Large Number Of Cities Research Articles

Counteracting Cigarette Advertising

IN THIS ISSUE OF THE JOURNAL, BAYER ET AL 1 PROPOSE SOME answers to the perplexing question of what to do in response to tobacco advertising that continues to induce thousands of young people to become new smokers every year. Unfortunately, their ideas either encounter substantial constitutional hurdles or have serious practical impediments that would preclude them from attaining their goals. In order to understand what approaches might be worth exploring, it is first necessary to take another look at the Supreme Court’s decision Lorillard Tobacco Co. v. Reilly, before concluding that the First Amendment dooms all efforts to ban or limit tobacco advertising. At issue in Lorillard was whether the prohibition on all outdoor advertising and signage for tobacco products within 1000 ft of a school or playground, and certain restrictions on the placement of point-of-sale promotional materials for tobacco products, were sufficiently tailored to satisfy the First Amendment. As the industry cleverly pointed out, that scheme had a number of vulnerabilities that made it a particularly inviting target for a constitutional attack. First, the Massachusetts regulation being challenged was not a legislative enactment, but a rule issued by the attorney general who, presumably, is not chosen for his expertise in health issues, let alone in tobacco control. Second, the rule was issued almost immediately after the effective date of the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) with the industry, under which billboard advertising was significantly restricted. The Massachusetts rule largely relied on the pre-MSA rule of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and hence did not, and indeed given the timing, could not have taken account of any impact that the MSA had on reducing youth smoking. Furthermore, the rule was issued without the kind of public input that the FDA used when it issued its rule, in particular input on the impact of the MSA and other recent events. It also appears that the attorney general was not aware of the almost blanketing effect that his 1000-ft billboard rule would have in a number of large cities, thereby underscoring the argument that the rule was not narrowly tailored. Third, the First Amendment aspects of Lorillard were technically limited to tobacco products other than cigarettes because the Court, in an earlier part of its opinion, found that Congress had preempted any state laws on the subject of cigarette billboard advertising. Since virtually all of the existing evidence relates to cigarette advertising, this made it even harder for the state to show that these restrictions were necessary for cigars and other tobacco products. Fourth, the Court has shown a decided preference (or it has so construed Congress’s wishes) for uniform national rules on this subject, and Massachusetts was going it alone. Last, the provisions outlawing on-premises ads lower than 5 ft and those forbidding indoor signs that could be viewed from outside the premises were quirky at best and smacked of overkill, even if the stated purpose was to prevent young (small) children from being exposed to cigarette advertising. Is there room to argue after Lorillard that a more carefully tailored and better justified set of rules might survive, or is this the end of all efforts to restrict tobacco advertising? Initially, Congress would have to eliminate the preemption problem by narrowing the scope of the provision relied on by the Court in Lorillard. If that were done, surely a law that outlaws cigarette ads on billboards across from schools and playgrounds would survive a First Amendment challenge, in part because the industry has voluntarily agreed to a ban with a 500-ft radius. Thus, the issue is primarily one of line drawing, and the real concern is not whether a constitutional line can be drawn, but whether a restriction that is constitutional will have any significant impact on youth smoking. One of the premises behind the Supreme Court’s protection of commercial speech is that it conveys useful information. I know that because I was the lawyer who won the first commercial speech case in the Supreme Court, Virginia Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc., 3 in part because we persuaded the Court that the information being suppressed there—the prices of prescription drugs—was truthful, verifiable, and useful to consumers. It would make no sense to try to apply the first 2 criteria to cigarette advertising, since any judgments would be highly subjective. But utility may be a different matter, if criteria could be established to measure or rank the con-

The Subdistricting of Cities

Applying the polycentric model to the urban core, the authors first examine how the polycentric model may be applied to an increasing number of large cities that are using subdistricts to provide supplemental public services that district residents desire such as security, sanitation (garbage collection), and economic development. They next analyze the recent creation of the Charles Village Community Benefits District in Baltimore, Maryland, as an empirical example and briefly discuss this subdistrict’s positive impacts. The article concludes with some observations on the implications of subdistricts for equitable and efficient service delivery.

Rethinking Ethnicity and Health Care: A Sociocultural Perspective

Back to table of contents Previous article Book Forum: Cross-Cultrual PsychiatryFull AccessRethinking Ethnicity and Health Care: A Sociocultural PerspectiveRODRIGO A. MUÑOZ, M.D., RODRIGO A. MUÑOZSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., San Diego, Calif.Published Online:1 Jan 2001https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.158.1.156AboutSectionsView EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail Many psychiatrists all over the country, but specially in Illinois, New York, Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California, practice in the midst of populations that belong to many cultures. Projections by the U.S. Census Bureau would suggest that the Hispanics will soon be the majority in a number of large cities. Even those who never thought of themselves as cross-cultural psychiatrists are learning rapidly that cultural factors influence their practice.This book is not for these or for any other clinicians. The emphasis of the book is not on “ethnicity,” a term the authors use as also meaning racial or cultural characteristics, or health care, inasmuch as there are no practical proposals to solve the problems that affect minorities. This may be the result of having only one physician among 21 contributors.The emphasis of the book seems to be on sociocultural issues, which are not clearly defined. The authors indicate that “the way people perceive, interpret, and treat illness varies from society to society and culture to culture.” Although this is true enough, mainly for isolated social groups, one wonders whether this generalization, which seems to be one of the main tenets of the book, has any practical application. When cross-cultural issues emerge in San Francisco or Los Angeles, not necessarily because of differing disease pictures among different cultures but because the physician and the patient do not understand each other, the potential solutions require definitions that do not seem of interest to the authors. Even when the book presents serious health problems faced by minorities, the discussion does not include a clear view of action to redress inequalities.Some of the cultural groups considered here are characterized in ways that resemble more a cartoon than their actual American reality. That is the case with the Hispanics. The book ignores a solid body of work developed in recent years on the diagnosis and treatment of medical disorders in this group.Reprints are not available; however, Book Forum reviews can be downloaded by Journal subscribers at http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org.By Grace Xueqin Ma, Ph.D., and George Henderson, Ph.D. Springfield, Ill., Charles C Thomas, 1999, 346 pp., $62.95; $46.95 (paper). FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited byNone Volume 158Issue 1 January 2001Pages 156-156 Metrics History Published online 1 January 2001 Published in print 1 January 2001

Memuary , and: Vospominaniia (review)

Reviewed by: Memuary, and: Vospominaniia Galina S. Rylkova Emma Gershtein, Memuary. St. Petersburg: INAPRESS, 1998. 588 pp. ISBN 5-87135-060-7. Nadezhda Mandel′shtam, Vospominaniia. Moscow: Soglasie, 1999. xx + 576 pp. ISBN 5-86884-066-6. The new edition of Nadezhda Mandel'shtam's Vospominaniia hardly needs introduction. For many years after Osip Mandel'shtam's death in 1938, Nadezhda (1899–1980) was the sole custodian and interpreter of her husband's poetic legacy and of his life in general. As Nikolai Panchenko notes in his foreword, Nadezhda Mandel'shtam "was equal to Osip Mandel'shtam in her heroic stature. Had it been otherwise, we would have had no great poet, nor [would we have a record] of the devastating experience of culture surviving in the twentieth century, nor would we have a brilliant and absolutely unique interpretation of our saddening recent history" (v). Written in the early 1960s, Vospominaniia covers the period from 1934 to 1938; it tells about Osip Mandel'shtam's first and final arrests and the intervening period which the couple largely spent in exile (first Cherdyn' and later Voronezh). In 1937 and early 1938 the Mandel'shtams tried to insert themselves back into the Soviet literary establishment – a virtually impossible task, since they were banned from living in a number of large cities, including Moscow. The book finishes with Nadezhda in despair and groping for a sudden death, for she senses that her future will be nothing but slow degradation. However, Nadezhda was blessed by remarkable longevity and saw her chronicles published and ideas disseminated (even if mainly by samizdat and tamizdat). The 1998 publication of the memoirs under review here is the first volume of what is expected to become a three-volume edition of Nadezhda Mandel'shtam's collected works, which has been launched by the publishing house Soglasie to commemorate her centennial. Panchenko in his foreword also praises the famous memoirist for presenting an objective account of her time that taught many people to see the truth; he scorns her wicked contemporaries like Emma Grigor'evna Gershtein (b. 1903) for writing "anti-memoirs" [antivospominaniia] about the same period (iii). This negative contrast is only to be expected, for Gershtein's highly subversive approach to writing memoirs enlists numerous enemies as well as supporters. This did not stop her, however, from receiving two prestigious literary awards in 1998: her Memuary was awarded both the little Russian Booker and the Anti-Booker [End Page 224] Prizes. This is quite remarkable, given that the latter was instituted by Nezavisimaia gazeta three years ago in opposition to the Russian Booker Foundation. Memuary features Gershtein's recollections of Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Lev Gumilev, Nikolai Khardzhiev, Boris Eikhenbaum and Aleksandr Os'merkin – to name but a few of her illustrious friends – and of less "extraordinary" people, such as those she met while working in Moscow's Literaturnyi muzei in the 1930s. A large portion of her book is devoted to her ill-fated affair with Lev Gumilev that spanned almost two decades. Gershtein spares us neither titillation nor embarrassing detail, such as extramarital affairs or hints as to sexual preferences. She is after Truth with a capital letter, and in writing her memoirs ransacked many closets. In the new political, social and cultural climate of the late 1990s, Gershtein's objective was to straighten out earlier renditions of events and fill in gaps left by her predecessors. Indeed, the main "target text" of Gershtein's Memuary is Nadezhda Mandel'shtam's Vospominaniia and its authoritarian style of remembering. Not surprisingly, Memuary has provoked heated discussion among Russian intellectuals about whether a memoirist is entitled to wash the dirty linen of his or her contemporaries in public. Reading Gershtein's Memuary side by side with Mandel'shtam's Vospominaniia raises questions about the distinction between "private" and "public." It also brings out concerns about the proprietorship of memory about objects, events and people, and the status of memoirs vis-à-vis historical accounts. Gershtein met the Mandel'shtams in October 1928. Their friendship blossomed when the homeless Mandel'shtams stayed for a month at Gershtein's house in the same year. Their bond became even more personal after...

Study of Atmospheric Ozone Formation by Means of a Neural Network-Based Model

ABSTRACT The occurrence of high ozone levels in the atmosphere of urban areas has become a serious pollution problem in a number of large cities in the world. Although mathematical models have been proposed for predicting ozone concentrations as a function of a number of gas components, sometimes there are uncertainties due to lack of the combined effects of meteorological factors and the complex chemical reaction system involved. The application of neural network models, based on measured values of air pollutants and meteorological factors at different locations within the Sâo Paulo Metropolitan Area, combine chemical and meteorological information. This has shown to be a promising tool for predicting ozone concentration. Simulations carried out with the model indicate the sensitivity of ozone in relation to different air pollution and weather conditions. Predictions using this model have shown good agreement with measured values of ozone concentrations.

Declining Towns in Russia, 1989-1993

This "article based on data for the last census of the former USSR and population estimates for 1993 for urban places of over 15,000 population in the Russian Federation surveys the regional distribution, economic functions, and size characteristics of urban settlements in Russia with declining population over the period 1989-93. Interesting comparisons are drawn with patterns prevailing during previous periods, revealing recent increases in the number of such towns in major manufacturing regions and the North and an increase in the number of large cities. Towns experiencing the very greatest percentage declines (-10.0 percent or more) also are investigated."

Does Politics Matter? A Time-Series Analysis of Minority Employment Patterns

Public sector jobs represent a major source of political and economic progress for racial minorities. However, wide variation exists across United States cities with respect to how effectively minorities have been able to lay claim to an equitable share of these jobs. Past research suggests that the election of a minority mayor plays a major role in successful employment strategies. Previous studies, however, have been limited by reliance on cross-sectional research designs. Employing a pooled time series design in a large number of cities, we find that black mayors have very little impact on black job success. We also find that Hispanic mayors have no effect on Hispanic job success. Instead, favorable minority employment outcomes are determined by an interaction among minority representatives on city councils and minority administrators in key decision-making positions. This political-bureaucratic explanation suggests that a major reassessment of the determinants of minority employment progress is in order.

Budget Reform and Political Reform: Conclusions from Six Cities

Municipal budgeting, especially in larger cities, has changed over the last 20 years. A variety of tools like program formats, long-term revenue and expenditure projections, management-by-objectives (MBO), zerobased and target-based budgets, capital budgeting, and strategic planning have become commonplace (Poister and Streib, 1989). A surprisingly large number of cities are using some performance monitoring (Poister and Streib, p. 242).

Reclaimed Water – An Urban Water Resource

The population in urban areas is growing rapidly; from 30% in 1950 to about 50% at the turn of the century. In 35 years time, the number of large cities (greater than one million) will double and the population living in them will triple. Most large cities are already facing water supply problems and these will increase in the future. Water reclamation for nonpotable reuse for urban irrigation, industry, toilet-flushing, cooling, construction etc. can reduce the demand on limited fresh water resources. Many urban areas around the world have already used this approach to meeting problems of increased water demand.

Exact Solution of Large Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problems

The traveling salesman problem is one of a class of difficult problems in combinatorial optimization that is representative of a large number of important scientific and engineering problems. A survey is given of recent applications and methods for solving large problems. In addition, an algorithm for the exact solution of the asymmetric traveling salesman problem is presented along with computational results for several classes of problems. The results show that the algorithm performs remarkably well for some classes of problems, determining an optimal solution even for problems with large numbers of cities, yet for other classes, even small problems thwart determination of a provably optimal solution.

Strategic Planning in U.S. Cities: Patterns of Use, Perceptions of Effectiveness, and an Assessment of Strategic Capacity

For this study of the use of strategic planning in American cities, data were collected by a survey of all American cities with populations between 25,000 and one million. Key issues covered were strategic planning applications, perceptions of effectiveness, strategic capacity, and methods of monitoring and evaluation. The findings show that a large number of cities use strategic planning with a high level of satisfaction; however, questions are raised about the true level of strategic capacity.

Equity and efficiency aspects of rent control: An empirical study of New York City

Modem rent controls arose during World War II to deal with the war-related influx into urban areas. Since then, numerous cities have either considered, adopted, or eliminated rent controls. The policy debate about the desirability of rent controls continues unabated and becomes particularly acute when high inflation rates drive up rents rapidly. Rent controls have both efficiency and distributional consequences. The economics literature has produced theoretical insights about the inefficiencies created by rent controls.’ This literature is frequently cited by opponents of rent controls who argue that the efficiency costs of rent controls are manifested in a decaying housing stock and altered mobility patterns. Proponents of rent control invariably argue that the distributional impacts of rent controls outweigh efficiency costs. Considering the large number of cities that have investigated or adopted rent controls, relatively little empirical research documents either the efficiency or distributional effects of rent controls. The most notable exceptions are the studies of New York City by De Salvo [3], Olsen [13], and Roistacher [15], and the studies of Los Angeles by Rydell et al. [16], and Fallis and Smith [4]. More recently, Linneman [lo] and Marks [12] have further examined ramifications of rent controls in New York City and Vancouver. This paper fills some gaps in knowledge about the effects of rent controls. We examine rent controls in New York City in 1968, using the New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey.2 The paper extends the work of Olsen [13], although there are important differences in both the questions addressed and methodology used. This paper examines in detail the distributional consequences of rent controls for New York City residents (both

The Location of Ulhu and Uiše in Sargon II's Eighth Campaign, 714 B.C.

AbstractIn 714 B.C., Sargon II, king of Assyria, conducted a major military campaign across the Zagros Mountains into western Iran. It was the eighth campaign of his reign, and the fourth into Iran. This time, Sargon's main goal was to contain the state of Urartu within its territory and to subdue its allies. The itinerary of the Assyrian army and the events of the campaign were written in the form of a long letter from the king to the god Assur, and it is preserved almost in its entirety. The text is of great importance because it gives one of the most extensive itineraries of an Assyrian campaign and, unlike other Assyrian reports, it mentions by name, and often describes, a large number of cities and fortresses as well as many geographical features.For over 70 years scholars have attempted to reconstruct the route of Sargon from Assyria to Iran and to identify by epigraphical and archaeological research and survey the cities and features he mentions. Unfortunately, there has been little agreement among...

Changing Settlement Patterns of Black Americans, 1970–1980

Drawn by the attraction of economic betterment and less oppressive social conditions, over six million black Americans left the South between 1870 and 1970 for the major urban centers of the North and West. Over its course, the great migration transformed the black population from a predominantly southern and rural people into a highly urbanized, more nationally distributed, group. In the receiving cities, blacks were confronted with new forms of segregation and virtually excluded from suburbia. A number of important changes in black settlement patterns occurred during the 1970's. First, the century-long exodus out of the South came to an end as opportunities there improved and conditions in the North deteriorated. Second, the Northeast, which had been a major destination of southern blacks for over 100 years, itself became subjected to strong black outmigration tendencies. The Midwest experienced similar trends, but on a smaller scale, and the proportion of blacks residing in the region remained virtually unchanged over the decade. The West continued to draw blacks, and was the only region to register a proportional gain in their numbers. Third, there was a marked shift of blacks to suburban residency, the extent of which varied between metropolitan areas. The exodus was broad enough to produce a net outmigration of blacks from the nation's central cities, a number of which experienced an absolute loss of black residents. Nevertheless, because of the continuing white exodus, the number of large cities gaining black majorities more than doubled during the decade. While enhancing the exercise of black political power in both central cities and suburbs, the changes did little to alter existing patterns of segregated living.

Property values and city size in Colombia

It is often argued that many Third World cities have become “too large,” on various criteria, for national well-being. In some countries serious-even heated -debate has begun over whether urban growth should be encouraged or discouraged. The debate over “urban policy” has been particularly intense in Colombia. Colombia’s largest city, Bogota, has still not reached the size of the largest Latin American capitals, and a relatively large number of cities in intermediate size ranges has kept varied policy options open. Nevertheless, Colombian policy-makers have been openly concerned that the country’s urban growth might be distorted. Recent Colombian administrations have differed over whether development investments should be centred in the largest cities, or in smaller regional centres. The rival positions have been stated articulately by Gilbert (1976) and Currie (1975), respectively.

Fluoridation and mortality due to heart disease.

STANDARDISED death rates in the US, due to ischaemic heart disease stopped increasing and began to decrease during the period in which large numbers of cities began fluoridating their water supplies but no notice has been taken of this effect. Gordon and Thom1 note that deaths attributable to ischaemic heart disease had been increasing until about 1960. By 1968, a clear decrease had begun, and continued until their last observations in 1972. They felt that this decrease (7.3%) could be partially explained on the basis of less severe influenza epidemics, which are thought to increase the mortality rates due to heart disease in the winter months. However, artificial fluoridation was started in 1952, and by 1969 had covered 74 million people2. Therefore, the possibility exists that fluoridation might be involved in the declining rates. Ideally, this would be checked by comparing the rates for ischaemic heart disease between fluoridated and non-fluoridated populations. The largest political units in which the distinction between fluoridated and non-fluoridated populations is clear-cut are cities; unfortunately, ischaemic heart disease is not tabulated separately for cities in the Vital Statistics publication. Ischaemic heart disease is an important part of the category ‘all heart disease’, and those data are readily available. We report here on changes in the more inclusive category (all heart disease) and fluoridation status, which support the possibility that fluoridation is associated with the decreasing rates.

Ethnicity, Environmental Control, and Academic Self-Concept in Chicago

From the outset the Coleman Report (1966) on the equality of educational opportunity provoked controversy which will not abate for many years. Its critics focused on the poor sample response, the inadequacy of statistical analysis (e.g., Bowles & Levin, 1968), and the refusal of a disproportionately large number of cities to participate. Inadequate representation of urban schools is illustrated by the fact that thirteen of the fifteen largest cities in the United States refused to participate in the survey. Despite these criticisms, Coleman and his associates examined a great number of variables. Two of these, academic self-concept and sense of environmental control, were investigated further in the present study of Chicago students. Coleman found that students' characteristics show stronger association with achievement than do family background or school factors. For whites and Orientals academic self-concept was highly related to academic achievement; but for all other minority groups, the variance in academic achievement was better accounted for by sense of environmental control than any other variable. Although the Report was more concerned

The Changing Character of Negro Migration

Recently published data on migration during the 1955-60 period reveal that, contrary to the popular stereotype, Negro in-migrants to a number of large cities, despite the presence of a socioeconomically depressed group of non-metropolitan origin, were not of lower average socioeconomic status than the resident Negro population. Indeed, in educational attainment Negro in-migrants to northern cities were equal to or slightly higher than the resident white population. Comparisons with limited data for earlier periods suggest that, as the Negro population has changed from a disadvantaged rural population to a metropolitan one of increasing socioeconomic levels, its patterns of migration have changed to become very much like those of the white population.

Intraurban Variation of Residential Quality

TfVESIJDENTIAL quality is not < uniform within cities. Instead, _?L\X.. the dwelling units within a city vary from place to place in this respect. While urban students and even casual observers are aware of this, little study has been made of the degree of variation of residential quality in particular cities and how the range differs from city to city. The problem can be studied at various levels; for example, one could study variation of quality of the dwelling units as found in a unit such as a block. At another level one could examine the manner in which blocks or neighborhoods of differing quality are intermingled in a city. Then again, one might be concerned simply with a gross measure of variation for a citv as a whole, taking into account each individual dwelling unit but ignoring the internal distinction by blocks or neighborhood units. It is this last approach which has been followed. Specifically, the study had as its purposes: (1) to measure the relative degree of intraurban variation of residential quality for a large number of cities; (2) to examine the nature of differences in this characteristic, especially areally; and (3) to search for possible associations between this characteristic and other urban phenomena.

LEADERSHIP COMPONENTS in PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING

ONE of the responsibilities of the Committee on Functions, Standards, and Qualifications of the Public Health Nurses Section of the American Nurses' Association was to develop a statement relating to supervisors, consultants, and administrators in this field. So, as a first step, descriptions and specifications of their jobs were secured from nurses in almost every state and from a large number of cities and counties. The results were analyzed, and the stated functions and activities were compiled. Analysis of over 100 such job descriptions showed that the functions and activities listed for supervisors, for administrators, and for consultants did not clearly differentiate among the types of responsibility and activity carried by nurses in these different categories, but indicated only a difference in emphasis. Administrative functions such as budget construction, for example, appeared on a number of supervisory and consultant job sheets; staff development-essentially a supervisory activity-appeared in virtually every job description for directors and generalized consultants; and the majority of specialized consultants were expected to contribute to general professional development of the staff through activities in the special field, and therefore might be expected to need to know and be involved in the over-all staff development program. Staff training and education, of primary importance in job descriptions of special consultants, appeared also with great regularity on job descriptions of both supervisors and administrators. Inasmuch as the committee had originally intended to construct separate statements for consultants, supervisors, and administrators, this