every policy you can ever create will always have differential impact on any group you create. That's just a fact of reality. If you set a policy that you can only get a mortgage if you have 20% down, that could impact some ethnic group more than another - but that differential impact does NOT mean it is a racist policy.

> in the case of the soap dispenser a lack of testing staff with non-white skin leading to misadjusted sensitivity for the photosensor - not being adequately filtered out.

On a side note ... the criminally under-appreciated show, Better off Ted, did a bit about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyXNmiTIupg

I recently led an $80mm mixed use investment in a 10 derelict properties in an offbeat part of Memphis next to a few large government housing projects. Some takeaways reading the article. Banks are not the problem; banks are just doing their jobs by trying to make securable loans. Appraisals aren’t the problem; appraisers are hired and paid to be non-creative and non-biased they assign a value to property. If a group of properties were acquired for next-to-nothing because they’ve been vacant for a decade, it’s tough to assign more than a pittance because there is simply no value comps. The market agrees with the banks and the appraisers, hence not enough people have attempted to concurrently try to develop in Ensley, thus there’s not enough value.

What succeeded for us in Memphis is threefold: 1) proximity to jobs, 2) group buy-in of participation into the vision, and 3) some very wealthy investors who believe in the vision.

I’ve toured Ensley, I looked at buying that mid rise in the back of the article’s picture, and it’s a neat place. It has the fabric of old small towns that used to thrive. However, I don’t think Ensley has any proximity for high quality jobs or prospects for job growth, so that’s probably square one for Ensley. Historically, this has been “the creatives” who need cheap space but also like to buy expensive lattes And generate a micro economy, but in our case in Memphis, a bank wanted to move its headquarters into the neighborhood, alongside several smaller businesses.

Modern day construction is extremely expensive and complicated, to the point that acquisition price in cheap parts of town are a rounding error on the project budget. You need to find a way to guarantee that rents will be sufficient for the long haul, and if you believe banks and appraisals are being short sighted (and they always are..) then you have to provide that guaranty yourself by setting aside a pile of cash or stock to secure the debt.

I could write for days on this topic, more than happy to continue discussion offline or elsewhere

If you want a happy version of this try -

Apple TV's "Home" S01E02, Chicago

The show is more about artistically showing peoples Home's physically and spiritually for lack of a better word, not figures, but you can see the money it would take in Theaster Gates's project.

If you can't see the money it would take, jump to something generic with $ like Grand Designs.

Set that aside.

Imagine instead that he has found undervalued property in an area with low-labor costs and high potential demand.

It’s exactly the type of investment opportunity banks and financiers should be looking for. It’s literally how our housing system gentrifies.

He didn’t ask the banks to buy the properties. He was seeking an LOC with a personal guarantee and the buildings as collateral.