Of all the things you look for when home shopping (Nice kitchen, updated fixtures, etc etc), many progressives look for one other thing: Sustainability. And, if they don't, then they are just talking the talk, and not willing to walk the walk.
A huge source of carbon emissions from our society is trucking food from farms, to processor, to grocer, and then to our table. A single head of lettuce will usually travel 250 miles total to get to your table. One of our goals as progressives should be sustainability. Hell, even conservatives should be looking into this, as they always seem to think society is going to blow up tomorrow.
There is no better time to buy a home than right now. One of the key things I was looking for in regards to a home was small footprint (No 2000 sq ft home for me), and a large plot.
I was able to find a large plot (It's a city double), but there are a couple of properties for sale right now that are triple city lots right here in Buffalo! Take that Suburbia!
As the Massachusetts Avenue Project showed us, empty lots in the city could be one of our most valuable resources in the CoB! Mid-scale co-op style farming, or small scale individual subsistence farming can bring the cost of living in the city to an extreme low! Imagine, $50 a month in groceries!
The CoB (As well as surrounding areas which are already well situated for this type of endeavor) should encourage this trend in whatever way is possible. City funded workshops, city sponsored co-ops, police cooperation with security around the urban farms, tool closets, etc etc.
And, as much as I know many progressives want to save every old building in the city, it's just not feasible to have so many empty buildings, hoping they can get rehabbed, and sold. It just ain't happening. Demo these buildings, split the lot with the neighbors, and grant a 10 year tax assessment exclusion for the extra land. Rinse, and repeat. Eventually, the city lots will grow from an average of 2000 sq ft, to hopefully, and average closer to 6000 sq ft.
If we want to encourage the urban farming concept, make the land gifting contingent on starting a farm, or do lease farming: A farmer leases the land to work, and pays X% of the produced crop(s).
Bottom line is: We can make this work, we just need more support to groups like MAP, Buffalo in Bloom, GrowWNY, or any of the many groups working towards this goal, relying only on menial private support.
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