Governance in Houston: Growth Theories and Urban Pressures

Abstract: The article explores the political and social forces that have shaped local governance in Houston. This research will present a historical review of the role of local government and then examine two theoretical interpretations, the public choice and political economy perspectives, in explaining Houston's governance and public policy directions. The work will also show that recent events in Houston that might initially appear to contradict the city's historical development practices, such as greater ethnic sensitivity and increasing concern for the environment, have in no way challenged the city's pro‐growth agenda. The new directions in Houston's policy are simply a reflection of a different growth strategy reflecting changing demographics in the city and the new reality of Houston's diversifying economy.     

Neighborhood design and sense of community: Comparing suburban neighborhoods in Houston Texas

This paper examines the impact of neighborhood design on sense of community. The United States continues to grow and the urban infrastructure ages, creating pressure for new neighborhoods with a meaningful sense of community. This research seeks to better understand the relationship between the neighborhood design and the sense of community by comparing four suburban neighborhoods in the metropolitan Houston area. Each of these neighborhoods was developed in 1998 or 1999 near Houston, Texas; each is comprised about 100 single-family homes valued at between $150,000 and $260,000. Two of the neighborhoods share design-features to connect residents to the environment and each other, while the other two are typical suburban neighborhoods. Analysis of 210 mail-back surveys of residents in these four neighborhoods indicate that the designed neighborhoods have a greater sense of community than typical suburban neighborhoods; however, the mechanisms that impact sense of community reported in the literature were mot significantly influenced by neighborhood design.     

Residential Attainment of Now-Adult Gautreaux Children: Do they Gain,Hold or Lose Ground in Neighborhood Ethnic and Economic Segregation?

This paper examines the extent to which Chicago's Gautreaux residential mobility program affected children's residential attainment. Low-income black families voluntarily relocated into mostly white or mostly black city and suburban neighborhoods. The paper integrates quantitative and qualitative data collected eight to 22 years after participants' initial move into their placement neighborhoods. The primary programmatic goal of desegregation was accomplished; now-adult children's origin, placement and current neighborhoods average 85.6, 29.9 and 44.5 per cent black residents respectively. Now-adult children's residential mobility decisions have located them, on average, in ethnically integrated, low-poverty neighborhoods; children placed in mostly black, high-poverty neighborhoods and those placed in mostly white, low-poverty neighborhoods have relocated to ethnically balanced low- to moderate-poverty neighborhoods. Suburban placement was key in determining the level of children's initial relocation and current neighborhood quality. Now-adult children currently residing in suburban cities live in higher quality neighborhoods compared to those currently residing in Chicago.     

DO TRANSIT‐DEPENDENT NEIGHBORHOODS RECEIVE INFERIOR BUS ACCESS? A NEIGHBORHOOD ANALYSIS IN FOUR U.S. CITIES

ABSTRACT: Intrajurisdictional delivery of publicly provided services often results in observable service level differences that vary by spatial subunit (neighborhood). These variations are related to the sociodemographic characteristics of neighborhoods and have been hypothesized in prior literature to be the result of bias against or favoritism toward certain neighborhoods. Using path regression, this paper examines publicly provided bus service in four cities—Asheville, North Carolina; Charlotte, North Carolina; Mobile, Alabama; and Richmond, Virginia—to examine whether the socioeconomic character of a neighborhood is related to the share of municipal bus service it receives. With this analysis, we test an expanded version of Lineberry's underclass hypothesis. Specifically, do transit‐dependent neighborhoods, or those with a high percentage of non‐Caucasian, low‐income, elderly, or student residents receive inferior bus service? Findings confirm prior research that both standard rules and bias are present in service delivery decisions.     

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: SHIFTING PATTERNS OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES IN RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS IN FIVE DUTCH CITIES

Cities are oftentimes seen as undergoing a process of “emergence” in the “new economy.” However, this process has largely remained empirically underdetermined. This article examines the intra‐city geography of emerging businesses in newly dominant sectors of the urban economy. The change in dominant sectors coincides with a shift towards small‐ and medium‐sized businesses, creating new economic opportunities for urban residential areas. The residential neighborhood is introduced as a place where supply and demand side drivers operate to attract or limit such new economic activity. Allen Scott's perspective of the cognitive‐cultural economy is used to analyze which neighborhoods are flourishing sites of the cognitive‐cultural sectors. His perspective on industries that are on the rise in urban environments and their growth potential proves very valuable. Social demographic characteristics on the level of the neighborhood are used as predictors of the composition of the local economy. The analyses show that in particular wealthy, gentrified neighborhoods are more prone than others to becoming “hubs” of the cognitive‐cultural economy. However, disadvantaged neighborhoods may under certain conditions serve as incubators for business start‐ups as they offer low‐rent office spaces. This has important consequences for their future economic growth potential as well as the distribution of successful businesses in the city.     

What the Neighbors Want: The Neighborhood Revitalization Program's First Decade

This article examines the first decade of Minneapolis' Neighborhood Revitalization Program. It seeks to frame the endogenously derived wishes of the city's residents within the power and resources given them by this unique citywide program. We review the completed neighborhood plans and funding allocations, revealing the patterns therein for insight about what is most important to current city residents. Some requests were reasonably predictable: improved housing, more policing, and improved commercial streets. Others were less expected: traffic calming, wetland promotion, and varied neighborhood identity efforts. In their great social and economic diversity, the 66 neighborhood plans hold great insight into the residents' ideas about contemporary city living. In addition, these plans, and residents' expectations, illuminate some contemporary tensions between what is wanted at the local level and what is needed at a larger city level.     

A PLACE FOR AREA‐BASED POLICY? THE SURVIVAL AND GROWTH OF LOCAL FIRMS IN DUTCH RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS

ABSTRACT: Although their market scope often exceeds the neighborhood level, for most entrepreneurs of small‐scale firms the neighborhood is the relevant arena for both their professional activities and their personal affairs. Dutch local economic policy aims to stimulate new firm formation and firm survival in (disadvantaged) neighborhoods by conditioning economic, social, and physical aspects of the neighborhood such as economic zoning and clustering, livability, and the quality of the built‐up area. Although substantial differences in firm success exist across neighborhoods, it is not clear whether area‐level factors contribute to these differences, suggesting that area‐level policies are useful, or whether differences are due to either urban effects or to microlevel entrepreneurial and firm composition effects. This article distinguishes neighborhood effects from composition effects on local firm survival and firm growth, thereby also taking into account spatial dependence across neighborhoods. Our results suggest that aspects of the local livability of neighborhoods and of economic agglomeration are significantly related to individual firm survival and firm growth. The models provide proof for spillover effects of livability problems and market potential between adjacent neighborhoods. Neighborhoods and cities are therefore potentially places for area‐based policies, aiming at the survival and growth of local firms.     

THE EFFECTS OF INFORMAL NEIGHBORHOOD BONDING SOCIAL CAPITAL AND NEIGHBORHOOD CONTEXT ON HOMEOWNERSHIP FOR FAMILIES LIVING IN POVERTY

ABSTRACT: The concept of social capital has been embedded ubiquitously into the strategies and goals of community‐based development programs for families living in low‐income neighborhoods; yet, scholars continue to debate social capital's empirical support. The present study defines a specific type of social capital—informal neighborhood bonding social capital—and tests its relationship with homeownership while controlling for effects of neighborhood context. Findings reveal informal neighborhood bonding social capital is associated with homeownership above and beyond the effects of neighborhood context. Findings are discussed in relation to future research and the implications for community‐based practitioners working with families in low‐income neighborhoods.     

Measuring Neighborhood Diversity and Stability in Home‐Buying: Examining Patterns by Race and Income in a Robust Housing Market

Abstract: In recent years, there has been continued interest in prospects for the development and sustainability of both mixed‐income and racially diverse communities. We examine an important contributor to racial and economic diversity and segregation—the geographic patterns of homebuyers. In particular, we examine the extent to which neighborhoods within the Chicago metropolitan area have obtained significant levels of income and racial diversity in home buying and maintained such diversity over the 1990s. We analyze the racial and income composition of homebuyers by census tract for two periods: 1993 to 1994 and 1999 to 2000. First, by comparing changes in home buying to 1990 to 2000 changes in cross‐sectional census data, we find that changes in home‐buying patterns are significant contributors to neighborhood racial change. We then find a significant decline in the proportion of whites buying into neighborhoods where nearly all buyers are white. The policy implications of our findings are described and discussed.     

WHAT'S THE 'HOOD GOT TO DO WITH IT? PARENTAL PERCEPTIONS ABOUT HOW NEIGHBORHOOD MECHANISMS AFFECT THEIR CHILDREN

ABSTRACT: During the past decade, a rapidly expanding body of empirical research has emerged that statistically links disadvantaged neighborhood environments with social and economic outcomes of low‐income, minority children. Nonetheless, the mechanisms by which neighborhoods putatively affect children remain poorly understood. This article examines the perceptions of low‐income parents regarding how their neighborhood might affect their children. We examine quantitative and qualitative data gathered from phone interviews with 246 parents who live in subsidized housing scattered across a wide variety of neighborhoods in Denver, Colorado. We supplement this information with data obtained through a series of focus group interviews with a subset of these parents. Our findings indicate that low‐income parents perceive the following primary neighborhood mechanisms: (1) the degree (or lack) of social norms and collective efficacy (24%); (2) influence of children's peers (12%); (3) exposure to crime and violence (11%); and (4) the presence and quality of institutional resources (3%). Approximately one‐third of all parents reported that their neighborhood had no impact at all on their children, citing that their children were either “too young” to be affected by these mechanisms or that parents had sufficient resources to buffer any deleterious effects of the neighborhood. Parents residing in high‐poverty neighborhoods were much more likely to perceive a neighborhood effect, however. Binary and multinomial logistic regression analyses were employed to identify the extent to which an array of demographic characteristics and neighborhood type correlated with parents' perceptions. Latino parents were significantly less likely than other low‐income parents to report a neighborhood impact mechanism. Relative to those who reported no particular neighborhood impact mechanism, those who identified: (1) safety issues were more likely to have a spouse or parent present, and have low self‐esteem; (2) peer influences were more likely to have higher levels of education and live in a high‐poverty but low‐crime area.     

Deciphering the meaning and mechanism of migrants' and locals' neighborhood attachment in Chinese cities: Evidence from Guangzhou

The rising fluidity of the society in contemporary China has led to a restructuring of people's cognition and emotion toward their place of residence. Although a growing body of literature has attempted to identify place-based factors that influence residents' attachment to their neighborhoods in Chinese large cities, little effort has been devoted to unraveling the migrant-local distinction regarding the meaning and mechanism of neighborhood attachment. Using both questionnaire survey data and in-depth interview data collected in 23 neighborhoods of Guangzhou, China, this paper aims to explore the meaning and mechanism of neighborhood attachment through the combination of both structure equation modelling and qualitative analysis. The novelties of this study relate to the focus of migrant-local distinction and to the breakdown of place attachment into its social and functional dimensions. Results from structure equation modelling show that local residents have stronger attachment to their neighborhoods than migrants. Migrants' neighborhood attachment is more related to its social dimension, as measured by social contact and social trust, and locals' neighborhood attachment is more linked to its functional dimension, as measured by satisfaction with living environment of the neighborhood. This paper enhances our understanding of the nature of place attachment by taking into account the effects of institutional constraints and migration experiences.     

SUBJECTIVE CONSTRUCTIONS OF NEIGHBORHOOD BOUNDARIES: LESSONS FROM A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF FOUR NEIGHBORHOODS

ABSTRACT: This article explores the boundaries of neighborhoods as subjectively constructed by 37 adolescents and 33 parents across four census‐defined block groups in a Western city. We examine the degree of consensus among participants on the spatial boundaries of their neighborhoods, the stability of participants' subjectively constructed neighborhood definitions, and the overlap between subjectively constructed definitions and census block group and tract definitions. Through an analysis of qualitative interviews, we isolate four factors that appear to influence how participants define their neighborhood boundaries: physical and institutional characteristics of the neighborhood, its class, race, and ethnic composition, perceived criminal threats from within and outside the neighborhood, and symbolic neighborhood identities. These factors can operate to facilitate or compromise consensus and stability about neighborhood boundaries and identity. The study findings are exploratory but suggest several avenues for further investigation into how parents and adolescents construct neighborhood boundaries and the possible influences that subjective neighborhood definitions have on families.     

Ideology,Consciousness, and Inner‐city Redevelopment: The Case of Stephen Goldsmith's Indianapolis

Abstract This article examines the impact of a mayor's ideology in shaping the political consciousness of prominent actors associated with community development and revitalizing distressed neighborhoods. Deviating from the pragmatic approaches to governing of many other recent mayors, Mayor Stephen Goldsmith of Indianapolis advocated a populist ideology based on limited government and citizen empowerment. Close inspection of Goldsmith's community development policies, however, reveals a surprisingly extensive deployment of public power and resources along with efforts to empower neighborhood organizations. Goldsmith's mixture of populist rhetoric and progressive behavior produced a contradictory consciousness among community leaders. Although virtually all applauded the mayor's emphasis on popular empowerment, some developed a populist distrust of government while others came to insist on aggressive government intervention as the key to neighborhood revitalization. Such conflicted perceptions about the role of government have simultaneously inhibited revitalization efforts while laying a cultural foundation for future activism within Indianapolis's neighborhoods.     

Information sharing and human capital efficiency in poor neighborhoods: some graph theoretic applications

This paper develops an analysis of human capital development that explores the relationships between information sharing and human capital efficiency in poor neighborhoods. In deriving the results, a relative connectivity (gamma) index, borrowed from the geography literature, is integrated into a model of neighborhood human capital growth. It is argued in this paper that increases in the sharing efficiency of economic information among individuals in a given neighborhood may have positive impacts on neighborhood human capital efficiency rates. These positive impacts on neighborhood human capital efficiency may likewise help to reduce the poverty rate in that neighborhood. The results established in this paper indicate that not only is the sharing of economic information in urban neighborhoods important for neighborhood human capital development but also that neighborhood income sharing, the sharing of neighborhood social capital, and the diversity of neighborhood social capital may all have a beneficial influence on both the human capital efficiency rate and the rates of neighborhood poverty.     

SENSE OF COMMUNITY AND THE IMPORTANCE OF VALUES: COMPARISON OF TWO NEIGHBORHOODS IN SLOVENIA

ABSTRACT: Sense of community is analyzed in two very different types of neighborhoods in Ljubljana, Slovenia: a large housing estate and a middle‐class neighborhood of individual houses. The main research question posed is which individual characteristics are associated with sense of community in the two neighborhoods. A specific addition to current knowledge involves the inclusion of values as important characteristics associated with sense of community. The analysis was made on a quota sample of 337 individuals. Sense of community was shown to be comprised of three factors: (1) contact with neighbors; (2) social control; and (3) attachment. We observed this separately in the two neighborhoods. The analysis showed that values significantly increase the model's explanatory power and that the two neighborhoods differ significantly in terms of which variables are important for sense of community, therefore indicating that this could be highly context‐dependent. In addition, qualitative data are used to illustrate the sense of community in the two neighborhoods.     

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS: DOES THE NETWORK OF CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS INFLUENCE PARTICIPATION IN NEIGHBORHOOD PROJECTS?

ABSTRACT: This article aims to explain variations in the participation of civic organizations in neighborhood projects. In particular, we inquire into the impact of the social networks of more than 400 local civic organizations on their participation in neighborhood projects in two Dutch cities. Two strands of literature constitute the basis for our arguments. First, there is much research on the determinants of individual participation showing that tenure, social‐economic status, and being a member of the majority matter considerably. Second, network studies demonstrate that the structure and content of one's relationships substantially influences successive actions. Our expectations are based on both bodies of knowledge. We survey the civic organizations in eight neighborhoods and analyze the impact of their social networks using multinomial logistic regression models. The results show that the actual number of relations in the network and the density of the networks are positively associated with participation in neighborhood projects. Furthermore, we show that organizations with high proportions of ethnic minorities provide less support, despite their networks. Finally, organizations with many professionals working for them participate more if their networks are taken into consideration.     

The Effect of Adolescent Neighborhood Poverty on Adult Employment

Abstract: Neighborhood environments affect the long‐term labor market success of America's urban youth. Urban poverty grew more spatially concentrated during the 1970s and 1980s as industrial economies dramatically restructured. Some policies attempted to address the problems of impoverished neighborhoods by stimulating in‐situ economic development, while others sought to geographically disperse the poor. Poverty grew less concentrated during the 1990s because of robust national economic growth and dispersal‐oriented federal policies. Before celebrating, however, the long term effects of growing up in poor neighborhoods need to be considered. We used National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data, geocoded to census tracts, to examine the effects of neighborhood poverty rates encountered during adolescence on adult employment. Living in poor neighborhoods during adolescence carries a long‐term labor market disadvantage, caused at least in part by the limited ability to accumulate early work experience. Males appear to be more sensitive to these neighborhood effects than females.     

NEIGHBORHOOD DIVERSITY,ECONOMIC HEALTH,AND THE ROLE OF THE ARTS

Policymakers pursue a range of strategies aimed at diversifying neighborhoods despite research indicating the complicated and potentially damaging results of these efforts. One increasingly common approach is to incorporate the arts into planning efforts in the hope of enhancing diversity and catalyzing positive neighborhood change. Using data from the Cultural Data Project, the authors determine where newly established New York City arts organizations locate in terms of neighborhood racial, income, and industry diversity. They then analyze how diverse contexts interact with an arts presence to impact neighborhood economic health over time. They find that neighborhoods with high levels of racial diversity and low levels of income and industry diversity benefit most from an arts presence. However, the arts are attracted predominantly to neighborhoods with moderate levels of racial diversity and high levels of income and industry diversity. This complicates the use of the arts as a tool in urban revitalization policy.     

The (ir)relevance of economic segregation. Jane Jacobs and the empirical and moral implications of an unequal spatial distribution of wealth

Cities are economically segregated to various degrees. Segregation translates into greater homogeneity of neighborhoods: the rich and the poor usually occupy separate parts of the city. In response, urban-renewal policies often focus on creating an economically more heterogeneous neighborhood composition by replacing lower-income with middle-income households. Arguably with little or mixed success, as those policies seem to focus more on places (i.e. neighborhoods) than on the people who live there. In this regard, Jane Jacobs writings on “slums” and the conditions that favor “unslumming” processes are illuminating. Although in the last decades the word slum has gotten out of fashion (at least in developed countries), her contributions remain relevant in order to address the moral and empirical implications of an unequal spatial distribution of wealth. The paper discusses three aspects of Jacobs' writings and develops them further into three reflections on current ideas about segregation and policies trying to combat that. It concludes that debates and policies may benefit from 1) less focus on the economic differences between neighborhoods (and more on the living standard of each neighborhood and the people who live there); 2) more attention to the neighborhood population's own regenerating and development potential rather than the negative effects of segregation processes on neighborhood residents; and 3) a dynamic rather than static view on the neighborhood.     

RELOCATING THE POOR: SOCIAL CAPITAL AND NEIGHBORHOOD RESOURCES

ABSTRACT:  This article examines the social capital available to low-income households which were relocated to different types of neighborhoods with the HOPE VI program, an initiative aimed at redeveloping U.S. public housing developments into mixed-income communities. Along with improving the living environment, HOPE VI is thought to improve residents' access to social capital by changing the economic mix of their neighborhoods. This article contributes evidence from multivariate analyses of survey data of Boston HOPE VI residents in their post-HOPE VI neighborhoods. Findings indicate that rather than neighborhood socioeconomic mix, neighborhood resources, such as libraries, recreation facilities, parks, grocery stores, and social services, followed by place attachment and feelings of safety, were the strongest predictors of social capital. A discussion of why neighborhood resources may be so important for social capital is presented, and implications for policies aimed at improving poverty neighborhoods and low-income people's access to social capital are considered .