Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Authors' Blog: Connecting Across the Divides of Race/Ethnicity: How Does Segregation Matter? - An Overview
This is an author-produced blog posts introduce upcoming Urban Affairs Review articles. The Online First abstract can be found here.
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Connecting
Across the Divides of Race/Ethnicity: How Does Segregation Matter? - An
Overview
Authors: Joseph
Gibbons and Tse-Chuan Yang
Joseph
Gibbons Tse-Chuan Yang
Community
Connection and the problem of diversity?
The
recent wave of urban conflicts, like that seen in Baltimore, makes clear the
need for continued discussion on urban racial disadvantage. To this end, the connections one has with
their neighbors and a neighborhood itself, community connection, is a key venue
with which to focus. Research has shown
that poor community connection leads to variety of social ills, such as higher
crime and poorer health. There exists an
active discussion in city research as the effects racial/ethnic composition of one's
neighborhood have onto their community connection. A long enduring belief is
that racially diverse communities lack strong community connection due to
inability of different community members to establish common ground. As Robert Putnam once put it, people in these
communities 'hunker down', avoiding close connections with those nearby. However, there are raising doubts as to
whether this dour assessment captures the full scope of how race impacts
community connection.
Monday, May 18, 2015
Online First: NYC 311 A Tract-Level Analysis of Citizen–Government Contacting in New York City
NYC 311
A Tract-Level Analysis of Citizen–Government Contacting in New York City
- Scott L. Minkoff, Barnard College, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027, USA. Email:sminkoff@barnard.edu
Abstract
311 is a telephone and web service that allows residents of many cities to report nonemergency concerns and problems with city services to their local government. This article explores the Census-tract-level variation in 311 contacting volume within New York City. Drawing on previous research on citizen–government interaction, service delivery, and civic engagement, the article focuses on how contacting propensity and condition both explain spatial variations in contacting volume. These explanations are tested using indicators that describe the people who live and work in the space, the housing in the space, the economic development of the space, and the space’s representation in city government. 311 contacting is divided into three categories (government-provided goods, graffiti, and noise) that are separately analyzed using regression models that account for spatial and serial dependence. The article also discusses the theoretical and methodological challenges of using 311 data to understand the distribution of problems within a city.
Friday, May 15, 2015
Online First: Leveraging Public Land Development Initiatives for Private Gain The Political Economy of Vacant Land Speculation in Phoenix, Arizona
Leveraging Public Land Development Initiatives for Private Gain
The Political Economy of Vacant Land Speculation in Phoenix, Arizona
- Benjamin W. Stanley, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 875502, Tempe, AZ 85287-5502, USA. Email: bwstanley@asu.edu
Abstract
Land speculation has been an integral component of the political economy of land development in American urban history. In the American Sunbelt, land speculation occurs amid progrowth governance regimes that engage in intermunicipal competition for capital investment. This article presents a mixed-methods case study of vacant land speculation in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, before, during, and after the mid-2000s property boom. Results indicate that land speculation represented a significant barrier to both public and private infill development efforts, and that some municipal development initiatives actually facilitated private speculative profits. Speculative strategies are enabled when weaknesses in the coordination and bargaining power of urban growth regimes, derived from conflict within and between governmental scales, can be exploited by individual market actors. The self-propulsive nature of speculative property market cycles, unconstrained by local regimes increasingly dependent on nonlocal capital investment, represents an autonomous force actively orienting entries into property markets and influencing the ability to enact sustainable infill development.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Online First: The Everyday Emergency Planning and Democracy Under Austerity Regimes
The Everyday Emergency
Planning and Democracy Under Austerity Regimes
- Carolyn G. Loh, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Wayne State University, 3198 FAB, 656 W. Kirby, Detroit, MI 48202, USA. Email: cgloh@wayne.edu
Abstract
In the last several years, the governor of Michigan has placed seven cities under the control of emergency managers (EMs), who have the authority to make drastic cuts and rearrangements of public processes and services. I investigate what happens to planning processes under these circumstances, and how EMs use planning to accomplish their goals. I find that many of the cities devote renewed attention to planning, and that the planning process may function as an alternative public participation process, given that the normal democratic process had been disrupted. I also find that the implementation of the plans is likely to be problematic because of staffing cuts, and that planning in itself cannot solve the structural problems that led to these cities’ financial distress.
Monday, May 11, 2015
As featured in CityLab: Macro-Level Determinants of Local Government Interaction How Metropolitan Regions in the United States Compare
Rise of the Fragmented City
Does the number of governments in a given metro area really matter?
by Richard Florida
See more in CityLab ...
Original article by Rebecca Hendrick and Yu Shi of the University of Illinois at Chicago, featured in the May 2015 issue of Urban Affairs Review.
http://uar.sagepub.com/content/51/3/414
Online First: ¿Eres Amigo o Enemigo? Contextual Determinants of Latinos’ Perceived Competition with African-Americans
¿Eres Amigo o Enemigo? Contextual Determinants of Latinos’ Perceived Competition with African-Americans
- Valerie Martinez-Ebers, University of North Texas, 1121 Union Circle, Wooten Hall 125, Denton, TX 76203, USA. Email: valmartinez@UNT.EDU
Abstract
Prior research has examined how racial and socioeconomic environments influence the racial attitudes of Whites and Blacks. We extend this line of research to explore how local context influences Latinos’ perceived competition with African-Americans. We use the 2006 Latino National Survey and a newly appended contextual data set. We find that having more Black neighbors heightens Latinos’ perceived competition with Blacks, but only when Latinos are economically vulnerable. The presence of African-Americans within Latinos’ neighborhoods is a necessary but insufficient condition for increasing their perceived competition with Blacks; Latinos’ perceived threat is shaped by thecombined effect of the neighborhood racial composition and their group’s economic status.
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