Arnold Fleischmann

Promoting Economic Development A Comparison of Central Cities, Suburbs, and Nonmetropolitan Communities

The authors use survey and census data to compare the economic development policies of central cities, suburbs, and nonmetropolitan communities. Regional competition is strongly associated with the number of development programs adopted by all three types of communities, but several important differences exist among them. Central-city governments are most active in promoting development, with population size exerting a positive influence on development activities. For suburbs, the poverty rate is positively related to development effort. In nonmetropolitan communities, involvement by the city government in economic development exhibits a strong positive relationship with the number of development programs adopted.

Organizing Local Agencies to Promote Economic Development

Significant changes over the past two decades have intensified efforts by American cities to promote economic development. Yet, researchers and policymakers generally have ignored the extent to which communities differ in their economic development strategies. This article extends previous research with an examination of the variation in the way cities organize their bureaucracies to promote economic development. Findings indicate that larger cities and those with a wide range of economic development programs and higher property tax burdens are most likely to have a separate department for promoting development. Moreover, in cities that are more dependent upon manufacturing, local governments avoid leaving economic development in the hands of existing line departments. The results suggest that in smaller communities, officials may be unwilling or unable to centralize their development efforts, and in larger and more economically vulnerable cities, separate agencies may be used to resolve coordination problems, make growth a more visible issue, and overcome bureaucratic inertia in development programs.

Citizens, Development Interests, and Local Land-Use Regulation

Local governments confer significant benefits and costs on individuals and businesses through their power to regulate private land use. This article analyzes such regulation by using discriminant analysis to test a model of rezoning decision making. The results indicate that the best predictor of a local governing bodys decision in a rezoning case is the recommendation of the appointed planning commission. This is contrary to both scholarly and popular expectations that pressure by developers or public protest is the major factor influencing elected officials in rezoning cases. The results suggest that citizen advisory boards may have significant effects on local policy-making, and that elected officials use such institutions both to provide themselves a buffer from political pressure and to forge a consensus on issues.

Regionalism and City-County Consolidation in Small Metro Areas

CALLS FOR regional approaches to urban problems grew both louder and more diverse during the 1990s. A core belief of New Regionalism is that there are social and economic relationships that extend across any metropolitan area without regard to political boundaries. Indeed, the economic and social fortunes of cities and their suburbs may be very closely linked (Savitch et al. 1993). Recognizing a shared fate is one thing; agreeing on goals, strategies, and processes for shaping an area’s future is quite another. As a growing chorus of scholars, essayists, and policy makers argue that solutions to many of America’s urban problems must be regional in scope, a range of approaches to governing regions has emerged. Within this context, there are still efforts in many areas to merge cities and counties to create a single metropolitan government. This may seem to be the most comprehensive approach to regionalism; it also remains the most radical. It has also proven extremely difficult to achieve, as decades of experience can testify (Savitch and Vogel 1996; Altshuler, Morrill, and Wolman 1999, 3–12). Given the growing emphasis on other approaches to regional problem solving, this article uses a comparative approach to examine the ability of cityRegionalism and City-County Consolidation in Small Metro Areas

Hitting below the bible belt: The development of the gay rights movement in Atlanta

ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the gay and lesbian rights movement in America’s most conservative region, the South, and its major urban center, Atlanta. Gays and lesbians benefited from a changing political opportunity structure as they overcame severe pressures to develop their own neighborhoods, build a wide range of organizations, and become an important electoral bloc. The movement built upon the city’s civil rights legacy and benefited from the dissipation of it opponents, but it has not posed a major threat to what has been labeled Atlanta’s regime.

States and PACs: The legacy of established decision rules

The growth of political action committees (PACs) and their growing role in campaign finance have led to calls for placing limits on campaign contributions by PACs. State decisions regarding whether to limit PAC contributions appear to result from established policy orientations regarding other campaign finance issues: states with a history of previous efforts to regulate campaign finances are more likely to limit PAC contributions.