The Impact of Property Taxes and Property Tax Classification on Business Activity in the Chicago Metropolitan Area

The City of Chicago and the inner suburbs grew much more slowly than the outer suburbs in recent decades. In the central county of the metropolitan area, commercial and industrial property is "classified," in that it is assessed at a higher ratio of market value than residential property. Classification is not used in the surrounding suburban counties. The empirical analysis finds evidence consistent with the notion that property tax classification contributes to differential rates of economic growth. High property tax rates lead to significantly slower growth rates for employment, commercial property, and industrial property.     

Occupation and Job Location Patterns: an Analysis of the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area

The main findings of this analysis of the job location patterns by occupational groups in the Toronto CMA are as follows:

• 1 The geographical distribution ofjobs of the different occupational groups varied considerably in the Toronto CMA, the principal pattern being relative centralization of white-collar jobs and relative decentralization of blue-collar jobs. Skilled clerical-sales-services workers faced the greatest degree ofjob concentration in the cbd.
• 2 The jobs of similar occupational groups by collar type were located near one another, so that relatively homogeneous work areas were created. These conclusions, of course, apply specifically to the Toronto CMA in 197 1. But, although the urban structure of the Toronto CMA will have changed to some extent since 1971, the process of structural change is a fairly slow one, even in rapidly growing metropolitan areas. We suggest, therefore, that our findings should be relevant to the Toronto CMA of today.

     

Internationalization in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area: Images,Discourses and Metaphors

This paper investigates promotional images in the Metropolitan Area of Helsinki, focusing on the projection, outside national boundaries, of specific “ideas” concerning the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. After introducing the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, presenting its geographical features, urban dynamics, actual problems and actors involved in image-building, the focus of this research will be a comparison between the images proposed in promotional materials and policy documents by the various territorial units, looking at their differences, overlaps, synergies and clashes. In fact, as will be discussed, even if the images proposed by the cities consist of the same thematic fields (technology, nature, culture, etc.), they contain slightly different implicit messages, targets, representations of the cities, values, strategic orientations and approaches.     

Identifying Subareas That Comprise A Greater Metropolitan Area: The Criterion of County Relative Efficiency

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used to rank the relative efficiency of thirty–two counties comprising the Greater Minneapolis–St. Paul Metropolitan Region and finds that the greatest external economies originate in the urban core and decline toward the periphery. By employing 1993 IMPLAN input–output database and county estimates of final payments (inputs) and final demands (outputs), DEA classifies efficient and inefficient counties that produce maximum output using minimum input, and a sensitivity analysis ranks counties according to robustness of the efficiency classifications. Efficiency differences between three groups identify the metropolitan core, transitional region, and peripheral region. Dominant industries in the three regions are identified and contrasted using location quotients. This study adopts the various analytical techniques into an urban regional systems approach for policy analysis and implementation.     

The Application of the European Spatial Development Perspective: Evidence from the North-West Metropolitan Area

As a strategic document, the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) wants to be 'applied' rather than 'implemented'. Rather than giving shape to spatial development, application is the shaping of the minds of the actors in spatial development. The latter are not passive recipients of messages. They actively explore options, reinterpreting messages on the way. Conformance of outcomes to intentions cannot be assumed. Application is not a separate phase either. Application includes making new working arrangements and elaborating planning documents to make them fit emergent situations. Judging from the ESDP and from how its ideas are being pursued, its makers are well aware of this. Research into the application of the ESDP in the north-west metropolitan area (NWMA) Interreg IIc programme confirms this. So the ESDP may be anything but a paper tiger.     

Metropolitan Housing Subsystems: A Comparative Review

Population, household, and housing data of twelve cities in industrialized countries are compared with respect to different rates of growth or decline in the inner and outer parts of the urban area. The study shows that in nearly all metropolitan areas the core declines in terms of population, but less in terms of households, and is stable or grows in terms of dwellings. This phenomenon can be characterized as a process of “spatial substitution” from core to periphery which is fast in terms of population, but slow in terms of dwellings because of the inherent inertia of the physical stock of the city. Following Batten (1985), a logistic substitution model is used to compare the speed and duration of spatial substitution in the urban areas studied. It is found that the process is similar in most urban areas, but that the cities have reached different points along its course. The conclusion is that the residential deconcentration observed in most urban areas in industrial countries is mainly a consequence of overall population growth or decline, decreasing household size, increasing per capita consumption of floor space, and lack of land in the core.     

Regional networks of small and medium sized enterprises: evidence from the Metropolitan Area of Ottawa in Canada1

Innovation is currently seen as a process which results from various interactions among different actors. Recent theories of innovation emphasize clusters and geographical proximity as loci of knowledge, development and exchange, critical to higher levels of innovation and regional growth. As a consequence, there is a territorial dimension to innovation. This article investigates the innovation activities and networking of 53 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ottawa, Canada. Taking its point of departure from the proliferating literature on the localized nature of innovation processes, the article sets out to answer three empirical questions: How intensively are SMEs engaging in innovation activities? To what extent do they interact during innovation process activities? What is the relevance of spatial proximity in networking, and what is the relative importance of localized cooperation as compared to non‐localized cooperation. The results revealed SMEs rely as much on external networks of customers and suppliers, as they do on ones based in their own region, and that these are considerably more important, than other potential sources of ideas, to the innovation process within the firm.     

当代美国大都市区城郊发展失衡现象及其影响

美国大都市区的长足发展,有其积极意义,但同时也产生很多负面效应.在其负面效应中,居主导地位的是城市与郊区发展失衡问题.这种失衡发展状态,对美国大都市区的经济、政治、社会和文化等方面都有深远影响.本文对此进行了梳理,以期促成更多的讨论和深入研究.     

A Method for the Evaluation of Metropolitan Planning: Application to the Context in Spain

The metropolitan urbanization shows evidence that planning at the regional, subregional and municipal levels with its wide range of territorial, urban and sectorial competences is now longer able to significantly influence territorial development. This has led to a greater demand for alternative approaches, methods and instruments. For this research study, the metropolitan area of Granada was used as a field laboratory to assess the capacity of metropolitan planning to have an impact on metropolitan processes and dynamics. For this purpose, a method for metropolitan planning evaluation, MPE methodology, was proposed, which involves two evaluation processes. This method first evaluated the coherence of plans of different competences and at different scales within the metropolitan context (trans-scalar evaluation); it then evaluated the interaction between methods and proposals in plans and metropolitan dynamics (interactive evaluation).     

陕西凤翔境内古丝绸之路考略

本文重点考察、论证了秦汉和唐宋时代关中西府重镇凤翔境内的丝绸之路走向与变迁,梳理出水陆两条主干通道,即千渭谷道和长安-雍城-陇州道。同时,结合文献资料和考古调查,还梳理出不同时期的三条支线便道,为研究不同时期丝绸之路的变迁提供了详实资料。     

The Location Choice of Foreign Direct Investment Within Turkey: An Empirical Analysis

This paper investigates the location choice of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Turkey over the period 1996–2003. Using FDI data at the provincial level and negative binomial model, the empirical evidence confirms that agglomeration economies and information costs are the most important determinants of FDI location in Turkey. Specifically, both foreign and domestic agglomerations and in particular urbanization economies strongly affect the location decision of foreign investors. The results also suggest that foreign investors are attracted to provinces with fast growing market, more educated labour force, high density of road network, greater public investment, milder climate, larger area and better quality of life. On the other hand, the empirical findings show that wage, productivity, labour availability, unionization, sea and air transportation, free zones and instability have no significant impacts on the location decision.     

Notes on women in the global city: Chicago

As the organizers of an event on women in the global city, we wanted to create a forum exploring the intersections of class, gender and other forms of inequality that fracture ‘global Chicago’. In the panelists' discussion of the intersections of struggles relating to housing, education and environmental justice in Chicago's particular version of the global city, we found evidence of lives disrupted by neoliberal trends, as well as possible sites to contest these disruptions. These struggles reverberate to shape a new urban vision, as the academics and activists assembled for our panel aim not just to work on the local issues of specific women, but to create a city in which work is well compensated, housing is affordable for everyone, schools educate all children well, all neighborhoods are safe both from crime and environmental pollutants, and everyone has the time to fully engage as active citizens of the city.