Keeping Creativity Downtown: Policy Learning from San Francisco,Seattle, and Vancouver for Municipal Cultural Planning in Toronto

I examine Toronto's interest in the policy learning process regarding possible solutions to development pressure downtown though understanding policies from San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver. Grounded by the analysis of creative city interventions and incorporating a theoretical framework of policy adaptation, the investigation is informed by interviews with fifty-one multi-sector stakeholders, historical and archival materials, and policy documents. Return to urban living and the creative cities movement challenge city centers in preserving creative and cultural businesses and organizations. Emergent data themes include: (1) research and strategic planning; (2) stakeholder partnerships; and (3) economic development incorporating economic benefit and social good.     

Public Policy in the Party City: The Spectacle of Culture,Gender, and Locality

The article explores the bidding process for the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) award, an aspect of local regeneration policy reliant upon a specific conception of culture. The process is examined in terms of changes in urban layout, manifestations of cultural and community identity, media representations, and the spectacle of culture, gender, and locality. The process is viewed as an urban managerialist project, driven by private and public sector elites in pursuit of economic rather than cultural goals. A narrow and particular view of culture was employed in the bidding process to achieve essentially managerial goals, and cut adrift from significant issues of gender, identity, and class. “Culture,” as conceived within the ECOC process, is viewed as a policy product of local government, regeneration partnerships, government agencies, and business interests, in contrast to culture as a way of life or lived urban experience. As an elite process, the voices of local culture were largely excluded.     

City Management in the United States and Norway: A Comparative Analysis of Professional Orientations

This analysis examines the effects of political culture on the nature and practice of professional local government management by comparing the structures, responsibilities, and relationships of city administrative executives in the democratic countries of the United States and Norway. The findings suggest that, despite fundamental differences in societal institutions and settings, American and Norwegian city managers serve similar roles in their respective local government organizations. However, the notable variations in the processes of municipal management identified between the two nations appear to reflect the contextual influence of divergent political foundations on the operational environment of professional public administrators.     

“Don’t Frack with Our Karoo”: Water,Landscape, and Congregational Song in Kroonvale,South Africa

There is a new environmental threat to the South African Karoo region in the form of hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) for natural gas reserves buried deep underground. In this article, I use the issue of fracking in the Karoo to investigate the power of this landscape over its people and focus particularly on the question of how the cultural traditions of the Karoo would be affected. In contrast, W.J.T. Mitchell argues that landscape exerts a relatively weak power over its residents. My work serves as a critique of theories that see landscape as exerting only marginal influence over people. I argue that not only does landscape exert a palpable power over its inhabitants, but also that landscape affects the musical traditions of these residents and, ultimately, the configuration of the Karoo soundscape. To investigate this, I draw on my research of music in three churches with coloured people’s membership in the town of Graaff-Reinet and examine this tradition in the context of its surrounding landscape.     

Mapping Urban Revitalization: Using GIS Spatial Analysis to Evaluate a New Housing Policy

This longitudinal, multimethod study uses geographical information system (GIS) software to evaluate the community-wide impact of a neighborhood revitalization project. Unsystematic visual examination and analysis of GIS maps are offered as a complementary tool to quantitative analysis and one that is much more compelling, meaningful, and effective in presentation to community and nonscientific professional audiences. The centerpiece of the intervention was the development of a new, middle-class housing subdivision in an area that was declining physically and economically. This represents three major urban/housing policy directions: (1) the emphasis on home ownership for working-class families, (2) the deconcentration of poverty through development of mixed-income neighborhoods, and (3) the clean up and redevelopment of contaminated, former industrial brownfields. Resident survey responses, objective environmental assessment observations, and building permit data were collected, geocoded at the address level, and aggregated to the block level on 60 street blocks in the older neighborhoods surrounding the new housing in two waves: during site clearing and housing construction (Time 1: 1993–95) and three years post-completion (Time 2: 1998–99). Variables mapped include (a) Time 1–2 change in self-reported home repairs and improvements, (b) change in the assessed physical condition of yards and exteriors of 925 individual residential properties, (c) change in residents' home pride, and (d) a city archive of building permits at Time 2. Physical conditions improved overall in the neighborhood, but spatial analysis of the maps suggest that the spillover effects, if any, of the new housing were geographically limited and included unintended negative psychological consequences. Results argue for greater use of GIS and the street block level in community research and of psychological and behavioral variables in planning research and decisions.     

关于资源型城市转型的几点思考

该文从中国资源型城市面临的新形势出发,就中国资源型城市的优势与发展道路的选择进行了探讨,并从主导产业的选择和产业结构重构的角度提出了资源型城市转型必须大力实施开放先导、科技创新和可持续发展等三大战略,形成以可持续发展战略为基础、开放战略为主导、科技创新战略为支撑的战略体系。     

Welfare Loss with Municipal Amalgamations and the Willingness-to-Pay for the Municipality Name

Functional advantages and drawbacks are commonly mentioned to rationally justify or condemn municipality amalgamations. However, many consolidation projects are resisted by local governments or citizens on the grounds that amalgamation would dampen local identity. A municipality’s name change is probably the most visible sign of the loss of community bond experienced by citizens at amalgamation time. This article aims to put a value on this loss by measuring citizen willingness to pay for their city name. This methodological approach innovates upon the literature on municipal amalgamation and place branding by exploiting the versatility of the so-called contingent valuation method (CVM). CVM confronts respondents, in a survey setting, with a hypothetical market in which a characteristic of interest is exchanged. Here the characteristic is the possibility to retain one’s city name for an amalgamated jurisdiction. The article presents the estimates provided by a survey conducted in four Swiss cities.     

市管县实践的反思:"复合行政"的视角

从制度演变的轨迹看,我国曾经三次大规模地推行市管县体制.由于制度背景的差异,市管县体制所取得的绩效也发生了很大的变化,从推动地方经济发展到各种弊端日益突出.分析市管县体制的各种影响因素,可以看出行政区划变革在促进经济发展中的局限性.要解决区域经济一体化的问题,就应该从治理的角度,寻求有效的地方治理之道,复合行政的理念就提供了这样一种新思路.     

对省级行政区域城市群构建的思考——以构建大南昌城市群为例

城市群已成为国家或地区参与全球竞争与国际分工的基本地域单元。基于省级行政区域构建城市群在我国很有必要。本文以构建大南昌城市群为例,重点探讨省级行政区域城市群构建的理论基础、城市群形成与成长的条件。研究表明：江西应构建以南昌为中心,包括九江、新余、抚州、鹰潭等城市在内的大南昌城市群,使其成为全国的高技术产业及现代制造业基地、农产品生产与加工基地和综合交通运输枢纽,成为一个空间结构合理、社会经济与资源环境协调发展、具有竞争力的经济密集区。为此,江西应遵循大城市群成长规律,从规划、机构、区域分工与合作、城镇空间结构、一体化、区域创新和产业集群等方面统筹谋划,分步实施。     

我国城中村问题研究综述

城中村已成为影响我国大多数城市科学发展、和谐发展的重要问题。当前城中村研究的内容主要集中在城中村的概念、内涵;城中村的划分方法及类型;城中村的形成原因;城中村的功能;城中村的治理改造问题等方面。对于城中村问题研究的深度、广度、方法均不足。因此,应深化专题研究、拓宽研究内容,改进研究方法。