Council Districts Research Articles

Where Does the Bucket Leak? Sending Money to the Poor via the Community Development Block Grant Program

Since the inception of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program in 1975, cities and large urban counties have been entitled to funding based on a formula designed to approximate community need. As with any such federally funded and locally administered program, there is a tension between federal and local control. At the federal level, one of CDBG's main goals is to benefit low- and moderate-income (LMI) people and places. While a substantial literature assesses how well CDBG funds are targeted to needy recipient jurisdictions, evidence on how funds are distributed within recipient jurisdictions is much more limited. In this article, we examine the distribution of CDBG funds relative to the share of LMI people at the council-district and neighborhood levels in Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California, for 1998 – 2004. In Los Angeles, we find that relatively poorer council districts receive more than they would were funds distributed following the share of LMI people. In contrast, Chicago's relatively poorer council districts receive lower funding than predicted by their share of the LMI population. This difference across council districts within the cities is partially explained by the greater sensitivity of allocations in Chicago to the location of high-income households. Despite these disparities, policy answers are not obvious; any policy that aims to enhance CDBG's reach to LMI people must contend with the erosion of broad-based political support that this would engender.

The Philadelphia Districting Contest: Designing Territories for City Council Based Upon the 2010 Census

The City of Philadelphia recently redesigned districts for its council members based upon the 2010 census. The districting process evinced considerable public interest and engagement because council districts from the prior census had significant shortcomings. During the 2010 redistricting process, several public interest groups came together to organize a districting contest. The organizers hoped to increase public engagement in the districting process and to proactively offer several well-constructed examples of city council districts that minimize gerrymandering. We were active participants in the contest, developing methodologies for finding good solutions to large integer programs that enabled us to win in one contest category and make presentations before the city council in this and another category. This article describes the unfolding of various events surrounding the districting process, the methodologies we developed, and the influence that the contest ultimately had on the design of city council districts.

A time series of urban forestry in Los Angeles

There has been an increasing interest in the evolution of urban forests. This research uses historic and digital aerial photography to quantify changes in tree density in Los Angeles, California since the 1920’s. High-resolution geographic information system analysis (4 to 6 time periods) of three regions (San Fernando Valley, Hollywood, Los Angeles Basin) of Los Angeles reveals that there has not always been an increase in tree density with time. Tree densities on public and private land were highest in the 1940’s in Hollywood, while the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles Basin experienced a near linear increase in tree density on both private and public land since the 1920’s. When historic tree density reconstructions were examined for the 15 Los Angeles city council districts from the 1920’s, 1950’s and 2006, most districts in Los Angeles have experienced a significant increase in tree density, however, there has been wide variation in tree densities among city council districts. Trees densities have generally been higher on private land since the 1920’s and currently tree densities on private land are significantly higher than on public land. Results suggest the evolution of urban forests in Los Angeles mirrors the dynamics of urban forests in desert and grassland cities. It is possible to reconstruct the development of urban forests in sections of cities using historic and contemporary aerial photography. We estimated that Los Angeles averages approximately 104 trees per hectare (82 private land, 22 public land) based on 2006 imagery at 0.3 m resolution, however, field validation suggests that we identified only 73% of trees. Although there is still space to plant trees on public land, private land owners will need to be heavily involved in order to achieve the goals of Los Angeles’ Million Tree Initiative.

Incivilities, Crime, and Latino Immigrant Concentration

ABSTRACT Research studying citizen perceptions of safety continues to expand its methodological and analytical scope. Informed by the incivilities thesis and Latino paradox/revitalization perspective, the current study adds to this expansion. Using three data sources (community surveys, census data, and police crime records), hierarchical logistic regression models were estimated to examine the influence of incivilities, violent crime rate, and immigrant concentration on citizens' perceived safety in a major southwestern city. At the citizen-level, results showed that perceived incivility was positively and significantly related to perceived safety; whereas, quality of life rating was negatively and significantly related to the outcome. At the council district-level, incivilities were positively and significantly related to perceived safety. Furthermore, citizens residing in council districts characterized by immigrant concentration reported significantly higher perceived safety concerns. Implications from these findings suggest that future research should consider local community immigration features as a way of expanding beyond traditional incivilities and crime measures.

The Effects of Social Disorganization

Guided by the theoretical framework of quality of life and social disorganization, this study combined data from three independent sources (4,469 community surveys, Census Bureau, and police crime records) to simultaneously examine the influence of contextual characteristics (concentrated disadvantage, social isolation, and violent crime) on residents' perceived incivilities across 10 city council districts in San Antonio, Texas, net of citizen-level covariates. Several findings emerged from the Poisson hierarchical analysis. At the citizen-level, Latino, age, homeowner, perceived safety, and quality of life rating were significantly related to perceived incivility. At the council district level, all the contextual variables were positively and significantly associated with the outcome. Implications from these findings are considered.

CANADIAN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT IN AN AGE OF NEOLIBERALISM

This manuscript addresses three major themes confronting Canadian provinces and localities as Canada's provincial and local governments adjust to newly implemented federal policies aimed at eliminating the nation's fiscal ailments. Provincial mandates for greater local government productivity, the philosophy that less government equals “better” government, and the proper role of local governments in democratic governance and participation are explored. Findings suggest that measures taken in response to changes in federal policy militate against the tradition of democratic participation at the local level. Among these are the provincial laws calling for the consolidation of local governments. The result, it is argued, is the elimination of governmental units with which many citizens identified. Furthermore, the increased size in council districts changed the very nature of representation as it was once known and accepted.

A geographical information system for the archaeological area of Pompeii

Abstract The increasing degradation of archaeological evidence in the circumvesuvian area requires a suitable and exhaustive census of all the archaeological features of the area that are accessible now or that have come to light at some time in the past. The high population density of the area demands a conservation policy based on appropriately planned prevention, rather than on occasional intervention with the criterion of ‘saving what can be saved’. Here we present a geographical information system (GIS) of the archaeological data in their territorial environment for the circumvesuvian area, with the aim of providing a useful tool for archaeological feature management. The database includes the following: (1) Current information on the circumvesuvian area (18 council districts with a total area coverage of about 250 km 2 ). The database consists mainly of vector data at the original scale of 1:5000 (although raster images are also included), and it is updated to the period 1988–1995, depending on the zone. The digital information includes natural and man-made features: roads, buildings, railways, spot heights, etc. (2) Archaeological sites. The ‘objects’ are organized in three main ‘layers’: areas with building constraints, buried elements (of uncertain and certain location), visible constructions (e.g. aqueduct, amphitheatre, honorary arch, forum, harbour structures, theatre, temple, roads, villas, etc.). The census is at present under development. To date, about 300 structures have been included in the GIS in the area of interest.

Labor-Management Cooperation—City of Portland, Maine

Portland, Maine had a traditional bargaining relationship. It now has one of the most complete programs of service-focused labor management cooperation of any place in the country. A broad range of city services, including an emerging effort in public safety are now run this way, with workers and their union leaders, managers and elected officials all benefitting from and praising the new relationship. Portland made this radical transformation without a crisis of fiscal pressure. New leadership in the city manager's office and responsive leadership in key bargaining units led to an experiment on the building of Hadlock Field. A partnership between the department head and the president of the AFSCME local led the project. Instead of contracting out to meet a short deadline and employ skills that didn't seem to exist, the parties worked out a special set of arrangements and via cross-training, teamwork and dedication completed the stadium in seven months, millions under the expected budget. From the pride and satisfaction of this joint effort, Portland, AFSCME and other key units worked to create a new participative relationship across the full range of city services. The effort has produced major cost savings and service improvements, has strengthened both the management and the union and has produced a far less adversarial bargaining relationship. In one innovation, separate services were split up and reorganized into district teams, providing customer-oriented public works services in areas that match city council districts. Cross training and new responsibilities have resulted in new opportunities and pay raises, yet have saved time and money. The piece, co-authored by union and management leaders from Portland, illustrates the breadth and depth of what they have achieved without a crisis as the initiating factor.

Ethnicity is not Enough

The concept of deracialized electoral strategies has been applied primarily to African-American candidates running in majority white or racially mixed jurisdictions. The author explores the use of deracialized electoral strategies by victorious Latino city council candidates in Los Angeles. These candidates ran in Latino-majority city council districts, yet faced multiracial electorates. To build cross-racial support, the winning Latino candidates employed deracialized political styles, issue stances, and mobilization strategies. On the council, Latinos have pursued a largely deracialized agenda.

Représenter les minorités par le découpage électoral. L'exemple de la nouvelle charte de New York

Minority representation through redistricting. The example of New York city's new charter As a result of the 1989 charter revision, by reférendum, the city of New York was endowed with a new government structure which strengthened the City Council as a legislative counterpower to the executive office of the Mayor. This government reform was coupled with an opening up of the political process to racial and linguistic minorities whose représentation was maximized by an affirmative gerrymandering of Council districts ; a record number of safe districts (80 % minority) made it possible to elect 21 black or Hispanic councillors. This article probes the conflicting approaches to political representation and asks whether the identity politics attached to such a redistricting process may not further balkanize the city, to the detriment of the capacity to orient the city's managerial priorities.

Minority Representation and the Drawing of City Council Districts

Despite advances in understanding the impacts of at-large versus district systems of representation at the local level, little is known about how local governments deal with minority populations while drawing the boundaries of local council districts. This question is examined using data drawn from American cities of 50,000 to 1,000,000 population in which some or all council members are elected from single-member wards or districts. The findings suggest that considerable attention was given to minority interests in the redrawing of council districts following the 1980 Census, and that those interests received more attention in southern cities operating under a pre- Bolden interpretation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.