Showing papers in "Urban Affairs Review in 2006"

The Political Ecology of Uneven Urban Green Space The Impact of Political Economy on Race and Ethnicity in Producing Environmental Inequality in Milwaukee

Abstract: This article investigates the role of urban political economy, private-public property relations, and race and ethnicity in the social production of Milwaukee's urban forest. By integrating urban-forest canopy-cover data from aerial photography, United States Census data, and qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews, this analysis suggests that there is an inequitable distribution of urban canopy cover within Milwaukee. Since urban trees positively affect quality of life, the spatially inequitable distribution of urban trees in relation to race and ethnicity is yet another instance of urban environmental inequality that deserves greater consideration in light of contemporary and dynamic property relations within capitalist societies.

Cities at Risk Hurricane Katrina and the Drowning of New Orleans

Abstract: The impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans revealed vulnerabilities caused by the interaction of the city’s fragile physical environment, aging infrastructure, and declining economic and social structure. The hurricane constituted a triggering event, but the severe destruction and heavy losses documented the extraordinary costs of inadequate plans and practice, given the city’s high exposure to risk. This condition and its sobering consequences are not limited to New Orleans, but constitute a silent threat for other cities in the United States and the world. The challenge for cities is to create a new vision of vital, resilient communities that are able to assess and manage their own risk in order to limit escalating damage from extreme events.

Race, Place, and Information Technology

Abstract: Technology inequalities based on race and ethnicity present a paradox. African-Americans and Latinos have lower rates of access and skill, even controlling for socioeconomic factors. Yet African-Americans, and to a lesser extent, Latinos, also have more positive attitudes toward information technology than similarly situated whites. Because attitudes cannot explain lower rates of access and skill, we hypothesize that racial segregation and concentrated poverty have restricted opportunities to learn about and use technology. Using hierarchical linear modeling and multilevel data to control for both community-level socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and individual-level factors, we find that disparities among African-Americans are due to place effects rather than race. Ethnicity still exercises an independent influence for Latinos. These findings contribute to our understanding of the “digital divide,” and to research on the effects of concentrated poverty.

Race, Social Capital, and Trust in the Police:

Abstract: Using a national survey of U.S. residents this study examines racial, socioeconomic, and community explanations for the trust of local police. We hypothesize that the construct of social capital offers a nexus for explaining racial differences in attitudes toward the police. We measure social capital as a construct by aggregating together measures that assess the degree of trust and civic engagement in communities. The results indicate that depleted levels of perceived community social capital contribute to higher levels of distrust of local police. Social capital, however, partially mediates the relative distrust of Blacks toward the police. These findings suggest only partial support for a social capital explanation of Blacks’ distrust in the police. The implications of these findings for police reform efforts to mend minority relations in urban cities are discussed.

Determinants of Neighborhood Satisfaction in Fee-Based Gated and Nongated Communities

Abstract: Neighborhoods unable to adequately satisfy perceived resident needs are susceptible to the migration of their inhabitants to areas that better address their needs. Using the American Housing Survey, the authors examine neighborhood satisfaction and its relationship to perceptions of residents living in both gated and nongated fee-based neighborhoods. The findings indicate that respondent age and the lack of knowledge of crime have the largest positive impact on how the residents rated their neighborhoods. While chronological age may have myriad possible influential factors, the simple knowledge by residents of neighborhood crime has implications for crime prevention and community awareness efforts.

Citizens, Accountability, and Service Satisfaction The Influence of Expectations

Abstract: Understanding how citizen-consumers form evaluations of public services is critical to understanding account ability in democratic governance. The task of using citizens’ assessments of service qua...

Building Blocks for a Methodology for Comparative Urban Political Research

Abstract: Comparative urban political research offers scholars the opportunity to develop theory and to compare practice, yet there is a need for more conscious attention to the comparative method and the special opportunities and challenges involved in its application to local political phenomena. This article examines and makes recommendations on issues that are particularly relevant to cross-national research in urban politics and policy, including dealing with multiple levels of analysis, improving research design, and improving conceptualization.

Governing the Design Economy in MontrÉal, Canada:

Abstract: Cultural industries have assumed an increased importance to urban economic development. However, little attention has been paid to accommodating the complex set of activities—both cultural and economic—implicated in cultural production. A recognition of this complexity, however, has significant implications for policy. This paper considers the design sector in Montreal, a sector which has attained international visibility in recent years. We analyze the role played by four public and nonprofit institutions in regulating this sector and illuminate their mechanisms for reconciling commercial and aesthetic imperatives. An examination of such initiatives lends insight into the opportunities and the challenges within policy circles for accommodating a conceptualization of cultural industries that recognizes their irreducibly hybrid nature.

THE ECONOMICS OF CONSERVATION SUBDIVISIONS Price Premiums, Improvement Costs, and Absorption Rates

Abstract: The environmental benefits of less land consumption and a growing interest in addressing the negative economic and social impacts of sprawl have resulted in calls for more sensitive subdivision designs. One such design is conservation subdivisions. However, not much is known about these subdivisions, in particular about their economics. This article addresses the issue by examining price premiums, investment costs, and absorption rates for lots in conservation versus those in conventional subdivisions. The results show that lots in conservation subdivisions carry a premium, are less expensive to build, and sell more quickly than lots in conventional subdivisions. The results suggest that designs that take a holistic view of ecology, aesthetics, and sense of community can assuage concerns about higher density. However, the potential negative consequences of conservation subdivisions require further study.

Impact Fees, Growth Management, and Development: A Contractual Approach to Local Policy and Governance

Abstract: This article explores economic consequences of impact fees on local economic development and job growth. The authors focus on the implied contractual relationship between local governments and the development community in shaping patterns of economic growth in the community. Pooled time series cross-section analyses are employed to estimate economic consequences of impact fees in 66 Florida counties from 1991 to 2001. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that impact fees increase development costs and impede economic development, the authors report that implementation of impact fee systems enhances economic performance and lead to job growth.

From Intercity Competition to Collaborative Planning The Case of the Yangtze River Delta Region of China

Abstract: By reviewing changes in relationships during the past 50 years among cities in the Yangtze River Delta region of China, the author explores underlying forces affecting the relationship between a service center (Shanghai) and manufacturing bases (cities in the region surrounding Shanghai). Key internal factors, such as the development stage of cities and the government's promotion policies, together with external factors, including national politics and policy shifts and the strategy of foreign direct investment, are found to be influential in the dynamic relationship. Suggestions based on the Chinese case are offered for a regional alliance.

Shaming the Inside Game: A Critique of the Liberal Expansionist Approach to Addressing Urban Problems

Abstract: Liberal expansionism is the dominant approach to addressing the problems of American cities. This approach combines liberal political philosophy with the idea that these problems can be solved only...

Katrina and Power in America

Abstract: The Katrina disaster exposed the major fault lines of American society and politics: class and race. It offers lessons for urban scholars and practitioners. Katrina was a human-made disaster more than a natural disaster. The conditions that led to the disaster, and the response by government officials, were the result of policy choices. Government incompetence was an outgrowth of a more serious indifference to the plight of cities and the poor. As a result, the opportunity to reconstruct New Orleans as part of a bold regional renewal plan was lost. Whatever positive things happen in Katrina’s aftermath will be due, in large measure, to the long-term work of grassroots community and union-organizing groups who mobilized quickly to provide a voice for the have-nots and who found allies among professionals to help formulate alternative plans to those developed by business and political elites.

Local Choices for Development Impact Fees

Abstract: This article investigates the patterns and determinants of local impact-fee adoptions. The theoretical framework combines political market approaches based in interest-group theories of property rights and diffusion theories of innovation. Event history analysis is employed to estimate impact-fee adoptions in 66 Florida counties from 1977 to 2001. The empirical results demonstrate clear spatial and temporal patterns, showing that counties experiencing rapid growth actively adopted impact fees. The findings also provide several lessons. First, the development community has a significant influence on the adoption or nonadoption of impact fees. Second, intergovernmental constraints (or incentives) affect local choice. Third, counties are more likely to adopt impact fees as more neighboring counties have adopted them. Fourth, administrative capacity is a critical resource that influences impact fee adoptions. Fifth, the results confirm that rapid growth promotes impact fee adoptions.

Performance Measurement in Local Economic Development

Abstract: Despite the trend toward accountability in the public sector, little inferential research exists on the use of accountability tools such as performance measurement. This study identifies factors that affect performance measurement in local economic development and compares the impact of structural determinants such as demographic, socioeconomic, and competitive factors to local community choices such as organizational, political, and community forces. Organizational characteristics of the economic development agency had the greatest impact, though socioeconomic and competitive forces also affected performance measurement. Overall, the findings indicate that in municipal policy making, both structural constraints and local choices matter, but local choices matter more.

Rail Transit Security in an International Context: Lessons from Four Cities

Abstract: Open, accessible urban public transportation systems have become increasingly frequent targets for terrorists in recent years. This article draws from a series of interviews with transit officials responsible for the security of rail transit systems, as well as architects and engineers responsible for designing and operating these systems in four world cities: London, Paris, Tokyo, and Madrid. The findings show that transit security is, not surprisingly, a major and growing concern of transit operators in these cities. Collectively, the interviewees report drawing on a broad mix of strategies to respond to terrorism and, in the process, struggle mightily to balance the trade-offs between increased security on one hand and openness and attractiveness of their systems on the other. Accordingly, coordination between transit agencies and police/intelligence agencies has become a crucial component of security planning.

The Failure of the Nonregime: How Katrina Exposed New Orleans as a Regimeless City

Abstract: Hurricane Katrina’s effect on New Orleans raised serious questions about governmental preparedness and response. New Orleans operates without a stable and long-lasting partnership among resource providers, and the absence of a regime greatly affected how it readied for and reacted to Hurricane Katrina. We employ regime analysis to identify how three key differences between regimes and nonregimes impeded New Orleans’s ability to respond to this event. New Orleans lacks an understood agenda; it depends on issue-based coalitions rather than more permanent governing arrangements; and it ineffectively targets resources in the absence of a scheme of cooperation. These characteristics place New Orleans and other nonregime cities in a much more precarious position than urban areas with regimes, and this crisis exacerbated the negative effects of this nonregime environment.

Reclaiming Cultural Heritage in Singapore

Abstract: The issue of cultural heritage in urban settings is of increasing importance as cities seek a better future in a globalizing world. This article aims to explore how such heritage themes and assets are treated in rapidly urbanizing cities to redress the creation of tabula rasa. Using the case study of Singapore's latest attempt to build a distinctive global city, the article will analyze the changing images of heritage and discuss how heritage conservation may yet give urban redevelopment unique places. The challenge for Singapore, as in other cities, is to identify those parts of the urban environment most worthy of preservation while fostering a new and distinctive skyline.

The Political Economy of Urban Disaster Assistance

Abstract: In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, policy makers are once again debating the manner in which we prepare for, respond to, and recover from extreme events in the United States. While much is known about how to make urban regions safer, political and economic calculations often overwhelm these considerations. The mix of competing priorities and incentives of federal, state, and local officials conspire to make urban hazard planning difficult if not impossible. The considerable challenge facing those charged with making cities less vulnerable is to strike an appropriate balance between these political and economic dynamics, and the creation of more disaster-resilient communities.

Who Supports Local Growth and Regional Planning to Deal with Its Consequences

Abstract: Using 1989 and 2002 California survey data, this article offers a multivariate statistical analysis of factors that determine individual support for further growth in one’s county as well as support for regional coordination of local land-use decisions. Women and residents of higher per capita income counties were more likely to believe that their county had reached its growth limit. In 2002 we also found that aging changes one’s opinion on this issue. Additionally, people who believed “sprawl” to be a very important issue in their region in 2002 were more likely to favor a state mandate requiring the regional coordination of local land uses.

The Economic Impact of Terrorist Incidents on the Italian Hospitality Industry

Abstract: Acts of terror are intended to incite fear and intimidation, which makes tourism particularly susceptible to attacks. Because the hospitality industry serves as a useful barometer of the indirect impact of attacks, we examine the impact of terrorist incidents on lodging-use rates in Italy between 1995 and 1997. We make use of data on domestic as well as international terrorism at the city level to explore more localized implications of terrorist incidents. We find that lodgings used by foreign visitors are the most sensitive to terrorist attacks and that the incidents have the largest impact during the year of the attack. Language: en

Linguistic Profiling: A Continuing Tradition of Discrimination in the Home Insurance Industry?

Abstract: “Linguistic profiling,” the identification of a person’s race from the sound of their voice and the utilization of that information to discriminate on the basis of race, has been documented in the ...

Regionalism and Reform A Comparative Perspective on Dutch Urban Politics

Abstract: Advocates of regional political cooperation find favor with political theorists while encountering widespread rejection by real-world governments. Why do practitioners often fail to follow the refo...

Annexation Activity and State Law in the United States

Abstract: This article explores the impact of 15 separate provisions of state annexation laws on seven different measures of annexation activity. This analysis uses annexation data from 42 states between 1990 and 1998. The analysis finds that there are different patterns of annexation activity for laws designed to constrain annexation, as compared with laws designed to facilitate annexation. Laws designed to facilitate annexation are likely to be associated with high levels of annexation activity. On the other hand, laws designed to constrain annexation are not very likely to have lower levels of activity.

Village Ghetto Land Myth, Social Conditions, and Housing Policy in Parkdale, Toronto, 1879–2000

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how historical narratives such as wealthy “suburb,” declining “slum,” and resurgent “village” can have little basis in the social conditions of the time they purport to represent, yet be used to justify urban policy and planning decisions. In a case study of Parkdale, Toronto, we show how a history of the neighborhood was constructed in the 1970s by using a selective reading of the historic record, and then show how this mythical narrative has recently been used to legitimize the gentrification of the neighborhood. We also construct an alternative narrative of persistent housing diversity in the face of opposition over 125 years, which might justify a different set of local government policies that recognizes the continuity of inexpensive rental housing options and seeks to preserve and enhance these options.

Electronic Fortification in Phoenix Surveillance Technologies and Social Regulation in Residential Communities

Abstract: This article compares experiences of surveillance technologies in low-income public housing and affluent gated communities in Phoenix, Arizona. Contrary to the popular discourse of surveillance as ensuring protection from external threats, in practice, both groups feel subjected to undesired individual scrutiny and policing of their behaviors. Nonetheless, key differences exist. First, residents in gated communities possess relative mobility and minimal personal risk compared to those in public housing. Second, in public housing, the underlying logics behind surveillance are toward the enforcement of state laws, whereas in gated communities, they are toward the enforcement of conformity in appearance and behavior. The article argues that the dissonance between popular discourse and discourse of practice about surveillance technologies is representative of deeper social instabilities engendered by neoliberal forms of governance.

Regionalism, Equality, and Democracy

Abstract: Imagine my excitement upon reading in David Imbroscio’s essay that the ideas I wrote about with my coauthors in Place Matters were “dominant— perhaps even hegemonic” (p. 225). The reader can also well imagine the sting I felt upon reading later in the essay that these very same ideas had caused “injury (and insult) to the practice of American democracy” (p. 244). Upon sober reflection, however, I have concluded that Imbroscio’s assertion of the hegemony of new regionalist ideas is wildly overstated, at the same time that his critique of their antidemocratic character completely misconstrues the argument. Imbroscio’s central claim is that new regionalist thinkers “shame the inside game,” heaping scorn on those who labor to uplift central cities or inner-city neighborhoods. We do this, Imbroscio argues, principally by arguing that the only important politics and policies occur at regional, or higher, scales and by stressing individual mobility to the detriment of place-based development. Any fair reading of Place Matters shows, however, that we do nothing of the sort. Referring to the choice between individual mobility and community development, we state clearly: “In practice, we must do both, because the two strategies work best together. The ‘people versus place’ debate is a false dichotomy” (Dreier, Mollenkopf, and Swanstrom 2004, 269). Far from shaming the inside game of central city and neighborhood revitalization, we argue that progressive regional policies can help to empower central cities and disadvantaged neighborhoods. Despite Imbroscio’s misinterpretation of the new regionalist argument, he does the field a service by questioning the political values and theories that lie behind new regionalism. The political theory of new regionalism is woefully underdeveloped. I view this rejoinder as a modest effort to begin debate on these issues.

Assessing the Micro-Foundations of the Tiebout Model

Abstract: In this article, we seek to shed light on the micro-foundations of the Tiebout model. We use a survey of respondents in four of the largest United States metropolitan areas to analyze factors that ...

Building the Capacity to Act Regionally Formation of the Regional Transportation Authority in South Florida

Abstract: As interest in informal methods of regional coordination has grown, it is increasingly important to understand how alternative forms of regional governance emerge. This article addresses this question through analysis of recent attempts at regional transportation coordination in South Florida. Through a detailed case study of the creation of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, we demonstrate how informal ties among transportation stakeholders were strengthened over time in ways that eventually made possible the creation of a more formal coordinating mechanism for regional transportation policy. A formal network analysis of transportation stakeholders in South Florida further illustrates the way the strength of ties among those involved in transportation policy in the region facilitated increased regional coordination and positioned business organizations to act as policy entrepreneurs.

Bringing the State (Government) Back In Home Rule and the Politics of Secession in Los Angeles and New York City

Abstract: Theories of urban power have explored limitations on municipal governance by power elites, by global economic forces, and by economic competition. Less attention has been given to the impact of state government. This article explores the state role in recent secession conflicts in Los Angeles (San Fernando Valley) and New York City (Staten Island). Secession proponents expanded the scope of conflict to their state governments. Although both cities eventually survived secession battles, both were forced to accede to significant reforms. Though state interference with home rule is always a possibility because of the formidable role of the state in local government, it is not inevitable. The capacity of local political actors to form alliances at the state level and political incentives for state actors to get involved are crucial. Older debates about state limitations on urban home rule have much to offer in discussions of the twenty-first-century city.