Neighborhood Improvement Programs Research Articles

Public investments in neighborhood improvement programs in Peru, 2004-2015

La presente investigacion tuvo como objetivo, determinar como se relacionan los presupuestos ejecutados con los proyectos, y beneficiarios del Programa Mejoramiento Integral de Barrios (PMIB), en el Peru, periodo 2004 – 2015. Se utilizo la tecnica de observacion, mediante una guia de observacion estructurada de datos, recolectando asi, la informacion estadistica alcanzada por el Ministerio de Vivienda, Construccion y Saneamiento, encontrandose que, los presupuestos ejecutados del PMIB, se incrementaron ano tras ano, comenzando con la ejecucion de 3.472.000 soles en el ano 2004, hasta llegar a una ejecucion de 645.802.000 soles en el ano 2015. Se encontro una correlacion de 0,597, que resulto ser significativa, entre el numero de proyectos, y montos de presupuestos ejecutados, por haberse encontrado que p valor= 0,041 α 0,05, lo que indica que no hay significancia. Por otro lado, se encontro una correlacion de 0,308, con un p valor= 0,331 > α 0,05, lo que indica que no hay significancia entre el numero de proyectos y numero de beneficiarios del PMIB. Se puede decir que la presente investigacion tiene coincidencia con (Flores, Padilla, & Velazco, 2011), en su informe del Ministerio De Vivienda, Construccion y Saneamiento, puesto que, se pudo observar que hay una fuerte inversion en el proyecto, y esta va aumentando en presupuesto y beneficiarios, con el transcurrir de los periodos evaluados. Palabras clave: proyecto, beneficio, presupuesto, barrios

The global financial crisis and neighborhood decline

ABSTRACTNeighborhood decline is a complex and multidimensional process. National and regional variations in economic and political structures (including varieties in national welfare state arrangements), combined with differences in neighborhood history, development, and population composition, make it impossible to identify an ideal-type process of neighborhood decline over time. The recent global financial crisis and the subsequent economic recession affected many European and North American cities in terms of growing unemployment levels and rising poverty in concentrated areas. Investments in urban restructuring and neighborhood improvement programs have simultaneously decreased or come to a halt altogether. While many studies have investigated the effects of the financial crisis on national housing markets or on foreclosures in particular US metropolitan areas, only a few studies have focused on how the crisis affected neighborhood change. By proposing 10 hypotheses about the ways in which the economic crisis might influence processes of neighborhood decline, this article aims to advance the debate and calls for more contextualized, empirical research on neighborhood change.

Neighborhood Decline and the Economic Crisis

Neighborhood decline is a complex and multidimensional process. National and regional variation in economic and political structures (including variety in national welfare state arrangements), combined with differences in neighborhood history, development and population composition, makes it extremely difficult to identify a unilateral process of neighborhood decline over time. Some scholars have tried to develop all-encompassing models to explain neighborhood decline; others have studied more deeply the relevance of a limited number of factors and developments in processes of decline. The literature has paid little attention to the influence of economic development on neighborhood development, and surprisingly, few studies have focused on the effects of the economic crisis on urban neighborhoods. The recent global economic and financial crisis affected many European and North-American cities in terms of growing unemployment levels and rising poverty in concentrated areas. At the same time, urban investments such as urban restructuring and neighborhood improvement programs have decreased, or come to a halt altogether. By reviewing existing literature, this paper aims to contribute to an understanding of neighborhood decline in light of the economic crisis. By formulating ten hypotheses about the ways in which the economic crisis might interact with processes of neighborhood decline, this paper aims to push the debate on neighborhood decline forward and calls for more contextualized research on neighborhood change. We will highlight challenges for future research and point to factors that need to be taken into consideration in a post-crisis society.

New Parochialism, Sources of Community Investment, and the Control of Street Crime

Research SummaryWe examined Seattle, Washington's Neighborhood Matching Fund (NMF), a unique neighborhood improvement program that provides city funding for projects organized within neighborhoods. We found an inverse relationship between NMF funding and violent crime rates, a relationship that is stronger in poorer neighborhoods. The relationship also is stronger as funds accumulate within the neighborhoods over time. These findings suggest that investment and neighborhood participation can have both short‐term and long‐term crime reduction effects.Policy ImplicationsThe Neighborhood Matching Fund program is associated with significant reductions in crime, even though the program and its projects are not aimed specifically at crime reduction. This observation suggests that policies that encourage neighbors to interact with each other and that facilitate interactions and physical improvements can help reduce crime by improving neighborhood conditions and social relationships. Investments in neighborhoods by the city also can help counteract the negative effects of private disinvestment.

Geographies of Opportunity for Whom?

Local governments claim that neighborhood improvement programs develop grassroots leadership capacity, raise the importance of neighborhood issues on the citywide political agenda, and empower residents to solve neighborhood-level problems. This article argues that neighborhood improvement programs also jeopardize the geography of opportunity, particularly women's neighborhood activism. Drawing from interviews with neighborhood activists and local government officials from one municipality in Southern California, this study illuminates the ways in which local government efforts regulate and contain neighborhood activism.

Helping Citizens Help Themselves

This article analyzes the relationship between social capital and neighborhood-oriented forms of participation within the context of an innovative Dutch neighborhood improvement program. On the basis of a survey among 307 residents, the author studies the link between three dimensions of social capital (neighborliness, trust in neighbors, and sense of duty) and three neighborhood oriented forms of participation: informal governance, the conversion of specific neighborhood problems into action, and participation in the program. Neighborliness and a sense of duty are positively related to the various forms of participation, whereas the impact of trust is somewhat more ambiguous. A subsequent analysis of the residents’ proposals shows that although some of them explicitly refer to the importance of social capital, the bulk of their plans simply demand resources (money, personnel, or policies) to address concrete issues. The author concludes that social capital is an important facilitator of people’s capacity to prevent and solve such problems themselves but that at the same time a whole range of problems still needs to be addressed through direct governmental action.

Transport and Urban Planning in Curitiba

One of the best and most sustainable transit systems in the world today flourishes in Curitiba, a medium-sized metropolis in southern Brazil. Curitiba's strategy integrates a world-class all-bus transit network, well-defined structural axes accommodating and channeling the city's growth, and complementary land uses. A clear vision of the future ensured that piecemeal decisions made over a period of three decades added up to an extraordinary fit between transit and land use/cityscape. The all-bus network blends the advantages of a metro and the conventional transit system using surface streets. Within the next years, Curitiba intends to improve the integration of the metropolitan region by establishing a rapid-bus system which supplements the existing transit network. Presently, Curitiba implements a visionary smart-card system which allows cashless, simplified, and more secure access to public transport. This system is about to be extended to all municipal services. The planning issues in Curitiba are comprehensive and include social equity, job creation, participatory processes, neighborhood improvement, and regional landscape programs.

Desarrollo progresivo en conjuntos de lotes con servicios. Análisis preliminar

Preliminary conclusions are here presented about progressive development in the family-house system of residential groups where the Programa de Mejoramiento de Barrios (Neighborhood Improvement Program) was implemented through the application fo a survey and the observation of representative nationwide samples.

Revitalizing the Urban South Neighborhood Preservation and Planning Since the 1920s

Abstract The urban South affords an exemplary case of historic preservation contributing directly to the broader processes of planning and revitalization. Since the 1920s, proponents of neighborhood preservation vied with downtown commercial interests in guiding planning efforts in many southern cities. From the 1920s to 1950, the preservation and planning movements overlapped significantly. They followed independent strategies as historic preservation gained an institutional base in the 1950s and 1960s and then merged into a more broadly based movement aimed at conserving the residential base of the center city in the 1970s and 1980s. Preservationists devised techniques of neighborhood conservation that later became the mainstay of neighborhood improvement programs in southern cities. While neighborhood preservationists were often ancillary to the planning mainstream, plagued by charges of elitism and devoid of broad-based political support, they were key backers of city planning in the South. In conjunc...

Hedonic price functions and progressive neighborhood improvement: A theoretical exploration

Neighborhood improvement programs which involve the input of public funding are generally formulated with two goals in mind: to provide a more equitable distribution of goods and services within the metropolitan area and to expand the municipal property tax base. However, a critical factor in the success of any neighborhood improvement program is the way in which the program affects and is affected by the housing market. The relationships between the urban property market, large inputs of public funding and residential mobility are not well understood. This paper investigates the likely effects of public funding on the housing market, under conditions of short-run equilibrium. A modified hedonic price function is used to outline the relationships between housing values, levels of public service provision and the property tax. It is concluded that the goal of expanding the tax base is incompatible with the goal of providing a more equitable (or more progressive) distribution of public goods and services. In addition, there are implications in terms of residential mobility. Taken to an extreme, the stimulation of investment in selected neighborhoods can result in the displacement of lower income households. Unless the relationship between neighborhood improvement and property values is taken into consideration, attempts to bring about progressive neighborhood improvement will ultimately result in regressive solutions.