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Urban Affairs Review, Volume 44, Number 6
The Effect of Density Zoning on Racial Segregation in U.S. Urban Areas, vol. 44, no. 6
Douglas S. Massey, Jonathan Rothwell
We argue that anti-density zoning increases black residential segregation in U.S. metropolitan areas by reducing the quantity of affordable housing in white jurisdictions. Drawing on census data and special indicators compiled by Pendall, we estimate a series of regression models to measure the effect of maximum density zoning on black segregation. Results estimated using ordinary least squares indicate a strong and significant cross-sectional relationship between low-density zoning and racial segregation, even after controlling for other zoning policies and a variety of metropolitan characteristics, a relationship that persists under two-stage least squares estimation. Both estimation strategies also suggest that anti-density zoning inhibits desegregation over time.
Shifting and Shirking: Political Appointments for Contracting Out Services in Israeli Local Government, vol. 44, no. 6
Rotem Bresler-Gonen, Keith Dowding
Principal–agent models in public administration concentrate upon policy drift — where agencies allow policy to drift away from the bliss point of executive politicians. We distinguish two types of policy drift: policy shifting and agent shirking. The first occurs when an agent's political bliss points are located differently from those of their principals. The second occurs when agents do not competently carry out their principal's wishes. One response to policy shift is to appoint agents who share the bliss point of the principal, allowing the reduction of costly monitoring. Through ten cases in three Israeli cities where political appointments were made to push through structural changes to contract-out services, we show that political appointees are less effective than career bureaucrats so that solving shifting often increases shirking, especially when monitoring is reduced. The agency problems thus created were only solved by increasing monitoring and returning to career civil servants.
Community Organizations and Local Governance in a Metropolitan Region, vol. 44, no. 6
Jean-Marc Fontan, Pierre Hamel, Richard Morin, Eric Shragge
In a context of globalization, municipalities and metropolitan regions are involved in international competition in order to support economic growth. This leads to new forms of collaboration between public authorities and business, giving birth to new forms of urban and metropolitan governances. Moreover, many old neighborhoods of the central city and some districts of the old suburbs face growth in unemployment and poverty. In these local territories, community organizations put forward local development practices that aim to improve living conditions. These organizations cooperate with other community organizations, public institutions and private agencies. Thus, they are embedded in a kind of governance - a local governance. This article, based on the case of the metropolitan region of Montreal, highlights the conception of local development of these community organizations, the local governance in which they participate, and the link between this local governance with the urban and metropolitan ones.
Police Relations with Black and White Youths in Different Urban Neighborhoods, vol. 44, no. 6
Rod K. Brunson, Ronald Weitzer
Much of the research on police-citizen relations has focused on adults, not youth. Given that adolescents, and particularly young males, are more likely than adults to have involuntary and adversarial contacts with police officers, it is especially important to investigate their experiences with and perceptions of the police. This paper examines the accounts of young black and white males who reside in one of three disadvantaged St. Louis, Missouri, neighborhoods – one predominantly black, one predominantly white, and the other racially mixed. In-depth interviews were conducted with the youth, and our analysis centers on the ways in which both race and neighborhood context influence young males' orientations toward the police.
A Duration Model for the Estimation of the Contracting Out of Urban Water Management in Southern Spain, vol. 44, no. 6
Jorge Guardiola, Francisco Gonzales-Gomez
The research that tries to explain the decisions of local government in the contracting out of certain services frequently disregards the temporal dimension. In this paper, the authors take into account time in the analysis, proposing a duration model as an alternative to discrete choice models. The objective is to analyze the explanatory factors in the contracting out of the municipal services. This methodology is applied to the water services of 744 municipalities in Southern Spain during the period 1985-2006. From the results, the authors conclude that complexity in the environment, economies of scale, financial restrictions and stability of the local government are determinant in the decision.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 44, Number 5, May 2009
Mad Cows, Regional Governance, and Urban Sprawl: Path Dependence and Unintended Consequences in the Calgary Region, vol. 44, no. 5
Geoff Ghitter and Alan Smart
History matters. Inspired by evolutionary approaches in economics and, more recently, economic geography we present, through the lens of a slaughterhouse development on the city's fringe, an historical model of urban development in the metropolitan region of Calgary , Canada . Our analysis shows how an unanticipated system shock conditioned by strong historical differences in the political and economic aspirations of adjacent urban and rural jurisdictions manifested at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Our narrative explores the intertwined evolutionary trajectories of five key system elements whose pathways converged in 2004 resulting in unintended and, from a regional environmental perspective, undesirable consequences.
Race, Retrospective Voting, and Disasters: The Re-Election of C. Ray Nagin After Hurricane Katrina, vol. 44, no. 5
J. Celeste Lay
The 2006 New Orleans mayoral election provides a unique opportunity to examine the influence of a natural disaster on voting behavior. Theories of retrospective voting presume that voters will punish incumbents whose performance they deem unacceptable. To many Americans, Ray Nagin had done a poor job in handling Katrina. Theories of racial conflict and accommodation, however, contend that voters in urban elections base their choice primarily on racial group interests. This study shows that racial identity was a critical factor in vote choice. Judgments of Nagin's performance were important, however many voters placed greater responsibility on the federal government.
Mobilization on the Waterfront: The Ideological/Cultural Roots of Potential Regime Change in Philadelphia, vol. 44, no. 5
Stephen J. McGovern
This paper examines the roots of regime dissolution and reconstruction through a case study of waterfront development in Philadelphia . The impetus for political change has been the progressive ideas, values, beliefs, and practices of a grassroots movement composed of middle-class residents and two prominent institutions that had previously supported the city's pro-growth regime. That movement has coincided with and contributed to other political initiatives, including the election of a progressive mayor in 2007, all of which may foreshadow the rise of a new governing coalition. The study has implications for regime theory, which emphasizes the role of material resources and institutions in explaining regime change while neglecting ideological and cultural factors.
Urban Colloquy
Look Back in Anger? : Voter Opinions of Mexican Immigrants in the Aftermath of the 2006 Immigration Demonstrations, vol. 44, no. 5
Mara Cohen-Marks, Gabriel R. Sanchez, Stephen A. Nuño
In the spring of 2006, an unprecedented mobilization of undocumented immigrants and their advocates sent shockwaves across the U.S. political landscape. Whether the demonstrations did more to advance the interests of undocumented residents and other immigrants or to harden nativist sentiments remains an open question. Examining data culled from a three-county exit poll of more than 4,300 voters in three urbanized western counties, we employ multivariate analysis to examine how the immigration rallies impacted voters' perceptions of Mexican immigrants. Our results indicate that the demonstrators failed to win the hearts and minds of American voters, most of whom reported that the rallies tended to negatively impact their perceptions of Mexican immigrants. The depth of this negative reaction varied across the sociopolitical contexts represented by the three counties as well as voters' individual attributes including party identification, ethnicity, nativity, and other characteristics.
Latino Mobilization in New Immigrant Destinations: The Anti–H.R. 4437 Protest in Nebraska 's Cities, vol. 44, no. 5
Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, Louis DeSipio, Celeste Montoya
We use the 2006 immigrant rights protests as a point of departure to test whether political opportunity structures aligned to spur widespread immigrant mobilization in new immigrant destinations. The existing immigrant mobilization scholarship would predict the absence of protest in areas of new migration because of their low levels of immigrant civic infrastructure. Through a detailed study of the immigrants rights protests and their aftermath in Nebraska, we find that unifying effect of the anti-immigrant legislation on immigrant-ethnic communities nationally allowed immigrants and their leaders to seize the opportunities presented by shifting local politics, new communications technologies, and the growing migrant civil societies in new destinations to spur widespread, if short-lived mobilization.
Mobilization, Participation, and Solidaridad: Latino Participation in the 2006 Immigration Protest Rallies, vol. 44, no. 5
Matt A. Barreto, Sylvia Manzano, Ricardo Ramirez, Kathy Rim
This article tests multiple hypotheses regarding participation in the 2006 immigration rallies. Specifically, we test whether the movement was widespread among Latinos or limited to Mexican immigrants, as speculated by the media, or whether group solidarity can be credited with mobilizing participation and support of Latino citizens for a largely immigrant cause. The consistent findings using both qualitative and quantitative approaches provide robust support for our conclusion that Latino support for the protests was strong across the population as a strong sense of solidarity unified the population around the immigration issue.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 44, Number 4, March 2009
Collaboration Is Not Enough: Virtuous Cycles of Reform in Transportation Policy , vol. 44, no. 4
Margaret Weir, Jane Rongerude, Christopher K. Ansell
Over the past two decades, a burgeoning literature has touted the promise of regional collaboration to address a wide range of issues. This article challenges the premise that horizontal collaboration alone can empower regional decision making venues. By analyzing efforts to create regional venues for transportation policy making in Chicago and Los Angeles , we show that vertical power is essential to building regional capacities. Only by exercising power at multiple levels of the political system can local reformers launch a virtuous cycle of reform that begins to build enduring regional capacities.
Weak Ties that Bind: Do Commutes Bind Montreal's Central and Suburban Economies? vol. 44, no. 4
Richard Shearmur, Benjamin Motte
Using Montreal as a case study, we investigate whether overlapping labour markets explain economic links between suburbs and the central city. Despite interconnection between labour markets we find only weak evidence of commuting ties between particular suburbs and the city centre. However, economic functions - but also some services and amenities - are distributed unevenly across the metropolitan area. We suggest that other connections, such as those generated by occasional consumption activities, by inter-firm exchanges, and by other weak ties, could profitably be explored in order to more fully understand the economic ties between constituent parts of metropolitan areas.
“Room to Grow”: Urban Ambitions and the Limits to Growth in Weld County , Colorado , vol. 44, no. 4
Katherine M. Johnson, Charles G. Schmidt
This study reconsiders the political conditions behind the geographically extensive pattern of urbanization in the United States by focusing on a rapidly urbanizing county on the northeast fringe of the Denver metropolitan area. Unusual for Colorado but typical of the industrialized northeast where this pattern first emerged, Weld County has a high concentration of small towns, the primary repository of statutory authority and ideological legitimacy to convert agricultural land to urban use. The urbanization of Weld County in the 1990s was amplified by the expansion of the towns into their surrounding farmland, which flooded the market with newly urbanized land. The study goes on to consider the prospects of this distinctively American political form in the wake of the property tax revolts of the late 1970s and early 1980s and the structural changes in the American economy over the past thirty years.
Addressing Women's Fear of Victimization in Transportation Settings: A Survey of U.S. Transit Agencies, vol. 44, no. 4
Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Camille Fink
Past research has shown that transit passengers' fears and concerns about safety influence their travel decisions. While the relationship between women's fear of crime and public space has been the focus of considerable research, transit environments – which are especially threatening to female passengers – have received much less attention. This study examines the issue of women's safety on transit through a survey of U.S. transit operators. The findings show that most respondents believe women have distinct safety and security needs, but most do not think agencies should put specific programs into place to address these needs. In addition, only a handful of agencies currently have programs that target the safety and security needs of women. This survey suggests that there is a significant mismatch between the safety and security needs and desires of female passengers and the types and locations of strategies that transit agencies use.
Boom, Bust, and Regional Growth Rates, vol. 44, no. 4
William Spelman
Does the business cycle matter? Most economists say no. The average consumer would prefer a tiny increase in overall growth rate to a substantial reduction in the volatility of that rate. But the primary effect of volatility may not be on consumption but on investment and productivity. If investors shift their money from volatile cities and times to stable ones, or if productivity depends on predictable demand and a stable workforce, volatility may hinder urban growth. Analysis of annual growth rates in U.S. metropolitan areas shows that short-term volatility reduced growth substantially, and that these effects were larger in cities with high long-term volatility. In most metropolitan areas, volatility reduction and growth enhancement efforts would provide roughly equal improvements in consumer utility.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 44, Number 3, January 2009
It Takes a Village: A Test of the Creative Class, Social Capital, and Human Capital Theories, vol. 44, no. 3
Michele Hoyman, Christopher Faricy
Richard Florida argues that the “creative class” is inextricably connected with surges in urban growth. This article, using data from 276 metropolitan statistical areas, empirically tests the creative class theory as compared to the human and social capital models of economic growth. Our results demonstrate that the creative class is not related to growth, whereas human capital predicts economic growth and development, and social capital predicts average wage but not job growth. Additionally, we found that clusters of universities correlated highly with economic growth. Our findings should warn policymakers against the use of "creative" strategies for urban economic development.
Changing Residential Preferences Across Income, Education, and Age: Findings from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, vol. 44, no. 3
William A. V. Clark
Residential preferences and their role in creating and maintaining residential segregation continue to be a subject of intense interest in the ongoing debates about race and residential sorting in US metropolitan areas. Residential preferences are also central in the ongoing work based on the Schelling tolerance models of residential selection. By examining the way in which residential preferences change across income, education and age the study provides new information on the way in which race and socio-economic status interact to create particular patterns of preference in particular locations. In general there is a distinct shift to greater willingness to live in integrated settings for African Americans with increasing income but also a distinct shift to own race selections with second or “back-up” choices for neighborhood composition. Whites' unwillingness to move to African American neighborhoods of more than 50 percent other race exacerbates the tendency to separation. Socio –economic status plays a similar role for other ethnic groups. The findings from this analysis, parallel findings from agent based modeling about the low probability of achieving substantial mixing of racial and ethnic groups.
Metropolitan Governance and Institutional Collective Action, vol. 44, no. 3
Richard C. Feiock
Metropolitan regions have emerged as perhaps the dominant economic and social units in global society (Katz 2000; Scott 2001; Feiock, Moon and Park 2008). The organization of governance and public authority in metropolitan areas is a long standing and contentious issue in urban politics and public administration. Fragmentation of policy making among multiple governmental units diminishes problems of concentrated powers and can also promote competition and innovation, but it also imposes inefficiencies as decisions by one governmental unit impose positive and negative externalities on others.
Regional Integration Through Contracting Networks: An Empirical Analysis of Institutional Collection Action Framework, vol. 44, no. 3
Simon A. Andrew
This article advances two general hypotheses, bonding and bridging, to explain the process by which local governments decide whether to enter into contracts. The characteristics of goods and services are important factors in these decisions. In high asset specificity transactions, the bridging hypothesis predicts local governments will establish ties with only a few “high status” actors; whereas in transactions for services with measurement difficulties, the bonding hypothesis predicts local governments will establish ties with partners of their existing partners in order to pool resources and reduce commitment risks. The general hypotheses are tested using agreements for law enforcement activities linking 66 actors in the Orlando-Kissimmee metropolitan area over 5 time periods (i.e., between 1986 and 2003). Using simulation investigation network analysis ( SIENA ) techniques, this study finds strong statistical support for these hypotheses.
Institutional Ties, Transaction Costs, and External Service Production, vol. 44, no. 3
Jered B. Carr, Kelly LeRoux, Manoj Shrestha
Analyses of local government contracting increasingly focus on understanding how the transaction costs created by service attributes limit opportunities for external service production. However, the Institutional Collective Action framework suggests that networks bridging communication among local government actors can help to offset these costs when it comes to intergovernmental contracting decisions. We use data from service production arrangements of cities in Michigan to examine propositions of the ICA framework that service production decisions are conditioned by the transaction characteristics of services as well as networks created through institutional linkages. We use multinomial logistic regression to test hypotheses linking the transaction characteristics of municipal services, inter-institutional networks, and measures of the city electoral institutions and local demographic characteristics to reliance on three different production mechanisms: (1) internal production, (2) joint or complete contracting with another government, and (3) production by a private or nonprofit organization. We find that some types of networks created by institutions have a modest increase on the likelihood that local governments will rely on intergovernmental service arrangements, and strong support for the notion that transaction costs shape external service production choices.
Civic Engagement, Ethnic Heterogeneity, and Social Capital in Urban Areas: Evidence from England, vol. 44, no. 3
Rhys Andrews
Scholars and policy-makers argue that civic engagement is intrinsically linked to social capital. In particular, they assume that political participation and associational activity can minimize negative externalities for social capital associated with ethnic heterogeneity, such as mistrust and lack of respect. This research note tests this assumption by analysing the relationship between civic engagement, ethnic heterogeneity and perceptions of mutual respect and social cohesion amongst citizens in urban local government areas across England . The statistical results suggest that associational life is positively associated with social capital, and that political participation enhances perceptions of mutual respect in ethnically diverse areas. The evidence provides support for arguments that civic engagement can moderate negative externalities for social capital associated with ethnic heterogeneity.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 44, Number 2, November 2008
Visions of Urban Reform: Comparing English and U.S. Strategies for Improving City Government, vol. 44, no. 2
Alan L. Saltzstein, Colin Copus, Raphael J. Sonenshein, Chris Skelcher
This article compares the logics and institutional consequences of urban government reform in the US and in England . We focus on the politics of ideas, identifying four common visions of urban reform: efficient public interest management, improved representation, local political leadership, and metropolitan-wide governance. National pressure groups, locality effects, and the status of city charters and council constitutions are key factors mediating the direction and pace of reform. These are embedded in different institutional norms for city government, related to national political and governmental cultures. The strengths and weaknesses of both systems are discussed.
School District Boundaries and Racial Residential Segregation: How Do Boundaries Matter?, vol. 44, no. 2
Kendra Bischoff
Fragmentation, or the proliferation of independent jurisdictions, is a key feature of the political structure in many metropolitan areas in the United States . This paper engages sorting theories to investigate racial segregation as one potential negative consequence of school district fragmentation in metropolitan areas. The main results suggest that fragmentation does increase multiracial segregation between districts. Using a decomposable segregation measure, I also find that fragmentation has a negative impact on segregation within districts and no significant effect on tract-level segregation. Additionally, the results suggest that the causes of segregation may differ for various race/ethnic groups. I argue here that segregation between political units may in fact be more appropriate than segregation between smaller units, such as census tracts, if one believes that the negative consequences of segregation stem from access to and social interactions within public institutions.
The New Chicago School of Urbanism and the New Daley Machine, vol. 44, no. 2
Dick Simpson, Tom M. Kelly
In the 20th century, the original “ Chicago School ” framed their theories of concentric rings of growth, immigration, racial segregation, and machine politics that became a major paradigm of urban studies for eighty years. The demise of classic city machine governments coupled with the changing settlement and business patterns in 21st century metropolitan areas have rendered the “ Old Chicago School ” outmoded, but not irrelevant. Modern cities are now metropolitan regions with multi-racial population
immersed in a global economy and are either not governed by political machines or governed by new machines that differ radically from their predecessors. This is true even in Chicago where the theories originated. Nonetheless, similarities remain between the overt patronage machines of the past and machine-like governance today in the new global Chicago . Politics and history shape spatial form and social relations. Because of this, the emerging “ New Chicago School ” theories which are being developed are not a model for all global cities, but they may provide a template for important global cities around the world just as New York and Los Angeles may provide models for others. The study of Chicago as a template for this new school raises a series of important questions for urban scholars: 1) Is an autocratic mayor and political machine required to govern a 21st century city? 2) Will racial politics continue to be key to 21st century politics? and 3) Can any effective system of governance be created for a metropolitan region or is urban sprawl inherently ungovernable?
School Is Out: The Case of New York City , vol. 44, no. 2
John Mollenkopf
Urban Politics and the Los Angeles School of Urbanism, vol. 44, no. 2
Michael Dear, Nicholas Dahmann
This polemical essay uses Los Angeles as a template to challenge existing theoretical and empirical research traditions in the study of urban politics. The precepts of the Los Angeles School exemplify the shift from a modernist to a postmodern urbanism in which altered geographies are redefining the meaning and practice of urban politics. Los Angeles challenges an urban political scholarship that is overly focused on empirical analysis at the expense of theory, too constrained by conventional categories, and divorced from adjacent disciplines with much to contribute to the understanding of contemporary politics, including urban political economy.
Gentrification and the Racialized Geography of Home Equity, vol. 44, no. 2
Jonathan Glick
This paper presents an exploration of how gentrification is restructuring racial disparity in home equity building across several US metropolitan areas. I reveal some ways in which gentrification is affecting the relative wealth levels of Black and Latino homeowners, a historically marginalized segment of the housing market. The most common trajectory involves a relatively high concentration of Black and Latino homeowners at the onset of gentrification, increased median levels of home equity for these homeowners as gentrification proceeds, and a relatively high attrition to other parts of the metropolitan area over time. The results suggest that although Black and Latino homeowners can reap financial benefit from gentrification, gentrification encourages net migration towards other parts of the metropolitan area where home equity gains are lower.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 44, Number 1, September 2008
Locational Attainment amongst African Americans at the close of the 20th Century, vol. 44, no, 1
Lance Freeman
In the wake of the Civil Rights era it is generally thought that the importance of class in determining social outcomes has increased. The extent to which this is true for locational outcomes, however, is unclear. This paper examines how blacks' ability to translate individual characteristics into locational outcomes changed over the 1970-2000 period. The results presented here show that higher socioeconomic status blacks have more white neighbors, fewer poor neighbors, and live in neighborhoods with higher housing values. This pattern was evident in 1970, however, and appears to have changed little over time. To the extent blacks are living in more integrated and higher status neighborhoods it appears to be because their socioeconomic status is improving. Their ability to translate their status into locational outcomes remained static.
Examining Local Government Service Delivery Arrangements Over Time, vol. 44, no. 1
Scott Lamothe, Meeyoung Lamothe, Richard C. Feiock
While scholars of local service delivery arrangements are fully aware the process is dynamic, research has tended to take the form of cross-sectional studies that are inherently static in nature. In this paper, we model the determinants of production mode accounting for past delivery decisions. We find, not surprisingly, that there are strong inertial effects; previous delivery mode is a strong predictor of the current service delivery arrangement. More interestingly, the impact of the transaction cost nature of services on production choice is conditioned on past decisions, such as the extent of contracting and the type of vendors used. There is also evidence that contract management capacity and the competitiveness of the contracting environment are influential.
Good Intentions, Unintended Consequences: Impact of Adker Consent Decree on Miami-Dade County 's Subsidized Housing, vol. 44, no, 1
Sukumar Ganapati, Howard Frank
In this paper, we assess the impact of the Adker consent decree, a federal desegregation agreement implemented since 1999. It requires Miami-Dade County public housing offers be initially made on the basis of race and that half of the eligible turnover of Section 8 vouchers be given to former or current black public housing residents. Although well intentioned, the decree has had unintended consequences. The decree had mixed impact on desegregating public housing; it increased public housing vacancy; it achieved modest desegregation among Section 8 voucher recipients; and it added considerable costs to the housing agency's operations.
Male Nonemployment in White, Black, Hispanic, and Multiethnic Urban Neighborhoods, 1970-2000, vol. 44, no, 1
Robert L. Wagmiller Jr
Many social problems in urban neighborhoods are rooted in high rates of male nonemployment. Past research suggests that male joblessness is a problem largely in low-income, black neighborhoods. In contrast, this study reports that increases in male nonemployment over the last thirty years were more widely distributed across urban neighborhoods. Although rates of male joblessness rose most sharply in low-income black neighborhoods, more advantaged black neighborhoods and low- to moderate-income Hispanic and multiethnic neighborhoods also experienced substantial increases. Multivariate models highlight the important role that changes in the economy played in the growth of male nonemployment in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.
The Influence of Nonprofit Networks on Local Affordable Housing Funding: Findings from a National Survey of Local Public Administrators, vol. 44, no, 1
Robert Mark Silverman
This article examines public administrators' perceptions of the effects of nonprofit networks effects on local affordable housing decisions. It builds on a larger body of research concerning the affordable housing activities of community-based organizations (CBOs). This analysis is based on a national survey of public administrators responsible for affordable housing programs in U.S. cities with populations over 100,000. The survey included questions about: CBO performance, factors influencing CBO funding decisions, and local government structure. This article provides insights into decision-making surrounding CBO funding at the local level. These insights improve our understanding of the connection between public administrators' perceptions, funding patterns, and inter-organizational relations.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 43, Number 6, July 2008
Defensive Development: The Role of Racial Conflict in Gentrification, vol. 43, no. 6
Michelle Boyd
This article expands the standard consumption versus production debate in the gentrification literature by examining the role of racial conflict in neighborhood change. Drawing from historical and ethnographic research, it analyzes gentrification in Douglas/Grand Boulevard , a black community on Chicago 's south side. It argues that although capital movements and middle class consumption patterns created opportunities for gentrification, racial ordering politicized it, prompting blacks to engage in what I term "defensive development.” This strategy aims to protect black neighborhoods from control by white elites. Yet it ultimately promotes gentrification, by politically and physically marginalizing the neighborhood's most economically vulnerable residents.
Running to Stand Still: Through the Looking Glass with Federally Subsidized Housing in New York City , vol. 43, no. 6
James DeFilippis, Elvin Wyly
Research and policy on the geography of assisted housing is dominated by a powerful conventional wisdom: project-based subsidies are presumptively bad because they anchor assisted households in poor, racially segregated neighborhoods, while vouchers are inherently good because they promote deconcentration and integration through tenant choice. Unfortunately, this consensus is based on geographical assumptions that have been subverted by the dramatic restructuring of cities with tight housing markets over the last generation. In this study, we use the case of New York City to analyze these spatial contradictions. Project-based subsidized housing is disappearing from yesterday's poor neighborhoods that have been remade by gentrification at the urban core, while recipients of Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs) are concentrated in today's poor neighborhoods of color farther from the city center. If the policy goal is to break the link between housing assistance and the stereotypes of “projects” in the worst neighborhoods, then in the case of tight, expensive urban housing markets, voucher-driven deconcentration will be less successful than the preservation of the existing project-based housing stock.
Religion, Resources, and Representation: Three Narratives of Faith Engagement in British Urban Governance, vol. 43, no. 6
Adam Dinham, Vivien Lowndes
Faith groups are increasingly regarded as important civil society participants in British urban governance. Faith engagement is linked to policies of social inclusion and ‘community cohesion', particularly in the context of government concerns about radicalisation along religious lines. Primary research is drawn upon in developing a critical, and explicitly multi-faith, analysis of faith involvement. A narrative approach is used to contrast the different perspectives of national policy makers, local stakeholders and faith actors themselves. The narratives serve to illuminate not only this specific case, but also the more general character of British urban governance as it takes on a more ‘decentred' form, with greater blurring of boundaries between the public, private and personal.
Social Disorganization, Drug Market Activity, and Neighborhood Violent Crime, vol. 43, no. 6
Ramiro Martínez, Richard Rosenfeld, Dennis Mares
Although illicit drug activity occurs within local communities, past quantitative research on drug markets and violent crime in the United States has been conducted mainly at the city level. We use neighborhood-level data from the city of Miami to test hypotheses regarding the effect of drug activity and traditional indicators of social disorganization on rates of aggravated assault and robbery. Our results show that drug activity has robust effects on violent crime that are independent of other disorganization indicators. We also find that drug activity is concentrated in neighborhoods with low rates of immigration, less linguistic isolation and ethnic heterogeneity, and where non-drug accidental deaths are prevalent. We find no independent effect of neighborhood racial composition on drug activity or violent crime. The results suggest that future neighborhood-level research on social disorganization and violent crime should devote explicit attention to the disorganizing and violence-producing effects of illicit drug activity.
The Adapted Cities Framework: On Enhancing Its Use in Empirical Research, vol. 43, no. 6
Jered B. Carr, Shanthi Karuppusamy
Analysts are calling attention to a new era of municipal reform and to the convergence of the mayor-council and council-manager forms of government. H. George Frederickson, Gary Johnson, and Curtis Wood have proposed a new framework that explains the nature and extent of this convergence. We think this “adapted cities” framework is a potentially important advance in our understanding of municipal structure, but note that empirical scholars have largely ignored the framework. This stems from the lack of a process for coding cities into this framework and from difficulties in operationalizing its categories. We contribute to this important topic by presenting a general process for coding cities on council-manager and mayor-council platforms into the adapted cities framework.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 43, Number 5, May 2008
Locational Patterns of Low Income Housing Tax Credit Developments: A Sociospatial Analysis of Four Metropolitan Areas, vol. 43, no. 5
Deirdre Oakley
This study examined neighborhood characteristics and spatial patterns of Low-Income Housing Tax-Credit (LIHTC) developments in four metropolitan areas using census data and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) LIHTC database. Sociospatial analysis determined neighborhood characteristics associated with LIHTC developments and how clustered or dispersed they are. Findings indicate that as a low-income housing policy, the LIHTC program was more successful than other federally assisted, project-based housing programs at locating developments in neighborhoods not highly disadvantaged, but less successful at avoiding geographic concentrations associated with other low-income housing programs. The presence of a LIHTC project increased the likelihood of nearby LIHTC development by rewarding developers who place LIHTC units in qualified census tracts.
Strategic, Geographic Targeting of Housing and Community Development Resources: A Conceptual Framework and Critical Review, vol. 43, no. 5
Dale E. Thomson
This paper critically examines a conceptual framework for strategic, geographic targeting, an allocation model for improving efficiency in community development programs. It reviews the theoretical and empirical literature, discusses constraints and policy implications, and outlines a research agenda. Cost-savings, multiplier, and interaction effects form the core rationale for strategic, geographic targeting. Focus and neighborhood spillover effects complement these and are likely to occur more rapidly when strategic, geographic targeting is used. While the literature is largely silent on the cost-savings, focus, and neighborhood spillover effects, it supports the multiplier effect and demonstrates that it is contingent upon the attainment of investment thresholds. It also identifies interventions that are likely to interact positively with programs targeting housing investment.
Taming the Local Leviathon: Institutional and Economic Constraints on Municipal Budgets, vol. 43, no. 5
Michael Craw
Democratic political institutions and interjurisdictional competition both put pressure on local elected officials to respond to the tax and spending preferences of residents. But the electoral success of California 's proposition 13 in 1978 and of similar property tax limitations in other states suggests that local expenditures and taxes in many jurisdictions are higher than those preferred by the median voter. I argue that this upward bias in expenditures is greater in communities where interjurisdictional competition is weak and local political institutions provide incentives for rent-seeking. Using data from the 1997 Census of Governments and 1996 ICMA Form of Government Survey, I find evidence that municipalities facing weaker competition tend to have higher spending, and political institutions mediate the marginal effect of competition on city expenditures
Communities, the Private Sector, and the State: Contested Forms of Security Governance in Cape Town and Johannesburg , vol. 43, no. 5
Claire Benit-Gbaffou, Sophie Didier, and Marianne Morange
In post-apartheid South African cities, the loss of confidence of the civil society in the ability of public authorities to protect the citizens reflects the international trend towards the State's delegation of a number of public functions. It has led to the proliferation of private and community initiatives which quickly spread across urban space, taking different forms according to the level of segregation, the shape of the urban fabric, the local culture of urban development and planning, the political context and the pace of urban growth. This paper, informed by the examples of Johannesburg and Cape Town , discusses the specific South African way of handling these delegation processes: a complex mix of neoliberal policies and practices and of the ANC's agenda towards equality and redistribution for democratic South Africa . Indeed, after a transitional period where these initiatives were tolerated, public authorities are currently reasserting their power over some of these forms (community-led initiatives) while still encouraging public-private partnerships (CIDs).
Influences on the Sense of Neighborhood: Case of Slovenia , vol. 43, no. 5
Masa Filipovic
A significant amount of research has been done in the USA and Western European countries regarding the sense of neighborhood and researchers have found how individual and contextual characteristics influence one's sense of neighborhood. However, it is less clear whether the differences discovered in the Western context also apply to Eastern European countries. Slovenia is a post-communist country which means that potentially different processes have been significant in relation to the development of the sense of neighborhood. In the article the influence of individual and contextual factors on the sense of neighborhood in Slovenia is tested and compared. The analysis is made on the basis of a survey carried out in 2005 on a representative sample of Slovenian households. The findings are in some ways similar to those of the Western research. However, certain findings ran contrary to some of the cited research, like the absence of gender differences and the opposite influence of education and income. This might indicate different processes of establishing a sense of neighborhood in Eastern Europe .
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 43, Number 4, March 2008
Risk, Stress, and Capacity: Explaining Metropolitan Commitment to Climate Protection, vol. 44, no. 4
Sammy Zahran, Himanshu Grover, Samuel D. Brody, Arnold Vedlitz
Climate change and mitigation policies adopted by a local jurisdiction have a lasting impact on its urban form, its landscape and the economy. In absence of any universally accepted climate change mitigation agreements, Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) has become a dominant movement organizing the local jurisdictions to proactively participate in climate change mitigation initiatives. This study examines metropolitan area commitment to the CCP. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and statistical techniques are used to rank and spatially organize metro areas on dimensions of climate change risk, climate change stress, and civic capacity. Climate change risk measures a metro area's coastal proximity, eco-system sensitivity, and susceptibility to extreme weather events. Climate change stress summarizes transportation, energy, and production practices that adversely affect climate systems. Civic capacity estimates human capital and environmental concern variables that constitute a metropolitan area's ability to commit to climate change policy initiatives. Correlation and multiple regression r esults indicate that high stressor metro areas are significantly less likely to participate in the CCP campaign, and metros high in civic capacity are significantly more likely to commit to the CCP campaign.
Shifting Geographies: Examining the Role of Suburbanization in Blacks' Declining Segregation, vol. 44, no. 4
Mary J. Fischer
This paper explores the relationship between black shifts to the suburbs and metropolitan segregation using the decompositional properties of the entropy index. This method reveals that much of the decline in metropolitan segregation of blacks from others is due to declining central city segregation; suburban segregation has much lower average declines. Furthermore, a growing proportion of black/other segregation is explained by residential distributions within the suburbs. Uneven distributions of blacks across city lines account for nearly a third of black/other segregation in Midwest and Northeast in 2000. In the West, within suburban sorting is by far the most important component of metropolitan segregation of blacks from others, while in the South within city and within suburb sorting are relatively equal in importance.
The Logic of Ethnic Business Distribution in Multiethnic Cities, vol. 44, no. 4
Eric Fong, Emily E. Anderson, Wenhong Chen, Chiu Luk
In this paper, we proposed a model for understanding ethnic business locations in multiethnic cities. The central argument of the framework is that the location of ethnic businesses reflects the match between the neighborhood business environment and the unique locational demand of the ethnic businesses involved in particular industrial sectors. Hypotheses were tested by a data set of Chinese businesses in the Toronto area drawn from business directories produced by the City of Toronto in 2000 and York Region in Canada in 2001, which were merged with 2001 Canadian census data.
Tax Increment Financing and Property Value: An Examination of Business Property Using Panel Data, vol. 44, no. 4
Deborah A. Carroll
This paper examines the impact of tax increment financing (TIF) on business property value. Using parcel-level data from Milwaukee , Wisconsin , during the 1980-1999 time period, a semi-log econometric model is estimated using fixed effects regression. A two-stage estimation process is also used to test and correct for potential self-selection bias and endogeneity associated with TIF implementation. The findings suggest that the provision of public services offered within TIF districts is capitalized into business property value over time. The magnitude of this effect is the largest of all factors considered. The analysis also reveals that self-selection bias is likely associated with TIF implementation. The endogenously determined probability that a property will be placed within a TIF district is positively correlated with the property's value. Finally, the analysis reveals that the impact of tax increment financing might be underestimated in the absence of corrections for self-selection bias and endogeneity.
The Quest to Confront Suburban Decline: Political Realities and Lessons, vol. 44, no. 4
Thomas J. Vicino
The social and economic decline of first-tier suburbs has emerged as an important issue in metropolitan America, yet little is known about the political and policy responses to this problem. An analysis of Baltimore County demonstrates that the local government was able to implement revitalization projects from 1995 to 2005 since it had jurisdiction over its first-tier suburbs. Characteristics such as a large population in both first-tier and outer suburbs, an affluent tax base, and the lack of municipalities allowed Baltimore County to redistribute funds for these projects. I argue that if policymakers and planners are serious about confronting suburban decline, then either a regional growth boundary or a regional zoning tool is necessary to slow the pressures of urban decentralization. Yet, such regional policies are not panaceas for the ills of suburban decline. Alternatively, state and federal initiatives offer prospects for suburban renewal, although attempts to enact substantive policies have failed to date. The political realities suggest that the will to maintain local autonomy is stronger than the will to eliminate the real barriers to revitalizing first-tier suburbs.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 43, Number 3, January 2008
Whose Responsibility? Swedish Local Decision-makers and the Scale of Climate Change Abatement, vol. 43, no. 3
Chris von Borgstede and Lennart J. Lundqvist
This article uses a framework combining concepts from the discourse of scalar politics with a social dilemma perspective. The aim is to seek ways of answering why – not just how - political interests advocate a specific scalar arrangement. Analyzing informant interviews with top politicians and administrators in four municipal governments in the Gothenburg urban region of southwestern Sweden , we find that although all recognize the social dilemma of climate change, the size and capacity of their local government lead to different scalar arguments about responsibility for action. Regardless of municipal size and capacity, however, actors' scalar arguments in the end converge in a pattern of path dependence. They recommend a lready well entrenched structures of inter-municipal urban cooperation as the scalarly most appropriate vehicle for addressing the social dilemma and for assuming and distributing responsibility for future climate related regional action. This opens up for comparative urban research on how ‘new' and ‘existing' transboundary urban structures handle climate issues in terms of legitimacy and efficiency.
Dispersing the Crowd: Bonus Plazas and the Creation of Public Space, vol. 43, no. 3
Greg Smithsimon
Research has found that most bonus plazas in front of Manhattan office buildings are barren, uninviting spaces. But there has been little study of why that is so. Existing explanations suggest unusable plazas are unintended consequences of other processes—architects slavishly reproducing modernist architectural styles, or developers minimizing costs by neglecting public spaces. Such explanations are found to be unsupported by the facts. This study of 291 Manhattan bonus plazas and the development process in New York , including site observations, analysis of newly available plaza data, and interviews of architects, planners, and building managers reveals that spaces were intentionally made uninviting, and that developers acted to make the plazas inaccessible. Implications for the study and creation of public space are discussed.
Advantage or Disadvantage: The Changing Institutional Landscape of Underserved Mortgage Markets, vol. 43, no. 3
Philip Ashton
This article argues that the resolution to the banking crisis after 1989 created a set of market rules promoting financial consolidation and giving large financial conglomerates competitive advantages that could allow them to more effectively tap historically underserved mortgage markets. Focusing on Chicago during the period 1993-2000, I assess the role played by consolidating lenders and their counterparts in altering the allocation of home purchase mortgages so as to benefit historically underserved markets. The results indicate that even as consolidating lenders are often leaders in more permissive mortgage market outcomes, substantial variations across time and between different areas of the city are suggestive of how underserved markets fare in the new financial marketplace.
Bringing the Spatial In: The Case of the 2002 Seattle Monorail Referendum, vol. 43, no. 3
Anne Peterson, Barbara Kinsey, Hugh Bartling and Brady Baybeck
Contests over public goods remain at the forefront of urban political battles in nearly every major city in the United States . The spatial location of the good can play an instrumental role in understanding the contours and outcomes of such conflicts. We explore a particular case of urban political phenomena, voting for a growth related development project, the monorail, by referendum in the city of Seattle . We examine how a grassroots campaign successfully mobilized voters by targeting appeals to both their particularistic and collective interests. We conduct our analysis at the precinct level and use spatial tools of analysis and ecological inference. We find that voter support for the monorail project stemmed from the location of the proposed monorail route and the campaign's progressive appeals to environmental, social justice, and high tech concerns. Although cost overruns ultimately derailed the construction of the monorail in 2005, when passed in 2002 the monorail was the most expensive infrastructure project in Seattle 's history.
Urban Affair Review, Volume 43, Number 2, November 2007
State-sponsored Gentrification Under Market Transition: The Case of Shanghai, vol. 43, no. 2
Shenjing He
The state is playing an increasing important role in the recent wave of gentrification. This study reveals that strong state intervention in Shanghai 's gentrification can be seen in three aspects. First, the state stimulates and accommodates the consumption demands of gentrifiers. Second, to create optimal conditions for capital circulation, the state makes policy interventions and invests heavily in environment beautification and infrastructure construction. Third, the state mobilizes the most important resources to tackle the problem of fragmented property rights and to facilitate gentrification. The state-sponsored gentrification under market transition is motivated by the pursuit of economic and urban growth, at the cost of large-scale residential displacement.
Impacts of Urban Growth Boundary Versus Exclusive Farm Use Zoning on Agricultural Land Uses, vol. 43, no. 2
Mehmet C. Marin
This study compares net impacts of developmental potentials, externalities and uncertainties associated with the Urban Growth Boundaries with those of certainty and tax savings in the Exclusive Farm Use districts on land values in Portland , OR , using a hedonic Thünian econometric model. Based on a GIS-based data set of Christmas tree and horticultural farms, value effects of the Urban Growth Boundaries was found to vary by farm size, land use and proximity to urban activities. The results suggested that proximity to negative externalities associated with urban activities had strong impacts on farming within the UGB. These impacts overweighed advantages associated with tax savings and increasing certainty within exclusive farm use districts.
Moving Up and Moving Out? : Economic and Residential Mobility of Low-Income Chicago Families, vol. 43, no. 2
Dan A. Lewis, Vandna Sinha
This paper examines the residential and income mobility of 403, low income, Chicago families within a context shaped by welfare and public housing reforms implemented in the mid-1990s. We assess the extent to which sample members became less poor and less isolated in economically and racially segregated areas in the years following implementation of these reforms. Sample members experienced marked income gains between 1999 and 2002, but the average income reaches a plateau at less than $16,000 per year. Despite significant residential mobility, there was only a slight reduction in the economic segregation of sample members and no discernable change in racial segregation.
Tax Competition Among Municipal Governments: Exit Versus Voice, vol. 43, no. 2
Rebecca Hendrick, Yonghong Wu, Benoy Jacob
This research examines the incidence of property and sales tax competition among municipal governments in the Chicago metropolitan region and investigates whether the underlying mechanism is exit or voice. First, the research estimates a model with a spatial-lag component that relates each municipality's tax or revenue burden to that of its neighbors, controlling for other factors. The results show that tax competition exists for property taxes which suggest that the competition is based on voice rather than exit. Second, assessment of preferences and attitudes towards sales and property taxes and competition also demonstrates the importance of voice in establishing tax rates and levies.
Sixteen Million Neighbors: A Multilevel Study of the Role of Neighbors in the Personal Networks of the Dutch, vol. 43, no. 2
Beate Volker, Henk Flap
This paper discusses the role of neighbors in the personal networks of people living in the Netherlands . It aims to establish the conditions for the inclusion of neighbors in such a network. Three complementary theoretical perspectives for developing hypotheses are employed: meeting opportunities, sharing groups and social capital. Arguments are tested using national representative data (n = 902, PRESOS) and multilevel regression models. The results show that all three perspectives contribute to explain the number of neighbor relations in personal networks, although none of the theoretical perspectives is fully confirmed. Interestingly, local facilities such as primary schools and day-care facilities that draw their members not only from the neighborhood but also from a larger local area, influence the likelihood of including neighbors in personal networks: primary schools encourage these relations, while the existence of day-care facilities discourages neighboring.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 43, Number 1, September 2007
Resource Exchange in Urban Governance: On the Means that Matter, vol. 43, no. 1
Caelesta Poppelaars
An explanatory framework based on the classic resource dependency perspective is used to explain a broad variety of urban government-interest group interactions that are not fully explained by current urban governance theories. A case study of Dutch urban immigrant integration shows that we must combine considerations of information and intermediation capacity to explain why Dutch urban governments interact with immigrant organizations, in addition to common findings about institutional heritage. Their information and intermediation capacity allows local governments to get in touch quickly with immigrant groups during periods that potentially threaten the social order and public safety and creates incentives to maintain grants and keep in touch whereas contributions of such groups to effective implementation are at least doubted.
Minority Empowerment and Environmental Justice, vol. 43, no. 1
Stefanie Chambers
In Hartford , Connecticut , environmental health problems disproportionately affect poor and minority residents of the city. Minority group activists in Hartford have created a multiracial organization composed of urban and suburban residents to fight for environmental justice. The organization has achieved a measure of success in terms of governmental responsiveness to their concerns. This article highlights the strategies used by the organization to advance its interests. These strategies are framed within the minority empowerment and environmental justice literature to develop a theoretical explanation for the organization's success. Finally, this article provides a model for other communities fighting for environmental justice.
Revitalizing Urban Research: Can Cultural Explanation Bring us Back to the Periphery?, vol. 43, no. 1
Elaine B. Sharp
This paper lays out an argument that, if the urban politics field has become marginalized, it is because the field has neglected to develop a contemporary, theoretically grounded version of cultural explanation to go along with its attention to institutions and political economy. The paper introduces such a theoretical framework. It then shows how taking cultural explanation seriously could bring the study of urban politics closer to themes that are energizing the American and comparative politics fields. The paper concludes with an acknowledgement of a remaining challenge – conceptualizing how race and ethnicity relate to the new conceptualization of unconventional versus traditional sub-culture in the U.S.
Is Urban Politics a Black Hole? Analyzing the Boundary between Political Science and Urban Politics, vol. 43, no. 1
Joshua Sapotichne, Bryan D. Jones and Michelle Wolfe
For many years the scholarship of urban politics has drifted further and further away from political science, both theoretically and methodologically. In this paper we systematically examine the boundary between urban political studies and the broader discipline of political science through an analysis of journal citations. We find that the analogy of a “black hole” is apt: no ideas escape the event horizon surrounding urban politics; furthermore, ideas from outside rarely penetrate the subfield's borders. Whereas we think this is mostly due to a stunted solipsism that has engulfed too much of urban politics, we also blame the increasing insularity of political science. We suggest an alteration in the sub-discipline's current trajectory, away from the stifling determinism of studying the interaction between politics and capitalism in favor of a more progressive research agenda spotlighting the inherent dynamism and fluidity in urban politics. We conclude with an endorsement of framework-driven citation analysis as a method of examining the flow of ideas across scholarly boundaries.
Event History Analysis of the Formation of Los Angeles Neighborhood Councils, vol. 43, no. 1
Kyu-Nahm Jun
This article investigates the impacts of community contexts, such as, divergence with the City, differences within the community, and community capacity on the successful formation of Neighborhood Councils (NCs) in the City of Los Angeles . To date, there are 86 certified NCs out of 97 communities that submitted application for certification. Event history analysis is conducted as an effective method to understand NC formation itself and the timing of the event. The results indicate that community heterogeneity characteristics, such as race/ethnicity and income heterogeneity, have dissimilar influence on the formation of NCs. Community capacity is also found to be positively related to earlier formation of NCs.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 42, Number 6, July 2007
The Urban Politics of Workfare: New York City 's Welfare Reforms and the Dimensions of Welfare Policy Making, vol. 42, no. 6
John Krinsky
This article casts New York City 's large, public-sector workfare program of the mid-1990s against political-economic, institutionalist, and culturalist explanations of welfare reform dynamics. It argues that the form and changes in welfare reform programs must increasingly be understood as intersecting with urban political dynamics. Synthesizing existing literatures on welfare and urban policy, the article urges explanations based on the intersection of urban labor-market and fiscal management, institutional rules, and analyses of multiscalar policy networks and urban regimes that (1) generate ideas about what constitutes policy success; (2) organize coalitions and disorganize potential opposition; and (3) import and export policy reform ideas to and from the local scale to larger scales of governance.
Labor Unions and Affordable Housing: An Uneasy Relationship, vol. 42, no. 6
Hilary Botein
Labor unions in the United States were involved in producing and advocating for affordable housing in the period after World War II, when labor wielded legislative, electoral, and economic power both nationally and locally. That involvement now has ceased almost completely. This article uses historical analysis to explore how labor unions influenced national housing policies and programs in the postwar United States, and considers how the labor and housing movements do and could collaborate today to meet the current pressing need for affordable housing, through alliances between organized labor and community groups in support of better housing and more unionized construction jobs.
(Re)Branding the Big Easy: Tourism Rebuilding in Post-Katrina New Orleans , vol. 42, no. 6
Kevin Fox Gotham
This paper draws upon primary and secondary data to provide insight into the process and conflicts over efforts to brand New Orleans as an entertainment destination from the 1990s to the present. I identify the key actors and organized interests involved in branding New Orleans , the rationale and logic of branding, and marketing strategies used to enhance place distinctiveness. In the second half of the paper, I describe the impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans = s tourism sector and examine efforts to rebrand the city. I point to the problems, contradictions, and unpredictability of urban branding. My analysis provides an important opportunity for theoretical development and offers a unique perspective for understanding urban branding as a contested and conflictual process of homogenization and diversification.
Neighborhood Economic Development Effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit in Los Angeles : Poor Places and Policies for the Working Poor, vol. 42, no. 6
James H. Spencer
This paper explores the effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on poor neighborhoods of Los Angeles during the late 1990s. To date, few analyses have empirically examined the impact of people-based policies on the economies of poor neighborhoods. The paper first documents the magnitude of this individual wage subsidy in Los Angeles as an unrecognized investment in poor neighborhoods on par with place-based policies such as Enterprise Zones. The paper then uses IRS and Economic Census data by ZIP Code to test whether increased EITC income has an effect on the neighborhood retail job base. Findings suggest an independent correlation between EITC investments and retail job gain. The conclusion uses these results to suggest better policy co-ordination and recommend four productive areas for future research.
Police Practices in Immigrant-Destination Cities: Political Control or Bureaucratic Professionalism?, vol. 42, no. 6
Paul G. Lewis, S. Karthick Ramakrishnan
Political incorporation theory suggests that the incorporation of new groups into city electoral politics will precede any improvements in the way that local bureaucracies treat members of those groups. We argue, however, that the logic and sequencing of political incorporation and bureaucratic response does not apply when explaining police practices toward immigrant residents. Drawing on survey evidence and case studies of California cities, we find that police departments are ahead of city councils and other municipal agencies in providing language support and that local elected officials are largely unaware of key practices of their police departments regarding interactions with immigrants. Such findings support the perspective of bureaucratic incorporation of immigrants, in which local bureaucracies proactively develop their own practices, drawing upon a professional ethos.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 42, Number 5, May 2007
Fighting for Control: Political Displacement in Atlanta 's Gentrifying Neighborhoods, vol. 42, no. 5
Leslie Martin
The loss of political influence is an important adverse consequence of gentrification for long-time residents. This study examines why neighborhood organizations in three gentrifying neighborhoods in Atlanta , GA chose to address this potential problem, while organizations in another gentrifying community did not. Organizations of long-time residents, whether formed before gentrification or in response, were more likely to address political displacement. Neighborhood organizations with strong track records of providing benefits for neighbors, and that adopted accepted organizational forms were more likely to mobilize effectively to protect the political participation of long-time residents. Interorganizational conflict minimized groups' ability to address political changes.
The Attitudinal Effects of Minority Incorporation: Examining the Racial Dimensions of Trust in Urban America , vol. 42, no. 5
Melissa Marschall and Paru R. Shah
Although trust in government has been declining for all Americans, black Americans continue to be significantly less trusting than their white counterparts. Scholars have typically relied on the political reality model to explain this gap, arguing that lower trust among blacks stems from their exclusion from power. Given contemporary gains in black office holding, we revisit this question in the context of urban politics. Based on a sample of 104 municipalities we find that black descriptive representation has very limited direct effects on trust, but appears to affect the distribution of policing policies across cities, and that substantive police policies increase black and white Americans' trust in local police. Overall, our findings extend conventional conceptualizations of substantive benefits while raising questions about the symbolic value of black political representation.
Rethinking the Dual City , vol. 42, no. 5
Alexander Reichl
This article examines social polarization in New York City : first, as an objective condition among city neighborhoods; and second, as an issue in city politics. Data on income, poverty, housing, and crime provide little evidence of growing polarization between low- and high-income neighborhoods in the 1990s. However, the data reveal a striking contrast between the spectacular gains of core areas and the widespread stagnation and decline across low-, middle-, and high-income neighborhoods outside the core. Polarization has not proved a viable political issue because it becomes subsumed in racial/ethnic politics; yet the data suggest that progressives might prevail with a dual-city discourse that highlights the significance of polarization for neighborhoods outside the core.
Reconnecting with Our Roots: American Urban Planning and Public Health in the Twenty-First Century, vol. 42, no. 5
Jason Corburn
This paper suggests that contemporary efforts to reconnect urban planning and public health can benefit from a critical historic review of the two fields, particularly strategies based on removal and displacement of waste and people, scientific rationality, moral environmentalism, and increased specialization. The paper offers a set of reconnection strategies that draw from this review, emphasizing alternative paradigms of precaution and prevention, institution building and local knowledge. I offer examples of specific practices that embody these ideas, such as health impact assessment, food systems planning, and promoting networks of community health workers, which address both the physical and social determinants of health and might effectively reconnect planning and public health to meet the challenges facing 21 st century cities.
Planning the Competitive City Region: The Emergence of Strategic Development Plan in China , vol. 42, no. 5
Fulong Wu and Jingxing Zhang
This paper analyzes the emergence of the so-called “urban strategic development plan” in China during inter-city competition and new entrepreneurial governance. Driven by market-oriented development and globalization, the local government attempts to overcome the constraints of conventional statutory planning to promote a “visionary city plan.” Through case studies of Guangzhou and Hangzhou , we argue that the strategic plan is more or less a mission statement of the local political leaders and thus has a narrow social foundation. The emergence of the strategic plan reflects the overall shift of city planning towards being an important instrument for enhancing economic competitiveness.
Did Overzealous Activists Destroy Housing Affordability in San Francisco ? A Test of the Effects of Rezoning on Construction and Home Prices, 1960-1998, vol. 42, no. 5
Karl Beitel
In this article I use time-series models of construction and price levels in the San Francisco housing market to test claims that implementation of more strict zoning controls restrict housing construction and artificially inflate housing prices. The results do not support these claims. I argue that the primary barrier to new housing construction derives from the interaction of financial market variables, household search behavior, and the unique characteristics of urban land markets that in tandem act to constrain new construction to high end luxury segments of the local housing market . Increasing the supply of affordable housing in San Francisco will therefore require large-scale public subsidies to compensate for the failure of the market to meet the pressing housing needs of low-to-moderate income households.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 42, Number 4, March 2007
Housing, Gangs, and Homicide: What We Can Learn from Chicago, vol. 42, no. 4
John Hagedorn and Brigid Rauch
Recent declines in homicide in Chicago have been seen as similar to earlier declines in New York City and Los Angeles . Popular explanations that policing strategies largely explain variation in rates of violence have been skeptically greeted by criminologists. However, no plausible explanation for persisting high rates of homicide in some cities and very low rates in others has been credibly presented. One reason for this may be the narrowness of criminological investigations. Explanations for violence internationally have included human rights, housing, and economic development among other variables. This essay presents data from a study on homicide in Chicago and supplements criminological thinking on homicide by adding insights from urban and globalization research.
Collective Action, City Council Committees, and State Aid to Cities, vol. 42, no. 4
Bertram Johnson
Studies of city council committee structures offer the potential to shed light both on the dynamics of local politics and on broader theories of legislative organization. Pelissero and Krebs find that larger councils are more likely to have committee structures, and that committees have limited influence on policy outputs, contrary to what distributive models of legislative organization would predict (Pelissero and Krebs 1997) . I replicate Pelissero and Krebs' finding on council size, but suggest a different interpretation of these results, focusing not on theories of distributive politics, but on the collective action dynamics within city councils. Instead of being havens for high-demanding legislators, city council committees are tools with which a council as a whole can more effectively provide collective goods to its city. Finally, I present a simple test of whether councils with committees are better able to provide public goods, using state aid as the dependent variable.
Ethnic and Racial Segregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas, 1980-2000: The Dimensions of Segregation Revisited, vol. 42, no. 4
Ron Johnston, Michael Poulsen, and James Forrest
US Metropolitan Area data for three ethnic groups – African-Americans, Asians and Hispanics – are used to explore the dimensions of residential segregation at the 1980, 1990, and 2000 censuses, at the census tract scale. Although set within Massey and Denton 's five-dimensional conceptual schema, the study was unable to replicate their identification of five empirical dimensions which correspond with the conceptual set. Instead, separate analyses for each ethnic group at each of the three censuses suggested two super-dimensions: separation and location. These apply across all three groups and three censuses, although the degree of separation varies considerably among the three groups.
Local Governments as Policy Entrepreneurs: Evaluating Florida's “Concurrency Experiment”, vol. 42, no. 4
Timothy S. Chapin
One centerpiece of Florida's landmark 1985 growth management legislation was the concept of concurrency, a requirement that new development not proceed unless specific services are in place to service the development. Whereas many analysts have critiqued Florida 's concurrency mandate, these studies have usually focused upon concurrency as a concept and not concurrency as actually implemented and practiced by local governments. For this paper, we investigated the concurrency practices of sixty-six local governments in Florida , finding substantial variation in concurrency practices. Beyond this review of local government concurrency practices, we also draw upon the policy implementation literature to learn from Florida 's “concurrency experiment”.
Boomburb “Buildout”: The Future of Development in Large, Fast-Growing Suburbs, vol. 42, no. 4
Robert Lang and Jennifer LeFurgy
Many “Boomburbs,” or large fast-growing suburbs, are nearing their “buildout.” Buildout refers to the point at which development has reached a city's borders, or has exhausted large-scale greenfield options. Boomburbs will soon face a decision: do they stop booming once they reach their current limits or develop a new growth model that more intensively uses existing land? Or will they annex more space for continuing greenfield development? The authors surveyed 140 Boomburb governments about their buildout plans. The respondents provided information on several variables including future density, the amount of space left to build on, and the mixture of land uses that will fill this space. The answers varied widely, with some places looking to become far more urbanized, while others rush to build even lower-density development. Yet, most Boomburbs expect to grow denser as they buildout. The paper concludes with a discussion on two policy implications of buildout: annexation and governance.
“Don't Be a Blockhead”: ACORN, Protest Tactics, and Refund Anticipation Loans, vol. 42, no. 4
Robert Fisher, Fred Brooks, and Daniel Russell
The recent proliferation of community-based responses to urban problems has been characterized by a shift away from protest tactics to more moderate approaches of building community and consensus, developing social capital, and identifying and improving local assets. This case study examines the persistence and effectiveness of protest tactics in a campaign by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) against H&R Block around “predatory” tax preparation practices. It reveals the potential of direct action especially when local protests are coordinated nationally. This combination helps to transcend the inherent limits of both community-based activism and national-oriented advocacy efforts.
Reassessing Gentrification: Measuring Residents' Opinions Using Survey Data, vol, 42, no. 4
Daniel Monroe Sullivan
Qualitative studies have focused on the proponents and the opponents to gentrification, but have not provided a clear picture of the opinions of a truly representative sample of residents. This article uses probability sampling and a large sample size to examine residents in two gentrifying neighborhoods in Portland , Oregon . The results suggest that the majority of residents – including owners and renters, whites and minorities, newcomers and longtime residents, those college educated and not – like how their neighborhood has changed and think it will improve even more in the future. However, regression analysis reveals that renters and longtime black residents are less likely to view these changes positively.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 42, Number 3, January 2007
Race, Class, and Place: Evaluating Mobility Outcomes for African Americans, vol. 42, no. 3
William A.V. Clark
There is an ongoing debate about levels of segregation, their causes and their long term direction. The debate is between those who, while acknowledging some role for economic forces, place the emphasis for continuing segregation on discrimination and white prejudice and those who place greater emphasis on income, wealth and residential preferences. This debate is further illuminated with a detailed analysis of African American suburbanization using a combination of data from the 2000 Census and the Current Population Survey. The analysis confirms other research that shows substantial suburban growth of African American populations. It adds to that research by showing that those African American populations who move to the suburbs have substantially more income and wealth and higher levels of education than African American populations who move within the metropolitan cores. In addition, suburban African Americans live in more integrated settings than those who live in the central city. The implications of this finding bolster the view that income does matter in residential choices for African Americans.
Homeownership: Southern California 's New Political Fault Line?, vol. 42, no. 3
Matt A. Barreto, Mara A. Marks, Nathan D. Woods
Homeownership's importance in America 's culture and economy raises the possibility that status as a homeowner or renter constitutes a core aspect of personal identity, on par with race and ethnicity. A survey from the socially diverse Los Angeles region provides a unique dataset to test the possibility that homeownership exaggerates or mitigates social cleavages, particularly those based on race or ethnicity. The analysis reveals renters as less upbeat than homeowners regarding a variety of opinion measures and distinctly divided in their opinions along racial and ethnic lines. Among homeowners, however, the authors find a confluence of opinion across racial and ethnic lines.
The Road to Homeownership Under Market Transition: Beijing , 1980-2001, vol. 42, no. 3
Si-ming Li, Zheng Yi
The gradualist housing reform over the past quarter century has produced a highly complex mix of housing tenure forms and consumption patterns in urban China . Using a sample of 1600 residential histories derived from a survey conducted in 2001, this paper traces how individuals and households in Beijing responded to the different phases of the urban housing reform and gradually moved from renting work unit housing to owner occupation over the period 1980-2001. The proportional hazards model is used to analyse the factors that affected the tenure change at different points in time. The findings show that, despite gradual introduction of market mechanisms, established rules that favoured seniority in the workplace and people holding redistributive powers continued to be practiced in reform China . Cadres in Party and government organizations and state-owned enterprises, and people with long serving years in the work unit were those who were most likely to experience the ownership switch in recent years.
The Theoretical Basis for Addressing Poverty Through Mixed-Income Development, vol. 42, no. 3
Mark L. Joseph, Robert J. Chaskin, Henry S. Webber
This paper examines the theoretical foundations upon which the rationale for mixed-income development as a strategy to confront urban poverty is built. We focus on four propositions that draw from theories on social networks, social control, culture and behavior, and the political economy of place. We assess available evidence about the relative importance of the four theoretical propositions. We conclude that the most compelling propositions are those that suggest that some low-income residents may benefit from a higher quality of life through greater informal social control and access to higher quality services. We find less evidence that socio-economic outcomes for low-income residents may be improved through social interaction, network-building, and role-modeling.
Nonprofits as Civic Intermediaries: The Role of Community-Based Organizations in Promoting Political Participation, vol. 42, no. 3
Kelly LeRoux
Nonprofit organizations have a long-standing tradition of advocacy on behalf of their clients particularly those that comprise underrepresented groups. However, much less is known about the roles these institutions play in empowering citizens to become active participants in the political process. This research note examines the efforts of nonprofit organizations to facilitate voting and contacting of public officials by their clientele. Results from this analysis suggest that social service nonprofits located in urban areas are significantly more likely to encourage both voting and contacting. Findings also suggest that government funding has a positive and consistent effect on nonprofits' efforts to promote both of these forms of participation.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 42, Number 2, November 2006
Building the Capacity to Act Regionally: Formation of the Regional Transportation Authority in South Florida, vol. 42, no. 2
Lenore Alpert, Juliet F. Gainsborough, Allan Wallis
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 in that 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.
Electronic Fortification in Phoenix : Surveillance Technologies and Social Regulation in Residential Communities, vol. 42, no. 2
Torin Monahan
This paper 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 paper 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.
The Impact of Secondary Mortgage Market and GSE Purchases on Home Prices in Underserved Neighborhood Markets: A Cleveland Case Study, vol. 42, no. 2
Lance Freeman, George Galster, Ron Malega
Since 1992, the federal government has established regulations encouraging the Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to purchase home mortgages originated in neighborhoods traditionally underserved by financial institutions, with the aim of stimulating housing market activity within such neighborhoods. This research tests this proposition empirically through an econometric analysis of variations in secondary mortgage market activity and single-family home prices across underserved census tracts in Cleveland , OH during the 1993-1999 period. We find no large or statistically significant relationship between variations in secondary market purchasing rates of home-purchase mortgages in underserved neighborhoods and home prices one or two years hence, controlling for a rich variety of dwelling and neighborhood characteristics. These conclusions follow for both GSE and other sectors of the secondary market. We find some evidence that the secondary market was more responsive to changes in home prices than vice versa . We offer a possible explanation and draw policy implications.
Shaming the Inside Game: A Critique of the Liberal Expansionist Approach to Addressing Urban Problems, vol. 42, no. 2
David L. Imbroscio
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 only be solved by creating linkages between cities and resources beyond their boundaries. The case for liberal expansionism derives from the shaming of the inside game -- a critique of community development and the progressive capacities of cities themselves. I develop a counter critique of this notion. I find that much of it is unjustified by empirical evidence, and instead results from ideological bias. This conclusion suggests the dominance of liberal expansionism be questioned.
Regionalism, Equality and Democracy, vol. 42, no. 2
Todd Swanstrom
He Got Game, vol. 42, no. 2
Elvin Wyly and Tyler Pearce
Suburban Money in Central City Elections: The Geographic Distribution of Campaign Contributions, vol. 42, no. 2
Brian E. Adams
When candidates run for municipal office, do they rely on campaign contributions from suburbanites? This research note explores this question by analyzing fundraising networks in four central cities: New York , Los Angeles , San Francisco , and Seattle . The majority of campaign contributions to mayoral and city council candidates come from within their city. While the fundraising networks of central city candidates extend into the suburbs, they only do so partially. In particular, they only connect to a handful of wealthy suburbs that are geographically close to the central city. Regional fundraising networks are limited, indicating that the flow of political money does not mirror the economic and policy interdependence that has been documented by new regionalists.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 42, Number 1, September 2006
The Political Ecology of Uneven Urban Green Space: The Impact of Political Economy on Race and Ethnicity in Producing Environmental Inequality in Milwaukee, vol. 42, no. 1
Nik Heynen, Harold A. Perkins, and Parama Roy
This research investigates the role of urban political economy, private/public property relations, and race/ethnicity in the social production of Milwaukee 's urban forest. By integrating urban forest canopy cover data from aerial photography, U.S. 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/ethnicity is yet another instance of urban environmental inequality that deserves greater consideration in light of contemporary and dynamic property relations within capitalist societies.
From Intercity Competition to Collaborative Planning: The Case of the Yangtze River Delta Region of China, vol. 42, no. 1
Tingwei Zhang
By reviewing changes in relationships over the last fifty 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.
Assessing the Micro-Foundations of the Tiebout Model, vol. 42, no. 1
Kenneth N. Bickers, Lapo Salucci, and Robert M. Stein
In this paper we seek to shed light on the micro-foundations of the Tiebout model. We utilize a survey of respondents in four of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas to analyze the factors that contribute to the exiting behavior of households. In this analysis, we explore the types of reasons that likely movers offer to explain a potential move. The analysis incorporates variables measuring Tiebout factors, and variables drawn from two important alternative explanations that have been widely discussed in political science in recent years. Our findings generally support a Tiebout explanation: evaluations of core municipal services are found to be the strongest determinant of the likelihood to move. Moreover, variables drawn from alternative explanations, including race, family income, and social capital are found to be either unrelated to the decision to move or have the opposite effect on the likelihood of moving from what would be expected based on those alternative explanations.
Governing the Regimeless City: The Frank Zeidler Administration in Milwaukee , 1948-1960, vol. 42, no. 1
Joel Rast
Recent literature on urban governance has focused predominantly on cities with effective partnerships between business and local government. Increased attention to the role played by such partnerships in the creation of local governing capacity has changed the way that most contemporary urban theorists understand community power. In place of the Weberian model emphasizing the use of power for social control purposes, urban regime theorists view power in terms of its capacity to accomplish goals—“power to” instead of “power over.” This article examines development policy in postwar Milwaukee during a period in which a business-government partnership failed to materialize. I argue that the absence of business-government cooperation placed a distinctive imprint on local power relations. Power in postwar Milwaukee is best understood through a multidimensional approach that incorporates both Weberian and contemporary approaches to the study of community power.
The Economic Impact of Terrorist Incidents on the Italian Hospitality Industry, vol. 42, no. 1
Robert T. Greenbaum and Andy Hultquist
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 utilization rates in Italy between 1995 and 1997. We make use of data on domestic as well as international terrorism at the city level in order to explore more localized implications of terrorist incidents. We find that lodgings utilized by foreign visitors are the most sensitive to terrorist attacks and that the incidents have the largest impact during the year of the attack.
UAR Symposium: Publishing the Urban List, vol. 42, no. 1
Rachel Weber, David McBride, Richard D. Bingham and Peter Wissoker
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 41, Number 6, July 2006
Rail Transit Security in an International Context: Lessons from Four Cities, vol. 41, no. 6
Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Brian D. Taylor and Camille N.Y. Fink
Open, accessible urban public transportation systems have become increasingly frequent targets for terrorists in recent years. This paper 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 ha ? d, and openness and attractiveness of their systems on the other. Accordingly, interagency coordination – among transit agencies and police/intelligence agencies – has become a crucial component of security planning.
Impact Fees, Growth Management, and Development: A Contractual Approach to Local Policy and Governance, vol. 41, no. 6
Moon Gi Jeong and Richard C. Feiock
This paper explores economic consequences of impact fees on local economic development and job growth. We 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, we report that implementation of impact fee systems enhance economic performance and lead to job growth.
Determinants of Neighborhood Satisfaction in Fee-Based Gated and Nongated Communities, vol. 41, no. 6
David W. Chapman and John R Lombard
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, we 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 a myriad of possible influential factors, the simple knowledge by residents of neighborhood crime has implications for crime prevention and community awareness efforts.
Regionalism and Reform: A Comparative Perspective on Dutch Urban Politics, vol. 41, no. 6
Paul Kantor
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 reformers? Employing a comparative perspective, this analysis examines theories of regional reform and then surveys metropolitan political cooperation within a context that theorists expect should be highly supportive of it—Randstad Holland and the Amsterdam metropolitan area. Regional political development finds little success in this region. Dutch experience suggests that regional theory makes unrealistic assumptions about the conditions that favor intergovernmental cooperation and underestimates the political barriers to this kind of reform.
Reclaiming Cultural Heritage in Singapore , vol. 41, no. 6
Belinda Yuen
The issue of cultural heritage in urban settings is of increasing importance as cities seek a better future in a globalising world. This paper aims to explore how such heritage themes and assets are treated in rapidly urbanising cities to redress the creation of tabula rasa . Using the case study of Singapore 's latest attempt to build a distinctive global city, it will analyze the changing images of heritage and discuss how heritage conservation may yet give urban redevelopment unique places. The challenge for Singapore , as it is in other cities, is to identify those parts of the urban environment most worthy of preservation while fostering a new and distinctive skyline.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 41, Number 5, May 2006
Race, Place and Information Technology, vol. 41, no. 5
Karen Mossberger, Caroline J. Tolbert, and Michele Gilbert
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 socio-economic 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.
Who Supports Local Growth and Regional Planning to Deal with Its Consequences?, vol. 41, no. 5
Robert Wassmer and Edward Lascher, Jr.
Using 1989 and 2002 California survey data, this paper 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 change 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.
Performance Measurement in Local Economic Development, vol. 41, no. 5
Mark Lindblad
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 policymaking, both structural constraints and local choices matter, but local choices matter more.
Village Ghetto Land : Myth, Social Conditions and Housing Policy in Parkdale, Toronto , 1879-2000, vol. 41, no. 5
Carolyn Whitzman and Tom Slater
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how h istorical 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 , w e show how a history of the neighbourhood 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 neighbourhood. 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.
Annexation Activity and State Law in the United States , vol. 41, no. 5
Rex Facer
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.
Do Living Wage Policies Diffuse? A Research Note, vol. 41, no. 5
Isaac Martin
This research note examines the conditions under which large U.S. cities pass living wage laws. It updates the only published article on the subject with new data and improved analytic methods. First, it shows that poverty, privatization, and the density of community organizations are associated with policy passage. Second, it provides new quantitative evidence that the living wage movement is, in part, a diffusion process associated with national community organizing networks.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 40, Number 4, March 2006
Creating the Public Domain: Nineteenth-Century Local State Formation in Britain and the United States, vol. 41, no. 4
Alan DiGaetano
To understand the origins of modern local governing institutions in Britain and the United States, this article examines how the forces of nineteenth-century urbanization, industrial and commercial development, nation-state consolidation, and democratization converged to form a historical context ripe for creating a public domain through a process of local state formation. The comparative-historical study also takes into account the role of political mobilization in the creation of the public domain by demonstrating that the formation of modern local state entailed highly contested political processes that produced uneven local state development between and within the two nations.
Bringing the State (Government) Back In: Home Rule and the Politics of Secession in Los Angeles and New York City, vol. 41, no. 4
Raphael J. Sonenshein and Tom Hogen-Esch
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.
The Political Economy of Urban Disaster Assistance, vol. 41, no. 4
Steven D. Stehr
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.
Cities at Risk: Hurricane Katrina and the Drowning of New Orleans, vol. 41, no. 4
Louise K. Comfort
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.
The Failure of the Nonregime: How Katrina Exposed New Orleans as a Regimeless City, vol. 41, no. 4
Peter Burns and Matthew O. Thomas
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.
Katrina and Power in America, vol. 41, no. 4
Peter Dreier
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.
Building Blocks for a Methodology for Comparative Urban Political Research, vol. 41, no. 4
Bas Denters and Karen Mossberger
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.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 41, Number 3, January 2006
Making Life Work in Crowded Places, vol. 41, no. 3
Douglas W. Rae
The author of City, Urbanism and its End (2003) recounts his stint as Chief Administrative Officer of New Haven , Connecticut under that city's first Black mayor and during one of its toughest fiscal crises. The piece seeks first, to interpret the failure of Black political succession, which is increasingly evident in many American cities, and to chart the changing features of urban regimes such as New Haven 's. Among the regime changes to which the paper gives special attentions are: (1) the decline and delocalization of business, (2) the shift of labor politics from private to public (and nonprofit) institutions, (3) the rising importance of well-capitalized nonprofits such as hospitals and universities, (4) the declining significance of political parties, and (5) the expanding importance of state government in local governance.
Citizens, Accountability, and Service Satisfaction: The Influence of Expectations, vol. 41, no. 3
Christine Roch and Theodore H. Poister
Understanding how citizen-consumers form evaluations of public services is critical to understanding accountability in democratic governance. The task of using citizens' assessments of service provision quality as an accountability mechanism, however, may be more complex than is commonly understood. In particular, little research has examined how citizens' expectations about the quality of services may influence their levels of satisfaction with public services. In this article, we examine empirically the relationship between perceived performance, expectations, and satisfaction. We examine these relationships across three service areas: trash, police, and schools, relying on survey data from a statewide survey of Georgia residents. Our results suggest higher subjective assessments of service quality are positively related to satisfaction; holding citizens' assessments of service quality constant, positive disconfirmation of expectations increases citizen-consumers' levels of satisfaction with services.
Governing the Design Economy in Montréal , Canada , vol. 41, no. 3
Deborah Leslie and Norma M. Rantisi
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.
Local Choices for Development Impact Fees, vol. 41, no. 3
Moon-Gi Jeong
This paper 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 non-adoption 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.
Race, Social Capital, and Trust in the Police, vol. 41, no. 3
John MacDonald and Robert J. Stokes
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.
The Economic of Conservation Subdivisions: Price Premiums, Improvement Costs, and Absorption Rates, vol. 41, no. 3
Rayman Mohamed
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.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 41, Number 2, November 2005
Everything is Always Going to Hell: Urban Scholars as End-Times Prophets, vol. 41, no. 2
Dennis Judd
Cities and Subcultures: Exploring Validity and Predicting Connections, vol. 41, no. 2
Elaine B. Sharp
Recently there has been renewed attention to the concept of culture in analyses of urban politics. That resurgence has taken a different path from the religion, race, and ethnicity-dominated approach of Elazar's (1970, 1984) classic formulation. Instead, a variety of scholars conceptualize and measure sub-culture based on trends at the heart of a post-industrial, cultural divide in the U.S. Focusing on change in women's social roles, greater prevalence of post-secondary education, increases in non-traditional household arrangements, the decline in traditional religious attachments, and the growing importance of "creative-class" occupations, writers have identified an emergent "unconventional" or "new political culture" that can be differentiated from a traditional or conventional subculture. This paper presents a measurement validation study of this new approach that also shows the substantial correspondence between Census Bureau-based and survey-based measures of this new conceptualization.
Voting for Minority Candidates in Multi-Racial/Ethnic Communities, vol. 41, no. 2
Robert Stein, Stephanie Post and Stacey Ulbig
Recent research suggests that over time the performance of minority office holders rivals race-based attitudes and group membership as the primary determinant of citizen evaluations of minority officeholders. Here, we examine the determinants of electoral support for an African-American mayor in a multi-racial/ethnic venue. We test alternative explanations (race, social distance, and performance-based models) of voter support for an African-American mayor in a setting where no ethnic or racial group represents more than half of the electorate. Our findings indicate that approval ratings co-exist with racial group identification as a determinant of voter support for minority mayors, with one important caveat. Racial voting appears to be more influential in minority candidates' first electoral bids. While race strongly influences voter support for minority mayors during their initial run for office, job approval becomes more important when the minority candidate runs for re-election.
On the Front Line: American Cities and the Challenge of Homeland Security Preparedness, vol. 41, no. 2
Brian J. Gerber, David B. Cohen, Brian Cannon, Dennis Patterson, and Kendra Stewart
Municipal governments' efforts in preparing for possible terrorist events are critical to effective homeland security. Using data gathered from a nationwide sample of municipal officials we identify determinants of homeland security preparedness in U.S. cities, across several attitudinal and behavioral indicators. We find that perceptions of terror threat vulnerability and response capacity are tied to factors such as city size and budgetary constraints. Perhaps more importantly, we show that administrative capacity demonstrates consistent explanatory power for both perceived policy commitment and specific preparedness actions. From these analyses we outline several key policy implications for homeland security policymaking.
Ethnic Packaging and Gentification: The Case of Four Neighborhoods in Toronto, vol. 41, no. 2
Jason Hackworth and Josephine Rekers
Urban theory has historically situated ethnic commercial strips as a more-or-less organic extension of nearby ethnic residential enclaving. While this is undoubtedly still a useful way to frame such commercial spaces in many cities, this paper argues that some areas of this sort function as a marketable branding mechanism (intended or not) to produce nearby residential gentrification. This paper explores the influence of ethnic packaging on the process of gentrification in Toronto, Ontario. Using four ethnically defined business improvement areas-Corso Italia, Little Italy, India Bazaar, and Greektown on the Danforth-it explores the role that constructed ethnicity plays in the valorization of local real estate markets. The commercial areas of these neighbourhoods now function less as areas of identification for the stated group, and increasingly as ways to market each neighbourhood's residential real estate markets. The population of the stated group in each case is on the decline, while efforts to market each neighbourhood as a niche to newcomers are on the increase. This has specific implications for gentrification theory and more general ones for the study of urban landscapes.
Putting out the Trash: Measuring Municipal Service Efficiency in U.S. Cities, vol. 41, no. 2
Adrian Moore, James Nolan and Geoffrey F. Segal
There is a considerable literature describing the performance of municipal services that often uses imperfect or partial measures of efficiency. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has emerged as an effective tool for measuring the relative efficiency of public service provision. This paper uses DEA to measure the relative efficiency of 11 municipal services in 46 of the largest cities in the United States over a period of 6 years. In addition, this information is used to explore efficiency differences between cities and services and provide input into a statistical analysis to explore factors that may explain differences in efficiency between cities. Finally, we discuss municipal governments' use of performance measures and problems with collecting municipal data for benchmarking.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 41, Number 1, September 2005
Cities and Diversity: Should We Want It? Can We Plan For It?, vol. 41, no. 1
Susan F. Fainstein
Diversity has become the new orthodoxy of city planning. The term has several meanings: a varied physical design, mixes of uses, an expanded public realm, and multiple social groupings exercising their "right to the city". Its impetus lies in the postmodern/poststructuralist critique of modernism's master narratives and more specifically in reactions to the urban landscape created by segregation, urban renewal, massive housing projects, and highway building programs. Privileging diversity raises significant issues. Can planned environments produce diversity or only "staged authenticity"? Does emphasizing diversity obscure the economic structure? Is there a connection between diversity and economic innovation? Does social diversity necessarily contribute to equity and a broadly satisfying public realm? Rather than setting diversity as the principal goal of city planning, I argue for the model of the just city, based on Nussbaum's concept of capacities and a recognition of the inevitable trade-offs among equity, diversity, growth, and sustainability.
Be Careful What You Wish For: The House Price Impact of Investments in Transportation Infrastructure, vol. 41, no. 1
Brian A. Mikelbank
Although it is commonly held that accessibility plays a role in house price determination, there is less explicit recognition that it is transportation infrastructure that is primarily delivering accessibility. Large additions to the transportation infrastructure tend to be well studied, but there is a dearth of empirical research that investigates the house price impacts when local transportation infrastructure is imcrementally invested in. If these smaller investments also impact accessibility, then there should be a measurable impact in the housing market. Although results show that this is in fact the case for Cuyahoga County, Ohio, over the years 1995-2000, the price impact is not universally positive. The nature of the price impact depends on the location of the investment, relative to the house and regional accessibility points, and on how long ago the investment was completed.
Money and Machine Politics: An Analysis of Corporate and Labor Contributions in Chicago City Council Elections, vol. 41, no. 1
Timothy B. Krebs
Machine coalitions use their influence to reward faithful supporters with public goods. Here the author shifts the focus to electoral politics by examining the link between machine coalitions and corporate and labor contributions in Chicago city council elections. He argues that machine coalition members are at a strategic advantage relative to those outside of it, all things being equal. The results of tobit regression models applied to both nonincumbent candidates support the theory. In practice, what it means in Chicago is that Whites and Latinos are favored over Blacks in the increasingly important quest for campaign money.
Family Self-Sufficiency Programs: An Evaluation of Program Benefits and Factors Affecting Participants' Success, vol. 41, no. 1
Jerry Anthony
Since the mid-1980s, family self-sufficiency programs have been set up in over 1000 cities and countries across the United States. These programs are aimed at helping public-housing residents and Section 8 tenants, who often have very little wage of no wage income, become economically self-sufficient and move into private housing. Though much has been written about the potential of such programs, research examining their benefits is virtually nonexistent. This article seeks to partly fill this void. The research reported here examined data on 135 participants of the City of Rockford, Illinois's Family Self-Sufficiency program. Using logistic regression techniques the effects several factors on program completion were explored. The author reports that Rockford's Family Self-Sufficiency program graduates derived significant economic and housing benefits, and that race did not seem to affect graduation while other factors, such as age and the number of skills acquired in the program, seemed to.
Managing Citizen Fears: Public Attitudes Toward Urban Terrorism, vol. 41, no. 1
Darrell M. West and Marion Orr
The authors examine public attitudes toward urban terrorism, focusing on whether
emotion or reason is a more important determinant of how people feel. Using
the results of a public opinion survey in a large, northeastern city, the authors
find that both emotion and reason affect people's reactions to terrorist attacks.
However, this relationship is affected by personal conversation. The more people
talk about terrorism, the greater the chance reason rather than fear will dictate
reactions. These results have important ramifications for how urban officials
deal with homeland security and assuage citizens whose excessive concerns about
terrorism have led to costly security expenditures.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 40, Number 6, July 2005
Crossroads of Equality: Race/Ethnicity and Cities in American Democracy, vol. 40, no. 6
Rodney E. Hero
The establishment of the Urban Affairs Quarterly/Urban Affairs Review coincided with significant social and political developments as well as the publication of major scholarship having to do with issues of (in)equality. The author suggest and briefly considers what he takes to be some leading examples of how questions of racial equality have been closely intertwined with urban politics and the study thereof since the early 1960s. He also notes some emerging phenomena that seem likely to continue to place urban politics and research in the UAR at the crossroads of equality in the United States.
Political Institutions and Conservation by Local Governments, vol. 40, no. 6
Mark Lubell, Richard Feiock and Edgar Ramirez
In this article, the authors develop a political market framework to explain the circumstances under which Florida counties will supply environmental public goods in the form of conservation amendments to county general plans. The framework emphasizes the role of local legislative and executive institutions as mediators of local policy change. Using count models and interaction terms, the analysis shows how the strength of real estate interests constrains the ability of professional county managers to pursue conservation policies. The findings reinforce the importance of developing theories of urban politics in which local political institutions are not transparent.
The Calculus of Coalitions: Cities, Suburbs, and the Metropolitan Agenda, vol. 40, no. 6
Margaret Weir, Harold Wolman and Todd Swanstrom
Reductions in federal urban assistance and devolution have made cities increasingly reliant on their state governments at a time when cities have lost political strength in state legislatures. This article identifies three types of coalitions that historically supported cities: party-imposed coalitions, interest-based coalitions, and governor-brokered coalitions. It shows how institutional, demographic, and economic changes have made these legislative coalitions less reliable. The article then considers prospects for constructing new city-suburban legislative coalitions. It argues that institutional constraints have limited the scope of preferences expressed by city and suburban legislators. The article concludes that prospects for city-suburban coalitions will depend on new issue definitions, institutional rules, and organizations that help city and suburban legislators redefine their policy preferences.
Housing Mix, Social Mix, and Social Opportunities, vol. 40, no. 6
Sako Musterd and Roger Andersson
Will housing mix create social mix, and will social mix create social opportunity? This question is central in American and European urban debates. In Europe, however, there is a big gap between the political debates and actions regarding these issues and empirical research. In an effort to partly fill this gap, the authors critically evaluated the question above, applying a large-scale longitudinal Swedish data set covering the period 1991-1999 and available at the individual level for the entire population. The first part of this article reviews the various policies that are used in different European countries. The second part addresses the empirical analysis.
Urban Affairs Review, May 2005, Volume 40, Number 5
40th Anniversary Featured Essay: Beyond Federal Urban Policy, vol. 40, no. 5
William R. Barnes
Under Democratic and Republican leaders alike, urban policy has receded into a Washington backwater, and it is unlikely to reemerge as a priority any time soon. This essay provides a brief narrative of the rise and fall of urban policy, with a focus on the climax of urban policy making in the late 1970s. The essay also offers some thoughts on the framework-the architecture-the status and alignment of which affects the prospects for federal government involvement in local problem solving and building quality communities.
Private Markets, Contracts, and Government Provision: What Explains the Organization of Local Waste and Recycling Markets?, vol. 40, no. 5
Margaret Walls, Molly Macauley, and Soren Anderson
The authors study determinants of market organization of local public services by an examination of one of the most visible services, residential waste management. Using a multinomial logit data model and data for 1000 U.S. communities, the authors explore the effects of political influence, voter ideology, environmental constraints, production costs, and contracting transaction costs on a community's choice of service delivery options. They find that costs are significant in explaining communities' choices. In contract, few of the political variables are statistically significant. These results hold for both waste and recycling, providing further evidence that local governments emphasize costs when choosing between private and public provision.
Media and Momentum: Strategic Contributing in a Big-City Mayoral Election, vol. 40, no. 5
Timothy B. Krebs and David B. Holian
To be a competitive candidate for mayor in the nation's largest cities requires one to raise substantial sums of money. In this research, the authors explore the dynamics of campaign contributions using data from the 2001 mayoral election in Los Angeles. Their primary theoretical interest in whether contributions reflect shifts in candidates' momentum, which they measure via a content analysis of campaign press coverage. Findings indicate that contributions are a function of momentum, but the effects are not the same for all candidates. In a concluding section, the authors explain why this might be the case.
Nested Levels of Institutions: State Rules and City Property Taxes in the Shadow of the Law, vol. 40, no. 5
Barbara Coyle McCabe and Richard C. Feiock
The new institutionalism concentrates on the nature and effects of rules and on intergovernmental relations on levels of government. This article integrates these foci to present a model of nested institutions and levels of government, focusing on constitutional and substantive rules of governance in states and municipalities. The authors contend that cities' constitutional rules (specifically their governance arrangements) shape local actors' incentives and influence their implementation of state mandates. They argue further that the mere presence-not the actual evocation-of these rules casts a shadow that defines the actors' decision space and that broad distinctions among laws have profound implications for the actors' choices. They support this explanation by empirically testing propositions derived from the framework regarding property tax dependence in large cities between 1970 and 1995.
Battery Park City: An Ethnographic Field Study of the Community Impact of 9/11, vol. 40, no. 5
Setha M. Low, Dana H. Taplin, and Mike Lamb
The authors report on an ethnographic study of Battery Park City in summer 2002, less than one year after 9/11. They sought to understand the impact of the disaster on this affluent residential enclave across the street from Ground Zero. The research team used rapid ethnographic assessment procedures (REAP), a productive yet relatively inexpensive rapid assessment methodology. The methods included participant observation, on-site interviews with a range of residents, and interviews with public officials and community leaders. The authors evaluate their date within a framework of hypothesized alternative "folk models" through which residents interpreted the rapid community change. Some friends and neighbors had left permanently, and many new residents arrived the following winter and spring in response to strong rent incentives. Findings include a rise in community activism, lingering fear, and a significant fissure in the community between residents who had survived the disaster and the many new residents.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 40, Number 4, March 2005
40th Anniversary Featured Essay: Re-Placing the Nation: An Agenda for Comparative Urban Politics, vol. 40, no. 4
Jefferey Sellers
As the world becomes more urbanized and the significance of governance and politics within cities and regions grows, comparative urban analysis plays an increasingly prominent role in the comparative study of politics and policy. Realizing this potential requires a conceptualization of national institutions, societies, and cultures that does justice to both the persistence of the national and the influence of local and regional agents and structures. While comparative urban political analysis must separate out local agency from national institutions, it must also take account of the role that national elements play in local agency. The de-centered analysis that results departs from traditional nation-centered comparisons as well as from those centered solely on urban actors and institutions. With the growth of transnational influences, this type of analysis offers an increasingly appropriate method to scrutinize the politics of both countries and urban regions.
Comparative Urban Governance: Uncovering Complex Causalities, vol. 40, no. 4
Jon Pierre
Unlike most other areas of the social sciences, the study of urban politics has been slow in developing a comparative research agenda. This article explores the potential in comparative urban governance research. Urban regime theory does not travel very well, partly because it is an undertheorized framework and partly because it is in many ways an abstraction of U.S. urban political economy. To escape these obstacles to comparative research, this article argues that regimes should be conceived of as a culturally and historically specific model of urban governance. Comparative urban governance holds tremendous potential is assisting scholars in uncovering causal mechanisms and drivers of political, economic, and social change at the urban level.
Displacement or Succession? Residential Mobility in Gentrifying Neighborhoods, vol. 40, no. 4
Lance Freeman
This article examines the extent to which gentrification in U.S. neighborhoods is associated with displacement by comparing mobility and displacement in gentrifying neighborhoods with mobility and displacement in similar neighborhoods that did not undergo gentrification. The results suggest that displacement and higher mobility play minor if any roles as forces of change in gentrifying neighborhoods. Demographic change in gentrifying neighborhoods appears to be a consequence of lower rates of intraneighborhood mobility and the relative affluence of in-movers.
Municipal Service Provision Choices Within a Metropolitan Area, vol. 40, no. 4
Pascale Joassart-Marcelli and Juliet Musso
The authors investigate the decision of municipal governments to outsoucr the provision of public services during the 1980s and 1990s- a period of increased responsibility for municipalities. This study extends previous empirical work on outsourcing by distinguishing the type of outsourcing used (e..g., public, private, or other types of providers) and treating the outsourcing decision as a dynamic choice. Institutional characteristics and fiscal stress are found to play an important role in explaining service choices. Multinomial logistic regressions indicate that outsourcing was more common for poor cities than for wealthier ones, with the former often relying on government agencies and the latter opting for privatization. Throughout time, these choices are likely to reinforce interjurisdictional patterns of disparity in service quality and costs.
The Construction of the Geography of Immigration as a Policy Problem: The United States and Canada Compared, vol. 40, no. 4
Yasmeen Abu-Laban and Judith Garber
The release of 2000 U.S. Census and 2001 Canadian Census data sparked significant interest in immigrant dispersal outside major urban centers. This article analyzes how the meaning of immigration settlement patterns is socially constructed by using a comparative textual analysis of newspaper coverage of the census findings as well as government documents and think tank studies. The authors argue that in Canada, immigration settlement in interpreted as a national policy problem necessitation federal state intervention, whereas presentations in U.S. print media construct immigration settlement as the outcome of choices made by individual immigrants and, thus, as local policy problems. In each country, the construction of immigrant dispersal draws on national mythologies and omits alternative interpretations of the geography of immigrant settlement.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 40, Number 3, January 2005
40th Anniversary Featured Essay: Looking Back to Look Forward: Reflections on Urban Regime Analysis, vol. 40, No. 3
Clarence N. Stone
In differentiating urban regime analysis from pluralism, this article argues that the politics of bringing together governing arrangements poses challenges that are much greater than the "retail" politics of pressuring government officials regarding particular decisions. Agenda setting, coalition building, resource mobilization, and devising schemes of cooperation are central elements in a model of governing. Seen in structural context, particularly of the system of social stratification, these elements in combination can explain why it is so difficult to give priority to policies to overcome social exclusion. Furthermore, because the impact of social-reform initiatives depend greatly on how governmental actions mesh with nongovernmental actions, sustained efforts depend on contributions from nonelites as well as strategic supports from elites.
Demographic Change in Small Cities, 1990-2000, vol. 40, no. 3
Christiana Brennan, Darrene Hackler, and Christopher Hoene
Census 2000 figures reveal broad demographic changes in America's cities during the 1990-200 period. Although considerable analysis has been devoted to trends in the largest cities, there has been less attention to what is happening in smaller cities, which comprise 97% of cities nationwide. Date for 100 small cities (population less than 50,000) are drawn from the 1990 and 2000 Census Summary files. The analysis reveals that growth is occurring faster in these smaller cities than in any of their larger cohorts. Other findings are that small-city growth is fastest in the West and Midwest, is occurring more rapidly in small cities within metropolitan areas, and is spurred by increased in Hispanic, Black, and Asian populations.
Measuring the Effect of Subprime Lending on Neighborhood Foreclosures: Evidence from Chicago, Vol. 40, no. 3
Dan Immergluck and Geoff Smith
Since the early 1990s, there has been a very large growth in mortgages made by so-called subprime lenders, which specialize in lending to borrowers with credit history problems. One reason for concern about this trend is that it has been associated with a large and simultaneous rise in foreclosures, which can entail significant costs not just for those directly affected but also for surrounding neighborhoods and larger communities. This study uses multivariate estimations to quantify the impact of subprime lending on neighborhood foreclosure levels. After controlling for neighborhood demographics and economic conditions, the authors find that subprime loans lead to foreclosures at far greater rates than do prime loans. Moreover, subprime lending appears to account for a substantial share of foreclosure activity in high-foreclosure neighborhoods.
Changing Approaches to Historic Preservation in Quedlinburg, Germany, vol. 40, no. 3
Heike C. Alberts and Mark R. Brinda
This article examines the changing approaches to historic preservation of half-timbered
houses in Quedlinburg, Germany. Under the East German (GDR) regime, the scarcity
of funds and materials limited preservation measures. After the German reunification,
the conditions improves significantly, and Quedlinburg became the largest historic
preservation project in the country. The difficulties in enforcing the high
p reservation standards and the conflicts arising over certain aspects of the
project clearly demonstrate the need for integrating historic preservation projects
with general urban planning to meet the needs of both preservationists and inhabitants
of the city.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 40, Number 2, November 2004
Exploring the Horizontal and Vertical Dimensions of the Governing of Metropolitan Regions, vol. 40, no. 2
David K. Hamilton, David Y. Miller, and Jerry Paytas
A metropolitan regions does not have formal institutional structures such as nations, states, and cities, but it is a system that can be conceptualized and studied as a whole. The study of metropolitan areas too often ignores the dynamic relationships at the intersection of state and local governments. This study suggest a two-dimensional typology of governance in metropolitan regions. The authors found that governance affects the long-term competitiveness of the metropolitan economy. Governance does not determine economic outcomes but reduces the ability to adapt. The worst combination for metropolitan competitiveness is decentralization within regions where there is a centralized state government.
When Cities Get Married: Constructing Urban Space through Gender, Sexuality, and Municipal Consolidation, vol. 40, no. 2
Richardson Dilworth, Kathryn Trevenen
In this article, we examine the processes by which urban space become sexually
coded through municipal consolidation in the nineteenth century. Our analysis
covers the union of Van Vorst Township to Jersey
City in 1851 and the absorption of the City of Brooklyn to "Greater New
York" in 1898. In both cases, urban space was gendered and sexualized through
courtship and marriage metaphors used by local newspapers. We argue that consolidation
is represented in gendered and sexualized terms that the question of municipal
expansion became insulated from moral, racialized, and environmental concerns
about the "threats" of the big city. Our analysis has contemporary
relevance because it suggests the sexist and heterosexist norms that may be
embedded in the noblesse oblige or contemporary municipal consolidation. It
also suggests a way of looking at contemporary municipal boundary changes through
a normative lens that takes us beyond economic notions of self-interest.
The Economic Effects of Living Wage Laws: A Provisional Review, vol. 40, no. 2
Scott Adams and David Neumark
Nearly 100 cities and local governments in the United States passed living wage laws since the mid-1990s. The central goal of living wages is to reduce poverty, yet they mail fail to do so because of disemployment effects. We summarize and critique the existing research on the effects of living wages on wages, employment, and family income, emphasizing common findings, points of disagreement, and important questions for future research. The evidence thus far points to wage increases as well as employment losses for the least skilled-although there is disagreement about the employment effects-but, on net, some beneficial distributional effects. The evidence also points to efficiency wage-type effects of living wage laws that may offset some of the adverse impacts on employers.
Hunger Discipline and Social Parasites: The Political Economy of the Living Wage, vol. 40, no. 2
Tony Robinson
This article examines how New Deal commitments to a living wage were overturned by neoliberal market forces after the 1970s capital accumulation crisis. A period of urban financialization followed, characterized by a shift of urban fortunes away from labor and toward capital. Today's living wage movement critiques the resulting economy in which top-tier success is linked to declining worker prospects. Advocates argue that businesses receiving government contracts or subsidies should pay a living wage that allows workers to support the average family in reasonable comfort. This article explores arguments for and against this movement, using Denver as a case study.
Thinking About Local Living Wage Requirements, vol. 40, no. 2
Timothy J. Bartik
This article reviews our knowledge about the living wage, a local government
requirement that employers receiving city contracts or economic development
subsidies pay a living wage above the federal minimum wage. The article concludes
that moderate living wage requirements applied to local government, and to contractors'
and grantees' employees who are funded by the local government, are the most
likely to be beneficial. Living wage coverage for employers receiving economic
development subsidies are more likely to be harmful if the city economy is weak.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 40, Number 1, September 2004
Race and Racial Attitudes A Decade After the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, vol. 40, no. 1
Mara A. Marks, Matt A. Barreto, and Nathan D. Woods
A decade after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, half of residents surveyed report they anticipate another riot. Pessimism concerning the prospects of future riots associated with negative assessments of life in Los Angeles-most notably negative perceptions of racial issues in the city. Demographic attributes including income, educational attainment, and duration of residency in Los Angeles are also associated with expectations of future riots. Racial or ethnic identity, however, have no appreciable direct or mediating impact on expectations of future riots, a striking finding in light of the central place race occupies in social science research and public discourse.
City Caesars? Institutional Structure and Mayoral Success in Three California Cities, vol. 40, no. 1
Megan Mullin, Gillian Peele, and Bruce E. Cain
Recently voters in many large cities have approved charter reforms that strengthen the power of the executive, suggesting that big city residents and mayors themselves view the formal authority of the office as an important influence on whether a mayor will be successful in solving urban problems. This article employs qualitative data from three California cities to specify how structural characteristics interact with personal factors to facilitate mayoral leadership. The authors find that city structure does not directly determine a mayor's goals and leadership style, but it does create constraints and opportunities that influence whether a mayor's personal strategies will succeed.
Mayors, Governance Coalitions, and Strategic Capacity: Drawing Lessons from Germany for Theories of Urban Governance, vol. 40, no. 1
Scott Gissendanner
A comparison of two German cities responding in the 1980s to deindustrialization directs our attention toward factors that explain how leaders build governance and strategic capacities; a "crisis" situation, higher level government aid, party ties and low party competition, solidarity, friendship, and momentum. Factors that do not explain variation in these cases include the formal resources of strong-mayor city charters and the existence of the government coalition. Mayors are in a unique position to increase governance capacity through informal means, and if they do, they often also increase strategic capacity. This effect is, however, short term at best.
Assessing and Measuring the Fiscal Health of Local Governments: Focus on Chicago Suburban Municipalities, vol. 40, no. 1
Rebecca Hendrick
This study presents a framework for assessing the financial condition and fiscal health of municipal governments, develops indices for some dimensions of the framework, and applies the indices to 264 suburban municipalities in the Chicago metropolitan region. The framework is based on a systems view of local government financial condition. It shows that fiscal health is a complex and multidimensional concept with varying time frames. Furthermore, the dimensions are related but often in indirect or nonlinear ways, indicating they must be measured separately rather than combined into a comprehensive indicator of fiscal health. Indices developed here for targeting dimensions of the framework are assessed and compared to alternative indicators of fiscal health developed by others in the field.
The American City in the Age of Terror: A Preliminary Assessment of the Effects of September 11, vol. 40, no. 1
Peter Eisinger
The terror attacks of September 11, 2001, on New York and Washington, D.C., may be seen among other things as assaults on American cities as urban places. It would not be surprising in this light if Americans began to rethink the role and functions of cities in the aftermath of terror. This article explores the early effects of terror on government and policy, the urban economy, and city life. It concludes first that cities have taken on a range of new responsibilities focused on homeland security and that a new, though fractious, set of intergovernmental relations is emerging to support these activities. Urban economies were initially hurt by the declines in tourism and business travel, but most cities appear to be recovering. Few lasting effects on city life are evident. It would appear that the fortunes of American cities are less subject to one-time external shocks such as the terror attacks than to larger, long-term forces in the economy and society.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 39, Number 6, July 2004
Race, Class, and Segregation Patterns in U.S. Immigrant Gateway Cities, vol. 39, no. 6
William A.V. Clark and Sarah A. Blue
Previous studies have shown some tendency toward increased residential racial and ethnic integration, especially in large West Coast metropolitan areas. They have also shown in limited studies that integration, or at least declines in separation, occur with increases in socioeconomic status. The results of this study, using recently released 2000 census data for metropolitan areas with large numbers of the foreign born, show that indeed separation does decline with increases in socioeconomic status though it also varies by geography, education and income and is significantly variable across different ethnic groups in the large immigrant cities. The research in this study also documents the continuing hierarchy of greater integration of Whites with Asians and Whites with Hispanics than with African Americans. It is clear that the changing patterns of separation have moved beyond Black-White contexts. Still, class clearly matters, as integration is greater at higher education levels, and suburban areas in general are more integrated than urban cores.
Identity Politics and Local Political Culture: Some Comparative Results from the Social Capital Benchmark Survey, vol. 39, no. 6
Richard DeLeon and Katherine C. Naff
Using the Social Capital Benchmark Survey (SCBS) data sets, the authors conducted a multilevel comparative study of identity politics and political culture in the United States and 30 urban communities. Analysis showed that gender, race, class, and religion predict political ideology, electoral behavior, and political protest in the national sample. Replications in the community samples, however, revealed significant differences in the patterns of relationships among those variables. Some patterns deviated markedly from the national norm, particularly with respect to race as a predictor of political protest. Using an index of new political culture, the authors show that "place matters" as a contextual influence on the strength and direction of relationships between social identity (particularly race and religion) and political outcomes.
Political Participation and Metropolitan Institutional Contexts, vol. 39, no. 6
Christine Kelleher and David Lowery
Research concerning the impact of metropolitan political structures on political participation has generated a wide range of conflicting findings. This failure to solve this puzzle results from failure to characterize the many dimensions of metropolitan institutional context that bear on citizens' political behaviors. The authors provide such a characterization and test its implications with data on turnout in local legislative elections in 336 municipalities in 12 metropolitan areas. They examine the complex debate over the role of metropolitan political contexts in fostering political participation and identify four dimensions of contextual influence on turnout. They find that these contextual influences interact in significant ways that generate surprising results. Overall, however, the results lend far greater support to those favoring the consolidation of urban political institutions than those supporting further fragmentation of local government.
Suburbs Without a City: Power and City-County Consolidation, vol. 39, no. 6
H. V. Savitch and Ronald K. Vogel
City-county consolidation is advanced as a good government reform to promote efficiency, equity, and accountability and, more recently, to reduce growing disparities between central cities and suburbs. Whether these objectives are realized is more doubtful than the fact that local reorganization embodies a real change in power relations. Altering boundaries changes the kinds of issues that are relevant to decision makers as well as the relative power of different populations. The authors analyze the recent city-county consolidation of Louisville and Jefferson County, Kentucky. The authors review how this came about and then focus on three critical realignments associated with merging the cit and its surrounding county. These consist of shifts in territorial boundaries, management reforms, and political rules. The case highlights the power dimension of city-county consolidation, often overlooked by advocates of public choice as well as those favoring metropolitan consolidation.
Governors and the Development Regime in New Orleans, vol. 39, no. 6
Peter Burns and Matthew O. Thomas
Regime theory argues that local actors shape city politics even though state
government sets the rules under which urban players act. Regime theorists typically
do not focus on conditions under which governors assume important roles in local
regimes. The authors examine major economic development projects in New Orleans
to highlight conditional under which extralocal actors, namely, governors, become
involved in local regimes. A scarcity of both resources and business leaders
in New Orleans, competition with other states, and political considerations
motivated Louisiana governors to increase their participation in New Orleans's
urban development regime. Governors constituted part of the mobilization efforts
to move the city from a caretaker regime to a progrowth regime. They used their
authority, fiscal resources, and leadership skills to assume this greater role.
Gubernatorial participation in the regime benefited governors, New Orleans mayors,
and major businesses at the expense of tourists, working-class and poor residents,
the state legislature, and the state's business reputation.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 39, Number 5, May 2004
Helping Citizens Help Themselves: Neighborhood Improvement Programs and the Impact of Social Networks, Trust, and Norms on Neighborhood-Oriented Forms of Participation, vol. 39, no. 5
Herman Lelieveldt
This article analyzes the relationship between social capital and neighborhood-oriented forms of participation within the context of an innovative Dutch neighborhood improvement program. On the basis of a survey among 307 residents, the author studies the link between three dimensions of social capital (neighborliness, trust in neighbors, and sense of duty) and three neighborhood-oriented forms of participation: informal governance, the conversion of specific neighborhood problems into action, and participation in the program. Neighborliness and a sense of duty are positively related to the various forms of participation, whereas the impact of trust is somewhat more ambiguous. A subsequent analysis of the residents' proposals shows that although some of them explicitly refer to the importance of social capital, the bulk of their plans simply demand resources (money, personnel, or policies) to address concrete issues. The author concludes that social capital is an important facilitator of people's capacity to prevent and solve such problems themselves but that at the same time a whole range of problems still needs to be addressed through direct governmental action.
Rent-Seeking and Municipal Social Spending: Date from America's Early Urban-Industrial Age, vol. 39, no. 5
Jason Kaufman
The term rent-seeking refers to special interest group efforts to seek special benefits at little or no cost to themselves. Because government spending has the potential to create both costs and benefits for taxpayers, fiscal policy is commonly viewed as a primary arena of rent-seeking activity. At least five different theories of nineteenth-century American urban development fit this general rubric. Each theory predicts different winners and losers as well as different underlying strategies and distributions of interests incumbent upon municipal decision making. This study uses two-wave panel data on special interest group representation and municipal social spending to examine the validity of these different theories of rent-seeking. Though all such theories share in common an emphasis on self-seeking, this study points to the role of competition between different sectors of the local economy as a motivating force for the formation and mobilization of special interest group organizations. This finding contrasts with those rent-seeking theories that predict widespread cooperation among communities and/or classes in pursuit of common goals. Suggestions for future research on this topic are offered as well.
Reconstructing Urban Politics: Neighborhood Activism in Land-Use Change, vol. 39, no. 5
Deborah G. Martin
In urban governance, some responsibility for services and planning may lie with private entities. Residents challenging public policies may find recourse not from elected officials but from quasi-public agencies. This article examines contestation over a hospital expansion plan in Athens, Georgia. Using archival accounts and interviews, the author investigates the responses of the local state and the hospital to neighborhood-based activism and the success of residents in restructuring the hospital's decision-making process. The scale of contestation and negotiation differed from that of the city government. This case illustrates new structures and scales of negotiation and accountability in quasi-public urban governance.
Explaining the Race Gap in Satisfaction with Urban Services, vol. 39, no. 5
Gregg G. Van Ryzin, Douglass Muzzio, and Stephen Immerwahr
Although racial differences in satisfaction with urban services have been observed for decades, perhaps the most consistent finding is the literature on citizen satisfaction and urban service delivery, little systematic effort has been directed at explaining this gap. Using two years of survey data from New York City, the authors find that socioeconomic status (SES) and neighborhood of residence explain only a small part of the gap in satisfaction across a range of urban services. Residents' trust of government appears to account for a fairly large proportion of the race gap. Still, significant differences in satisfaction remain between Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics for a number of services even after controlling for SES, neighborhood, and trust.
Explaining U.S. Urban Regimes: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis, vol. 39, no. 5
H. Whitt Kilburn
The author studies the influence of city context on urban regimes across 14
cities in the United States by surveying published case studies and applying
qualitative comparative analysis. To explain variation in regime typology, the
author tests components of market conditions (a city's fiscal resource base
and mobility of local capital) and democratic conditions (local civic participation
and ward-style representation). The results indicate that not one of these components
is necessary or sufficient for supporting the emergence of a more progressive,
as opposed to a developmental or caretaker, regime. Instead, three interactions
between the components of market and democratic conditions explain the presence
of progressive regimes. The author discusses the implications of the results
for both studying and understanding U.S. regimes.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 39, Number 4, March 2004
Suburbanization, the Vote, and Changes in Federal and Provincial Political Representation and Influence Between Inner Cities and Suburbs in Large Canadian Urban Regions, 1945-1999, vol. 39, no. 4
R. Alan Walks
This article examines the degree to which the relative growth of suburban electoral districts in Canada's largest urban regions (Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver) has lead to a loss of potential political influence within government on behalf of Canadian inner cities and/or to more support for right-wing political parties. The study finds that although inner cities and suburbs have increasingly diverged in their voting behavior in both federal and provincial elections, the growth of suburban electoral districts has not directly translated into a loss of representation and influence for inner cities. Instead, representation and influence within government are highly dependent upon the party that is in power. At the federal level, the dominance of the Liberal Party has meant that inner cities have tended to wield greater, and the suburbs, less, influence, whereas at the level of Ontario provincial politics, the suburbs have indeed been overrepresented and found to wield greater influence within government to the detriment of inner cities.
Variations in Citizen Familiarity with Growth Management Processes: Evidence from Florida, vol. 39, no. 4
Tim Chapin
Although citizen support for growth controls has received ample attention from researchers, little attention has been paid to citizen familiarity with growth management systems. This article investigates citizen familiarity with Florida's growth management system, testing many of the same hypotheses that have previously shaped research into citizen support for growth controls. Using results from a survey of state residents, six hypotheses concerning familiarity are tested, and a regression model is developed to predict familiarity with the state system. Results reflect previous research into attitudes toward growth controls, and educated individuals, those living in urbanized areas, and those that perceive growth and environmental issues as requiring government attention are found to have greater familiarity with the state's system. Results indicate that citizen familiarity is perhaps best explained by heightened interest in local, state, and national politics.
Cultural-Products Industries and Urban Economic Development: Prospects for Growth and Market Contestation in Global Context, vol. 39, no. 4
Allen J. Scott
The article begins with a brief definition of the cultural economy. A first generation of local economic development policy approaches based on place marketing and associated initiatives is described. The possibilities of a more powerful second-generation approach are then sketched out with special emphasis on localized complexes of cultural-products industries. An extensive review and classification of these complexes is laid out, and their inward and outward relations to global markets are considered. On this basis, a critical discussion of local economic policy options focused on cultural-products industries of offered. Contrasting examples of development initiatives in major global cities, in selected old manufacturing town, and in the Multimedia Super Corridor of Malaysia are briefly presented. It is suggested that the growth and spread of localized production agglomerations based on cultural-products industries are leading not to cultural uniformity but to greatly increased diversity at the global level.
Perception and Misperception in Urban Criminal Justice Policy: The Case of Hate Crime, vol. 39, no. 4
Donald P. Haider-Markel
Perceptions of an issue, problem, or policy might differ depending on the organizational
context in which one is located. The importance of perception has been a concern
for students of international relations, political institutions, organizational
theory, and public policy, but less so for scholars of urban politics. This
study contributes to the understanding of how organizational and community context
influences perceptions by examining the perceptions of interest group leaders
and police related to law enforcement activity on hate crime with survey date
from each group in a sample of the 250 largest American cities. The author presents
a basic theoretical framework for understanding how perceptions may differ depending
on organizational and community context. He then tests for differences in perceptions
using both simple and more advanced statistical methods, controlling for community
context. The results suggest organizational and community context influence
perceptions of law enforcement activity. The implications of the findings for
urban politics and democratic political systems more generally are discussed.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 39, Number 3, January 2004
Race-Based Coalitions Among Minority Groups: Afro-Caribbean Immigrants and African-Americans in New York City, vol. 39, no. 3
Reuel R. Rogers
As immigration from Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean increases the numbers of racial minorities living in American cities, political scientists are beginning to wonder whether these newcomers will forge coalitions with their native-born counterparts, particularly African-Americans. A number of scholars have argued that race-based alliances between non-White immigrants and African-Americans are likely, in light of continuing patterns of racial discrimination in this country. But it turns out that such coalitions are quite rare. Using the case of Caribbean- and American-born Blacks in New York City, the author attempts to understand why. He reconsiders the argument for race-based alliances, as well as other leading theories of intergroup coalition building. His analysis demonstrates why racial commonalities have not been enough to overcome interminority tensions, highlights the limits of race-based coalitions, and shows how institutions may shape the intergroup dynamics on which these attempted alliances fail or succeed.
African-American Concentration in Jobs: The Political Economy of Job Segregation and Contestation in Atlanta, vol. 39, no. 3
Cynthia M. Hewitt
Studying the case of Atlanta shows African-American concentration in relatively "good" jobs: Majority-black jobs are not always segregated jobs with low returns. Multivariate analysis shows that, net of other factors, majority-black jobs in local government and the construction industry have earnings ad benefits that are comparable to those in majority-white jobs. It is suggested that African-American local government political power and linkages with the construction industry provide a base for equal employment opportunity, contest white labor market hegemony, and open the market for "good" jobs. The importance of studying the political context of labor market outcomes is supported.
Estimating the Impacts of Urban Universities on Neighborhood Housing Markets: An Empirical Analysis, vol. 39, no. 3
Alvaro Cortes
This study investigates the impact associated with urban universities on local neighborhood housing markets from 1980-1990. The study answers two central questions. First, is neighborhood proximity to a public or private urban university associated with systematic, significant impacts on average monthly rental payments and average owner-occupied housing unit value? If so, do these impacts vary between these university types? The study finds that the characteristics of neighborhoods abutting universities are significantly different from neighborhoods citywide. Moreover, neighborhood adjacency to both the public and private institutions was associated with statistically significant effects, albeit dissimilar.
Do State Growth Management Regulations Reduce Sprawl?, vol. 39, no. 3
Jerry Anthony
Thirteen states in the United States have adopted state growth management legislation
that aims to preserve environmentally sensitive areas, improve the quality of
urban areas, and reduce urban sprawl. Although there is a considerable amount
of literature describing such policies, there is very little that examines the
effectiveness of such policies. The author researched the efficacy of state
growth management laws in controlling urban sprawl by examining the change in
urban densities in 49 states over a 15-year period. He found that growth-managed
states generally experienced a lesser density decline than states without growth
management. However, regression analysis revealed that state growth management
programs did not have a statistically significant effect in checking sprawl.
The author concludes with several suggestions for modifying state regulations
to curb sprawl more effectively.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 39, Number 2, November 2003
Using Housing Vouchers to Move to the Suburbs: The Alameda County, California, Experience, vol. 39, no. 2
David P. Varady & Carole C. Walker
When families with Section 8 housing vouchers move from inner-city communities to the suburbs, are they more likely to perceive difficulties and to be dissatisfied with their search for housing than families who make local moves or families who first move to the suburbs but then return to the central city? Both bivariate cross-tabular and logistic regression analysis are applied to a telephone interview sample of 300 Section 8 voucher recipients in Oakland and Berkeley, California. Although many of the movers experienced difficulty in carrying out the housing search, a vast majority were satisfied with their search. Suburban-bound movers were not more likely to perceive difficulties or to be dissatisfied with their search than were members of the two other mover groups when other background characteristics were controlled. The implications of these results for the Section 8 housing voucher program are discussed.
The Impact of Community Development Corporations on Neighborhood Housing Markets: Modeling Appreciation, vol. 39, no. 2
Brent C. Smith
Housing investment activities of community development corporations (CDCs) can be associated with a positive impact on the residential real estate market within their respective service area. Relying on a pseudo-experimental approach, the appreciation rate of single-family housing in CDC treatment and comparison areas is tested with a traditional hedonic model with pooled data. The results suggest that the area that is served by the 12 established CDCs operating in Center Township in the city of Indianapolis experienced a higher overall appreciation in the mean residential home value from 1987 to 2000 than did a comparison area in Center Township not served by CDCs.
The Fortunes of Poor Neighborhoods, vol. 39, no. 2
George C. Galster, Roberto G. Quercia, Alvaro Cortes & Ron Malega
The authors examine the longitudinal fortunes of the poorest fifth of US metropolitan neighborhoods, defined as those with 20% or higher poverty rates in 1980. They employ logistic regression to identify the factors correlated with 1980-1990 increases and decreases in poverty rates across these poor neighborhoods and examine whether factors vary by predominant racial/ethnic composition. Regional economic cycles and population growth performance are the dominant determinants of neighborhood poverty change, although the neighborhood's initial poverty rate also influences it. Neighborhoods with higher poverty rates in 1980 evince less stability. Extremely poor neighborhoods are roughly as likely to experience an increase in poverty of 5 or more percentage points as a comparable decrease in poverty. The authors conclude that continued poverty is not the only or even most likely fate of poor neighborhoods; their fortunes depend on both local and regional context.
Mental Life and the Metropolis in Suburban America: The Psychological Correlates of Metropolitan Place Characteristics, vol. 39, no. 2
J. Eric Oliver
Many critics argue that America's suburbs foster depression and mental distress, but researchers have not sufficiently tested whether the characteristics that actually distinguish metropolitan places (both cities and suburbs) correspond to any differences in psychological well-being. Looking beyond inaccurate city-suburb dichotomies, the author examines the relationship between six characteristics of metropolitan places (population size, density, racial composition, affluence, age, and land use) and a variety of indicators of mental health, including depression, life satisfaction, self-efficacy, and esteem. Finding from multilevel data constructed from the Americans' Changing Lives Survey and the census indicate that two characteristics of metropolitan places relate to psychological health: population density and affluence. Residents of denser places are more likely to report depressed mood and dissatisfaction with their neighborhoods; those in more affluent places are more likely to be depressed, to be less satisfied with life, and feel lower levels of self-efficacy and esteem.
Eminent Domain: An Evaluation Based on Criteria Relating to Equity, Effectiveness, and Efficiency, vol. 39, no. 2
Matthew L. Cypher & Fred A. Forgey
As downtown redevelopment occurs, eminent domain continues to be used as an economic development tool. This research evaluates the equity, effectiveness, and efficiency of certain components of eminent domain as it is used for downtown development projects. A survey-based methodology was employed to acquire data from city managers located in the 239 most populous cities within the United States. The findings indicate that eminent domain is effective in raising property tax values, efficient in minimizing litigation-based project delays, but inequitable to various developers seeking title to property following condemnation.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 39, Number 1, September 2003
Regional Planning Policy and the Location of Employment in the Ile-de-France: Does Policy Matter?, vol. 39, no. 1
Richard Shearmur & Christel Alvergne
Ongoing debate in North America concerns the effectiveness and efficiency of planning policy at the metropolitan level. Current quantitative research on the development of employment across metropolitan areas tends to assume that it is governed by market forces (as expressed through a variety of location factors.) However, there are also calls for a form of metropolitan regionalism to have a consistent metropolitan framework in helping guide development and avoid sprawl. In the context of these methodological, interpretive, and policy debates, the authors examine whether the development of jobs across the Paris region, which has had a clear and consistent regional planning framework over the past 30 years, has been influenced by this policy. They conclude that over the 1978 to 1994 period, the suburbanization of jobs has been effectively channeled by the policy framework put in place in 1965. Hence, policy matters.
The Tenure Trap: The Vulnerability of Renters to Joint Natural and Technological Disasters, vol. 39, no. 1
Raymond J. Burby, Laura J. Steinberg, & Victoria Basolo
Natural disasters can result in releases of toxic materials that pose a grave threat to populations exposed to them. The authors provide evidence from California and Louisiana to show that in comparison with homeowners, renters are significantly less well prepared to survive a joint natural and technological disaster without injury. Rental housing can be targeted for public awareness and other measures that can improve the preparedness of tenants, but barriers that inhibit progress are substantial. Nevertheless, with a carefully crafted plan of action based on a variety of policy instruments, the tenure trap can be disabled.
High-Tech Growth and Telecommunications Infrastructure in Cities, vol. 39, no. 1
Darrene Hackler
Although core physical infrastructure, such as transportation, is associated with the economic vitality of regions, the relationship between telecommunications infrastructure and high-tech economic development is relatively unexplored at the local level. This assessment explores the linkage between local high-tech growth and the capacity of telecommunications infrastructure in cities located in four metropolitan areas. The empirical results are contrary to conventional thought, indicating that a city with greater high-tech growth is likely to have less telecommunications infrastructure capacity. Although the paucity of local data on telecommunications infrastructure and the complexity of such empirical analysis affect the findings, the research serves as a foundation for future analysis of local high-tech economies and telecommunication infrastructure.
A Charter for the People: A Research Note on the Debate About Municipal Autonomy in Toronto, vol. 39, no. 1
Roger Keil & Douglas Young
The authors discuss municipal autonomy in Toronto and contextualize this debate by analyzing the recent history of governance restructuring in Toronto and Canada's changing state architecture. Specifically, proposals for and conversations about a possible Toronto charter are discussed. On the basis of document research and interviews, the authors present the arguments and politics of the main actors in the charter debate, noting that there is both agreement and disagreement among those interested in the issue about the exact functions, reach, and scope of the charter. The conclusion ties the debate back into the current policy debate on Canada's cities.
Does 9-11 Portend a New Paradigm for Cities?, vol. 39, no. 1
H. V. Savitch
This essay suggests that 9-11 constitutes a critical event for urban scholars because it encapsulated and catalyzed a trend toward urban-based terror that had been building for a decade or more. The best way to put 9-11 in perspective and understand its significance is through a paradigm. In constructing a paradigm, the author suggests a set of components that set the parameters for explanation. These consist of the diffusion of terror as an urban phenomenon, the economic ramifications of urban terror, and the impact of terror on the use of urban space. These components are not just mutually compatible but integral to the 9-11 paradigm. As a result of 9-11, public security, order, and protection have become central issues for cities. The paradigm also underscores the stakes held by national and intergovernmental elites in cities confronted by crisis.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 38, Number 6, July 2003
Workers and Strangers: The Household Service Economy and the Landscape of Suburban Fear, vol. 38, no. 6
Kristen Hill Maher
The growing household service economy (e.g., domestic service, gardening) introduces social heterogeneity both within and near suburban regions that have previously been segregated by race and class. The author examines this dynamic through an ethnographic study of a community in Orange County, California, and argues that the shifts in social geography accompanying the household service economy in this neighborhood had exacerbated existing anxieties about security and contributed to the popular desire among residents to "fortress". The findings of this study suggest that in a bifurcated economy in which household services proliferate, more suburban neighborhoods may retreat into highly regulated, gated communities.
Access to Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Among Women Receiving Welfare in Detroit, vol. 38, no. 6
Scott W. Allard, Daniel Rosen, & Richard M. Tolman
Provision of social services that can help welfare recipients overcome barriers to employment has become an important challenge for welfare-to-work programs, yet there is relatively little understanding of how spatial proximity to social services varies across welfare recipients in urban America. In this study, the authors examine the spatial proximity of welfare recipients in the three-county Detroit metropolitan area to mental health and substance abuse service providers. They find that spatial proximity to mental health services varies by geography and race among welfare recipients in Detroit, with evidence indicating that spatial trends in service accessibility are shifting in favor of suburban areas.
Global Cities, Systemic Power, and Upper-Middle-Class Influence, vol. 38, no. 6
Herman L. Boschken
Perhaps the central feature distinguishing global cities from nonglobal ones is transnational connectedness. But another important consideration in urban globalization is the disproportionately high presence of upper middle class (UMC) whose membership includes institutional professionals at the forefront of postmodern awareness and international experience. Symbolized by a lifestyle genre, the UMC is more than a marker of the global city. It exerts a subliminal influence that prescribes the cityscape, which policy outcomes planners emphasize to ensure prinicipal membership for the city in global exchange. The author theorizes about this relationship underlying global-city development, proposes a construct for each variable, presents some preliminary empirical evidence of the association, and draws some implications about its social impacts.
Reasonablenss, Satisfaction, and Willingness to Pay Property Taxes, vol. 38, no. 6
Bill Simonsen & Mark D. Robbins
The authors explore whether citizen preferences for taxes are influenced by perceptions of the quality of government and government services. Waterford, Connecticut, was faced with a revenue crisis when the property taxes paid by a nuclear power facility in the town were significantly reduced after deregulation. On the basis of a survey of town residents, the authors find that citizens in Waterford were willing to act reasonably in response to fiscal problems. Furthermore, attitudes toward government and its services are important determinants of support for taxes.
Citizen Satisfaction and Administrative Performance Measures: Is There Really a Link?, vol. 38, no. 6
Janet M. Kelly
The most recent reform in public service delivery is predicated on an assumption
that the kinds of activities that managers can measure are the dimensions of
service that citizens value. The link between administrative performance measures
and citizen satisfaction with services has been tested within cities but not
among cities, owing to data comparability difficulties. This test for a relationship
between police and fire service performance and citizen satisfaction with policy
and fire services across 50 localities does not reveal the result predicated
in the public management literature. Some implications and recommendations for
future specifications of the relationship are offered in conclusion.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 38, Number 5, May 2003
Equity and Entrepreneurialism: The Impact of Tax Increment Financing on School Finance, vol. 38, no. 5
Rachel Weber
How do the socially reproductive functions of local government fare within municipalities that adopt "entrepreneurial" economic development practices? This article examines the case of tax increment financing (TIF), a quintessentially entrepreneurial strategy whose use has significant fiscal implications for the overlapping taxing jurisdictions that provide these functions. Statistical analysis of TIF's impact on the finances of school districts in Cook County, Illinois, reveals that municipal use of TIF depletes the property tax revenues of schools during the lifespan of the TIF district but that a portion of the budget shortfalls are relieved by increased in state school aid. Entrenpreneurial policies can create conflict between taxing bodies unless higher levels of government take on some of fiscal burden of these more redistributive functions.
Municipal Institutions and Voter Turnout in Local Elections, vol. 38, no. 5
Zoltan L. Hajnal & Paul G. Lewis
Although low voter turnout in national elections has garnered considerable attention and concern, much lower turnout in municipal elections has often been largely ignored. Using a survey of cities in California, this article examines a series of institutional remedies to low turnout in mayoral and city council elections. Moving local elections to coincide with the dates of national elections would have by far the largest impact on voter turnout, but other institutional changes that tend to raise the stakes of local elections also increase turnout. Specifically, less outsourcing of city services, the use of direct democracy, and more control in the hands of the elected rather than appointed officials all tend to increase turnout.
The Relative Importance of Income and Race in Determining Residential Outcomes in U.S. Urban Areas, 1970-2000, vol. 38, no. 5
Mary J. Fischer
The author uses the unique properties of the entropy index to explore trends in segregation by race/ethnicity and income class for families from 1970 to 2000. Declines in segregation by race and increases in segregation by income class were found until the 1990s, when segregation by income declined. Segregation among certain subgroups was then examined; some groups remain more segregated, even as segregation in general has declined. In particular, the poor families experience greater segregation from others than do families in other income groups from each other. Blacks experience higher levels of segregation from other groups than those other groups do from each other. Finally, the segregation of poor, black families compared to the poor of other race/ethnic groups was examined. The author finds that poor black families are uniquely segregated and that this segregation decline only slightly with time.
The Desegregation Efficiency of Magnet Schools, vol. 38, no. 5
Christine Rossell
Magnet schools are an attempt to introduce market incentives into school desegregation policy. The analyses presented here assess the extent to which they have improved the effectiveness of desegregation plans in a 600-school-district national sample from 1968-1991. I find that adding magnet schools to a voluntary plan does not seem to produce any more interracial exposure than does a voluntary plan without magnets. Moreover, there are diminishing marginal returns to magnets. The greater the percentage of magnets in a voluntary desegregation plan, the greater the white flight and the less the gain in interracial exposure. The effectiveness of magnets also varies by structure.
From Sewers to Suburbs: Transforming the Policy-Making Context of American Cities, vol. 38, no. 5
Richardson Dilworth
Central city infrastructure development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in areas such as sewerage, water works, street lighting, and street pavement, was an important cause of suburban municipal autonomy by the time of Great Depression. Suburban autonomy was in turn an important factor in the racial and economic transformations that were visible in central cities by the 1950s. Thus, although central city infrastructure development was a classic developmental policy, it led to a central city politics that emphasized fiscal retrenchment and racialized poverty. This argument provides an important new perspective to the study of urban politics because it suggests that suburban autonomy was an intermediate process by which city policies transformed the context in which they were initially formulated. Evidence is provided for this argument through four OLS regression models that indicate a statistically significant relationship between central city infrastructure development in 1907 and suburban population growth in the 1930s and 1940s.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 38, Number 4, March 2003
Paradigms of Propertied Citizenship: Transnational Techniques of Analysis, vol. 38, no. 4
Ananya Roy
The American paradigm of propertied citizenship has far-reaching consequences for the propertyless, as in the brutal criminalization of the homeless. Activist groups, such as the anarchist squatter organization Homes Not Jails, have sought to challenge this paradigm through innovative techniques of property takeovers, invocations of American traditions of homesteading, and Third World tactics of self-help and informality. This study trains a transnational lens on both the paradigm and its subversions. Posing Third World questions of the First World, the author seeks to unsettle the normalized hierarchy of development and underdevelopment and explores lessons that can be learned from different modes of shelter struggles.
Infill Development and Affordable Housing: Patterns from 1996 to 2000, vol. 38, no. 4
Annette Steinacker
The amount of residential development in cities has been much greater than the media coverage of suburban sprawl suggests. Unfortunately, there is also some evidence that cities with higher levels of infill development have more expensive new housing construction than their suburbs. The average price differential is not substantial, but it does suggest that tensions between achieving the two goals of greater infill development and more affordable city housing do exist.
Housing Tenure and Residential Mobility in Urban China: A Study of Commodity Housing Development in Beijing and Guangzhou, vol. 38, no. 4
Si-Ming Li
Twenty-plus years have brought a highly complex system of housing tenure in urban China. Although the traditional work unit housing under rental occupancy remains the dominating tenure mode, an increasing number of urban households have become owners under various forms of subsidized homeownership. The author analyzes data derived from a survey conducted in 1996 of movers to newly completed "commodity housing" in Beijing and Guangzhou. Findings show that despite the many attempts at privatization and commodification, private housing in Beijing has become almost nonexistent. In Guangzhou, the open-market sector is better developed, and a sizable number of households have opted to move from subsidized to nonsubsidized housing. The findings also reveal that although the direction of movement is significantly related to the current tenure, it is unrelated to whether the move involves a change in tenure status.
Spatial Restructuring of Financial Centers in Mainland China and Hong Kong: A Geography of Finance Perspective, vol. 38, no. 4
Simon X.B. Zhao
The rapid progress of globalization and information technology has stimulated profound changes in the global financial landscape and attracted growing interest in the geography of finance. Although there is apparently remarkable stability in the ordering of financial centers over time, the spatial changes of regional, national, and even global financial centers are an ongoing process. The newly developed subdiscipline of the geography of finance examines and evaluates these spatial changes among financial centers. This study explores the possible changes in China's information hinterland and the spatial restructuring of financial systems in the region, including the spatial switching in importance among the financial centers of Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and the major Guangdong cities of Guangzhao and Shenzhen. China's landmark World Trade Organization accession will certainly have a tremendous impact on China's information hinterland and induce profound organizational and spatial restructuring of the financial systems in the region.
Deracialization and Urban Racial Contexts, vol. 38, no. 4
Baodong Liu
Building on previous literature of deracialization and white voting behavior, the author empirically tests whether the effectiveness of deracialization, measured by white crossover vote, may be conditional, dependent on urban racial contexts. The author examined 81 black candidates' white votes in New Orleans biracial elections between 1977 and 1998. The results of ordinary least square multiple regressions show that the differences in white crossover voting in New Orleans during the past two decades were related to black candidates' strength. The relatively larger effect of newspaper endorsement on white crossover voting, compared to that of black incumbency, confirms previous findings regarding the powerful influence of news media on biracial elections in general and the deracialization strategy in particular. The most important finding of this research, however, is that the deracialization strategy was most effective when white voters were no longer the majority in the urban elections.
Determinants of Spatial Distribution of Street People in the City of Sao Paulo, vol. 38, no. 4
Silvia Maria Schor, Rinaldo Artes, & Valeria Cusinato Bomfim
Data from the First Census of Homeless People in the City of Sao Paulo, carried out in 2000, show that the spatial distribution of this population is not random and points to a number of high-incidence districts. The authors estimated a regression model that related this distribution to a series of indicators. The values found appear to confirm, initially, the relationship between the spatial distribution of street people and the presence of verticalized premises for use by commercial establishments and services, the presence of people not living in the districts, and the per capita income of families living in the districts.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 38, Number 3, January 2003
Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime? Homelessness, Panhandling, and the Public, vol. 38, no. 3
Barrett A. Lee & Chad R. Farrell
The authors use data from two national surveys to shed light on panhandling among homeless people and the public's responses to it. A comparison of homeless panhandlers and nonpanhandlers shows the former group to be more isolated, troubled, and disadvantaged than the latter. Although only a minority of all homeless say that they panhandle, a majority of domiciled individuals report being panhandled, and most give at least occasionally. Such encounters have mixed but limited effects on the public's attitudes and behaviors. Overall, results challenge the notion that panhandling constitutes an especially threatening feature of urban life. The wisdom of anti-panhandling ordinances is discussed in light of that conclusion.
Sprawl in the 1990s: Measurement, Distribution, and Trends, vol. 38, no. 3
Russ Lopez & H. Patricia Hynes
Although sprawl is a growing national debate, there have been few efforts to measure or monitor changes in degree of sprawl over time. By using a methodology that employs census data, this sprawl index allows computations of levels of sprawl and examination of temporal and geographic changes. The results show that sprawl has increased over the past decade in many metropolitan areas. There are important geographic variations in sprawl, implying that it is neither inevitable nor universal.
Comparative Urban Governance: An Integrated Approach, vol. 38, no. 3
Alan DiGaetano & Elizabeth Strom
This Article develops an integrated framwork for comparing urban governance cross nationally. Joining together structural, cultural, and rational actor approaches to cross-national comparison, it explains the institutional milieux of urban governance in the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany. Comparison of public-private partnership arrangements in cities of these four countries is used to demonstrate the utility of this integrated framework.
Structural Change and Fiscal Flows: A Framework for Analyzing the Effects of Urban Events, vol. 38, no. 3
Anirudh V.S. Ruhil
The political and policy impacts of alternative governing arrangements are an enduring and important puzzle of urban politics. Locating the source of the empirical confusion over structural effects in the use of static data analysis, the author emphasizes the benefits of investigating the substantive consequences of identifiable events (e.g., changes in form of government, budgeting techniques, the election of a minority mayor) via dynamic multiwave panel data and appropriate estimation techniques. This point is illustrated by analyzing the fiscal effects of reformism in a panel of 222 cities (1946-1966). Findings suggest no more than transient decreases in per-capita city expenditures postadoption of council-manager government.
The Construction of the Local and the Limits of Contemporary Community Building in the United States, vol. 38, no. 3
James C. Fraser, Jonathan Lepofsky, Edward L. Kick, & J. Patrick Williams
With new relationships between state and civil society, community building has arisen as a preferred mechanism to ameliorate urban poverty. Community building is a much-supported but undercriticized paradigm, especially with respect to questions about the benefits that impoverished neighborhood residents actually acquire from these initiatives. The authors examine community building as a process that is related to larger agendas meant to enact certain productions of urban space and challenge many taken-for-granted notions about the realized benefits of this form of antipoverty work. Moreover, they argue that community-building initiatives occur in an increasingly globalized context, providing opportunities for stakeholders other than residents to promote certain productions of space and place. A case study is presented of an initiative occurring in a southern city in the United States to highlight the theoretical framework presented.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 38, Number 2, November 2002
Experiencing Residential Segregation: A Contemporary Study of Washington, D.C., vol. 38, no. 2
Gregory D. Squires, Samantha Friedman, & Catherine E. Saidat
Explicit considerations of race and unlawful discrimination persist as critical factors in the continuing segregation of urban housing markets. On the basis of a telephone survey of Washington, DC 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 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: The Case of Still Bay-The "Bay of Sleeping Beauty", vol. 38, no. 2
Etienne Nel & Tony Binns
Local economic development (LED) is a common community-based development response to changed 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 disadvantages groups.
Voter Turnout in City Elections, vol. 38, no. 2
Curtis Wood
The author used a random sample of 57 cities with populations between 25,000 and 1,000,000 to predict the impact of the form of government on voter turnout in city elections, controlling for socioeconomic variables and the timing of elections. Results show that voter turnout is dependent on the form of government. Political cities have the highest voter turnout, while administrative cities have the lowest voter turnout. By comparing structural differences between cities with different forms of government, the author determined that the direct election of the mayor, the expansion of mayoral executive authority, the separation of political power between the mayor and council, and/or the full-time status of the mayor and council are likely contributors to higher voter turnout in city elections.
Decentralization of Atlanta's Convention Business, vol. 38, no. 2
Harvey K. Newman
Urban scholars have long noted the importance of the convention business in the economic development of the downtown areas in US cities. This article examines the decentralization of the convention business to Atlanta's suburbs since 1980. The process of decentralization has resulted in a competition for meetings that pits one suburban convention submarket against another and against downtown in a multicentered metropolitan region. The spread of Atlanta's convention business to the suburbs has implications for both scholars and practitioners.
The Role of Ideas in Education Politics: Using Discourse Analysis to Understand Barriers to Reform in Multiethnic Cities, vol. 38, no. 2
Mara S. Sidney
Elizabeth Strom
The importance of cultural institutions to contemporary revitalization efforts in U.S. cities is attributed to several factirs. 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 more cultural institutions to draw on serious and popular art forms.
Redlining Redux: Black Neighborhoods, Black-Owned Firms, and the Regulatory Cold Shoulder, vol. 38, no. 1
Dan Immergluck
There has been a growing body of evidence indicating race-based discrimination in small business lending. However, very little research has examined potential geographic redlining effects. This article measures small business lending flows to neighborhoods in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. It advances previous work by measuring differential credit flows while accounting for variations in the credit scores of small firms. Black tracts receive fewer loans after accounting for firm density, firm size, neighborhood income, and the credit quality of local firms. The findings suggest that federal bank regulators should expand small business lending data to include racial characteristics and application information, in part to help identify potentially discriminating lenders for further investigation. Also, Community Reinvestment Act regulations should pay more attention to the distribution of small business loans, by both race and income of neighborhood.
Neighboring and Community Mobilization in High-Poverty Inner-City Neighborhoods, vol. 38, no. 1
John M. Bolland & Debra Moehle McCallum
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 homogenous, 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: An Assessment of Efficiency, Equity, and Voice, vol. 38, no. 1
Mildred Warner & Amir Hefetz
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 to 1997, the authors find that both alternatives promote efficiency, but equity and voice are more associated with intermunicipal cooperation than privatization.
Migrant Housing in Urban China: Choices and Constraints, vol. 38, no. 1
Weiping Wu
China's recent 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 patterns in urban China need to be linked with the country's unique 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: Old Problem, New Dilemma, vol. 38, no. 1
Paul Kantor
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 longbuilding 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 weeks of the emergency, deeply rooted forces conspire 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 as a whole. This is likely to confound the city's recovery and its ability to cope with international terrorism. Since these problems are 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, vol. 38, no. 1
Dick Simpson, Ola Adeoye, Ruben Feliciano, & Rick Howard
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?, vol. 38, no.1
Todd Swanstrom
Dense cities are vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Therefore, some
scholars argue, we should deconcentrate
American cities further, denying future terrorists targets of opportunity. But
fleeing 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 people have flocked to them over the centuries because of the economic opportunities
and freedom they offer. As a 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 policy responses to terrorism that
couls undermine the freedom of thought and movement essential to cities.
James H. Johnson, Jr.
The author develops a conceptual model that specifies six types of "community capital" assets - polity, physical, financial, human, cultural, and social - that U.S. cities, particularly those left behind in the most recent economic boom, will have to develop to thrive and prosper in the twenty-first century knowledge-based economy. Each of these sources of "capital" is described, and specific examples of how each is manifested in selected, highly competitive new economy cities are presented. The article concludes with a discussion of the steps and strategies US cities will have to pursue to develop their full complement of community capital assets.
The Politics of Gentrification: The Case of West Town in Chicago, vol. 37, no.6
John J. Betancur
The author examines the local dialectics of power associated with gentrification in the community of West Town in Chicago, discussing the process, contentions resulting from opposite interests, strategies of the major players involved, and the painful and emotional struggles that have resulted from the advance of gentrification. Today, West Town is bitterly split between contending agents of gentrification and resistance. Although the process has not been completed, expectations have placed the community in a difficult position as institutions, businesses, and households feel its impact and wonder about the future. In particular, the role of class, race, and ethnicity in the process of gentrification is examined.
Postrecession Gentrification in New York City, vol. 37, no. 6
Jason Hackworth
Although multiple authors have identified changes to gentrification since the early 1990s recession, there is not yet a composite sketch of the process in its contemporary form. The author synthesizes the growing body of literature on postrecession gentrification and explores its manifestation in three New York City neighborhoods. The literature points to four fundamental changes in the way that gentrification works. First, corporate developers are now more common initial gentrifiers than before. Second, the state, at various levels, is fueling the process more directly than in the past. Third, anti-gentrification social movements have been marginalized within the urban political sphere. Finally, the land economics of inner-city investment have changed in ways that accelerate certain types of neighborhood change.
School Choice Accountability: An Examination of Informed Consumers in Different Choice Programs, vol. 37, no. 6
Emily Van Dunk & Anneliese Dickman
One important consequence of school choice policies is the shift away from governmental accountability and toward parent accountability. Parents are empowered to gather information about schools and select schools that meet their needs. Schools that fulfill parents' needs succeed; others fail. Using data on several types of choice programs in a large urban school district, the authors examine the amount of information parents have and whether they selects schools based on the factors they believe are important. The evidence suggests that many parents neither possess adequate information nor send consistent signals, and there are systemic differences across types of choice programs.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 37, Number 5, May 2002
The Nation-State and Urban Governance: Toward Multilevel Analysis, vol. 37, no. 5
Jeffrey M. Sellers
In recent international comparative studies of urban governance, the nation-state has usually figured as a direct influence on local government and politics. This article, drawing on case studies of a similar US city and German city, demonstrated the need for a new, more sophisticated conception of the effects from national institutions. In the German city, a pro-business coalition carried out extensive social and environmental policies. In the US city, a progressive coalition subordinated social and to a lesser degree environmental objectives to developmental aims. To account for these results, the author proposes and applies a typology of national institutional contexts. These contexts influenced urban governance not only through direct effects on the choices of local elites and activists but through indirect effects on translocal economies, urban economies, and local culture.
Reconsidering Private Sector Power: Business Input and Local Development Policy, vol. 37, no. 5
Laura A. Reese & Raymond A. Rosenfeld
This article raises questions about several key assumptions about business development in local policy making generally and in local development policy specifically. At issue is the nature and extent of systemic business influence and the nature of public policies that result. Based on data from a survey of 350 cities in Canada and the United States and nine case studies, the authors conclude that business interests are not unitary nor cohesive within cities, the composition and the nature of the private sector is not uniform across cities, and that differentiated patterns of business input and policy output can result. The authors ultimately argue that a broader perspective is needed to fully portray the variety of public/private relationships present in cities than the prevalent growth machine or development regime frameworks suggest. The broader construct of local civic culture is provided as a more contextual basis for understanding the myriad roles businesses play in local economic development policy processes.
Revamped Stadium...New Neighborhood, vol. 37, no. 5
Costas Spirou & Larry Bennett
In 1988, One of Major League Baseball's oldest stadiums, Wrigley Field, was substantially modernized through the addition of field lighting. This modernization of Wrigley Field, in turn, has contributed to a complicated transformation of the adjoining Lake View neighborhood on Chicago's North Side. This article examines the corporate maneuvering that led to the upgrading of Wrigley Field, as well as the roles played by local government and neighborhood activists in achieving a compromise plan to bring evening baseball to Lake View. The article further describes the neighborhood impacts of this sports development project, which have yielded several unanticipated stresses on the local social and physical environment.
The Impact of Hispanic Growth on the Racial/Ethnic Composition of New York City Neighborhoods, vol. 37, no.5
Arun Peter Lobo, Ronald J.O. Flores, & Joseph J. Salvo
Between 1970 and 1990, a surging Hispanic population succeeded whites across New York City, resulting in major increases in both all-minority and multiethnic neighborhoods. Puerto Rican and Dominican flows resulted in transitions to all-minority neighborhoods, whereas South Americans showed a more integrated pattern of settlement. The unique settlement patterns of Hispanic subgroups need to be understood in the context of larger political, social, and economic forces operating in the city. In the post-1990 period, newer Hispanic groups have begun to succeed Puerto Ricans. Thus, earlier patterns of white to Hispanic transitions now have been supplemented by ethnic succession among Hispanics.
Slow Growth and Urban Sprawl: Support for a New Regional Agenda?, vol. 37, no. 5
Juliet F. Gainsborough
Proponents of more regional cooperation in US metropolitan areas have suggested that increasing concern about the effects of unregulated growth creates the possibility of building a regional coalition around combating sprawl. Analysis of public opinion data from New York and Los Angeles suggest a more complicated picture. Suburbanites who are experiencing "city-like" problems in their communities seem increasingly receptive to slow-growth policies. However, residents of the central city in these areas are much less supportive of controls on growth--a problem for the goal of regional coalition building. Furthermore, even among suburbanites, support is not uniform: African Americans, lower income residents, and those with stronger ties to the city are all less supportive of slow-growth measures.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 37, Number 4, March 2002
Urban Development and a Socialist Pro-Growth Coalition in Shanghai, vol. 37, no. 4
Tingwei Zhang
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 regime characterized by a strong local government followed by cooperative nonpublic sectors with excluded community organizations.
The Concentration of Affluence in the United States, 1990, vol. 37, no. 4
Craig St. John
The author examines the concentration of affluent households in affluent neighborhoods in US 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 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, vol. 37, no. 4
Subhrajit Guhathakurta & Alvin Mushkatel
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 if the household is female headed, all else held constant.
Pleasantville? The Suburb and Its Representation in American Movies, vol. 37, no. 4
Douglas Muzzio & Thomas Halper
The authors study the representation of the US 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 US 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.
The Development of Counties as Municipal Governments: A Case Study of Los Angeles County in the Twenty-first Century, vol. 37, no. 4
Christopher Hoene, Mark Baldassare, & Michael Shires
Counties in the twenty-first century are enigmatic hybrids of state and local government. Behaving sometimes as agents of state government, sometimes as county governments, and increasingly as municipal governments, urban counties are becoming more relevant as deliverers of urban services. Studies of county government have long recognized two roles of counties: as service delivery arms of state government and as local governments. More recently, analyses of county activities have pointed to increasing involvement in the delivery of services typically left to cities, particularly in urbanized areas. The rise of counties' municipal services role deserves greater attention. Using a two-year, in-depth analysis of Los Angeles county, the authors examine the extent to which L.A. County has increased its municipal presence. They find that this municipal, or urban, services role comprises a significant portion of Los Angeles County's activities and takes several distinct forms.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 37, Number 3, January 2002
Race and the Tourist Bubble in Downtown Atlanta, vol. 37, no. 3
Harvey K. Newman
Early in the twentieth century, Atlanta's business and political leaders worked in partnership to develop the components of a tourist bubble. Using the urban renewal program, the city's leaders enlarged and updated this downtown tourist space. Despite racial change at city hall, numerous projects continued to expand the area devoted to consumption and spectacle at the expense of the city's black residents.
Communities of the Postindustrial City, vol. 37, no. 3
Scott Baum, Patrick Mullins, Robert Stimson, & Kevin O'Connor
The authors discern the community structure of the postindustrial city, with reference to Australia. They focus empirically on three major types of Australian urban centers: urban regions, metropolitan areas that are not part of urban areas, 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) date to identify the communities. Nine major Australian 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: The Case of Philadelphia, vol. 37, no. 3
Jerome I. Hodos
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 finance 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, vol. 37, no. 3
James M. Vanderleeuw & Baodong Liu
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.
Citizens Views on Urban Revitalization: The Case of Providence, Rhode Island, vol. 37, no. 3
Marion Orr & Darrell M. West
Renaissance cities have been widely discussed in the literature on urban development. However, despite scholarly interest in this subject, there has been little systematic research on how citizens feel about so-called "hot" cities and the factors that go into citizen conclusions that a city is doing well. In this paper, we use data from a survey of residents of Providence, Rhode Island and review the political and economic history of the area to assess what affects public opinion about city success, quality of life, and downtown improvement. Our analysis demonstrates that on dimensions such as moving in the right direction, satisfaction with specific services such as police protection is important to public assessments. In other areas, though, such as quality of life, factors such as race relations, street repairs, and political leadership matter more. We conclude with suggestions about what cities that wish to be seen as having "turned the corner" must do in order to bring citizens around to that viewpoint.
Tiebout Sorting and Selective Satisfaction with Urban Public Services: Testing the Variance Hypothesis, vol. 37, no. 3
Christine Kelleher & David Lowery
A key implication of the Tiebout model concerns variation in satisfaction within urban areas, with Tiebout arguing that fragmented settings should better match varied tastes with varied services, thereby producing less variance than would be observed under a consolidating government providing standardized service. But Tiebout's expectations might be satisfied for only a subset of salient services. Alternatively, the social stratification/government inequality thesis suggests that preferences are not especially varied, but access to housing markets is, leading to greater variations in satisfaction under fragmented governments. The authors test these expectations with matched comparisons of variations in mean satisfaction levels for 11 local services in consolidated and fragmented settings and find strong support for the last view.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 37, Number 2, November 2001
The Distributive Impact of Federal Fiscal Policy: Federal Spending and Southern California Cities, vol. 37, no. 2
Pascale Joassart-Marcelli & Juliet Ann Musso
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.
Collaborating to Reduce Poverty: Views from City Halls and Community-Based Organizations, vol. 37, no. 2
Michael J. Rich, Micheal W. Giles, & Emily Stern
The authors report on the findings of a national survey of city officials and executive directors of nonprofit organizations that was conducted by the National League of Cities in 1998 to gain a better understanding of the ways in which community-based organizations (CBOs) and city governments are working together to reduce poverty and revitalize neighborhoods. The findings are mixed. Although collaboration between city governments and CBOs is fairly widespread, in most communities, the "thin" version of collaboration reported may not produce the beneficial outcomes suggested by some proponents of collaboration. Although both city and CBO officials acknowledge then importance and value of collaborative approaches to reducing poverty and revitalizing neighborhoods, investments in capacity building and community-based strategic planning may be needed before the benefits of collaboration can be fully realized in most communities.
The Powers that Bind: A Case Study of the Collective Bases of Coalition Building in Post-Civil Unrest Los Angeles, vol. 37, no. 2
Angie Y. Chung
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 on 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? Testing Models of Participation for African American and Latino Involvement in Local Politics, vol. 37, no. 2
Melissa J. Marschall
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, vol 37, no. 2
Frederick M. Hess & David L. Leal
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.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 37, Number 1, September 2001
Crossing the Great Divide: Race and Preferences for Living in the City Versus the Suburbs, vol. 37, no. 1
Lee Sigelman & Jeffrey R. Henig
Drawing on a survey of residents of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, the authors compare African Americans and whites in terms of their perceptions of the special advantages of the central city and the suburbs as places to love and their overall preferences for one or the other. Although a broad transracial consensus prevails in most respects about the pluses and minuses of living in the city or the suburbs, some substantial differences also emerge. Moreover, African Americans and whites seem to weigh these factors differently in forming general preferences about where to live. This pattern of similarities and differences holds out more intriguing implications for the development of metropolitan areas.
The Impact of Compositional and Redistributive Forces on Poverty Concentration: The Case of the Atlanta, Georgia, Metropolitan Region: 1980-1990, vol. 37, no. 1
John B Strait
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 inn 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 Refomed Municipalities: Manager, Mayor and Council Actions, vol. 37, no. 1
Richard C. Kearney & Carmine Scavo
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, vol. 37, no. 1
Timothy B. Krebs & John P. Pelissero
Electoral coalitons have two parts: the voter coalition and the fund-raising coaliton. 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: Building on Krebs and Pelissero, vol. 37, no. 1
Sean Hogan & Dick Simpson
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 implications of these empirical findings for what they call the "new Chicago machine".
Prospects for Regional Governance: Lessons from the Miami Abolition Vote, vol. 37, no. 2
Annette Steinacker
Circumstances surrounding the 1997 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 underdstood 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 politics.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 36, Number 6, July 2001
Looking for Regionalism in all the Wrong Places: Demography, Geography, and Community in Los Angeles County, vol. 36, no. 6
Manuel Pastor, Jr.
The new regionalism tends to emphasize the commonalities of central cities and their suburbs. Los Angeles County has surprisingly minor differences between central city and suburb-leading one to wonder why municipal alliances across jurisdictional lines have not been more prominent. The author tackles this anomaly by breaking L.A. County into 58 different areas and tracking demographic and economic change between 1970 and 1990. The analysis suggests that there are important differences in the ethnic and economic dynamics of various subregions. As a result, "smart growth" politics may have less salience in Los Angeles than would an alternative regionalism rooted in community-based movements and organizations.
Urban Secession and the Politics of Growth: The Case of Los Angeles, vol. 36, no. 6
Tom Hogen-Esch
The author argues that the current movement to secede San Fernando Valley from the city of Los Angeles exposes significant weaknesses in the existing literature on urban fragmentation. By constructing a theoretical framework, the author explains the effort as primarily a conflict between interest groups over the power to control urban growth. Second, existing scholarship cannot explain why progrowth Valley business organizations and slow-growth Valley homeowner associations have alligned to form a potent, though seemingly unlikely, urban coalition. The author concludes that these traditional land-use foes share far more common ground on growth issues than conventional theories predict. In particular, both share elements of a suburban land-use vision that provides a substantive foundation for collective action.
The Evolution of Urban Regime Theory: The Challenge of Conceptualization, vol. 36, no. 6
Karen Mossberger & Gerry Stoker
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: The Implementation of the Florida Concurrency Policy, vol 36, no. 6
Efraim Be-Zadok & Dennis E. Gale
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 decison-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 adaptionefforts. 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: A Study of Institutional Dynamics, vol. 36, no. 6
H. George Frederickson & Gary Alan Johnson
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.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 36, Number 5, May 2001
Civic Capacity and Urban Education, vol. 36, no. 5
Clarence N. Stone
In 1993, a team of political scientists launched an 11-city study of school reform, centering on the concept of civic capacity. In the field of urban education, the 11-city study found placed ranging from those with low levels of civic capacity in which diffuse and scattered concerns never became focused and synergistic to those with relatively high levels of civic capacity in which key actors came together in concerted action. Community leaders develop civic capacity to respond to major community-wide problems with a high potential for controversy. An ever-present potential for conflucr means that a spirit of cooperation can quickly erode, and civic capacity differs from micro versions of social capital. To be lasting, civic capacity needs an institutional foundation for interaction among elites and a "grassroots" base through which ordinary citizens are engaged.
Urban Housing Reform and Finance in China: A Case Study of Beijing, vol. 36, no. 5
Ya Ping Wang
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, vol. 36, no. 5
Harry L. Margulis
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: New York City in the 1980s, vol. 36, no. 5
Curtis Skinner
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 policy measures intended to improve labor marlet outcomes for workers with less than a college education.
Looking Outward or Turning Inward? Motivations for Development Decisions in California Central Cities and Suburbs, vol. 36, no. 5
Paul G. Lewis
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 Subdisticting of Cities: Applying the Polycentric Model, vol. 36, no. 5
Susan E. Baer & Vincent L. Marando
Applying the polycentric model to the urban core, the authors first examine how the polycentric model may be applied to an increasing number of large cities that are using subdistricts to provide supplemental public services that district residents desire such as security, sanitation (garbage collection), and economic development. They next analyze the recent creation of the Charles Village Community Benefits District in Baltimore, Maryland, as an empirical example and briefly discuss the subdistrict's positive impacts. The article concludes with some observations on the implications of subdistricts for equitable and efficient service delivery.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 36, Number 4, March 2001
Use of Black English and Racial Discrimination in Urban Housing Markets: New Methods and Findings, vol. 36, no. 4
Douglas S. Massey & Garvey Lundy
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 oppoertunity 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 Englisg 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: The Diffusion of a Redistributive Municipal Policy, vol, 36, no. 4
Isaac Martin
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 contrains local progressivism by favoring diffusion among cities.
The "Camden Syndrome" and the Menace of Suburban Decline: Residential Disinvestment and Its Discontents in Camden County, New Jersey, vol. 36, no. 4
Neil Smith, Paul Caris, & Elvin Wyly
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.
Whither Metropolitan Governance?, vol. 36, no. 4
Donald F. Norris
The author examines the issue of metropolitan governance without metropolitan government through an in-depth case study of two English conurbations, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester, 10 years aftre the abolition of their metropolitan governments. The author addresses whether metropolitan governance has occurred since the abolition of the metropolitan governments in these areas or whether any other mechanisms developed that substituted for metropolitan governance. Although the local governments in these conurbations cooperate with one another when they are required (by the British central government) to do so and in matters of joint convenience, the author found that true regional governance did not result. If metropolitan governance without metropolitan governments does not occur in a unitary state such as Great Britain, it is unlikely to occur in the United States, where there is greater governmental fragmentation and historically stronger local government autonomy.
Environmentl Justice and Southern California's "Riskscape": The Distribution of Air Toxics Exposures and Health Risks Among Diverse Communities, vol. 36, no. 4
Rachel Morello-Frosch, Manuel Pastor, & James Sadd
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 Affairs Review, Volume 36, Number 3, January 2001
Building Community Capacity: A Definitional Franework and Case Studies from a Comprehensive Community Initiative, vol. 36, no. 3
Robert J. Chaskin
The notion of community capacity building is both explicit and pervasive in the rhetoric, missions, and activities of a broad range of contemporary community development efforts. However, there is limited clarity about the meaning of capacity and capacity building at the neighborhood level. The author suggest a definitional framework for understanding and promoting community capacity, explores the attempt to operationalize a capacity-building agenda through the examination of two contrasting case studies within a multisite comprehensive community initiative (CCI), and suggests some possible next steps toward building community capacity through social change efforts such as CCIs.
Governing Nonprofits and Local Political Processes, vol. 36, no. 3
Richard C. Hula & Cynthia Jackson-Elmoore
In recent years, we have witnessed an increase in the role and influence of nonprofit organizations in local and regional policy decisions. Often, these organizations assume a quasi-governmental role in pursuit of their missions. Roles of coalition builder and policy initiator/formulator join more traditional roles of service provider and policy advocate. These emerging roles forge new relationships between the nonprofit, for-profit, and public sectors. In Detroit, there is evidence that nonprofit organizations such as New Detroit and Detroit Renaissance can play a role in redefining the local political agenda. Yet that role is severely limited if such organizations are not tied to public authority.
The Giuliani Administration and the New Public Management in New York City, vol. 36, no. 3
Lynne A. Weikart
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 analyzed the viability of NPM as a governing strategy by examining the extent of implementation of NPM policies by New York City's Mayor Rudolph Giulianim, 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/accomodation cycle facing Mayor Giuliani and other urban mayos who attempt to implement abstract reform principles in a politicized environment.
Incentives, Entrepreneurs, and Boundary Change: A Collective Action Framework, vol. 36, no. 3
Richard C. Feiock & Jered B. Carr
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 entrepreneurship.
Local Economic Development and Local Taxation: Explaining Differential Tax Burdens across Ukranian Local Governments, vol. 36, no. 3
Trevor L. Brown
The author examines the orientation of Ukranian 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 Ukranian local governments in 1997 indicate that all three theories provide insight into the dynamics of local economic development and taxation.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 36, Number 2, November 2000
Social Capital and Social Change: Women's Community Activism, vol. 36, no. 2
Marilyn Gittell, Isolda Ortega-Bustamente, & Tracy Steffy
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: Community Organizations and the Politics of Policing, vol. 36, no. 2
Sandra Bass
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.
Urban Physical Development in Transition to Market: The Case of China as a Transitional Economy, vol. 36, no. 2
Jieming Zhu
China's economic reforms have introduced market forces to the domain of urban construction. A market is seemingly evolving to the extent that urban development in China appears to resemble that in the capitalist economies. Once controlled by central plans, urbanization is starting a new chapter in a traditionally rural society. Nevertheless, determined by the gradualist nature of transformation, many old institutions still remain effective. A new framework is formulated along with interactions between new and old institutions. Unique urban development in transitionhas emerged with the coexistence of plan and market, which makes the transition toward market uncertain. Establishment of a market system is compromised by the remaining plan factors.
Corporate Philanthropy in the New Urban Economy: The Role of Business-Nonprofit Realignment in Regime Politics, vol. 36, no. 2
Leonard Nevarez
Does corporate philanthropy by software, entertainment, and tourism firms sustain the urban business community's hegemony in urban politics? Software and entertainment depend on local resources but not ones that involve the business community and promote philanthropy to the traditional community charities. Tourism depends on local markets and environmental amenities, which promote philanthropy to traditional charities and collaborations with environmental groups, the traditional urban business community's "enemy". Overall, the three sectors' philanthropy and advocacy collaborations with environmental nonprofits and higher education institutions erode the cohesion of urban business communities and weaken the traditional urban business community's control over civic resources.
Branding Cities: A Social History of the Urban Lifestyle Magazine, vol. 36, no. 2
Miriam Greenberg
The author traces the emergence over the past 30 years of a new media genre in U.S. cities: the urban lifestyle magazine. With the shift in the primary role of U.S. cities from production sites to consumption spaces after World War II, these magazines facilitated the branding of consumer-oriented urban imaginaries. Using New York Magazine, Atlanta Magazine, and Los Angeles Magazine as examples, the author shows how these "branded cities" changed over time, discursively reflecting and contributing to the socioeconomic restructuring of their namesake cities and the formation of a new urban middle-class niche market.
Evaluating the Influence of a Large Cultural Artifact in the Attraction of Tourism: The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Case, vol. 36, no. 2
Beatriz Plaza
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.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 36, Number 1, September 2000
Old and New Paradigms for Urban Research: Globalization and the Fiscal Austerity and Urban Innovation Project, vol. 36, no. 1
Terry Nichols Clark
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, vol. 36, no. 1
Stephanie Shirley Post & Robert M. Stein
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.
Urban Spatial Form and Policy Outcomes in Public Agencies, vol. 36, no. 1
Herman L. Boschken
Bias or disproportional emphasis in an agency's pattern of policy coutcomes always raises questions of accountability and has been the subject of countless studies. For urban agencies, past research has been driven by causal theses having either a socioeconomic or a political perspective. However, a powerful thesis receiving little attention in policy making is the concept of urban spatial form. The author develops hypotheses about spatial form's impact on skewing agency outcomes and tests them alongside conventional rival theses using regression analysis on 42 U.S. transit agencies. Results indicate that urban form is at least as important in explaining policy bias as socioeconomic and political considerations.
Does Political Incorporation Matter? The Impact of Minority Mayors over Time, vol. 36, no. 1
John P. Pelissero, David B. Holian & Laura A. Tomaka
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: Evidence from a Recent Survey of Los Angeles Voters, vol. 36, no. 1
Leah Marcal & Shirley Svorny
The authors investigate the relationship between individualattribtes 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.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 35, Number 6, July 2000
Asian Americans, Political Organizations, and Participation in Chicago Electoral Precincts, vol. 35, no. 6
John P. Pelissero, Timothy B. Krebs, & Shannon Jenkins
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 appearss to be negatively affected by political party organizations.
The Changing Face of Urban Bureaucracy: Is There Interethnic Competition for Municipal Government Jobs?, vol. 35, no. 6
Brinck Kerr, Will Miller, & Margaret Reid
The authors examine changes over time in 65 multiethnic U.S. cities to test hypotheses about (1) job distribution among ethnic groups and (2) interethnic employment competition. Compared to blacks and non-Latino whites, Latinos experience the lowest levels of representation in both managerial and nonmanagerial jobs. The authors uncover patterns of competition between blacks and Latinos for managerial positions, but the majority of observed competition is between traditionally disadvantaged ethnic groups and non-Latino whites. Competition between blacks and Latinos for managerial jobs is most likely to occur in departments with redistributive policy commitments. The authors find a pervasive pattern of Latino gains and black losses for nonmanagerial positions, but they argue that the pattern should not be interpreted as evidence for interethnic employment competition.
Can Regionalism Save Poor Cities? Politics, Institutions, and Interests in Glasgow, vol. 35, no. 6
Paul Kantor
Regional governmental intervention is frequently advocated as a solution to the problems of poor cities. The regional reform model is examined in light of Glasgow's experience. It suggests that this approach became a trap for Glasgow and contrubted to the city's spiral of decline. The findings indicate that the reform model is seriously flawed by economic determinism and ignores regional political dynamics. In particular, it conflates abstract notions of regional economic interdependence with policy prescriptions to aid cities, and it neglects powerful institutional political pressures that bias regional officials against equite considerations that might favor central cities. These forces are not likely to be peculiar only to Glasgow.
Are Fragmentation and Sprawl Interlinked? North American Evidence, vol. 35, no. 6
Eran Razin & Mark Rosentraub
The association between municipal fragmentation and suburban sprawl is examined, based on a cross-sectional analysis of all U.S. and Canadian metropolitan areas with more than 500,000 residents in the 1990s. Results reveal that this association is rather weak but significant and is sustained even when the less fragmented and more compact Canadian metropolitan areas are excluded from the analysis. The impact of residential sprawl on fragmentation is significant, but fragmentation does not predict sprawl. Low levels of fragmentation do not guarantee compact development, but lack of excessive fragmentation might be a precondition for compact development in North America.
Beyond Edge CIties: Job Decentralization and Urban Sprawl, vol. 35, no. 6
Chengri Ding & Richard D. Bingham
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.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 35, Number 5, May 2000
The Mediate Community: The Nature of Local and Extralocal Ties Within the Metropolis, vol. 35, no. 5
Avery M. Guest
The author emphasized 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 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: Rational Planning in the Restructuring of the Early Twentieth-Century Ghetto, vol. 35, no. 5
Christopher Mele
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 transofrm the built environment, and then he examines how stakeholders 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.
Obduracy and Urban Sociotechnical Change: Changing Plan Hoog Catharijne, vol. 35, no. 5
Anique Hommels
Although cities are considered to be dynamic places, it may be difficult to make significant adjustments in the design of cities: Once built, cities become obdurate, immobile, and fixed. Drawing on recent research in the field of science, technology, and society studies on the obduracy of technological objects, a case study of large-scale urban redesign of the city center of the Dutch city Utrecht is analyzed: Hoog Catharijne. Using Bijker's concept of technological frame, the problem of obduracy in this redesign process is analyzed.
Attutudinal Differentiation Between African American Urbanites and Suburbanites: A Test of Three Accounts, vol. 35, no. 5
Lee Sigelman & Lars Willnat
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, DC, 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, vol. 35, no. 5
James H. Johnson, Jr., Walter C. Farrell, Jr. & Jennifer A. Stoloff
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 of a 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 expectations with those of their white and Hispanic male counterparts.
Brownfields, Toads, and the Struggle for Neighborhood Redevelopment: A Case Study of the State of New Jersey, vol. 35, no. 5
Michael Greenberg, Karen Lowrie, Laura Solitare, & LaToya Duncan
A survey was made of all municipalities in the state of New Jersey (N = 566) to determine how many had brownfields sites that caused property devaluation and land-use changes beyond the site boundaries. Most municipalities (80%, n=450) replied; 10% indicated that brownfields sites caused neighborhood impacts, and 3% reported land-use and neighborhood impacts more than one-quarter mile from the site and multiple land-use changes as a result of a brownfield site. Typically, this last group of neighborhoods also had neighborhood problems such as unsafe conditions and inadequate services. Policy suggestions for this group of highly stressed neighborhoods are discussed.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 35, Number 4, March 2000
New Directions in Planning Theory, vol. 35, no. 4
Susan S. Fainstein
The author examines three approaches to planning theory: the communicative model, the new urbanism, and the just city. The first type emphasizes the planner's role in mediating among "stakeholders", the second paints a physical picture of a desirable planned city, and the third presents a model of spatial relations based on equity. Differences among the types reflect an enduring tension between a focus on the planning process and an emphasis on desirable outcomes. The author defends the continued use of the just city model and a modified form of the political economy mode of analysis that underlies it.
Win, Place, Show: Public Opinion Polls and Campaign Contributions in a New York City Election, vol. 35, no. 4
Ester R. Fuchs, E. Scott Adler, & Lincoln A. Mitchell
The authors examine how the relative standing of candidates in public opinion polls during a primary campaign affects their ability to raise money. A theory is proposed that considers when individuals are most likely to contribute to electoral campaigns of their most preferred candidate based on a rational model of political participation and concerns about a candidate's likelihood of winning. The theory is then applied to the case of the 1989 New York City Democratic mayoral primary race. The data indicate that contributors are motivated to support candidates financially by the changing status of a candidate's electoral prospects throughout the campaign.
The Changing Mode of Housing Provision in Transitional China, vol. 35, no. 4
Jieming Zhu
Owing to political constraints, China's economic reform has been carried out gradually. The failure of the old housing system under the centrally planned economy prompted innovations in creating a new structure of housing provision. The same strategy of incremental changes has been adopted in China housing reform as has been in the general economic reforms. The transitional mode of housing provision has alleviated the problem of urban housing shortages to a great extent. However, it has also complicated the attempt to achieve a market-oriented system of housing development and investment with clear and enforceable property rights because an old institution of housing provision, danwei, is still in place.
Does Locational Choice Matter? A Comparison of Different Subsidized Housing Programs in Phoenix, Arizona, vol. 35, no. 4
Subhrajit Guhathakurta & Alvin H. Mushkatel
The authors examine the locational patterns of three subsidized housing programs-conventional project-based, section 8 assisted rental, and shelter care plus care supported housing for the severely mentally ill and homeless-in Phoenix, Arizona. They demonstrate that these programs are reinforcing the existing concentrations of the three types of subsidized housing in some Phoenix neighborhoods. The findings for Phoenix suggest that voucher and certificate policies designed to deconcentrate the poor are not achieving some of their major objectives. Indeed, the policies pursued by different providers of subsidized housing may cumulatively lead to increasing concentrations of all such housing in tracts that are already compromised by concentration of the urban poor.
Hospitality and Violence: Contradictions in a Southern City, vol. 35, no. 4
Harvey K. Newman
During 1974 and 1975, Atlanta was one of the top convention cities in the United States, but the city was also known as the nation's "murder capital". The contradiction in the discourse on hospitality and violence is the focus of this research. The discussion of hospitality by business leaders and elected officials was used to unify support for growth, but a separate discourse on violence had unfortunate ethical consequences. This discourse tended to divide whites from blacks and suburban dwellers from central-city residents. Little effort was made to seek common ground in the discourse on hospitality and violence.
Transforming America's Cities: Policies and Conditions of Vacant Land, vol. 35, no. 4
Ann O'M. Bowman & Michael A. Pagano
City governments own or regulate vacant land and abandoned structures. In this article, the authors summarize new vacant-land survey data, examine the conditions and causes of vacant land, analyze city policy toward vacant land, and explore the possible interconnections among conditions, causes, and policies. They find that vacant land most often is associated with cities that have expanded their political boundaries, and the number of abandoned structures is related to a city's change in population. Thus vacant land and abandoned structures are not interchangeable indicators of decay and destruction; rather, they have separate causes and need different policies.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 35, Number 3, January 2000
The Politics of Bread and Circuses: Building the City for the Visitor Class, vol. 35, no. 3
Peter Eisinger
City leaders in the United States devote enormous public resources to the construction of large entertainment projects, including stadiums, convention centers, entertainment districts, and festiveal malls. Their justification is that such projects will generate economic returns by attracting tourists to the city. Although this economic expectation is tested in the literature, little attention is given to the political and social implications of building a city for visitors rather than local residents. A focus on building the city for the visitor class may strain the bonds of trust between local leaders and the citizenry and skew the civic agenda to the detriment of fundamental municipal services.
Antigrowth Politics or Piecemeal Resistance? Citizen Opposition to Olympic-Related Economic Growth, vol. 35, no. 3
Matthew J. Burbank, Charles H. Heying, & Greg Andranovich
Regime theory predicts that opponents of a regime's pursuit of economic development will have limited prospects for success. Some scholars, however, contend that evidence of widespread growth control movements poses a challenge to regime theory. The authors assess the viability of growth opponents when confronting an active growth regime under conditions that should enhance the prospects for the development of an antigrowth movement by examining opposition to Olympic-related growth in Los Angeles (1984), Atlanta (1996), and Salt Lake City (2002). Despite favorable circumstances for developing an opposition coalition, little evidence of viable antigrowth movements is found. Rather, opposition is better characterized as piecemeal resistance.
The Distinctiveness of Jewish Voting: A Thing of the Past?, vol. 35, no. 3
Raphael J. Sonenshein & Nicholas A. Valentino
The apparent persistance of Jewish liberalism contradicts the belief that upward economic mobility leads to political conservatism among immigrant groups. However, some have suggested that Jews are losing their political distinctiveness from non-Jewish whites. The authors analyzed the 1993 Los Angeles mayoral election. A near majority of Jews voted against the liberal candidate and for the moderate Republican candidate, yet Jews and non-Jewish whites differed markedly on partisan and ideological dimensions. Although Jews may not always vote for the liberal candidates, major political differences between Jews and non-Jewish whites remain. Jews continue to resist the general trend of other European immigrant groups to "become white".
Metropolitan Employment Growth and Neighborhood Job Access in Spatial and Skills Perspectives: Empirical Evidence from Seven Ohio Metropolitan Regions, vol. 35, no. 3
Zhongcai Zhang & Richard D. Bingham
The spatial mismatch hypothesis is representative research concerning the intrametropolitan spatial distribution of employment growth and its impact on central-city-confined low-skilled workers. The authors examine the determinants of neighborhood job access and intrametropolitan differences in five industry cohorts, classified by average earnings of workers. They further compare change of job access between 1990 and 1996 across intrametropolitan spatial divisions. Empirical evidence in support of the spatial mismatch hypothesis is found only in the central county context: labor-force-weighted low-wage job access in central-city neighborhoods was, on average, lower than in inner-suburban neighborhoods but greater than in outer-suburban neighborhoods.
The Promise of Urban Democracy: Big-City Black Mayoral Service in the Early 1990s, vol 35, no. 4
Nicholas O. Alozie
Black mayoral fortunes across America's big cities improved dramatically in the 1990s. There is speculation on how to explain this shift-whether the factors known to affect black mayoral success have seen wholesale changes or whether this shift derived from marginal changes occurring within these known factors. The author examines pooled cross-sectional data. Black mayoral service was positively associated with black composition in the electorate, city size, and white education; black service was negatively associated with southern location. Marginal changes in factors known to affect black mayoral service accounted for big-city black mayoral success in the early 1990s.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 35, Number 2, November 1999
Creating a Toxic Neighborhood in Los Angeles County: A Historical Examination of Environmental Inequity, vol. 35, no. 2
Christopher G. Boone & ALi Modarres
The city of Commerce, a largely industrial and Latino city east of Los Angeles, contains a disproportionately high concentration of manufacturers that emit toxic chemicals. The coincidence of a minority population and toxic sites is a classic example of environmental inequity. The authors seek to understand why industry located in this community. A historical investigation of the development of a hazardous community suggests that demographics alone are not responsible for the concentration of manufacturing in Commerce. The zoning decisons of the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission in the 1920s and 1930s set a pattern of industrialization in Commerce.
The Election of Openly Gay Public Officials in American Communities, vol. 35, no. 2
James W. Button, Kenneth D. Wald, & Barbara A. Rienzo
As a newly emergent political minority, lesbians and gay men have begun to seek representation in political office, particularly at the local level. Using a purposeful sample of 126 cities and counties, the authors explore openly gay candidacies for, and election to, public office in the early 1990s. The employed four theoretical models-urbanism/social diversity, resource mobilization, political opportunity structure, and communal protest-that have been useful in explaining African American, Latino, and female electoral success. The nature and pattern of electoral activities of lesbians and gay men are similar to those of other disadvantaged minorities.
Newspapers as Policy Actors in Urban School Systems: The Chicago Story, vol. 35, no. 2
Kenneth K. Wong & Pushpam Jain
Public schools operate within a local context where institutional actors facilitate or constrain policy decisions. The authors focus on the role of the local newspapers. In this study of news reporting on educational issues in Chicago, they apply two analytical perspectives-namely, the pluralist bargaining model and the unitary actor model. They created a database of news reports on the city's eductional matters by two major Chicago newspapers for a 20-month period. Analysis suggests a strong unitary tendency in news reporting by the city's two major newspapers, as they are situated in the midst of mayor-led reform in schools.
Influencing the Agents of Urban Structure: Evaluating the Effects of Community Reinvestment Organizing on Bank Residential Lending Practices, vol. 35, no. 2
Anne B. Shlay
From the perspective of applied research, a critical urban theory presents the opportunity to become a force for social change. Nowhere has this perspective been more present than activities around supporting the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The author applies evidence from an evaluation of the impact of CRA organizing to assess the success of efforts to bring about institutional change. This research suggests that local organizing provided the impetus for the establishment of a national political climate favorable to serious CRA enforcement. Evaluation approaches are needed to move theory from being pure critique to developing strategies for change.
The Political and Demographic Predictors of Candidate Emergence in City Council Elections, vol. 35, no. 2
Timothy B. Krebs
Legislative sholars have shown that candidates emerge when political conditions are most favorable. The topic of candidate emergence in city council elections is addressed using data collected on all 50 of Chicago's wards from 1979 to 1995. The results show that wards with open seats or vilnerable incumbents on the ballot generally have a larger and more politically experienced crop of candidates than other wards. The findings also reveal that wards with higher concentrations of black residents have significantly larger and more politically experienced candidate pools than wards with fewer blacks. Explanations for these finding are discussed.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 35, Number 1, September 1999
From Corporate City to Citizens City? Urban Leadership After Local Entrepreneurism in the United Kingdom, vol. 35, no. 1
Graham Haughton & Aidan While
The authors reassess the recent history of U.K. urban politics. Following the local entrepreneurialism promoted by the Thatcher governments in the 1980s, they trace the gradual emergence of a more inclusive approach to urban policy. This shift, which began with the Mjor government in the early 1990s, marks a move toward a more community-oriented vision of social regeneration. Through a survey of the evolution of partnership styles and economic development in Leeds and informed by recent cross-national work on regime theory, the authors provide insights into the structural factors that have shaped the formation, composition, and actions of local coalitions in U.K. governance.
Politics and Sex-Related Programs in Urban Schooling, vol. 35, no. 1
Frederick M. Hess & David L. Leal
Very little is known about why urban school districts choose to enact sex-related education and health programs. In this article, the authors test a model explaining such programs using a 1992 Council of Urban Boards of Education survey. They find that the likelihood a school district will offer such programs is significantly affected by perceived local support for the programs, the percentage of women on the shcool board, the local Hispanic population, local median income, and district private school enrollment. Measures of need, such as the urban birthrate, do not appear to have a significant effect.
Cities and Consumption Spaces, vol. 35, no. 1
Patrick Mullins, Kristin Natalier, Philip Smith, & Belinda Smeaton
The authors explore the sociospatial relationship that exists between where households reside and consumption spaces: places specially built or redeveloped for people who visit to buy and consume within these locations the fun goods and services for sale. Consumption spaces are categorized here according to the opportunities they provide for stimulating the senses, and focusing empirically on the Australian city of Brisbane, they were found to be disproportionately concentrated in a community ringing the central business district. This community contained about one-quarter of the metropolitan area's 1.5 million residents, and it was characterized by nontraditional households, high socioeconomic status, and a significant ethnic presence.
The Urban Electorate in Presidential Elections, 1920-1996, vol. 35, no. 1
Richard Sauerzopf & Todd Swanstrom
This study of voting in presidential elections in 12 central cities from 1920 to 1996 shows that cities played a crucial role in the New Deal realignment that dominated presidential elections from 1932 to the 1960s. Since then, cities have declined as a share of the total electorate, but they still provide crucial votes for successful Democratic presidential candidates. As cities have icreasingly deviated from national voting trends, however, their turnout rates have increasingly fallen behind the national rates. A call is issued for researchers to break down the suburbanvote and to examine contextual effects on voting behavior.
Social Ties at the Neighborhood Level: Two Decades of GSS Evidence, vol. 35, no. 1
Avery M. Guest & Susan K. Wierzbicki
Using the General Social Survey, the authors analyze trends in socializing with neighbors and with friends outside the neighborhood from 1974 to 1996. Consistent with arguments about a declining attachment to neighborhood, results show a linear trend toward less socializing within the neighborhood and more outside it. In addition, the data suggest that people are increasingly specializing in either neighborhood or extraneighborhood social ties. However, the evidence for less neighborhood socializing is slight. Also, consistent with some claims about neighborhoods, only mild evidence suggests that socializing at the neighborhood level is becoming more selective of certain social groups.
Opposition to Housing: NIMBY and Beyond, vol. 35, no. 1
Rolf Pendall
Whether new housing is government assisted or market rate, it can face opposition from established residents. Some observers content that such opposition arises from "not in my backyard" (NIMBY) sentiments. The author uses research on controversies in the residential development approvals process in the San Francisco Bay Area to develop insights on whether this characterization is justified. He finds that people give many reasons for their opposition to new houses; some are related to their effects on people next door. Quantitative analysis suggests that projects generating NIMBY protests are distinct from projects that generate other kinds of protests, especially those against growth more generally.
A Note on the Influence of African Heritage on Segregation: The Case of Dominicans, vol. 35, no. 1
Lance Freeman
The African heritage hypothesis posits that the substantial African ancestry of Puerto Ricans explains why this group is less segregated from African-Americans than non-Hispanic whites. This pattern is unlike that of other Hispanic groups, who have been found to be highly segregated from whites. The research presented here shows that Dominicans, another Hispanic group with substantial African ancestry, are also less segregated from African-Americans than whites. Dominicans, therefore, also appear to be conforming to the African heritage thesis by residing in neighborhoods with greater proximity to African-Americans than whites.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 34, Number 6, July 1999
Residential Mortgage Foreclosure and Racial Transition in New Orleans, vol. 34, no. 6
Mickey Lauria & Vern Baxter
In this article, the authors explore residential mortgage foreclosure as a mechanism that links economic shocks and the process of racial transition (Lauria 1998). Their analysis indicates that housing foreclosures added momentum to an ongoing process of racial transition, net of the effects of exogenous economic shocks and such other variables as median income of residents, change in the value of owner-occupied housing, and the existing racial distribution of population. Foreclosure appears to have the strongest effect on racial transition in block groups where resident incomes are above the lowest levels and there is a preexisting and increasing black population.
Intrametropolitan Patterns of Small-Business Lending: What do the New Community Reinvestment Act Data Reveal?, vol. 34, no. 6
Daniel Immergluck
Discrimination and redlining in business lending have been cited as contributing to economic decline in lower-income neighborhoods. Until recently, bank regulators have not collected geographic data on business loans. Using new data collected by regulators, the author measures small-business lending flows to different types of neighborhoods in the Chicago metropolitan area. Although data limitations preclude a definitive finding of differential access to credit, lower-income and minority neighborhoods areas receive fewer loans after accounting for firm density, firm size, and industrial mix, findings that support the notion of geographic and/or race-based discrimination in marketing or approving loans.
An Equilibrium Model of Tax Abatement: City and Firm Characteristics as Determinants of Abatement Generosity, vol. 34, no. 6
Patricia Byrnes, Mary K. Marvel & Kala Sridhar
The model of tax abatements includes taxing district and firm characteristics to explain a locality's abatement generosity. The community-level characteristics are for the school district in the enterprise zone that grants the tax abatement. Firm characteristics include the size, credit rating, number of newly created and/or retained jobs, and the quality of the jobs. Generosity of abatements is measured by the percentage of taxes abated. Firms that had credit ratings showing them to be more suitable risks fared better in negotiations; those that brought newly created jobs garnered more generous abatements; and those that promised retained jobs in the negotiation fared less well.
Mayoral Perceptions of Developmental and Redistributive Policies: A Cross-National Perspective, vol. 34, no. 6
Martin Saiz
The validity of Peterson's policy typology, outlined in City Limits (1981), is dependent on the assumption that local government decision makers understand and order public policies in specific ways. Using confirmatory factor analysis of international survey data on mayoral public policy spending preferences from the Fiscal Austerity and Urban Innovation Project, the authors find that the categories of redistributive and developmental policies are more than creations of deductive reasoning. The spending preferences of mayors in selected industrial democracies conform to the structure and order as specified in Peterson's theory.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 34, Number 5, May 1999
Affirmative Action, Principles of Justice, and the Evolution of Urban Theory, vol. 34, no. 5
Paul Schumaker & Marisa Kelly
Analysis of interviews with 112 elected officials in 12 American cities indicates that their support for affirmative action is more strongly influenced by the justice principles they hold than by the contextual variables normally emphasized by leading urban paradigms. Allegiance to fair equal opportunity and blocking cumulative inequalities enhances support for affirmative action, whereas allegiance to maximizing aggregate utility and retaining market allocations reduces such support. These results suggest that urban paradigms should include the moral principles of participants as well as variables describing the interests that officials represent and the economic, social, political, and cultural contexts that constrain their decisions.
Sport and the Analysis of Symbolic Regimes: A Case Study of the City of Sheffield, vol. 34, no. 5
Ian P. Henry & Juan Luis Paramio-Salcines
The authors evaluate the role of sport in the construction of a symbolic project for the city of Sheffield. They seek to illustrate that although in regime analysis, the ideological dimensions of the activities of regimes in urban governance are often neglected, regime approaches can provide appropriate frameworks through which to analyze the mobilizing of interests behind the development of a symbolic project, a new image for the city (as a city of sport). The authors conclude that the nature of postmodern politics is such that analysis of symbolic projects is key to understanding regime activity in deindustrializing urban contexts.
Explaining Citizen-Initiated Contacts with Municipal Bureaucrats: Lessons from the Atlanta Experience, vol. 34, no. 5
John Clayton Thomas & Julia Melkers
Citizen-initiated contacts represent an important, yet perplexing, category of political participation. The authors attempt to provide a comprehensive explanation of when and why citizens initiate contacts. They draw from prior research to summarize knowledge about these contacts and the measurement problems that have plagued earlier research. To explore the bases for citizen-initiated contacts, they use survey data on contacts with various municipal departments of the city of Atlanta. Logistic regressions of 15 different types of contacts reveal perceived needs as the most consistently significant predictor of most types. The influence of socioeconomic status over contacting is indirect.
Writing the Rules to Win the Game: The Middle-Class Regimes of Municipal Refomers, vol.34, no. 5
Amy Bridges & Richard Kronick
Every student of city politics knows the class theory of city government-that middle-class voters supported municipal reform and working-class voters supported machine politics. Although historical narratives support this theory, systematic evidence has been elusive. Historians and political scientists alike have recognized very strong regional differences in styles of city government but lacked and explanation. The authors argue that the class theory, historical narratives, and regional differences may be reconciled. Presence of immigrants and turnout account both for adoption or rejection of reform and for the regional pattern of those decisions.
The Wired Loft: Lifestyle Innovation Diffusion and Industrial Networking in the Rise of San Francisco's Multimedia Gulch., vol. 34, no. 5
Mark R. Wolfe
Multimedia Gulch, the dynamic cluster of multimedia firms that coalesced in San Francisco's South of Market area (SOMA) in the early 1990s, emerged from a depressed, high-unemployment, high-crime area in less than a decade. This article describes how the revitalization of SOMA was the product not of economic development planning but, rather, of the convergence of several independent cultural and economic factors. These factors, which the author explores, range from the diffusion and adoption of the loft-living lifestyle among urban creative communities in the 1970s to the elimination of barriers to entry into the media industry from technological innovations in the 1980s.
Heuristics, Low Information Rationality, and Choosing Public Goods: Broken Windows as Shortcuts to Information about School Performance, vol. 34, no. 5
Mark Schneider, Melissa Marschall, Christine Roch, & Paul Teske
The United States is in the midst of a reform movement empowering parents to choose among an expanded set of schools for their children. Inherent in these reforms is the idea that parents will gather information necessary to make informed choices from among the set. Opponents of school choice argue that lower-income parents will not be able to gather information about their options to select appropriate schools for their children. The authors show that visual cues can indicate levels of academic performance and school safety-the two dimensions that concern parents-and may allow parents to make good choices among schools.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 34, Number 4, March 1999
Regime Politics in London Local Government, vol. 34, no. 4
Keith Dowding, Patrick Dunleavy, Desmond King, Helen Margetts, & Yvonne Rydin
The authors provide an encompassing eight-point characterization of regimes designed to cover all cases of this complex multicriteria concept, arguing that not all eight characteristics need be present for a regime to exist but that the larger the subset, the more a governing coalition constitutes a regime. The regime concept is then applied to six London boroughs during the early to mid-1990s. They demonstrate the utility and limits of the regime concept in identifying and explaining the politics of these boroughs at this time, suggesting that three of the cases constitute different types of regimes, and the other three constitute failed regimes.
Urban Governance and Industrial Decline: Governing Structures and Policy Agendas in Birmingham and Sheffield, England, and Detroit, Michigan, 1980-1997, vol. 34, no. 4
Alan DiGaetano & Paul Lawless
There has been a marked increase in comparative research examining the dynamics of regime formation in the United Kingdom and the United States. These authors consider regime formation processes in three deindustrializing cities: Detroit, Michigan, and Birmingham and Sheffield, England. The article identifies two cross-cutting themes: the effects of national/international political and economic forces on local governance and the role of public and private interactions in regime formation. Finally, in an attempt to enlarge the scope of regime theory, the authors develop a comparative perspective on urban governance based on the concepts of governing structures and policy agendas.
Central-City/Suburban Inequality and Metropolitan Political Fragmentation, vol. 34, no. 4
David R. Morgan & Patrice Mareschal
To test the proposition that metropolitan governmental structure has social, economic, and racial consequences, the authors assume that the proliferation of local governments in a metropolitan area and the boundary constraints imposed on the central city have adverse effects, especially on the core city. Analyzing 97 large U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), they found only limited support for this proposition. Of three measures of fragmentation, only two were of any consequence, one in the opposite direction predicted. The lower the central ciety's share of MSA population, the higher the level of fiscal health for the inner city. Also, municipal boundaries have racial consequences.
The Impact of Office on Cross-Racial Voting: Evidence from the 1996 Milwaukee Mayoral Election, vol. 34, no. 4
Thomas Longoria, Jr.
The results of the 1996 Milwaukee mayoral election and the 1996 Milwaukee County circuir judge election provide an opportunity to examine the impact of deracialization on cross-racial voting while considering the symbolic importance of the office. The author finds that a deracialized mayoral election produced lower levels of cross-racial voting than a racialized circuit judge election on the same ballot. This finding suggests that in the future, researchers should consider the office at stake as a relevant factor in studies of deracialization and cross-racial voting.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 34, Number 3, January 1999
Models of Urban Governance: The Institutional Dimension of Urban Politics, vol. 34, no. 3
Jon Pierre
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 or organized interests in urban governance, which, in turn, is reflected in urban policy outcomes.
Neighborhoods, Race and Capital: The Effects of Residential Change on Commercial Investment Patterns, vol. 34, no. 3
Daniel Immergluck
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.
Disorder and Decay: The Concept and Measurement of Perceived Neighborhood Disorder, vol. 34, no. 3
Catherine E. Ross & John Mirowsky
The authors develop and assess a scale of perceived neighborhood disorder. The scale of neighborhood disorder has high reliability, external validity, and shows interesting distinctions, and overlaps between physical and social disorder. It also shows that order and disorder are two ends of a single continuum.
Institutions and Reform: Reinventing Local Government, vol. 34, no. 3
Anirudh V.S. Ruhil, Mark Schneider, Paul Teske, & Byung-Moon Ji
During the past few years, a new wave of reform has been launched under the rubric of reinventing government. Yet, despite the hype, little is known about the extent to which reinventing government is a reality across the country. The authors undertake a systematic analysis of reform activity in a large sample of suburban municipalities and find low rates of adoption of current reforms. Although a number of identifiable and theoretically important institutional constraints inhibit reform activity, city manager leadership appears to be critical for overcoming the impediments to efficient governance.
"A Piece of the Pie" and More: Competition and Hispanic Employment on Urban Police Forces, vol. 34, no. 3
Nicholas O. Alozie & Enrique J. Ramirez
Further diversification of local police forces is essential in any systematic response to current difficulties in police-minority relations. The authors explore the relevance of out- and intragroup competition on Hispanic employment-one dimension of police diversification. The results indicate that competition is relevant in any dialogue on evolving ethnically diverse police forces or on increasing the role of Hispanic women. Black employment cases a negative influence on Hispanic employment generally, and that negative influence extends to Hispanic males and females separately. Generally, white females compete with Hispanics, particularly in minority Hispanic cities. Within Hispanic groups, the successes of Hispanic males and Hispanic females are zero-sum.
Metropolitan Government and Economic Development, vol. 34, no. 3
Jered B. Carr & Richard C. Feiock
Academic and political debate regarding the desirability of metropolitan government has focused on the provision of public goods. Although efficient production of services is of great importance, the consequences of metropolitan government for economic development have remained unexplored. The authors assess the development impacts of city-county consolidation by examining the attraction of manufacturing and retail/service firms for nine consolidated governments from 1950 to 1993. The annual growth in manufacturing, retail, and service establishments in the county before the merger is compares to the record afterward. No support emerges for the idea that consolidation enhances economic development.
Black Candidates, Roll-Off, and the Black Vote, vol. 34, no. 3
Jamie M. Harris & John F. Zipp
Previous research on racial differences in roll-off (ballot noncompletion) has shown that black voter roll-off is responsive to the relative size of the black electorate and the salience of the election to black voters. The authors examine racial differences in roll-off in 1996 Milwaukee County elections and attempt to explain why black voter roll-off is appreciably lower than would be expected given the relative size of the black electorate. By comparing findings from Milwaukee to other cities, the authors present a possible explanation that examines how the institutional context may condition mobilization factors.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 34, Number 2, November 1998
Is Urban Sprawl Back on the Political Agenda? Local Growth Control, Regional Growth Management, and Politics, vol. 34, no. 2
Christopher Leo, Mary Ann Beavis, Andrew Carver, & Robyne Turner
The author argues that the apparent ineffectuality of efforts to control urban sprawl is in some part a result of a failure to distinguish between growth controls, which have a well-earned reputation as a thinly veiled form of NIMBYism and regional growth management (RGM), which involves the attempt to set out rules for development that are designed to preserve the livability, viability, and attractiveness of an urban area as a whole. This study surveys emerging political forces favoring RGM and notes signs that a new constellation of forces is emerging. It assesses the significance of this shift.
Economic Restructuring of Cities, Suburbs, and Nonmetropolitan Areas, 1977-1992, vol. 34, no. 2
Annette Steinacker
Earlier research on the impact of national economic restructuring on central-city economies suffered from several problems, including excessive aggregation of the data and reliance on absolute change in economic activity to measure growth. When these factors are corrected, one sees that central cities frequently attracted more new firms than other locations (absolute growth), but their growth rate was below that in suburbs and nonmetropolitan areas (relative growth) as well as the national rate. These below-average rates occurred in many of the 13 economic sectors studied, including low-skill and high-skill services, in which central-cities were expected to perform well. The few bright spots-central cities in the South and West, which initially outperformed all other locations in those regions-have faded as well.
Beyond the Region: The Rise and Fall of Economic Regionalism in Downriver Detroit, vol. 34, no. 2
Michael Indergaard
Does economic restructuring provide opportunities for remaking old industrial centers into regional industrial systems? Such regions possess institutions that allow firms and support organizations to adjust to market shifts. The case of Detroit's Downriver suurbs is used to explore this question in a metropolitan setting. Downriver regionalism supported several market interventions, showing that restructuring can create opportunities for economic regionalism. However, regionalism did not produce industrial adjustment mechanisms and eventually succumbed to interlocal competition for investment. The author concludes that prospects for regional systems are diminished by metropolitan fragmentation and national policies promoting capital mobility as the primary mechnism for economic adjustment.
Job Decentralization and Central-City Well-Being: An Empirical Study with Sectoral Data, vol. 34, no. 2
Devajyoti Deka
To contribute to the understanding of the relationship between job decentralization and central-city well-being, this study undertakes some statistical tests using intrametropolitan-level data for the United States. Unlike previous studies, the relationship is tested here with sectoral data. A strong negative association between job decentralization and economic well-being of central-city residents is observed in terms of almost all indicators of well-being. This association is stronger when decentralization is considered in the low-wage sectors, such as retailing. The research findings have serious policy implications in regard to location of activities and provision of transportation infrastructure and facilities.
Changes in Central-City Representation and Influence in Congress Since the 1960s, vol. 34, no. 2
Harold Wolman & Lisa Marckini
The authors examine changes in representation by place (central city, suburbs, nonmetropolitan areas) in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1963 and 1994, focusing on change in the representation and influence of central cities. Using a newly constructed data set, this study presents changes in central-city representation in aggregate as well as by region and metropolitan-area population size. The authors then explore the implications of these changes for the influence of central cities in the House over this time period. After examining change in the control of positions of authority-committee and subcommittee chairs and leadership positions-by central-city representatives, changes in central-city influence with respect to votes on the House floor are assessed.
Globalization and the Revalorizing of Ethnic Places in Immigration Gateway Cities, vol. 34, no. 2
Jan Lin
Immigration cities have counterbalanced deindustrialization and urban decline by acting as gateways of labor, capital, commodity, and cultural exchange in the new global economy. Ethnic places are emblematic transnational spaces that both constitute and convey broader processes of economic and cultural globalization. Ethnic entrepreneurs, community activists, and artists have revalorized spaces in the zone-in transition, places from which they were historically restricted, evicted, or displaced. These rejuvenated ethnic places serve as "polyglot honeypots" for urban managers pursuing growth machine strategies in the postindustrial symbolic economy. Contradictions and conflicts are presented by globalization as much as opportunities.
Busing, "White Flight', and the Role of Developers in the Continuous Suburbanization of Frankin County, Ohio, vol. 34, no. 2
Andrew E.G. Jonas
This study explores the conflicts surrounding school desegregation in Franklin County, Ohio, and how they have been resolved in a way that has facilitated a continuation of suburban residential development despite ongoing resistance to growth from local residents. One condition that has proven important in this case is the existence of developable areas within the city of Columbus that are in suburban school districts. "White flight" from the desegregating Columbus school district mainly has been confined to these areas, provoking resistance from existing residents and calls for impact fees, calls that have been opposed by developer interests. The author discusses the ways in which developer interests have exploited the intense jurisdictional fragmentation of the metropolitan area to overcome obstacles to further residential development in suburban areas.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 34, Number 1, September 1998
Tourism Urbanization in the United States, vol. 34, no. 1
David L. Gladstone
The rapid growth of the tourism industry over the past 50 years has had a number of important consequences. One of these is the evolution of entire metropolitan areas heavily dependent on tourism, a phenomenon Mullins calls tourism urbanization. Such urban centers include Las Vegas and Orlando in the United States, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast in Australia, and Cancun in Mexico. Studies of tourism-dependent cities outside the United States have shown them to differ symbolically and socially from more traditional metropolitan areas. The author evaluates the effects of tourism on American metropolitan areas and determines whether tourism-dependent cities in the United States are similar to those elsewhere. The author found two distinct types of tourism urbanization in the United States. One type specialized in "sun, sand, and sea" tourism, and the other specializes in highly capital-intensive tourist attractions. The two types of tourist cities exhibit different social structures, and both differ in important ways from tourist cities outside the United States.
The Heritage Industry Russian Style: The Case of Yaroslavl, vol. 34, no. 1
Beth Mitchneck
In advanced capitalist democracies, increased historical referencing has occurred within a context of changing regulatory modes from Fordism to post-Fordism. In post-Soviet Russia, historical referencing differs because of the confluence of three transitions: Fordism to post-Fordism, socialism to capitalism, and Soviet Russia to post-Soviet Russia. This article documents the use of history and culture by the Russian urban government inYaroslavl' as a means of achieving stability. The author argues that the local government used historical referencing to attract the gaze of the international tourist and investor as well as the gaze of the Russian public.
Homeowner Associations and California Politics: An Exploratory Analysis, vol. 34, no. 1
Evan McKenzie
The author examines the rapid spread of common interest housing developments (CIDs) throughout much of California in recent years and the potential consequences of that phenomenon for electoral politics. Covering 34 counties, the analysis includes census data, construction industry data, and results from the statewide general election of 1994. The study supports the view that considerations of land economics that affect developers and fiscal constraints that affect local governments are the dominant forces behind the spread of CID housing. The study also suggests that this form of privatization may have underappreciated implications for electoral and interest group politics at the state and local levels.
The Microfoundations of the Tiebout Model, vol. 34, no. 1
Kenneth N. Bickers & Robert M. Stein
The authors extend the argument of the marginal consumer to show an important way in which the microlevel requirements of the Tiebout model can be met. They critique the existing literature on the microlevel requirements and argue that the way research has been conducted on the information about public goods possessed by citizens has been flawed in its theoretical presumptions. An alternative view is articulated in which citizens are viewed not to use "objective" information about tax service bundles that might be detectable in survey research but, instead, to use informational heuristics and proxies that permit them nonetheless to locate in jurisdictions that provide them with desired levels of public services.
The Other Reason Job Suburbanization Hurts Blacks: The Relationship Between the Location and Racial Composition of Employment in Detroit and Atlanta, 1980, vol. 34, no. 1
Samuel Cohn & Mark Fossett
Data are presented on the racial composititon of employment in census tracts for Detroit and Atlanta, showing that employment in the central cities is disproportionately black, and employment in the suburbs is disproportionately white. It is argued that this urban-suburban contrast is explained by the concentration of black employment in predominantly black neighborhoods. Physical proximity to black workers and human capital considerations can account for a small percentage of this relationship. However, even after controlling for these factors, the effect of neighborhood racial composition on the percentage black of employment is quite substantial. These findings suggest that the suburbanization of work may adversely affect black employment, not so much by moving jobs outside of their feasible commuting range but by shifting jobs to areas of the city where black workers are at a higher risk of discrimination.
Fringe Banking in Milwaukee: The Rise of Check-Cashing Businesses and the Emergence of the Two-Tiered Banking System, vol. 34, no. 1
Gregory D. Squires & Sally O'Connor
Check-cashing businesses constitute a growing industry, particularly in low-income and non-white neighborhoods. This case study of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, finds that check-cashing businesses are concentrated in the central city while conventional banks are concentrated in outlying city and suburban communities. These services are growing, despite relatively high fees, primarily because of their convenient hours and locations for central-city residents, exclusionary behavior by conventional institutions, and financial problems of area households. More effective marketing by conventional banks and more aggressive enforcement of community reinvestment requirements by regulatory agencies would blunt development of two-tiered banking and facilitate revitalization of distressed communities.
The Determinants of Variations in Local Service Contracting: Gargage in, Garbage out?, vol. 34, no. 1
George A. Boyne
Empirical evidence on the determinants of variations in service contracting across U.S. local governments is evaluated. Four main categories of explanatory variables are analyzed: fiscal stress, scale and market structure, public preferences, and the power of public employees. The evidence contains fundamental deficiencies that include poor measures of the theoretical constructs, reciprocal relationships between contracting out and the explanatory variables, and additive tests of mediative theories. The consequence is that the determinants of service contracting remain largely undetected. Furthermore, the empirical studies add very little to the existing body of knowledge on the reasons for policy variations across local governments.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 33, Number 6, July 1998
Is There an Empowerment Life Cycle? Long-Term Black Empowerment and Its Influence on Voter Participation, vol. 33, no. 6
Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. & Karen M. Kaufmann
The authors explore the relationship between long-term black empowerment and racial turnout rates in Atlanta (Georgia), Cleveland (Ohio), and Los Angeles (California). Symbolic politics, intergroup competition, and political alienation theories are used to explain interracial differences in political participation in mayoral elections. Strong and durable symbolic effects are evident in all three cases. Black turnout equals or exceeds white turnout during and, in the case of Cleveland, after the period of black empowerment. In Los Angeles, however, the symbolic benefits of black empowerment eventually wane as a result of increasing political alienation among black voters.
Exploring the Effect of Public Housing on the Concentration of Poverty in Columbus, Ohio, vol. 33, no. 6
Steven R. Holloway, Deborah Bryan, Robert Chabot, Donna M. Rogers, & James Rulli
Using boundary-matched 1980 and 1990 census tract data for the central county of the Columbus, Ohio, metropolitan area, the authors explore the effect that public housing has on changes in neighborhood poverty rates to evaluate the impact of governmental and institutional actions on recent increases in poverty concentration within urban areas. Three important findings emerge: Public housing concentrated poverty in Columbus during the 1980s, the effect of public housing on poverty concentration was greater among blacks than whites, and public housing concentrates poverty because host neighborhoods house the at-risk portion of the population and because public housing affects the surrounding housing market.
Private and Collective Protection in Urban Areas, vol. 33, no. 6
John C. Kilburn, Jr. & Wesley Shrum
The authors examine security as a multidimensional issue with private and collective aspects. Decisions to provide security occur within a household, the community, and the municipality. Considering the determinants of private avoidance and protective security measures as well as collective neighborhood and municipal measures, the authors examine the potential for trade-offs among forms of security by asking whether these forms are complementary or substitutional. Results show that those who take more protective measures in and around their home are more likely to oppose taxes for municipal criminal justice improvements. However, support for neighborhood security organization does not discourage support for these municipal measures.
Who Pays for Growth in the City of Phoenix? An Equity-Based Perspective on Suburbanization, vol. 33, no. 6
Subhrahit Guhathakurta & Michele L. Wichert
The authors test the hypothesis that there is significant spatial mismatch between property taxation and capital investment in inner, middle, and suburban parts of the city of Phoenix. They empirically test a hedonic model of assessed valuation of homes and find that a typical suburban house within Phoenix city limits bears a lower tax burden than the same house in the inner city. Their study also demonstrates that suburban areas receive 40% to 100% more per household in specific capital improvement monies than the average household in the city. The results suggest a cross-subsidization of suburban growth by inner-city dollars.
Regionalism and Representation: Measuring and Assessing Representation in Metropolitan Planning Organizations, vol. 33, no. 6
Paul G. Lewis
Despite renewed interest in metropolitan governance, little attention has been given to issues of representation by regional governing entities. Many regional bodies operate under an arrangement whereby each local government receives an equal vote-systematically underrepresenting large jurisdictions and unincorporated areas. The author describes an index to measure the (dis)proportionality of representation on the governing boards of regional institutions. Applying the index to metropolitan planning organizations in California, he finds that most have a substantially skewed representational structure. Such patterns may violate constitutional guarantees of equal protection, given the enhanced policy-making role of metropolitan planning organizations under recent federal transportation law.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 33, Number 5, May 1998
Redeeming the City: Exploring the Relationship Between Church and Metropolis, vol. 33, no. 5
Meredith Ramsay
The author calls attention to a neglected force in urban political life by highlighting how positivism undermined scholarly interest in cultural forces, particularly religion. She shows that although community organizing was formerly led by Left radicals, today it is led by the church. Five factors contribute to the leading role of congregations in grassroots organizing and urban revitalization. Analysis and interpretation of these factors led the author to conclude that secularization and urban restructuring have left only the church with a sufficient moral and institutional presence in distressed urban neighborhoods to spearhead a return to more direct, participatory forms of democracy.
From Coney Island to Las Vegas in the Urban Imaginary: Discursive Practices of Growth and Decline, vol. 33, no. 5
Sharon Zukin, Robert Baskerville, Miriam Greenberg, Courtney Guthreau, Jean Halley, Mark Halling, Kristin Lawler, Ron Nerio, Rebecca Stack, Alex Vitale, & Betsy Wissinger
A discursive analysis of cultural images, social practices, and space adds a new level of social critique to the usual explanations of urban growth and decline. Instead of focusing on either "objective" or "subjective" factors, a discursive analysis assumes a coherence between social and spatial arrangements that is derived in and through cultural meanings attached to specific places and has a material effect on their growth and decline. Both the conscious manipulation and slow accretion of images are important, as they are diffused by mass media and interpreted by ordinary men and women. Taking the decline of Coney Island and growth of Las Vegas as examples, a discursive analysis emphasizes how these public spaces of amusement represent low-class and high-class spaces, racialized spaces, and different eras of capitalism-culminating in a national rejection of urban populism for freewheeling speculation and privatization.
Racial Conflict and Political Choice: A Study of Mayoral Voting Behavior in Los Angeles and New York, vol. 33, no. 5
Karen M. Kaufmann
This article proposes a theoretical framework for the study of local voting behavior. The central argument is that salient group interests often act as political cues in local elections. The extent to which group interests influence electoral outcomes and overshadow other more traditional political cues, such as partisanship, is fundamentally related to the political context and the degree of group conflict. Analyzing public opinion surveys from three mayoral elections-New York (1989), New York (1993), and Los Angeles (1993)-this study finds that heightened levels of group conflict correspond with racially motivated voting in all three cases.
Sharing the Benefits of Economic Development: What Cities Use Type II Policies?, vol. 33, no. 5
Laura A. Reese
This article asks a basic question: What set of forces or factors might lead to the use of Type II economic development policies and thus, presumably, a more equitable distribution of economic development benefits? Research employing macrodata analysis has provided conflicting findings on this point. Hence, this research explores the question using both regression and more case-specific analysis. Findings suggest that residential need, strong mayor form of government, citizen and business input, size of economic development budgets, and policy planning and evaluation activities increase the use of Type II policies. Many questions remain unanswered, however. Type II policies are not well explained by current variables. The specific roles of race, city council structure, business input, local history, and spatial location and the relationship between Type I and Type II policies appear important but not well examined in the literature to date.
Indirect Tests of the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis in the Cleveland PMSA: A Labor Market Perspective, vol. 33, no. 5
Zhongcai Zhang
This article presents two indirect tests of the spatial mismatch hypothesis. A wage-gradient model and a two-sample t-test are used to examine wage differences across the Cleveland primary metropolitan statistical area (PMSA) for 18 selected low-wage industries. Empirical evidence produced in both sets of tests do not support the spatial mismatch hypothesis in the context of the Cleveland PMSA: a positive wage gradient was not found, and two-sample t-tests did not indicate that wages in industries typified as being predominantly low skilled are higher in suburbs than in the central city-an outcome predicted by a spatial mismatch-for all industries in the sample, with the exception of gasoline service stations.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 33, Number 4, March 1998
Old Wine, Cracked Bottle? Tokyo, Paris, and the Global City Hypothesis, vol. 33, no. 4
James W. White
The theoretical model of the global city, an international metropolis in which form and functioning are predominantly determined by the forces of international capital and in which socioeconomic status is characterized by class and ethnic polarization, is criticized as economically reductionist and ethnocentric. Paris and Tokyo are offered as empirical examples of international metropolises that are not dominates by capital and/or are not characterized by extreme polarization.
Swirling the Old Wine Around in the Wrong Bottle: A Comment on White, vol. 33, no. 4
Saskia Sassen
The Global City-Whose Social Construct is it Anyway? A Comment on White, vol. 33, no. 4
Michael Peter Smith
Half-Empty Bottle or No Bottle at all? A Rejoinder to Sasses and Smith, vol. 33, no. 4
James W. White
Osaka's Asia Linkages Strategy: Regional Integration in East Asia, Local Development in Japan, vol. 33, no. 4
Richard Child Hill & Kuniko Fujita
Foreign direct investment by Osaka's manufacturing firms has not boomeranged to hollow out the city's industrial base or stifled development opportunities in recipient countries. Osaka development officials assume transfer of capital and technology overseas should be connected to a strategy of industrial upgrading at home. Osaka's industrial strategies target the problems facing small and medium-sized producers and are couched within more encompassing national and regional development models. Developmental state institutions plus a dynamic and complementary regional division of labor enable Japanese cities to maintain a leading economic position in the Asia Pacific Rim while stimulating industrialization in the less developed Asian countries.
Comments on "Osaka's Asia Linkages Strategy", vol. 33, no. 4
Philip Shapira
Rejoinder to Shapira, vol. 33, no. 4
Richard Child Hill & Kuniko Fujita
Expanding Civic Opportunity: Urban Empowerment Zones, vol. 33, no. 4
Marilyn Gittell, Kathe Newman, Janice Bockmeyer, & Robert Lindsay
The authors report on the first year of the 1993 federal Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Communities Program (EZ) and its ability to expand community capacity in the six urban EZ areas. They hypothesize that expanded community capacity depends on the strength of participation and the development of networks. They find variation in capacity levels among sites and limited expansion of community capacity because mayors control the process, community organization roles are limited, and existing networks are reused. They conclude, however, that it is too early to assess the full EZ impact.
Determinants of Female Employment Patterns in U.S. Cities: A Time-Series Analysis, vol. 33, no. 4
Brinck Kerr, Will Miller, & Margaret Reid
Employment data from 23 U.S. cities over nine years is used to explore the proposition that women in high-level political and admimistrative positions increase the female share of the better-paying, more desirable municipal government jobs. The authors find that female administrators increase the female share of professional and protective service positions. Elected women do not affect female job share when data are aggregated across all job functions, but female mayors do increase the female share of administrative positions in financial administration departments. They recommend that researchers disaggregate equal employment opportunity data by job function as well as job category.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 33, Number 3, January 1998
City Politics in an Era of Federal Devolution, vol. 33, no. 3
Peter Eisinger
The authors reports on the current status of cities in the devolving federal system and the resulting implications for city politics. In particular, he examines the strength of the fiscal link between the federal government and municipal governments and the implications of growing interest in federal devolution for city government. He concludes by arguing that growing local fiscal and administrative self-reliance create pressures on local politicians to focus on public management skills rather than on the pursuit of social and racial agendas that were often the focus two decades ago. The result is a deep change in the moral tenor of city politics.
The Price of Civilization: Comment on Peter Eisinger's "City Politics in an Era of Federal Devolution", vol. 33, no. 3
James D. Wright
Comments on Peter Eisinger's "City Politics in an Era of Federal Devolution",vol. 33, no. 3
Robert Wood
Ethnic Entrepreneurs in America's Largest Metropolitan Areas, vol. 33, no. 3
Eran Razin & Ivan Light
Using 1990 census data, the authors compare 77 immigrant and ethnic groups in the 16 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. They find that the interaction effect of location and ethnicity on ethnic entrepreneurship is evident not only in self-employment rates but also in niche concentrations and niche competition. Their results reveal a distinction between mainstram groups and nonmainstream groups. Compared to mainstream groups, nonmainstream groups are more context resistant. That is, they concentrate in few entrepreneurial niches and display high niche continuity across metropolitan regions. Group competition influences niche concentrations, but an adverse impact on black entrepreneurship is not apparent.
Crime and Trust in Local Government: Revisiting a Black Empowerment Area, vol. 33, no. 3
Susan E. Howell & Brent K. Marshall
Prior research has indicated that the election of a black mayor is accompanied by increased trust in local government on the part of the black electorate. The authors explore contextual effects of the crime and drug epidemic on black trust in local black government. They draw on seven public opinion surveys of citizens of New Orleans, a black empowerment area, conducted between 1985 and 1994. Black confidence in local black government declined during that period, partially as a result of rising crime and the declining quality of urban life. Models of trust in government and the future of black empowerment are discussed.
Urban Regimes and Local Governance in Britain and France: Policy Adaption and Coordination in Leeds and Lille, vol. 33, no. 3
Peter John & Alistair Cole
Rather than weakening regime theory, comparative analysis illuminates its central theoretical insights. The cases of Leeds (United Kingdom) and Lille (France) show cities in contrasting geographical, cultural, and institutional contexts developing regimelike local politics through business participation in a wide range of public-sector decisions. The five special noninstitutional factors promoting regimes are local business ownership, business integration, large metropolitan context, and economic advantage or disadvantage. The distinctiveness of these cities in their countries is an indication of the degree of policy learning and capacity generation that has taken place.
The Path-Dependent City, vol. 33, no. 3
Anthony Woodlief
Urban policy making approximates the components of a path-dependent model-random selection and self-reinforcement-which suggests that cities get locked into suboptimal policies. Thus, despite rigid rules of individual and collective behavior posited by many urban theorists, identical cities can evolve along drastically different paths. The author shows how simple time-series models can overlook path dependence and demonstrates the trends of a path-dependent series using budget data from Chicago and New York. New York exhibited policy lock-in in the decades following the Great Depression, but Chicago did not.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 33, Number 2, November 1997
Transportation Policy in Mexico City: The Politics and Impacts of Privatization, vol. 33, no. 2
Clifford J. Wirth
The impacts of privatization in transportation for Mexico City are examined througha cost-and-benefit analysis. Privatization in transportation has reduced direct government spending in some areas but has exacerbated economic inequities, political corruption, traffic congestion, and traffic injuries and fatalities as well as air pollution and related illness and mortality. Transport policy has benefited the Federal District, affluent residents, and service providers, but the users and poor who live in marginal zones have received less benefits from these policies.
Comments on "Transportation Policy in Mexico City: By Clifford J. Wirth, vol. 33, no. 2
Werner Z. Hirsch
Rejoinder to the Comments of Professot Werner Z. Hirsch on "Transportation Policy in Mexico City", vol. 33, no. 2
Clifford J. Wirth
The Global Meets the Local: Tourism and the Representation of the New Zealand City, vol. 33, no. 2
David C. Thorns
From the 1970s through the 1990s, rapid change has transpires within New Zealand. Accompanying the restructuring that has occurred has been a search for new economic opportunities for the cities. One avenue has been provided by tourism. The stimulus of international tourism, in particular, has resulted in the redevelopment of cities along new lines designed to capture an increasing proportion of this new form of economic activity. The author explores the dimensions of these urban changes through case studies of three New Zealand cities: Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.
Race, Concentrated Poverty, Social Isolation, and Political Behavior, vol. 33, no. 2
Yvette Alex-Assensoh
The author examines the relative impact of concentrated-poverty neighborhoods and social isolation on the political behavior of white and black inner-city residents. She demonstrates that social isolation undermines the political participation of blacks and that residence in concentrated-poverty neighborhoods is most detrimental to the political participation of whites. The effects of social isolation and concentrated-poverty neighborhoods exert substantively and statistically significant effects on the political behavior of whites as well as blacks above and beyond the influences of human capital characteristics and sociopolitical resources.
The Enclave, the Citadel, and the Ghetto: What has Changed in the Post-Fordist U.S. City, vol. 33, no. 2
Peter Marcuse
The author defines classic ghetto as the result of the involuntary spatial segregation of a group that stands in a subordinate political and social relationship to its surrounding society, the enclave as a voluntary developed spatial concentration of a group for purposes of promoting the welfare of its members, and the citadel as created by a dominant group to protect or enhance its superior position. The author describes a new phenomenon, connected to global economic changes: the outcast ghetto, inhabited by those excluded from the mainstream economy by the forces of macroeconomic developments. The distinction among these differing forms of spatial segregation is crucial for a number of public policies.
The Housing Act of 1954: The Sea Change in National Urban Policy, vol. 33, no. 2
Richard M. Flanagan
The Housing Act of 1954 marked a historic turn in housing policy and federal-city relations. The act replaced public housing with commercially oriented urban renewal. It also served to redefine urban liberalism. Before 1954, New Deal class divisions characterized debates about the role of the federal government in the cities; after 1954, a new, powerful alliance of mayors and business groups-led by the Eisenhower administration-created consensus around urban redevelopment policies. The change in the trajectory of policy is explained in this article by a model that emphasizes the importance of state institutions, interest groups, and ideas.
Exploring the Effects of Single-Member Districts on an Urban Political System: A Case Study of Birmingham, Alabama, vol. 33, no. 2
Steven H. Haeberle
The decision in Yarbrough et al. v. City of Birmingham in 1989 in Birmingham, Alabama, changing its nine-member city council from at-large to district elections to preserve minority (white) representation. Implementation of this court order produced the descriptive representation it was designed to attain but did not improve citizen perceptions of the quality of representation. It produced other changes in the conduct of city politics. Council candidates altered their campaign strategies to make themselves appear more sensitive to district-level concerns. Districts do not yet seem to have stimulated either turnout or greater competition in council elections.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 33, Number 1, September 1997
Ethnicity is not Enough: Latino-Led Multiracial Coalitions in Los Angeles, vol. 33, no. 1
Katherine Underwood
The concept of deracialized electoral strategies has been applied primarily to African American candidates running in majority white or racially mixed jurisdictions. The author explores the use of deracialized electoral strategies by victorious Latino city council candidates in Los Angeles. These candidates ran in Latino-majority city council districts, yet faced multiracial electorates. To build cross-racial support, the winning Latino candidates employed deracialized political styles, issue stances, and mobilization strategies. On the council, Latinos have pursued a largely deracialized agenda.
Neighborhood Organizations, the Welfare State, and Citizenship Rights, vol. 33, no. 1
Shlomo Hasson & David Ley
Using case studies of neighborhood organizations in Canada and Israel, the authors consider relations between neighborhood organizations, the welfare state, and citizenship rights during the twentieth century. These welfare states display real differences but also enough instructive similarities to illuminate the robustness of their argument. Following a theoretical discussion, they identify, primarily on the basis of ethnographic study, five regimes that have produced a distinctive conjuncture of types of organizations, forms of the welfare state, and outcomes in terms of citizenship rights. With qualifications, they find the coproduction, or partnership, model most promising in securing citizenship rights and urban governability.
Creatures of the State: State Politics and Local Government, 1871-1921, vol. 33, no. 1
Nancy Burns & Gerald Gamm
Local politics is not self-contained. The authors break with existing scholarship to argue that the study of local politics requires the systematic study of state legislative politics. The state-local relationship cannot be easily characterized in terms of either interference or deference. Rather, U.S. local government and state politics appear to have been thoroughly intertwined in the period they examine. For evidence, they present a new and systematic data set consisting of all bills affecting local places-6415 bills-considered by the leglislature of Alabama, Massachusetts, and Michigan for certain years in the period 1871 to 1921.
Textbook Municipal Reform, vol. 33, no. 1
Amy Bridges
Most political scientists and historians find the home of reform government in the suburbs. The author shows that there was another style of reform government, big-city reform, the the big cities of the Southwest. The political system of big-city reform was distinguished by nonpartisan, city-manager goverment with citywide elections to the city council, low turnout and participation, and an electorate more Anglo and middle class than the metropolitan area as a whole. Big-city reform governments joined developer-dominated governing coalitions with Anglo middle- and upper-class communities in a growth community benefiting from good government.
The Impact of Cross-Racial Voting on St. Louis Primary Election Results, vol. 33, no. 1
Lisa C. DeLorenzo, Carol W. Kohfeld, & Lana Stein
The results of the 1993 mayoral Democratic primary and 1992 circuit attorney Democratic primary elections in St. Louis city provide the context in which to examine the racial composition of voters for black and white candidates. Information from the 1990 census is matched to the latest voting precinct geography, creating an aggregate data set on which regression analysis is used to compare votes for leading black candidates with votes for leading white candidates in these two elections. The authors' analysis indicated a willingness on the part of both racial subpopulations to ignore the race of the candidate. They conclude that election winners would have been different had cross-racial voting not occurred.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 32, Number 6, July 1997
Poverty and Economic Morphology of Ohio Central-City Neighborhoods, vol. 32, no. 6
Richard D. Bingham & Zhongcai Zhang
The authors examine the relationship between poverty and economic activities in 24 selected industries in more than 100 neighborhoods in Ohio central cities. As expected, local economies deteriorated as poverty levels increased. However, the economic deterioration began much earlier, and was much more serious, than has been suggested in earlier ghetto studies. Furthermore, the decline in neighborhood jobs associated with the economic deterioration was massive. If neighborhood jobs are seen as a road to economic and social recovery for ghetto residents, the findings are very bleak indeed.
The Disparate Racial Neighborhood Impacts of Metropolitan Economic Restructuring, vol. 32, no. 6
George Galster, Ronald Mincy, & Mitchell Tobin
The authors examine the relationship between economic restructuring in a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and 1980-1990 changes in poverty rates in its census tracts. A summary indicator of economic restructuring, encompassing changes in employment/population ratios, shares of manufacturing employment, and shares of MSA manufacturing in a tract's county, is developed to explain why MSA restructuring is particularly distressing for blacks. Most poverty growth in predominantly black census tracts occurred in MSAs with greater restructuring, and each increment of restructuring was significantly associated with the poverty growth there. Black tracts in a central city with, or in a county with, a larger share of the MSA's manufacturing were most vulnerable.
Trends in Residential Integration By Socioeconomic Status in Southern California, vol. 32, no. 6
William A.V. Clark
The central question posed in this research is whether increased educational status and associated economic gains for black Americans have been translated into greater levels of residential integration in Southern California. Some recent national investigations have shown small decreased in the levels of separation for higher-status black Americans. The research in this study strengthens those findings and strongly suggests that social class differences, as measured by income and education, are important in explaining levels of separation and that when economic and educational gains do occur, these are translated into gains in residential integration.
Urban Governing Alignments and Realignments in Comparative Perspective: Developmental Politics in Boston, Massachusetts, and Bristol, England, 1980-1996, vol. 32, no. 6
Alan DiGaetano
The author develops and analytical framework for making cross-national comparisons, referred to as modes of governance, that centers on the study of how governing coalitions are built and maintained. He lays out the theoretical framework for modes of governance, which draws upon regime theory but goes beyond its conception of power structures. A primary concern is understanding the underlying causes of urban governing realignments and their impact on local strategic decision making. To illustrate the approach, the author compares politics of development in Boston, Massachusetts, and Bristol, England. Finally, the author considers the theoretical implications of the Boston/Bristol comparison.
The Nature of Civic Involvement and Educational Change in Pittsburgh, Boston, and St. Louis, vol. 32, no. 6
Robin R. Jones, John Portz, & Lana Stein
Urban school systems face many problems and challenges. Policy responses require not only improvement within schools but also a broad structure of civic support. The authors focus on the creation and activation of civic support for public education. Pittsburgh, Boston, and St. Louis provide very different examples of how civic support develops or fails to develop. Our comparative analysis highlights two major elements in this process: institution building to redirect business coalitions from a focus on economic development to a focus on education and leadership in activating civic capacity on behalf of public education.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 32, Number 5, May 1997
The Character and Consequences of Growth Regimes: An Assessment of 20 Years of Research, vol. 32, no. 5
John R. Logan, Rachel Bridges Whaley, & Kyle Crowder
The authors review the empirical evidence on two key hypotheses derived from the model of the city as a growth machine. The first posits the pervasive influence of progrowth coalitions in local governing regimes. The second states that growth regimes make a difference to local development. The authors offer suggestions to strengthen research on both points, emphasizing the need to distinguish between policy and politics. They urge greater attention to an alternative hypothesis: that the main impacts of growth machines lie in their distributional outcomes-intensifying inequalities among places and displacing alternative goals of governance at the local level.
The Issue of Governance in Neighborhood-Based Initiatives, vol. 32, no. 5
Robert J. Chaskin & Sunil Garg
The authors of this issue-mapping article explore the rationale behind, and issues bearing on, the governance of community-based initiatives. They examine three issues relevant to the formation of local governance structures: the relationship between neighborhood-based governance structures and local government; issues of representation, legitimacy, and connection; and long-term viability. They suggest an agenda for further exploration that includes examining the relative benefits of difference governance structures, exploring the issue of capacity in community-building, and investigating the perspective of local governments that have jurisdiction over the areas in which these efforts are being implemented.
Community-Based Restructuring? Institution Building in the Industrial Midwest, vol. 32, no. 5
Michael Indergaard
The author examines change agents, agendas, and processes involved in community-based efforts to promote collaborative manufacturing in Cleveland, Athens, and Toledo, Ohio. The goals are to redefine relationships of firms with competitors, customers, and community entities and to remake institutions so as to support small firms. Contributing factors include the threat that communities will be relegated to the periphery, new pressures on small firms to design products for diverse customers, the importation of network models by state governments, and the ability of community-based organizations to translate these models to resonate with local constituencies.
The Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Company Program: Institutionalizing a Nonviable Minority Business Assistance Infrastructure, vol. 32, no. 5
Timothy Bates
Specialized small business investment companies (SSBICs) are privately owned companies that are funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration to finance minority-owned businesses. Most SSBICs began operations as nonviable companies, inherently limited in their ability to serve the range of capital needs of small firms in their targeted markets. Most of the SSBICs chartered over the last 26 years are out of business today. In the midst of this generally dismal industry, some SSBICs are growing substantially and operating profitably from their returns on minority business investments. This article differentiates the successful SSBICs from the failures.
Business Participation in Economic Development Programs: Lessons from Six Ohio Cities, vol. 32, no. 5
Lynn W. Bachelor
Using data from surveys of businesses in Ohio metropolitan areas, the author investigates the limited impact of economic development programs. She identifies the similarities and differences between businesses that participated in these programs and those that had not received government assistance. Nonparticipants lacked information about types of assistance available, were concerned about procedural problems, and expressed negative attitudes toward government. She suggests that decreased reliance on requests for service and an emphasis on retention of existing firms will enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of economic development programs.
Recent Research on Racial Segregation and Poverty Concentration in Public Housing in the United States, vol. 32, no. 5
John Goering, Ali Kamely, & Todd Richardson
Newly available data reveal that despite a recent decline in public sector housing segregation, the majority of black American public housing residents live in poor, racially isolated neighborhoods and white tenants typically live in less isolated neighborhoods. These patterns are influenced by overall residential segregation and public housing authority characteristics.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 32, Number 4, March 1997
The Community Option inUrban Policy, vol. 32, no. 4
Pierre Clavel, Jessica Pitt, & Jordan Yin
There is a plausible community option in local and national urban policy, an alternative to growth-oriented and top-down approaches that represents a possible new reality to be considered by urban scholars and professionals. The authors present evidence from interviews with the staffs of community development corporations and allied organizations and draw implications for professional schools in outreach work and in research.
Urban Politics, Governing Nonprofits, and Community Revitalization, vol. 32, no. 4
Richard C. Hula, Cynthia Y. Jackson, & Marion Orr
Drawing on work by Schattschneider (1960) and Baumgartner and Jones (1993) and examining governing nonprofits in three U.S. cities, the authors assert that governing nonprofits can provide a platform for restructuring political agendas. They take on roles and responsibilities traditionally reserved for the government, and they forge coalitions among and across groups, organizations, and sectors to address societal problems. These organizations require broad community support, embrace flexible policy agendas, and operate in the public domain. The success of governing nonprofits also lies in their ability to foster linkages with the local leadership without becoming completely identified with local authorities.
Local Policy Subsystems and Issue Definition: An Analysis of Community Development Policy Change, vol. 32, no. 4
Edward G. Goetz & Mara S. Sidney
Using a policy subsystem approach, the authors examine the politics of community development in Minneapolis. A cohesive and stable community development subsystem evolved during the 1970s and early 1980s, dominated by community development corporations and the city's multifamily housing development bureaucracy. Recent changes in community development policy reflect changes in the subsystem dynamics, including a challenge to the dominant coalition by neighborhood groups and external factors such as the redefinition of policy objectives. Subsystem analysis helps to explain policy change at the local level; explicit consideration of the social construction of issues and of the impact of issue redefinition will enrich subsystem analysis.
Historic Preservation and Progrowth Politics in U.S. Cities, vol. 32, no. 4
Alexander J. Reichl
The author considers the proposition that a historic preservation strategy helps unify progrowth coalitions. Preservation was facilitated by restructuring development policies in response to the breakdown of urban renewal coalitions. In New York City, the preservation of historic theaters mobilized support for office development by redefining the 42nd Street Development Project as an effort to restore the theater district known as the Great White Way in an area symbolizing urban decline. Although this case illustrates the importance of preservation to political discourse in urban development, cases in Atlanta and New Orleans reveal different results from preservation strategies and demonstrate the need for case-specific political analysis.
The Limits of Urban Regime Theory: New York City Under Koch, Dinkins, and Giuliani, vol. 32, no. 4
William Sites
The author evaluates urban regime theory as an approach to understanding development and housing policy in New York City since the 1970s. Strong elements of policy continuity are explained by the impact of economic restructuring, federal retrenchment, and interest-group pressures. The relatively modest shifts in policy that did take place are related to changes in the local real estate market and community mobilization as well as to the political factors highlighted by a regime framework. Regime theory's emphasis on political leadership, coalition building, and policy form, at the expense of other factors of urban analysis, underestimates the obstacles to genuinely progressive, community-oriented urban development.
City-Suburban Income Disparities and Metropolitan Area Employment: Can Tightening Labor Markets Reduce the Gaps? vol. 32, no. 4
Edward W. Hill & Harold L. Wolman
Were tight metropolitan labor markets in 1990 associated with narrow spatial income disparities between central cities and their suburbs? In U.S. national policy, it is assumed that maintaining high levels of national economic growth will attract inner-city poverty populations into the world of work, thereby reducing suburban-city income gaps. The authors examine the impact of tight labor markets on these disparities by developing regression models for metropolitan statistical areas. Economic growth, fostering tighter labor markets, is clearly desirable. However, tightening local labor markets actually exacerbates disparities to a point. Past that point disparities begin to decrease, but at a very slow rate.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 32, Number 3, January 1997
A Reversal of Fortunes: Black Empowerment, Political Machines, and City Jobs in New York City and Chicago, vol. 32, no. 3
Patrick D. Joyce
Contrary to theoretical predictions, blacks have been more successful at acquiring municipal jobs in New York City than in Chicago. Moreover, the reverse was true earlier in the century; Blacks were once better represented in city jobs in Chicago. Using longititudinal data and historical accounts, the author argues that this reversal of fortunes happened because blacks were able to mobilize and exploit a critical juncture in political development-the decline of the political machine-earlier in New York City than in Chicago.
Constructing the Image of Ethnic Harmony in Toronto, Canada: The Politics of Problem Definition and Nondefinition, vol. 32, no. 3
Sheila L. Croucher
The author applies a social constructionist approach to the issue of urban ethnic relations, arguing that analyzing the political processes that construct urban images, issues, and identities will illuminate arenas of power and conflict obscured by other approaches. Toronto, known for harmonious ethnic relations, is ideal for a case study of how urban images are constructed and maintained and how certain conditions, issues, and grievances are not defined as problems. The author draws on theoretical literature, elite interviews, and textual analysis of the periodical literature on Toronto to demonstrate the important role of elites in framing issues that define the "objective conditions" of urban ethnic relations.
The Political Economy of Urban Regimes: A Comparative Perspective, vol. 32, no. 3
Paul Kantor, H.V. Savitch, & Serena Vicari Haddock
The authors suggest how regime politics is influenced in systematic ways by particular kinds of bargaining environments. They describe a theoretical framework designed to examine the interplay of local democratic development, market environments, and intergovernmental networks on regime dynamics in eight cities in Western Europe and the United States since the 1970s. The authors explain how structural forces influence critical aspects of local regimes, particularly their governing coalitions, means of public-private coordination, and prevailing policy agendas on economic development.
Inner-City Policy in Britain: Why it Will Not Go Away, vol. 32, no. 3
Karen Mossberger & Gerry Stoker
The authors seek to explain why the inner city has remained on the agenda of the British governments since the 1960s. Several factors suggest that government attention to the issue should wane over time: the absence of a strong constituency, limited salience to the state's core interests, and the relative failure of past policy. In fact, top government ministers and senior officials have played an active role in maintaining the issue on the agenda. To explain the continued visibility of this issue, one must consider the moral dimension of policy making along with theories of agenda setting.
Housing Vouchers and Certificates as a Vehicle for Deconcentrating the Poor: Evidence from the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area, vol. 32, no. 3
John M. Hartung & Jeffrey R. Henig
The authors analyze the census tract location of over 11,000 certificate and voucher households in Washington, DC, and its suburbs, and compare those to the distribution of public housing and various other project-based subsidized housing developments such as Section 236. They find evidence that household mobility programs may be succeeding in the goal of dispersing affordable housing opportunities beyond the central-city boundary, but they also find evidence that market forces and personal choices may lead toward reconcentration of suburban voucher and certificate holders in neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic status and higher proportions of minorities.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 32, Number 2, November 1996
The Effects of Local Conditions on Economic Growth, 1977-1990: The Changing Location of High-Technology Activities, vol. 32, no. 2
Mark Schneider & Duckjoon Kim
To promote economic growth and improve their tax base, local governments compete to attract "high-tech" industries. The authors analyze the outcome of this competition, documenting the geographical dispersion of high-tech activities over the last 15 years and assessing the degree to which their location is attributable to the effects of local factors, including public policies. They show that high-tech jobs and establishments have changed location across localities and that many local conditions influence the location of high-tech activities. However, these conditions reflect the wealth of the community and not local governmental spending and tax policies, which have only marginal effects on the location of high-tech activities.
The Economic Impact of the Baseball Strike of 1994, vol. 32, no. 2
John F. Zipp
Using the seven weeks of canceled baseball games caused by the 1994 strike as a natural experiment, the author analyzed the degree to which the absence of baseball affected retail trade and hotel room sales in the 24 U.S. cities hosting baseball franchises and in 4 control cities. The most important finding is that the strike had little, if any, economic impact on host cities. Retail trade appeared to be almost completely unaffected by the strike, and the declines in hotel room sales in 10 baseball cities were not consistent with decreases expected by changes associated with the strike.
Geographic Concentration of Affluence and Poverty in 100 Metropolitan Areas, 1990, vol. 32, no. 2
Claudia J. Coulton, Julian Chow, Edward C. Wang, & Marilyn Su
The geographic concentration of poverty and affluence is examined for the 100 largest metropolitan areas. Concentration of poverty and affluence are uncorrelated, but metropolitan areas can be classified into five types based on six indices of concentration and affluence. The types differ significantly in their racial and ethnic segregation, the relative advantage of the central city as compared to the suburbs, and the economic inequality in the population. Cities in which both affluence and poverty are highly concentrated differ along all dimensions from cities of the more egalitarian type.
The Influence of Race on Hispanic Housing Choices: New York City, 1978-1987, vol. 32, no. 2
Emily Rosenbaum
How does race influence the housing choices of Hispanic households who have recently moved? Results of this study demonstrate that white Hispanics are more successful than black Hispanics and other-race Hispanics in gaining access to predominantly Anglo subareas, apparently by virtue of their nonblack status. These findings reveal the individual-level processes underlying aggregate patterns of racial segregation among Hispanics and provide evidence of the influence of social and market forces that isolate not only Anglos from African Americans and Hispanics but also, increasingly, African Americans and black Hispanics from all persons of nonblack status.
Urban Development, Policy Failure, and Regime Change in a Manager-Council City: The Case of St. Petersburg, Florida, vol. 32, no. 2
Platon N. Rigos & Darryl Paulson
This study of St. Petersburg, Florida, shows that large-scale urban development decisions are irreversible. A prodevelopment regime used an aggressive city manager, a prodevelopment council, and a mayor to pursue risky development policies. Scandal, policy failure, and racial polarization triggered a governmental structure change. Mounting debt forced the adoption of caretaker, or maintenance, policies to minimize the tax burden.
Black-White Differences in Political Efficacy, Trust, and Sociopolitical Participation: A Critique of the Empowerment Hypothesis, vol. 32, no. 2
Arthur G. Emig, Michael B. Hesse, & Samuel H. Fisher III
This study is a critique of Bobo and Gilliam's (1990) empowerment hypothesis. The authors examine black-white differences in political trust, efficacy, and sociopolitical participation. The study took place in Mobile, Alabama, and involved a telephone probability survey of 428 respondents. The authors argue for an expanded operational definition of empowerment, and research results support this position. No significant differences between blacks and whites emerged for political participation, attending to news, gender, age, occupation, or education. Blacks were significantly more politically trusting, efficacious, and involved in the community than were whites.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 32, Number 1, September 1996
Globalization, Culture, and Neighborhood Change: Reinventing the Lower East Side of New York, vol. 32, no. 1
Christopher Mele
Globalization of the production, distribution, and consumption of culture has affected the identity of locale or neighborhood. In many instances, local cultural forms, such as music and art, are appropriated for international consumer markets. The author analyzes the effect of global appropriation on urban form. The emerging global cultural economy creates new opportunities for place entrepreneurs to redevelop poor neighborhoods and challenges the traditional means of local resistance for residents and community groups.
An Examination of the Relationship Between Corporate Spatial Organization, Restructuring, and External Contracting of Producer Services Within a Metropolitan Region, vol. 32, no. 1
W. Richard Goe
Urban analysts content that a key process underlying the extensive growth of producer services industries in U.S. metropolitan areas is the external contracting of producer services functions by corporations. This practice has been linked to changes in the geographic scope of corporate activity and to corporate restructuring. Using data collected from a sample of headquarters of service sector firms located in the northeast region of Ohio, the relationship between indicators of the geographic scopw of corporate activity, corporate restructuring, and external contracting of producer services is examined. Reliance on international markets by corporate headquarters was found to be most extensively related to their use of external contracting for producer services.
Gay and Lesbian Political Mobilization and Regime Responsiveness in Four New York Cities, vol. 32, no. 1
Donald B. Rosenthal
The increasing participation of lesbians and gay men in municipal politics is a product of the convergence of several processes: the creation of a movement among individuals, most of whom previously accepted collective invisibility; the mobilization of political resources by members of the community; and the opening of opportunities for participation by local political regimes. Here, the author examines how gay and lesbian community-building and political mobilization processes in four New York cities (Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse) meshed with opportunities provided by local political regimes to encourage a greater voice for lesbians and gay men in municipal politics.
Election Roll-Off: A Test of Three Explanations, vol. 32, no. 1
Charles S. Bullock III & Richard E. Dunn
The authors use the 1993 municipal election in Atlanta, Georgia, and a special election to fill two vacancies on the Fulton County (Georgia) Commission to test ballot-confusion, saliency-of-the-contest, and voter-fatigue explanations for roll-off (ballot noncompletion). No evidence of the ballot-confusion explanation is found, but some evidence of voter fatigue and contest visibility is apparent. Racial differences in roll-off have implications for the responsiveness of public officials and the creation of single-member districts.
The Assumptive World of Local Political Elites: An Examination of Mayoral Cognitive Structures in Metropolitan Detroit, vol. 32, no. 1
Harold L. Wolman & Coit Cook Ford III
Mayors' behavior is a reflection not only of constituent preferences but also of their own beliefs, values, and perceptions-their asssumptive worlds. The authors analyze the responses of Detroit-area mayors to questions about their orientation to the local citizenry, perception of the most important role(s) of local government, task role)s), representative role, and perception of their power relative to other actors in the local political system. Using factor analysis, the authors identify three latent cognitive orientations to characterize the mayors' assumptive worlds- (1) citizen-participation dominated, (2) mayoral-valence concerned, and (3) voter apprehensive. They find that structural attributes (forms of local government) and population size are strongly related to the mayoral-valence-concerned and voter-apprehensive assumptive worlds, whereas personal (gender) and political (partisanship) characteristics may be related only to voter apprehensiveness.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 31, Number 6, July 1996
The Battle Over Liquor Stores in South Central Los Angeles: The Management of an Interminority Conflict, vol. 31, no. 6
Raphael J. Sonenshein
As cities become more diverse, interminority relations are increasingly important. An examination of the controversy between blacks and Korean Americans over liquor stores in South Central Los Angeles reveals some obstacles to rainbow coalitions. But the ability of key leaders to sustain a nonracial discourse also allowed the conflict to be manages within certain bounds. This case study indicates the need for more subtle distinctions than simply coalition and conflict in interminority relationships and the value of more fully exploring the different ways in which interminority conflict can be managed.
Culture Wars and City Politics: Local Government's Role in Social Conflict, vol. 31, no. 6
Elaine B. Sharp
The author focuses on morals-based controversies, or culture wars, that have engulfed U.S. cities over issues such as gay rights, pornography, the operation of abortion clinics, hate-group activity, and judicial handling of sexual assault. Explanation of the importance of such social controversy to urban scholarship and reasons for neglect of the topic to date are offered. Drawing upon a variety of case studies of culture-war controversy, the author develops a typology of local government's role in such controversies. That typology includes relatively familiar concepts such as responsiveness, evasion, and entrepreneurial instigation and less known or neglected concepts such as hyperactive responsiveness, repression, and unintentional instigation.
Urban Inequality Revisited: The Determinants of Income Distribution in U.S. Metropolitan Areas, vol. 31, no. 6
Sanjoy Chakravorty
Urban size and growth rates have been the focus in the analysis of variation in income inequality among U.S. metropolises. Here, the author builds upon elements identified in the literature to examine 1990 census data for the total, white, and black populations. The regression results indicate that the causal structure of inequality has changed and that the determinants of intraracial inequality are different. The author argues that now the most significant determinants relate to local employment, and social and demographic conditions, reflecting a fundamental transformation from the importance of income level, industry mix, and race.
Local Government-Supported Community Development: Community Priorities and Issues of Autonomy, vol. 31, no. 6
Mark A. Glaser, Mark D. Soskin, & Michael Smith
There is increasing support for local solutions to poverty through community-based organizations (CBOs). However, a dilemma remains: How can CBOs secure resources necessary for change and yet maintain autonomy in definition of development priorities and delivery strategies? The authors examine a community-development model used in central Florida that includes local government support in the formation and activities of a CBO, and they explore the threat to community autonomy associated with differences in development priorities between community-based and external forces. The results provide encouraging evidence that development models that include cooperation between local government and low-income communities do not necessarily produce sublimation of community priorities.
The Effects of Racial Segregation on Quality of Life: A Comparison of Middle-Class Blacks and Middle-Class Whites, vol. 31, no. 6
Carol J. DeFrances
The author constructs an interval measure of geographical proximity to concentrations of poverty and adds this measure to regression equations to see the effect of proximity on middle-class white and black quality of life. The results show that geographical proximity is statistically significant and positively related to quality of life for both groups. That is, increased distance from concentrations of poverty increases quality of life for both middle-class whites and blacks. Additionally, the results indicate that the determinants of quality of life are collectively different for middle-class whites and blacks.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 31, Number 5, May 1996
The Internationalization of Washington, DC, vol. 31, no. 5
Carl Abbott
The globalization of U.S. cities is attracting increasing theoretical and empirical attention. The author analyzed internationally oriented activities in metropolitan Washington, DC, and demonstrates that the city's international roles are built directly on its historic function as a national city. Focusing on change over time, the author also shows that globalization is a stepwise process: Several key periods of the expansion of international functions were followed by periods of gradial absorption. In comparative context, Washington supports arguments about the separability of international functions and shows the importance of historical development in determining the different ways in which cities interact with the world.
"The Myth of the North American City" Reconsidered: Local Constitutional Regimes in Canada and the United States, vol. 31, no. 5
Judith A. Garber & David L. Imbroscio
Urban political economists observe that growth seeking dominates Canadian and U.S. local governance. Others believe Canada's collectivist culture exempts cities from the privatistic policies common in the United States. The authors argue that local constitutional regimes (the legal definition of cities, rules about private property, and federalism) best explain patterns of governence. Inducements shape urban development policy in both countries, but U.S. cities generally compete independently for growth, whereas provinces more often direct Canadian urban growth strategies. Provinces may reduce interlocal competition, but they may also move the locus of urban growth politics upward or stifle progressive initiatives.
The Transformation of the Urban Housing System in China, vol. 31, no. 5
Zhong Yi Tong & R. Allen Hays
The public housing system, operated since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, has provided Chinese city dwellers with low-cost accomodation. However, the rapid growth of the urban population, the lack of urban development planning, the bias in capital investment, and, especially, the structure of the public housing system itself have caused a severe housing crisis in Chinese urban areas. In recent years, leaders have addressed this problem with a complex series of reforms. These reforms generally move the system toward greater reliance on market forces, but numerous difficulties have emerged in creating housing markets within a centralized political and economic system.
Race, Ethnicity, and Class in American Suburbs, vol. 31, no. 5
Thomas J. Phelan & Mark Schneider
The postwar trend in migration from central cities to the suburbs continues. In recent decades, this wave of migration has included increasing numbers of Asians, Hispanics, and blacks. The authors focus on the spatial overlap of race, ethnicity, and class in a large sample of suburban communities. Specifically, they examine differences in the characteristics of suburbs to which blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have gained residential access. By introducing controls for levels of community affluence, they address the controversial argument that levels of racially defined inequality diminish as the social class of members of minority groups increases.
The New Central Cities: Implications of the New Definition of the Metropolitan Area, vol. 31, no. 5
John R. Ottensmann
The new definition of the metropolitan area changes the definition of central cities to one based on employment centrality, with no limits on the number of central cities in any metropolitan area. The result has been the designation of 80 cities as new central cities in the 50 largest metropolitan areas. These new cities contain 10% of the total central-city population in these areas. Including these new central cities can dramatically affect central-city/suburban comparisons. This is illustrated with an examination of the location and change of the African American population in metropolitan areas.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 31, Number 4, March 1996
Struggles in Urban Space: Street Vendors in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, vol. 31, no. 4
Kathleen Staudt
The author compares the hierarchical variety of businesses that struggle over downtown urban space with the official agencies that regulate that space in two sister cities on the U.S.-Mexico border. For each city, the conflict is analyzed, as is the diversity of businesses and their public presentations. The analysis reveals how political machinery and public discourse affect the outcomes of conflicts. After engagement in the political process, El Paso vendors face drastic increases in business costs, and Juarez vendors perpetuate a short-term standoff with the conservative opposition government.
In Search of the Growth Coalition: American Urban Theories and the Redevelopment of Britain, vol. 31, no. 4
Elizabeth Strom
The author considers the relevance of American urban theories, particularly regime approaches, to an understanding of development politics cross-nationally. Studying recent developoments in Berlin, she suggests that both political and cultural characteristics influence the nature of local coalition building. In Berlin, patterns of federal support, the nature of the state bureaucracy, and the weak organization of the privare sector have all shaped the city's approach to redevelopment. In addition, architects and architectural debates have historically carried great weight in Berlin's planning culture.
Location Theory, A Growth Coalition, and A Regime in the Development of a Medium-Sized City, vol. 31, no. 4
Mark S. Rosentraub & Paul Helmke
Two perspectives define the debate over a general theory of urban political economy: Location theorists suggest needed social institutions develop around the nexus of cost effeciencies; proponents of regime theory and growth coalitions look to elite coordination to explain growth and the distribution of resources. The authors contend that coalitions do develop but occur in response to favorable cost factors and other geographically and technologically defined networks. Further, an evolutionary process is involved. Growth coalitions strive to and become regimes only to de-evolve into loosely coupled coalitions that respond to crises and opportunities but do not direct economic development.
Trends in Racial Attitudes in Detroit, 1968-1992, vol. 31, no. 4
Timothy Bledsoe, Michael Combs, Lee Sigelman, & Susan Welch
Using survey data from the 1960s and 1990s, the authors examine trends in racial attitudes in Detroit in the post-civil rights era. They investigate the degree to which African Americans and whites see themselves as victims of their racial circumstances and how each group has changed its perceptions of the other group. Whereas whites seem more accepting of residential integration than they were earlier, they are more likely to see themselves as victims of discrimination and less likely to see African Americans as victims. The authors find no indication of improving racial perspectives among African Americans but do uncover signs of heightened tensions.
Flight from Blight and Metropolitan Suburbanization Revisited, vol. 31, no. 4
Charles F. Adams, Howard B. Fleeter, Yul Kim, Mark Freeman, & Imgon Cho
Patterns of metropolitan suburbanization were analyzed for 51 large metropolitan areas. Migration data indicate that suburban population growth attributed to in-migration from outside the metropolitan area is substantially greater, on average, than that attributed to city-to-suburb migration. Distinguishing between these sources of suburban population growth, significant associations were found between metropolitan suburbanization and central-city hardship conditions. The results support the notion of a complementary relationship between central cities and suburbs and argue for more aggressive intervention in support of central cities and greater cooperation between central cities and suburbs in matters of regional development policies.
Quasi-Judicial Decision Making and Exclusionary Zoning, vol. 31, no. 4
James C. Clingermayer
The author examines how quasi-judicial zoning requirements affect exclusionary zoning (i.e., land-use controls that exclude the poor and/or minorities from particular jurisdictions). Using a large sample of communities from nine major metropolitan areas, the analysis reveals that quasi-judicial constraints diminish the level of exclusionary zoning. This indicates that if city councils are not permitted complete legislative discretion when making zoning decisions, they may not be able to satisfy constituent demands to keep out unwanted developments and their residents.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 31, Number 3, January 1996
Specialization in Government: The Uneven Use of Special Districts in Metropolitan Areas, vol. 31, no. 3
Kathryn A. Foster
Relatively little is known about the remarkable increase in the use of special districts for urban service delivery. The author assesses the utility of four alternative theoretical perspectives on the uneven use of districts in metropolitan areas. Empirical analysis of district patterns in more than 300 metropolitan areas in 1987 reveals multiple influences on district use. Local government structure and legal factors emphasized by institutional-reform and metropolitan-ecology perspectives are especially important relative to the service-demand factors asserted by public-choice and critical political-economy perspectives. Of particular note are different motivations associated with use of different geographic and financial subtypes of districts.
Urban Politics and School Reform: The Case of Baltimore, vol. 31, no. 3
Marion Orr
In big cities across the nation, there is a general consensus that fundamental change is needed to improve the nation's urban schools. This author examines the contemporary politics of school reform in Baltimore. The concept civic capacity is used to study the ability of local educational stakeholders to form effective alliances to shape and carry our meaningful systematic school reform. The strengths and weaknesses of Baltimore's leaders' capacity to reform the Baltimore City Public Schools are assessed.
The Effect of Environmental Concerns and Governmental Incentives on Organized Action in Local Areas, vol. 31, no. 3
Gustavo S. Mesch
In this article, the determinants of collective action on local issues are studied. A theoretical model is developed in which organized neighborhood action is a function of neighborhood environmental concerns, the social composition of the residents, and political incentives to the community. The model is tested using data collected from neighborhood associations. Concerns with potential neighborhood change increase the number of actions taken to influence decision makers. The more the political incentives allocated by the city government, the less likely is the association to engage in collective action. Political incentives are allocated to associations located in wealthy neighborhoods, and these associations are less active.
Structural Realignments in American City Politics: Less Class, More Race, and a New Political Culture, vol. 31, no. 3
Terry Nichols Clark
In the past, theorists have debated class versus race versus nonclass interpretations of city politics. This author suggests transcending the debate, concluding that some cities have race and class politics, and others do not. One can join this simple observation to more general theories by formulating propositions showing how structural characteristics generate or dampen racial cleavages and class politics. A new political culture is emerging, which contrasts with class and race politics. The author's propositions explain how and where. The propositions are tested using data from the Fiscal Austerity and Urban Innovation Project for the United States and, occasionally, other countries.
Urban Underrepresentation in the U.S. Senate, vol. 31, no. 3
G. Ross Stephens
Urban scholars have paid little or no attention to ramifications of the way the U.S. Senate is structured. Because of the Connecticut Compromise, the 26 smallest states with less than 18% of the U.S. population have an institutional lock on, and a potential veto over, basic public policies and all legislation going through Congress. Because small states are generally less urban, the Senate heavily underrepresents central cities and ethnic minorities and massively overrepresents suburban and rural/small-town residents, as well as the inhabitants of Mountain, New England, and West North Central regions. Moreover, federal grants unduly support not only small, less urban states but also tax-rich states.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 31, Number 2, November 1995
Can Suburbs Survive Without Their Central Cities? Examining the Suburban Dependence Hypothesis, vol. 31, no. 2
Edward W. Hill, Harold L. Wolman, & Coit Cook Ford III
Based on recent findings that changes in average suburban incomes are positively associated with changes in average central-city incomes, some have concluded that disparities between central cities and their suburbs cause decline in metropolitan economic growth. The authors argue that causality runs in the other direction-metropolitan-wide growth narrows disparities. The authors argue that cities and suburbs are interdependent, that there can be healthy individual suburbs and weak central cities, and that there can be healthy suburbs in the aggregate and extremely poor central cities.
Straw Men, Red Herrings, ...and Suburban Dependency, vol. 31, no. 2
H.V. Savitch
Response to Straw Men, Etc., vol. 31, no. 2
Edward W. Hill Harold L. Wolman, & Coit Cook Ford III
Patterns of Federal Urban Spending: Central Cities and their Suburbs, 1983-1992, vol. 31, no. 2
R. Andrew Parker
A review of federal expenditures between 1983 and 1992 is presented in this study of per capita spending in central cities and their metropolitan suburbs. The Census Bureau provides data for 41 of the nation's metropolitan areas, of which 7 central cities are defined as county units of government and analyzed in greater detail. In constant dollars, central cities led suburbs in per capita receipt of federal funds; however, suburbs generally received an increase in their relative shares. In central cities, grants-in-aid increased but changed to entitlements directed to individuals.
Small Businesses Appear to Benefit from State or Local Government's Economic Development Assistance, vol 31, no. 2
Timothy Bates
This analysis reveals traits of small businesses that received state and local governmental assistance. Among firms owned by nonminorities, the larger small businesses receive aid, and those aided by state or local governments are more likely than unassisted firms to remain in operation, even when one controls for various firm and owner characteristics. These patterns did not typify minority-owned firms. State and local governmental aid flows disproportionately to women-owned businesses and to firm owners who have also received federal government assistance. No evidence was found indicating targeting of assistance to specific industry groups.
Factors Important in Local Governments' Privatization Decisions, vol. 31, no. 2
Werner Z. Hirsch
In this article, the author builds a model of local governments' decisions to contract out residential solid waste disposal services and empirically tests this model by using a new dependent variable-proportion of expenditures on a service that goes to expenses other than payroll. The important factors affecting the contracting-out decision are scale economies, nonproperty taxes, difference in private- and public-sector unionization rates, and income and bond rating, in that order. Political and ideological factors appear to be less determinative than economic considerations.
Race Still Matters: The Minimal Role of Income and Housing Cost as Causes of Housing Segregation in St. Louis, 1990, vol. 31, no. 2
John E. Farley
Two techniques are used to examine the extent to which racial housing segregation in the St. Louis metropolitan area in 1990 is attributable to income and housing cost differences between African Americans and whites. Measurement of segregation within household-income categories revealed that, at all income levels, African Americans and whites with similar incomes are about as segregated as African Americans and whites overall. Indirect standardizations based on housing cost and tenure reveal that if those were the only causes of segregation, African Americans and whites would be far less segregated than they are. The proportion of segregation attributable to such differences is even lower in 1990 than in past censuses.
An Exploratory Analysis of American City Council Salaries, vol. 31, no. 2
Peter J. Haas
The author provides and initial examination of salaries of American city councils. Data from 54 midsize cities are used to demonstrate that, contrary to stereotypes in the literature, American city councils are often full-time, relatively well-paid legislative bodies. Some are higher paid than their respective state legislatures. A number of factors, including structural, fiscal, and state-level variables, are associated with variation in pay for councils. Aside from the full- or part-time status of councils, socioeconomic variables are most closely linked to salaries.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 31, Number 1, September 1995
Myths About Race and the Underclass: Concentrated Poverty and "Underclass" Behaviors, vol. 31, no. 1
Yvette Alex-Assensoh
The prevalent view held by both academics and policy makers is that underclass behaviors are predominantly characteristic of African American communities. Concern about such behaviors has expanded partly because the underclass phenomenon has diffused down the urban hierarchy to small- and medium-sized cities. This article demonstrates that in two areas of concentrated poverty in Columbus, Ohio, so-called underclass behaviors are not associated with race. Data from a study of neighborhood poverty and political participation in those areas are used to show that whites and African Americans exhibit statistically indistinguishable and substantively similar levels of such behaviors.
Traditional Reform, Municipal Populism, and Progressivism: Challenges to Machine Politics in Early-Twentieth-Century New York City, vol. 31, no. 1
Kenneth Finegold
Support for reform candidates followed three distinct patterns, identified as traditional reform, municipal populist, and progressive. Whether traditional-reform and municipal-populist voters could be brought together to form a progressive coalition depended on the way experts were incorporated into city politics. The coalition that elected John Purroy Mitchel mayor of New York in 1913 combined traditional-reform voters who had previously supported Seth Low with municipal-populist voters who had previously supported William Randolph Hearst, but tensions between business interests and the experts who helped to construct Mitchel's coalition contributed to the fragmentation of the progressive coalition in the election of 1917.
Controlled-Choice Desegregation Plans: Not Enough Choice, Too Much Control?, vol. 31, no. 1
Christine H. Rossell
Supporters of controlled choice argue that it is a superior desegregation tool and a superior educational reform. This author addresses the first of these claims in a sample of 20 school districts above 30% minority and finds that contolled-choice plans are almost as unpopular as mandatory reassignment plans. Finally, contolled-choice plans produce less interracial exposure than do voluntary desegregation plans with magnets. Thus there is no evidence for the superiority of controlled choice as a desegregation tool for urban school districts.
Housing Credit Lending and Housing Markets: A Canonical Analysis of Pooled Longitudinal Data, vol. 31, no. 1
Harry L. Margulis
In this article, factor analyses are used to identify homogenous neighborhoods, and canonical analyses are used to examine the relationships between neighborhoods and credit lending in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. The results reveal that variations in the supply and demand for loans are best explained by declining employment opportunities and demographic changes. The canonical analyses strongly indicate that the supply and demand for loans vacillate as a consequence of job insecurities, the decline in earnings capacity of less skilled workers, and long-term population and household declines. Further, the recessions and boom period of the 1980s differentially affected suburban mortgage submarkets.
Marching to Its own Drummer: Why Wage Trends in New York City Have Diverged from the Nation, vol. 31, no. 1
Larian Angelo
In this article, the author compares labor market trends in New York City with trends in the United States as a whole and uses a newly created index to relate these trends to differential changes in industrial structure. Although the national trend for real wage growth has been stagnant or negative for the last 15 years, New York City residents have enjoyed substantial real wage increases in the same period. Also, there is little evidence at the local level of the rising inequality of wage income distribution that has characterized the national labor market. New York City's unique industrial mix appears to be responsible for rising real income trends in the local economy.
Street Blocks with more Nonresidential Land Use Have More Physical Deterioration: Evidence from Baltimore and Philadelphia, vol. 31, no. 1
Ralph B. Taylor, Barbara A. Koons, Ellen M. Kurtz, Jack R. Greene, & Douglas D. Perkins
Divergent theories offer two possible connections between nonresidential land use and physical deterioration among urban residential street blocks. Jane Jacob's model of street blocks indicates that blocks with more nonresidential land use will be better kept; studies of territorial functioning indicate that nonresidential land uses interfere with resident-based informal social control. Here, a comparison of Baltimore and Philadelphia indicates a significant positive correlation between latent constructs for physical deterioration and nonresidential land use. Residential blocks with more nonresidential land uses may have more incivilities because the uses draw more people to the block and/or because the uses interfere with resident-based territorial functioning.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 30, Number 5, May 1995
A Proposal for Urban Policy in the 1990s, vol. 30, no. 5, Susan S. Fainstein & Norman Fainstein
America's Cities: Centers of Culture, Commerce, and Community-or Collapsing Hope?, vol. 30, no. 5, Raymond L. Flynn
Thirty Years of Urban Policies: Frankly, My Dears, We Don't Give a Damn!, vol. 30, no. 5, Paula D. McClain
Putting Cities on the National Agenda, vol. 30, no. 5, Peter Dreier
What Future for Federal Urban Policy?, vol. 30, no. 5, John Mollenkopf
Urban Policy: An Uneven Past, an Uncertain Future, vol. 30, no. 5, Marshall Kaplan
The Urban Policy Legacy, vol. 30, no. 5, Bernard J. Frieden
A Personal Commentary on the Perils of Multiple Authorship Even Among Friends, vol. 30, no. 5, Robert Wood
More Trouble in Paradise: Urbanization and the Decline in Suburban Quality-of-Life Ratings, vol. 30, no. 5
Mark Baldassare & Georjeanna Wilson
Many urban scholars have assumed that urbanization has had adverse effects on the quality of life of suburban residents, but there are few empirical tests of their hypotheses. The 1982 and 1991 Orange County, California, Annual Surveys indicate that perceived quality-of-life ratings have declined over the decade that this suburban region experiences urbanization. The hypothesis that city-level measures of urbanization, such as population size, density, heterogeneity, and growth rates, are related to lower quality-of-life ratings was only partially confirmed. Over time, high density and perceived rapid growth emerge as strong predictors of perceived quality of life.
Racial Differences in Intraurban Residential Mobility, vol. 30, no. 5
Craig St. John, Mark Edwards, & Deeann Wenk
The literature shows that African Americans live in lower-quality residential environments than their socioeconomic status would predict. Researchers suggest that African Americans move within cities less often than whites and/or improve their residential environments less when moving. Alternatively, African Americans might move as frequently as whites and improve their residential environments as much when they move, but they operate from an initial lower level of quality. The authors examine these possibilites in this article. Their data indicate that African Americans have a lower rate of intraurban residential mobility and improve their residential environments less when they move.
The Factors of Production in Retail Drug-Dealing, vol. 30, no. 5
Mark A.R. Kleiman & Rebecca M. Young
Drug contorl efforts are conventionally divided into supply-side (enforcement) and demand-side (preventive education and treatment) policies. The economic concept of factors of production can help illuminate the conditions that support drug consumption and distribution. The factors necessary for drug markets are a common venue; the buyers' access to the venue, desire for drugs, income, and perceived chance of impunity; and the sellers' labor, operating scope within the venue, supply of drugs, ways to spend or save money earned, and perceived chance of impunity. The optimal strategy for any situation will concentrate on those factors that can most readily be made scarce relative to the others.
A Comparative View of Neighborhood Regeneration Programs in Nine Countries: Are the Lessons Transferable?, vol. 30, no. 5
Rachelle Alterman
Using four dimensions of comparison-contextual variables, program characteristics, implementation characteristics, and outputs and outcomes-the author offers a comparative analysis of the experiences of nine countries on both sides of the Atlantic in their efforts to regenerate declining neighborhoods. The findings show considerable differences in the neighborhoods' origin (public or private), location vis-a-vis the urban center, national project scale, level of institutionalization, and degree of comprehensiveness. A surprising finding is the rarity of national programs for comprehensive regeneration. The article concludes with an analysis of the impediments to cross-national transfer of knowledge about neighborhood programs.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 30, Number 4, March 1995
Gentrification and Grassroots Resistance in San Francisco's Tenderloin, vol. 30, no. 4
Tony Robinson
Since World War II, San Francisco has been transformed by the high-rise postindustrial restructuring of central cities and by corresponding gentrification pressures. In one low-income inner-city district, the Tenderloin, residents organized and fought successful battles against the gentrifying growth regime through the 1980s. Moving beyond being a reactionary antigrowth movement, Tenderloin activists have advanced a proactive, neighborhood-sensitive regime, with a social-production capacity of its own, represented by the neighborhood's nonprofit housing movement. Their example teaches about the neighborhood-responsive progressive forces that characterize San Francisco and about the potential of grassroots mobilization as a response to international economic restructuring.
Citizen Participation in Boston's Development Policy: The Political Economy of Participation, vol. 30, no. 4
Janice K. Tulloss
The legitimacy of citizen participation in local government affairs has come to be widely accepted, if not enthusiastically embraced, even while it is hindered by official resistance, the complexity of modern government, or both. The nature and institutionalization of citizen participation in development policy in Boston is the result of current and historical economic conditions and political mobilization. The structure of participatory mechanisms is constantly being challenged and reshaped by developers, community members, and public officials. The current controversy over one such mechanism in Boston shows the dynamic forces that are at work.
Urban Regeneration and Public Housing in New Orleans, vol. 30, no. 4
Christine C. Cook & Mickey Lauria
Public housing, if located proximate to the central business district or other valued development sites, is often seen as a threat to urban regeneration activities. Growth coalitions may develop strategies to remove the threat to increase the value of the land and probability of reinvestment. In cities with an African American majority electorate, like New Orleans, the electoral coalition of the governing regime is inherently unstable and has to pursue its development strategies carefully. Public housing poses a more intractable political barrier to regeneration strategies than do privately owned slum neighborhoods. In New Orleans, the governing coalition has been forced to retreat to its previously faltering spatial-containment policy.
The Resolution Trust Corporation's Affordable-Housing Mandate: Diluting FIRREA's Redistributive Goals, vol. 30, no. 4
Heather MacDonald
The Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC), the agency in charge of the thrift ballot, is directed to expand the supply of affordable housing for low-and moderate-income households by reserving less valuable residential real estate through the Affordable Housing Disposition Plan (AHDP). The author examines the evolution of the AHDP and the disappointing performance of both the single-family and multifamily portions of the program. Two principal explanations for the RTC's poor performance are assessed: The agency is subject to competing mandates that undermine a focus on housing, and the AHDP has not resolved the institutional and credit constraints that undermine affordable-housing efforts in general.
Obfuscating the Reality of Lending Discrimination through Deceptively Rigorous Statistical Analysis: Comment on Leven and Sykuta, vol. 30, no. 4, Ira J. Goldstein & Gregory D. Squires
Lending Discrimination: A Reply to Goldstein and Squires, vol. 30, no. 4, Charles L. Leven & Michael E. Sykuta
Foreign Direct Investment and the Role of Local Government: The Case of Hampton Roads in Virginia, vol. 30, no. 4
Pan Suk Kim
The author analyzes one urban region's ability to attract foreign direct investment and the role its economic development officials played. Numerous scholars have identified a variety of determinants in foreign corporate deliberations regarding site location but have failed to address the role of local governments. Management innovation, such as public-private partnership to promote economic development and economic development officials using their skills as entrepreneurs, strategists, and ambassadors might attract more foreign investment and soften competition with adjacent localities. Particular attention is focused on factors that would tempt a foreign company to locate in an urban region such as Hampton Roads.
A Little Pregnant: The Impact of Rent Control in San Francisco, vol. 30, no. 4
Edward T. Goetz
The author uses an interrupted time series analysis to evaluate the housing market effects of moderate rent control in San Francisco. Using data on multifamily-housing construction and rent levels from 1960 to 1991, the analysis shows that rent control did not inhibit the development of new multifamily housing. In fact, the rate of multifamily-housing production has increased more rapidly after the program's initiation. Additionally, the analysis shows that rents for advertised units in San Francisco have significantly risen after the implementation of rent control.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 30, Number 3, January 1995
Polarized Development and Urban Change in New York's Chinatown, vol. 30, no. 3
Jan Lin
The economy of Chinatown, New York, is polarized into two circuits of development. This is comparable with patterns in Third World cities, as well as in New York's recent emergence as a world city. The lower circuit is an avenue of immigrant labor and petty capitalist incorporation into the city. The upper circuit is a route for the reinvestment of transnational surplus and flight capital in finance and property development. Conflicts and negotiations between the two circuits in the context of Chinatown land-use planning provide some instructive experiences for city managers and urban planners.
The Progressive City? Urban Redevelopment in Minneapolis, vol. 30, no. 3
Denise R. Nickel
Minneapolis is a city steeped in a rich heritage of progressive politics. The author evaluates the city's reputation as a progressive city by applying recent theories about the origins and development of progressive city politics during the postwar era. The case study also shows how the concept of progressivism can be used to characterize a particular form of urban development politics.
Power to Build: How Development Persists Despite Local Controls, vol. 30, no. 3
Kee Warner & Harvey Molotch
Growth controls and related regulations have been blamed for slowing economies and creating housing shortages and praised for preserving the environment. At first glance, these measures appear to challenge the priorities of the growth machines that dominate most urban governance. By analyzing a series of Southern California jurisdictions, the authors explain how growth takes place even under tight controls. Growth controls do not significantly limit development but, rather, enable local officials to generate higher public benefits from the growth that occurs. The specific conditions of growth under growth control help reveal how urban growth works in a more environmentalist era.
Community Mobilization Against Urban Crime: Guiding Orientations and Strategic Choices in Grassroots Politics, vol. 30, no. 3
A. Kevin Williams
Periodically, crime becomes a prominent issue in the politics of cities. In the past, politicians, police officials, and the media elevate crime to public and political agenda status for their own purposes. Increasingly, however, grassroots activists are raising crime as an issue and are organizing to cope with it in their communities. The type and posture of these organizations differ significantly. The postures that anticrime activists adopt are largely decided by their perspectives toward (1) the legitimacy of governmental authority and (2) their sense of efficacy. These guiding orientations lead activists to fall into four basic categories that are labeled Negotiational, Adversarial, Delegational, and Alienated.
The New Urban Sociology Meets the Old: Rereading Some Classical Human Ecology, vol. 30, no. 3
David A. Smith
A basic paradigm shift in urban sociology has occurred: The new urban sociology has challenged and largely supplanted human ecology. The common perception that the two approaches are totally antithetical and incompatible has created a crisis in urban sociology. The author reevaluates some earlier ecological writings in light of the basic assumptions of the new urban sociology. Roderick McKenzie's often ignored writings show a striking affinity to tenets of the new urban sociology; Amos Hawley's abstract conceptual framework provides opportunity for theoretical bridge building. Urban ecologists' claims are challenged by their own intellectual ancestors, and areas of conceptual continuity and overlap should lead to more dialogue and less theoretical polarization.
Contracting Out by Urban Governments: A Review, vol. 30, no. 3
Werner Z. Hirsch
In this article the author seeks to provide a review of the recent literature on contracting out for urban government services in the United States. The review is selective in that the author focuses on analytical frameworks of the contracting out decision, the efficiency argument, empirical efficiency, and cost studies, as well as other considerations such as accountability, equity, and tax consequences. He concludes by wondering whether the common conclusion about the benefits of contracting out urban government services may at times been exaggerated.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 30, Number 2, December 1994
Urban Governance in the Gilded Age: Political-Culture, Social-Control, and Fiscal-Ideology Theories, vol. 30, no. 2
Alan DiGaetano
Scholarly interest in urban politics of the Gilded Age has been both lively and enduring. A plethora of case studies and comparative analyses have produced a large body of historical knowledge about this period in urban political development. Nonetheless, little agreement about the nature of urban governance in this period exists. Indeed, the debate over who governed cities between 1870 and 1900 has intensified over the last decade. This author evaluates the political-culture, social-control, and fiscal-ideology theories of urban governance in the Gilded Age, using census data on ethnicity, urban growth, and municipal government finances.
No Relief from Politics: Machine Bosses and Civil Works, vol. 30, no. 2
Michael Lewis
This article focuses on the Last Hurrah Thesis, which argues that New Deal social welfare crippled the old-time city machines. In contradiction to this thesis, the author argues that New Deal work relief actually strengthened political machines. Local political bosses were able to trade jobs with the Civil Works Administration for votes for their machines, and because of the lack of a bureaucracy, the federal government could neither keep a constant watch on the actions of local officials nor reprimand or replace them when they became recalcitrant. The findings of this study suggest that the Last Hurrah thesis needs to be revised.
An Analysis of Korean-Immigrant-Owned Small-Business Start-Ups with Comparisons to African-American- and Nonminority-Owned Firms, vol. 30, no. 2
Timothy Bates
Social resources available from peer and community support networks may have little impact on small-business viability. In this study, the author finds that difference between Korean-immigrant-owned small businesses and African-American firms exist because Korean entrepreneurs are more apt to be highly educated and wealthy. Koreans invest heavily in small businesses, but their returns are often meager; per dollar of invested capital, the sales and profits of Korean firms lag behind those of African Americans. Self-employment appears to be a form of underemployment for many Koreans.
Explaining the Growth of Puerto Rican Poverty, 1970-1980, vol. 30, no 2
George Galster & Anna M. Santiago
With data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census 1970 Public Use Samples and 1980 Public Use Microdata Sample tape files for 34 metropolitan statistical areas, the authors examine cross-metropolitan variations in Puerto Rican poverty, using an instrumental variables regression model. The analyses highlight the role of residential segregation and economic restructuring on Puerto Rican poverty in 1970 and 1980. Decomposition of changes during the 1970s reveales that the primary sources responsible for increased Puerto Rican poverty rates were structural: The effects of segregation on poverty grew stronger during the decade, and the ability of manufacturing employment and self-employment to attenuate poverty grew weaker.
Regional Variations in Support for Regional Governance, vol. 30, no. 2
Mark Baldassare
In a recent Urban Affairs Quarterly article, Gerston and Haas (1993, 154) hypothesized that support for regional governance in the suburbs is growing in the 1990s as a result of "perceived growth of urban problems." They offered proof from a survey of likely voters in Santa Clara County. However, three unique attributes of the San Francisco Bay Area may explain the support. Recent surveys indicate that strong support for regional governance extends to the nine-county Bay Area region. Resident surveys in Orange County and a recent Sacramento County election raise questions about growing support for regional governance. A survey of city planning directors in California indicates strong regional variations.
Residential Proximity Among Racial Groups in U.S. and Canadian Neighborhoods, vol. 30, no. 2
Eric Fong
The author compares the racial residential proximity patterns in U.S. and Canadian neighborhoods. In the United States, Asian Americans experience higher levels of residential proximity in neighborhoods with whites than do blacks. In Canada, blacks and Asians experience similar levels of residential proximity in neighborhoods than whites. A dynamic spatial assimilation perspective is proposed to understand the racial residential proximity patterns in neighborhoods in both countries. In the United States, but not in Canada, blacks appear to be in a disadvantaged position in the beginning of the process of spatial assimilation, and other racial groups appeat to actively avoid moving into neighborhoods with dominant black presence.
The Chickens Can Come Home to Roost: The Anatomy of a Local Infrastructure Crisis, vol. 30, no. 2
Ellen Rosell
Local governments are entrusting private developers with supplying their communities' roads and water, sewer, and drainage systems. In this study, the author examines a 30-year public-private partnership in infrastructure that failed its community. The analysis reflects the vulnerability of local political authority and citizen participation in the public-private partnership. The case highlights the broader issue of governance in land use as county and state intervention in the partnership contributed to the infrastructure crisis. Overlapping local land-use controls with growth management madates offered no panacea for governing a private producer of public services.
Urban Affairs Review, Volume 30, Number 1, September, 1994
Municipal Bankruptcy and the States: Authorization to File Under Chapter 9, vol. 30, no. 1
Carol W. Lewis
The brush with bankruptcy of Connecticut's largest city shows chapter 9 reshaping pollitical power within municipalities and between them and the states. The court's decisions provoke questions about intergovernmental relations in a period of fiscal stress and demonstrate the importance of the legal system for urban politics. Frugality characterized the group of states that affirmatively authorize municipal petitions. Because federal bankruptcy courts interpret access broadly, a state's political silence on eligibility and bankruptcy's conformity with state policies is tantamount to agreeing that urban policy shall be made in federal court.
Industrial Shifts and Uneven Development: Patterns of Growth and Decline in U.S. Metropolitan Areas, vol. 30, no. 1
Cynthia Negrey & Mary Beth Zickel
The authors explore patterns of employment and population change in 140 U.S. metropolitan areas from the early 1970s to the late 1980s using U.S. government data. Their analysis generated a typology of six broad types of metropoliran areas suggestive of changing production functions. Regional patterns of change revealed by their typology suggested regional differences which they subjected to regression analyses to assess the relationships among change in manufacturing employment, employment more generally, and population. Their findings have implications for the theoretical understanding of the relationship between employment and population and the practical concerns of urban and economic policy.
Urban Regimes and Leadership in Detroit, vol. 30, no. 1
Marion Orr & Gerry Stoker
The concept of urban regime has emerged as a widely used instrument to explore the responses of local leaders to processes of change. This study of regime building in Detroit during the long period of Coleman Young's mayoralty, contrary to some previous studies, shows how problems of cooperation between private and public leaders have been only partially overcome in Detroit. The key contribution of regime theory is its focus on the problems of collective organization and action. In Detroit, an effective public-private partnership has not emerged, and the authors examine the consequences. They conclude by examining the neglected issue of regime succession and by presenting a formal schema of the process of regime transition.
The Role of the Non profit Sector in Low-income Housing Production: A Comparative Perspective, vol. 30, no. 1
Michael H. Schill
In recent years, nonprofit organizations in the United States and the United Kingdom have increasingly taken a leading role in the provision of housing to low- and moderate-income households. In this article, the author compares and contrasts how British housing associations and American community-based nonprofit housing providers are finances, the size and scope of their activities, their management, the regulations they are subject to, and the increasing role they play in each nation's housing policy. In addition, the author applies the leading economic theory of the nonprofit sector to examine what the appropriate role of these organizations should be in the development and implementation of housing policy.
Empirical Limits of the City Limits Typology, vol. 30, no. 1
Thomas Longoria, Jr,
Although Paul Peterson's City Limits has been influential, Peterson's assumtions about the capacity of local government actors to categorize and order policy preferences have been challenged. The author of this article tests the extent that mayors categorize and order their policy preferences using survey data from the Fiscal Austerity and Urban Innovation Project and factor analysis. This article finds that mayors in the United States categorize and order their policy preferences according to the City Limits policy typology.
The Effects of State Enabling Legislation on Local Economic Development Policies, vol. 30, no. 1
Laura A. Reese & Amy B. Malmer
The authors examine the effects of state enabling legislation on local economic development policies. Using the 1989 International City/County Management Association economic development data set, economic development practives in cities located in states permitting and prohibiting local tax abatements are compared. They find that although state restrictions on local tax abatements have only limited effects on local policy activity, some evidence suggests that cities in states prohibited from offering abatements are less likely to employ some types of the more entrepreneurial demand-side incentives, particularly those related to the start-up of new firms.
School Reform in New York and Chicago: Revisiting the Ecology of Local Games, vol. 30, no. 1
Marilyn Gittell
School reform efforts in New York City in 1967 and Chicago in 1989 provide a laboratory for this comparative study of regime politics in education. Using Long's local game theory, this analysis reveals significant differences in the two city cultures. Differences in the outcomes of the reform efforts can be explained as a product of the ability of city stakeholders to coalesce and advance their interests at the state level.
The Impact of Home Ownership on the Social and Political Involvement of Low-Income People, vol. 30, no. 1
William M. Rohe & Michael A. Stegman
Supporters of subsidized home-ownership programs have made claims concerning the benefits of home ownership. Home owners are said to be more involved in social and political affairs, including neighboring and participation in community organizations. The authors test these claims using longitudinal data collected on groups of low-income home buyers and low-income renters in Baltimore. The results indicate that home buyers are less likely to neighbor and are more likely to participate in neighborhood and black associations but not other community organizations. Home buyers who perceived more neighborhood problems or who emphasized economic reasons for buying were no more likely to participate in social and political affairs.
Urban Affairs Quarterly, Volume 29, Number 4, June 1994
Patterned Inequality? Reexamining the Role of Distributive Politics in Urban Service Delivery, vol. 29, no. 4
Rowan A. Miranda & Ittipone Tunyavong
Numerous scholars have concluded that bureaucratic decision rules best explain urban service distributions. These studies have led to a conventional wisdom in urban politics that professionalism dominates municipal agency routines to the extent that systematic bias is therefore unlikely to occur. In this study, the authors demonstrate that the unpatterned inequality thesis has led scholars to underestimate the importance of local politics inexplaining service distribution. By examining the allocation of community development block grant and capital improvement plan funds in Chicago over nearly two decades, they conclude that electoral and regime politics also exercise a decisive impact on who gets what from city government.
Expenditure Patterns and Interactions Among Local Governments in Metropolitan Areas, vol. 29, no. 4
Kee Ok Park
The purpose of this study is to compare expenditure patterns of central-city, county, and suburban-city governments in metropolitan areas and to explore service-and-expenditure interactions among these local governments. An analysis of expenditures of local governments in 52 of the largest metropolitan areas indicates that the determinants of expenditures by central-city, county, and suburban-city governments are different and that some degree of service-and-expenditure interactions among these governments exists. For example, in solid-waste and police policy areas, local governments spend more if their neighboring governments spend more, whereas in welfare policy areas, they spend less if their neighboring governments spend more.
Reorganization in Three Cities: Explaining the Disparity Between Intended Actions and Unanticipated Consequences, vol. 29, no. 4
H.V. Savitch
The author compares urban reorganization over a period of three decades in New York, Paris, and London, asking why reorganization produces unanticipated consequences, how the process of reorganization can be understood, and, using cities as a type of organization, what can be learned about their behavior in comparative context. A model is presented that identifies the process and values of reorganization. This model illustrates that conflicting values often account for unanticipated consequences, that efforts to reconcile these values sometimes yield worsening (undermining) effects, and that changes in organizational structure can be a powerful tool in shaping priorities.
Regime Maintenance, Solution Sets, and Urban Economic Development, vol. 29, no. 4
Lynn W. Bachelor
Through a case study of economic development projects in Detroit, the author examines the influence of time and information constraints, policy entrepreneurs, and regime maintenance concerns in promoting policy replication and the development of solution sets. Detroit's experience suggests that political and symbolic benefits shape the decisions of policymakers concerned with preserving an existing governing coalition but that their reliance on past solution sets may weaken the position of this coalition.
Bank Representation in Low-Income and Minority Urban Communities, vol. 29, no. 4
John P. Caskey
The author of this article examines the empirical support for the propositions that bank branches are significantly underrepresented in low-income and minority urban communities and that the problem has worsened in recent years. He tests these propositions with data on bank branch locations from 1970 through 1989 in five cities. The date from two of the cities are consistent with the propositions, but the patterns in the data from the other three cities are either inconsistent or mixed.
Urban Affairs Quarterly, Volume 29, Number 3, March 1994
Urban Regimes and Growth Machines: Toward a Cross-National Research Agenda, vol. 29, no. 3
Alan Harding
The article begins with an appraisal of the concepts of urban regimes and growth machines and an assessment of their utility for cross-national urban political analysis, referring particularly to the United Kingdom. It then suggests that the formation of subnational development coalitions has become increasingly common across European liberal democracies but that political scientists, at least those in the United Kingdom, have yet to develop adequate conceptual tools with which to analyze this phenomenon. A final section suggests that the insights of the U.S. literature, suitably adapted, might be incorporated into a comparative research agenda based on the notion of urban governance.
The Transformation of Urban Politics in France: The Roots of Growth Politics and Urban Regimes, vol. 29, no. 3
Myron A. Levine
French urban planning and politics has moved away from traditional spatial and social policy goals toward a new politics of local economic development. The roots of this transformation are found in such factors as local economic distress, European unification, enhanced global and intercity competition, political decentralization, and a change in Socialist party ideology away from its previous anticapitalist stance to a pragmatic, probusiness point of view. Growth coalitions in France and the United States are compared in an effort to identify the roots and structures of growth regimes.
Common Ground and the Social Control of Space: Insights from the Rent-Control Debate, vol. 29, no. 3
Margot Kempers
Rent control has long been the focus of sharp disagreements, and the case of Cambridge, Massachusetts illustrates the contours of the multifaceted debate. This struggle over the social control of space-characterized by strongly individualized and adversarial relations exaggerated by the structural apparatus of the Cambridge system-has resulted in a tense standoff between supporters and critics. Insights from the paradigm of alternate dispute resolution, from recent cooperative efforts between environmental protection and economic development advocates, and from newly formed coalitions between abortion opponents and supporters of abortion rights suggest that moderation, negotiation, and compromise offer a way out of the current impasse.
Searching for Justice: Court-Inspired Housing Policy as a Mechanism for Social and Economic Mobility, vol. 29, no. 3
Roland Anglin
Recent scholarship questions the role of the judiciary in promoting social change. The author looks at the question by examining the long effort of the New Jersey Supreme Court to assure social and economic choice for urban residents through inclusionary zoning. The conclusion is that although the judiciary is contrained, the constraints are not necessarily structural. Rather, the court plays a crucial role in agenda setting and prompting other governing institutions to act. As such, the question is not whether the courts can cause social change but what the proper role of the judiciary is in the broad interplay of governing institutions.
City Talk: Coming Apart in Los Angeles, vol. 29, no. 3
Helen Liggett
Trends in the Location of Corporate Headquarters, 1969-1989, vol. 29, no. 3
Sally K. Ward
In this research note, the author examines the regional distribution and suburbanization of corporate headquarters in the United States in 1969, 1979, and 1989. The results confirm a continued concentration of headquarters in a small number of metropolitan areas and a continued concentration in Northeast and Midwest, despite some growth in locations in the South and West. Significant variations are seen by type of corporation. The suburbanization of headquarters during the decade is qualified in two ways: First, despite further suburbanization, central cities still house a sizable majority of headquarters; and second, the suburbanization pattern varies significantly by region.
The Importance of Race in Home Mortgage Loan Approvals, vol. 29, no. 3
Charles L. Leven & Michael E. Sykuta
The purpose of this research note is to document the importance of empirical specification in the analysis of the influence of race on home mortgage lending decisions. Using a variety of testing procedures and detailed lending decision data for a large midwestern lending institution, the authors show that dramatically different results may be obtained from slight changes in empirical specification. The case study presented here can serve as a prototype for the large number of such case studies needed to obtain convincing evidence on the question of where and how discrimination may, or may not, emerge as a marketwide phenomenon.
Urban Affairs Quarterly, Volume 29, Number 2, December 1993
Representing Urban Decline: Postwar Cities as Narrative Objects, vol. 29, no. 2
Robert A. Beauregard
Throughout the postwar period, urban theorists and popular commentators in the United States developed a perspective on older industrial cities that emphasized their decline. Almost any student of U.S. urbanization now can easily recount the historical events that explain why these cities became less and less desirable to households and businesses. Such explanations, though, frequently lack a consideration of the instability of the language of urban decline and the narratives through which interpretations of decline are conveyed. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the disorderly nature of the concept of urban decline through a presentation and analysis of various narrative frameworks in which it is commonly presented.
Overcoming Ambivalence About American Cities, vol. 29, no. 2
Judith A. Garber
This article is addressed to urban scholars, who often have deep doubts about whether cities have a place in a more democratic and redistributive political order. Urbanists are so ambivalent about cities because many mistakenly believe that cities are, politically, inherently ineffectual. Rather than entering into the communitarian debate, it is more fruitful to attempt to understand how local government authority, properly conceived, is actually necessary to many left and minority goals regarding politics and economics. The lack of confidence that the left has in cities has not really been recognized or explored in the existing urban political economy literature.
Can Politicians Bargain with Business? A Theoretical and Comparative Perspective on Urban Development, vol. 29, no. 2
Paul Kantor & H.V. Savitch
These authors examine the capability of local government to influence economic development by formulating a framework that treats state-business relations as a bargaining process. This framework suggests that governmental influence is tied to the distribution of bargaining advantages along three dimensions of a liberal-democratic political economy: market conditions, popular-control systems, and public-intervention mechanisms. The authors offer an explanation of how characteristics of these dimensions; experiences of U.S. and Western European cities are drawn upon to illustrate this. They conclude that differences in bargaining resources accounts for wide variation in local political control of business development.
The Dependent City and Intergovernmental Aid: The Impact of Recent Changes, vol. 29, no. 2
David R. Morgan & Michael W. Hirlinger
Beginning in the late 1970s and accelerating during the 1980s, U.S. cities lost substantial federal assistance. This research identifies those cities that were especially dependent on federal transfer payments both before and after most of the cuts had been made. The authors also analyze changes in municipal fiscal behavior between 1975 and 1987. In 1975, the most aid-dependent places were central cities suffering both socioeconomic and fiscal stress. Only central city status and socioeconomic hardship were primary predictors of aid dependency 12 years later. The second stage of the analysis shows, unexpectedly, that the loss of federal funds was not a significant influence on the fiscal decisions made in this large group of cities.
Black and Hispanic Council Representation: Does Council Size Matter?, vol. 29, no. 2
Nicholas O. Alozie & Lynne L. Manganaro
The authors use black and Hispanic representation on city councils to address the proposition that the size of an elective body is related to minority officeholding in that body. A conceptual framework of the nature of minority representation and the types of differences that council size can make are examined using national survey data for 525 cities. The results support the position that council size does not explain the strength of minority representation but that larger councils provide a greater opportunity for minority incumbency. This effect is strongest in at-large election cities. For blacks, the strongest effect is found for at-large election cities in the South.
The Spatial Concentration of Affluence and Poverty During the 1970s, vol. 29, no. 2
Douglas S. Massey & Mitchell L. Eggers
In this article, the authors use a special data set compiled for 60 U.S. metropolitan areas to examine 1970-1980 trends in the distribution of family income and shifts in the degree of segregation between income groups. They document how these changes contributed to increases in the spatial concentration of affluence and poverty during the 1970s and estimate simple descriptive models that connect these outcomes to broader socioeconomic trends in U.S. urban areas.
The Progrowth Entrepreneur in Local Government, vol. 29, no. 2
Mark Schneider & Paul Teske
In this research note, the authors explore progrowth entrepreneurs in suburban governments. They first identify the role of progrowth entrepreneurs in proposing policies favorable to the business community and in creating the coalitions necessary to enact probusiness policies in local governments. They then examine the conditions that increase the likelihood of finding a progrowth entrepreneur in suburban communities. Although some fiscal and demographic factors affect the energence of progrowth entrepreneurs, they find that political structures that increase the benefits of entrepreneurship and that reduce its costs are more important.
Housing and Neighborhood Assessment Criteria Among Black Urban Households, vol. 29, no. 2
Christine C. Cook & Marilyn Bruin
In much of the previous research on residential evaluation criteria, scholars have neglected to examine possible variations by household type, particularly among black households. In this research, the housing and neighborhood satisfaction of six black household types are reported. The specified model predicted neighborhood somewhat better than housing satisfaction and eas more predictive for some household types than for others. Neither the housing and neighborhood satisfaction of couple-headed households nor women alone was particularly well defined. The results highlight the limited housing and neighborhood options of blacks, particularly female-headed families and the elderly, and suggest public policy intervention in urban settings on their behalf.
Urban Affairs Quarterly, Volume 29, Number 1, September 1993
Federal Housing Policy and HUD: Past Problems and Future Prospects of a Beleaguered Bureaucracy, vo. 29, no. 1
Rachel G. Bratt & W. Dennis Keating
The authors first review the origins and birth of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Second, they analyze four recurrent types of problems: (1) lack of consistent presidential and congressional support for low-income housing and urban aid, (2) primary reliance upon the private sector to meet housing needs, (3) HUD's structure, internal conflicts, and shortcomings, and (4) the complexity of housing and urban problems. Third, they recommend three major changes: (1) splitting HUD into two agencies to deal separately with housing and urban development, (2) merging all federal housing programs into the new housing agency, and (3) creating a national housing bank. Finally, they advocate the adoption of progressive housing policies to better benefit poorer housing consumers.
Economic Development Policy: Explaining Policy Preferences Among Competing Models, vol. 29, no. 1
Charles J. Spindler & John P. Forrester
Economic development policy in the United States is at a critical juncture. The changing world economic order, global competition, and economic stagnation at home have prompted calls for reform. Yet, the growing recognition of the problems that confront the economy has not produced a coherent set of strategies to address these issues. The authors focus on political and bureaucratic factors that retard the reform of economic development policy. An understanding of how these factors shape economic development policy is critical to proposing workable reforms. This analysis of the dynamics of economic development policy provides information about the relationship between government and the people.
Urban Regimes in Comparative Pespective: The Politics of Urban Development in Britain, vol. 29, no. 1
Alan DiGaetano & John S. Klemanski
Until now urban regime analysts focused almost entirely on cities in the United States. In this article the authors broaden the definition of urban regimes to fit the British urban experience, then seek to trace the formation of regimes in Birmingham and Bristol during the 1980s. The formulation and implementation of specific economic development strategies and policies for each of these two cases is detailed, and finally, an evaluation of regime capacity for each is explored.
Explaining African American Political Empowerment: Windy City Politics from 1900 to 1983, vol. 29, no. 1
Richard A. Keiser
Early in the 20th century, Chicago was "the seventh heaven" of political activity for African Americans. In no city had African American empowerment proceeded as far. But from the 1950s to the election of Harold Washington in 1983, Chicago was considered a glaring example of African American subordination and powerlessness. This transformation presents excellent conditions for analysis of the processes of political empowerment and the rollback of political power. The author challenges the conventional wisdom that political machines represent a "ladder" for minority empowerment. Ratherm electoral competition among white factions or parties created the conditions under which African American voters could determine electoral outcomes and African American leaders could bargain for group empowerment.
Urban Economic Reform and Public Housing Investment in China, vol. 29, no. 1
Xiangming Chen & Xiaoyuan Gao
The authors examine the characteristics and determinants of urban public housing investment in the People's Republic of China. After discussing the characteristics of the state-controlled urban housing sector through the 1970s and the market-oriented reform in the 1980s to commodify urban housing, they use regression analysis to estimate the effects of several factors on urban public housing investment in 1984 and 1987. The role of the state in housing investment in China's cities weakened, and the effect of reform-related factors became stronger. State redistribution maintained a stronger effect on public housing investment in inland cities than in coastal cities, where deeper market-oriented reform further dampened the state's influence on public housing investment.
A Note on Aggregation Bias in Analyzing Mortgage Lending Patterns in Census Tracts, vol. 29, no. 1
George Galster & Peter Hoopes
Aggregation Bias and Study of Mortgage Lending, vol. 29, no. 1
Richard C. Hula
Political Support for Regional Government in the 1990s Growing in the Suburbs?, vol. 29, no. 1
Larry N. Gerston & Peter J. Haas
Regional government, in its various forms, has long been advocated as a necessary condition for addressing the problems that plague modern urban areas with multiple jurisdictions. Political support for regional approaches has been scant, however, particularly among residents of suburban areas who ostensibly covet the political independence of their suburban municipalities. The authors present the results of a survey of likely voters in a suburban area, Santa Clara County in California, and find widespread support for regional governance. Support for regional approaches was consistent for both general and specific measures and did not vary considerably among demographic subgroups. The authors link this support to the perceived growth of urban problems in the vicinity, such as congestion and pollution.
Urban, Suburban, or Rural Location as a Proxy Measure of Need: Implications for Targeting Resources to Elders, vol. 29, no. 1
Karen S. Harlow
The author explores findings from the 1986 Longitudinal Supplement on Aging to determine the appropriateness of using proxy variables, including urban/rural location, as indicators of need among elderly residents. The application of regression models using proxies typical for distributional decisions against seven measures of need indicates that biasing in favor of rural elders may be an ineffectual strategy. Reliance on proxy measures may result in inefficienct and inequitable methods for distribution of funds within states. An expanded definition of need is recommended for distributional decisions.
Urban Affairs Quarterly, Volume 28, Number 4, June 1993
Ethnic Political Power in a Machine City: Chicago's Poles at Rainbow's End, vol. 28, no. 4
Tomasz Inglot & John P. Pelissero
Machine politics in Chicago has been described as a successful example of exchange theory in which political party members received benefits in return for loyalty to the party. In 1988, Erie rejected the rainbow theory of machine politics, arguing that the Irish received the lion's share of political benefits while other white-ethnic groups, such as Poles, were given limited and often symbolic rewards. These authors show that Chicago's Poles were not fully incorporated into the rainbow of groups that benefited from and supported the machine. This led to a pattern of independence in voting and lends considerable support to Erie's supply-side model of machine politics.
Race and Voting: Continuity and Change in the District of Columbia, vol. 28, no. 4
Jeffrey R. Henig
Racially patterned voting can be spurious (based on racially neutral criteria), racist (based solely on race), or racial (based on political, tactical, symbolic, or value-based deliberations in which race is an important consideration). In this article the author assesses the relationship between race and voting in the 140 precincts of the District of Columbia, focusing on competitive elections between 1978 and 1990. Race is an extremely potent and tenacious factor in structuring electoral patterns, but this reflects context-specific calculations mediated by strong group identity and shared assessments of the political environment.
Local Economic Development Practices Across the Northern Border, vol. 28, no. 4
Laura A. Reese
This article provides a comparison of local economic development techniques in the province of Ontario, Canada, and the state of Michigan. Through an examination of the use of 57 different economic development practices, the author concludes that Ontario cities are more likely to practive a wider array of techniques across a variety of areas. Michigan cities are more likely to rely on financial incentives such as tax abatements, downtown development authorities, and tax increment finance authorities. Because Ontario and Michigan employ similar types of incentives, the author concludes that variation in the intensity of use of various techniques lies not in national differences but in the state/provincial enabling legislative frameworks.
Refining Estimates of Double Taxation: Lessons from Law Enforcement in a Suburban County, vol. 28, no. 4
Judy S. Davis & Sheldon M. Edner
The fragmented decision making of multiple, overlapping governments in response to growth-induced needs for services can result in double taxation. A case study of law enforcement in a suburban county illustrates the double taxation of city residents, who pay for services from both the county and city but mainly receive little from the city. The study improves on previous studies by dividing the unincorporated area into two based on intensity of development. The main beneficiaries of the double-taxation subsidy are the unincorporated suburbs. The county government is struggling with the political process of finding a solution to the inequity.
Investigating the Structural Determinants of Homelessness: The Case of Houston, vol. 28, no. 4
Karin Ringheim
Houston is selected as an extreme case to test the hypothesis that homelessness results from a mismatch between the supply of rental housing affordable to the poor and the demand for low-cost housing. In 1983, Houston had a rental vacancy rate of 18% but also had a large growing homeless population. Annual Housing Survey data for 1976-83 show that rent increases in Houston far exceeded the rate of inflation, while renter incomes stagnated. Hardest hit were low-income blacks, who are disproportionately represented among the homeless population in Houston. Rent inflation in the face of massive vacancies is an indication that expected market forces will not meet the housing needs of the poor.
Measuring Racial Discrimination in the Housing Market: Direct and Indirect Evidence, vol. 28, no. 4
William A.V. Clark
Recently, several researchers have attempted to evaluate the extent to which housing discrimination explains the continuing levels of racial separation in U.S. metropolitan areas. They often use audit data that show that black households are likely to experience substantial discrimination in the housing market. A reevaluation of the statistical studies of segregation suggests that the effects of discrimination are smaller than has been previously postulated, and direct estimates of housing discrimination from surveys provide a rationale for such smaller effects.
Urban Affairs Quarterly, Volume 28, Number 3, March 1993
The Politics of Economic Development: Political Change and Local Development Policies in the United States, Britain, and France, vol. 28, no. 3
Michael Keating
Global economic trends and local political pressures are forcing cities into competition for economic development. This phenomenon, well documented in the American literature, is now visible in Europe. Yet, the impact of economic trends is mediated by national political factors. In the United States, Britain, and France, local politics is being reconstituted, with the emergence of interclass, place-based development coalitions. These do not correspond to a single growth machine model but take differing forms in different national contexts.
Post-Machine Regimes and the Growth of Government: A Fiscal History of the City of Chicago, 1970-1990, vol. 28, no. 3
Rowan A. Miranda
In this study, the author outlines and tests the strong party organization (SPO) theory of urban fiscal politics. The theory states that cities governed by SPOs are better able to maintain fiscal discipline because they are less responsive to prospending interest groups. This case study of Chicago finds mixed support for the SPO theory. The informal centralization provided by the political machine may have enabled Mayor Richard J. Daley to adopt fiscally conservative policies. Post-machine regimes, however, have been only modestly successful in implementing expansionary fiscal policies, contrary to the predictions of the SPO theory. Several other patterns in Chicago's recent fiscal history are somewhat more consistent with the SPO theory.
Harold Washington and the Black Urban Regime, vol. 28, no. 3
Larry Bennett
Although commentators on the mayoral administration of Chicago's Harold Washington have typically descrived either a progressieve-city government or a black machine, a third approach to characterizing Washington's political coalition and administrative program is offered by the black-urban-regime metaphor. By examining the Washington administration as a black urban regime, one can specify how local factors constrained the policymaking of Chicago's first African American mayor and can identify lessons from the Washington experience applicable to minority municipal administrations in other U.S. cities.
Estimating the First and (Some of the) Third Faces of Community Power, vol. 28, no. 3
Paul Schumaker
The author provides an approach to estimating two dimensions of community power. The analysis of the first face of power concerns the direct causal impact of elected representatives, bureacrats, notable, group leaders, individual activists, and citizens on policy decisions. The analysis of the third face of power concerns the capacity of such actors to influence policies indirectly by influencing the preferences of other actors. An examination of 28 issues in Lawrence, Kansas, suggests that only representatives significantly exercise the first face of power and that only group leaders may exercise the third face of power (through their ability to influence the preferences of representatives).
Are There Election-Driven Tax-and-Expenditure Cycles for Urban Governments?, vol. 28, no. 3
John Strate, Harold Wolman, & Alan Melchior
Do tax-and-expenditure cycles exist at the city level? Local politicians cannot manipulate the economy to improve their own or their party's electoral prospects and thereby produce a political business cycle. However, they can manipulate tax revenues and expenditures over the election cycle, with some contraints. Using data from medium- and large-sized U.S. cities from 1978 through 1985, the authors found evidence that tax-revenue cycles exist in many cities with mayor-council governments, where politicians prefer to cut taxes or avoid tax increases in fiscal years when an election is imminent. There was little evidence, however, of operating expenditure cycles.
Urban Transportation: Who Govern?: The Difficulties of Travel Management in French Cities, vol. 28, no. 3
Christian Lefevre & Jean-Marc Offner
Governments and the urban transportation business agree that local transportation policies should be more comprehensive, linking projects involving public transportation, parking and traffic, city planning, and the like. In France, however, these different responsibilities are dispersed among several local institutions because of the difficulties of cooperation between cities. There is no transity authority capable of managing all these questions technically and politically. This task of bringing coherence to actions in different fields could be contracted out to the private sector. There is, however, a risk that this system would reduce local elected representatives' legitimate power of decision, and other, more informal methods of coordination should be promoted.
Decision Rules in Local Economic Development, vol. 28, no. 3
Laura A. Reese
This research explores the nature of local economic development decision making. A central theoretical issue common to all types of urban research is the extent of independence and rationality that public decision makers exhibit during the policymaking process. The author argues that local political decisions do matter in the economic development arena; in other words, cities are not totally constrained by external forces but make certain bounded choices. However, the data indicate that economic development policies are not likely to be the result of rational, systematic weighing of costs and benefits. Rather, economic development policy largely is driven by professional decision rules emanating from economic development professionals.
Urban Affairs Quarterly, Volume 28, Number 2, December 1992
Restructuring and the Growth of Concentrated Poverty in Detroit, vol. 28, no. 2
Carter A. Wilson
Three theses that attempt to explain the rise of concentrated poverty and the growth of racial inequality in urban areas are examined in this study: (1) education/job mismatch and social class transformation, (2) labor market segmentation, and (3) industrial decline and uneven economic development. The author tests the undergirding assumptions of these theses for the Detroit metropolitan area using 1970 and 1980 census tract data. Although data provide some support for each thesis, the industrial decline and uneven economic growth view emerges as the strongest explanation for the growth of concentrated poverty and racial inequality in the Detroit area.
Minority Unemployment, Labor Market Segmentation, and the Failure of Job-Training Policy in New York City, vol. 28, no. 2
Gordon Lafer
Job-training policy rests on the assumptions that employment opportunities are plentiful, if only everyone were adequately educated, and that increasing the upward mobility of black and Hispanic workers serves the interests of employers as well as employees. These assumptions are challenged. Data are presented suggesting that there simply are not enough decently paying jobs for the number of people who need them. Labor market segmentation and the interest of employers in maintaining a racially segregated work force are discussed as contributing to the shortage of "good" jobs and as creating barriers to upward mobility for minority workers.
Organized Capital and Local Politics: Local Business Organizations, Public-Private Committees, and Local Government in Sweden, vol. 28, no. 2
Jon Pierre
Many analyses of urban political economy tend to overlook the significance of local business organizations and public-private committees in the urban political process. This article analyzes local business organizations and joint committees in Swedish municipalities. Political stability seems more important than ideological orientation of the local political elite for the creation of joint committees. Business influence on local politics is contingent on the institutionalized forms of public-private interaction. Business demands on local politics cover almost all urban service sectors, and local authorities have largely responded to these demands.
Commodification of Ethnicity: The Sociospatial Reproduction of Immigrant Entrepreneurs, vol. 28, no. 2
Dong Ok Lee
Ethnicity is commodified in the process of economic transition involved in immigration: Immigrants sell their labor power for economic survival. While a spatially enclosed ethnic community channels the traditional kind of mutual cooperation into the growth of the "ethnic capital", a common ethnicity of the Korean community, based on shared language and other cultural background, is appropriated as a product to sell, a reliable source for workers, and an object of consumption. To examine this proposition, the author analyzes Korean small businesses in the Los Angeles area, focusing on the human capital of Korean entrepreneurs, costs of reproduction of entrepreneurial labor, and the work processes.
Corporate Service Linkages in Large Metropolitan Areas: A Study of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, vol. 28, no. 2
Alex Schwartz
Some urban analysts contend that suburbs provide the same economic functions as the central city, and others argue that they lack the agglomeration economies necessary for high-level corporate activities, especially financial, business, and professional services. The author compares the suburbs and central cities of the nation's three largest consolidated metropolitan statistical areas-New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago-as providers of several corporate services, analyzing where the largest companies obtain accounting, actuarial, banking, investment banking, and legal services. Both central-city- and suburban-based companies rely mostly on central-city-based service providers, and this reliance increases with company size.
There's a Madness in the Method: Redefining Citizen Contacting of Government Officials, vol. 28, no. 2
Philip B. Coulter
Recent meta-analysis of research on citizen-initiated contacting of government officials revealed that the findings are basically an artifact of the method used. Macroanalytic studies using aggregate data find a negative or curvilinear relationship between contacting and socioeconomic status (SES), and microanalytic studies using survey data find a positive or null relationship between contacting and SES. This author argues that almost all survey researchers have used an invalid operational measure of contacting. Analysis of results from a Birmingham, Alabama, survey, which defined contacting in the conventional way and with specific, bounded- and aided-recall questions, strongly suggests that much of what researchers know or think they know about contacting is suspect.
Is There a Relationship Between Fragmentation and Local Government Costs? A Comment on Drew Dolan (UAQ 26:28-45)
Community Social Status, Suburban Growth, and Local Government Restrictions on Residential Development, vol. 28, no. 2
Todd Donovan & Max Neiman
Residential development restrictions among Southern California suburban jurisdictions are examined. The purpose of the analysis is to assess the relative importance of various measures of community status, partisanship, and growth as predictors of local policy to regulate residential development. Social status and growth rates appear to account for some of the interjurisdictional variation in policy, although it is clear that excluded factors are also important. Several issues regarding the study of local development policy and what might affect findings from study to study are also addressed.
Fiscal Pressure? The Impact of Elder Recruitment on Local Expenditures, vol. 28, no. 2
Daniel R. Mullins & Mark S. Rosentraub
Several states and cities have developed policies designed to attract retirees, hoping to position their communities as future homes for the retirement years of high-spending, low-service-consuming elders. In this article, attention is focused on issues of public expenditures. Although near-retirement-age populations seem to have lower demands for public goods, these preferences quickly change, and communities with larger proportions of postretirement people in their population spend more for public services. Political tensions may result. Thus there may be no economic boom in attracting retirement or preretirement-age populations to a community.
Urban Affairs Quarterly, Volume 28, Number 1, September 1992
Growith Politics and Downtown Development: The Economic Imperative in Sunbelt Cities, vol. 28, no. 1
Robyne S. Turner
Urban areas dominated by growth do not follow the same progrowth strategies for development. Some cities have adopted development policies that seek to redistribute the costs and benefits of downtown economic development. This is not necessarily, however, an antigrowth strategy but is, rather, a progressive growth agenda. In this comparative study, the characteristics of growth politics are examined through downtown development strategies that affect commercial development and neighborhood housing. The distribution of costs and benefits of such development to commercial and residential sectors indicates different public/private relationships that can be found within growth politics.
Urban Primacy and World-System Position, vol. 28, no. 1
Brad Lyman
Urban primacy emerged in many developing countries during the twentieth century. The author of this cross-national study applied generalized least-squares panel regressions of world-system position, level of economic development, and land area to a standardized urban primacy index. Although core nations remained stable, peripheral and semiperipheral nations became more primate from 1930 to 1970. The trend toward urban primacy among peripheral nations slackened dramatically in the 1970s. National city-size distributions clearly diverged in the twentieth century, and world-systems theory provides insight into the international influences that mediate internal urban processes.
Dynamics of the U.S. System of Cities, 1950 to 1980: The Impact of the Large Corporate Law Firm, vol. 28, no. 1
Jean Lynch & David R. Meyer
Large law firms constitute integral compenents of the corporate complexes of cities. Analyses of data from 75 cities between 1950 and 1980 demonstrate that the increasing numbers, sized, and branching of these corporate law firms correspond closely to the long-term processes of urban growth and change. The hierarchy of linked metropolises compose the key structure within which these firms operate. A governmental network headed by Washington, DC, which also includes state capitals, overlaps it.
Citizenship in the Empowered Locality: An Elaboration, A Critique, and a Partial Test, vol. 28, no. 1
David Lowery, Ruth Hoogland DeHoog, & William E. Lyons
Although liberal and communitarian interpretations of citizenship differ profoundly, they nevertheless offer essentially similar prescriptions in support of empowered localities. The authors argue, instead, that the rejected alternative of consolidated government better promotes both interpretations of effective citizenship. They develop this argument by more fully specifying the behavioral implications of the two views of citizenship and theoretically linking those behaviors to fragmented and consolidated urban institutions using the Exit, Voice, Loyalty, and Neglect model introduced by Lyons and Lowery in 1986. They then test the central position derived from that analysis using a comparison group design.
Housing Adjustments Among Older Home Owners, vol. 28, no. 1
Roberto G. Quercia & William M. Rohe
Older home owners who have more housing than they need yet also have difficulty meeting other basic needs-who are housing rich and income poor-may have the most incentive to adjust their housing conditions to augment their postretirement income. A test of a revised model of housing adjustment is presented that indicates that, indeed, such households are more likely to undertake both moving and nonmoving adjustments than are other households. The findings are used to assess the likely effects of two types of public programs on the choice of housing-adjustment mechanisms by older home owners.
Racial Barriers to Credit: Comment on Hula (UAQ 27:249-67), vol. 28, no. 1
Anne B. Shlay, Ira Goldstein, & David Bartelt
A Brief Response to Shlay, Goldstein, and Bartelt, vol. 28, no. 1
Richard C. Hula
Response: A Theoretical Framework for Econometrically Analyzing Mortgage Lending Activity in Census Tracts, vol. 28, no. 1
George Galster
Race and Lending: A Rejoinder to Hula and Galster, vol. 28, no. 1
Anne B. Shlay & David Bartelt
How to Get More Women in Office: The Perspectives of Local Elected Officials (Mayors and City Councilers), vol. 28, no. 1
Susan A. MacManus
Female officeholders greatly influence the paths taken by those considering running for office. A mail survey of female mayors and council members shows that the reticence of women to run is perceived by these officeholders as the major barrier to more women getting elected. Factors ranging from the method of electing council members to the timing of elections, length and structure of terms, council size, runoff requirements, and media coverage are not seen as major roadblocks. There also is no evidence that the prestige of the mayor's office makes it tougher for women to capture mayoral positions than council seats.
Urban Affairs Quarterly,Volume 27, Number 4, June 1992
Winning the West to Municipal Reform, vol. 27, no. 4
Amy Bridges
In the 20 years after 1900, municipal reformers celebrated triumph after triumph as cities across the country adopted commission and city-manager charters. The cities of the Southwest were prominent in the movement for municipal reform. In this article, the author shows how the West was won to municipal reform and argues that the adoption of reform charters was not the product of conducive local political culture but, rather, the result of region understood as strategic location and of manipulations of the riles that advantages advocates of charter vision.
How the Urban West Was Won: The Local State and Economic Growth in Los Angeles, 1880-1932, vol. 27, no. 4
Steven P. Erie
The author examines early Los Angeles's transition from an essentially entrepreneurial growth regime (1880-1906) to a more state-centered growth regime (1906-1932). The analysis highlights the role of public infrastructure projects-water, power, and the harbor-and of powerful local bureaucracies, such as the Department of Water and Power, in shaping the region's Progressive Era development. Los Angeles's reliance upon a public strategy of economic development is placed in comparative regional perspective. In the early twentieth century, the local state served as a key instrument of economic development throughout the urban West.
The Urban Antiregime: Progressive Politics in San Francisco, vol. 27, no. 4
Richard E. DeLeon
San Francisco is in transition between two urban regimes, a crumbling business-dominated progrowth regime and an emerging progressive slow-growth regime, which is best described as an antiregime because it functions mainly to obstruct the exercise of power. To convert an urban movement into a regime, the city's progressive leaders must reconcile the divergent political interests of coalition elements, renegotiate a partnership with the private sector that is consistent with slow-growth objectives, and settle disputes surrounding Mayor Agnos's tenure. The progressive coalition's exclusive reliance upon a small-business economy is not sufficient to resolve contradictions between materialist and postmaterialist goals in the progressive agenda.
The Continuing Saga of Municipal Reform: New York City and the Politics of Ethics Law, vol. 27, no. 4
Frank Anechiarico & James B. Jacobs
Governmental responses to corruption are embedded in urban politics and public administration. Rather than attempting a general theory of official corruption in local government, the authors present a case study of New York City's response to a severe corruption scandal in the late 1980s. They show how public administration is driven by responses to scandals and attempts to deter them. Ethics reform from the Progressive Era to the present fit into three ideal-typical anticorruption strategies. The authors explain how these strategies have changed over time and focus particularly on the increasing dominance of the crime-control strategy.
City Limits and the Growth of Suburban Retail Trade, 1982-1987, vol. 27, no. 4
Mark Schneider
The ability of cities to attract economic activity has been a core theme of urban research during the last decade. In this research note, the author examines the location of retail employment in 1972, 1982, and 1987 in a sample of approximately 1000 suburban municipalities and explores the effects of local factors on the relative success that these communities experience in fostering growth in jobs in the retail sector. Policy effects are strongly limited by the inherent long-term stability in the distribution of economic activity and in the enduring distribution of the demographic conditions that define the quality and attractiveness of the local market for private goods.
Municipal Consolidation: An Analysis of the Financial Benefits for Fiscally Distressed Small Municipalities, vol. 27, no. 4
Beverly S. Bunch & Robert P. Strauss
The authors analyze the expenditures and revenues associated with the potential consolidation of nine small, fically distresses municipalities in western Pennsylvania that have lost substantial portions of their tax base as a result of the closing of steel mills and related heavy industry. The analysis includes the collection of consistent financial information, the creation of forecasted base-case 1989 revenue-and-expenditure scenarios, and their juxtaposition for the nine jurisdictions against consolidation scenarios that might provide cost savings while maintaining critical service levels. Consolidation may provide a method for eliminating chroni