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Evaluating Urban Governance: A Three-Part Framework

Sara Hughes

in Repowering Cities: Governing Climate Change Mitigation in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto

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. ... More

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

Progress or Pipe Dream?: Cities and Climate Change Mitigation

Sara Hughes

in Repowering Cities: Governing Climate Change Mitigation in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto

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 ... More

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

The Shifting Ambitions and Positions of City Governments

Sara Hughes

in Repowering Cities: Governing Climate Change Mitigation in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto

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 ... More

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

City Wards and Jacksonian Democracy

Chris Danielson

in After Freedom Summer: How Race Realigned Mississippi Politics, 1965-1986

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. ... More

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

Epilogue

Caroline M. Barron

in London in the Later Middle Ages: Government and People 1200-1500

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 ... More

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

Partnering with Caesar

in God and Government in the Ghetto: The Politics of Church-State Collaboration in Black America

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 ... More

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

Neighbourhood interventions: can small scale make a difference in big cities?

Anne Power, Jörg Plö, and Astrid Winkler

in Phoenix cities: The fall and rise of great industrial cities

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 ... More

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

Ward 17

Joan C. Tonn

in Mary P. Follett: Creating Democracy, Transforming Management

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 ... More

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

Perfect for Washington: Marion Barry and the Rise and Fall of Chocolate City, 1979–1994

Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove

in Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital

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 ... More

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

Introduction

Michael J. Rich and Robert P. Stoker

in Collaborative Governance for Urban Revitalization: Lessons from Empowerment Zones

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 ... More

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

Does Measuring Performance Lead to Better Performance?

Mary Bryna Sanger

in Improving Public Services: International Experiences in Using Evaluation Tools to Measure Program Performance

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, ... More

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

Introduction

in God and Government in the Ghetto: The Politics of Church-State Collaboration in Black America

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 ... More

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

Decrepitude and Memory in the Landscape

Daniela Sandler

in Counterpreservation: Architectural Decay in Berlin Since 1989

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 ... More

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

Cleanse

Amanda I. Seligman

in Chicago's Block Clubs: How Neighbors Shape the City

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 ... More

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

Pushing Through the Doors of Resistance in the 1950s

Julie A. Gallagher

in Black Women and Politics in New York City

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 ... More

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

The Extent and Support of African American Churches' Collaboration with Government

in God and Government in the Ghetto: The Politics of Church-State Collaboration in Black America

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 ... More

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