Rundown Neighborhood Research Articles

Strange Bedfellows: Youth Activists, Government Sponsorship, and the Company of Young Canadians (CYC), 1965-1970

1. IntroductionThroughout the 1950s small groups of anti-conformists from Greenwich Village, New York City left the east coast and relocated to the North Beach area of San Francisco. Influenced by the writings of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, The Beats often chose to settle in rundown neighborhoods that had been in decline since the Depression called The Haight. By the summer of 1967 it was not the cheap rent that lured many prominent activists and hordes of youth to ...

The impact of the European Union on real estate in Brussels: between stereotype and underestimate

What is the impact of the presence of European institutions on the real estate market in Brussels and its outskirts? Although the question may not be taboo, it is certainly an awkward one. If we blame the European Union for having too great an influence on the housing prices in Brussels, we risk being accused of populism (and insensitivity to the precious contribution made by the EU to the capital city). On the other hand, if we refuse to recognise any correlation, we are accused of being out of touch with reality. As regards the direct impact, this effect is both limited in geographic terms and confined to a certain segment of the built-up area. However, the concentration of EU staff in the affluent neighbourhoods of the capital and in the higher property categories does have indirect effects on the other sectors. As these prosperous areas gradually become financially inaccessible, the demand turns to slightly less exclusive areas – both nearby and further away – which, in turn, experience a rise in prices, and so on. Furthermore, the danger probably also lies in the gentrification caused by the Europeans despite themselves, as they settle in certain run-down neighbourhoods in the city centre. Needless to say, the issue is complex.

Neighborhood Deterioration, Social Skills, and Social Relationships in Late Life

This study is designed to test two hypotheses. The first specifies that older adults who live in dilapidated neighborhoods will receive less social support and encounter more negative interaction with family and friends. The second hypothesis proposes that the relationship between deteriorated neighborhood conditions and social relationships will depend upon whether older study participants have strong social skills. Data from a recent nationwide survey of older adults suggest that living in run-down neighborhoods is associated with more negative interaction; however, residing in disadvantaged neighborhoods is not related to the amount of support older people receive from significant others. But perhaps more important, the findings further reveal that the effects of living in run-down neighborhoods on social support and negative interaction are completely offset for older individuals who possess strong social skills.

YOU MAKE MY HEART SING

Last March went to Pittsburgh to play music live with birds. The plan was to arrive at dawn, to catch the wary singers at their best - in the early morning chorus, when the most sound was happening. met my friend Michael Pestel at the gates of the National Aviary, a mostly forgotten federal institution in a rundown neighborhood. had never heard of the aviary before Pestel told me what a great place it was to jam with the more-than-human world. The staff was rumored to be friendly, and they liked to let musicians in during the early hours before the public, mostly guided schoolchildren, would storm the gates. Pestel was there with his flute and various homemade stringed instruments. had clarinets and saxophones, coaxed out of their cases, a bit tired from the long ride, but ready to hear what these birds had up their sleeves. We headed for the marsh room, a vaulted expanse with an observation deck and waterbirds from all over the world. strained my ears to catch some pretty rocking bird beats, but they sounded familiar. Too familiar - the aviary was blaring Marvin Gaye at top volume to these birds at six o'clock in the morning. They were definitely squawkin' and squealin'. I cannot work in these conditions, muttered Pestel. We've got to

Living alone and neighborhood characteristics as predictors of social support in late life.

The purpose of this study was to devise and test a conceptual model that explains how neighborhood quality, fear of crime, and received emotional support affect an elderly person's expectations of future assistance should the need arise (i.e., anticipated support). Using a nationwide survey of older adults, a series of nested latent variable models was tested to determine if the social support process differs between older adults living alone and those living with others. Consistent with a social ecological perspective, data suggest that anticipated support is lower among elders who live in deteriorated neighborhoods than among older adults who live in well-maintained neighborhoods. Moreover, the deleterious effects of run-down neighborhoods appear to be especially pronounced for older adults who live alone. Select constructs that link deteriorated neighborhoods with anticipated support are explored. Suggestions for future research are made.

Property-Led Urban Regeneration: Panacea or Placebo?

In recent years urban policy has come to rely increasingly on private-sector property development to provide the driving force. Popular opinion is sharply divided about the value of this approach. In this paper, an examination is made of five ways in which property could contribute to urban economic regeneration: through the direct employment effects of construction-related activity; by accommodating the expansion of indigenous firms; by attracting inward investment; by revitalising run-down neighbourhoods; and by initiating area-wide economic restructuring. Appropriate property development can have positive economic effects but it has to be part of a more holistic approach that embodies concerns for people living in deprived areas and for the underlying condition of the local economy. Unrestrained market-led development may have detrimental consequences for the economic fabric of cities and for the quality of life of their residents.

Offense and Defense in Israeli Military Doctrine (review)

Volume 9. No.2 l-Vinter 1991 79 overall scheme of the Government offices in the sixties to evacuate the old neighborhoods of Jerusalem that were in a deplorably physical and social state and to transfer their populations to new neighborhoods. These rundown neighborhoods were then to be renovated-a plan"that was only partially successful. Yemin Moshe is an example of achievement only from the standpoint of the governmental institutions which initiated this program. The author generally carried out his work faithfully in the second half of the book in his analysis of the process of the evacuation, background, the institutions that initiated the program and their various motivations, and the fate of those tho were displaced. This is all placed amidst harsh criticism for the entire process itself. We must nevertheless note that the "Yemin Moshe model" of displacement and repopulation was never repeated. As a substitute, the Israeli government , in the early days of Menachem Begin's leadership, inaugurated a project for the restoration of neighborhoods, an arrangement diametrically opposite to the "Yemin Moshe model," which worked towards the physical and social renovation of problematic neighborhoods while leaving their original residents in place. The Yemin Moshe neighborhood is a fascinating area. Its history still awaits a more complete analysis, as this book does not provide the complete story that its title promises. Yossi Katz Department of Geography Bar IIan University Offense and Defense in Israeli Military Doctrine, by Ariel Levite. Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies No. 12. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990. 192 pp. $18.00. Lacking defensible borders, facing a highly unfavorable balance of forces, and without solid allies, all of Israel's political leaders from Ben Gurion to Shamir have looked to the Israel Defense Forces, the IDF, as the main, in fact the only, reliable guarantor of the country's existence. This role makes the IDF's military doctrine of special interest and subject to an ongoing debate in Israeli political, military, and academic circles. The author perceives a duality between Israel's strategic doctrine, the major policies used to secure the national objectives, and military operational doctrine, concerned with the composition and fighting methods of the IDF. The first, he notes, has a basic defensive orientation concerned with maintaining the status quo, that is, preserving the state within acceptable and se- 80 SHOFAR cure boundaries. By contrast he sees the second as primarily offensive with an emphasis on carrying hostilities as soon as possible into enemy territory and, if necessary, striking to preempt an attack. Ariel Levite, who completed this study while a Senior Research Associate at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, is neither a hawk nor a dove. He does, however, assert that radically changed circumstances , geostrategic, political, military, technological, economic, and social, require a serious reevaluation of basic doctrine, virtually unchanged since it first was formulated shortly after the War of Independence. The study begins with a short theoretical discussion of military doctrine in general and then turns to the specific case of Israel. The author shows how and why the IDF adopted an offensive doctrine, adapted it to changing technologies , and used it in combat. It was, he recognizes, effective, but he feels that changed conditions require modification of the excessive stress on offensive fighting in favor of an operational doctrine combining offensive and defensive elements. Such a major shift, demanding changes in training and indoctrination of the officer corps, Levite believes, would require strong support by the military as well as civilian leadership. The study gives a solid account of the evolution and application of IDF doctrine, but moves on to shak.')' ground when, attempting to bolster his case, the author includes historical analogies with states in positions perceived to be similar to Israel. This is especially true when he compares the IDF's stress on the offensive with so-called "cult of the offensive" which dominated military thinking of the great powers of Europe in 1914. Surely, Germany, Austria -Hungary, France, or Russia had the strategic depth and the manpower reserves to choose a defensive option, but whether Israel has the strategic depth and the resources to afford such a course remains, to...

Yemin Moshe: The Story of a Jerusalem Neighborhood (review)

78 SHOFAR Yemin Moshe: The Story of a Jerusalem Neighborhood, by Eliezer Yaffe. New York: Praeger, 1988. 176 pp. $37.95. This edition is the English translation of the Hebrew work by Yaffe which was published in Jerusalem in 1985 by Ariel. A distinctive aspect of Jerusalem-and especially Jewish Jerusalem outside the walls of the Old City-is the fact that it is a city which has been built spontaneously, neighborhood by neighborhood. The initial process of this construction began in the second half of the nineteenth century when the neighborhoods that were built differed one from the other, not only in their physical planning, but also in their unique socio-cultural character. Numerous books and papers have been written on the subject of the history of these neighborhoods, inasmuch as they typify the historical development of the Jewish community as a whole in Jerusalem in the modern period . Generally, these studies have been undertaken by historians and geographers . Yemin Moshe was one of these Jewish neighborhoods. Built in Jerusalem towards the end of the nineteenth century by a London-based foundation which took as its goal the perpetuation of the name of the wellknown Jewish philanthropist, Sir Moses Montefiore, Yemin Moshe in many aspects was not very different from other communities which were established both before and after it. Its uniqueness lay in that it served for 19 years, from 1948 to 1967, as a border enclave, literally on the frontier between Israel and Jordan. Its location also established its character in those years-a pocket of poverty. After the Six-Day War the locality changed its appearance entirely; and in a process that had its beginnings yet before the war, its original residents were displaced. The area passed through renovation and reconstruction and was repopulated by people of means. Today the neighborhood is considered one of the most exclusive in Jerusalem. The book under review is neither a systematic historical work nor a geographical one. There are many reasons why this book does not make any new contribution to historical investigation, one of which is its methodological shortcomings from the standpoint of historical research. The focus of this book (and this point should have been emphasized in some way in its title )-in dealing with the problem of the displacement of the initial inhabitants of the neighborhood and its repopulation-is on the ethical and social ramifications connected with this process. On this matter the author, who is a social worker by profession, carried out a wide-ranging investigation, the results of which are reported in the book (chapters 4-6). The author should have simply concentrated on these problems while foregoing the "historical" portion of the book. The correct approach would have been to portray the Volume 9. No.2 l-Vinter 1991 79 overall scheme of the Government offices in the sixties to evacuate the old neighborhoods of Jerusalem that were in a deplorably physical and social state and to transfer their populations to new neighborhoods. These rundown neighborhoods were then to be renovated-a plan"that was only partially successful. Yemin Moshe is an example of achievement only from the standpoint of the governmental institutions which initiated this program. The author generally carried out his work faithfully in the second half of the book in his analysis of the process of the evacuation, background, the institutions that initiated the program and their various motivations, and the fate of those tho were displaced. This is all placed amidst harsh criticism for the entire process itself. We must nevertheless note that the "Yemin Moshe model" of displacement and repopulation was never repeated. As a substitute, the Israeli government , in the early days of Menachem Begin's leadership, inaugurated a project for the restoration of neighborhoods, an arrangement diametrically opposite to the "Yemin Moshe model," which worked towards the physical and social renovation of problematic neighborhoods while leaving their original residents in place. The Yemin Moshe neighborhood is a fascinating area. Its history still awaits a more complete analysis, as this book does not provide the complete story that its title promises. Yossi Katz Department of Geography Bar IIan University Offense and Defense in Israeli Military Doctrine...