The Impact of Airport Noise and Proximity on Residential Property Values

The hedonic price method is used to estimate the relationship between residential property values and airport noise and proximity to the airport in the Reno‐Sparks area. Empirical results suggest there is a statistically significant negative relationship between airport noise and residential property values, with the average home in areas where noise levels are 65 decibels or high selling for about $2400 less than equivalent homes in quieter areas. However, in direct contrast to the study by Tomkins et al.(1998) who found proximity to the Manchester airport to be an amenity, this study finds proximity to the Reno‐Sparks airport to have a significant negative value.     

The Geography of a Mixed‐Race Society

The pattern and level of separation among ethnic groups continues to change, and there are certainly more mixed neighborhoods both in cities and suburbs than two decades ago. The immigration flows of the past decade have substantially altered the ethnic mix and neighborhood mixing. In addition, multi‐ethnic individuals themselves are altering the level of mixing among racial and ethnic groups. The research in this article shows that those who report themselves of more than one race have high levels of residential integration both in central cities and suburbs. These residential patterns can be interpreted as further evidence of tentative steps to a society in which race per se is less critical in residential patterning. The level of integration, for Asian mixed and black mixed is different and substantially higher than for those who report one race alone. The research in this article builds on previous aggregate studies of mixed‐race individuals to show substantial patterns of integration in California's metropolitan areas.     

Infrastructure Investment and Rural Economic Development: An Evaluation of USDA's Broadband Loan Program

We empirically evaluate whether participation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Broadband Loan Program, which began making loans in 2002, has had measurable positive impacts on zip code‐level economic outcomes. Using difference in differences and propensity score matching program evaluation techniques, we find that loans made in 2002 and 2003 under the Pilot Broadband Loan Program have had a substantial positive impact on employment, annual payroll, and the number of business establishments in recipient communities. However, a more spatially disaggregated analysis reveals that the positive economic impacts of the pilot program are driven primarily by the outcomes in communities located closest to urban areas. Finally, we find no evidence that loans received as part of the current Broadband Loan Program have had a measurable positive impact on recipient communities, possibly because not enough time has elapsed for the impacts of the current Broadband Loan Program to have emerged.     

Happy neighborhoods: Investigating neighborhood conditions and sentiments of a shrinking city with Twitter data

Planning interventions have been applied to improve the well‐being, hereafter happiness, of residents. The happiness in shrinking cities, in particular, becomes more critical since urban decline tends to induce an unequal and uneven distribution of care under a limited budget and human resources. Using geo‐tagged Twitter, census, and geospatial data on Detroit, Michigan, which is one of the well‐known shrinking cities in the U.S., the spatial distribution of sentiments, topics of tweets appeared, and the association between neighborhood conditions and the level of happiness were examined. The outcomes indicate that people in Detroit are posting happy tweets more than negative tweets. The downtown area holds both positive and negative hotspots, which are clustered around sports arenas and bars, respectively. Neighborhoods with young and well‐educated residents, situated close to amenities (i.e., recreation facilities, colleges, and commercial areas), and less crime tend to be happier. The use of SNS data could serve as a meaningful social listening tool to reconcile the declining urban vitality of neighborhoods since people interact with those spaces. Negative sentiments are attached to specific neighborhoods with certain conditions so that regeneration efforts should take place in neighborhoods with a higher priority.     

Can fishing communities escape marginalisation? Comparing overfishing,environmental pressures and adaptation in Thailand and the Philippines

In this article, we compare four fishing‐based areas in Thailand and the Philippines to examine if and how small‐scale fishing communities are able to escape marginalisation. Three questions guide our inquiry: (i) How have fishing communities been affected by overfishing, climate change and other pressures? (ii) What adaptive strategies have these communities employed to mitigate socio‐economic and environmental challenges? (iii) What has been the impact of these strategies on (escaping) marginalisation? Through a survey of 393 fishing‐based households and semi‐structured interviews with 59 key informants we find an uneven mixture of drivers, strategies and impacts. Respondents varyingly attribute declining fish catch to illegal fishing, overfishing, population increase, climate change and pollution. The case studies illustrate various degrees of adaptive successes that result from integration of top‐down and bottom‐up initiatives, and availability and access to livelihood strategies. However, the impact of adaptive strategies on overcoming marginalisation remains meagre and constrained by, among others, the power of illegal and commercial fishing and the absence of integrated spatial planning. We call for policy interventions and further research that takes into account the integration of top‐down and bottom‐up institutions, and the multiple dimensions and spaces of the drivers that shape fisherfolk marginalisation.     

Disparities and Divided Growth: Ethnic Entrepreneurship in the Greater Los Angeles Area, 1980–2015

This study employs a multilevel research design to examine business ownership across ethnic groups in the greater Los Angeles area. It finds significant divide between white and non‐white businesses along the labor market hierarchy. The entrepreneurial environment, ethnic residential communities, ethnic business spatial clustering, ethnic concentration in particular niche sectors, and ethnic diversity in local areas are all related to business ownership and disparities across ethnic groups. The results suggest that ethnically diverse neighborhoods and co‐ethnic business communities could provide a conducive institutional environment and resources for minority businesses to start. However, in contrast to white owned businesses, ethnic minority businesses' concentration in the low‐end and easy‐entry sectors may reinforce their disadvantages and hinder upward economic mobility. This study provides policy implications for community regional development through entrepreneurship especially when race and ethnicity are concerned.     

Residential Property Values and Community Right‐to‐Know Laws: Has the Toxics Release Inventory Had an Impact?

ABSTRACT This paper uses a cross‐sectional hedonic pricing model to investigate the relationship between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data releases and the prices of single‐family residences within postal zip code areas situated in Omaha, Nebraska's Douglas County. The model employs demographic data from the 2000 Census, toxic chemical release data for the year 2000 from the EPA's TRI database, as well as other pollution variables for each of the zip code areas comprising Douglas County. The model also employs house‐specific data supplied by the Douglas County Assessor's Office on dwelling characteristics for homes sold in Douglas County in the year 2000. The findings indicate that, when controlling for relevant socioeconomic variables, TRI pollutant releases are significant determinants of residential housing values. The results should be of interest to anyone in the real estate industry, including tax assessors, appraisers, mortgage lenders, and property owners.     

Islands and beers: Toasting a discriminatory approach to small island manufacturing

This paper explores the relationship between beers and island development, using a global sweep but with a special reference to the insular Pacific. It adopts a discriminatory approach, touching upon the role and impact that niche and bouquet beer manufacturing can have on the socioeconomic development of small islands. It departs from a personal observation: many small island jurisdictions have their own brewery. Indeed, the brewery could also be the island territory's largest indigenous manufacturing concern. While small islands are associated with low manufacturing capacity and diseconomies of scale, nevertheless ‘a local brewery’ comes across, in many cases, as a profitable and glaring exception that speaks to the attractions and virtues of locality branding.     

Voter‐Approved Annexations in an Urban Growth Boundary Regime: The Impacts on Housing Values,Density, and Economic Equity

Oregon is known for its strict Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) policies. While UGBs are designed to accommodate land supply for 20 years of growth, land within UGBs must be annexed into city limits before it can be developed at urban densities and serviced. In Oregon, cities use a variety of municipal annexation and voter‐approved annexation policies (VAAPs), providing an opportunity to study how different annexation policies affect land and housing markets, and affect urban density. Previous research on annexation has not considered how annexation policy influences housing values. This paper examines how VAAPs impact land growth, housing development, and density at the city level. It also examines how VAAPs impact housing values. Based on city‐level and tax‐lot‐level statistical analyses from 107 cities outside Portland Metro area, the results suggest that VAAPs negatively impact the availability of developable land within city limits. VAAPs also positively impact residential density and housing value. Lastly, VAAPs inequitably affect housing value between relatively high‐value housing and relatively low‐value housing, posing economic equity impacts for lower value housing. These findings provide important lessons for Oregon and other states. While VAAPs may increase residential density in cities, the policies may exacerbate affordability problems.     

Spatial (Im)mobility and Accessibility in Ireland: Implications for Transport Policy

Recent social research that links people's position in society to their ability to access employment has shown the centrality of spatial mobility in the (re)production of patterns of inequality. This is particularly evident in regions where economic activity is unevenly distributed and concentrated in an urban centre and where daily travel patterns reflect a spatial segregation between places of work and residential areas. This paper presents a spatial analysis of accessibility to employment for Galway City and its environs, a predominantly rural region in the West of Ireland dominated by its urban centre. Travel‐to‐work data from the 2006 Census of Population of Ireland were used to present a comparison of district‐specific accessibility levels across three socio‐economic groups. Network analysis and Geographic Information System visualisation tools are used to map existing socio‐spatial topographies of (in)accessibility. This is done to test two contrasting sets of theoretical proposals in the social science literature regarding the relationship between spatial mobility and social status. Advocates of the first position conceptualise spatial mobility as a form of capital that helps to maintain many existing social hierarchies. This contrasts with the views of those who anticipate the dissolution of established social boundaries (“fluidification”) as a result of increased spatial mobility of people, goods, and ideas. It is argued that these contrasting positions are highly relevant to current transport policy debates, including discussions around the impacts of recession‐related cuts in transport infrastructure investment on patterns of accessibility. In addition, they encourage reflection on the impacts of sustainable transport initiatives on different social groups that are more or less mobility disadvantaged, a fact that has hitherto received little attention in policy research and practice.     

Note: Paid Informal Work in Deprived Urban Neighborhoods: Exploitative Employment or Cooperative Self‐Help?

The aim of this paper is to challenge the characterization of paid informal work as a form of employment based on exploitative relations that should be eradicated. Using empirical evidence gathered through structured interviews with 511 households in deprived and affluent neighborhoods in British cities, this paper reveals that paid informal work in deprived areas is mostly conducted for kin, neighbors, and friends for co‐operative reasons and is thus more like unpaid community exchange in the private sphere than exploitative employment. In consequence, the challenge for social and labor market policy is argued to be not to try to eradicate such work but to harness it in these deprived urban neighborhoods.     

Walkable Neighborhood Systems

This essay defines walkable neighborhood systems, summarizes the negative impacts of suburbia on the economy as a whole, and presents indirect pricing as a major cause of suburbia. The paper proposes several pricing reforms and green mobility as solutions based on prices that reflect full costs. Several hypotheses are presented concerning the performance of walkable neighborhood systems and the concept of an inflection point for the takeoff of non‐auto modes when density within a walkable area reaches economies of scale. It proposes research on old neighborhoods as a way to quantify relationships in the absence of pricing reforms. The paper discusses building types and high rise, and how at highest densities there may be diminishing returns. While it is natural for most scholars to study dominant land uses, there is a need to understand better dense walking neighborhoods as solutions to the costs of suburbia and to enhance their functioning to show a path to a sustainable future.     

Case- carburization Numerical Modeling and Craft Optimization on Steel Parts of Various Shapes

According to the diffusion equation of carburizing process and its boundary conditionand initial condition, various shapes steel parts are modeled under various case carburize craft parameters, concentration distribution curves have been obtained. Various craft parameters are compared, and carburizing temperature has more influence on carbon concentration distribution. Various shapes steel parts' carbon concentration distribution curves have some difference. According to the carbon concentration distribution curve, craft parameters can be adjusted in order to obtain the best carburizing craft.     

Externality Effects on Residential Property Values: The Example of Noise Disamenities

ABSTRACT Studies conducted by the Federal Railroad Administration in the 1990s reveal that train whistle bans lead to higher accident rates at train crossings. However, advocates of these bans argue that they eliminate noise externalities that have a detrimental effect on residential home values. To assess this latter claim, an event study is conducted and hedonic models are estimated for three different areas in which Conrail unilaterally began ignoring local whistle bans. While the findings consistently show that proximity to rail lines has a negative and statistically important influence on home values, there is little evidence that the Conrail decision had any permanent and appreciable influence on the housing values in these communities. In two of the three study areas, there is no statistically significant impact of the Conrail action, and in the third area, the effects are found to be temporary in duration.     

Education and Household Location in Chicago

This paper examines the choice of residential location in the city of Chicago versus its suburban areas. Data from the 5 percent Public Use Microdata Sample from the 1990 and 2000 Census of Population and Housing are used. Particular attention is given to the effects of educational attainment. Place of work continues to dominate the residential location decision. However, conditioning on place of work, demographics, and income, educational attainment is found to be statistically significant in residential choice of the city versus the suburbs in 2000 for non‐Hispanic whites, especially those with graduate degrees. In contrast, more educated African‐Americans and Hispanics tend to locate in suburban areas.     

Ethnic conflict in Papua New Guinea

Abstract: On many measures of ethno‐linguistic diversity, Papua New Guinea is the most fragmented society in the world. I argue that the macro‐level political effect of this diversity has been to reduce, rather than increase, the impact of ethnic conflict on the state. Outside the Bougainville conflict, and (to a lesser extent) the recent upsurge of violence in the Southern Highlands, ethnic conflicts in Papua New Guinea have not presented a threat to national government. In contrast to most other ethnically diverse societies, the most consequential impacts of ethnic conflict in Papua New Guinea are at the local level. This paper therefore examines the disparate impacts of local‐ and national‐level forms of ethnic conflict in Papua New Guinea.     

农村居民点整理意愿——基于河北省520个农户问卷调查

尊重农户意愿是当前保护耕地总量动态平衡、实施城乡用地增减挂钩的原则之一。农村居民点整理是城乡用地增减挂钩的主要目标。居民点整理的顺利实施需要农户的支持和配合。虽然整理政策的实施原则是尊重农户的意愿、保护农户利益,但是,农户对当地的实施措施和所得“实惠”是否满意,对此项政策是否支持,对居民点整理工作顾虑是什么。本文以河北省几个居民点整理县（市）为例,采用发放问卷和实地采访的方式收集数据资料,从“对农村居民点整理政策的认识”、“认为是否能从整理中得到好处”、 农户对“农村居民点整理的顾虑”三方面调查农户的意愿,并分析其顾虑。并提出居民点整理政策要以人文本、实事求是、完善相关整理措施等消除农户当前顾虑。     

Master‐planned residential developments: Beyond iconic spaces of neoliberalism?

Master‐planned residential development has proliferated as a new residential phenomenon in metropolitan areas globally. The trend, the new governance mechanisms it entails and resultant forms of urban development have been critically theorised as products and vectors of neoliberalisation and iconic spaces of the neoliberal city. However, tracing the emergence and enactment of master‐planned residential estate (MPRE) development in Sydney, Australia, this paper suggests that more contingent and contextualised theorisations of such spaces can reveal possibilities for animating a different politics of MPREs. Deploying theorisation sensitive to the multiple drivers, logics and political projects played out through MPRE development in situated contexts, the paper traces the political genesis of these developments in Sydney, outlines the multiple drivers and logics accounting for their growing popularity and points to the salience of the complex performance of land and housing markets in their production. The post‐structural political economy approach used here to investigate MPRE development can overcome the politically constraining effects of the dominant neoliberal critique. It does so, first, by opening analysis up to the importance of logics, actions and contexts that are irreducible to neoliberalism and, second, by gesturing towards the potential for an alternative politics to be animated through mechanisms, techniques and processes of MPRE development habitually associated with neoliberalism.     

城乡建设用地增减挂钩中土地权属调整的研究

“城乡建设用地增减挂钩”是国家推出缓解城镇用地压力、促进城乡统筹发展的一项重要管理措施。目前随着各地积极开展城乡建设用地增减挂钩试点工作,随之带来的土地权属问题也日益突出。基于城乡建设用地增减挂钩项目实施中所涉及的土地权属调整内容,遵循权属调整的原则,提出在实施过程中建新地块和拆旧地块内的土地权属调整方案,并总结了权属调整的相关程序,最后列出还应特别注意的问题和建议,以期能够促进城乡建设用地增减挂钩的有序、协调、高效实施。