Ballot Measures for Open Space Conservation: Economic and Institutional Processes in Cities

2019 ◽  
pp. 107808741988473
Author(s):  
Agustín León-Moreta
Keyword(s):  
Open Space ◽  
Institutional Processes ◽  
Political Market ◽  
Ballot Measures ◽  
Market Framework ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Factors Of Influence ◽  
Open Space Conservation ◽  
Pooled Time Series ◽  
American Cities

This article examines referendums for open space conservation, focusing on an assessment of their likelihood in cities. It presents data on conservation referendums, over 15 years, based on the Trust for Public Land’s LandVote® database. Economic and institutional factors of influence are explored across cities, testing whether those factors explain differences in the likelihood of referendums and their passage. One finding is that the frequency of conservation referendums varies dramatically across American cities. Additional findings, from a pooled time-series analysis, are that economic and institutional contexts of cities affect the likelihood of conservation referendums. The likelihood of referendums and their passage is further tested across alternative models to evaluate the robustness of the findings. While its central contribution is to research on local referendums, the article connects to the political market framework to identify factors influencing the likelihood of open space referendums.

scholarly journals Beyond Borders: Governmental Fragmentation and the Political Market for Growth in American Cities

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 150-167
Author(s):  
Eric Stokan ◽  
Aaron Deslatte
Keyword(s):  
Community Development ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Nationwide Survey ◽  
Tax Incentives ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Fragmentation ◽  
Political Market ◽  
Market Framework ◽  
Regulatory Flexibility ◽  
American Cities

Political fragmentation has been conceptualized as a phenomenon which increases competition for mobile citizens and jobs between local governments within the same region. However, the empirical basis for this nexus between governmental fragmentation and increased competition for development is surprisingly lacking. Utilizing a newly constructed database that matches political fragmentation indices (horizontal, vertical, and bordered) to a nationwide survey of economic development officials in 2014, we begin to fill this gap by analyzing the influence fragmentation has on the use of tax incentives, regulatory flexibility, and community development tools in U.S. cities. Applying the political market framework and a Bayesian inferential approach, we find that the proliferation of local governments increases incentive use. However, more specialized governance increases the probability of using community development activities.

Temporary urban landscapes and urban gardening: re-inventing open space in Greece and Switzerland

2019 ◽  
pp. 59-73
Author(s):  
Sofia Nikolaidou
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Collaborative Governance ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Urban Gardening ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Access Rights

New forms of urban gardening are gaining a momentum in cities transforming the conventional use and functions of open green and public space. They often take place through informal and temporary (re)use of vacant land consisting part of greening strategies or social inclusion policy through new modes of land use management, green space governance and collaborative practices. Particular emphasis is placed on shifted meanings of the notion of open public space by referring to its openness to a diversity of uses and users that claim it and relates to the questions of access rights, power relations among actors, negotiations and the so called right to use and re-appropriate land. By using examples drawn from the Greek and Swiss case, this chapter underlines differences and similarities in urban gardening practices, social and institutional contexts, collaborative governance patterns, motivations, levels of institutionalisation, openness and inclusiveness of space. More specifically it calls attention to the critical role of the temporary nature of these initiatives in relation to their multifunctional, spatial and socio-political aspects that affect new configurations of urban green areas and public space as well as related planning practices.

scholarly journals The Political Market and Sustainability Policy

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3344
Author(s):  
Richard C. Feiock ◽  
Soyoung Kim
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Market Model ◽  
The Political ◽  
Exchange Relationships ◽  
Political Market ◽  
Local Sustainability ◽  
Market Framework ◽  
Sustainability Policy ◽  
Moderating Role

This essay introduces the political market framework (PMF) and discusses its implications for understanding local sustainability policy. The PMF conceptualizes public policy related to sustainability as the product of exchange between governmental policy suppliers and voter and interest group policy demanders. After presenting a political market model, the role of political institutions is introduced. Institutions structure exchange relationships by determining transaction costs of searching for mutually beneficial agreements, bargaining over outcomes, and monitoring and enforcing decisions. The central implication for research is the need to account for the moderating role that political institutions play in sustainability policy decisions. A research agenda based on the PMF is advanced. The conclusion addresses the limitations of the framework as well as its implications for policy adoptions, program designs, and individual behavior.

scholarly journals Emergence and Uncertainty in Urban Landscapes A Model for the Toronto Public Landscape

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek McEneaney
Keyword(s):  
Open Space ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Public Parks ◽  
Jane Jacobs ◽  
Landscape Urbanism ◽  
Public Open Space ◽  
Recent Emergence ◽  
American Cities ◽  
The City

This thesis was initially predicated on early research carried out on Toronto's Public Open Space - in quite a broad framework. Texts based on the topic of Toronto's formation and its policy on public open space from the earlier days surrounding Lord Simcoe's first plans of the city provided a point of departure for the research. OMA and Bruce Mau in their design entry to the Downsview Park competition offered further insight into the perceptions and policy of Toronto in relation to public parks and lack of investment and maintenance. While other contributors on the topic of Toronto included Robert Fulford (Accidental City), Mark Osbaldeston (Unbuilt Toronto: a History of the City That Might Have Been), Jane Jacobs (Death and LIfe of Great American Cities), Howard Moscoe (Councillor Moscoe and his views of the city), Rob Ford and many others offered unforeseen accounts or facts on the city over the past century. Such people and the views they have published defend the very reason for the selection of Toronto as the subject of this research. Coinciding with the topic of Toronto, the recent emergence of the discipline of Landscape Urbanism and the capabilities of landscape in dealing with Modern and Post-modern failings within the city was deemed very early on to be the platform or medium upon which to offer any solution to the research on Toronto. Charles Waldheim, Professor and Chair of the Landscape Architecture Department at the Graduate School of Design in Harvard University, has on occasion referred to his term Landscape Urbanism as follows: Across a diverse spectrum of cultural positions landscape has emerged as the most relevant medium through which to construct a meaningful and viable public realm in North American cities. (Waldheim, C. 2006. p.41)

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