Combining historic preservation and income class integration: A case study of the butchers hill neighborhood of Baltimore

Abstract

For the past several decades in the United States, a tension has existed between the goals of historic preservation, the provision of affordable housing, and the creation of mixed‐income neighborhoods. Historic restoration for residential uses has often been associated with gentrification and the displacement of low‐income residents. This article examines the public and private sector support system for combining historic preservation with the creation of affordable and mixed‐income housing and neighborhoods and analyzes the strategies and experiences of the Baltimore neighborhood of Butchers Hill in taking this approach to community re‐vitalization.

Using historic preservation as a catalyst for community revitalization requires a comprehensive approach to prevent displacement of low‐income residents. In Butchers Hill, the mixed‐income community that was created was an outgrowth of conflict between two community‐based organizations. The case eludes simple typologies of gentrification and indicates the need for additional study of the dynamics and benefits of mixed‐income neighborhoods.     

Unanimous constitutional consent and the immigration problem

This paper utilizes the cross-cutting cleavages approach to evaluate the probability of a unanimous constitutional consent and, based on these results, discusses the implications of immigration on an existing constitutional consent. It is shown that previous conclusions of beneficial effects stemming from a multitude of political dimensions for a unanimous constitutional consent crucially depend on the assumption of an extreme mode of intrapersonal compensation of constitutional majority and minority preferences. These conclusions are reversed once you consider more restrictive schemes of such intrapersonal compensation. Since, furthermore, the probability of constitutional consent unambiguously falls with a growing size of the collectivity, only a policy of selective and controlled immigration will be able to guarantee with regard to the existing cleavages of a society that the existing constitutional consent will not be damaged or destroyed, whereas uncontrolled immigration, possibly based on ethical norms, will risk the breakdown of any constitutional consent in a society.     

参与式预算的公共投资效率意义——以浙江温岭市泽国镇为例

主要的论题是政府在公共预算制定过程中,通过怎样的机制实现公共投资效率的最大化.采用了规范研究与实证案例研究相结合的研究方法.研究表明,公共投资效率的涵义是公共投入为相关民众带来福利的最大改进,其规范性制度意义是相关民众就公共预算方案达成一致同意.研究指出,实现公共投资效率的核心问题是居民偏好的有效表达与偏好的集结;基于偏好表达与偏好集结的不可能性困境,在居民偏好给定的情况下,通过居民参与公共预算方案的讨论与协商,居民的偏好能够有效表达,并在协商过程中理性地、非强制地改变自己的偏好,进而就公共决策达成一致同意.浙江省温岭市泽国镇实施的参与式公共预算模式,有效解决了公共投资决策中的偏好表达与偏好集结的问题,促进了公共投资效率的实现,在基层公共预算制度改革中具有普遍意义.居民在公共预算制定过程中的协商参与,不仅使得政府公共决策具有了政治上的合法性,公共决策满足了民众需求,更重要的是促进了公共投资效率的实现.     

Does Fiscal Stress Induce Privatization? Correlates of Private and Intermunicipal Contracting, 1992–2002

Using Census of Governments data, preferences for private and intermunicipal contracting by U.S. counties during the 1992–2002 period are modeled as a function of established economic and political factors. After distinguishing between private and intermunicipal contracting, there is no evidence that fiscal stress induces privatization. High debt levels are associated with fewer publicly delivered services, but counties with high debt are as likely to partner with neighboring municipalities as they are with private firms. Political factors are weak predictors of either form of contracting. The strongest and most reliable predictor of both private and intermunicipal contracting is the creation of new public services. These findings imply the strategic use of contracting for trial, temporary, or contingent services.     

社区治理共同体建设——新时代社区治理制度化的理论逻辑与实现路径

社区治理共同体是社会治理共同体的基础单元,社区治理共同体建设的制度化程度直接关乎社会治理现代化的制度化水平和总体质量.进入新时代,推动社区治理共同体的制度建设,必须坚持和完善党对社区治理工作的全面领导,发挥党组织的政治引领、组织引领、能力引领、机制引领作用.同时,构建政府负责下简约高效的基层社会管理体制,通过政府向社会力量购买服务机制实现社区公共服务的社会协同供给,以民主协商的方式实现社区治理的公众参与.还要以法治为保障、以科技为支撑,提升和推动社区治理和服务的法治化水平和信息化建设,进而建设人人有责、人人尽责、人人享有的社区治理共同体.     

Saving Strong Neighborhoods From the Destruction of Mortgage Foreclosures: The Impact of Community-Based Efforts in Detroit,Michigan

Mortgage foreclosures hit Detroit, Michigan hard between 2005 and 2014, especially in what we define as strong neighborhoods; there, more than one third of homes experienced foreclosure. Before the crisis hit, these selected tracts had largely intact physical environments and higher owner occupancy, household income and property value than the citywide median. In some of them residents worked intensely to abate the neighborhood effects of mortgage foreclosures. This study examines those efforts’ effectiveness. We selected neighborhoods with the most extensive efforts, as measured, for instance, by creation of community-based plans and applications for grants, and we conducted interviews and field observations to examine those efforts. To assess strengthening of neighborhood housing markets, we applied a modified adjusted interrupted time-series approach to evaluate changes in prices as one measure of neighborhood change. We found that strong resident initiative supported by community development organizations and external assistance led to increased neighborhood housing prices, compared with comparable neighborhoods. However, when initiative, context, and support were weaker, community-based efforts could not prevent considerable decline.     

Neighborhood government

Advocacy of neighborhood government should be based on a careful assessment of possible dangers and deficiencies, as well as merits. The obstacles to increasing neighborhood power include the costs of community organizing in terms of time and effort, community conflict, city-neighborhood conflict, and general political conflict. To persuade individuals to engage in collective action, it is necessary that the rewards of such action be greater than the personal costs. Serious participation is likely to occur only when neighborhood government programs offer visible rewards and work to solve concrete problems. There is a specific awareness that many unions and politicians will fight neighborhood government and that they have the power to damage or destroy it. There is also the sense that, whereas there has been success in developing community structures, it has been difficult to move government toward decentralization, toward more flexible administrative procedures.To appear in a forthcoming book,The City in the Seventies (edited by Robert K. Yin), to be published by F. E. Peacock Publishers, Inc.     

社区心理现状与建设思路：基于对北京市G街道的调研

当前的社区治理很少考虑社区共同心理的建设,而且缺乏针对社区心理特点的调研资料。我们在北京市 G 街道五个社区开展的居民社区心理调查表明,虽然总体而言人们内心对社区的认同感较高,但是在社区行为层面,如邻里交往和社区参与的得分并不高;此外,不同群体这些变量上的得分有所差异。基于此,建议在北京市率先开展社区心理建设,通过设立社区标志物、开展社区间竞赛、组织社区虚拟论坛、开展党员和工作人群“回社区报到”活动等增强居民社区认同,促进邻里交往和社区参与,培育社区共同心理。     

Nonprofit housing development: Status,trends, and prospects

Abstract

This article relies on a national survey of community‐based housing development organizations to profile production levels, spatial coverage, funding sources, and nondevelopmental roles of the nonprofit housing development sector. It also uses Urban Institute case study results and secondary data sources to examine continuing barriers to increased production in the sector and the evolution of institutional responses to those barriers.

Nationwide, about 13 percent of all recent federally supported housing units (excluding public housing) have been sponsored by nonprofit developers. This production is distributed very unevenly; relatively few developers produce the bulk of units, and regional disparities are marked. Long‐standing barriers to efficient production at higher volumes continue: Undercapitalization, high‐risk developments, patchwork systems of finance, and the difficulty of demonstrating the social payoff of community development investments constrain even the most sophisticated portions of the sector. However, the creation of national intermediary institutions over the past decade and the proliferation of similar organizations locally have established the preconditions for sector expansion. And in view of recent local initiatives in participatory, comprehensive neighborhood revitalization, and hints of federal support for like efforts, increased capacity in the sector has taken on new national importance.     

The EC's Budget in the Move to a Single Market

This article will consider the approach of 1992 and the single market from the perspective of the community budget. It will begin by recalling the distinctive characteristics of that budget and the way in which argument about it dominated the EC agenda throughout the 1980s up until the Brussels European Council meeting held between 11 and 13 February 1988. It will then consider the relationship between the decisions taken in Brussels and the wider issue of the creation of a single market. In particular, it will examine the issue of resource availability and will argue that the budgetary framework established in Brussels significantly contributed to modifying the extent and nature of community policies in a way which will continue to be felt after 1992. It will conclude by arguing that the process initiated in Brussels has widened the acquis communautaire and altered the balance between autonomy and interdependence in the community in the run-up to the creation of the single market.     

Mr. Justice Brandeis and the Creation of the Federal Register

The creation of the Federal Register in 1935 was crucial in enhancing transparency in American national government and its accountability under law. This historic action during the troubled New Deal era established a core institutional framework that endures as the nation begins a new century and as public administration struggles with an era of new institutionalism. Drawing on archival records and interviews, this article examines the political, administrative, and legal factors that led to the Register's creation. In particular, it sheds light on the little known but pivotal role played by Justice Brandeis in an extrajudicial capacity in this process. Brandeis's actions derive, in part, from his lifelong concern for fostering government openness and ensuring accountability under law from government bureaucracy. Without his intervention, it is unlikely the Federal Register Act would have been enacted at the time and in its important institutional form.     

Preserving Community Assets: Do Foreclosure Sales Need to Negatively Impact the Neighborhood?

Research has linked concentrated foreclosures with negative neighborhood outcomes; for instance, increased crime and decreased property values. These outcomes drain community asset holdings and impact the longer term trajectory of the neighborhood. However, data reported in this article from a Boston study challenge the assumption that negative neighborhood outcomes are a foregone conclusion in the face of foreclosures. Analysis of interviews with real estate agents and other foreclosure professionals, neighborhood ethnographic observation, and citywide sales and foreclosure sales documents demonstrate that the distinct nature of the foreclosure sales process creates market disruptions heightening the risk for documented negative neighborhood outcomes. Attempts by the seller to reduce financial risks in the sale increase the likelihood of vacancy and create a market oriented toward investor–buyers. Understanding the risk preferences of key decision makers in the foreclosure sale process reveals new intervention points—such as intervening at the short sale, or expanding and updating foreclosure laws to reflect current foreclosure sales markets—to reduce market disruptions and preserve community assets in the face of foreclosures.     

Housing Upkeep and Public Good Provision in Residential Neighborhoods

Neighborhood condition is a public good in part provided by neighborhood residents’ private property maintenance. Considering neighborhood condition as an impure public good provides a theoretical basis for understanding how the level of neighborhood quality may affect residents’ home maintenance decisions. Empirical results in a low-income neighborhood, where formulating public policy to improve neighborhoods is of significant concern, indicate a positive substitution effect. When neighborhoods improve, residents respond by increasing exterior home upkeep. This result is robust to both changes in the neighborhood condition generated by other neighbors’ increase in maintenance and exogenous public investment in the neighborhood.     

Everyday Legitimacy in Post-Conflict Spaces: The Creation of Social Legitimacy in Bosnia-Herzegovina's Cultural Arenas

Abstract

The international community has long been criticized for its lack of social legitimacy in Bosnia-Herzegovina and its creation of a dysfunctional public space in the light of people's everyday experiences of peace. This article contends that, as a result, legitimacy has been moved from such public spaces to semi-public spaces, wherein the public and the private are interrelated. One example is local cultural arenas, where hopes emerging in people's everyday lives are projected onto alternative visions of peace and a corresponding social contract. In that sense, cultural agencies have served as alternative social locations of legitimacy due to their closer connection to people's lives and needs.     

Reforming Indian agriculture and the rise of farmer's protest in India: Tracing the discourse and the way ahead

The Indian government unveiled new farm legislation on September 27, 2020, with the goal of empowering the farming community. According to the government, new farm regulations will reduce the reliance of indigenous farmers on the mandi (market yard) system, which is now in place and is quite exploitative and full of middlemen and legal cartels. The regulations made contract farming lawful with the intention of luring private sector investment in bolstering agricultural supply chains and infrastructure to give farmers better pricing. But these rules are referred to as repressive and anti-farmer by the farming community. Farmers believe that eliminating the mandi system will eliminate the minimum support price (MSP) mechanism and that contract farming will ultimately be damaging, enticing major corporations and private investors to bind them to unfair contracts that will result in exploitation. Farmers' demonstrations have begun as a result in the former territory of the green revolution. In order to determine if the new farm regulations introduced by the central government are indeed beneficial to the rural community or not, the article followed the debate among many academics, policy makers, economists, researchers, stakeholders, and politicians (the government's spokesman). The article's main focus is on analysing the farmers' demand for the new farm rules to be repealed and the economic justification for their opposition. Additionally, it contends that new farm rules will encourage capitalistic farming and endanger the viability of farming communities, particularly small and marginal farms (S&M).     

Institutional Analysis of Neighborhood Collective Action

Sublocal governance organizations may provide a way for some urban neighborhoods to stabilize and improve property values. Recent advances in collective action theory, spatial statistical methods, and data availability now make it possible to more directly evaluate the effects of these organizations. The analysis combines geocoded assessor's data and data from a survey of neighborhood and homeowner associations to analyze a model of prices of single‐family homes in Little Rock, Arkansas, from 2012 to 2016. The results show that neighborhood and homeowner associations both have significant positive effects on neighborhood property values relative to unorganized neighborhoods and that the effect of neighborhood associations is at least as large as that of homeowner associations. Moreover, the results indicate that neighborhood association structure mediates the effect on property values, although this is not the case for homeowner associations.     

Lessons from El Barrio—the East Harlem real great society/urban planning studio: A Puerto Rican chapter in the fight for urban self‐determination∗

Abstract

During the 1960s, the Lower East Side and East Harlem were among the principal contested terrains in New York City, and the emerging Puerto Rican community was being challenged on many fronts. As contested terrains, they were the arenas where transforming forces in American society were being articulated. Responses to these forces varied from neighborhood to neighborhood. Among the responses were groups organized around community development, particularly to fight urban renewal projects. In this essay, I examine a year in the life of the East Harlem Real Great Society/Urban Planning Studio (RGS/UPS). RGS/UPS emerged in a transition period in the development of Puerto Rican institutions. It combined several characteristics of groups organized during those years. It was founded by grassroots community youth; it was also a professionally staffed organization; it was structured around an advocacy model; and it valued its ethnic‐specificity, its Puertoricanness. Its staff's eagerness to speak for the needs and aspirations of Puerto Ricans was a clear example of ethnicity‐based struggle.     

Information Sharing for Infrastructure Risk Management: Barriers and Solutions

There is a public interest in ensuring that infrastructure systems are appropriately protected and prepared for disruptions. While infrastructure protection is usually viewed as a public responsibility, infrastructure risk management actually requires a high degree of cooperation between the public and private sectors, particularly in the sharing of information about risks to infrastructure. Discussions with Chief Security Officers across sectors of the US economy reveal the complexity of the task, as they describe at length the private sector's requirements of multiples types of information about a range of potential threats. While the US government has established many mechanisms for sharing information, barriers remain that inhibit both the private and public partners from obtaining the information needed to protect infrastructure. Overcoming these barriers requires new thinking about the intelligence generation process, the mechanisms and practices upon which the process relies, and the responsibilities of those in the private sector who participate in it.     

Efficient allocation and unanimous consent with incomplete demand disclosures?

The following hypothesis about behavior in collective economic decisions is proposed. Individuals disclose latent demands accurately provided that doing so results in no appreciable loss of opportunity for material gain. On the foundation of this behavioral hypothesis, the following procedure is suggested. A collective good intermediary (CGI) solicits reports about latent demand schedules from a sample whose replies will not appreciably affect their own cost-shares. The CGI uses their reports to estimate the statically efficient program size and tax-shares adequate to finance it. The CGI then presents a proposal to the entire pertinent population on a this-or-nothing basis. If approved nearly uanimously, the proposal is adopted. It is concluded that if a program is worth adopting, i.e., generates a positive, aggregate net benefit, complete disclosure by all will not be needed to finance it. Most participants may, therefore, not need to estimate, even for themselves, their maximum personal benefit. The task of setting cost-shares to attain nearly unanimous consent will be easier the greater the aggregate gain from the efficient choice.