Building Neighborhoods That Work – A Conversation with Julia Katz from Mercy Housing

What if your neighborhood wasn’t built for outsiders but with you in mind?In this episode of Vicinity, we talk with Julia Katz, a commercial developer at Mercy Housing, who’s flipping the script on what affordable housing can be. Think: walkable streets, small local businesses, and spaces designed with real community input — not just city permits.Julia shares her journey from growing up in NYC surrounded by neighborhood inequality, to working in women-led construction, to leading one of San Francisco’s largest public housing redevelopments. Along the way, she opens up about grief, motivation, the myth of neutrality in development — and why she believes burrito access should be part of every city’s walk score...