Eric J. Heikkila

What happened to the CBD-distance gradient?: land values in a policentric city

Hedonic regression methods are used to assess the impact of dwelling and structure characteristics, neighborhood effects, and multiple locations on a sample of almost 11000 residential property sales in Los Angeles County in 1980. Correction for the dwelling characteristic permits the analysis to be interpreted in terms of land values rather than property values per unit area. The selected equation explains more than 93% of the variation in the dependent variable (house price per unit of lot area). All the independent variables (five property or transaction characteristics, four neighborhood effects, and ten locational nodes) are statistically significant, with one major exception: distance from the CBD, which has a very low /-value and an unexpected sign. This result should be considered in the context of many superficial references, based largely on visual symbols such as new office buildings, to a revival of downtown Los Angeles. The authors interpret the finding that eight subcenters have a statistically significant influence on metropolitan residential land values in Los Angeles as yet another indication of the demise of the monocentric model and the need to discuss VS metropolitan areas in policentric terms.

Residential property values, the CBD, and multiple nodes: further analysis

In this paper, a hedonic regression model of house prices in Los Angeles County is tested with use of 1970 and 1980 data on dwelling characteristics, neighborhood variables, and measures of accessibility to the central business district and subcenter nodes. Many of the coefficient estimates on the dwelling traits and neighborhood variables are robust, and where coefficients change there are obvious explanations. The most dramatic finding is that the distance to the CBD, with a weak but statistically significant influence in 1970, had no influence by 1980, and its declining role was paralleled by a rise in the spatial pull of several of the subcenters in the region. The tests reveal how the polycentricity of the Los Angeles region evolved during the 1970s.

Are municipalities Tieboutian clubs

This paper seeks empirical confirmation of the hypothesis that municipalities are Tieboutian clubs. Using data from the 1990 Census for Los Angeles County, the work proceeds in three stages. First, factor analysis identifies the basis vectors to describe census tracts. Secondly, an analysis of variance for each factor shows that municipal boundaries reinforce club distinctions along four dimensions: urban scale, ethnicity, household type, and economic class. Finally, using cluster analysis we conclude that the structure of clubs here is highly fragmented. We conclude that municipalities are indeed Tieboutian clubs, although there may be further spatial clustering at a higher level of aggregation.

Three Questions Regarding Urbanization in China

The three questions addressed in this article pertain, respectively, to the contributing factors, outcomes, and policy interventions associated with urbanization in China. Contributing factors include transition to a market-driven economy, political devolution, demographic changes, globalization, and technological change. These are unravelled with care, with a conclusion that embedded markets are the central contributing factor, with globalization and political institutions as important helpmates. Regarding urbanization outcomes, the evidence reviewed supports the convergence hypothesis in broad terms, but with ample evidence of hybridity, resulting in urbanization with Chinese characteristics. The article concludes with a call for a more balanced approach to urban policy interventions in China, whereby existing spatial planning perspectives are complemented by market-based perspectives.

Fuzzy Urban Sets: Theory and Application to Desakota Regions in China

This paper outlines a method for using the mathematics of fuzzy sets that is well suited to measure and characterize periurbanizing (desakota) systems typical of China, Southeast Asia, and other areas experiencing rapid urbanization. Drawing on Koskos ‘fuzzy hypercube’, we derive three distinct but interdependent measures: (1) extent of urbanization, (2) level of fuzziness, and (3) degree of entropy. The feasibility of the proposed method is demonstrated by using remote sensing data for Ningbo, China.

Urban Safety in Vancouver: Allocation and Production of a Congestible Public Good

This paper is a simultaneous exploration of the within-city production of safety with the endogenous allocation of public inputs (police). Three issues are central. One is an examination of the local government allocation function. Second is that safety is specified as a congestible public service consistent with club theory. Finally, the model is estimated using a survey measure of crime. These innovations are due to a unique data set containing observations by neighborhoods in the city of Vancouver. The results are crucial for illustrating crime deterrence, as well as the local public good nature of safety.

GIS is Dead; Long Live GIS!

Abstract Changes in technology—especially advances in object-oriented programming systems and widespread digital connectivity via the World Wide Web—are fundamentally restructuring the way planners will interact with computers, and with the data and models that reside on those computers. I examine significant trends in remote GIS, emerging standards for the specification of spatial objects, spatial data libraries, object-oriented programming, and internet-based programming languages such as Java. These trends point to a future when the next paradigm for GIS will be planning support systems with embedded spatial data and process models, enabling stakeholders in the planning process to focus more on the “what” and the “why” rather than the “how” of GIS-based models.

Urban sprawl, density, and accessibility

Suburban sprawl is often criticized on the grounds that it results in low density land uses. A model is developed and calibrated in which a planning agency can influence the sequencing and densities of two phases of suburban development on the urban fringe. In this model an Ogawa-Fujita accessibility function plays an important role in determining rents per unit of built space and hence land values at any location. If the planner opts for a continuous rather than discontinuous development pattern, the result is lower densities but higher property values. It is concluded that planning efforts to limit sprawl are more consistent with tax base considerations than with concerns over density.

Adjusting spatial-entropy measures for scale and resolution effects

In this paper we revisit the concept of entropy as it manifests itself in spatial terms. We focus specifically on the question of how entropy measures applied to different urban contexts can be adjusted to allow for meaningful comparisons between cities with differing geographic dimensions. It is well known that entropy is affected by the number of geographic units over which it is computed. As a result, the size and number of census tracts in an urban area constitute an intervening factor in making direct comparisons. Some authors advocate addressing this problem by normalizing entropy to its maximum value to derive a ‘relative entropy’ measure. We prove that this conventional normalization procedure does not suffice, and we show further that Theils decomposition method does provide the proper solution. We then demonstrate how to apply this technique through the use of census data for US cities in 2000, with the empirical results clearly underlying the importance of making these adjustments.

Rethinking Fiscal Impacts

Conventional fiscal impact analysis, as applied by many planners, uses inputs as a proxy measure for outputs. We argue that it is the impacts of urban development on outputs, not on inputs, that are of fundamental concern. Moreover, we provide evidence that inputs are often a poor proxy for outputs, and so we call upon the planning profession to rethink its approach to fiscal impact analysis. To this end we outline a conceptual framework for fiscal impacts and articulate a strategy by which it can be applied across a range of diverse services provided by local governments.