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.     

What's the Problem in Public Sector Workforce Recruitment? A Multi-Sector Comparative Analysis of Managerial Perceptions

Public sector workforce recruitment is problematic, but the nature of that problem is not clearly defined. Workforce recruitment is essentially a matching problem that requires managers to recruit desired employees in available labor pools. This research asks whether sectoral differences and competition for labor affect whether public managers frame the major problem of workforce recruitment as the size, qualifications, or work ethic of the labor pool. Using survey data from about 2,300 managers from two US states, problem attributions are modeled using multinomial logit. The findings suggest that the public and nonprofit sectors find it more problematic to recruit qualified employees than the private sector, but public and nonprofit agencies hold a comparative advantage over the private sector in recruiting employees with sufficient work ethic. Therefore, public and nonprofit managers should emphasize retention and training to leverage their comparative advantage in recruiting employees with work ethic while addressing a comparative disadvantage in recruiting qualified employees.     

Cultural Planning and Urban Renewal in South Africa

The author explores the role of cultural planning as a planning tool in South Africa. He argues that cultural planning contributes to arts "as an intrinsic part of the way humans operate in the world" (Bamford 2006, 19), thereby focusing on cultural identity, creativity, and the globalization of culture. Arguing that cultural planning, as an engine for community development, is essential in South Africa, the author examines the broad definition and importance of cultural planning; the status of South African cities, particularly Johannesburg and Tshwane in Gauteng Province; and the requirements for successful cultural planning.     

Comment on Carl Abbott's “The Portland region: Where city and suburbs talk to each other—and often agree”

Abstract

The Portland, OR, area's urban growth boundary is an idea whose benefits to the region may depend on a willingness to expand the boundary occasionally. The parable contained in this comment suggests that the declared unwillingness to expand the urban growth boundary could have contributed to Portland's recent sudden increase in housing prices. It further suggests that an inflexible attitude toward the boundary could cause long‐run losses in employment in the Portland region, with few if any offsetting environmental benefits. Other regions should be aware of the potential drawbacks of installing such a boundary.     

Some realities about sprawl and urban decline

Abstract

Many urban analysts believe suburban sprawl has become an important issue because it helps generate two types of problems: growth‐related difficulties like rising traffic congestion, and high concentrations of poor minority households in core‐area neighborhoods. However, a careful regression analysis of measures of both sprawl and urban decline shows no statistically significant relation between these two conditions.

The basic nature of the American urban development process would cause core‐area poverty concentrations even if sprawl were replaced by more compact growth forms. But sprawl does aggravate growth‐related problems. Those problems could be attacked through either alternative overall growth strategies—such as high‐density, tightly bounded growth—or specific anti‐sprawl tactics, such as regional tax‐base sharing and regional coordination of land uses. But no feasible policies are likely either to alleviate traffic congestion much or cause most American regions to abandon sprawl.     

Comment on John T. Metzger's “planned abandonment: The neighborhood life‐cycle theory and national urban policy”

Abstract

I take strong exception to the idea that theories of neighborhood change, in and of themselves, caused the decline of inner cities. Rather, the demographic, social, and economic forces that existed in the postwar years caused some inner‐city neighborhoods to decline. The replacement of working‐class and middle‐income households by households with much lower incomes, on average, was the single biggest cause of neighborhood decline. Metzger ignores this fact as an alternative explanation for why some neighborhoods declined. It is highly implausible that my theories and those of other urban experts had such a strong impact on the public policy, building, and finance communities. Because people were responding to real conditions, it is likely that the same events would have occurred even if my model of neighborhood change had never been developed.     

New Urbanism and Selection Bias in the Formation of Social Capital

Over the past several decades, there has been a decline in social capital in American communities. New urbanism has been proposed as a tool to reverse some of this decline. This study seeks to understand the potential benefits of new urbanism in terms of social capital. Differences in social capital between a new urbanist subdivision (NUS) and a standard suburban subdivision (SSS) are compared. The findings of this study suggest that residents of NUSs have more social capital than residents of SSSs. However, many of the differences between the two communities disappeared when a social bias control was added to the model.     

Administrative Capacity Building of Public Administrations Under the European Financial Assistance

From a European perspective as referring to EU member states, which are receiving European financial assistance, the idea of assessment of the countries＇ administrative capacity represents a priority and an issue of concern not only for the new member countries but also for the all the member countries. Based on its functions, public institutions should perform an evaluation or measure their administrative and organizational capacity performance when significant changes occur, in order to facilitate the necessary improvements for their organizational and administrative capacity. Following these considerations, after studying the literature concepts about the administrative capacity and based upon an empirical research, this article aims： （1） to classify the European countries （EU27） according to their administrative capacity, based on some relevant identified indicators as following the European Commissions＇ reports from the official websites; and （2） to identify and analyze the influence and effects that strategic management and project management have on the administrative capacity of Romanian public administration using a survey which analyses the performance of the Romanian public administration.     

The Democratization of Welfare Between Rhetoric and Reality: Local Planning,Participation, and Third Sector in Italy

The third sector, traditionally considered in the Italian welfare state as a residual actor of social policies, has increasingly engaged itself in various types of partnerships and collaborative planning processes with the local authority in recent years. In the rhetoric of welfare reform, third sector organizations play an important role, for they contribute to regenerating local democracy, stimulating communities, and fighting social exclusion. The article examines 12 local area plans, which have been realized in eight regions of Italy since 2000, by relying on empirical data and interviews. The article concludes that the so-called co-governance of local welfare can produce very different levels of democratization and improvement of social programs. In some areas, it may be that valorizing the third sector can effectively renew social policies, while in others the exact reverse may happen. The article offers an analysis of the main factors that influenced this result.