Mayors Unchecked
This article contributes urban politics literature on local democratic practices by studying mayors in one region of the world – Latin America – who in the last couple of decades have gained more prominence as political actors. This is primarily because decentralization as a popular trend has given local governments much more power, authority, and responsibility. In many cities across the region, we can point to mayors who have used their authority to do important things, including opening the budget to new forms of participation and providing services that are tailored to local priorities. In this article, however, we emphasize the opposite problem: mayors who govern using informal political practices that might be characterized as undemocratic.
Studentification and Political Displacement of the Black Worker Electorate
In this case study of university-driven gentrification in Philadelphia, I try to understand the extent to which gentrification driven by universities, or studentification, is related to the victories of progressive candidates and displacement of the Black electorate. Scholars of studentification have understudied its electoral impact. The analysis draws on census and voting data to examine the extent to which political wards that were once a stronghold of Black political power in Philadelphia have studentified, and whether studentified neighborhoods played a role in two elections that saw the unseating of long-time incumbents by progressive newcomers. In other words, this study is trying to get at whether studentification is correlated with political displacement of what W.E.B. Du Bois called “the Black Worker”.
Navigating the Complexities of Council Estate Regeneration
The redevelopment of Woodberry Down, one of the largest council estates in London, has been the subject of intense debate: touted in regeneration circles as a success story, critics have labeled it as yet another example of the pervasive state-led gentrification of London council housing. As we delved into the multifaceted story of Woodberry Down, we have uncovered a nuanced tapestry of victories and losses, forcing us to grapple with the question: is Woodberry Down an example of successful regeneration or is it yet just another casualty of “state-led gentrification”?
Compact City and Mayoral Entrepreneurship
The “compact city” is one of the key responses of urban policy for tackling the pressing challenges that cities are facing, such as environmental sustainability, economic viability, and social cohesion. Nonetheless, understanding Japan's compact city policies requires considering the historical trajectories of past events and decisions made by policymakers.
Transforming a Day-Laborer’s Quarter into a Service Hub
This study analyzes the transformation of Kotobuki in Yokohama, Japan, from a day laborers’ quarter to a service hub using public choice and neo-Hegelian theories. It aims to address gaps in understanding the role of city government in welfare provision, which has often been overshadowed by the focus on civil society’s contributions. By conducting in-depth interviews with city government officials and civil society personnel, the study explores Kotobuki’s unique evolution into a welfare center through the lenses of these analytical frameworks.
Tribal Politics or Discerning Voters?
The substantial influence of partisanship on voting behavior at the national level is widely studied and agreed upon. But to what extent does partisanship influence voting behavior at the local level? While some research indicates local elections may be similar to national elections in terms of partisan influence, there are reasons to be skeptical. Local elections typically are nonpartisan; even if they are not, issues may not fall neatly along party lines.
High and Dry
Recent hurricanes, floods, and wildfires across the United States highlight the devastating effect of climate change on individuals and households. Renters and households with low incomes are disproportionately exposed to and harmed by these disasters in many ways – but there are still open questions about the effects of these disasters, specifically on rents. On the one hand, disasters often lead people to leave affected areas, which may lessen demand for housing and lead to lower rents. On the other hand, disasters generally damage housing units, rendering some unusable, which may lower supply and lead to higher rents.
Collaborative planning in the context of deindustrialization
In the early 1990s, along the once-industrialized Mahoning River in Northeast Ohio, a small-town mayor faced a challenging set of forces when trying to solve local problems. With the steel industry long gone, the town’s future had been hindered by a series of low-level dams and industrial contamination in and along the river. These and other serious problems extended across the region – through other small, river-adjacent towns and nearby Youngstown.
Working in the crisis
While the COVID-19 pandemic was, first and foremost, a health crisis, it presented a profound challenge to local economies around the world. Day-to-day business was suspended, and employers were forced to adapt to rapidly evolving working conditions. An external, global pressure issued an abrupt shock to the economic system of communities. While certainly profound and currently the first-to-mind example of economic shock, it is just one of many global pressures that local economies have had to contend with. In the face of global forces, how do local economic practitioners react and empower their communities to shape their own economic destiny?
Reform and Community Level Participation
Eleven years after the official over turn of Stop, Question, and Frisk (SQF) in New York City there is still a debate about the appropriate ways for officers to interact with citizens on the street – and what information they have a right or obligation to record. How police stops impact citizens and their wider communities is of critical importance, but difficult to fully understand until long after policies have unfolded. However, within the bounds of privacy, detailed data on police actions and where they occur can provide the needed information to trace back how effective policy changes are and what consequences they have.
The Price of Losing Autonomy
Amalgamations have gained popularity worldwide as important strategies for enhancing administrative efficiency and addressing a variety of governance challenges, including fiscal constraints, demographic shrinkage, and fragmented urban governance. This trend has also spurred a surge in empirical research to assess the actual impacts of such territorial reforms across diverse political and social contexts. One noticeable pattern that emerges from the literature is that small and politically marginalized units are often underserved after amalgamations, as a result of their diminished political importance in the post-amalgamated jurisdictions.
Place-Based Policy and Neighborhood Business Density
Economic disparities within cities and across regions have long posed challenges for policymakers aiming to revitalize struggling communities. For decades, the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program has been a cornerstone of place-based investment strategies in the United States, offering local governments flexible funds to improve economic and social conditions in low-and-moderate income communities.
A Grassroots Alternative to Urban Shrinkage?
The struggle to revitalize America’s Rust Belt has been going on for so long that it’s hard to find anyone alive who lived during its heyday when it was the epicenter of American industrial capitalism. Today’s Rust Belt inhabitants work through a spiral of competing narratives, symbols, and collective memories of the past as they try to rehab and reimagine the present Rust Belt city. We call these cultural meanings place reputations, and the construction of new place reputations play a vital role in the Rust Belt’s urban regeneration.
Landscapes of Remunicipalization
After four decades of stalemated debates about privatization there is a newer and more refreshing conversation on the block: remunicipalization. Also known as “reverse privatization” and “insourcing,” remunicipalization refers to a process of returning services back to state ownership and management after a period of private sector control.
A Feminist Critical Analysis of Public Toilets and Gender
There is a distinct lack of good quality public toilets in public spaces in cities across North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. With increasing numbers of unhoused people without access to private facilities, this is a growing concern. It is also an issue for anyone who wants to use public spaces, as everyone eventually needs a dignified place to go. Furthermore, the scarcity of quality public toilets disproportionately affects women, trans, and gender-nonconforming individuals, which impacts their mobility, safety, and health.
Women’s Representation in Canadian Municipal Politics
The share of women in Canadian municipal politics is just thirty-one percent—far from parity. Yet it varies widely across municipalities. What explains why sixteen percent of councils have no women on them while another sixteen percent have achieved gender parity? Such differences matter because research shows that elected women tend to prioritize issues that are distinct from men, contributing to better representation of many social issues. And young women who see themselves reflected on their councils are more likely to consider running for office themselves someday.
Defying Stereotypes, Populism and Neoliberal Discourse
Our paper describes and records some of the innovative ways municipalities in Québec reacted to the COVID pandemic. It is probable that many other municipalities and local authorities reacted in similar ways in other jurisdictions. The paper also provides some elements to help understand and describe in what way municipalities are being innovative, and how this compares to, and differs from, private-sector innovation.
Partisanship and Professionalization
Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, school board operations - and the elections to those positions - have received increased attention nationally and locally. As we realized the central role school boards were playing in the political landscape, we wanted to better understand how school boards were responding to both the pandemic and being increasingly in the political spotlight. We conducted a large-scale survey of school board members in multiple states during the summer of 2021. In open-ended responses on the survey, school board members highlighted their frustration with the politicization of the pandemic.
Are dollar stores magnets for violent crime?
In recent years, the United States has experienced a significant rise in economic inequality, a trend that has coincided with the rapid expansion of dollar stores, especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession. These establishments are often lauded as beacons of affordability, providing essential goods to financially disadvantaged communities. However, recent media reports and community demonstrations have cast a shadow on their presence. They highlight several concerning aspects, one of which is an alleged escalation in violent crimes in their vicinity.
Consumption and Economic Security
This study reveals a built-in contradiction of capitalist housing markets by conceptualizing homeownership as a special commodity, the consumption of which involves two separate stages of conflicting purposes: limited financial resources are fought over in the consumption of mortgage products (to obtain homeownership) and the enhancement of household economic security (to sustain homeownership). It is the latter stage that determines the long-term prospect of sustainable homeownership.