Business improvement areas and the socio-cultural power of lobbying: Imposing market interests to affordable housing development

While studies have shown that Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) manage and control their physical urban spaces to generate local economic growth, little work has examined how these organizations lobby for their market interests during key decision-making processes. Drawing from the pragmatic sociology of critique, this paper develops a theoretical framework to explain how political-economic power is socio-culturally encoded during local government decision-making processes. Socio-cultural power is defined through two interrelated processes: (1) interactional settings where social actors practice their critical capacity by drawing upon socio-historically created moral orders and (2) the extent to which institutional experts limit laypersons' critical capacity and successfully construct local realities to advance their agendas. This framework is applied to London, Ontario's Old East Village to show how the local BIA influenced two separate affordable housing development plans. Based on interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, the findings show that the Old East Village BIA strategically framed and co-opted community critiques of these developments in a way that justified their own market interests (more feet on the street) over the community's civic interests (the provision of affordable housing). This paper extends the BIA literature by demonstrating BIA influence over affordable housing development, local matters that are outside the purview of their commercial jurisdiction.

ANALISIS PENGEMBANGAN BUDIDAYA RUMPUT LAUT Gracillaria sp DI KECAMATAN SINJAI TIMUR KABUPATEN SINJAI

Kondisi lingkungan perairan tambak terutama dari aspek kualitas fisika dan kimia perairan sangat menentukan keberhasilan budidaya rumput laut gracilaria sp. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah menganalisis parameter fisika dan kimia air tambak yang mendukung pengembangan budidaya rumput laut dan penentuan lokasi yang sesuai untuk pengembangan budidaya rumput laut ditinjau dari aspek fisika dan kimia air di empat desa/Kelurahan Kecamatan Sinjai Timur Kabupaten Sinjai. Dilaksanakan pada bulan Januari sampai Februari 2016. Teknik analisis dilakukan dengan menentukan beberapa parameter fisika kimia air sebagai faktor pembatas yang terdiri dari: kecerahan, suhu, kedalaman, salinitas, pH, DO,CO2, fosfat, dan nitrat. Parameter pembatas dalam empat kelas kategori, yaitu kelas sangat sesuai, sesuai, kurang sesuai , dan tidak sesuai. Hasil Penelitian menunjukkan tambak di Kelurahan Samataring, Desa Tongke-tongke, Desa Panaikang, dan Desa Pasimarannu sesuai untuk pengembangan budidaya rumput laut gracillaria sp. Condition pond water environment, especially from the aspect of water quality chemical physics determine the success of seaweed farming gracilaria sp. The purpose of this study was to analyze the physical and chemical parameters of water ponds, which supports the development of seaweed farming and determining a suitable site for the development of seaweed cultivation from the aspect of chemical physics of water in four villages / East Village Sinjai Sinjai district. Conducted in January and February 2016. Technical analysis is done by determining several physical parameters of water chemistry as a limiting factor consisting of: brightness, temperature, depth, salinity, pH, DO, CO2, phosphate, and nitrate. Parameters delimiter in four grade categories, namely class is suitable, appropriate, less appropriate and not appropriate. Research shows ponds in the village of Samataring, Tongke-tongke, Panaikang and pasimarannu appropriate for the cultivation of seaweed gracillaria sp.

Freedom to Know Me: The Conflict between Identity and Mennonite Culture in Miriam Toews’ A Complicated Kindness

In Miriam Toews’s A Complicated Kindness (2004; Giller Prize finalist; winner of Canada's Governor General's Award) Nomi Nickel, a sixteen-year-old Mennonite girl from southern Manitoba, Canada, tells the story of her short life before her excommunication from the closed community of the fictional East Village. East Village is based on a real town in southern Manitoba called Steinbach (where Toews was born), where Mennonite culture remains segregated from the rest of the world to protect its distinctive Anabaptist Protestantism and to keep its language, Mennonite Low German or Plattdeutsch, a living language, one which is both linguistically demotic yet ethnically hieratic because of its role in Mennonite faith. Since the Reformation, and more precisely the work of Menno Simons after whom this ethno-religious group was christened, Mennonites have used their particular brand of Low German to separate themselves from the rest of humankind. Toews constructs her novel as a multilingual narrative, to represent the cultural and religious tensions within. Set in the early 1980s, A Complicated Kindness details the events that lead up to Nomi’s excommunication, or shunning; Nomi’s exclusion is partly due to her embracing of the “English” culture through popular, mostly 1970s, music and books such as J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Insofar as Toews’s novel presents the conflict between the teenaged narrator and the patriarchal, conservative Mennonite culture, the books stands at the crossroads of negative and positive freedom. Put succinctly, since the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation, Mennonites have sought negative freedom, or freedom from persecution, yet its own tenets foreclose on the positive freedom of its individual members. This problem reaches its most intense expression in contemporary Mennonitism, both in Canada and in the EU, for Mennonite culture returns constantly to its founding precepts, even through the passage of time, coupled with diasporic history. Toews presents this conflict between this early modern religious subculture and postmodern liberal democracy through the eyes of a sarcastic, satirical Nomi, who, in this Bildungsroman, must solve the dialectic of her very identity: literally, the negative freedom of No Me or positive freedom of Know Me. As Mennonite writing in Canada is a relatively new phenomenon, about 50 years old, the question for those who call themselves Mennonite writers arises in terms of deciding between new, migrant, separate-group writing and writing as English-speaking Canadians.

Activism from the Start

This chapter begins by describing the redbrick buildings that emerge out of the East Village on Manhattan's East Side, the plain and unenticing facades of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village that disguise the unique slice of city life that takes place within. It talks about Stuy Town's idyllic quality that contradicts the tumultuous history that produced this middle-class enclave tucked in the midst of Manhattan. It also explains Stuy Town's roots that are planted in bitter soil as the town was born of government-backed, and subsidized, racist policies and displaced with poor New Yorkers. The chapter tells Stuy Town's story of activism, where elected officials, civil rights leaders, and tenants joined together to fight against corporate greed and unjust policies, and for the rights of New Yorkers. It recounts how Stuy Town emerged from a housing crisis in New York City that began during World War I.

Computational Simulation of Wind Microclimate in Complex Urban Models and Mitigation Using Trees

Due to a rapid increase in urbanisation, accurate wind microclimate assessment is of crucial importance. Evaluating wind flows around buildings is part of the planning application process in the design of new developments. In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are carried out for a case study, representing the East Village in the London Olympic Park. Following a validation test against experimental data for a simpler urban configuration, the key input parameters, including appropriate boundary conditions, mesh setting and type of turbulence model, are selected for the Olympic Park model. All the simulations are conducted using the commercial code STARCCM+ under steady-state conditions with the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) method. The turbulence is modelled using different common variants of eddy-viscosity models (EVMs) including standard k-ε, realizable k-ε and standard and shear stress transport (SST) k-ω. The results demonstrate that standard and realisable k-ε models correlate very well with the experimental data, while some discrepancies are found with standard and SST k-ω. Following the determination of areas of high velocity, appropriate tree planting is proposed to overcome the effect of corner and downwash acceleration. With the optimised arrangement of trees and using specific types of tree (e.g., birch), wind speeds at the pedestrian level are reduced by 3.5, 25 and 66% in three main regions of interest. Moreover, we investigate the effects of tree heights. The obtained results illustrate that the wind velocity reduces when the crowns of the trees are located closer to the buildings and the ground. Our high-resolution CFD simulation and results offer a quantitative tool for wind microclimate assessment and optimised design and arrangement of trees around buildings to improve pedestrian comfort.

Counterculture Of 1960-S and «Underground Press» in the Usa

The Underground Press Syndicate (UPS), later known as Alternative Press Syndicate (APS), was a chain of countercultural newspapers and magazines created in the middle of 1966 by publishers of five early underground newspapers «The East Village Other», «The Los Angeles Free Press», «The Berkeley Barb», «The Paper» and «Fifth Estate». By 1974 the majority of underground papers in the USA ceased to exist but they had an impact on journalistic processes during 1970-s that led to the press development in small towns and countryside giving alternative opinion about local news, cultural news, Native Americans’ politics, ecology, youth and anti-military movements. The article considers the history of “underground press” in the USA, its role and importance for Countercultural Revolution of the 1960-s, which was countrywide in the USA and covered all areas of life.

Active design of built environments for increasing levels of physical activity in adults: the ENABLE London natural experiment study

Background Low physical activity is widespread and poses a serious public health challenge both globally and in the UK. The need to increase population levels of physical activity is recognised in current health policy recommendations. There is considerable interest in whether or not the built environment influences health behaviours, particularly physical activity levels, but longitudinal evidence is limited. Objectives The effect of moving into East Village (the former London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Athletes’ Village, repurposed on active design principles) on the levels of physical activity and adiposity, as well as other health-related and well-being outcomes among adults, was examined. Design The Examining Neighbourhood Activities in Built Environments in London (ENABLE London) study was a longitudinal cohort study based on a natural experiment. Setting East Village, London, UK. Participants A cohort of 1278 adults (aged ≥ 16 years) and 219 children seeking to move into social, intermediate and market-rent East Village accommodation were recruited in 2013–15 and followed up after 2 years. Intervention The East Village neighbourhood, the former London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Athletes’ Village, is a purpose-built, mixed-use residential development specifically designed to encourage healthy active living by improving walkability and access to public transport. Main outcome measure Change in objectively measured daily steps from baseline to follow-up. Methods Change in environmental exposures associated with physical activity was assessed using Geographic Information System-derived measures. Individual objective measures of physical activity using accelerometry, body mass index and bioelectrical impedance (per cent of fat mass) were obtained, as were perceptions of change in crime and quality of the built environment. We examined changes in levels of physical activity and adiposity using multilevel models adjusting for sex, age group, ethnic group, housing sector (fixed effects) and baseline household (random effect), comparing the change in those who moved to East Village (intervention group) with the change in those who did not move to East Village (control group). Effects of housing sector (i.e. social, intermediate/affordable, market-rent) as an effect modifier were also examined. Qualitative work was carried out to provide contextual information about the perceived effects of moving to East Village. Results A total of 877 adults (69%) were followed up after 2 years (mean 24 months, range 19–34 months, postponed from 1 year owing to the delayed opening of East Village), of whom 50% had moved to East Village; insufficient numbers of children moved to East Village to be considered further. In adults, moving to East Village was associated with only a small, non-significant, increase in mean daily steps (154 steps, 95% confidence interval –231 to 539 steps), more so in the intermediate sector (433 steps, 95% confidence interval –175 to 1042 steps) than in the social and market-rent sectors (although differences between housing sectors were not statistically significant), despite sizeable improvements in walkability, access to public transport and neighbourhood perceptions of crime and quality of the built environment. There were no appreciable effects on time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity or sedentary time, body mass index or percentage fat mass, either overall or by housing sector. Qualitative findings indicated that, although participants enjoyed their new homes, certain design features might actually serve to reduce levels of activity. Conclusions Despite strong evidence of large positive changes in neighbourhood perceptions and walkability, there was only weak evidence that moving to East Village was associated with increased physical activity. There was no evidence of an effect on markers of adiposity. Hence, improving the physical activity environment on its own may not be sufficient to increase population physical activity or other health behaviours. Funding This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme and will be published in full in Public Health Research; Vol. 8, No. 12. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information. This research was also supported by project grants from the Medical Research Council National Prevention Research Initiative (MR/J000345/1).

East Village at Knutsford: A Case Study in Sustainable Urbanism

With increasing pressure to ensure that sustainability features in homes are commercially viable, demonstration projects are vital to highlight the real-world challenges and opportunities for innovation. This paper documents the incorporation of sustainability objectives into the “East Village at Knutsford” residential “living laboratory” development, within the Knutsford urban regeneration precinct, approximately 1.5 km east of the Fremantle central business district in Western Australia. The sustainability objectives for the project include being a “Net Zero Energy Development” using 100% renewable energy and maximizing the self-supply of energy, reducing mains water consumption as much as is practical, and using the landscape design to complement these objectives without compromising a best-practice urban greening outcome. The paper documents the design initiatives and strategies that have been included to achieve these objectives in a commercially viable project and the results of modelling where it has been used to test the design against the objectives to ensure their validity. The key features that have been incorporated into the townhouses component of the development are outlined, illustrating integrated design and systems thinking that builds on previous demonstration projects, incorporating solar energy storage and electric vehicle charging plus significant mains water savings by adopting water-sensitive features in the homes and the within the private and public gardens. The expected grid energy and mains water consumption levels in the homes through modelling compared to the metropolitan average is 80% lower. The project is presented as an important step in the application of available technologies and design features to meet stated sustainability objectives, highlighting the benefits of an embedded living laboratory research approach.