Journal of Planning Education and Research recent issues

Report from the Editors

Weiping Wu, , Brooks, M. — 2008-08-26

Deliberating on Statewide Energy Targets

Andrews, C., Jonas, H. C., Mantell, N., Solomon, R. — 2008-08-26

This article reflects on a process of analytic deliberation about the future energy economy of New Jersey. Scenario analysis looking forward thirty years identifies tradeoffs and synergies among environmental, economic, and security objectives identified by stakeholders. Modest, unilateral greenhouse gas reductions seem affordable and may improve energy security. More dramatic, long-term greenhouse gas reductions seem less feasible given current technologies and policies, indicating the need for research now to invent "Solution X." The two-year effort has helped align expectations among divergent policy actors and also helped embolden political leaders, who have acted in parallel with this project rather than waiting for its conclusion.

Local Government Efforts to Promote the "Three Es" of Sustainable Development: Survey in Medium to Large Cities in the United States

Saha, D., Paterson, R. G. — 2008-08-26

The purpose of this article is to find out the extent to which local governments in the United States are committed to the principles of sustainable development in their planning practices. This study presents the findings from a survey of all medium to large cities carried out in April 2006. The findings indicate that, instead of adopting sustainable development as a development framework, cities are adopting sustainability initiatives in a piecemeal, ad-hoc manner. A broader level commitment to the concept, as evidenced by presence of sustainability plans, indicators project measuring progress toward sustainability goals, or an office and staff devoted to sustainability activities, is exhibited by very few cities. Finally, there is little evidence that cities are connecting sustainability to equity and social justice issues.

Color Blind: Indigenous Peoples and Regional Environmental Management

Lane, M. B., Williams, L. J. — 2008-08-26

The dominant approach to environmental management in Australia involves the decentralization of authority and resources to regionally organized citizen boards or statutory committees. The article examines Australian Indigenous participation in a national environmental management program— the Natural Heritage Trust. This program emphasizes regionally scaled implementation and community engagement and ownership. The management of Indigenous lands is of increasing importance in Australia because of the size of this estate, its environmental value, and its role in Indigenous community and economic development. Programmatic efforts to assist Indigenous landowners manage their lands have been largely unsuccessful. This research is concerned with understanding whether regionally scaled, civic approaches to environmental management enable improved levels of Indigenous participation. Results show that this regional environmental management program achieved poor levels of Indigenous participation. This finding, the authors suggest, has important implications for the optimistic claims made about regional environmental management.

Planners Learning and Creating Power: A Community of Practice Approach

Schweitzer, L. A., Howard, E. J., Doran, I. — 2008-08-26

Learning networks, such as a community of practice, can be an important way for planners to gain access to, and power in, new professional knowledge domains. In this manuscript, the authors develop, implement, and evaluate a community of practice model for planning education and practice in energy and sustainability planning. The authors find that although this active, learner-centered method helps enable flexible, self-directed study for those learning new content, there is a strong need for leadership in heterogeneous learning networks to help participants overcome problems created by social position and structuration within the network. New knowledge formation within learning networks ultimately challenges some of the planning profession's fundamental assumptions about the validity of "moving knowledge into practice" in contexts with uncertainty.

Innovations in Urban Design and Urban Form: The Making of Paradigms and the Implications for Public Policy

Garde, A. M. — 2008-08-26

How might innovations in urban design influence urban form? This paper focuses on two types of innovations—identified here as degenerative variations and integrative paradigms—to examine their impact on urban form and to discuss the implications for public policy. The paper begins with a presentation of how degenerative variations collectively generate an undesirable urban form. The paper then illustrates how integrative paradigms are conceived as a response to the problems of development of a particular period and the transformation of urban form. These paradigms are expected to nurture a collective vision and have a positive impact on urban form; however, they are undermined by the realities of development. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of innovations in urban design.

Implications of Adolescents' Perceptions and Values for Planning and Design

Passon, C., Levi, D., del Rio, V. — 2008-08-26

Adults are responsible for selecting and creating the environments where their children and youth live, but it is not clear if these places contain the qualities that young people value. In this study, high school students from three communities were surveyed regarding their perceptions of where they live to determine whether indicators identified by previous research as qualities that youth value are present in those communities and perceived to be important. Although the results suggest the indicators are important to the adolescents, their communities lack a majority of them and this has contributed to low satisfaction ratings. Recommendations for better integrating adolescents into public participation processes are discussed along with implications for planning and design.

The Economic Value of Office Clusters: An Analysis of Assessed Property Values, Regional Form, and Land Use Mix in King County, Washington

Sohn, D.-W., Moudon, A. V. — 2008-08-26

This study seeks to provide supportive information for the planning of existing or new employment centers in metropolitan regions. It examines how the spatial concentration of office uses and their combination with other land uses affects the assessed value of office properties. The goal is to measure the spatial clustering of office uses and the clusters' physical characteristics to quantify their association with office property values. The characteristics of interest include cluster size, regional location and relationship to transportation infrastructure, internal land use mix, and transportation network. The study revealed that recent office development has continued to benefit economically from agglomeration. Office property values seemed to be most positively affected by, in order of importance, the intensity of office development, a central regional location, and the clustering or agglomeration of office parcels.

Are Portland's Smart Growth Policies Related to Reduced Automobile Dependence?

Jun, M.-J. — 2008-08-26

This study evaluates how successful smart growth policies in Portland, best known for its smart growth policies such as the urban growth boundary, extensive public transit service, and transit-oriented developments along the transit corridors, are in achieving one of their policy objectives, a reduction of automobile dependence. Empirical evidence reveals that more diversified land use in neighborhoods, more extensive provision of public transit service, and decreasing accessibility to freeway interchanges were associated with fewer choices of driving alone, while making settlements compact via the urban growth boundary and transit-oriented developments has no clear relationship with reducing the choice to drive alone. Empirical analyses also suggest that provision of public transit service and mixed land use implemented at residential zones (origins) were more effective in reducing automobile dependence than those implemented at places of work (destinations).

Commentary: Assessing Student-Authored Articles in "Urban Planning"

Maghelal, P. K. — 2008-08-26

Performance of universities and academic programs has been historically analyzed based on factors such as faculty quality and research, scholarship, and publication output. However, the contribution of students as authors of academic peer-reviewed journal articles has been overlooked in these performance assessments. This commentary seeks to highlight this issue, as well as to illustrate an analytical approach to further our understanding of doctoral planning student-authored articles (SAA). Results for (1) fourteen planning-focused journals with the most SAAs, (2) Carnegie classifications of SAA institutional affiliations, and (3) the influence on journal impact factor are presented, as well as recommendations for journals, students, faculty/mentors, investigators and institutions.

Review: The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art, and Music Drive New York City, by Elizabeth Currid. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2007. 280 pages. $27.95 (hardback)

Grazian, D. — 2008-08-26

Review: Remaking the North American Food System: Strategies for Sustainability, edited by C. Clare Hinrichs and Thomas A. Lyson. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 2008. 384 pages. $45.00 (hardback)

Lapping, M. B. — 2008-08-26

Review: Badlands of the Republic: Space, Politics and Urban Policy, by Mustafa Dikec. Malden, MA/Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. 2007. 240 pages. $84.95 (hardback). $39.95 (paperback)

Hargreaves, A. G. — 2008-08-26

Review: Growth Management in Florida: Planning for Paradise, edited by Timothy S. Chapin, Charles E. Connerly, and Harrison T. Higgins. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing. 2007. 338 pages. $89.95 (hardback)

Daniels, T. L. — 2008-08-26

Farewell Note

Christensen, K. S., Chapple, K. — 2008-05-19

Critical Appraisal of Three Ideas for Community Development in the United States

Ganapati, S. — 2008-05-19

What is the connection among the moral, social, and physical aspects of the community? To explore this question, this article reviews three approaches: communitarianism, social capital, and new urbanism and smart growth. They are linked by a conceptual mapping along two dimensions: geographical scale (local to global) and strength of community (strong to weak). The approaches meld at local and regional geographical scales. Since the strong community in all three is susceptible to community determinism, I privilege the weak community. The approaches put a renewed emphasis on public and civic spaces, which are moral, social, and physical spaces for the weak community.

The Evolution of Built Landscapes in Metropolitan Regions

Wheeler, S. M. — 2008-05-19

This article analyzes the evolution of built landscapes in six U.S. metropolitan regions using historic maps, aerial photographs, and GIS software. The analysis identifies seven main historic patterns of urban form and nine types created in the 1980-2005 period. This recent period was characterized by a proliferation and fragmentation of built landscape types, rapid spatial expansion, and falling densities. These trends raise the question of whether the public sector should more proactively shape urban form. Rural sprawl accounts for much of the land now being urbanized, representing a new planning challenge. The Portland Urban Growth Boundary is found to be effective at limiting this type of development. The New Urbanist neighborhood form is still extremely rare.

Population Forecast Errors: A Primer for Planners

Rayer, S. — 2008-05-19

Projections of future populations are integral to many planning applications, yet are often poorly understood. This analysis focuses on the implications of the choices planners make when they construct projections. Specifically, it examines the impact of length of base period, analyzes the error structure of projection techniques for counties in the aggregate and by size and growth rates, investigates the role of averaging, and compares the performance of trend extrapolation and cohort—component methods. The article concludes by discussing forecast complexity, data quality, the role of assumptions, and other considerations of forecasting in a planning context.

"Space--The Final Frontier": Autocorrelation and Small-Area Income Forecasting Models

Pastor, M., Scoggins, J. — 2008-05-19

Regional planning agencies often project future income at the neighborhood level to determine future needs for transportation, jobs, social services, and amenities. Despite a decade of methodological advances regarding the importance of spatial autocorrelation in altering or reducing the reliability of regression estimates, few forecasters have tried to include such spatial relationships in their neighborhood-level projections. Part of the reason is that controlling for spatial autocorrelation is complex and can require expensive software. The authors use a free and user-friendly software package to estimate spatial effects in forecasting and then show how to develop and utilize proxy variables that can mitigate such autocorrelation. They illustrate how the failure to include such controls in Southern California could lead to overestimates of income in poor areas and hence a tendency to underserve needy areas.

Local Knowledge in Visually Mediated Practice

Van Herzele, A., van Woerkum, C. M. J. — 2008-05-19

Visualization tools such as maps, models, and computer images are used increasingly as means of involving people more effectively. We examine how a visualization tool in the form of a map-based model may shape the knowledge local people bring to the planning table. The analysis was guided by the concept of mediated action as it has been developed in sociocultural theory. We found that local knowledge was conditioned by a complexity of factors, including the dynamic of actions that develop around the tool and the way of looking imposed by map-based representation. The suggestion being made is that visualization tools, although bringing people closer to the planning process, also disconnect them from their local knowledge base.

Evaluating Collaborative Environmental Planning Outputs and Outcomes: Restoring and Protecting Habitat and the New York--New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program

Mandarano, L. A. — 2008-05-19

Research documenting the social and organizational benefits of collaborative planning has afforded collaborative planning an increasingly broader role in environmental policy and management. However, the bias toward evaluating the process and its social outcomes has resulted in a gap in knowledge of the impact collaborative environmental planning and management has on changing environmental conditions. This article attempts to reduce this gap by presenting a new performance evaluation framework that assesses collaborative environmental planning outputs and outcomes: both social and environmental. The case study of the Habitat Workgroup of the New York—New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program highlights the utility of this evaluation framework in assessing the quality of key outputs; the presence of outcomes (i.e., changes in social and environmental conditions); and observed relationships between process, outputs, and outcomes.

Beyond Food Deserts: Measuring and Mapping Racial Disparities in Neighborhood Food Environments

Raja, S., Changxing Ma, , Yadav, P. — 2008-05-19

Given the emerging focus on improving food environments and food systems through planning, this article investigates racial disparities in neighborhood food environments. An empirical case of Erie County, New York tests the hypothesis that people belonging to different racial groups have access to different neighborhood food destinations. Using multiple methods—Gini coefficients and Poisson regression—we show that contrary to studies elsewhere in the country there are no food deserts in Erie County. However, like other studies, we find an absence of supermarkets in neighborhoods of color when compared to white neighborhoods. Nonetheless, our study reveals an extensive network of small grocery stores in neighborhoods of color. Rather than soliciting supermarkets, supporting small, high-quality grocery stores may be a more efficient strategy for ensuring access to healthful foods in minority neighborhoods.

Benchmarks and Barriers: African American Experiences in the Corporate Bay Area's New Economy Sector of the 1990s

Harper-Anderson, E. L. — 2008-05-19

Macroeconomic transformations of the late 1990s resulted in a new economy full of employment opportunities and financial rewards leading many to assume that race was less significant and anyone with adequate skills and knowledge could prosper. This research uses interviews with new economy employees in the San Francisco region to understand why during the economic boom period, rewards between highly qualified blacks and whites remained differentiated particularly in the most promising economic sectors. I argue that structural economic changes have resulted in new rules for achievement that intersect with traditional pipeline barriers in a way that produces unequal outcomes for African Americans. This article highlights the importance of understanding the social implications of regional growth patterns.

Measuring Public Service: Assessment and Accountability--To Ourselves and Others

Frank, N. — 2008-05-19

During the past twenty years, two themes have emerged in higher education. One theme has been an increased attention to the service mission of universities, a matter of special importance to planning programs. The other has been an increased emphasis on accountability and performance assessment, an emphasis that has attracted much attention in ACSP in recent years. This article offers some starting points for grappling with the difficult task of assessing performance in the area of public service. The article reviews the history of these converging themes—nationally and within the planning academy—and draws upon the assessment literature to offer a framework and tool for conducting performance assessment of service activities at both the individual and program level.

Involving Urban Planning, Social Work, and Public Health Faculty Members in the Civic Renewal of the Research University

Checkoway, B. — 2008-05-19

What are some strategies for involving urban planning, social work, and public health faculty members in the civic renewal of the research university? At a time when citizens have "disengaged from democracy," and universities have deemphasized their civic mission, this article examines ways in which these faculty members might join together and formulate strategies which complement their shared professional and public purposes on campus and in the community.

Review: Train Time: Railroads and the Imminent Reshaping of the United States Landscape, by John R. Stilgoe. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. 2007. 288 pages. $29.95 (hardback)

Weinberger, R. — 2008-05-19

Review: The Sustainable Development Paradox: Urban Political Economy in the United States and Europe, edited by Rob Krueger and David Gibbs. New York: Guilford Press. 2007. 310 pages. $60.00 (hardback); $30.00 (paperback)

Throgmorton, J. A. — 2008-05-19

Review: Boomburbs: The Rise of America's Accidental Cities, by Robert E. Lang and Jennifer B. LeFurgy. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. 2007. 212 pages. $26.95 (hardcover)

Leinberger, C. B. — 2008-05-19

Community-based Planning and Poverty Alleviation in Oaxaca, Mexico

Mason, D. R., Beard, V. A. — 2008-02-25

In response to the growing critique of decentralized and participatory approaches to development, the article develops a theoretical framework for analyzing the relationship between community-based planning and poverty. Building on contributions from research on collective action, social capital, and social movements, the framework identifies a series of variables that are theorized to affect a community's capacity to alleviate poverty. Using this framework, three community-level case studies in Oaxaca, Mexico are analyzed. All three communities are characterized by a decline in subsistence agriculture, increasing out-migration, and the use of remittances to finance community-based planning projects. The article documents each community's capacity to alleviate the material manifestations of poverty. It concludes that only the community with the strongest capacity for community-level collective action was capable of planning independent of the state, and thus in a position to take incipient steps toward addressing poverty's structural causes. The findings call into question the often assumed desirability of collaborative planning and support the need for a more nuanced understanding of the strengths and limitations of distinct forms of community-based planning interpreted within broader socio-political contexts.

Empowering Communities through Deliberation The Model of Community Benefits Agreements

Baxamusa, M. H. — 2008-02-25

This article presents some insights into making participatory processes meaningful. It argues that these processes need to expressly empower communities through grassroots organizing, coalition building, and democratic deliberation. Community benefits agreements are new models of this power process. These are private agreements between community coalitions and developers. Case studies of two large projects in California, the Los Angeles International Airport expansion in Los Angeles and the Ballpark Village in San Diego, are presented. These studies demonstrate certain unique features that make participation an exercise in the redistribution of power.

New Urbanism, Social Equity, and the Challenge of Post-Katrina Rebuilding in Mississippi

Talen, E. — 2008-02-25

In October 2005, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) was enlisted to produce rebuilding plans for eleven towns along the Mississippi Gulf Coast that had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The plans they produced are microcosms of New Urbanist social doctrine: an accessible public realm, neighborhoods that are socially diverse, and walkable access to life's daily needs—design principles that are essentially aimed at promoting social equity. This article examines the rhetoric and reality of the social equity goals of the New Urbanist plans for the Mississippi Gulf Coast region. While social equity goals are both implicitly and explicitly stated and visualized throughout the plans, the realization of social equity goals will require more than physical designs. Without the policy, institutional, programmatic, and process requirements that go along with the New Urbanists' physical design proposals, the designs may lose their connection to social equity goals. Given the intensity of development pressure in the region, realization of social equity goals may require an unprecedented level of effort and commitment.

Evaluating the Role of Postconstruction Support in Sustaining Drinking Water Projects Evidence from Peru

Prokopy, L. S., Thorsten, R., Bakalian, A., Wakeman, W. — 2008-02-25

This article assesses the impact of postconstruction support (PCS) on the sustainability of participatory, demand-driven rural water projects in the Cuzco region of Peru. This study evaluates ninety-nine villages from two water supply schemes— projects built under a social investment fund program and those built under a nongovernmental program funded by the Swiss government. Overall, the study finds that the projects are performing very well. Multivariate regression analysis suggests that household- and village-level PCS is linked with financial performance, overall household satisfaction, and attitudes toward long-term future performance after controlling for project and community determinants of sustainability.

From Pro-Growth to Slow-Growth in Suburban New Jersey

Schmidt, S. — 2008-02-25

This article examines the process by which municipalities switch strategies in response to growth pressure. Utilizing a case study approach of three New Jersey communities, this article argues that changes in local growth strategies are brought about by advocates who incorporate fiscal arguments with quality-of-life concerns and capitalize on a perceived development threat to achieve a more favorable political environment. By reframing local debate over formerly contentious issues such as open-space preservation and environmental quality, advocates are able to permanently change the local political culture. However, such action can have exclusionary consequences and act as a hindrance to the implementation of a balanced-growth approach to urban development.

The Probability of Single-family Dwelling Occupancy: Comparing Home Workers and Commuters in Canadian Cities

Moos, M., Skaburskis, A. — 2008-02-25

Changing socioeconomic conditions are increasing the flexible workforce, such as home workers that are believed to internalize the need for home-work space in their housing consumption. Analysis of census data in thirteen Canadian metropolitan areas shows that households where one or both maintainers work from home have a greater propensity to reside in larger single-family detached houses than comparable households with maintainers who commute to work. The home-work variable increases the probability of single-family dwelling occupancy more than age, immigration, and household size, demographic variables generally highly associated with single-family dwelling occupancy. Although issues of causality cannot be empirically resolved here, if home work requires more space, it is one of the factors that would influence the tendency to continue to reside in the larger single-family dwellings. These dwellings have greater environmental impacts than more compact housing types that planners promote as part of their sustainability goals.

Walking, Urban Design, and Health: Toward a Cost-Benefit Analysis Framework

Boarnet, M. G., Greenwald, M., McMillan, T. E. — 2008-02-25

The authors examine the magnitude of health benefits from urban design characteristics that are associated with increased walking. Using geocoded travel diary data from Portland, Oregon, regression analyses give information on the magnitude and statistical significance of the link between urban design variables and two-day walking distances. From the coefficient point estimates, the authors link to the health literature to give information on how many persons would realize health benefits, in the form of reductions in mortality risk, from walking increases associated with urban design changes. Using a cost-benefit analysis framework, they give monetized estimates of the health benefits of various urban design changes. The article closes with suggestions about how the techniques developed can be applied to other cost-benefit analyses of the health benefits of planning projects that are intended to increase walking.

Mining Negotiation Theory for Planning Insights

Shmueli, D. F., Kaufman, S., Ozawa, C. — 2008-02-25

The rational planning model based on the view of planners as expert decision makers is gradually being replaced by collaborative models that acknowledge the joint nature of planning decisions. This article addresses the benefits of recognizing that negotiation is the key vehicle for joint decision making and therefore lies at the heart of planning. It calls for applying negotiation theory and practice lessons to examine and improve the dynamics of collaborative interactions. It proposes that analytical frameworks informed by negotiation theory can improve planning decisions and enhance the odds of their implementation. To illustrate their claims, the authors revisit three key concepts from the negotiation field—interests, mutual gains, and information—and illustrate their use in planning situations with vignettes from planning practice.

2007 Chester Rapkin Award for the Best Article in Volume 26: "Implications on Private-Public Partnerships on the Development of Urban Public Transit Infrastructure: The Case of Vancouver, Canada"

Siemiatycki, M. — 2008-02-25

2007 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Distinguished Planning Educator Award

Hopkins, L. D. — 2008-02-25

Review: Engaging the Future: Forecasts, Scenarios, Plans, and Projects, edited and with chapters by Lewis Hopkins and Marisa Zapata. Cambridge, MA: The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. 2007. 392 pages. $35.00 (hardback)

Landis, J. D. — 2008-02-25

Review: Sustainable Urban Development, Volume 2: The Environmental Assessment Methods, edited by Mark Deakin, Gordon Mitchell, Peter Nijkamp, and Ron Vreeker. London: Spon. 2007. 530 pages. $131.25 (hardback)

Chifos, C. — 2008-02-25

Review: Subprime Mortgages: America's Latest Boom and Bust, by Edward M. Gramlich. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press. 2007. 108 pages. $26.50 (paperback). Chasing the American Dream: New Perspectives on Affordable Homeownership, edited by William M. Rohe and Harry L. Watson. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 2007. 315 pages. $24.95 (paperback). America's Rental Housing: Homes for a Diverse Nation, by the Joint Center for Housing Studies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. 2006. 32 pages. Available in PDF at www.jchs.harvard.edu. The State of the Nation's Housing 2007, by the Joint Center for Housing Studies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. 2007. 40 pages. Available in PDF at www.jchs.harvard.edu

Bourassa, S. C. — 2008-02-25

Review: Living Cities in Japan: Citizens' Movements, Machizukuri and Local Environments, edited by Andre Sorensen and Carolin Funck. UK: Nissan Institute/Routledge, Taylor & Francis Ltd. 2007. 304 pages. 142.35 (hardback)

Tanaka, M. T. — 2008-02-25

Simulating Planning: SimCity as a Pedagogical Tool

Gaber, J. — 2007-11-26

Teaching with the computer simulation game "SimCity" is one way faculty can achieve some of their decision-based learning objectives. The research on attainable (and not attainable) teaching outcomes with computer simulations is now fairly clear. SimCity provides a dynamic decision-making environment in which students can learn such teaching objectives as (1) systems thinking, (2) problem-solving skills, and (3) "craft" in the planning profession. However, SimCity has inherent weaknesses that prevent it from being a one-size-fits-all teaching tool for all students. The article concludes with a discussion on which type of students do better with SimCity.

Cyberpunk Cities: Science Fiction Meets Urban Theory

Abbott, C. — 2007-11-26

The science fiction subgenre of cyberpunk developed in the 1980s and 1990s with a strong interest in urban settings. A reading of important cyberpunk novels shows the way in which the ideas of formal urban theory, such as the idea of global cities, cities as communication systems, and the Los Angeles school of urban studies, have been incorporated into this facet of popular culture. The analysis suggests that science fiction can help planners to understand the influence of a range of social theories on public understanding of planning issues.

Closing the Loop: Community-Based Organic Solid Waste Recycling, Urban Gardening, and Land Use Planning in Ghana, West Africa

Asomani-Boateng, R. — 2007-11-26

Accra, Ghana's capital, has solid waste collection and disposal problems that, like most cities in Africa, are concentrated in poor residential neighborhoods. Efforts to improve solid waste management have focused on improving solid waste collection. A practical, low-cost concept that has not been explored is recycling organic solid waste into compost for urban cultivation. This research explored the feasibility of recycling organic solid waste into urban cultivation as a sustainable waste-management strategy in low-income neighborhoods. The main hypothesis of this study is that a significant proportion of solid waste can be diverted from inefficient disposal by redirecting the organic fraction into urban cultivation. The study revealed that waste-based urban cultivation could significantly reduce quantities of organic solid waste for disposal, and minimize waste collection and disposal cost. Challenges to implementing the concept include overcoming the issue of land availability and motivating stakeholders to initiate, implement, and sustain such projects.

Intrametropolitan Spatial Differentiation and Decline of Inner-Ring Suburbs: A Comparison of Four U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Lee, S., Leigh, N. G. — 2007-11-26

This article examines the impact of metropolitan growth patterns on intrametropolitan spatial differentiation and inner-ring suburban decline in the four metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Portland, using longitudinal census data from 1970 to 2000. The findings of this study show that inner-ring suburbs were increasingly vulnerable to socioeconomic decline relative to other metropolitan subareas. In contrast, the outer-ring suburbs continued to thrive, drawing most of the new population and housing development in the context of intrametropolitan spatial differentiation. The downtowns and some parts of the inner city showed a gradual recovery from the pattern of deterioration. By recognizing the interdependence of all the subareas and applying sound, holistic policies, the public policy decision-making entities can ensure the future stability of the inner-ring suburbs as well as all the surrounding areas of a metropolitan region.

Lively Streets: Determining Environmental Characteristics to Support Social Behavior

Mehta, V. — 2007-11-26

Increasingly, scholars suggest thinking of the street as a social space, rather than just a channel for movement. Studies that address the relationships between social behavior and environmental quality of the street tend to separate the study of physical features from land uses and hence do not address the interrelationships between behavioral patterns and physical features of the street and its sociability. This article is an empirical examination of behavioral responses of people to the environmental quality of neighborhood commercial streets. Structured and semistructured observations are used to study stationary, lingering, and social activities on three neighborhood commercial streets. Eleven land use and physical characteristics of buildings and the street are identified based on the literature review and extensive observations. These are measured and tested to understand which characteristics support stationary, lingering, and social activities. The findings reveal that people are equally concerned with the social, land use, and physical aspects of the street. Seating provided by businesses, seating provided by the public authorities, businesses that are community places, personalized street fronts, and sidewalk width particularly contribute to stationary and social activities on neighborhood commercial streets.

Institutional Influences on the Integration of Multilevel Governance and Spatial Policy in European City-Regions

Salet, W., Thornley, A. — 2007-11-26

Spatial policies for the city-regions of Europe have to be formulated in increasingly complex conditions. These conditions are outlined in the first part of the article. It is argued that the key for a successful policy response is in the organization of connectivity between the domains of the private sector, the internal regional policies, and the transregional policies. However, city-regions exist within different institutional settings, and organizing connectivity has to adapt to such differences. The article constructs a typology of these varied institutional settings based on research of nineteen European city-regions. Each type of institutional framework has its particular risks and opportunities, and these need to be taken into account in generating the appropriate form of informal planning strategy and maximum connectivity.

Toward a Sustainable Relationship between City and University: A Stakeholdership Approach

Russo, A. P., van den Berg, L., Lavanga, M. — 2007-11-26

While the impact of knowledge assets on regional economies receives much attention in the economic literature, management and planning issues regarding the relationships between academic and local agents are underinvestigated. In this article, it is argued that universities could be a driving force for urban development, provided cities succeed in embedding knowledge in the local social and economic networks, which is seen to depend to a large extent on the balance in the process of exchange between the various stakeholders of higher education: students and academic communities, entrepreneurs, and local communities. A model of sustainable city-university relationship is proposed and matched with evidence from nine case studies of European cities hosting a large higher education sector; the role of policy and planning to sustain and enhance such links is also brought to the fore through the illustration of various best practices in the case studies.

Public Finance in Planning Education and Practice

Edwards, M. M. — 2007-11-26

Planners have significant influence on the fiscal landscape of communities through the day-to-day decisions they make and the plans they implement. To better understand how our educational system addresses fiscal issues in the training of planners, the author surveyed planning instructors from across the United States and Canada and analyzed a series of public finance course syllabi. This article presents the results of this analysis and contrasts the planning instructor survey results with the results of a national survey focused on practicing planners. In this second survey, planners were asked to provide their perspectives on the importance of public finance to effective planning. Taken together, the survey results provide an interesting picture of the significance of public finance to planning academics and practitioners. This research is intended to assist planning programs in evaluating their curricula for attention to public finance and the needs of the planning profession.

A Dozen "Tamales!": Documenting the Aural Urban Sensorium

Krieger, M. H., Holman, T. — 2007-11-26

Review: The Inclusive City: Infrastructure and Public Services for the Urban Poor in Asia, edited by Aprodicio A. Laquian, Vinod Tewari, and Lisa M. Hanley. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2007. 368 pages. $50.00 (hardback)

Ganapati, S. — 2007-11-26

Review: PlaNYC: A Greener, Greater New York, available from the Office of the Mayor, Office of Operations, 253 Broadway, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10007

Mandelbaum, S. J. — 2007-11-26

Review: Doing and Writing Qualitative Research, 2nd ed., by Adrian Holliday. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 2007. 216 pages. $110.00 (hardback); $41.95 (paperback)

Modan, G. — 2007-11-26

Review: Ordinary Cities: Between Modernity and Development, by Jennifer Robinson. New York: Routledge. 2006. 204 pages. $42.95 (paperback)

Leaf, M. — 2007-11-26

Review: Territorial Cohesion and the European Model of Society, edited by Andreas Faludi. Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. 2007. 240 pages. $25.00 (paperback)

Ross, G. — 2007-11-26