Rethinking Locational Outcomes for Housing Choice Vouchers: A Case Study in Duval County,Florida

This study examines locational patterns of housing choice vouchers in Duval County, Florida, using the Housing Suitability Model (HSM), a newly developed geographic information system–based model that evaluates residential land parcels and neighborhoods in terms of their suitability for affordable housing. The HSM was used to characterize voucher locations and other residential parcels across the county in terms of opportunity and accessibility. The analysis explores the tradeoffs between opportunity and accessibility inherent in many neighborhoods throughout the county. It finds that voucher holders' locations lag substantially behind other residential locations in terms of opportunity measures but are more comparable in terms of accessibility. Further analysis finds differences in opportunity and accessibility among subgroups of voucher holders by various demographic characteristics. The study recommends the incorporation of opportunity and accessibility for voucher holders into local housing planning, including the implementation of proposed rules for Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing.     

The local political economy of the regulatory state: Governing affordable housing in England

Regulatory governance involves the use of heterogeneous mechanisms to extract welfare gains from market-based processes. While often viewed as a depoliticization mechanism, here, we explore a distinctly political manifestation of regulatory governance. Our study focuses on the governance of affordable housing in England, specifically on local authorities' use of ‘Section 106′ (S106) powers to compel private developers to include affordable housing in new developments. We show that, following the financial crisis, the governance of affordable housing shifted from a partisan to a valence issue. As the crisis increased the issue salience of affordable housing, left-wing authorities' hitherto higher tendency to intervene was eroded in the midst of a broad-based increase in S106 deployment. In addition to extending insights into the political economy of regulatory state intervention, our findings shed valuable light on the undersupply of affordable housing in England.     

Fishing,food, and harbor community development in Massachusetts

Fishing communities are highly dependent on fishing and maritime economies. Regulations and techniques attempt to control quotas, types of fish caught, and the gear utilized in the industry. Furthermore, societal preferences and markets dictate the value of the fish transacted. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship and recent changes between fishing and community development in two fishing communities in Massachusetts: Gloucester and New Bedford. Moreover, I also discuss the role that fish food plays in cities and their foodways. The research asks how these communities have adapted to changes in fishing stocks, techniques, socioeconomic trends and regulations during the last two decades. A resilience public affairs approach centered on seven governance dimensions of fisheries is utilized to analyze the case studies. It is argued that specializing in niche markets, developing adequate industry facilities, and nurturing the cultural aspects endemic to each fishing community has positively influenced the communities' capacity to withstand major societal transformations. The harbor plans for Gloucester and New Bedford provide some plausible directions toward future improvements in the fishing sector.     

Gubernatorial Transition in Florida: A Look at How Politics, Budgeting, and Policy Analysis Interface

This article details the use of policy-focused transition teams during Florida's most recent gubernatorial transition. In a marked shift from the past, the most recent transition separated the appointments and policy advisory functions. The inseparable nature of politics, budgeting, and policy analysis are demonstrated via: (1) an analysis of the transition budget; (2) a detailed look at team structures and their role in agency performance evaluation; (3) a calculation of the fiscal and policy impacts of team recommendations; (4) post-session assessments of the governor's first legislative agenda; and (5) post-transition interviews with key participants.     

Emerging,and old,dilemmas for food security in Latin America

The present text offers a summary of some of the crucial food security problems in Latin American (LA) countries. This region, like many others in the globe, confronts such as food safety difficulties. The summary offers also an analysis of some technologically based solutions for LA food security issues. As a general call, the present review article calls for a collaborative and transdisciplinary approach to think deeper about how to solve food security problems, putting the focus on enabling technologies within a context of social, market, and global trends to achieve food and nutritional security. The review is positioned far from techno‐optimisms and, at the same time, away from purely economic‐based solutions. Conversely, this review embraces the whole complexity that brings economy‐nature‐technology triad. Embracing such complex relationships between technology, nature and the socio‐economy aspects of food security LA issues. Such complexity also triggers a need for a solution that considers a renewed approach to sustainability in the whole food value chain from production to consumption. Sustainability in the value chain opens up a much‐needed approach to LA food security that broadens, and refresh, our understanding of this fundamental socio‐economic and technical phenomena.     

County Government Structural Reform: Influence of State, Region, and Urbanization

This article analyzes the influence of state, region, and urbanizationon adoption of comity government structural reform, exemplifiedby charter adoption, appointment of county administrators, andelection of executives. It examines3, 119 counties on whichdata were available, emphasizing the 786 counties with appointedadministrators, 382 with elected executives, and 117 with charters.These three structural reforms were correlated with urbanizationas measured by three variables for counties nationwide: populationsize, population growth, and per capita income. The reformsalso were examined by U.S. Census regions and subregions. Theneach reform was adjusted to assess the influence of one or afew stales where a given reform was slate-imposed or almostuniversally adopted. For each reform, urbanization was a keyfactor in explaining adoption. Region offered little explanation.The stale also emerged as an important variable     

The Impact of Home‐Based Child Care Provider Unionization on the Cost,Type, and Availability of Subsidized Child Care in Illinois

In February 2005, Illinois became the first U.S. state to grant home‐based child care providers (HBCPs) the right to form a labor union in order to bargain collectively with the state government. This policy inspired similar efforts across the country and represents a potentially important direction for child care policy. To date, the implications of labor unions for the cost, type, and availability of subsidized child care have not been evaluated empirically. In this study, we examine the impact of granting Illinois HBCPs the right to form a labor union on (a) the type of child care (licensed vs. license‐exempt/home‐based vs. center‐based) used by subsidy‐receiving Illinois infants and toddlers; (b) the per‐child cost of subsidized child care for infants and toddlers; and (c) the percentage of Illinois infants and toddlers who use child care subsidies. To conduct these analyses, we combine data from the Current Population Survey with Child Care and Development Fund administrative records on U.S. infants and toddlers whose families received child care subsidies during the period from 2002 to 2008. We use both a traditional difference‐in‐differences as well as a comparative case study with a “synthetic” control group approach. The synthetic control group approach improves on traditional comparative case studies by providing a transparent, empirical approach for constructing the counterfactual, documenting comparison units’ contribution to the synthetically created control group and detailing the degree to which the synthetic control group is, or is not, similar to the treated unit on preintervention measures of the outcome as well as on other selected characteristics. We find that subsidy‐receiving Illinois infants and toddlers spent an average of between 6.4 and 7 percentage points more hours in licensed care settings, as compared to license‐exempt settings, in the three years following child care unionization. We also find that between 0.7 and 1.1 percentage points fewer Illinois infants and toddlers used child care subsidies following unionization.     

Affordability After Subsidies: Understanding the Trajectories of Former Assisted Housing in Florida

Each year, thousands of units are lost from the assisted rental housing inventory through deterioration and default, subsidy expiration, and market-rate conversion. While a good deal of research and data collection has focused on identifying at-risk developments, less is known about what happens to former assisted developments after they exit income and rent restrictions. This article uses a survey of former assisted properties in Florida to identify their postsubsidy trajectories—that is, as to whether developments continue as rental housing, are converted to condominiums, or leave the housing stock through vacancy and demolition; and for those that continue as rental housing, whether they continue to offer affordable rents. Using logistic regression models, the article examines the property, housing market, and neighborhood characteristics that determine these trajectories. The results show that smaller properties, those that have been out of subsidy programs longer, and those in stronger neighborhood housing markets are more likely to be converted to condominiums. Among developments that continue as rental housing, those that previously had more stringent rent restrictions, those in strong rental submarkets, and those with better transit access tend to become unaffordable compared with previous rent limits.     

Spatially and Sequentially Heterogeneous Discounts of Distressed Property Values in Cuyahoga County,Ohio

One of the most persistent public policy debates is over the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis and its continuing impact on housing markets. Distressed properties – including foreclosure and real estate-owned properties – tend to be sold at much lower prices than nearby comparable properties, often pulling down both surrounding property values and neighborhood morale. Recent findings show that these discounts for distressed properties are associated with various factors, but three important dimensions of these discounts remain relatively unexplored. First among these is the degree of variation in these discounts, even within the same regional market. Second is how discounts vary through the typical sequence of the distressed property transaction cycle. The final factor is the nature by which discounts vary according to the market participants – are the buyers/sellers individuals or institutions? This study examines these major factors affecting discounts, and estimates the spatially and sequentially heterogeneous discounts for distressed properties in the housing submarkets of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Findings indicate that the discounts of distressed properties in the strong and weak submarkets substantially vary based on all three of these previously overlooked factors, yielding a more complex and nuanced housing context for practitioners and policymakers to consider.     

新时代市县巡察发展历程、经验与对策

市县巡察是推进全面从严治党向基层延伸的重要举措,是巡视巡察战略格局的有机组成。党的十八大以来,市县巡察经历了试点探索、全面铺开、深入推进等三个阶段,在健全巡察领导体制和组织机构、完善基层监督体系、明确监督重点、方式方法创新、巡察队伍建设、优化基层治理等方面取得显著成效。在实践中,市县巡察积累了坚持党的领导与人民立场相统一、政治属性与面向基层相统一、机动灵活与规范运行相统一、斗争精神与促进治理相统一等宝贵经验。进入新发展阶段,市县巡察需更好把握政治属性、基层属性、人民属性、统合属性,谋求更为科学化、制度化、规范化的发展,将监督优势转化为基层治理效能,为推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化奠定基础。     

Assessing Policy Design and Interpretation: An Institutions‐Based Analysis in the Context of Aquaculture in Florida and Virginia,United States

Recently in the field of policy studies, there has been a renewed interest in research that connects policy design with broader governance outcomes. As opposed to past studies of policy design that have characterized policies along broad categories of variables, however, recent studies have sought to systematically assess the language of public policies and resultant outcomes. This paper contributes to the existing and emerging literature on policy design by coupling a content analysis of polices governing the aquaculture industry in two U.S. states and interviews with aquaculture community members to understand policy design and perceptions of policy legitimacy, coerciveness, and enforcement.     

Determinants of Public Administrators' Use of Performance Information: Evidence from Local Governments in Florida

Performance management has been a focus of scholars and practitioners for more than 25 years, yet the use of performance information has not greatly expanded as a result of this attention. Acknowledging that performance measurement is not an end in itself but rather a means to enhance focus on results and value, this article evaluates the determinants of the use of performance information by local government administrators. An online survey was administered to local government employees involved in the 2015–16 Florida Benchmarking Consortium. Analysis of the data demonstrates that institutionalization of performance measurement has the strongest statistically significant positive association with the use of performance information, followed by the design adequacy of the performance measurement system.     

协作与抗争:云南晋宁一个彝族村落的文化建构

地方开发、重构和发明传统文化,从而导致地方文化发生急剧变化,已经成为当下中国社会的一种普遍现象。而这又是在新的文化资源被开发,新的文化与权力关系建构过程中,各种参与者相互协作共同达成的结果,同时也是各自出于自身利益考虑相互抗争的过程。云南晋宁一个彝族村落自1990年代以来的村落文化构建的故事,正在讲述着这样一个过程。     

论我国县城建设的经营

县城建设的经营是我国社会主义市场经济体制逐步建立和完善过程中，县城建设和管理的一项创新。它具有经营主体多元化、经营机制市场化和经营对象资源化三大特点。它的实施，对于加快县城建设的步伐，提高县城功能和水平，实现县城规划、建设、管理和经营的良性发展，具有重要作用。要保证县城建设经营的顺利实施，必须加快我国行政管理体制、户籍管理体制、投融资体制和社会保障体制的配套改革。     

Waste in the Sewer: The Collapse of Accountability and Transparency in Public Finance in Jefferson County,Alabama

Following failed auctions for sewer debt in April 2008, major bond rating companies downgraded Jefferson County, Alabama’s bond rating to D (default) triggering massive mandatory payments by the county to its creditors. At the time of writing, the county teeters on the brink of actual default and bankruptcy, unable to pay service on its $3.3 billion sewer debt portfolio. If the county defaults, it will be the largest municipal bankruptcy in United States history, eclipsing Orange County, California’s 1994 default. The intriguingly complex tale of the Jefferson County debt crisis is recounted here by identifying and examining failures of transparency and accountability by local bureaucratic and political actors, private financial institutions, as well as the larger regulatory framework governing public finance. Enhanced regulation of local government and the financial sector plus greater local government capacity to close accountability gaps and thus prevent future crises of similar scale in this or other jurisdictions are recommended.