How do states make the built environment more flexible and responsive to the investment criteria of real estate capital? Spatial policies, such as urban renewal funding for slum clearance or contemporary financial incentives, depend on discursive practices that stigmatize properties targeted for demolition and redevelopment. These policies and practices have become increasingly neoliberalized. They have further distanced themselves from those “long turnover” parts of the city where redevelopment needs are great but where the probability of private investment and value extraction is slight. They have become more entwined in global financial markets seeking short–term returns from subsidized property investments. They have shifted their emphasis from compromised use values (embodied in the paternalistic notion of “blight”) to diminished exchange values (embodied in the notion of “obsolescence”). I argue that obsolescence has become a neoliberal alibi for creative destruction and, therefore, an important component in contemporary processes of spatialized capital accumulation.

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Extracting Value from the City: Neoliberalism and Urban Redevelopment

DOCUMENT RESUME JC 700 176 Giles, Louise A Research Project to Determine the Student Acceptability and Learning Effectiveness of Microform Collections in Community Colleges: Phase Final Report. American Association of Junior Colleges, Washington, D. C,. Office of Education (DHEW) , Washington, D.C. Bureau of Research. BR-9-0260 Jun 70 OEC-0-9-180260-3703-(095) 248p. EDRS Price MF-$1.00 HC-$12.50 *Educational Research, Educational Resources, *Educational Technology, Information Retrieval, Information Storage, *Instructional Materials, *Junior Colleges, Microfiche, Microfilm, *Microforms Microform collections offer one of the more promising methods of increasing student learning while, at the same time, responding economically to the pressure of increasing enrollments. This study reports on the first phase of a 3-phase project to determine student acceptance of microform, and on the effectiveness of microform for learning. Included in this report are a description of the problem to be investigated, the methods and activities involved in establishing the project office and selecting staff, and the progress of the project to date. At this time, microform materials will be used in conjunction with the following courses: art appreciation, Black studies, college algebra, economics, freshman composition, life science, nursing, political science, basic psychology, and beginning college Spanish. Bibliographies for these courses have been prepared (included as appendices to the report) and will be microformed to provide most of the necessary course material. In concluding the Phase I report, the principal investigator observes that completion of the full study could have a meaningful effect on patterns of information storage and retrieval, and on the field of educational resources in general. -(Phase II will involve the conduct of a pilot study using developed materials, and Phase III will involve the conduct of a full field study and evaluation of the results.) (JO) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEWN, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE N. PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY. C:) L4.1 Final Report Contract No. OEC-0-9-i80260-3703-(095) A Research Project to Determine the Student Acceptability and Learning Effectiveness of Microform Collections in Community Colleges: Phase I

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A Research Project to Determine the Student Acceptability and Learning Effectiveness of Microform Collections in Community Colleges: Phase I, Final Report.

The origins and legacy of the Housing Act of 1949 reflect the conflicting impulses of the political leaders who created it and the complexity of the forces it attempted to control. Its history is studded with contradictions. Through its public housing program, the act provided housing for low‐income families; through its urban redevelopment program, it cleared slums and destroyed affordable housing units. Twenty‐five years after its passage, many observers concluded that public housing and urban renewal programs were fostering the slums and blight they were meant to eradicate. Even as policy makers abandoned the methods the act prescribed and adopted one housing and redevelopment program after another, they adhered resolutely to its goals. Hence, although its programs have been deemed failures, the vision of the Housing Act of 1949—to revitalize American cities and provide a decent home for every American family—remains undimmed.

A study in contradictions: The origins and legacy of the housing act of 1949

The federal urban renewal program created by Title I of the Housing Act of 1949 fell short of expectations and spawned an army of critics. Originally the program had promised a great deal to a variety of interests, but it could not accommodate all of its early supporters. Social reformers and low‐rent housing advocates were among the first backers who found it wanting. By the early 1960s, the foes of big government and critics of prevailing planning orthodoxies were exploiting the program's shortcomings to further their own agendas. The impact of urban renewal, however, was never as great as some observers assumed, and its physical legacy was limited. Yet its record did influence later federal revitalization programs that granted local authorities greater flexibility and emphasized rehabilitation and the urban context. Moreover, it called into question the efficacy of planning panaceas and federal dollars in solving urban problems.

Urban Renewal and Its Aftermath

This study compares urban renewal in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s with inner-city redevelopment in China since the late 1980s. It finds that both programs use government authority and subsidies to make large-scale private or quasi-private investment attractive in the name of ameliorating living conditions. Cautiously applying Logan and Molotch’s “growth coalition” concept to China, the authors assert that a “growth machine” has formed during China’s economic decentralization processes. Despite the similarities, America’s urban renewal was an ill-fated federal program in which the local government and downtown business interests cooperated to boost declining inner-cities that were competing with burgeoning suburbs. In contrast, China’s redevelopment has been propelled by emerging local elites using decentralized state power to pursue fast growth in rising real estate markets. Greater insights into urban redevelopment can be gleaned through this comparative analysis.

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Daniel R. Mandelker

Papers

Government and Slum Housing: A Century of Frustration