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News and Report Links
Local and National news | Magazines and Journals | Urban Policy Reports
Local and National news
Magazines and Journals
The American Prospect. The magazine aimed at contributing to a renewal of America's democratic traditions by presenting a practical and convincing vision of liberal philosophy, politics, and public life. ArchNewsNow. Features and architectural design profiles and a daily newswire of stories. Boston Review. Based at MIT, this magazine fosters politically engaged, intellectually honest, and morally serious debate about fundamental issues of the day. Building Better Communities. The Building Better Communities Network website is an information clearinghouse and communication forum dedicated to building inclusive communities and to successfully siting affordable housing and community services. City Journal. Provocative quarterly published by the Manhattan Institute in New York, is credited with supplying many of the ideas of the Guiliani Administration. Commonwealth. Published by MassINC, spotlighting politics, ideas and civic life in Massachusetts. Dollars & Sense: The Magazine of Economic Justice. Dollars & Sense is a progressive economics magazine that explains in a popular way both the workings of the economy and struggles to change it. Economic Principals. EP reports on university economics, as it affects historical awareness and public policy. It follows newspaper and magazine coverage of these topics. And it seeks to put under-noticed economic journalism in touch with a wider audience. Governing. A monthly magazine whose primary audience is state/local government officials and academics, focusing on several aspects of state and local politics and administration. Metropolis. Metropolis examines contemporary life through design--architecture, interior design, product design, graphic design, crafts, planning, and preservation. The Moving Ideas Network. Dedicated to explaining and popularizing complex policy ideas to a broader audience. PAN's goal is to improve collaboration and dialogue between policy and grassroots organizations, and to promote their work to journalists and legislators. The Next American City. A new national magazine that explores the transformation of America's cities and suburbs, asking tough questions about how and why our economy, society and culture are changing. Planners Network. Features an archived journal that covers a variety of urban planning related topics, including Planning Education, Living Wage, and Globalization. Preservation. The magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the organization that works to revitalize communities through historic preservation and renovation. Public Agenda. The inside source for public opinion and policy analysis meant to help leaders better understand the public's point of view on major policy issues and help citizens better understand critical policy issues so they can make their own more informed and thoughtful decisions. Reason.com. The online version of "the magazine of free minds and free markets," offers libertarian-minded, fresh opinions on the issues of the day. Shelterforce .The magazine of the National Housing Institute and the nation's oldest continually-published housing and community development magazine. Community Building | Education | Housing | Jobs & the Economy | Open Space | Public Health | Sprawl | Transportation | Welfare and Immigration Community Building
Turning Around Downtown: Twelve Steps for Revitalization. Though every downtown is different there are still common revitalization lessons that can be applied everywhere. While this approach must be customized based on unique physical conditions, institutional assets, consumer demand, history, and civic intent, this paper lays at the required fundamentals of downtown turnaround plan and the unique “private/ public” partnership required to succeed. Beginning with visions and strategic planning to the reemergence of an office market at the end stages, the 12 steps outlined in this March 2005 research brief from The Brookings Institution form a template for returning “walkable urbanity” downtown.
Partnerships Between Large and Small Organizations: A Strategy for Building Arts Participation. This brief examines how partnerships among cultural institutions with vastly different financial resources, audiences, and levels of professionalization were used to enlarge cultural participation as part of The Wallace Foundation's Community Partnerships for Cultural Participation (CPCP) initiative. Lessons learned from these ten large-small CPCP partnerships can help other cultural institutions evaluate the benefits and challenges of such partnerships and design and conduct more successful collaborations. Volunteer Management Practices and Retention of Volunteers. This report is the second in a series of briefs produced by The Urban Institute on a 2003 survey of volunteer management capacity among public charities in the United States. It focuses on charities' adoption of nine volunteer management practices: supervision and communication, liability coverage, screening and matching, regular collection of volunteer numbers and hours written policies and job descriptions, recognition activities, measurement of volunteer impacts, training and professional development, and training for paid staff in working with volunteers. Dispelling the Myth of Home Rule: Local Power in Greater Boston. This report examines and debunks the myths of the power of local authority in Massachusetts. Cities and towns have little discretion over taxes, fees, and borrowing, and only some control over public education. Based on interviews with local officials in the 101 towns and cities that make up Greater Boston, this study by David Barron, Gerald Frug, and Rick Su argues that one way to open up the possibilities for regional policy is to take the local desire for home rule more seriously. This important work provides a much-needed blueprint to the most fundamental issue of state and local governance in Massachusetts. The Pursuit of Happiness: A Survey on the Quality of Life in Massachusetts. This report, released in May 2003, highlights data from a 1,001-person statewide poll conducted for MassINC by Princeton Survey Research Associates (margin of error: + or - 3%). Respondents were asked more than 60 questions related to their own and the state's quality of life, their views on key policy issues, and problems impacting their families. The Arts and Smart Growth: The Role of Arts in Placemaking. The arts have become a focal point for community building, while the smart growth movement has become a focal point for creating better places. In some communities, the overlap of these two movements is the key to a community-building strategy. In other communities, the two movements proceed along separate tracks. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role each plays in buidling communities and the potential they have to work together to this end. Arts Participation: Steps to Stronger Cultural and Community Life. These findings come from the recent Cultural Participation Survey conducted by the Urban Institute and funded by The Wallace Foundation as part of an evaluation of the Community Partnerships for Cultural Participation (CPCP) initiative. The survey asked residents in five communities about their attendance at live music, dance, and theater performances and their visual arts experiences, as well as about other forms of particiation in arts and culture and in civic affairs. Responses to the survey suggest new ways to think about connections between arts and cultural participation and community participation. Fruitful Collaborations: A Survey of Government Funded Faith-Based Programs in 15 states (September 2002).
The second report in a two-part series aimed at shedding light on the question of government-faith community collaboration in providing social services to the poor. The study provides the first hard evidence that charitable choice is succeeding.
Equity with a Twist: The Changing Capital Needs of the Community Development Field. The challenges of community development organizations have altered since the birth of CDCs years ago. Now more sophisticated and system-savvy, these organizations face different federal funding scenarios, typically embrace several missions at once, and have more on their collective plates than at any time. Read Brookings Institution recommendations on how CDCs can procure more capital using a new future-forward philosophy.
Education
Losing Our Future: How Minority Youth Are Being Left Behind by the Graduation Rate Crisis. In an increasingly competitive, global economy the consequences of dropping out of high school are devastating to individuals, communities, and our national economy. At an absolute minimum, adults need a high school diploma if they are to have any reasonable opportunities to earn a living wage. Nationally, high school graduation rates are low for all students, with only an estimated 68 percent of those who enter 9th grade graduating with a regular diploma in 12th grade. But they are substantially lower for most minority groups, and particularly for males. To make matters worse, official "dropout" statistics neither accurately count nor report the vast numbers of students who do not graduate from high school. For a variety of reasons that are detailed in this February 2004 report by the Urban Institute, the two major sources used most often - the Center for Educational Statistics and the Current Population Survey - to calculate dropout and graduation rates produce misleading figures. Moreover, because states rarely disaggregate graduation rates by race or socio-economic status, the extremely low graduation rates for racial and ethnic minorities, students with disabilities, low-income students, and students with limited English proficiency subgroups are rarely the focus of debates on education reform. As a result, the public remains largely unaware of this national crisis. Federal Financial Aid for Higher Education: Programs and Prospects. The federal government has played a leading role in encouraging students to obtain higher education. Over the past decade, higher education initiatives have shifted from spending programs to tax subsidies. Recent tax changes for higher education include the HOPE credit, the Lifetime Learning Credit, Section 529 plans for college saving, education IRAs, and the deduction for higher education expenses. Except for modest increases in the maximum Pell Grant and a broadening of the population receiving loan subsidies, virtually all of the new federal resources directed at higher education have been provided through the tax code and have been directed at students from middle- and upper-income families. The acquisition of higher education is broadly and appropriately viewed as a key mechanism for enhancing
worker productivity, wages, and living standards. Despite the substantial private, and perhaps social, benefits of college attendance, enrollment rates have remained substantially lower among students from low- and moderate-income families than among students from high-income families. The continuing differential in enrollment rates limits both economic mobility and economic growth. Who Graduates? Who Doesn’t? A Statistical Portrait of Public High School Graduation, Class of 2001. This study, the latest in a series of investigations conducted by the Urban Institute, provides an extensive set of systematic empirical findings on public high school graduation rates in the United States. Detailed descriptive statistics and analytic results are presented for the nation as a whole, by geographical region, and for each of the states. This study also offers a detailed perspective on the issue of high school completion by examining graduation rates for the overall student population, for specific racial and ethnic groups, and by gender. Black Racial Identity and Urban Adolescents. Urban African American adolescents compose a population that is at particular risk for poor developmental outcomes, such as drug abuse, violence and teenage pregnancy. During adolescence, these students undergo an extra challenge due to the developmental task of integrating their individual personal identity with their racial identity. In this study, Associate Professor Robbie J. Steward and her research team examined the degree to which grade point average, academic performance and coping styles can predict urban African American high school students’ attitudes about race. After-School and Community Technology Education Programs for Low-Income Families. This digest provides a review of current recommendations on how to promote computer and internet literacy in low-income communities. It also presents brief descriptions of urban programs found to be effective for low-income youth and their families. Some are projects of national initiatives that welcome new local affiliates, while otehrs are independent local programs whose creativity might spark the development of equally innovative programs elsewhere. No Child Left Behind: Testing, Reporting, and Accountability. This digest reviews how testing and reporting requirements will operate with respect to different groups of students and examines factors that could delay or dilute the guarantee of educational accountability in the academia achievement of all children. Overlooked, Underserved: Immigrant Students in U.S. Secondary Schools. With such high levels of immigration from both neighboring and distant countries, there is a critical need to ensure that this population is served through public education. Since most immigrants settle in or around large cities, many urban areas are taking the brunt of the burden. Housing
Urban Renewal in New Haven and Boston: Transgression or Triumph? Though Boston was a leading participant in the urban renewal program, New Haven, Connecticut implemented the program with zeal as well, obtaining $1,018 in urban renewal funds per citizen, the highest in the nation. Many consider early urban renewal efforts as social engineering with heartless outcomes, such as displacing long time residents, demolishing historical neighborhoods, and tearing apart strong feelings of community felt between people in affected areas. This report, by a Northeastern University undergraduate, intends to answer a myriad of related questions, including: What is the present day economic and social situation of areas that received urban renewal? Do any patterns or similar outcomes emerge between the two cities? Can these similarities be attributed to specific strategies adopted by the leadership in both cities? Was urban renewal successful? Hard Numbers, Hard Times: Homeless Individuals in Massachusetts Emergency Shelters, 1999-2003. This report, produced by the Center for Social Policy at UMass Boston in July 2004, analyzes which parts of the city of Boston homeless shelter guests came from, which parts of the city house the most homeless, how they became homeless, who primarily uses the shelters [age, race, gender, education, marital status]. It also looks at what types of jobs and benefits received from these jobs that the homeless had. The Family Permanent Supportive Housing Initiative: Preliminary Report Findings. In March 2003, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, the Urban Institute, and Harder+Company launched an evaluation of the Family Permanent Supportive Housing Initiative (FPSHI). This report presents findings from baseline interviews with 60 families, conducted between November 2003 and January 2004, and descriptions of four FPSH sites included in the study sample. Information about FPSH mothers' homeless histories show that the FPSHI is well-targeted toward those with long-term or repeated homelessness. Even with the retrospective data available from baseline interviews, it is clear that FPSH programs have been able to stabilize these mothers and children and help them maintain housing. A Decade of Hope VI: Research Findings and Policy Challenges. Launched in 1992, the $5 billion HOPE VI program represents a dramatic turnaround in public housing policy and one of the most ambitious urban redevelopment efforts to date. Congress, the administration, housing groups, local elected officials, resident advocates, and the media are now asking challenging questions about what the investment has accomplished. This report, published by The Urban Institute, looks at the extent to which HOPE VI has achieved its intended benefits and what lessons are offered for affordable-housing policy. A comprehensive literature review is included, as well as policy implications and future research priorities. America’s Neighbors: The Affordable Housing Crisis and the People it Affects. Housing problems are twice as prevalent as lack of health insurance and affect three times more people than does food insecurity. Despite this, housing does not attract the same level of public concern. This may be because housing problems are more concentrated among low-income people. The data in this brief, published by the National Low Income Housing Coalition in February 2004, clearly shows how the private housing market does not reach down to the lowest income people in the U.S., and thus public intervention is necessary to assure that all people have basic housing. The State of the Nation’s Housing. According to this 2004 report published by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, despite job losses in the rest of the economy, housing had another record-breaking year in 2003. Home sales, single-family housing starts, residential fixed investment, homeownership rates, mortgage originations, refinances, and home prices all reached new peaks. The only weak spots were the uneven rental market and the depressed manufactured housing sector, which is dominated by lower income people. The Earned Income Tax Credit as an Instrument of Housing Policy. This paper examines the effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on housing-cost burdens currently and analyzes and contrasts three proposals to increase its impact as a housing tool. The State of the Nation's Housing, 2003. Despite the 2001 recession and weak ensuing recovery, by most measures 2002 was the strongest year for housing on record. Residential investment, home sales, homeownership rates, aggregate home equity, and total mortgage debt all hit new highs last year. Anemic growth has nevertheless taken its toll, sending mortgage delinquency rates up while pushing rents in some areas down. This report addresses these issues and more. Fine-tuning Chapter 40B. Massachusetts' Comprehensive Permit Law (Chapter 40B) is a national model for streamlining permit processes to create more affordable housing. A nearly year-long task force has made recommendations to improve Chapter 40B and clear up confusion concerning the law's language. The goal is more incentives for affordable housing construction. The Implications of a Changing U.S. Demographics for Housing Choice and Location in Cities. What do the latest demographic trends tell us about the future of housing policy? The Brookings Institution's Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy projects housing needs for an era in which there will be equal numbers of people in each age group yet more racial and ethnic diversity than ever before. Read recommendations for urban policy using these demographic projections. Who Should Run the Housing Voucher Program? A Reform Proposal. Options for administering the federal housing voucher program at the metropolitan level. Jobs & the Economy
State Response to Budget Crises in 2004: Massachusetts. Massachusetts is a high-income, moderately high-tax state that has faced severe fiscal pressure since SFY 2001. Voter registration is heavily Democratic, but since 1990, voters have elected fiscally conservative Republican governors balanced by nearly veto-proof, more liberal Democratic legislatures. Republican Governor Mitt Romney won handily in November 2002, pledging not to increase taxes, but Democrats slightly increased their legislative dominance. Anti-tax sentiment is strong, yet co-exists with pro-expansionary attitudes on public services. Massachusetts ranks high on any measure of public generosity in health care, reflecting its political philosophy, its large medical sector, and pride in its reputation for high-quality care. This report published in February 2004 by the Urban Institute examines these
budget issues. A Matter of Choice. This report, published in May 2004 by the Massachusetts Policy and Budget Center, examines how the proposed Romney tax cut effects public housing, education, environmental affairs, child-care, public health, and cash assistance. It concludes that the tax cuts benefit the upper- and middle-class citizens of Boston at a greater percentage than the lower classes. Encouraging Job Advancement Among Low-Wage Workers: A New Approach. This May 2004 Policy Brief from the Brookings Institution shows that while their employment rates have risen considerably, most former welfare recipients continue to earn very low wages. Similarly, the earnings of less-educated U.S. workers more broadly have also stagnated or fallen in recent years. Using a new dataset from the Census Bureau, some recent research suggests that low earners' advancement prospects a re closely tied to the characteristics of the employers for whom they work. Employment in certain high-wage sectors and especially at firms that pay wage premiums and offer career ladders is strongly correlated with earnings gains over time for initially low earners. Job mobility often results in higher earnings gains than does staying in the same job. "Work first" approaches—such as immediate job placement for those on welfare—produce modest
gains over time, while early work at a higher-wage employer or with a temp agency generates larger gains. Policymakers should therefore encourage better job placements for low earners as well as targeted training that is integrated with these placements. Policies to support the creation of more higher-wage jobs for the unskilled should be considered as well. Private labor market intermediaries can play important roles in both processes. Successful Transitions out of Low-Wage Work for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Recipients: The Role of Employers, Coworkers, and Location. This study, published in April 2004, examines the effect of employer characteristics, types of coworkers, and residential location in promoting the advancement of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients in the labor market. It is the first report to use new, large integrated employer-employee data – with new measures of worker quality and firm pay premia – to examine labor market outcomes and provide evidence that proactive welfare agencies may use in decision making. Getting Time Off: Access to Leave among Working Parents. Forty-one percent of working parents with household incomes below twice the federal poverty level do not receive paid sick leave, vacation days, personal days or other forms of compensated leave. Only 16 percent of working parents with incomes above 200 percent of the poverty level do not receive paid leave. This analysis, published by The Urban Institute in April 2004, examines whether access to leave differs by socioeconomic characteristics. The data suggest that the majority of working parents can take maternity or paternity leave from their jobs. Although access to maternity/paternity leave varies with measures of economic well-being, it is much more equal than access to paid leave. Effects of Recent Fiscal Policies on Today’s Children and Future Generations. Today's children represent the future of the century. This notion that children and future generations should have better living standards than current generations is central to universally shared views of economic progress. This article, produced by the Tax Policy Center in July 2004, examines the effects of recent fiscal policies on children and the direct and indirect effects of one set of policies -- the tax cuts and the Medicare spending increases that have been proposed and enacted since January 2001 -- on the long-term economic prospects of today's and tomorrow's youth. Tax Credits for Working Families: The New American Social Policy (August 2003). Looking for ways to expand the constituency for tax credits to include more "working families" with low- to middle-incomes, this paper reviews the current regime of tax credits, their design, and the political dynamics behind their appeal. The paper finds, among other things, that tax credits for working families have expanded rapidly in recent years and tax expenditures are more significant for lower-income and higher-income families than for middle-income families. Climbing the Economic Ladder (May 2003). This report examines available evidence on earnings mobility in five areas: 1) from one year to the next, 2) over the life cycle, 3) among individuals in the same generation, 4) across generations, and 5) between groups distinguished by race and gender. The findings suggest that there is substantial earnings mobility and that climbing the economic ladder is more the norm than the exception. Beyong Workforce 2020: The coming (and present) international market for labor. This report introduces what the Hudson Institute believes to be the most important demographic theme that confronts the U.S. workforce, employers, and policymakers as we enter a new century: a growing mismatch between the location of the world's new workers and the historial location of the world's best jobs. High Tech Specialization: A Comparison of High Technology Centers. As the high technology industry is now an integral part of the New Economy, The Brookings Institution's Center for Urban & Metropolitan Policy compared 14 high-tech metropolitan areas to see what made them work. The authors determined that high technology varies dramatically by regions and the areas tend to specialize in a few products or technologies. To best develop a high-tech economy, the authors wrote, "leaders of any metropolitan area are well advised to look closely at their own existing knowledge base for the best opportunities to grow an industry cluster." Do Highways Matter? Evidence and Policy Implications of Highways' Influence on Metropolitan Development. A comprehensive report details the results of highway construction - where the jobs are, where the neighborhoods are, and the policies needed to redistribute both. Career Advancement Prospects and Strategies for Low-wage Minority Workers. Even when educational differences are accounted for, African-Americans and other minorities earn lower wages and have lower employment rates than white Americans. The Urban Institutes answers: What accounts for these differences across racial and ethnic groups? Do less-educated or lower-income minorities face additional barriers to skill development and career advancement beyond those faced by their white counterparts? If so, what are these barriers, and how might they be overcome? Open Space
The Public Value of Urban Parks. Parks have long been recognized as major contributors to the physical and aesthetic quality of urban neighborhoods. But a new, broader view of parks has emerged. It focuses on parks as valuable contributors to larger urban policy objectives, such as job opportunities, youth development, public health, and community building. This first in a series of policy briefs reviews the traditional view and explains how parks are claiming new attention for their broader potential, how they are building new partnerships to strengthen their communities in these broader ways, and how public support for parks increases as they expand their role. Losing Ground: At What Cost?. This new report released by Mass Audubon in November 2003 finds that Massachusetts continues to lose 40 acres per day to development. It shows the trend toward large house, large lot development statewide; that habitat loss is greatest in the Southeast, Cape Cod and along the I-495 corridor; and that the rare species habitat in the Connecticut River Valley goes relatively unprotected. Trails and Greenways: Advancing the Smart Growth Agenda. The evidence needed to substantiate the importance and value of green infrastructure in advancing the smart growth agenda exists. This paper organizes the information and presents it as a comprehensive package with sufficient detail and references to allow local decision makers to confidently give priority to green infrastructure as part of their quest to make their community more liveable, sustainable, and healthy. Growth at the Ballot Box: Electing the Shape of Communities in November 2000. Growth measures include initiative to increase open space preservation, transportation investments, economic development and growth management. This chart provides an overview with a link to the full report that includes a full list of measures and the measures mapped out by state. Public Health
Suburban Sprawl and Physical and Mental Health. A nine-page article from the 2004 issue of Public Health: Journal of the Royal Institute of Public Health summarizing the results of a study of the association between suburban sprawl and chronic medical conditions and mental health disorders.
Changes in Insured Coverage and Access to Care for Middle-Class Americans, 1999-2002. The paper examines how insurance coverage and access to care for the middle-class changed between 1999 and 2002, contrasting their experience with that of lower- and higher-income Americans. The authors found that the lowest income population (those below 200 percent of the federal poverty level) was the hardest hit by the economic decline. Labor Force Status and Insurance Coverage, 1999 and 2002. This paper explores the relationship between changes in labor force status and changes in health insurance coverage of non-elderly adults and children from 1999 to 2002. The study examines changes in coverage among the employed, the unemployed, and those not in the labor force. Measuring the Health Effects of Sprawl: A National Analysis of Physical Activity, Obesity, and Chronic Illness (September 2003). This report purports to present the first national study to show a clear association between the type of place people live and their activity levels, weight, and health. In addition to presenting research findings, this report summarizes recent research done by others and the links between the way we've built our communities, physical activity, and health. It also includes recommendations for change and resources for those interested in further exploration of the topic. Americans' Attitudes Toward Walking and Creating Better Walking Communities. As policymakers and the public debate the different aspects of transportation issues, The Surface Transportation Policy Project asked Belden Russonello & Stewart to measure the public's attitudes toward one aspect of this debate: walking. This report contains key charts on the findings. State of the Air 2000. The American Lung Association's newest report provides a comprehensive look at air quality around the country. The ALA assigned cities and counties grades ranging from "A" to "F" based on Environmental Protection Agency standards. The results are grim - half of all counties examined received an "F" grade due to unhealthy ozone levels. The report, which will be updated annually, also includes a list of America's worst and least polluted cities and counties. Sprawl
Investing in a Better Future: A Review of the Fiscal and Competitive Advantages of Smarter Growth Development Pattern. With the collapse of the 1990s stock market bubble and several years of national economic slowdown, a tense new climate of austerity has sharpened debates over government spending, economic development, and the physical growth of states and metropolitan areas. This paper, produced in March 2004 by the Brookings Institution, makes the case that more compact development patterns and investing in projects to improve urban cores would save taxpayers' money and improve regions' overall economic performance. To that end, it relies on a review of the best academic empirical literature to weigh the extent to which a new way of thinking about growth and development can benefit governments, businesses, and regions during these fiscally stressed times. Energy and Smart Growth: It’s about How and Where We Build. Through greater use of energy efficient design and renewable energy resources the smart growth movement could better achieve its goals of environmental protection, economic security and prosperity, and community livability. This paper, commissioned by the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, contends there is much to be gained by expanding the smart growth movement to include greater attention on energy. It provides a brief background on current energy trends and programs, and then presents a framework for understanding the connections between energy and land use. Smart Growth is Smart Business: Boosting the Bottom Line and Community Prosperity. Smart growth is smart business. Business leaders recognize that quality of life directly affects economic prosperity, and that sprawl threatens quality of life. In addition, business leaders recognize that sprawl threatens the health of central cities, and cities are critical to the health of the metropolitan region. Today, businesses engaged in smart growth are doing so to gain a competitive advantage, maximize shareholder value, and tap unmet demand for goods and services. For instance, businesses such as Starbucks and Kinko’s are looking for the next revitalizing neighborhood, hoping to find the ideal location and ride the wave of economic growth. Weather Reporting and Public Awareness of Smart Growth Issues and Solutions: Designing Smart Growth Training for Weathercasters. This report contains the proceedings, findings and recommendations from a September 2003 national forum on ways to increase public awareness of the human and environmental effects of urban and exurban sprawl. More specifically, the attendees of the forum – members of the media, meteorologists, planners, environmental scientists, agency representatives and public advocates – examined the question of whether television and radio weather-casting and other weather reporting can make a meaningful contribution to public understanding of the true costs of unplanned or poorly planned development. Sprawl and Urban Growth. Cities can be thought of as the absence of physical space between people and firms. As such, they exist to elinimate transportation costs for goods, people and ideas and transportation technologies dictate urban form. In the 21st century, the dominant form of city living is based on teh automobile and this form is sometimes called sprawl. In this essay, the authors document that sprawl is ubiquitous and that it is continuing to expand. Using a variety of evidence, it is argued that sprawl is not the result of explicit government policies or bad urban planning, but rather the inexorble product of car-based living. Job Sprawl: Employment Location in U.S. Metropolitan Areas. A new report on "job sprawl" shows that Boston is ahead of most of the country when it comes to retaining its jobs in a centralized area. Despite the population exodus from central cities plaguing many other parts of the country, 25 percent of the Boston metropolitan area's jobs are still within three miles of the city center. Office Sprawl: The Evolving Geography of Office Space. Suburbs and job location theory. Transportation
Annual Report on New Starts. The Federal Transit Administration recently released their 2006 Annual Report on New Starts. The report offers funding recommendations for rail transit projects. It evaluates major transit capital projects around the country that are proposed for federal New Starts funding, and makes recommendations to Congress regarding the allocation of $1.5 billion in New Starts funds for FY 2006.
Setting the Record Straight: Transit, Fixing Roads and Bridges Offer Greatest Jobs Gains. This report, released in January 2004 by the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP), found that investments in road and bridge repair create nine percent more jobs per dollar than building new roads or bridges. In addition, for public transportation, job creation jumps to 19 percent more than the figure for new road and bridge projects. Transportation Costs and the American Dream: Why a Lack of Transportation Choices Strains the Family Budget and Hinders Home Ownership. This report finds that shifting government priorities to increase public investment in transit and improve existing assets to better accommodate more transportation choices can greatly reduce the household costs of transportation. As Congress debates the reauthorization of the federal transportation funding bill, TEA-21, it should provide robust levels of guaranteed transit funding and support for other transportation choices. This is more than just good transportation policy, the report argues, it's good fiscal policy, helping American families save hard-earned money during tight economic times. The Road to Better Transportation Projects: Public Involvement and the NEPA Process. This report is about a landmark law requiring federal government to examine alternatives and seek to minimize harmful effects of federally funded projects, like highways, which have the potential to damage our health, environment, and quality of life. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which took effect in 1970, requires that federal agencies study and disclose the environmental effects of their actions and include the public in the decision-making process for federally-funded projects. Ten Principles for Successful Development Around Transit. Development around transit promotes compact development, multiple rather than single uses, a pedestrian orientation, and attention to civic uses. Successful development around transit also demands a new form of community building that not only supports and encourages transit use but also transforms the surrrounding area into a place that is so special and irresistable that people will invest there, live there, and visit again and again. This project highlights ways to create this type of community. Flexible Funding for Transit: Who Uses It?. An analysis of major federal highway funds that can be flexibly used for highway and transit programs, finding that metropolitan areas with well-established transit systems took advantage, while car-dependent regions didn't bother. Welfare and Immigration
Waive of the Future? Federalism and the Next Phase of Welfare Reform. Determining the appropriate balance of power between the national government and the states is the "cardinal question of our constitutional system," wrote Woodrow Wilson in 1908. The question, he said, would resurface at "every successive stage of our political and economic development." A current manifestation of the time-honored debate focuses on whether to grant state governments additional discretion in managing and integrating a wide range of federally supported services that, in principle, can help the nation's poor earn a living rather than depend on public assistance. This March 2004 Policy Brief from the Brookings Institution examines this issue. Connecting the Dots: Can the United States Integrate Welfare Reform and Workforce Development?. This brief produced by the Hudson Institute discusses how the U.S. is grappling with the challenge of what to do when education and technology are not enough to keep a worker employed. The article proposes that an integrated workforce system, in the long run, eases the economic burden on states. Moreover, the integration of welfare and workforce systems holds the potential of creating a new generation of better-trained workers—all critical to the growth and opportunity in the emerging global economy and global workforce. Recent Trends in Food Stamp Participation: Have New Policies Made a Difference?. This report was produced through the “Assessing the New Federalism” project, an Urban Institute Program that accesses changing social policies. Food stamp caseloads increased dramatically between October 2000 and October 2003. This study examines whether new program rules and procedures increased participation rates for families with children. The results show that families recently on welfare were substantially more likely to participate in the Food Stamp program in 2002 than in 1997 or 1999. In contrast, participation rates for families with no cash welfare experience, the largest share of poor families with children, remained quite low throughout the period. What Do ‘I Do’s’ Do? Potential Benefits of Marriage for Cohabitating Couples with Children. This report, published by The Urban Institute, uses data from the 2002 National Survey of America's Families to show that over 70 percent of the difference in poverty, low-income status, and food insecurity between children living with married and cohabiting couples can be attributed to differences in work status, education, age, and race/ethnicity of these couples. The remaining difference can be attributed to unmeasured family characteristics and the intrinsic benefits of marriage. America's Newest Working Families: Cost, Crowding and Conditions for Immigrants. Over the last several years, the Center for Housing Policy has released a series of reports documenting the critical housing needs of America's low- to moderate-income working families. While previous research on working families examined variations across different income and minority groups, it did not specifically identify workers who were first generation Americans. This report attempts to fill this gap by examining the incidence and nature of critical housing needs among recent immigrants. All Under One Roof: Mixed-Status Families in an Era of Reform. The United States' immigration policy is an issue at constant debate, particularly when it comes to the benefits illegal immigrants and their citizen children are entitled to receive. The passage of welfare reform in 1996 transformed immigrant policy by instituting unprecedented tough measures toward new and current immigrants. One policy, however, has remained unchanged: granting children born to immigrants on U.S. soil with full citizenship. The combination of new exclusionary policies toward immigrants and the unchanging status of U.S.-born children produces problems for these "mixed status" families, which account for nearly nine percent of all U.S. families with children. Since the law now draws sharp distinctions between citizens and non-citizens, members of the same family are treated quite differently by service providers. Read more about how this distinction affects such serious issues as deportation and food stamp allotment. Suggest a new link by writing j.christo@neu.edu.
