Sara Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501740411
- eISBN:
- 9781501740428
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501740411.003.0003
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Climate
This chapter develops a framework for understanding and evaluating the tools available to, and deployed by, city governments for governing, foregrounding the “how” of urban climate change mitigation. ...
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This chapter develops a framework for understanding and evaluating the tools available to, and deployed by, city governments for governing, foregrounding the “how” of urban climate change mitigation. The framework has three components. First, city governments make choices about the policies and governing modes they will use to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These choices represent each city's unique route to climate change mitigation and are shaped by the broader social, political, institutional, and physical context. Second, regardless of the specific route a city chooses, there are shared governing strategies city governments can and do use to mobilize participants and resources: institution building, coalition building, and capacity building. These strategies allow city governments to reduce key sources of uncertainty, mobilize the participants, and coordinate the resources needed for change. Third, evaluating urban climate change governance requires evaluating its impacts. These are both reductions in city-scale GHG emissions and broader changes in the city, and beyond, catalyzed by efforts to reduce urban GHG emissions.Less
This chapter develops a framework for understanding and evaluating the tools available to, and deployed by, city governments for governing, foregrounding the “how” of urban climate change mitigation. The framework has three components. First, city governments make choices about the policies and governing modes they will use to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These choices represent each city's unique route to climate change mitigation and are shaped by the broader social, political, institutional, and physical context. Second, regardless of the specific route a city chooses, there are shared governing strategies city governments can and do use to mobilize participants and resources: institution building, coalition building, and capacity building. These strategies allow city governments to reduce key sources of uncertainty, mobilize the participants, and coordinate the resources needed for change. Third, evaluating urban climate change governance requires evaluating its impacts. These are both reductions in city-scale GHG emissions and broader changes in the city, and beyond, catalyzed by efforts to reduce urban GHG emissions.
Sara Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501740411
- eISBN:
- 9781501740428
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501740411.003.0002
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Climate
This chapter examines how and why city governments have taken it upon themselves to set ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets. More importantly, it raises the question of whether and how ...
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This chapter examines how and why city governments have taken it upon themselves to set ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets. More importantly, it raises the question of whether and how this shift in city leaders' ambitions and commitments can lead to meaningful, locally led reductions in GHG emissions. Urban climate change mitigation is a wicked problem, one steeped in complexity and uncertainty. Unsurprisingly then, the empirical evidence of progress in urban mitigation shows an uneven landscape of successes and failures. While there have been good strides in understanding why cities are acting and the kinds of cities that seem to be making more progress than others, people know much less about how city governments go from climate change ambitions to reshaping the urban landscape in their image. The ambitions and leadership of cities are generating optimism for climate change solutions despite political swings and recalcitrance at other levels of government. However, without an understanding of whether and how city governments can make good on these commitments, such optimism remains largely unfounded. People must then go beyond assessments of the motivations and challenges cities face in their work to reduce GHG emissions and give greater attention to the processes and strategies that repower cities.Less
This chapter examines how and why city governments have taken it upon themselves to set ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets. More importantly, it raises the question of whether and how this shift in city leaders' ambitions and commitments can lead to meaningful, locally led reductions in GHG emissions. Urban climate change mitigation is a wicked problem, one steeped in complexity and uncertainty. Unsurprisingly then, the empirical evidence of progress in urban mitigation shows an uneven landscape of successes and failures. While there have been good strides in understanding why cities are acting and the kinds of cities that seem to be making more progress than others, people know much less about how city governments go from climate change ambitions to reshaping the urban landscape in their image. The ambitions and leadership of cities are generating optimism for climate change solutions despite political swings and recalcitrance at other levels of government. However, without an understanding of whether and how city governments can make good on these commitments, such optimism remains largely unfounded. People must then go beyond assessments of the motivations and challenges cities face in their work to reduce GHG emissions and give greater attention to the processes and strategies that repower cities.
Sara Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501740411
- eISBN:
- 9781501740428
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501740411.003.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Climate
This introductory chapter discusses the shifting ambitions and positions of city governments. Once considered the purveyors of street repairs and sewer mains, city governments are now being heralded ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the shifting ambitions and positions of city governments. Once considered the purveyors of street repairs and sewer mains, city governments are now being heralded as innovative, entrepreneurial, and dynamic actors ready to take on societal challenges that other levels of government seem unprepared or unwilling to address. Indeed, city governments are viewed, and are viewing themselves, as able to effectively pursue major policy agendas once considered the sole purview of national governments. From labor to immigration to climate change, there has been a shift in both practice and rhetoric to cities. In the United States, city governments from Bangor, Maine, to Los Angeles, California, are raising the minimum wage for their residents, even as many state governments scramble to prevent them from doing so. The chapter explains that the book focuses on local efforts to address global climate change. It explores the means by which city governments—particularly those of New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto—pursue climate change mitigation, or reducing the greenhouse gas emissions produced by urban systems, and to what ends.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the shifting ambitions and positions of city governments. Once considered the purveyors of street repairs and sewer mains, city governments are now being heralded as innovative, entrepreneurial, and dynamic actors ready to take on societal challenges that other levels of government seem unprepared or unwilling to address. Indeed, city governments are viewed, and are viewing themselves, as able to effectively pursue major policy agendas once considered the sole purview of national governments. From labor to immigration to climate change, there has been a shift in both practice and rhetoric to cities. In the United States, city governments from Bangor, Maine, to Los Angeles, California, are raising the minimum wage for their residents, even as many state governments scramble to prevent them from doing so. The chapter explains that the book focuses on local efforts to address global climate change. It explores the means by which city governments—particularly those of New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto—pursue climate change mitigation, or reducing the greenhouse gas emissions produced by urban systems, and to what ends.
David Sims
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789774164040
- eISBN:
- 9781617970405
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774164040.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Trying to make sense of the urban giant that is Cairo, this book moves beyond superficial generalizations about Cairo as a chaotic metropolis in the developing world into an analysis of the ways the ...
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Trying to make sense of the urban giant that is Cairo, this book moves beyond superficial generalizations about Cairo as a chaotic metropolis in the developing world into an analysis of the ways the city's 18 million inhabitants have, in the face of a largely neglectful government, built and shaped their own city. Using a wealth of recent studies on Greater Cairo and a deep reading of informal urban processes, the city and its recent history are portrayed and mapped: the huge, spontaneous neighborhoods; housing; traffic and transport; city government; and its people and their enterprises. The failed attempts of the State to create the new, modern Egypt in the deserts surrounding Cairo and their unintended consequences as a colossal speculative frontier are given a special focus. The book argues that understanding a city such as Cairo is not a daunting task as long as pre-conceived notions are discarded and care is taken to apprehend available information and to assess it with a critical eye.Less
Trying to make sense of the urban giant that is Cairo, this book moves beyond superficial generalizations about Cairo as a chaotic metropolis in the developing world into an analysis of the ways the city's 18 million inhabitants have, in the face of a largely neglectful government, built and shaped their own city. Using a wealth of recent studies on Greater Cairo and a deep reading of informal urban processes, the city and its recent history are portrayed and mapped: the huge, spontaneous neighborhoods; housing; traffic and transport; city government; and its people and their enterprises. The failed attempts of the State to create the new, modern Egypt in the deserts surrounding Cairo and their unintended consequences as a colossal speculative frontier are given a special focus. The book argues that understanding a city such as Cairo is not a daunting task as long as pre-conceived notions are discarded and care is taken to apprehend available information and to assess it with a critical eye.
Chris Danielson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813037387
- eISBN:
- 9780813042350
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813037387.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter deals with the efforts by civil rights activists to undo at-large elections and the city commission form of government in Jackson, Mississippi, the state's capital and largest city. ...
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This chapter deals with the efforts by civil rights activists to undo at-large elections and the city commission form of government in Jackson, Mississippi, the state's capital and largest city. While some white politicians and reformers supported adopting a ward system, white voters kept the at-large system that inhibited black electoral power. Like county redistricting, the initial efforts of the black civil rights activists to undo the system were stymied by the inability to prove racist intent on the part of the city. The strengthened Voting Rights Act of 1982 changed those circumstances and led to the adoption of a ward system of government which brought about the election of the first blacks and women to the city government in the twentieth century.Less
This chapter deals with the efforts by civil rights activists to undo at-large elections and the city commission form of government in Jackson, Mississippi, the state's capital and largest city. While some white politicians and reformers supported adopting a ward system, white voters kept the at-large system that inhibited black electoral power. Like county redistricting, the initial efforts of the black civil rights activists to undo the system were stymied by the inability to prove racist intent on the part of the city. The strengthened Voting Rights Act of 1982 changed those circumstances and led to the adoption of a ward system of government which brought about the election of the first blacks and women to the city government in the twentieth century.
Mary McAuley
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198219828
- eISBN:
- 9780191678387
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198219828.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The move to establish the authority of the centre over a wayward and centrifugal society may be a common tendency of revolutionary governments, but the actual constitution of the new central ...
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The move to establish the authority of the centre over a wayward and centrifugal society may be a common tendency of revolutionary governments, but the actual constitution of the new central authority and the degree of control exercised over it by its citizens can vary widely. It is these two issues that is the focus of this chapter: the type of executive authority that emerged, and the relationship between it and the people in whose name it was ruling. Until the government moved to Moscow, the city institutions were overshadowed by the central government but, even in those early months, elements of a city government began to emerge.Less
The move to establish the authority of the centre over a wayward and centrifugal society may be a common tendency of revolutionary governments, but the actual constitution of the new central authority and the degree of control exercised over it by its citizens can vary widely. It is these two issues that is the focus of this chapter: the type of executive authority that emerged, and the relationship between it and the people in whose name it was ruling. Until the government moved to Moscow, the city institutions were overshadowed by the central government but, even in those early months, elements of a city government began to emerge.
Sara Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501740411
- eISBN:
- 9781501740428
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501740411.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Climate
City governments are rapidly becoming society's problem solvers. As this book shows, nowhere is this more evident than in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto, where the cities' governments are ...
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City governments are rapidly becoming society's problem solvers. As this book shows, nowhere is this more evident than in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto, where the cities' governments are taking on the challenge of addressing climate change. This book focuses on the specific issue of reducing urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and develops a new framework for distinguishing analytically and empirically the policy agendas city governments develop for reducing GHG emissions, the governing strategies they use to implement these agendas, and the direct and catalytic means by which they contribute to climate change mitigation. The book uses a framework to assess the successes and failures experienced in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto as those agenda-setting cities have addressed climate change. It then identifies strategies for moving from incremental to transformative change by pinpointing governing strategies able to mobilize the needed resources and actors, build participatory institutions, create capacity for climate-smart governance, and broaden coalitions for urban climate change policy.Less
City governments are rapidly becoming society's problem solvers. As this book shows, nowhere is this more evident than in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto, where the cities' governments are taking on the challenge of addressing climate change. This book focuses on the specific issue of reducing urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and develops a new framework for distinguishing analytically and empirically the policy agendas city governments develop for reducing GHG emissions, the governing strategies they use to implement these agendas, and the direct and catalytic means by which they contribute to climate change mitigation. The book uses a framework to assess the successes and failures experienced in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto as those agenda-setting cities have addressed climate change. It then identifies strategies for moving from incremental to transformative change by pinpointing governing strategies able to mobilize the needed resources and actors, build participatory institutions, create capacity for climate-smart governance, and broaden coalitions for urban climate change policy.
Caroline M. Barron
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199257775
- eISBN:
- 9780191717758
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199257775.003.13
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This chapter analyses the changes to be observed in city government between 1200 and 1500. In these three hundred years, the Londoners evolved a system for governing the city and dealing with the ...
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This chapter analyses the changes to be observed in city government between 1200 and 1500. In these three hundred years, the Londoners evolved a system for governing the city and dealing with the environmental and social problems of urban living which met the considerable challenges (religious change, population growth, poverty, epidemic plague, food shortages) of the 26th century.Less
This chapter analyses the changes to be observed in city government between 1200 and 1500. In these three hundred years, the Londoners evolved a system for governing the city and dealing with the environmental and social problems of urban living which met the considerable challenges (religious change, population growth, poverty, epidemic plague, food shortages) of the 26th century.
Mary McAuley
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198219828
- eISBN:
- 9780191678387
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198219828.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
A marked feature of the revolution was the coming into being of local institutions, a phenomenon which the Bolshevik seizure of power encouraged still further, but the subsequent process of ...
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A marked feature of the revolution was the coming into being of local institutions, a phenomenon which the Bolshevik seizure of power encouraged still further, but the subsequent process of state-building was strongly characterized by the gaining of power by the centre at their expense. The accretion of power, whether by the city government at the expense of the districts or by the Economic Council at the expense of the factories or, from a different perspective, by the central government at the expense of Petrograd, was not foreseen, and it caused considerable dissension and conflict, but out of the confusion it emerged as the dominant tendency. Here is a very clear example of new state structures developing a momentum of their own.Less
A marked feature of the revolution was the coming into being of local institutions, a phenomenon which the Bolshevik seizure of power encouraged still further, but the subsequent process of state-building was strongly characterized by the gaining of power by the centre at their expense. The accretion of power, whether by the city government at the expense of the districts or by the Economic Council at the expense of the factories or, from a different perspective, by the central government at the expense of Petrograd, was not foreseen, and it caused considerable dissension and conflict, but out of the confusion it emerged as the dominant tendency. Here is a very clear example of new state structures developing a momentum of their own.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226642062
- eISBN:
- 9780226642086
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226642086.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter examines how activist African American churches in New York City began to employ church- associated community development corporations in the 1980s as their primary vehicles for ...
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This chapter examines how activist African American churches in New York City began to employ church- associated community development corporations in the 1980s as their primary vehicles for collaborating with government, especially the municipal government, to address problems in black neighborhoods. The city's Ten Year Plan permitted activist African American churches to partner with the city government and their partnerships expanded the potential of the churches to receive public funds. The black clergy entered into church–state partnerships because they believed that their involvement with the city government would reaffirm the relevance of their churches and themselves to black civil society, and would enable them to advance black self-initiative and retain or increase church memberships.Less
This chapter examines how activist African American churches in New York City began to employ church- associated community development corporations in the 1980s as their primary vehicles for collaborating with government, especially the municipal government, to address problems in black neighborhoods. The city's Ten Year Plan permitted activist African American churches to partner with the city government and their partnerships expanded the potential of the churches to receive public funds. The black clergy entered into church–state partnerships because they believed that their involvement with the city government would reaffirm the relevance of their churches and themselves to black civil society, and would enable them to advance black self-initiative and retain or increase church memberships.
Anne Power, Jörg Plö, and Astrid Winkler
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847426833
- eISBN:
- 9781447302964
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847426833.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
This chapter examines the smaller-scale, more-local efforts of the seven European cities to reintegrate marginalised areas and populations. It explains that city governments usually develop targeted ...
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This chapter examines the smaller-scale, more-local efforts of the seven European cities to reintegrate marginalised areas and populations. It explains that city governments usually develop targeted programmes to tackle four main types of deep-set disadvantage. These include inner-area renewal, community enterprise for disadvantaged or vulnerable social groups, and skills development. All of the seven cities adopted at least three of the four approaches, invariably concentrated in the same areas. Local-neighbourhood projects in each city showed the microlevel at which it is necessary to work in order to make new social and economic opportunities a reality.Less
This chapter examines the smaller-scale, more-local efforts of the seven European cities to reintegrate marginalised areas and populations. It explains that city governments usually develop targeted programmes to tackle four main types of deep-set disadvantage. These include inner-area renewal, community enterprise for disadvantaged or vulnerable social groups, and skills development. All of the seven cities adopted at least three of the four approaches, invariably concentrated in the same areas. Local-neighbourhood projects in each city showed the microlevel at which it is necessary to work in order to make new social and economic opportunities a reality.
Joan C. Tonn
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300096217
- eISBN:
- 9780300128024
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300096217.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Political History
Mary P. Follett opened her Highland Union debating club for young male Irish immigrants in Roxbury at a time when some of the nation's leading political commentators, including Lincoln Steffens, were ...
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Mary P. Follett opened her Highland Union debating club for young male Irish immigrants in Roxbury at a time when some of the nation's leading political commentators, including Lincoln Steffens, were lamenting the complicity of big business and political parties in urban corruption. Albert Bushnell Hart, Follett's mentor and former teacher, argued in Actual Government (1903) that “a sentiment of civic pride” was the only effective remedy for the problems of city government. In Boston, the residential areas were marked by sharp class differences. At the turn of the century, Roxbury was divided among three of Boston's city wards. One of these was Ward 17, where Pauline Agassiz Shaw founded Children's House, the home of Follett's Highland Union debating club, whose members showed intense interest in municipal and state politics.Less
Mary P. Follett opened her Highland Union debating club for young male Irish immigrants in Roxbury at a time when some of the nation's leading political commentators, including Lincoln Steffens, were lamenting the complicity of big business and political parties in urban corruption. Albert Bushnell Hart, Follett's mentor and former teacher, argued in Actual Government (1903) that “a sentiment of civic pride” was the only effective remedy for the problems of city government. In Boston, the residential areas were marked by sharp class differences. At the turn of the century, Roxbury was divided among three of Boston's city wards. One of these was Ward 17, where Pauline Agassiz Shaw founded Children's House, the home of Follett's Highland Union debating club, whose members showed intense interest in municipal and state politics.
Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469635866
- eISBN:
- 9781469635873
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469635866.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter opens with the sense of hope, optimism, and possibility that many D.C. residents shared in the early years of Mayor Marion Barry’s administration. Black activists and their allies who ...
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This chapter opens with the sense of hope, optimism, and possibility that many D.C. residents shared in the early years of Mayor Marion Barry’s administration. Black activists and their allies who entered local government in the late 1970s changed the very nature of city government, decoupling it from the federal bureaucracy and making it more representative of the city’s diverse population. They also redistributed wealth, building a large black working and middle class through public jobs and city contracts. Yet the man whom many District residents entrusted with their hopes ultimately let them down. Barry cozied up to big developers and used public programs to buy political allegiance, while several of his aides and friends took advantage of the disorganized bureaucracy and city contracting system to pad their wallets. Barry’s failures made the very people that he had worked his entire political career to help more susceptible to the crack epidemic. As violence soared and city services deteriorated, the residents most in need suffered most of all, and D.C. teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.Less
This chapter opens with the sense of hope, optimism, and possibility that many D.C. residents shared in the early years of Mayor Marion Barry’s administration. Black activists and their allies who entered local government in the late 1970s changed the very nature of city government, decoupling it from the federal bureaucracy and making it more representative of the city’s diverse population. They also redistributed wealth, building a large black working and middle class through public jobs and city contracts. Yet the man whom many District residents entrusted with their hopes ultimately let them down. Barry cozied up to big developers and used public programs to buy political allegiance, while several of his aides and friends took advantage of the disorganized bureaucracy and city contracting system to pad their wallets. Barry’s failures made the very people that he had worked his entire political career to help more susceptible to the crack epidemic. As violence soared and city services deteriorated, the residents most in need suffered most of all, and D.C. teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.
Michael J. Rich and Robert P. Stoker
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452505
- eISBN:
- 9780801470912
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452505.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This introductory chapter describes the U.S. federal government's Empowerment Zones (EZ) and Enterprise Communities (EC) initiative—a multibillion-dollar community revitalization effort to create ...
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This introductory chapter describes the U.S. federal government's Empowerment Zones (EZ) and Enterprise Communities (EC) initiative—a multibillion-dollar community revitalization effort to create economic opportunity. The program—one of the first federal urban policies to endorse regionalism—promotes sustainable community development in areas suffering from pervasive poverty, high unemployment, and physical or economic decline. It was predicated on the assumption that city governments could advance neighborhood revitalization by embracing a comprehensive, collaborative, community-based approach. Hence, the EZ-EC initiative encouraged cities to develop a strategic vision for change and back up that vision with a new style of collaborative governance focused on performance, adaptability, and learning.Less
This introductory chapter describes the U.S. federal government's Empowerment Zones (EZ) and Enterprise Communities (EC) initiative—a multibillion-dollar community revitalization effort to create economic opportunity. The program—one of the first federal urban policies to endorse regionalism—promotes sustainable community development in areas suffering from pervasive poverty, high unemployment, and physical or economic decline. It was predicated on the assumption that city governments could advance neighborhood revitalization by embracing a comprehensive, collaborative, community-based approach. Hence, the EZ-EC initiative encouraged cities to develop a strategic vision for change and back up that vision with a new style of collaborative governance focused on performance, adaptability, and learning.
Mary Bryna Sanger
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190646059
- eISBN:
- 9780190646073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190646059.003.0005
- Subject:
- Social Work, Research and Evaluation, Social Policy
Performance measurement, despite its widespread use by American cities, rarely leads to improved government or more efficient municipal management. Through contacts with organizations that track, ...
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Performance measurement, despite its widespread use by American cities, rarely leads to improved government or more efficient municipal management. Through contacts with organizations that track, support, and reward U.S. cities for measuring their performance, we created a list of 198 jurisdictions. Searching online for performance reports, reviews of citywide and agency budgets, and other relevant public documents for these jurisdictions, we determined whether performance data was visible, where it appeared, and the nature of performance measures used. We ranked the 198 jurisdictions according to their verifiable use of best measurement practices, and studied the twenty-four top-ranked cities more intensively. We found little relationship between the quality of a jurisdiction’s performance measurement and its embrace of performance management. Few of these cities had leadership that made any sustained effort to manage for performance. Indeed, municipalities throughout the country often reduced their investment in performance measurement in response to budget cutbacks.Less
Performance measurement, despite its widespread use by American cities, rarely leads to improved government or more efficient municipal management. Through contacts with organizations that track, support, and reward U.S. cities for measuring their performance, we created a list of 198 jurisdictions. Searching online for performance reports, reviews of citywide and agency budgets, and other relevant public documents for these jurisdictions, we determined whether performance data was visible, where it appeared, and the nature of performance measures used. We ranked the 198 jurisdictions according to their verifiable use of best measurement practices, and studied the twenty-four top-ranked cities more intensively. We found little relationship between the quality of a jurisdiction’s performance measurement and its embrace of performance management. Few of these cities had leadership that made any sustained effort to manage for performance. Indeed, municipalities throughout the country often reduced their investment in performance measurement in response to budget cutbacks.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226642062
- eISBN:
- 9780226642086
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226642086.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is about the collaboration of African American churches with the city government. The first section of the book deals with the scope ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is about the collaboration of African American churches with the city government. The first section of the book deals with the scope and theoretical foundation of activist African American churches' collaboration with government, the second investigates how activist African American churches in New York City collaborate with government, and the third section analyzes the church–state collaboration in relation to affordable housing production. The book argues that collaboration with city government may pave for politicized groups a path to an administrative form of political enfranchisement, one that may permit them access to and influence over policymaking processes.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is about the collaboration of African American churches with the city government. The first section of the book deals with the scope and theoretical foundation of activist African American churches' collaboration with government, the second investigates how activist African American churches in New York City collaborate with government, and the third section analyzes the church–state collaboration in relation to affordable housing production. The book argues that collaboration with city government may pave for politicized groups a path to an administrative form of political enfranchisement, one that may permit them access to and influence over policymaking processes.
Daniela Sandler
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501703164
- eISBN:
- 9781501706271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501703164.003.0005
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural History
This chapter turns to Daniel Libeskind's unbuilt proposal for the site of former SS barracks next to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial. This plan was commissioned by the local city ...
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This chapter turns to Daniel Libeskind's unbuilt proposal for the site of former SS barracks next to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial. This plan was commissioned by the local city government in the early 1990s. Unlike the piecemeal and localized character of the first two types of counterpreservation, the scale of this plan was very large both in size and in its potential socioeconomic impact. Moreover, the Oranienburg plan was designed by an architect who was, by then, already a rising star. On the one hand, this means that the open-ended and participatory nature of Hausprojekte and alternative cultural centers is missing. On the other hand, the poetics of counterpreservation was articulated more sharply through the architect's authorial presence. The political commitments so visible in the Hausprojekte and cultural centers were thus also present in Libeskind's socially minded program.Less
This chapter turns to Daniel Libeskind's unbuilt proposal for the site of former SS barracks next to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial. This plan was commissioned by the local city government in the early 1990s. Unlike the piecemeal and localized character of the first two types of counterpreservation, the scale of this plan was very large both in size and in its potential socioeconomic impact. Moreover, the Oranienburg plan was designed by an architect who was, by then, already a rising star. On the one hand, this means that the open-ended and participatory nature of Hausprojekte and alternative cultural centers is missing. On the other hand, the poetics of counterpreservation was articulated more sharply through the architect's authorial presence. The political commitments so visible in the Hausprojekte and cultural centers were thus also present in Libeskind's socially minded program.
Amanda I. Seligman
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226385716
- eISBN:
- 9780226385990
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226385990.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Political History
Some problems that block clubs confronted were too complex for low-budget, volunteer organizations to tackle on their own. To address issues such as deteriorating sidewalks, garbage collection, and ...
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Some problems that block clubs confronted were too complex for low-budget, volunteer organizations to tackle on their own. To address issues such as deteriorating sidewalks, garbage collection, and abandoned buildings, concerned residents had to appeal for government attention. City and private clean-up campaigns encouraged block club members to remove garbage from their surroundings and coordinated its removal. An important function of block clubs was to attract government services to solve local problems. For example, block club members learned how to petition the city government to send building inspectors into their neighborhoods to enforce the housing code; members then followed the cases of cited properties through the court system. In addition, umbrella organizations sometimes used their constituent block clubs to argue that they merited expensive large-scale redevelopment projects such as urban renewal.Less
Some problems that block clubs confronted were too complex for low-budget, volunteer organizations to tackle on their own. To address issues such as deteriorating sidewalks, garbage collection, and abandoned buildings, concerned residents had to appeal for government attention. City and private clean-up campaigns encouraged block club members to remove garbage from their surroundings and coordinated its removal. An important function of block clubs was to attract government services to solve local problems. For example, block club members learned how to petition the city government to send building inspectors into their neighborhoods to enforce the housing code; members then followed the cases of cited properties through the court system. In addition, umbrella organizations sometimes used their constituent block clubs to argue that they merited expensive large-scale redevelopment projects such as urban renewal.
Julie A. Gallagher
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036965
- eISBN:
- 9780252094101
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036965.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter follows a number of African American women in the postwar period further into party politics and into city government, and it charts the efforts of local renegades to launch political ...
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This chapter follows a number of African American women in the postwar period further into party politics and into city government, and it charts the efforts of local renegades to launch political insurgencies that sought to bring down entrenched Democratic bosses and improve African Americans' and women's access to political power. Despite the challenges they faced, African American women who were committed to creating a more just society through formal politics were extremely busy in the 1950s and 1960s. They introduced new issues into the political discourse as elected officials and government administrators, they pressured political leaders through protests, and they effectively used the courts. Through their examples of leadership and methods of organizing, they also encouraged historically disempowered people, especially black women, to engage in politics and to demand change from various state actors, including politicians, judges, police chiefs, school administrators, and municipal and state bureaucrats.Less
This chapter follows a number of African American women in the postwar period further into party politics and into city government, and it charts the efforts of local renegades to launch political insurgencies that sought to bring down entrenched Democratic bosses and improve African Americans' and women's access to political power. Despite the challenges they faced, African American women who were committed to creating a more just society through formal politics were extremely busy in the 1950s and 1960s. They introduced new issues into the political discourse as elected officials and government administrators, they pressured political leaders through protests, and they effectively used the courts. Through their examples of leadership and methods of organizing, they also encouraged historically disempowered people, especially black women, to engage in politics and to demand change from various state actors, including politicians, judges, police chiefs, school administrators, and municipal and state bureaucrats.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226642062
- eISBN:
- 9780226642086
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226642086.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter, which examines the scope of African American churches' collaboration with the New York City government, analyzes why activist African American churches collaborate with government and ...
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This chapter, which examines the scope of African American churches' collaboration with the New York City government, analyzes why activist African American churches collaborate with government and explains the reasons behind the high interest of African American churches in partnering with government. It contends that collaboration with government is part of civic tradition of African American churches' engaging in political action.Less
This chapter, which examines the scope of African American churches' collaboration with the New York City government, analyzes why activist African American churches collaborate with government and explains the reasons behind the high interest of African American churches in partnering with government. It contends that collaboration with government is part of civic tradition of African American churches' engaging in political action.