From seaside to Southside: New urbanism's quest to save the inner city

Abstract

In this article, we use a random sample of urban community development corporations (CDCs) to determine whether distinct types exist and, if so, to estimate their prevalence in the industry. The typical urban CDC has a diversified portfolio of economic and social development activities, including community organizing, and is likely to have a housing development program, although not necessarily a large one because relatively few are high producers.

Large‐scale housing producers, defined in the study as having produced at least 500 units during the previous 10 years, comprise 18 percent of CDCs. A large organizational capacity, an affiliation with national intermediaries, the training of staff and the adoption of computers, the length of executive directors’ tenure, and the share of funding devoted to housing programs are the most important factors increasing the odds that a CDC will belong to the group of high producers.     

Single-Family Housing Market Segmentation,Post-Foreclosure Resale Duration,and Neighborhood Attributes

During the recent economic recession, the foreclosure crisis drew vast attention from scholars and policymakers. Numerous studies focused on factors resulting in foreclosures, the impact of foreclosures, and the relationship between neighborhood attributes and foreclosures. Fewer studies investigated the foreclosure resale mechanism by focusing on buyer characteristics and the market duration of foreclosed properties. This research uses foreclosed residential properties in Broward County, Florida, between 2007 and 2011 to explore how market segmentation by assessed value relates to time on market of foreclosed properties. This research finds that extremely low-value properties and very high-value properties generally take longer to sell. Mid-value properties take a shorter time to sell. After controlling for housing attributes and market segmentation, certain neighborhood characteristics, such as lower percentage black population, lower percentage Hispanic population, lower educational attainment, and higher homeownership rate, are associated with increased likelihood of a real estate owned property being sold. These results will help policymakers determine better strategies for the foreclosure resale process. Special attention should focus on properties taking longer to sell or not able to sell during certain time frames to alleviate the negative effects of these properties on neighborhoods.     

The Elective and Automatic Theories of Termination in the Common Law of the Contract of Employment: Conundrum Resolved?

If a party to an employment contract commits a repudiatory dismissal or resignation, it has long been unclear whether the other party has the option either to terminate or affirm the contract (the elective theory) or whether the former's breach operates to bring the contract of employment to an end (the automatic theory). The recent decision of the Supreme Court in Société Générale (London Branch) v Geys has finally resolved this question. By a majority, the Supreme Court held that the elective theory also applies in the context of a wrongful repudiation of the employment contract by express dismissal or resignation. This note examines the significance of Geys in the context of the common law of the contract of employment and evaluates whether a number of related issues surrounding the breach and termination of the employment contract have been resolved.     

EU Merger Control: From Separate Jurisdictional Zones to a More Cooperative Architecture—A Possible Way Forward?

The paper is a call to re-ignite the debate over the future shape of the EU’s concentration or merger control architecture in the longer-term. The paper contributes to this debate by considering the efficacy of replacing the current merger control architecture of separate jurisdictional zones with a more cooperative approach. It demonstrates that the adoption of the cooperative architecture would result in a number of benefits relative to the operation of the current architecture. For in effectively resolving a major problem that has dogged the operational effectiveness of the current architecture since it became law in 1990, the misallocation problem, the proposed architecture would also lead to a strengthening of the application of the principle of subsidiarity in this field, be supportive of the reinterpreted more appropriate authority goal, and resolve the multiple notification issue. Further, by ending the multiple notification issue, the valued one-stop shop approach to merger regulation would be reinforced. Yet the paper recognises that the cooperative architecture itself is not concern free, for the cooperative approach in granting Member state regulators the right for the first time to apply EU merger law, albeit in certain circumstances only, creates the possibility of inconsistent decision-making across this network. This would distort the regulatory level playing field, undermining what the architecture is supposed to guarantee, the Single European Market. With this in mind, necessary safeguards are explained. The paper concludes by briefly commenting upon key systems that need to be in place to ensure the operational effectiveness of the cooperative architecture. Of course, and at the cost of stating the obvious, improving the protection of competition in the field of merger control in the longer-term requires a willingness on the part of the key stakeholders to look beyond the current architecture of separate jurisdictional zones.     

Are civil servants really public servants? a study of bureaucratic attitudes in the U.S., brazil,and korea

The proper role of civil servants in the development of public policy has been the subject of continuous commentary and debate. In the advanced industrial democracies the operation of increasingly complex programs in government has led many commentators to warn of the danger of “technocracy”-- a condition wherein professional career administrators more fully control the direction of public policy than do elected representatives of the people. Likewise, in less developed nations there is concern over the role of public administrators in the development of policy. The charge of indifference to and disregard for public involvement and sentiment is frequently heard. Using data from a survey conducted in the U.S., Korea and Brazil, this paper examines the extent to which civil servants in each country adhere to a technocratic outlook. We find that although societies that are more economically advanced are less likely to adhere to a technocratic view, there is considerable variation within each research setting. Specifically, we find that technocratic orientations are more likely to be held by men, those who hold more materialist value orientations and those holding managerial occupations.     

Can Small High Schools of Choice Improve Educational Prospects for Disadvantaged Students?

This paper provides rigorous evidence (for 12,130 participants in a series of naturally occurring randomized lotteries) that a large‐scale high school reform initiative (New York City's creation of 100+ small high schools of choice between 2002 and 2008) can markedly and consistently increase high school graduation rates (by 9.5 percentage points overall and for many different student subgroups) for a large population of educationally and economically disadvantaged students of color without increasing annual school operating costs. These findings are directly relevant to current debates by policymakers and practitioners about how to improve the educational prospects of disadvantaged students in the United States.     

Theorizing strategies: Households and markets in 15th-century Tuscany

This article uses empirical evidence from rural Tuscany in the 15th century to compare three frameworks for conceptualizing household strategies: Chayanov's analysis of the domestic economy, Bourdieu's treatment of social reproduction, and Weber's distinction between budgetary units and profit-making enterprises. Although Bourdieu's framework did not work well in this context because there was little evidence that peasants employed strategies to prevent the division of land, there was considerable evidence to support Chayanov and Weber. As Chayanov predicted, many households allocated labor according to a tradeoff between providing for family members and avoiding drudgery. The Weberian perspective also worked well because it explained why these smallholders often divided their holdings and used money in their household strategies.     

The Use of CT Scans in Estimating Age at Death by Examining the Extent of Ectocranial Suture Closure

We examined the utility of CT scans in the evaluation of degree of ectocranial suture closure. Five cranial points (left and right midcoronal positions, left and right midlambdoidal positions, and the lambda) were evaluated in 231 CT scans using a three‐point scoring system (open, partial closed, and closed). The slice increment and thickness varied between three groups of the scans. The results showed a good correlation between degree of suture closure and increasing age in each group. Young individuals (<40 years) and old individuals (>60 years) could be clearly distinguished from the middle‐aged individuals. ANOVA test revealed no difference between two groups of scans and between left and right sides (p > 0.05). Interobserver agreement was good, especially considering the score by sides. The results of this study create the base for developing a robust and simple method to estimate the age at death using CT scans.