bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Mediate Community
Authors: Guest Avery M.
Published: July 2003

The author emphasizes the importance of studying both local and extralocal social ties found in community areas of the metropolis. Knowledge of temporal trends in these ties is limited, but both are important in the metropolis, leading to the mediate community: communities that often have many endogenous ties but also have strong links to the larger world. The author also suggests that local and extralocal ties should be subdivided on the basis of whether they are instrumental or expressive. Using data from previous community studies, the author illustrates possible relationships of local and extralocal social ties to community culture, including efforts to protect the community.
The Materiality of Urban Discourse
Authors: Mele Christopher
Published: July 2003

The author uses poststructuralist advances in discourse analysis to examine the ways the circulation of symbolic representations and characterizations of the city are useful to understanding urban restructuring. He defines the relationship between discourses about the city and the material or spatial practices that transform the built environment, and then he examines how stake-holders translate, adapt, and employ discourse about the inner city to facilitate changes in its social and physical environment. The employment of urban discourses serves to define urban restructuring as normal and beneficial, to legitimize the process of urban restructuring—especially its accompanying social costs—and to facilitate a new place identity.
Attitudinal Differentiation between African-American Urbanites and Suburbanites
Authors: Sigelman Lee , Willnat Lars
Published: July 2003

The authors outline three broad perspectives on attitudinal differences between African-American urbanites and suburbanites and use data from a survey of residents of Washington, D.C., and the adjoining Prince George’s County to test these propositions. The response patterns they observe deviate in numerous ways from expectations based on the assimilation and transplantation interpretations but are more consistent with the identity persistence interpretation, which posits an overriding attitudinal continuity among African-Americans, including African-American city dwellers and suburbanites.
An Empirical Assessment of Four Perspectives on the Declining Fortunes of the African-American Male
Authors: Johnson James H. , Farrell Walter C. , Stoloff Jennifer A.
Published: July 2003

The authors use data from the Los Angeles Survey of Urban Inequality to empirically test the utility of four perspectives advanced to explain the declining social and economic fortunes of the African-American male over the past quarter century: the spatial isolation hypothesis, the cultural capital/employer preference hypothesis, the search-and-destroy hypothesis, and the social capital hypothesis. They assess the utility of these hypotheses by exploring the labor market experiences of African-American males in metropolitan Los Angeles, focusing specifically on the determinants of labor force participation and comparing their experiences with those of their white and Hispanic male counterparts.
Asian-Americans, Political Organizations, and Participation in Chicago Electoral Precincts
Authors: Pelissero John P. , Krebs Timothy B. , Jenkins Shannon
Published: July 2003

Precinct-level data for voter registration and turnout in Chicago elections are used to assess the impact of the Asian population and party organization on political participation during the 1990s. Controlling for the effects of newer immigration, mobility, and socioeconomic status, the authors learn that larger Asian-American populations are associated with higher voter registration. Voter turnout is negatively affected in areas of higher Asian populations but attenuates when independent precincts are examined separately from machine-style precincts. This suggests that registration may be encouraged in Asian areas, but voting appears to be negatively affected by political party organizations.
Beyond Edge Cities
Authors: Ding Chengri , Bingham Richard D.
Published: July 2003

The issues related to the suburbanization of population and the reshaping of the economic landscape in metropolitan areas have drawn much attention during past decades. These issues are important to planning and policy makers because public services, infrastructure provision, tax bases, and housing and land markets are linked to the urban landscape of population and economic activity. The authors analyze the relationship between population and employment changes in the spatial context and the impact of edge cities on residential location choice. They conclude that emerging edge cities push population further out and that the effect of edge cities diminishes if edge cities are located further away from the inner city.
Old and New Paradigms for Urban Research
Authors: Clark Terry Nichols
Published: July 2003

Globalization increases local democracy. Both economic and democratic changes illustrate how global developments interpenetrate regional and local processes. Globalization also demands reformulation of past research paradigms. For instance, central place theory, regimes and growth machines, class and race politics, rational choice models, and patronage/clientelism paradigms are all losing power. A new political culture is emerging with globalization, redefining the rules of the game by which many urban processes operate. The Fiscal Austerity and Urban Innovation Project is a network of more than 700 participants generating discussion, research reports, and public data clarifying these points.
State Economies, Metropolitan Governance, and Urban-Suburban Economic Dependence
Authors: Post Stephanie Shirley , Stein Robert M.
Published: July 2003

Previous research finds that central-city and suburban indicators of economic development are strongly related. Missing from previous research, however, is an empirical test of the expected relationship between urban-suburban economic dependence and the structure of metropolitan-area governance. In addition, the impact of the state economy on this relationship has not been fully examined. The authors replicate previous research that demonstrates a relationship between the change in central-city and suburban per capita income. Then they test whether this relationship is solely a function of the state economy and if it is affected by the structure of metropolitan-area governance.
Does Political Incorporation Matter?
Authors: Pelissero John P. , Holian David B. , Tomaka Laura A.
Published: July 2003

The authors assess the effects of minority political incorporation in large cities. An interrupted time-series research design is used to determine whether the election of a city’s first minority mayor has any short-term or long-term impact on fiscal policies. The authors examined six cities that elected black or Latino mayors and six cities with white mayors from 1972 to 1992. In general, they find that minority political incorporation did not significantly change fiscal policies in different ways from that which occurred in cities without minority incorporation.
Support for Municipal Detachment
Authors: Marcal Leah , Svorny Shirley
Published: July 2003

The authors investigate the relationship between individual attributes and support for municipal detachment by analyzing a recent survey of Los Angeles voters. In this survey, San Fernando Valley residents were asked whether they favored detachment from Los Angeles and reorganization as a separate city. Multinomial logit regression results indicate that support for detachment is influenced by demographic characteristics, community attachment, and political ideology. However, opinions of detachment are unrelated to an individual’s economic circumstances.
Social Capital and Social Change
Authors: Gittell Marilyn , Ortega-Bustamante Isolda , Steffy Tracy
Published: July 2003

Community development organizations (CDOs) are the primary vehicle for development in low-income neighborhoods and have begun to be examined in terms of the degree to which they increase citizen participation, increase civic capacity, and stabilize and revitalize neighborhoods through the creation of social capital. Women play a key role in community development. The authors find that most women-led CDOs define their community development efforts broadly, increase community capacity, and strengthen local democracy. To the extent that women-led groups contribute differentially to the development of social capital by increasing community participation and trust and by creating community networks and civic action, they represent a model for community development efforts.
Negotiating Change
Authors: Bass Sandra
Published: July 2003

Several scholars have found that external pressure is often the impetus for police reform. To date, community organizations as a part of this external pressure have not been addressed. The author examines the role of community organizations in policing politics and their ability to affect change on three critical policing policy issues (civilian oversight, community policing, and public order) in two cities (Seattle, Washington, and Oakland, California). Based on interviews, archival research, and extensive participant observation, the author found that community pressure and activism were critical for getting the issue of policing practices and policies on the city’s agenda, but few community organizations were able to effectively participate in the policy response process.
Evaluating the Influence of a Large Cultural Artifact in the Attraction of Tourism
Authors: Plaza Beatriz
Published: July 2003

Bilbao is an outstanding test case for the impact of an internationally famous cultural facility in a context that otherwise does not lend itself to large flows of tourism. Although early for a complete impact study, the aim of this study is to quantify the influence of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in the attraction of tourism and to identify the potential factors that explain such impact in the short run.
The Giuliani Administration and the New Public Management in New York City
Authors: Weikart Lynne A.
Published: July 2003

New public management (NPM) assumes that government should be run as a business and is based on a set of interrelated principles applied to reduce the costs of government by encouraging privatization and managed competition of government services. The author analyzes the viability of NPM as a governing strategy by examining the extent of implementation of NPM policies by New York City’s Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, an aggressive proponent of the NPM agenda. Close examination reveals that Mayor Giuliani’s success in implementing his NPM agenda has been limited. The mayor’s difficulties in achieving his goals are identified and are illustrative of the reform/accommodation cycle facing Mayor Giuliani and other urban mayors who attempt to implement abstract reform principles in a politicized environment.
Incentives, Entrepreneurs, and Boundary Change
Authors: Feiock Richard C. , Carr Jered B.
Published: July 2003

The authors develop an institutional choice framework to examine and interpret change in local boundaries and provide a single explanation for the use of varied instruments to create new boundaries or expand old ones. Boundary decisions are viewed as the product of actors’ seeking particular outcomes within a context of existing governments and established rules governing boundary change. Selective costs and benefits, rather than collective costs and benefits, are most likely to provide incentives for institutional entrepreneurship and collective action. Such a framework is valuable because it integrates the fragmented literatures on local boundaries, provides a linkage between boundary choices and policy outcomes at the local level, and can guide empirical research into the causes and consequences of boundary change. This framework can provide the foundation of a more general model of institutional choice and institutional entrepreneurship.
Local Economic Development and Local Taxation
Authors: Brown Trevor L.
Published: July 2003

The author examines the orientation of Ukrainian local governments to their local economic development responsibilities and uses theory on local regimes, fiscal stress, and organizational capacity to explain differential tax burdens across local governments. Results of ordinary least squares regression on tax implementation by Ukrainian local governments in 1997 indicate that all three theories provide insight into the dynamics of local economic development and taxation.
Use of Black English and Racial Discrimination in Urban Housing Markets
Authors: Massey Douglas S. , Lundy Garvey
Published: July 2003

The authors argue that racial discrimination in housing markets need not involve personal contact between agents and renters. Research indicates that Americans can infer race from speech patterns alone, thus offering rental agents an opportunity to discriminate over the phone. To test this hypothesis, the authors designed an audit study to compare male and female speakers of White Middle-Class English, Black Accented English, and Black English Vernacular. The study was conducted during the spring of 1999 in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The authors found significant racial discrimination that was often exacerbated by class and gender. Poor black women, in particular, experienced the greatest discrimination.
Dawn of the Living Wage
Authors: Martin Isaac
Published: July 2003

From 1994 to 1999, 22 large American cities passed “living wage” laws that mandate wages above poverty for certain workers in the private sector. The author argues that political conditions, rather than economic conditions such as urban poverty, best explain the emergence and success of the living wage movement. Quantitative and qualitative evidence shows that living wage policies result from the interaction of national progressive networks with local actors and opportunities. He also argues that federalist government enables as well as constrains local progressivism by favoring policy diffusion among cities.
The “Camden Syndrome” and the Menace of Suburban Decline
Authors: Smith Neil , Caris Paul , Wyly Elvin
Published: July 2003

The recession of the early 1990s drew widespread attention to rising poverty and fiscal distress in inner-ring suburbs, and the next downturn will doubtless revive fears that suburbia could endure the same fate as the inner city. The authors challenge conventional urban theory, which explains suburban decline primarily in terms of who moves in and who moves out, by drawing on the literatures concerning the circulation of capital in the built environment. They present a case study analyzing the systematic withdrawal of capital from neighborhoods southeast of Philadelphia, where suburban decline has been dubbed the “Camden Syndrome.” Multivariate analysis of mortgage lending decisions between 1993 and 1998 is used to test the hypothesis that suburban decline cannot be explained solely in terms of the supposed deficiencies of new residents.
Environmental Justice and Southern California’s “Riskscape”
Authors: Morello-Frosch Rachel , Pastor Manuel , Sadd James
Published: July 2003

Past research on “environmental justice” has often failed to systematically link hazard proximity with quantifiable health risks. The authors employ recent advances in air emissions inventories and modeling techniques to consider a broad range of outdoor air toxics in Southern California and to calculate the potential lifetime cancer risks associated with these pollutants. They find that such risks are attributable mostly to transportation and small-area sources and not the usually targeted large-facility pollution emissions. Multivariate regression suggests that race plays an explanatory role in risk distribution even after controlling for other economic, land-use, and population factors. This pattern suggests the need for innovative emissions reduction efforts as well as specific strategies to alter the spatial and racial character of the environmental “riskscape” in urban centers.
Urban Housing Reform and Finance in China
Authors: Wang Ya Ping
Published: July 2003

Housing policies introduced in China in 1998 aim to end the distribution of housing by employers and set up new housing finance and market systems. The author examines policy development and practice in Beijing and evaluates the performance of the new housing finance mechanisms. Although the 1998 policies were a major step forward, the system created is very different from that in a market economy. Employers still have a major role to play in housing, although they will not be directly involved in construction and distribution. The new housing finance system shows some distinctive features as well.
Household Mobility, Housing Traits, Public Goods, and School Quality in Cleveland’s Metropolitan Statistical Area
Authors: Margulis Harry L.
Published: July 2003

The author evaluates how selective housing traits, local government expenditures, and school district qualities influence household mobility in the suburban four-county Cleveland metropolitan statistical area (MSA). The efficacy of the Tiebout thesis is to some extent substantiated in Geauga, Lake, and Medina Counties. Low government expenditures and amenity-aesthetic improvements in small-size municipalities offer strong enticements for the in-migration of high median-income households. In contrast, in Cuyahoga County, the size of a municipality best determines household mobility and residential location. Because mobility and public services provision are not strongly associated in large-size municipalities, the Tiebout thesis inadequately explains household location decisions, and one must look elsewhere for an understanding of suburban housing mobility.
Measuring Skills Mismatch
Authors: Skinner Curtis
Published: July 2003

The author develops a new methodology to measure occupational skill requirements in New York City. The analysis matches locally derived skill ratings for detailed census occupations to years of local schooling and then estimates the change in mean skill requirements for employed New York City residents and the change in local employment of occupational skills classed by level of required education during the 1980s. The results show insignificant change in employment weighted skill means for all occupations. But the disaggregated analysis shows skill requirements bifurcated during the decade, with employment growth concentrated in college-level and sub–high school graduate–level occupations relative to high school graduate–level occupations. The findings suggest that demand-side forces are destroying mid-skilled jobs, casting doubt on the efficacy of supply-side policy measures intended to improve labor market outcomes for workers with less than a college education.
Looking Outward or Turning Inward?
Authors: Lewis Paul G.
Published: July 2003

The author probes for differences among central cities, suburbs, and rural communities in the perceived importance of various motivations for development decisions, drawing on a mail survey of city managers/administrators in California. Central-city respondents are more inclined to “look outward” in making land-use decisions, attributing greater importance to certain regional economic and development challenges, whereas suburbs are somewhat more inclined to “turn inward” and focus on localistic concerns. Multivariate analysis is employed to examine whether the distinctive land-use motivations of central cities and suburbs reflect differences in composition (internal characteristics such as demographics and fiscal health) or differences in position (central cities’ status as the economic and political hubs of metropolitan areas and suburbs’ more specialized roles).
The Evolution of Urban Regime Theory
Authors: Mossberger Karen , Stoker Gerry
Published: July 2003

Urban regime theory came to prominence with the publication of Clarence Stone’s study of Atlanta in 1989, although earlier work by Fainstein and Fainstein (1983) and Elkin (1987) has also been influential. Since then, regime analysis has been extensively used to examine urban politics both inside North America and beyond. The authors argue that the wide use of regime analysis is a recognition of its value and insights but that some applications have stretched the concept beyond its original meaning to the point that the concept itself runs the risk of becoming meaningless and a source of theoretical confusion. By sifting through the extensive literature applying regime theory, the authors reestablish the core components of the concept and identify the key fields where it has made a contribution. It is suggested that regime analysis has helped considerably in reorienting the power debate in North America and in facilitating the analysis of politics beyond the formal institutions of the government outside North America.
Innovation and Reform, Intentional Inaction, and Tactical Breakdown
Authors: Ben-Zadok Efraim , Gale Dennis E.
Published: July 2003

This study evaluates the regulatory implementation process of the concurrency policy between 1985 and 2000. One of the main pillars of the 1985 Florida Growth Management Act, this policy is also a significant innovation in the growth management movement in the United States. Concurrency is a Florida statewide policy that requires local governments to provide public facilities needed to support development “concurrent” with the impacts of such projects. The study sheds light on different decision-making styles of state and local planning bureaucracies, including their relationships to legislative intentions. Concurrency began as a significant innovation and quickly lapsed into nondecision that was followed by both technical failures and adaptation efforts. In its most critical area, transportation concurrency, a tactical breakdown became evident. The implementation record of the policy shows mixed results.
The Adapted American City
Authors: Frederickson H. George , Johnson Gary Alan
Published: July 2003

Almost all U.S. cities are established by state charter as either mayor-council or council-manager cities. For decades, these two legal-statutory categories have been used by researchers as dichotomous variables in descriptions of city government form and in statistical equations. This study indicates that the mayor-council and council-manager categories, although legally based, mask several important empirical characteristics of U.S. city government. Using a large data set, the authors indicate that the structures of U.S. cities are surprisingly dynamic. Cities tend to change their structures incrementally. Over time, cities with mayor-council statutory platforms will incrementally adapt many of the characteristics of council-manager form cities to improve their management and productivity capabilities. Over time, cities with council-manager statutory platforms will adopt features of mayor-council form cities to increase their political responsiveness, leadership, and accounting capabilities. Because each of the two legal forms of cities adopts primary features of the other, these cities now constitute a third form of the U.S. city—the adapted city.
The Impact of Compositional and Redistributive Forces on Poverty Concentration
Authors: Strait John B.
Published: July 2003

Changes in poverty concentration have been shown to result from intrametropolitan forces that redistribute population among neighborhoods and metropolitan-wide forces that alter the overall population composition of metropolitan areas. The author examines the degree to which these two forces affected levels of poverty concentration within the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan region from 1980 to 1990. Although redistributive forces functioned to increase poverty concentration, these forces were overwhelmed by the aggregate increase in the nonpoor over the time period. As a result, both the African-American and white poor were slightly less residentially exposed to poverty in 1990 than in 1980. However, the African-American poor were also less exposed to nonpoor African-Americans and whites. Evidence suggests that poor populations in Atlanta did make residential moves that would reduce their spatial isolation, but such moves were overwhelmed by the residential movement of the nonpoor.
Reinventing Government in Reformed Municipalities
Authors: Kearney Richard C. , Scavo Carmine
Published: July 2003

The authors place reinventing government (REGO) efforts in the context of mayor-council municipalities. After briefly reviewing the emerging body of local government research on reinventing government, they address two principal research questions: First, what are the correlates and extent of REGO actions by managers, mayors, and city councils? Second, what is the nature of REGO interactions among managers, mayors, and councils? Employing two International City Management Association data sets, the authors conclude that although managers may be the prime movers of REGO in U.S. municipalities, they can only accomplish what their community, governmental, and political environments permit.
Fund-Raising Coalitions in Mayoral Campaigns
Authors: Krebs Timothy B. , Pelissero John P.
Published: July 2003

Electoral coalitions have two parts: the voter coalition and the fund-raising coalition. The voter coalition consists of the individuals and groups that support a candidate through mobilization and voting, whereas the fund-raising coalition supports a candidate through campaign donations. The authors explore the less-studied role of the fund-raising coalition by examining data on the campaigns of Mayors Harold Washington and Richard M. Daley in Chicago. The results point to significant differences in the fund-raising coalitions behind the two candidates and help to explain the distinctiveness of their regimes.
Campaign Contributions and Mayoral/Aldermanic Relationships
Authors: Hogan Sean , Simpson Dick
Published: July 2003

Independently of Krebs and Pelissero, the authors have studied Chicago election campaign contributions and city council voting. Their findings confirm the differences between the political regimes of Mayors Harold Washington and Richard M. Daley. The authors go further to explore the implication of these empirical findings for what they call the “new Chicago machine.”
Prospects for Regional Governance Lessons from the Miami Abolition Vote
Authors: Steinacker Annette
Published: July 2003

Circumstances surrounding the 1997 city dissolution vote in Miami were ideal for establishing a metropolitan government, based on arguments from the traditional urban politics literature. Yet it did not happen. How did the issue make it onto the public agenda but fail to be adopted? The author argues that changes in metropolitan governance need to be understood as the outcomes of an agenda-setting process and not solely based on the distribution of winners and losers, as suggested by the public-choice/metropolitan reform literature. The Miami case clearly illustrates the importance of focusing events, a skilled policy entrepreneur, and timing of events as interest fades and the window of opportunity closes. It also illustrates the power of a policy image to trigger emotional attachments that can mobilize inattentive publics.
The Distributive Impact of Federal Fiscal Policy
Authors: Joassart-Marcelli Pascale , Musso Juliet Ann
Published: July 2003

The authors analyze the intraregional distribution patterns of federal expenditures across Southern Californian cities, using Consolidated Federal Funds Reports data from fiscal years 1983 to 1996. The findings suggest that although poorer cities benefit from larger amounts of anti-poverty funds, they receive lower amounts of other types of expenditure. Thus, the allocation of federal funds fails to promote fiscal equalization across cities and actually contributes to urban disparities. Regression analyses reveal that a city’s poverty level and its proportion of minorities and immigrants have a negative impact on federal expenditure, but its fiscal capacity and institutional strength have a positive impact.
The Powers That Bind
Authors: Chung Angie Y.
Published: July 2003

Studies on coalition building have neglected the role of historical, cultural, and spatial relationships in shaping the development of interethnic coalitions, particularly between immigrant and native-born minority groups. Based on interviews, participant observation, and archival research on one public space coalition in Koreatown and West Adams, the author argues that (1) the intersection of use and exchange positions among organized segments of both communities provided the interest basis for coalition building, and (2) the competing claims of Koreans around their financial contributions and African-Americans around political and territorial advantages forced each side to negotiate and recognize the benefits of coalescing.
Does the Shoe Fit?
Authors: Marschall Melissa J.
Published: July 2003

Despite the voluminous literature on participation, when it comes to the participatory behavior of racial and ethnic minorities and lower-income groups, many questions remain unanswered. The author tests the extent to which four theoretical models—socioeconomic status, psychological orientations, social context, and mobilization resource—explain the participation of whites, African-Americans, and Latinos in local political and community activities. Based on a sample of inner-city New York respondents, the author finds that existing theories differentially explain participation across both ethnic group and participatory activity. More generally, the findings indicate that more attention needs to be focused on how the broader social and institutional environment shapes the behaviors and attitudes that ultimately foster political engagement.
Quality, Race, and the Urban Education Marketplace
Authors: Hess Frederick M. , Leal David L.
Published: July 2003

A key issue in urban education policy is the potential impact of market-based reforms. Using a data set encompassing 50 urban school systems, the authors investigate the market reform hypothesis by assessing the impact of perceived school performance, race, and religion on private school enrollment. Previous work in this vein has relied on statewide data, generating findings that may not generalize to the urban districts at the center of the school choice debate. The authors find some evidence that perceived public school quality may affect enrollment, consistent with claims that competition spurs improvement. Consistent with previous work, the results also suggest that religious and racial considerations influence school selection.
Communities of the Postindustrial City
Authors: Baum Scott , Mullins Patrick , Stimson Robert , O’Connor Kevin
Published: July 2003

The authors discern the community structure of the postindustrial city, with reference to Australia. They focus empirically on three major types of Australian urban center: urban regions, metropolitan areas that are not part of urban regions, and other major cities. These three account for almost three-quarters of the Australian population. The authors draw on a conceptualization formulated by Marcuse and van Kempen to guide the analysis, with a combination of cluster analysis and discriminant analysis being applied to aggregate (essentially census) data to identify the communities. Nine major Australian urban communities are identified—four are affluent, four are disadvantaged, and one is a working-class community. The communities found, however, differed greatly from those cited in the Marcuse and van Kempen schema.
Globalization, Regionalism, and Urban Restructuring
Authors: Hodos Jerome I.
Published: July 2003

Global-city scholars have drawn attention to urban development in places such as New York, London, and Miami, claiming that some features of that development respond more to global economic conditions than to local or national ones. Focusing on cities that are major international financial centers, researchers have paid less attention to the specifically global aspects of economic change in cities that are not financial centers. The author discusses the patterns of economic globalization in Philadelphia, using the city as a case study of how globalization plays out in a less prominent city. Tracing the simultaneous rise in the 1980s and 1990s of foreign direct investment and an organization of corporate elites dedicated to promoting a political strategy of regionalism, the author argues that globalization has had both economic and political ramifications for the city and the surrounding region.
Political Empowerment, Mobilization, and Black Voter Roll-Off
Authors: Vanderleeuw James M. , Liu Baodong
Published: July 2003

Borrowing findings from the literature on voter turnout, the authors examine the causes of roll-off in city council contests among black voters in New Orleans, a black empowerment area, between 1965 and 1998. The findings suggest the relevance of institutional power on group political participation. Roll-off among black voters declined after blacks held the majority of city council seats. Moreover, the findings indicate the relevance of election competitiveness. Black voter roll-off was lower in runoff elections than in primaries. Finally, the findings suggest that mobilization by black candidates, particularly by black incumbents, may yield enhanced political participation among black voters in urban elections.
Urban Development and a Socialist Pro-Growth Coalition in Shanghai
Authors: Zhang Tingwei
Published: July 2003

The author analyzes pro-growth coalitions in Shanghai, China, a socialist society, and identifies two dimensions in coalition building: the political dimension and the economic dimension. Concepts of regime theory work well with the economic dimension but differ from the political dimension of urban governance of the city. So regime theory, which is developed based on experiences in the United States, may partly be applied in the socialist context. The study reveals features of the socialist pro-growth coalition in Shanghai in the transitional era: a regimecharacter ized by a strong local government followed by cooperative nonpublic sectors with excluded community organizations.
The Concentration of Affluence in the United States, 1990
Authors: St. John Craig
Published: July 2003

The author examines the concentration of affluent households in affluent neighborhoods in U.S. metropolitan areas in 1990. The rate of concentrated affluence, the percentage of affluent households living in affluent neighborhoods, is considered for the total population and separately for blacks and whites. Also, differences in the rate of concentrated affluence between blacks and whites are explored. Models of concentrated affluence that incorporate variables suggested by the literature on economic restructuring in the late twentieth century and by the literature on racial differences in the residential return to individual resources are developed and tested. In general, variables measuring industry/occupation employment mix influence the rate of concentrated affluence mainly through the levels of income they generate. Racial differences in the rate of concentrated affluence are influenced more by income differences between blacks and whites than by residential segregation.
Race, Ethnicity, and Household Characteristics of Section 8 Housing Clients and their Impact on Adjacent Housing Quality
Authors: Guhathakurta Subhrajit , Mushkatel Alvin
Published: July 2003

The authors examine how assisted housing units with householders belonging to different racial/ethnic groups receiving Section 8 vouchers and certificates effect change in housing quality of adjacent structures. Rather than relying on traditional measures of housing value as surrogates of quality, an aggregate index of housing quality was obtained from data available in two Housing Condition Evaluation surveys conducted by the city of Phoenix in 1980 and 1994. The quality change in these units was modeled using logistic regressions with the help of neighborhood demographic and housing parameters and fixed effects. The results suggest small but significant negative impacts on housing quality within a range of 0.5 miles of assisted housing units but positive impacts if the household is female headed, all else held constant.
Pleasantville?
Authors: Muzzio Douglas , Halper Thomas
Published: July 2003

The authors study the representation of the U.S. suburb projected by movies and trace the development of these suburban images from the early movies of a century ago through the 1990s, noting how films have influenced and reflected public discourse on suburbs. Suburbs have evolved, becoming more varied and complex, more self-sufficient and more interdependent, the dominant mode of U.S. residential living, and the most widely embraced path to the “good life.” Yet postwar intellectuals have long dismissed the bourgeois utopia as inauthentic consumption centers and conformity factories. Moviemakers have taken these critiques to heart, initially with friendly satires and later with aggressive, often vicious attacks.
Converting Pork into Porcelain
Authors: Strom Elizabeth
Published: July 2003

The importance of cultural institutions to contemporary revitalization efforts in U.S. citiesis attributed to several factors. First, the transformation of the urban political economy has made cities more dependent on their consumption economies. Second, urban cultural institutions have a strong interest in improving their surroundings, especially now that they have become more dependent on revenue-generating activities and on funding sources interested in attracting broad audiences. Finally, cultural hierarchies have become less rigid, allowing cultural institutions to draw on serious and popular art forms.
Neighboring and Community Mobilization in High-Poverty Inner-City Neighborhoods
Authors: Bolland John M. , McCallum Debra Moehle
Published: July 2003

This research considers how empowerment, sense of community, and neighboring behavior affect the likelihood that residents living in high-poverty neighborhoods engage in discussion about community issues (i.e., teen pregnancy, STDs, and violence) that directly affect their lives and the lives of their neighbors. The present study is conducted in homogeneous, very high-poverty (i.e., public housing) neighborhoods located in a moderate-size city. Data generated by telephone interviews with 257 public housing residents show that sense of community and neighboring behaviors, but not empowerment, are predictors of discussion about these issues, with neighboring behaviors being the most important. Neighboring behaviors also predicted working with others to solve neighborhood problems and contacting elected officials about neighborhood issues. Based on these findings, the viability of different organizing strategies that might be applied to high-poverty, inner-city neighborhoods is explored.
Applying Market Solutions to Public Services
Authors: Warner Mildred , Hefetz Amir
Published: July 2003

Political fragmentation in metropolitan regions makes equitable and efficient delivery of public services difficult. Regionalism, although promoted as more equitable and rational, has found limited political support. Public choice theory argues, against regionalism, that political fragmentation can promote competition and efficiency by creating markets for public services. The authors assess the efficacy of market solutions for metropolitan public service provision by comparing privatization with intermunicipal cooperation and evaluating each on efficiency, equity, and democracy grounds. Using probit regression analysis of a national survey of local government service delivery from 1992 and 1997, the authorsfind that both alternatives promote efficiency, but equity and voice are more associated with intermunicipal cooperation than privatization.
Migrant Housing in Urban China
Authors: Wu Weiping
Published: July 2003

China’srecent waves of internal migration, primarily rural to urban, reflect a rapidly urbanizing society undergoing a transition from a planned to a market economy. The author addresses two key questions: what access migrants have to urban housing and how migrant housing conditions compare with those of the locals. The main findings are based on citywide housing surveys and interviews conducted in Shanghai and Beijing, as well as results from official surveys. Interpretations of migrant housing patternsin urban China need to be linked with the country’sunique institutional factors, particularly the circulating nature of migration, the existing household registration system, and the transitioning state of the urban housing market. Restricted access to urban housing, together with the temporary status for migrants, contributes to their poor housing conditions.
Terrorism and Governability in New York City
Authors: Kantor Paul
Published: July 2003

New York City’s experience suggests that the hand of terrorism is profoundly changing urban politics. The events of 9/11 struck a city that was already seriously off balance due to long building sources of political fragmentation and exclusion that obstruct political leadership, making it difficult to overcome festering social divisions or steer the city in new directions. Despite Mayor Giuliani’s image of control during the weeksof emergency, deeply rooted forcescons pire against sustained governability. Decaying partisanship, disorganized politics, reliance on exclusionary electoral coalitions, and the proliferation of entrenched special interests powerfully check mayoral leadership and innovative planning for the city asa whole. This is likely to confound the city’s reco very and itsability to cope with international terrorism. Since these problemsare also found elsewhere, terrorism will pose similar challenges in other cities. Terrorism is combining with an older problem to change urban politics.
Chicago’s Uncertain Future since September 11, 2001
Authors: Simpson Dick , Adeoye Ola , Feliciano Ruben , Howard Rick
Published: July 2003

Chicago has suffered declines in the private sector and in government funding since September 11 while public safety costs have increased. Despite the impacts of September 11, Chicago politics and government have remained mostly unchanged, although the Chicago City Council has become more of a rubber-stamp council. Chicago’s future depends on success in preventing future terrorist attacks in the United States, on Chicago’s not being attacked, and on decisions by private firms to continue to locate and build in central cities.
Are Fear and Urbanism at War?
Authors: Swanstrom Todd
Published: July 2003

Dense cities are vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Therefore, some scholars argue, we should deconcentrate American cities further, denying future terrorists targets of opportunity. But flee ing dense and diverse cities would undermine one of our greatest strengths in the so-called war on terrorism. Cities have frequently been dangerous places, but over the centuries people have flocked to them because of the economic opportunities and freedom they offer. Asa way of life, urbanism promotes toleration of differences and delegitimizes efforts to root political power in revealed religion. These modern beliefs are essential in the struggle against terrorism. The main threat to cities comes not from terrorism but from the policy responses to terrorism that could undermine the freedom of thought and movement that are the lifeblood of cities.
Experiencing Residential Segregation
Authors: Squires Gregory D. , Friedman Samantha , Saidat Catherine E.
Published: July 2003

Explicit considerations of race and unlawful racial discrimination persist as critical factors in the continuing segregation of urban housing markets. On the basis of a telephone survey of Washington, D.C. area households, the authors find that current black households were almost twice as likely as white households to not get their first choice when they moved into their current homes, more than one-fourth of black householders report that they or someone they know experienced discrimination in their efforts to obtain housing or housing finance within the past three years, and whites are more than four times as likely as blacks to believe that equal opportunity exists in the current housing market. These relationships persist after controlling on several socioeconomic characteristics (income, education, housing tenure) of households. Several policy options are recommended for ameliorating racial segregation in urban housing markets.
Place Marketing, Tourism Promotion, and Community based Local Economic Development in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Authors: Nel Etienne , Binns Tony
Published: July 2003

Local economic development(LED) is a common community-based development response to changes in the economic fortunes of a locality. Various economic strategies are associated with LED, some of the most prominent being those of place marketing and attempts to refocus economic activity along new or previously underused avenues, with tourism promotion being an increasingly common option. The authors examine the responses of the small community of Still Bay in Western Cape Province, South Africa, to economic crisis and the absence of vital social facilities. Critical to the success and sustainability of this LED initiative was the establishment of various community development projects, in which certain key actors took a leading role in bringing the community together. Community cooperation, linked with successful place marketing and tourism promotion strategies, has laid the basis for the economic revival of the town and empowerment of historically disadvantaged groups.
The Role of Ideas in Education Politics
Authors: Sidney Mara S.
Published: July 2003

This article examines how the presence of multiple racial and ethnic groups complicates education politics. It suggests that to fully understand the multiethnic political terrain, we need to study how diverse groups understand their interests, and it proposes that discourse analysis offers an effective method for doing so. In four cities under study, coalitions across racial minority groups did not emerge to pursue education reform, despite shared dissatisfaction with the schools. Analysis of interview data shows a complex arena of problem definitions and assessments of reforms, one so infused with issues of race and ethnicity that groups agreeing on some elements of “the education problem” may be kept apart by their differing interpretations of its racial dimensions. The findings suggest that divergent ideas about howrace intersects with education problems and solutions pose barriers to collective action and meaningful education reform in multiethnic cities.
Models of Urban Governance
Authors: Pierre Jon
Published: July 2003

Local governments in Western Europe have become increasingly involved in network building with the local business community. The author suggests that governance processes are not value neutral but reflect and sustain political values beyond partisan conflict. Comparing managerial, corporatist, progrowth, and welfare governance models of urban governance, the author argues that nation-state factors play an important role in shaping urban governance. Different sectors in urban politics display different models of governance and local political choice matters. Also, cities within the same national context differ significantly with regard to the degree of inclusion of organized interests in urban governance, which, in turn, is reflected in urban policy outcomes.
Neighborhoods, Race, and Capital
Authors: Immergluck Daniel
Published: July 2003

The author analyzes changes in commercial building activity over the 1980s for 75 central-city residential neighborhoods in Chicago to identify how neighborhood residential change affects commercial investment. Spatial econometrics are used to control for problems of spatial autocorrelation. The results indicate that although changes in population and income levels are important, racial and ethnic change have substantial effects on commercial investment flows. Increases in the percentage of black or Hispanic residents result in decreases in commercial investment. Although additional research is needed to identify the specific mechanisms resulting in these effects, the magnitudes are substantial, and potential policy implications are considered.