Journal articles on the topic 'Urban policy – United States – Case studies'

The growth machine (GM) perspective has long guided urban research. Our study provides a new extension of this perspective, focusing on local business actors’ influence on communities across the United States. We question whether GM–oriented business actors remain widely associated with contemporary local economic development policies, and further, whether these actors influence the use of limited–government austerity policies. Conceptually, we extend the GM framework by bringing it into dialogue with the literature on urban austerity policy. The analysis draws from the urban–quantitative tradition of large–sample studies and assesses localities across the nation using the empirical case of county governments. We find local real estate owners, utilities, and other business actors broadly influence U.S. localities’ economic development policies. We also find some evidence that these actors’ influences in local governance are related to the use of such cutback policies as hiring freezes, capping of social services, expenditure cutbacks, and sale of public assets. Local Chambers of Commerce are particularly associated with cutback policies. Overall, the findings suggest that where local GM actors are influential, communities are more likely to adopt business–oriented economic development policies, limit the growth of social services for the less affluent, and scale–down the public sector.

This paper examines Lisa Austin’s (2015) concept of lawful illegality, which interrogates the legal foundations for potentially unlawful surveillance practices by United States (US) signals intelligence (SIGINT) agencies. Lawful illegality involves the technically lawful operation of surveillance powers that might be considered unlawful when examined through a rule of law framework. We argue lawful illegality is expanding into domestic policing through judicial decisions that sanction complex and technically sophisticated forms of remote online surveillance, such as the use of malware, remote hacking, or Network Investigative Techniques (NITs). Operation Pacifier targeted and dismantled the Playpen dark web site, which was used for distributing child exploitation material (CEM), and has generated many judicial rulings examining the legality of remote surveillance by the FBI. We have selected two contrasting cases that demonstrate how US domestic courts have employed distinct logics to determine the admissibility of evidence collected through the NIT deployed in Operation Pacifier. The first case, United States v. Carlson (2017 US Dist. LEXIS 67991), offers a critical view of the use of NITs by the FBI, with physical geography constraining the legality of this form of surveillance in US criminal procedure. The second case, United States v. Gaver (2017 US Dist. LEXIS 44757), authorizes the use of NITs because the need to control crime is believed to justify suspending the geographic limits on police surveillance to identify people involved in the creation and dissemination of CEM. We argue this crime control emphasis expands the reach of US police surveillance while undermining due process of law by removing the protective function of geography. We conclude by suggesting the permissive geographic scope of police surveillance reflected in United States v. Gaver (2017 US Dist. LEXIS 44757), and many other Playpen cases, erodes due process for all crime suspects, but is particularly acute for people located outside the US, and suggest a neutral transnational arbiter could help limit contentious forms of remote extraterritorial police surveillance.

This study explores the impetus for and impact of four urban teachers’ extracurricular investments. Framing teacher investment as work voluntarily undertaken with an eye toward bringing about a highly desired, yet highly uncertain, end, we argue that the outcome of these often-hidden investments have identity and career implications for teachers. Through a comparison of two case studies in the southeast and northeast United States, we investigate why and how teachers come to invest themselves in particular extracurricular projects, the identity implications of the investments, and how the ultimate outcome of the investments may influence their decision to stay in or leave the profession. Findings reveal that teachers’ extracurricular investments—either in individual students or whole-school projects—are intimately tied to their identities and career trajectories. Implications are offered for research, teacher education, and policy.

The objective of this paper is to illustrate that concern over environmental pollution became a significant national issue in the United States during the late 1950s, many years earlier than is typically acknowledged by environmental historians and policy analysts. Kingdon's model of agenda development is used to document how air and water pollution was transformed from an issue of local concern and control to an issue of national significance during the 1950s. The analysis focuses on two case studies: the development of pollution as a political issue in the state of New Jersey; and the development of pollution as a significant policy issue in the national political arena. Political leaders both within New Jersey and nationwide linked pollution control to other contemporary concerns about urban decay and suburban growth in order to win the allegiance of undecided voters. Pollution control became part of the debate over the role of the federal government in addressing urban ills. Concern about pollution also became important in the general restructuring of the US political landscape in this period, helping to set the stage for Democratic Party activism on the environment and other issues after 1960.

Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate the potential of 24 country-level measures for predicting the number of outbound international medical travelers into the USA, including health and healthcare system, economic, social and diplomatic and travel pattern factors. Medical travel is recognized as a growing global market and is an important subject of inquiry for US academic medical centers, hospitals and policy makers. Few data-driven studies exist to shed light on efficient and effective strategies for attracting international medical travelers. Design/methodology/approach – This was a retrospective, cross-sectional study of the 194 member and/or observer countries of the United Nations. Data for medical traveler volume into the USA between 2008 and 2010 were obtained from the USA Department of Commerce, Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, Survey of International Air Travelers. Data on country-level factors were collected from publicly available databases, including the United Nations, World Bank and World Health Organization. Linear regression models with a negative binomial distribution and log link function were fit to test the association between each independent variable and the number of inbound medical travelers to the USA. Findings – Seven of the 24 country-level factors were significantly associated with the number of outbound medical travelers to the USA These factors included imports as a per cent of gross domestic product, trade in services as a per cent of gross domestic product, per cent of population living in urban areas, life expectancy, childhood mortality, incidence of tuberculosis and prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus. Practical implications – Results of this model provide evidence for a data-driven approach to strategic outreach and business development for hospitals and policy makers for attracting international patients to the USA for medical care. Originality/value – The model developed in this paper can assist US hospitals in promoting their services to international patients as well as national efforts in identifying “high potential” medical travel markets. Other countries could also adapt this methodology for targeting the international patient market.

Former President Obama’s 2020 Goal for the United States to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world required that both new and disengaged college students attain degrees. The workforce development system could assist the latter by supporting credit-bearing education as training. Its ability to address this need depends on the controlled devolved structure established by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which allows states and local workforce investment areas to set priorities and make a range of choices bounded by federal constraints. Analyzing interview data with frontline staff, case managers, and leadership in workforce systems in four states, the authors identify obstacles and opportunities for supporting degree completion. Three federal Workforce Investment Act mandates are particularly influential: individual training accounts, eligible training provider lists, and emphasis on demand occupations. The authors also model factors such as local partnerships and staff knowledge that can mediate how policy and practice shape local workforce investment area support for college.

In 2003, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) called for USA communities at risk of wildfire to develop Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs) requiring local, state and federal actors to work together to address hazardous fuels reduction and mitigation efforts. CWPPs can provide the opportunity for local government to influence actions on adjacent public land, by establishing local boundaries of the wildland–urban interface (WUI), the area where urban lands meet or intermix with wildlands. The present paper explores local response to the HFRA and CWPPs in the eastern USA, specifically if and how communities are using the policy incentive to identify the WUI. We conducted document reviews of eastern CWPPs, as well as qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with participants in four case studies. We found tremendous variation in local response to HFRA, with plans completed at multiple scales and using different planning templates. The WUI policy incentive was not used in all CWPPs, suggesting that the incentive is not as useful in the eastern USA, where public land is less dominant and the perceived fire risk is lower than in the West. Even so, many communities in the East completed CWPPs to improve their wildfire preparedness.

AbstractIn recent years there has been an increasing emphasis on achieving convergence in disaster research, policy, and programs to reduce disaster losses and enhance social well-being. However, there remain considerable gaps in understanding “how do we actually do convergence?” In this article, we present three case studies from across geographies—New South Wales in Australia, and North Carolina and Oregon in the United States; and sectors of work—community, environmental, and urban resilience, to critically examine what convergence entails and how it can enable diverse disciplines, people, and institutions to reduce vulnerability to systemic risks in the twenty-first century. We identify key successes, challenges, and barriers to convergence. We build on current discussions around the need for convergence research to be problem-focused and solutions-based, by also considering the need to approach convergence as ethic, method, and outcome. We reflect on how convergence can be approached as an ethic that motivates a higher order alignment on “why” we come together; as a method that foregrounds “how” we come together in inclusive ways; and as an outcome that highlights “what” must be done to successfully translate research findings into the policy and public domains.

This article describes practices of informal digital media circulation emerging in urban Cuba between 2005 and 2010, drawing from interviews and ethnographic research in the city of Santiago de Cuba. The Cuban new media landscape is supported by informal networks that blend financial and social exchanges to circulate goods, media, and currency in ways that are often illegal but are largely tolerated. Presenting two case studies of young, educated Cubans who rely on the circulation of film and television content via external hard drives for most of their media consumption, I suggest that the emphasis of much existing literature on the role of state censorship and control in Cuban new media policy overlook the everyday practices through which Cubans are regularly engaged with Latin and U.S. American popular culture. Further, informal economies have been central to everyday life in Cuba both during the height of the Soviet socialist era and in the period since the collapse of the Soviet Union that has seen a juxtaposition of some market reforms alongside centrally planned policies. In the context of nearly two decades of economic crisis, consumer shortages and a dual economy, Cuban people use both informal and state-sanctioned networks to acquire goods ranging from groceries to furnishings and domestic appliances. Understanding the informal media economy of Cuba within this broader context helps to explain how the consumption of commercial American media is largely uncontroversial within Cuban everyday life despite the fraught politics that often dominates discussions of Cuban media policy.

Despite significant coverage in the financial press in recent years, financial engineering by city governments via the use of financial derivatives such as interest rate swaps remain an understudied area of urban financial policy. Indeed, press accounts and other case or conceptual urban studies research emphasizing the downside of these transactions are some of the only sources of information on these instruments. These stories and studies often allude to or speculate on a more basic question: Why would a government choose to enter into a complex financial instrument like a debt-related derivative? This research posits three exploratory hypotheses—financial health, financial experience and/or financial sector influence, and governance structure—culled from media accounts and the urban studies literature on the use of debt-related derivatives by city governments in the United States. It empirically explores these hypotheses by examining the various fiscal, financial, and issuer characteristics of the largest 50 U.S. cities and their choice of whether to use debt-related derivatives. The research finds that the characteristics of government most associated with debt-related derivative use are declining financial condition, increased financial experience and/or financial sector influence, and prior use of interest rate swaps.

This paper examines neighborhood decline and takes up the larger issue of formulating a strategy for regrowth. A case study of Marseille France highlights this strategy along with possible criteria for policy transfer to American cities. The strategy is designated by the author as High-Intensity Concentrated Area Development (HICAD). The HICAD strategy differs from those used in the United States and employs five basic ideas—selection, pressure, magnification (connectivity), leverage and a holistic perspective. HICAD proved to be transformative in Marseille. Over the course of 15 years it brought back densities, increased employment, rebuilt infrastructure and renewed a community. HICAD is also portable and may be used in conjunction with other strategies currently applied in American cities. Notwithstanding these benefits the strategy gives rise to issues of social equity. The French experience also enables us to understand that urban decline may differ in cause and consequence. Accordingly the strategic responses will also vary.

This research brings together digital inequality scholars from across the Americas and Caribbean to examine efforts to tackle digital inequality in Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, the United States, and Canada. As the case studies show, governmental policy has an important role to play in reducing digital disparities, particularly for potential users in rural or remote areas, as well as populations with great economic disparities. We find that public policy can effectively reduce access gaps when it combines the trifecta of network, device, and skill provision, especially through educational institutions. We also note, that urban populations have benefitted from digital inclusion strategies to a greater degree. This underscores that, no matter the national context, rural-urban digital inequality (and often associated economic inequality) is resistant to change. Even when access is provided, potential users may not find it affordable, lack skills, and/or see no benefit in adoption. We see the greatest potential for future digital inclusion in two related approaches: 1) initiatives that connect with hard-to-reach, remote, and rural communities outside urban cores and 2) initiatives that learn from communities about how best to provide digital resources while respecting their diversely situated contexts, while meeting social, economic and political needs.

Recent technological advancements in surveillance and data analysis software have drastically transformed how the United States manages its immigration and national security systems. In particular, an increased emphasis on information sharing and predictive threat modeling following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has prompted agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security to acquire powerful data analysis software from private sector vendors, including those in Silicon Valley. However, the impacts of these private sector technologies, especially in the context of privacy rights and civil liberties, are not yet fully understood. This article interrogates those potential impacts, particularly on the lives of immigrants, by analyzing the relational database system Investigative Case Management (ICM), which is used extensively by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to track, manage, and enforce federal immigration policy. As a theoretical framework, the we use Benjamin Bratton’s concept of the “interfacial regime,” or the layered assemblages of interfaces that exist in modern networked ICT infrastructures. By conducting a document analysis, we attempt to visually situate ICM within the federal government’s larger interfacial regime that is composed by various intertwined databases both within and outside the government’s realm of management. Furthermore, we question and critique the role ICM plays in surveilling and governing the lives of immigrants and citizens alike.

This paper argues that 'fusion centers' are byproducts of the privatization of state surveillance and assaults on civil liberties, at least in the United States, the nation on which the research is based, with special focus on the recent case of the Maryland State Police spying scandal. In fusion centers, members of local, state, and federal police and intelligence units, as well as private-sector organizations, share information with each other by means of computerized technology and store it in databases. While the official purpose is to protect public safety, the practice of 'data-mining' and unclear lines of authority lead to fusion centers being unaccountable to the public and, hence, a threat to the democratic process. These conditions are encapsulated in the case of official espionage in the state of Maryland at least between 2004 and 2006. Drawing on official documents, the history of 'homeland security' since World War II and the characteristics of fusion centers, the Department of Homeland Security, and events in Maryland are surveyed. Working within the contexts of social history, surveillance theory, and political economy, this paper is grounded in the work of Beck, Churchill and Wall, Donner, Fuchs, Graham, Lyon, McCulloch and Pickering, and Monahan.

In recent years, there has been a growing awareness that not all decommissioned and obsolete real-estate assets can be recovered and reused. After the paradigm of urban growth, and following the paradigm of regeneration, a new paradigm seems to be looming on the horizon: the paradigm of shrinkage. Due to this change in perspective, discussions on the potential of demolition policies as an alternative to regeneration and reuse are gaining support in the debate about urban growth. In the United States, there are two on-going programs using demolition as their main tool for urban planning: the blight elimination programs and the flood buyout programs. The former foresees the demolition of abandoned and decayed real-estate assets, while the latter envisions the demolition and relocation of buildings within areas under flooding risks. Given their successful employment in the U.S., this paper evaluates the applicability of these programs to an Italian case, which is characterized by a different building heritage and different territorial conditions. Simulations of the programs’ application are made using two case studies: Lecce nei Marsi (Abruzzo) and Moncalieri (Piemonte). The results demonstrate the substantial feasibility of the blight elimination programs’ usage in Italy, while the flood buyout programs instead demonstrates major obstacles that may hinder its successful application.

EDQ introduces a new format to the Forum section in this issue. Periodically an article is submitted to us that raises important policy or methodological issues that have generated sharp responses from external reviewers. We believe that the debate that has taken place between the authors and reviewers is of such importance that we have then solicited people to comment on the article. Controversy on Maxwell Street raises the issue of the marriage of anthropologic and economic techniques in economic development analysis. We hope that you find this debate as stimulating as we did. Controversy on Maxwell Street began when Morales, Balkin, and Persky submitted their article, “The Value of Benefits of a Public Street Market: The Case of Maxwell Street.” We then requested that Rhoda H. Halperin and Wim Wiewel respond. Following their responses is a rejoinder by the authors. Chicago's Maxwell Street Market was among the oldest open-air public markets in the United States. The market was closed in August 1994 and a smaller alternative market was opened on Canal Street. This article estimates monetary losses resulting from the closure of the market. First, the authors briefly discuss the markets history, followed by a review of the literature on the informal economy. The problem of quantifying the value of street vending is addressed by combining ethnographic and economic analytical methods. Ethnography is introduced in the article's third section. The authors demonstrate the usefulness of merging ethnographic and economic analysis by estimating monetary losses to vendors and consumers as a result of changes in the market's governance and location.

e13093 Background: Though studies have examined geographic disparities in breast cancer mortality among United States (U.S.) counties, county-level risk factors were not accounted for. The aim of this study is to efficiently map the spatial association between female breast cancer mortality rates & socioeconomic attributes across U.S. counties for identifying high risk geographical clusters in terms of socioeconomic attributes. Methods: County-specific age standardized breast cancer mortality rates for women ≥20 years in the U.S. were obtained for 3,109 counties in 48 contiguous states from Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results program from 1990-2012. County-level attributes such as percentages of Hispanic white, Non-Hispanic white, Non-Hispanic black, < high school education, below 200% poverty, urban, foreign born, language isolation, women aged ≥ 40 years with mammography within last 2 years, and median household income were gathered from U.S. decennial census. Factor analysis condensed county attributes into three factor covariates namely Hispanic immigrants, health care access among urban high socioeconomic population, and non-Hispanic black unemployment. Spatiotemporal analysis was carried out by structured additive regression model to incorporate spatial functions & Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation techniques. Results: Moran’s index suggested existence of spatial dependence for breast cancer mortality among U.S. counties. As mammography screening, %urban population, % with high socioeconomic status and non-Hispanic black unemployment increased in counties of the Southwest region, Rocky mountain region and those in the western border of Midwest region of U.S, risk of breast cancer mortality increased significantly above the national average. As the Hispanic immigrant culture increased, counties of Midwest region of U.S had significantly higher mortality rates compared to national average. Conclusions: These initial results describe socio-economic, cultural, and healthcare access factors for observed geographic variations in female breast cancer mortality, and in turn, could support a stronger theoretical basis for public health policy.

This paper explores if and how the idea of progressive property can help to shape more inclusive, sustainable, and just cities around the globe. While quite nuanced, at its heart the progressive perspective on property considers property as a means of addressing important human needs. It is consistent with reciprocal and communitarian approaches to property rights. Nowhere are these insights more relevant or needed than in cities—dense urban areas where legacies of exclusion have deprived disadvantaged groups of housing and public services. In cities and neighboring suburbs, the right to exclude collides head-on with the need to share limited space with those of little means. By re-examining the work of progressive property scholars, we suggest concrete ways of reconceptualizing access to the city. This paper ties legal theory to housing and city-planning by proposing an international perspective to progressive property scholarship, with a focus on local government policies pertaining to housing. We do so by comparatively examining case studies from the United States (US), Spain, Brazil, and Israel—four countries that are actively experimenting with progressive definitions of property in a manner which affects urban planning and housing in cities.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to outline and examine the growing corpus of housing rights and assess their relevance and applicability to complex contemporary housing systems across the world.Design/methodology/approachThe paper sets out the principal instruments and commentaries on housing rights developed by the United Nations, regional and other bodies. It assesses their relevance in the context of contemporary analysis of housing systems, organized and directed by networks of legal and other professionals within particular domains.FindingsHousing rights instruments are accepted by all States across the world at the level of international law, national constitutions and laws. The findings suggest that there are significant gaps in the international law conception and framework of housing rights, and indeed, human rights generally, which create major obstacles for the effective implementation of these rights. There is a preoccupation with one element of housing systems, that of subsidized or social housing. However, effective housing rights implementation requires application at meso‐, micro‐ and macro‐levels of modern, dynamic housing systems as a whole. Epistemic communities of professionals develop and shape housing law and policy within these domains. The housing rights paradigm must be further fashioned for effective translation into contemporary housing systems.Research limitations/implicationsThe development of housing rights precedents, both within international and national law, is leading to a wide and diffuse corpus of legislation and case law. More research is needed on specific examples of effective coupling between housing rights and elements of housing systems.Originality/valueThis paper offers housing policy makers and lawyers an avenue into the extensive jurisprudence and writings on housing rights, which will inevitably become part of the lexicon of housing law across the world. It also highlights the limitations of housing rights implementation, but offers some new perspectives on more effective application of these rights.

As cities continue to grow, their urban form continues to evolve. As a consequence of urban growth, the demand for infrastructure increases to meet the needs of a growing population. Understanding this evolution and its subsequent impingement on resources allows for planners, engineers, and decision-makers to plan for a sustainable community. Patterns and rate of urban expansion have been studied extensively in various cities throughout the United States (U.S.), utilizing remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS). However, minimal research has been conducted to understand urban growth rates and patterns for cities that possess borders, geological attributes, and/or protected areas that confine and direct the cities’ urban growth, such as El Paso, Texas. This study utilizes El Paso, Texas, as a case study to provide a basis for examining growth patterns and their possible impact on the electricity consumption resource, which lies on the U.S./Mexico and New Mexico borders, contains the largest urban park in the nation (Franklin Mountains State Park), and Ft. Bliss military base. This study conducted a change analysis for El Paso County to analyze specific areas of concentrated growth within the past 15-years (2001–2016). The results indicate that county growth has primarily occurred within the city of El Paso, in particular, Districts 5 (east side), 1 (west side), and 4 (northeast), with District 5 experiencing substantial growth. As the districts expanded, fragmentation and shape irregularity of developed areas decreased. Utilizing past growth trends, the counties’ 2031 land-use was predicted employing the Cellular Automata (CA)-Markov method. The counties’ projected growth was evenly distributed within El Paso city and outside city limits. Future growth within the city continues to be directed within the same districts that experienced past growth, Districts 1, 4, and 5. Whereas projected growth occurring outside the city limits, primarily focused within potential city annexation areas in accordance with the cities’ comprehensive plan, Plan El Paso. Panel data analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between urban dynamic growth patterns and electricity consumption. The findings suggest that, as urban areas expanded and fragmentation decreased, electricity consumption increased. Further investigation to include an expansion of urban pattern metrics, an extension of the time period studied, and their influence on electricity consumption is recommended. The results of this study provided a basis for decision-makers and planners with an understanding of El Paso’s concentrated areas of past and projected urban growth patterns and their influence on electricity consumption to mitigate possible fragmentation growth through informed decisions and policies to provide a sustainable environment for the community.

IntroductionA well-established body of literature demonstrates that health and equity are strongly influenced by the consequences of governments’ policy and resultant actions (or inactions) outside the health sector. Consequently, the United Nations, and its agency the WHO, have called for national leadership and whole-of-government action to understand and address the health impacts of policies inallsectors. This research responds to that call by investigating how policymaking in four sectors—urban planning, justice, energy and environment—may influence the social determinants of health and health equity (SDH/HE).Methods and analysisThe research design is informed by a critical qualitative approach. Three successive stages are included in the design. The first involves analysing all strategic policy documents and selected legislative documents from the four sectors (n=583). The document analysis is based on a coding framework developed to identify alignment between the documents and the SDH/HE. Two policies that demonstrate good practice in regard to SDH/HE will be selected from each sector during the second stage for embedded case study analysis (total n=8). This is intended to illuminate which factors have supported recognition and action on SDH/HE in the selected policies. The third stage involves progressive theoretical integration and development to understand political and institutional facilitators and barriers to action on SDH/HE, both within and between sectors.Ethics and disseminationThe research will provide much needed evidence about how coherent whole-of-government action on SDH/HE can be advanced and contribute knowledge about how health-enhancing policy activity in the four sectors may be optimised. Learnings from the research will be shared via a project advisory group, policy briefings, academic papers, conference presentations and research symposia. Ethics approval has been secured for the embedded case studies, which involve research participants.

The focus on “school turnaround” has become central to policy and practice in the United States as a result of school accountability, yet little remains known about school improvement under sanction. This study uses theories of organizational learning to understand the processes through which educators search for and adopt reform strategies, as well as the extent to which these schools’ organizational culture and climate are conducive to this type of learning. Our mixed methods study involves document analysis, intensive case studies, and a survey of teachers in schools under sanction in a large urban school district in the USA. We found limited evidence of organizational learning, and instead evidence suggested superficial use of restructuring planning, rare diagnoses of root causes of low performance, and limited engagement in learning processes of school staff. In addition, schools relied on exploitation resulting in the recycling of previous practices. In part, the limited organizational learning in evidence was the result of structures and climates within these low-performing schools that inhibited a more learning-oriented approach to reform. Our study has implications for school improvement under accountability policies as it uncovers important challenges that limit organizational learning and, as a result, school improvement under sanction.

Abstract Abstract 602 Although, MM remains the most common indication for ASCT in the US, a controversy exists about the timing of ASCT. Since early ASCT (eASCT) versus delayed ASCT (dASCT) results in similar progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in the novel agent era, economic assessment of one strategy over the other may help both clinicians and policy makers in establishing guidelines in the MM treatment paradigm. Here we designed a study to model a decision tree of both the strategies and estimate their cost-effectiveness. A decision tree was developed to compare the outcomes of ASCT in newly diagnosed transplant eligible MM patients after chemotherapy with novel drug lenalidomide which formed the base case. The survival data was obtained from our published data on eASCT versus dASCT in MM patients who underwent initial therapy with dexamethasone + immunomodulatory agents (IMiDs). The initial decision node on the decision tree model was dichotomized based on the cutoff of 12 months for eASCT versus dASCT. The probabilities of events during the length of follow up (60 months) period which formed our base case were: (a) eASCT cohort: Induction chemotherapy for median of 6 months - ASCT - median 30 months to relapse (drug free interval) followed by median therapy of 24 months for relapsed MM; (b) dASCT cohort: Median initial therapy for 36 months - ASCT - median 24 months to relapse (drug free interval). The cost analysis was done from a US third party payer perspective. The cost data for MM ASCT was obtained from the published data in which direct hospital costs were obtained from Nationwide Inpatient Sample and were converted to Medicare cost-to-charge ratio for urban hospitals. Chemotherapy cost consisted of actual drug costs that calculated based on average wholesale prices AWP (2008), costs of medical oncology visits, and the costs of managing adverse events. Post-ASCT maintenance costs were not included in the analysis. TreeAge Pro 2012 software was used to perform a static decision analysis. The outcomes were expressed in the units of health utility values obtained from phase III HOVON trial which measured quality of life (QoL) using EORTC QLQ-C30 & EuroQoL-5D. All scales and items were linearly transformed to range from 0 to 100. The utilities measured by the EuroQol-5D ranged from 0.40 before induction therapy to 0.70 after ASCT and translated to QALYs using area under the curve method. Using a Consumer Price Index (CPI), the costs of ASCT and chemotherapy were converted into 2012 US$. The robustness of the decision model was tested through univariate analyses and tornado diagram to identify those variables which if varied across clinically relevant measures may result in difference in outcomes. The expected cost of providing treatment to newly diagnosed MM patients for a period of 5 years when they undergo eASCT after induction with IMiDs was calculated to be $211,869. This was $52,454 less than the expected cost of undergoing dASCT. Patients who underwent eASCT had an expected benefit of 2.06 QALYs following treatment, which was 0.19 QALYs more than the patients who received dASCT. This implies that eASCT is preferred over (dominates) dASCT. One-way sensitivity analysis was undertaken to identify factors that were found to be most influential and included OS, overall response rate (ORR) and 1 year ASCT related mortality rate (TRM). Specifically, eASCT showed dominance even if the probability of OS was lowered to 52.1% from the actual case base of 65%, or the probability of ORR was lowered to ≥ 75.8% from the actual case base of 92%, or the probability of 1 year TRM was increased to 11.5% from actual case base of 2%, indicating the robustness of the model favoring cost effectiveness of eASCT. In absence of a survival benefit, the cost savings of early ASCT as measured by ICER would favor this approach, and it would help clinicians, patients, policy makers and third party payers in decision making. Future prospective studies in MM ASCT should incorporate economic and QOL components in the analysis and also focus on the added cost of post-ASCT maintenance therapies with respect to ICER and QALYs. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

In this period of increasing urbanization, cultural heritage can play a key role to achieve sustainable development, as widely recognized by international institutions (i.e., United Nations (UN), UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)). In this perspective, it is necessary to operationalize the principles stated at international level and thus new approaches and tools are required. The paper aims to understand the relationships between the implementation of adaptive reuse projects and their success (or not) in terms of impacts on the buildings themselves and on the urban context. The assessment framework for evaluating the impacts of heritage conservation and rehabilitation projects is described through the analysis and comparison of two Italian case studies: the Ancient Market and the Basilica of St. Peter the Apostle, in Siracusa (Italy). Although realized both in the same place (Ortigia, the historic centre of Siracusa), during the same period and by the same architect, these two interventions have produced different results in terms of urban development. A set of indicators, deduced from recent scientific studies, has been used to analyse the different impacts on physical, cultural, social, environmental and economic systems. To understand in depth the causes of these two different results, a survey has been carried out involving experts. The proposed indicators used for the ex-post evaluation can be also adopted in other contexts and for ex ante evaluation, in order to orient the strategic design choices in cultural heritage adaptive reuse projects.

Background: Critically ill patients with COVID-19 infection on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) face high morbidity and mortality. Palliative care consultation may benefit these patients and their families. Prior to the pandemic, our institution implemented a policy of automatic palliative care consultation for all patients on ECMO due to the high mortality, medical complexity, and psychosocial distress associated with these cases. Objectives: The main objective was to describe the role of the palliative care team for patients on ECMO for COVID-19 infection. The secondary objective was to describe the clinical outcomes for this cohort. Design: Case series. Settings/Subjects: All patients age 18 or older infected by the novel coronavirus who required cannulation on ECMO from March through July of 2020, at an urban, academic medical center in the United States. Inter-disciplinary palliative care consultation occurred for all patients. Results: Twenty-three patients (median age 43 years [range 28-64], mean body mass index 34.9 kg/m2 [SD 9.2], 65% Hispanic ethnicity) were cannulated on ECMO. Eleven patients died during the hospitalization (48%). Patients older than 50 years of age demonstrated a trend toward increased odds of death compared to those younger than 50 years of age (OR 9.1, P = 0.07). Patients received an average of 6.8 (SD 3.7) palliative clinical encounters across all disciplines. The actions provided by the palliative care team included psychosocial support and counseling, determination of surrogate decision maker (for 100% of patients), pain management (83%), and non-pain symptom management (83%). Conclusions: Here, we present one of the first studies describing the patient characteristics, outcomes, and palliative care actions for critically ill patients with COVID-19 on ECMO. Almost half of the patients in this cohort died during their hospitalization. Given the high morbidity and mortality of this condition, we recommend involvement of palliative care for patients/families with COVID-19 infection who are on ECMO. The impact of palliative care on patient and family outcomes, such as symptom control, satisfaction with communication, rates of anxiety, and grief experience merits further investigation.

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The topic of shrinking cities has been one of the most important urban issues in the past three decades. Couch and Cocks (2013) reviewed studies on the outcomes of recent shrinking cities: (1) rapid out-migration from post-socialist countries such as the movement from East Germany to West Germany in the 1990s; (2) economic -decline as an additional trigger for out-migration such as in old industrial areas in Northern England and the Rust Belt of the United States; and (3) rapid demographic changes such as low fertility and longevity-led ageing of the society leading to shrinking regions in the European countries and Japan. Although many studies have been conducted in East Germany, the old industrial cities, and the aging European countries (Nordvik and Gulbrabdsen 2009, Hoekstra et al. 2018, Hollander 2018), little is known about shrinkage in Japanese cities. Over recent decades, the debates on shrinking cities have been widely studied; these studies can be classified into three categories: (1) studies to understand the background reasons that caused shrinkage, (2) those to analyze the effects or outcomes of shrinkage (e.g., increase in housing vacancies or vacant lots, growth of crime rate or political challenges), and (3) those to propose policy implications or practical solution strategies to overcome shrinkage (Hollander and Nemeth 2011).</p><p>First, Hollander (2018) and other studies identified the relationship between the neighborhood life cycle (Hoover and Vernon 1959, or studies by the Chicago schools) and urban shrinkage, with regards to old industrial cities such as those in the Rust Belt of the United States and erstwhile mining towns in North England. Hoover and Vernon (1959) proposed that a neighborhood follows a five-stage cycle, comprising the stages of development, transition, downgrading, shrinkage, and renewal; this five-stage model is linked to the discriminative housing policies from the 1930s until the 1970s in the United States (Metzger 2000). In addition to these neighborhood cycles, other factors such as economic decline, outmigration and population loss, demographic changes (Nordvik and Gulbrabdsen 2009, Couch and Cocks 2013), social transition, globalization and neo-liberalization have transformed housing, welfare, and family relations in many countries (Yui et al. 2017, Ronald and Lennarts 2018). In East Germany, housing oversupply during the post-socialist shrinking periods acted as a catalyst to form a new residential segregation pattern in Leipzig (Grobmann et al. 2015). Some neighborhood conditions can lead to an increase in the number of housing abandonments or long-term housing vacancies in specific neighborhoods, as demonstrated by various studies mentioning oversupply of housing during the housing bubble periods and longitude low demand neighborhoods in the United States (Molloy 2016), the high ratio of poverty (Immergluck 2016), and the conditions of the surrounding neighborhoods (Morckel 2014). Second, the population loss caused by massive out-migration and a rise in housing abandonment or housing vacancies were the most common outcomes of urban shrinkage. Out-migration was triggered by the movement to seek better job opportunities or quality of life, urban life cycles with growth and decline (Couch and Cocks 2013), and the longitudinal decline process of population (Alves et al. 2016). Nordvik and Gulbrandsen (2009) analyzed aging-led shrinkage with a case study in Norway and found a spatial characteristic of shrinkage that occurs more often in suburbs than in city-centers, and the positive relation between the rise in the vacant property ratio and an increase in the elderly population in a region. The out-migration of the younger generation, arising from the desire to move away from parental homes in suburbs, and the deaths among the parental generation that have occurred in the last 30 to 50 years have led to a gradual increase in vacant housing in the suburb in Norway (Nordvik and Gulbrabdsen 2009). Apparently, the Japanese suburban neighborhoods have experienced the rise in housing vacancies and ageing population through the similar mechanism with that in Norway, but the reality and spatial patterns of shrinking-related problems vary reflecting the urban and housing policies, housing market characteristics, and embedded relationship between housing and family in society. According to Couch and Cocks (2013), the rise in housing vacancies in a region arises due to several factors, as follows. The first factor is that of short-term vacancies for which there is no demand in the local housing market; this issue can be resolved through public intervention in terms of reinvestment in inner-city social housing, such as in the United Kingdom in the 1980s. The second factor is that of oversupply of housing as compared to the housing demand in a region; this is caused by lower satisfaction among residents in their residential environment or inequality in public investment and access to private financial resources by local residents. Moreover, shrinking cities with a high ratio of long-term housing vacancies tend to experience an increase in crime such as burglary. This is because the rise in housing vacancies causes a decline in neighbourhood vitality required to protect social disorder; vacant housing is used to store stolen goods or sell drugs, and there is a “broken window effect” with regard to abandoned housing vacancies (Jones and Pridemore 2016).</p><p>There have recently been more meaningful discussions on how to handle the problems of shrinking cities. As Hoekstra et al. (2018) mentioned, there have been two main approaches in these discussions: one approach has focused on increasing the population in shrinking cities again, whereas, the other accepts longitudinal shrinkage patterns and aims to increase the quality of life of present and future residents (Hollander and Nemeth 2011). The former approach advocates entrepreneurial policies to attract new residents, resulting in an increase in inequality within a region, unsold housing, and a lack of affordable housing (Hoekstra et al. 2018). The latter approach employs methodologies such as selective demolition of abandoned housing to control the housing stock of a region, promoting down-sizing or right-sizing to meet the changes in the housing demands of residents, or densification of urban buildings to recreate walkable neighborhoods (Hoekstra et al. 2018). Hollander and Nemeth (2011) proposed smart decline strategies based on the concept of social justice, with an emphasis on the following aspects: accepting voices from diverse actors, utilizing different types of technology to share information about citizens to problematize uneven power structure, transparent decision-making processes with clear evaluation, and paying attention to the scale of decision making (e.g., the total planning burden is shared among regional levels, and the required interventions are conducted at local levels). Compared to the rich accumulation of literature on shrinking cities in Western countries, the Japanese situation has not been discussed sufficiently and there is an absence of strategies to resolve the issues in Japan. Research on shrinkage and housing has clarified that factors related to housing, welfare, and family relations are embedded in the social fabric, and the relationships vary by region or by country (Ronald and Lennerts 2018). Therefore, it is necessary to obtain deeper understanding of the housing challenges in shrinking and aging Japanese cities. The present study aims to review the above-mentioned three categories of shrinking city debates in Japan, to propose practical countermeasures for shrinking and aging Japanese cities. First, we review the reasons that caused the shrinkage in Japanese cities. Second, we analyze the increase in housing vacancies as an outcome of this shrinkage. Third, we examine the political countermeasures that have been adopted in Japan and evaluate their efficacy in the Japanese situation. Finally, through these analyses, we propose policy implications to deal with the problems of aging and shrinking cities in Japan. The major findings of the study are as follows: First of all, existing systems that had been established during the economic and urban growth periods of Japan are not suitable to address the new demands of the shrinking and aging era. Therefore, a great divide in terms of residential environments has occurred within a metropolitan area or between cities. Lesser access to financial resources to reinvest in old suburban neighborhoods or local cities accelerates the divide or inequality in terms of residential environments. Second, an increase in housing vacancies can decrease the quality of life of older adults in these shrinking neighborhoods. Third, these problems could be resolved by adopting a strategy of smart decline, with selective investment to control housing stock, and by accepting aging in place in shrinking neighborhoods. We discuss the challenges in implementing these possible solutions in Japanese cities.</p>

Background and objectives People living with dementia deserve to experience the benefits of receiving palliative care and end-of-life services and supports, yet they often do not receive this care compared to those with other terminal diseases. People living with dementia in rural areas often face additional challenges to accessing such care. The purpose of this scoping review was to systematically review and synthesize the literature on palliative and end-of-life care for people with dementia living in rural areas, and to identify and describe key findings and gaps in the literature. Methods A collaborative research team approach was used in an iterative process across all stages of this review. Systematic, comprehensive searches were conducted across ten databases and eight targeted websites for relevant peer-reviewed, original research and other less formal literature, published in English, which yielded a total of 4476 results. After duplicate removal, screening, and review, 24 items were included for synthesis. Results All items were described and illustrated by frequency distribution, findings were grouped thematically, and five key themes emerged, including: 1) Knowledge about dementia, 2) Availability, accessibility, and utilization of palliative and end-of-life care services and supports, 3) Decision-making about care, the value of a person-centered approach and collaborative support, 4) Perspectives on artificial nutrition, hydration, and comfort care, and 5) Quality of life and death. The main gap identified was literature pertaining to rural populations, especially from locations other than the United States. The influence of rurality on relevant findings was mixed across rural-urban comparison studies, as was the effect of sex and gender across the literature. Conclusions Several areas were highlighted including the importance of increasing knowledge about dementia, having early conversations about advanced care and treatment options, providing a person-centered approach, and the potential for using technology to address rural access issues. These findings can be used to inform future research and policy and the development of services, supports, and strategies for rural people living with dementia. Further research is recommended.

In this issue of Journal of Disaster Research, we introduce nine papers on societal responses to recent catastrophic disasters with special focus on long-term recovery processes in Japan and the United States. As disaster impacts increase, we also find that recovery times take longer and the processes for recovery become more complicated. On January 17th of 1995, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit the Hanshin and Awaji regions of Japan, resulting in the largest disaster in Japan in 50 years. In this disaster which we call the Kobe earthquake hereafter, over 6,000 people were killed and the damage and losses totaled more than 100 billion US dollars. The long-term recovery from the Kobe earthquake disaster took more than ten years to complete. One of the most important responsibilities of disaster researchers has been to scientifically monitor and record the long-term recovery process following this unprecedented disaster and discern the lessons that can be applied to future disasters. The first seven papers in this issue present some of the key lessons our research team learned from the studying the long-term recovery following the Kobe earthquake disaster. We have two additional papers that deal with two recent disasters in the United States – the terrorist attacks on World Trade Center in New York on September 11 of 2001 and the devastation of New Orleans by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina and subsequent levee failures. These disasters have raised a number of new research questions about long-term recovery that US researchers are studying because of the unprecedented size and nature of these disasters’ impacts. Mr. Mammen’s paper reviews the long-term recovery processes observed at and around the World Trade Center site over the last six years. Ms. Johnson’s paper provides a detailed account of the protracted reconstruction planning efforts in the city of New Orleans to illustrate a set of sufficient and necessary conditions for successful recovery. All nine papers in this issue share a theoretical framework for long-term recovery processes which we developed based first upon the lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake and later expanded through observations made following other recent disasters in the world. The following sections provide a brief description of each paper as an introduction to this special issue. 1. The Need for Multiple Recovery Goals After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, the long-term recovery process began with the formulation of disaster recovery plans by the City of Kobe – the most severely impacted municipality – and an overarching plan by Hyogo Prefecture which coordinated 20 impacted municipalities; this planning effort took six months. Before the Kobe earthquake, as indicated in Mr. Maki’s paper in this issue, Japanese theories about, and approaches to, recovery focused mainly on physical recovery, particularly: the redevelopment plans for destroyed areas; the location and standards for housing and building reconstruction; and, the repair and rehabilitation of utility systems. But the lingering problems of some of the recent catastrophes in Japan and elsewhere indicate that there are multiple dimensions of recovery that must be considered. We propose that two other key dimensions are economic recovery and life recovery. The goal of economic recovery is the revitalization of the local disaster impacted economy, including both major industries and small businesses. The goal of life recovery is the restoration of the livelihoods of disaster victims. The recovery plans formulated following the 1995 Kobe earthquake, including the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s plans, all stressed these two dimensions in addition to physical recovery. The basic structure of both the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s recovery plans are summarized in Fig. 1. Each plan has three elements that work simultaneously. The first and most basic element of recovery is the restoration of damaged infrastructure. This helps both physical recovery and economic recovery. Once homes and work places are recovered, Life recovery of the impacted people can be achieved as the final goal of recovery. Figure 2 provides a “recovery report card” of the progress made by 2006 – 11 years into Kobe’s recovery. Infrastructure was restored in two years, which was probably the fastest infrastructure restoration ever, after such a major disaster; it astonished the world. Within five years, more than 140,000 housing units were constructed using a variety of financial means and ownership patterns, and exceeding the number of demolished housing units. Governments at all levels – municipal, prefectural, and national – provided affordable public rental apartments. Private developers, both local and national, also built condominiums and apartments. Disaster victims themselves also invested a lot to reconstruct their homes. Eleven major redevelopment projects were undertaken and all were completed in 10 years. In sum, the physical recovery following the 1995 Kobe earthquake was extensive and has been viewed as a major success. In contrast, economic recovery and life recovery are still underway more than 13 years later. Before the Kobe earthquake, Japan’s policy approaches to recovery assumed that economic recovery and life recovery would be achieved by infusing ample amounts of public funding for physical recovery into the disaster area. Even though the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s recovery plans set economic recovery and life recovery as key goals, there was not clear policy guidance to accomplish them. Without a clear articulation of the desired end-state, economic recovery programs for both large and small businesses were ill-timed and ill-matched to the needs of these businesses trying to recover amidst a prolonged slump in the overall Japanese economy that began in 1997. “Life recovery” programs implemented as part of Kobe’s recovery were essentially social welfare programs for low-income and/or senior citizens. 2. Requirements for Successful Physical Recovery Why was the physical recovery following the 1995 Kobe earthquake so successful in terms of infrastructure restoration, the replacement of damaged housing units, and completion of urban redevelopment projects? There are at least three key success factors that can be applied to other disaster recovery efforts: 1) citizen participation in recovery planning efforts, 2) strong local leadership, and 3) the establishment of numerical targets for recovery. Citizen participation As pointed out in the three papers on recovery planning processes by Mr. Maki, Mr. Mammen, and Ms. Johnson, citizen participation is one of the indispensable factors for successful recovery plans. Thousands of citizens participated in planning workshops organized by America Speaks as part of both the World Trade Center and City of New Orleans recovery planning efforts. Although no such workshops were held as part of the City of Kobe’s recovery planning process, citizen participation had been part of the City of Kobe’s general plan update that had occurred shortly before the earthquake. The City of Kobe’s recovery plan is, in large part, an adaptation of the 1995-2005 general plan. On January 13 of 1995, the City of Kobe formally approved its new, 1995-2005 general plan which had been developed over the course of three years with full of citizen participation. City officials, responsible for drafting the City of Kobe’s recovery plan, have later admitted that they were able to prepare the city’s recovery plan in six months because they had the preceding three years of planning for the new general plan with citizen participation. Based on this lesson, Odiya City compiled its recovery plan based on the recommendations obtained from a series of five stakeholder workshops after the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake. <strong>Fig. 1. </strong> Basic structure of recovery plans from the 1995 Kobe earthquake. <strong>Fig. 2. </strong> “Disaster recovery report card” of the progress made by 2006. Strong leadership In the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake, local leadership had a defining role in the recovery process. Kobe’s former Mayor, Mr. Yukitoshi Sasayama, was hired to work in Kobe City government as an urban planner, rebuilding Kobe following World War II. He knew the city intimately. When he saw damage in one area on his way to the City Hall right after the earthquake, he knew what levels of damage to expect in other parts of the city. It was he who called for the two-month moratorium on rebuilding in Kobe city on the day of the earthquake. The moratorium provided time for the city to formulate a vision and policies to guide the various levels of government, private investors, and residents in rebuilding. It was a quite unpopular policy when Mayor Sasayama announced it. Citizens expected the city to be focusing on shelters and mass care, not a ban on reconstruction. Based on his experience in rebuilding Kobe following WWII, he was determined not to allow haphazard reconstruction in the city. It took several years before Kobe citizens appreciated the moratorium. Numerical targets Former Governor Mr. Toshitami Kaihara provided some key numerical targets for recovery which were announced in the prefecture and municipal recovery plans. They were: 1) Hyogo Prefecture would rebuild all the damaged housing units in three years, 2) all the temporary housing would be removed within five years, and 3) physical recovery would be completed in ten years. All of these numerical targets were achieved. Having numerical targets was critical to directing and motivating all the stakeholders including the national government’s investment, and it proved to be the foundation for Japan’s fundamental approach to recovery following the 1995 earthquake. 3. Economic Recovery as the Prime Goal of Disaster Recovery In Japan, it is the responsibility of the national government to supply the financial support to restore damaged infrastructure and public facilities in the impacted area as soon as possible. The long-term recovery following the Kobe earthquake is the first time, in Japan’s modern history, that a major rebuilding effort occurred during a time when there was not also strong national economic growth. In contrast, between 1945 and 1990, Japan enjoyed a high level of national economic growth which helped facilitate the recoveries following WWII and other large fires. In the first year after the Kobe earthquake, Japan’s national government invested more than US$ 80 billion in recovery. These funds went mainly towards the repair and reconstruction of infrastructure and public facilities. Now, looking back, we can also see that these investments also nearly crushed the local economy. Too much money flowed into the local economy over too short a period of time and it also did not have the “trickle-down” effect that might have been intended. To accomplish numerical targets for physical recovery, the national government awarded contracts to large companies from Osaka and Tokyo. But, these large out-of-town contractors also tended to have their own labor and supply chains already intact, and did not use local resources and labor, as might have been expected. Essentially, ten years of housing supply was completed in less than three years, which led to a significant local economic slump. Large amounts of public investment for recovery are not necessarily a panacea for local businesses, and local economic recovery, as shown in the following two examples from the Kobe earthquake. A significant national investment was made to rebuild the Port of Kobe to a higher seismic standard, but both its foreign export and import trade never recovered to pre-disaster levels. While the Kobe Port was out of business, both the Yokohama Port and the Osaka Port increased their business, even though many economists initially predicted that the Kaohsiung Port in Chinese Taipei or the Pusan Port in Korea would capture this business. Business stayed at all of these ports even after the reopening of the Kobe Port. Similarly, the Hanshin Railway was severely damaged and it took half a year to resume its operation, but it never regained its pre-disaster readership. In this case, two other local railway services, the JR and Hankyu lines, maintained their increased readership even after the Hanshin railway resumed operation. As illustrated by these examples, pre-disaster customers who relied on previous economic output could not necessarily afford to wait for local industries to recover and may have had to take their business elsewhere. Our research suggests that the significant recovery investment made by Japan’s national government may have been a disincentive for new economic development in the impacted area. Government may have been the only significant financial risk-taker in the impacted area during the national economic slow-down. But, its focus was on restoring what had been lost rather than promoting new or emerging economic development. Thus, there may have been a missed opportunity to provide incentives or put pressure on major businesses and industries to develop new businesses and attract new customers in return for the public investment. The significant recovery investment by Japan’s national government may have also created an over-reliance of individuals on public spending and government support. As indicated in Ms. Karatani’s paper, individual savings of Kobe’s residents has continued to rise since the earthquake and the number of individuals on social welfare has also decreased below pre-disaster levels. Based on our research on economic recovery from the Kobe earthquake, at least two lessons emerge: 1) Successful economic recovery requires coordination among all three recovery goals – Economic, Physical and Life Recovery, and 2) “Recovery indices” are needed to better chart recovery progress in real-time and help ensure that the recovery investments are being used effectively. Economic recovery as the prime goal of recovery Physical recovery, especially the restoration of infrastructure and public facilities, may be the most direct and socially accepted provision of outside financial assistance into an impacted area. However, lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake suggest that the sheer amount of such assistance may not be effective as it should be. Thus, as shown in Fig. 3, economic recovery should be the top priority goal for recovery among the three goals and serve as a guiding force for physical recovery and life recovery. Physical recovery can be a powerful facilitator of post-disaster economic development by upgrading social infrastructure and public facilities in compliance with economic recovery plans. In this way, it is possible to turn a disaster into an opportunity for future sustainable development. Life recovery may also be achieved with a healthy economic recovery that increases tax revenue in the impacted area. In order to achieve this coordination among all three recovery goals, municipalities in the impacted areas should have access to flexible forms of post-disaster financing. The community development block grant program that has been used after several large disasters in the United States, provide impacted municipalities with a more flexible form of funding and the ability to better determine what to do and when. The participation of key stakeholders is also an indispensable element of success that enables block grant programs to transform local needs into concrete businesses. In sum, an effective economic recovery combines good coordination of national support to restore infrastructure and public facilities and local initiatives that promote community recovery. Developing Recovery Indices Long-term recovery takes time. As Mr. Tatsuki’s paper explains, periodical social survey data indicates that it took ten years before the initial impacts of the Kobe earthquake were no longer affecting the well-being of disaster victims and the recovery was completed. In order to manage this long-term recovery process effectively, it is important to have some indices to visualize the recovery processes. In this issue, three papers by Mr. Takashima, Ms. Karatani, and Mr. Kimura define three different kinds of recovery indices that can be used to continually monitor the progress of the recovery. Mr. Takashima focuses on electric power consumption in the impacted area as an index for impact and recovery. Chronological change in electric power consumption can be obtained from the monthly reports of power company branches. Daily estimates can also be made by tracking changes in city lights using a satellite called DMSP. Changes in city lights can be a very useful recovery measure especially at the early stages since it can be updated daily for anywhere in the world. Ms. Karatani focuses on the chronological patterns of monthly macro-statistics that prefecture and city governments collect as part of their routine monitoring of services and operations. For researchers, it is extremely costly and virtually impossible to launch post-disaster projects that collect recovery data continuously for ten years. It is more practical for researchers to utilize data that is already being collected by local governments or other agencies and use this data to create disaster impact and recovery indices. Ms. Karatani found three basic patterns of disaster impact and recovery in the local government data that she studied: 1) Some activities increased soon after the disaster event and then slumped, such as housing construction; 2) Some activities reduced sharply for a period of time after the disaster and then rebounded to previous levels, such as grocery consumption; and 3) Some activities reduced sharply for a while and never returned to previous levels, such as the Kobe Port and Hanshin Railway. Mr. Kimura focuses on the psychology of disaster victims. He developed a “recovery and reconstruction calendar” that clarifies the process that disaster victims undergo in rebuilding their shattered lives. His work is based on the results of random surveys. Despite differences in disaster size and locality, survey data from the 1995 Kobe earthquake and the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu earthquake indicate that the recovery and reconstruction calendar is highly reliable and stable in clarifying the recovery and reconstruction process. <strong>Fig. 3.</strong> Integrated plan of disaster recovery. 4. Life Recovery as the Ultimate Goal of Disaster Recovery Life recovery starts with the identification of the disaster victims. In Japan, local governments in the impacted area issue a “damage certificate” to disaster victims by household, recording the extent of each victim’s housing damage. After the Kobe earthquake, a total of 500,000 certificates were issued. These certificates, in turn, were used by both public and private organizations to determine victim’s eligibility for individual assistance programs. However, about 30% of those victims who received certificates after the Kobe earthquake were dissatisfied with the results of assessment. This caused long and severe disputes for more than three years. Based on the lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake, Mr. Horie’s paper presents (1) a standardized procedure for building damage assessment and (2) an inspector training system. This system has been adopted as the official building damage assessment system for issuing damage certificates to victims of the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu earthquake, the 2007 Noto-Peninsula earthquake, and the 2007 Niigata-ken Chuetsu Oki earthquake. Personal and family recovery, which we term life recovery, was one of the explicit goals of the recovery plan from the Kobe earthquake, but it was unclear in both recovery theory and practice as to how this would be measured and accomplished. Now, after studying the recovery in Kobe and other regions, Ms. Tamura’s paper proposes that there are seven elements that define the meaning of life recovery for disaster victims. She recently tested this model in a workshop with Kobe disaster victims. The seven elements and victims’ rankings are shown in Fig. 4. Regaining housing and restoring social networks were, by far, the top recovery indicators for victims. Restoration of neighborhood character ranked third. Demographic shifts and redevelopment plans implemented following the Kobe earthquake forced significant neighborhood changes upon many victims. Next in line were: having a sense of being better prepared and reducing their vulnerability to future disasters; regaining their physical and mental health; and restoration of their income, job, and the economy. The provision of government assistance also provided victims with a sense of life recovery. Mr. Tatsuki’s paper summarizes the results of four random-sample surveys of residents within the most severely impacted areas of Hyogo Prefecture. These surveys were conducted biannually since 1999,. Based on the results of survey data from 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2005, it is our conclusion that life recovery took ten years for victims in the area impacted significantly by the Kobe earthquake. Fig. 5 shows that by comparing the two structural equation models of disaster recovery (from 2003 and 2005), damage caused by the Kobe earthquake was no longer a determinant of life recovery in the 2005 model. It was still one of the major determinants in the 2003 model as it was in 1999 and 2001. This is the first time in the history of disaster research that the entire recovery process has been scientifically described. It can be utilized as a resource and provide benchmarks for monitoring the recovery from future disasters. <strong>Fig. 4.</strong> Ethnographical meaning of “life recovery” obtained from the 5th year review of the Kobe earthquake by the City of Kobe. <strong>Fig. 5.</strong> Life recovery models of 2003 and 2005. 6. The Need for an Integrated Recovery Plan The recovery lessons from Kobe and other regions suggest that we need more integrated recovery plans that use physical recovery as a tool for economic recovery, which in turn helps disaster victims. Furthermore, we believe that economic recovery should be the top priority for recovery, and physical recovery should be regarded as a tool for stimulating economic recovery and upgrading social infrastructure (as shown in Fig. 6). With this approach, disaster recovery can help build the foundation for a long-lasting and sustainable community. Figure 6 proposes a more detailed model for a more holistic recovery process. The ultimate goal of any recovery process should be achieving life recovery for all disaster victims. We believe that to get there, both direct and indirect approaches must be taken. Direct approaches include: the provision of funds and goods for victims, for physical and mental health care, and for housing reconstruction. Indirect approaches for life recovery are those which facilitate economic recovery, which also has both direct and indirect approaches. Direct approaches to economic recovery include: subsidies, loans, and tax exemptions. Indirect approaches to economic recovery include, most significantly, the direct projects to restore infrastructure and public buildings. More subtle approaches include: setting new regulations or deregulations, providing technical support, and creating new businesses. A holistic recovery process needs to strategically combine all of these approaches, and there must be collaborative implementation by all the key stakeholders, including local governments, non-profit and non-governmental organizations (NPOs and NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and the private sector. Therefore, community and stakeholder participation in the planning process is essential to achieve buy-in for the vision and desired outcomes of the recovery plan. Securing the required financial resources is also critical to successful implementation. In thinking of stakeholders, it is important to differentiate between supporting entities and operating agencies. Supporting entities are those organizations that supply the necessary funding for recovery. Both Japan’s national government and the federal government in the U.S. are the prime supporting entities in the recovery from the 1995 Kobe earthquake and the 2001 World Trade Center recovery. In Taiwan, the Buddhist organization and the national government of Taiwan were major supporting entities in the recovery from the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake. Operating agencies are those organizations that implement various recovery measures. In Japan, local governments in the impacted area are operating agencies, while the national government is a supporting entity. In the United States, community development block grants provide an opportunity for many operating agencies to implement various recovery measures. As Mr. Mammen’ paper describes, many NPOs, NGOs, and/or CBOs in addition to local governments have had major roles in implementing various kinds programs funded by block grants as part of the World Trade Center recovery. No one, single organization can provide effective help for all kinds of disaster victims individually or collectively. The needs of disaster victims may be conflicting with each other because of their diversity. Their divergent needs can be successfully met by the diversity of operating agencies that have responsibility for implementing recovery measures. In a similar context, block grants made to individual households, such as microfinance, has been a vital recovery mechanism for victims in Thailand who suffered from the 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami disaster. Both disaster victims and government officers at all levels strongly supported the microfinance so that disaster victims themselves would become operating agencies for recovery. Empowering individuals in sustainable life recovery is indeed the ultimate goal of recovery. <strong>Fig. 6.</strong> A holistic recovery policy model.

Why have charter schools been embraced as an urban educational solution in many metropolitan areas, but not in others? I develop a theoretical framework whereby the “educational ecosystem” of metropolitan areas—formed through the social geography of school district boundaries and school integration plans—supplement existing perspectives, thereby aiding in the understanding of policy adoption variability. I provide an initial test to the theoretical framework through a case study of a metropolitan hub that continues to have no charter schools: Louisville, Kentucky. I demonstrate how Louisville’s particular urban educational ecosystem, which diverges from the overall national pattern of racially and socioeconomically isolated urban systems, transformed the perceptions of the urban district and shaped the battles over an otherwise nationally popular school reform.

This paper explores whether there has been a recent decline in helping behavior in the United States. In a lost letter experiment, 7,466 letters were “lost” in 63 urban areas in the United States and Canada in 2001 and 2011. There has been a 10 percent decline in helping behavior in the United States, but not in Canada. Two arguments anticipate change in the level of help provided to strangers: the rise of new technologies, and neighborhood racial and ethnic diversity. Findings exclude increased privatism as a source for the decline in helping. In 2001 there was no variation in altruistic behavior based on neighborhood diversity. However, areas of the United States where the proportion of noncitizens increased since 2001 experienced reduced helping; the opposite was found in Canada. Possible explanations include changing attitudes toward noncitizens, and differences in public policy related to economic inequality, social inclusion, and the acceptance of multiculturalism.

A strong and enduring commitment to liberalism marks much of urban policy discourse in the United States. Although this Liberal Urban Policy compares favorably with its neoliberal and neoconservative rivals, it is nevertheless deeply flawed. One particularly serious problem is its strong commitment to rationalism. I offer a critique of this Rationalist Paradigm at the core of Liberal Urban Policy, which is extensively developed along both normative and empirical dimensions. In light of this critique, I conclude by gesturing toward a possible alternative—an Organic Paradigm—that might conceivably serve as a superior foundation for American urban policy in the twenty-first century.

As part of its report “Unfair Advantage: Workers' Freedom of Association in the United States under International Human Rights Standards,” Human Rights Watch conducted a series of case studies in a dozen states, covering a variety of industries and employment sectors, analyzing the U.S. experience in the light of both national law and international human rights and labor rights norms. Presented here are the case studies of manufacturing workers.

The last decade has witnessed the diversification of immigrant destinations in the United States. Although the literature on this phenomenon is burgeoning, research on the experiences of smaller immigrant groups in new destinations is underdeveloped. This is especially the case for those from the Dominican Republic, a group that is expanding beyond the traditional gateway cities of the Northeast. Using a survey of Dominican immigrants in Reading, Pennsylvania, this study has two objectives. the first objective is to describe the prevalence of experiences with institutional and interpersonal discrimination. the second objective is to determine the extent to which these experiences are structured around racial markers (i.e., skin tone), forms of capital, forms of incorporation, and exposure to the United States. Our results show that a substantial minority of Dominican immigrants claims to have been treated unfairly, primarily because of their “race and ethnicity.” in addition, experiences with some types of discrimination are positively associated with skin tone (i.e., darkness) and several factors that are identified in models of assimilation.

Urban politics research has not kept pace—empirically or theoretically—with city governments’ engagement with climate change policy. Thousands of cities globally have made commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and are taking steps toward these goals. In the United States, research has examined the motivations for such actions and has described some of the implementation challenges cities are encountering, but we lack a theoretically informed understanding of how these actions intersect politically with existing interests, institutions, and fiscal realities in cities. This article identifies five political entry points that are specific to urban climate change policy and can provide a foundation for empirically and theoretically valuable research. The pursuit of such an interdisciplinary urban research agenda for climate change would enhance our understanding of when and how cities are successful in addressing climate change and would provide new answers to long-standing questions in urban politics.

As part of its report “Unfair Advantage: Workers' Freedom of Association in the United States under International Human Rights Standards,” Human Rights Watch conducted a series of case studies in a dozen states, covering a variety of industries and employment sectors, analyzing the U.S. experience in the light of both national law and international human rights and labor rights norms. Presented here are the case studies of migrant agricultural workers.

The trade-off between security and liberty has been a leading frame for understanding public opinion about domestic surveillance policies. Most of the empirical work explicitly examining whether individuals meet the trade-off framework’s core attitudinal assumptions comes from European studies. This study uses a survey of US residents to assess the veracity of the assumptions embedded in the trade-off framework, namely whether domestic counterterrorism policies are simultaneously viewed as improving security and decreasing liberty. We find that the vast majority of US respondents do not meet the basic attitudinal assumptions of the trade-off frame. Next, we evaluate the source of these attitudes with a focus on whether attitudes toward surveillance policies merely relate to core political values or whether they also depend on the messages from political leaders. We find that both political values and opinion leadership shape these attitudes. Finally, because general attitudes towards surveillance and privacy often fail to have practical implications, we assess whether these attitudes matter for understanding the structure of policy support. Our results show that heightened terrorism threat positively associates with increased support for counterterrorism policies only when people believe these policies are effective security tools.