On July 8, The San Diego Union-Tribune published an op-ed by ACHP Chair Sara Bronin in which she lays out how adaptive reuse of historic buildings can help ease California’s housing crisis.
Bronin writes: “Given the magnitude of the housing shortage, we’ll need an all-hands-on-deck approach. I’m optimistic about California and its largest cities making meaningful progress in advancing policies that make the most of its existing building stock.”
On June 28, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States rendered its decision in the case of Loper Bright Enters. v. Raimondo (Loper). That decision overturned the long-standing Chevron doctrine, under which courts would defer to permissible agency interpretations of ambiguities in the statutes those agencies administered. After Loper, courts will exercise their independent judgment and use traditional tools of statutory construction to resolve statutory ambiguities, without deferring to an agency interpretation of the law.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO), and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have executed a Nationwide Programmatic Agreement (NPA) that will make it easier to maintain, repair, and upgrade their historic facilities to better address climate resiliency and sustainability.
On July 3, Newsweek published ACHP Chair Sara Bronin’s op-ed on the need to restore Lahaina’s Native Hawaiian cultural sites following last year’s devastating wildfires.
Bronin writes: “Lahaina will rebuild… The crucial question is this: Can Lahaina rebuild in a way that honors and restores the Native Hawaiian history and heritage reflected in the destroyed sites and buildings?… I firmly believe it can and must.”
By Kennedy Dunn, Rutgers University
Located on Sunset Boulevard in the heart of Los Angeles, The Black Cat is a monument to the city’s pivotal role in the fight for LGB rights. When the modest Art Deco building was built in 1939, it originally housed a grocery store but by 1966, the building was a gay bar. At the time, homosexuality was criminalized in California, and the community faced constant harassment from the Los Angeles Police Department. The Black Cat was meant to be a safe space for the gay community.
