Kategoria BISAC: Political Science >> Public Policy - City Planning & Urban Development

The World Commission on Dams (WCD) report (2000) "Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making" set a landmark in the ongoing controversy over large dams. Now that more than ten years have passed, one has to realize that the WCD norms matter. However, their real chance of becoming implemented relies on whether their core values, strategic priorities and guidelines are accepted by national decision-makers and are translated into official policies and practices. The book's major concern is whether the big hydropower states have improved their standards for environment and...

This book explores new forms and modalities of relations between people and space that increasingly affect the life of the city. The investigation takes as its starting point the idea that in contemporary societies the loss of our relationship with place is a symptom of a breakdown in the relationship between ethics and aesthetics. This in turn has caused a crisis not only in taste, but also in our sense of beauty, our aesthetic instinct, and our moral values. It has also led to the loss of our engagement with the landscape, which is essential for cities to function.

The authors...

Homeownership--a core American Dream--remains elusive to millions of families priced out of the unstable housing market. This book explores the delicate balance between regulations designed to promote the production of sound, affordable housing in safe community environments and the red tape in which housing developers become entangled.

Based on case studies of communities in New Jersey and North Carolina, and building on extensive research on the housing development regulatory process, the authors examine the incidence of regulation and quantify the actual itemized costs of...

Public housing is at a crossroads, buffeted by demographic, economic, and political winds. Privatization, rehabilitation, demolition, rent certificates and vouchers, tenant management, tenant ownership, resident empowerment: these are just some of the current and proposed policy initiatives that could change the face of urban public housing.

In this book the nation's foremost housing policy experts explore the problems and identify solutions that will define the future of this essential housing sector. The contributors review the origins of public housing policy, probe the current...

Rural America is at a crossroads in its economic development. Like regions of other First World nations, the traditional economic base of rural communities in the United States is rapidly deteriorating. Natural resources, including agriculture, show little prospect for generating future job growth, and manufacturing has become a new source of instability. Faced with these changes and an increasing vulnerability to international economic events, rural communities have begun to seek high-technology industries and advanced services as candidates for job growth and economic stability.

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The 1990s witnessed a revolution in the way the United States finances housing. Gone is the insulated system of thrifts whose special job was to collect savings deposits and issue mortgages. Gone too are the institutional foundations of this system--the passbook account and the fixed-rate mortgage. Mortgage lending in this new financial environment is increasingly the province of a shrinking group of large financial firms. These firms compete for funds in domestic and international markets as well as issue and sell the new adjustable-rate mortgages.

Richard L. Florida notes that...

Mount Laurel II is a historic state supreme court decision which mandates that all new residential development include housing for low- and moder-ate-income families.

This study provides a rational approach to low-cost housing. Methods for defining housing market areas are given, as well as demand and supply projection techniques. Housing cost reduction alternatives and allocation approaches are detailed.

It elaborates step-by-step methodologies with operational baselines, data framework, and alternative approaches.

- The Potential of Zoning and...