Joshua B. Freeman on Garden Apartments, and the Secret Policy that Juiced Apartment Building
2026-01-15
Joshua B. Freeman, professor of history at Queens College CUNY, and author of "Garden Apartments: The History of a Low-Rent Utopia", is here to discuss to discuss this almost invisible history of combining greenspace with dense low-rise apartments. We cover the radical ideology (georgist and otherwise) that inspired this movement, compare it against European social housing, and discuss how it actually came into action in the New Deal and beyond. Special focus on the secret history of Section 608, and how subtle policy details in government insurance of mortgages for rental apartments turbo-charged their production. What can we learn from this for the future of production of missing middle, social housing, and more?