John Gilderbloom

John Ingram "Hans" Gilderbloom
Born October , 1952
San Mateo, California, U.S.
Residence Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Nationality Dutch American
Fields Housing, Green Cities
Institutions University of Louisville
Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods
Alma mater University of California, Santa Barbara (B.A., 1975; M.A. 1978; Ph.D., 1983)
Known for Rent control
Urban renewal
Community organizing
Homeless advocacy
Website
http://gilderbloom.org/
http://sun.louisville.edu

John I. "Hans" Gilderbloom is a Dutch American community organizer, academic, author, and researcher. He works as an international consultant on creating livable neighborhoods and cities, owns a real estate company that renovates historic housing, and is an award-winning professor of urban and public affairs at the University of Louisville. In 2014 he was nominated as a Fellow of the Scholars Strategy Network (www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org) housed at Harvard University. He has been ranked as one of the "top 100 urban thinkers in the world."[1]

Early life and education

John Gilderbloom was born in San Mateo, California to parents Murray Edward and Jeanette Lauder Gilderbloom (Dutch Gelderblom). He grew up in San Francisco in a creative environment of writers and musicians. His godfather was Dave Lewis, a Stanford University writing professor who was the co-author of Klute, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1970. Mark Dowie, former publisher and editor of Mother Jones was a frequent Sunday guest for family meals. His uncle Clarence W. Gilderbloom was a respected inventor involved in developing patents for early versions of the dishwasher and a motorized Lazy Boy recliner.

Dr. Gilderbloom received his B.A. (1975), M.A. (1978), and Ph.D. (1983) in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He graduated with the highest GPA in his graduating class (1975) with a straight A average. While at UCSB he took classes from and was mentored by Harvey Molotch, Richard Appelbaum, as well as taking classes from David Harvey (who stayed with him while teaching at UCSB), Christopher Jencks, W. Dennis Keating, Michael Teitz, Jürgen Habermas, Roger Friedland, William Bielby, and William Domhoff.

Community organizer

In high school, Dr. Gilderbloom worked with protest groups against the Vietnam War, for environmental awareness following the Santa Barbara Oil Spill, and Cesar Chavez in the local Grape Boycott.

In the 1970s Dr. Gilderbloom organized several local, state and national tenant organizations including the California Housing Action and Information Network to help pass rent control laws and other tenant protections. The Foundation for National Progress (Mother Jones) published an organizing manual, Rent Control: A Source Book which was adopted by the emerging tenant movement in the 1980s. Orange County's The Register called it the "Bible" of the rent control movement and it received both praise and attacks from The Nation, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.[2][3][4] He later published a book, Community Versus Commodity: Tenants and the American City on the renters movement with Stella Capek.[5]

Gilderbloom himself has experienced the landlords' wrath. He was advised to halt his study several times. "You'll never survive to finish your work," one industry lobbyist warned him. In another instance, a real estate agent wrote one of the Governor's aides that: "We must find a way to neutralize him [Gilderbloom]."[6]

Today, 10% of the nation's renters are covered by some form of rent control, including these cities Dr. Gilderbloom advocated in: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berkeley, West Hollywood, and Santa Monica and another 103 cities in New Jersey.

Dr. Gilderbloom interned with Governor Jerry Brown and advocated for the governor to veto legislation prohibiting rent regulations. He later would veto this legislation in the California State Assembly.

Similarly, Dr. Gilderbloom worked with Mitch Snyder, founder of the National Coalition for the Homeless, to block President Bush from prohibiting federal funds to cities who have enacted rent control. He co-authored a study demonstrating that rent control was not correlated with increases in the homeless population,[7] refuting William Tucker's research. President Bush's proposal was defeated in Congress.

Later Dr. Gilderbloom began work in poor neighborhoods to develop affordable, accessible, and attractive housing. He writes about his struggles in Promise and Betrayal: Universities and the Battle for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods.[8][9]

Academic career

Dr. Gilderbloom is a professor in the Department of Urban and Public Affairs at University of Louisville and director at the Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods. His research interests include "[r]esearch methods, statistics, housing, community development, planning and design."[10] Dr. Gilderbloom is also the Director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods, a research center in the Urban Studies Institute at University of Louisville that explores ways to create more sustainable communities.[11]

Dr. Gilderbloom has written and edited five books and countless articles on issues concerning rental housing, poverty, health, community development, and urban policy. His work includes, "40 peer reviewed publications (including several in Journal of Urban Affairs), 30 book chapters, eight authored or co-authored books or journals, and [...] op-ed pieces in Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, USA Today Magazine, Governing Magazine, American Banker, Courier Journal, and many other outlets."[12] His book Rethinking Rental Housing was called "[T]he most significant piece on housing policy written in the last 40 years" by the Journal of the American Planning Association and received praise from Daniel Lauber, past President of the American Planning Association.[13] A National Housing Institute Survey of Books in Housing Courses found Rethinking Rental Housing to be the most widely chosen book in college housing courses.[14] He later updated the book with new chapters and new numbers called: Invisible City: Housing, Poverty, and New Urbanism. Additionally, Dr. Gilderbloom contributed a chapter on modern Cuban architecture for the Encyclopedia of 20th-Century Architecture which won Planetizen's top ten best books in planning for 2005[15] and a chapter on the history of rent strikes for the Encyclopedia of Housing, 2nd edition,[16] which won best reference book award from American Library Association.[17][18][19]

Other work

Clinton Administration

Dr. Gilderbloom consulted with the Clinton Administration on "Clinton's first State of the Union Speech" and "Section 108 programs, Hope VI, and Community Outreach Partnership Programs."[20] He was recognized for his "extraordinary service to the President's Council on Sustainable Development" for his research.

Neighborhood revitalization

Dr. Gilderbloom runs a successful consulting business and has contributed his expertise on numerous neighborhood revitalization projects in West Louisville, Newport (KY), Covington (KY), and Southern Indiana worth over $100 million. His work has been featured in The New York Times. The East Russel Partnership, a collaboration between local organizations; city, state, and federal government; and the Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods received the Sierra Club's Best Practices Award, given for smart growth projects for their success in West Louisville.[21] He has also worked with cities to produce "green housing developments" in Louisville, Indianapolis, Muncie, IN; Covington, KY; and Newport, KY.

Real estate

Dr. Gilderbloom has restored 10 historic homes as a part of his business, one of which has been featured in The New York Times[22] and been the set of the movie The Song. His homes are restored using principles of green design.

Recognitions and achievements

Dr. Gilderbloom's research has earned him numerous awards and recognitions throughout his career. His largest recognition was an international survey of planners and city officials of the Top 100 Urban Thinkers poll conducted by Planetizen, where he was ranked as 63 (placing him in the top forty for living urban thinkers).[23] Additionally, he was chosen as one of the select few academics to be a commentator in Politico's "Arena."[24] He was awarded by the University of Louisville the Distinguished Faculty Award for Research (2013).[25] In 1997 he was awarded honorary membership in the Phi Kappa Phi for his "outstanding research and character".

In 1982 Dr. Gilderbloom received the American Planning Association Chapter Award for Outstanding Contribution to Planning for his research on inter-city rent differentials and housing policy analysis. A year later in 1983, Dr. Gilderbloom received the Douglas A. McGregor Memorial Award for Outstanding Social Science from the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science for his research paper "Housing Supply and Regulation: A Study of Rental Housing Market", co-written with Dr. Richard Appelbaum.[26]

His work on rent control includes two books, eight scholarly articles, and numerous op-eds in publications including The Wall Street Journal[27] and The Los Angeles Times,[28] making him one of the most outspoken scholars on rent control.

Selected publications

References

  1. ↑ "Top 100 Urban Thinkers". Planetizen. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  2. ↑ Koeppel, Barbara (May 26, 1979). "Rent Control: A Tenant Revolt". The Nation.
  3. ↑ Pransky, Joan (August 10, 1980). "Landlord Strategy: Divide and Conquer Rent Control". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  4. ↑ Freeman, Gerald (September 7, 1980). "Rent Controls: A Plea to Dump Them". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  5. ↑ Capek, Stella; Gilderbloom, John (February 1992). Community Versus Commodity: Tenants and the American City. Albany: State University of New York. ISBN 978-0791408414.
  6. ↑ Koeppel, Barbara (May 26, 1979). "Rent Control: A Tenant Revolt". The Nation.
  7. ↑ Appelbaum, Richard; Dolney, Michael; Dreier, Peter; Gilderbloom, John (1991). "Scapegoating Rent Control: Masking the Causes of Homelessness". Journal of the American Planning Association 57 (2): 153–164.
  8. ↑ Gilderbloom, John; Mullins, Robert (2005). Promise and Betrayal: Universities and the Battle for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods. Albany: State University of New York. ISBN 978-0791464830.
  9. ↑ Marriott, Michel (August 4, 1996). "Taking Education Beyond the Classroom". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  10. ↑ "Ph.D. Program Faculty". Ph.D. in Urban and Public Affairs. University of Louisville. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  11. ↑ "Homepage". Department of Urban and Public Affairs at University of Louisville. University of Louisville. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  12. ↑ "John I. Gilderbloom gets Major Award". Urban Affairs Association. Urban Affairs Association. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
  13. ↑ "Rethinking Rental Housing". Temple University Press. Temple University Press. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
  14. ↑ "Rethinking Rental Housing". Temple University Press. Temple University Press. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
  15. ↑ Sennott, Stephen (2003). Encyclopedia of 20th Century Architecture. Routledge. ISBN 1579582435.
  16. ↑ Carswell, Andrew (2012). Encyclopedia of Housing (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. ISBN 9781412989572.
  17. ↑ "Outstanding Reference Sources 2013 List". American Library Association. RUSA. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  18. ↑ Chavan, Abhijeet. "Top 10 Books - 2005". Planetizen. Urban Insight, Inc. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  19. ↑ Coutts, Brian; LaGuardia, Cheryl. "Best References of 2012". Library Journal. Media Source, Inc. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  20. ↑ "Arena Profile: John Gilderbloom". Politico - The Arena. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
  21. ↑ "East Russell Partnership, Louisville, Kentucky". EPA. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
  22. ↑ Chura, Hillary (May 19, 2007). "Houseguests Who Pay, and Pay Well". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  23. ↑ "Top 100 Urban Thinkers". Planetizen. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  24. ↑ "Arena Profile: John Gilderbloom". The Arena. Politico. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  25. ↑ "Administration recognizes faculty scholarship, creative activity, teaching". Louisville.edu. U of L Today. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  26. ↑ Appelbaum, Richard; Gilderbloom, John. "Housing Supply and Regulation: A Study of the Rental Housing Market". Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  27. ↑ Gilderbloom, John (August 19, 1993). "A New Lease on Life for Rent Control". Wall Street Journal.
  28. ↑ Lowe, Cary; Gilderbloom, John (December 11, 1979). "Fair Rent Initiative is Unfair to Tenants". Los Angeles Times.