Mark S. Rosentraub

Are Fragmentation and Sprawl Interlinked? North American Evidence

The association between municipal fragmentation and suburban sprawl is examined, based on a cross-sectional analysis of all U.S. and Canadian metropolitan areas with more than 500,000 residents in the 1990s. Results reveal that this association is rather weak but significant and is sustained even when the less fragmented and more compact Canadian metropolitan areas are excluded from the analysis. The impact of residential sprawl on fragmentation is significant, but fragmentation does not predict sprawl. Low levels of fragmentation do not guarantee compact development, but lack of excessive fragmentation might be a precondition for compact development in North America.

Cities, Sports, and Economic Change: A Retrospective Assessment

Through the 1970s and 1990s virtually all central cities and many larger suburban and edge communities focused downtown economic development efforts on some aspect of the hospitality sector. Associated with this trend, the building of facilities for professional sports teams has been a cornerstone of redevelopment programs for almost 30 years. Smaller cities that watched the efforts of Baltimore, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, and Phoenix have now focused their attention on minor league teams and “second tier sports.” Cities rely on sports facilities for redevelopment strategies even though numerous independent analyses indicate that these structures and teams are not correlated with regional economic development. If sports facilities shift economic activity to an area that needs redevelopment, then the issue is not whether overall economic activity increased or decreased, but whether the vitality or centrality of the downtown area was enhanced or sustained. Through an examination of outcomes for four cities, the ability of a sports strategy to affect development patterns is assessed.

Tax Increment Financing: Municipal Adoption and Effects On Property Value Growth

Tax increment financing (TIF) has been adopted widely by municipalities in the United States as an economic development tool. Despite the large number of state initiatives and TIFs increasing popularity, few statistical studies have been con ducted to examine the direct effect of the TIF program from an economic perspective. This article analyzes the effect of TIF plans on property value growth by comparing pre-TIF to post-TIF property value changes in a first-difference model. The empiri cal results from a panel of Indiana cities indicate that the TIF program has increased median owner-occupied housing values in a TIF-adopting city by 11% relative to what it would have been without TIF. This finding suggests that the TIF program effectively stimulates property value growth in an entire community.

Dimensions of Interjurisdictional Cooperation

Abstract Recommendations for solving the problems of urban regions often call for more cooperation among cities, to develop regional identities in a competitive world and to promote effective problem-solving among municipalities. Yet we know little about how interjurisdictional cooperation evolves, and few guides exist to help urban areas establish more cooperative environments. This paper addresses four questions about cooperation: (1) What is interjurisdictional cooperation conceptually and operationally? (2) What are the behavioral and tactical approaches by which it operates? (3) What are the institutional formats in which it evolves? (4) How can policy makers anticipate its outcomes? These questions are investigated using a descriptive model that links the objectives, tactics, institutional forms, and outcomes of interjurisdictional cooperation. Five case studies of regional cooperation are also analyzed. Our analysis indicates that cooperative organizations exhibit common structural and tactical sch...

The Local Context of a Sports Strategy for Economic Development

Three streams of research offer results in conflict with the conclusion that governments that provide tax dollars to build sports facilities are wasting money. Hamilton and Kahn and Rosentraub and Swindell found instances where the value placed on the intangible benefits of teams could exceed the cost of facilities. Carlino and Coulsons analysis indicated the presence of a National Football League franchise accounted for an 8% increase in rent levels, and Santos work, also using regression models, found regions with teams and new facilities had higher income levels. Despite possible regional gains, the value of a sports investment rests on its context and the outcomes for the city and county that invested in the facilities. This analysis focuses on the outcomes for Cleveland and then offers a framework to assess the range of economic effects on investor communities.

Sports Wars: Suburbs and Center Cities in a Zero‐Sum Game

Sports teams are integral to the battle between cities for image and economic development. Although interregional moves of teams receive more publicity, intraregional battles between center cities and their suburbs are common. The benefits created by teams affect all cities in a region. As such, providing incentives to encourage moves within a region will result in increased profits for teams and higher salaries for players. Further, if teams do not generate a concentration of benefits for an investor city, then all cities in a region would be well served by treating professional sports teams as regional assets that require regional cooperation. Through an analysis of the impact of professional sports teams on the economies of cities in the Dallas/Fort Worth region, the inability of investor cities to capture benefits is illustrated. The results illustrate the need for regional cooperation to reduce public sector fiscal risks and the subsidies given to teams.

ROLLING THE DICE? CASINOS, TAX REVENUES, AND THE SOCIAL COSTS OF GAMING

ABSTRACT: Advocates for casino gambling in urban centers point to the benefits from increased taxes and job opportunities. While there is evidence to sustain those claims, those who oppose legalized gambling point to the personal and social costs that result from increased numbers of addicted gamblers and believe those negative outcomes exceed the fiscal gains. Each time voters and public officials are asked to vote for or against expanded gambling centers to produce more tax revenue, advocates for the opposing positions point to different studies— some illustrating increased social and personal costs, while others extol the fiscal returns to urban areas. Using trend line and regression analyses of outcomes in three states with casinos—Michigan, Indiana, and West Virginia—as well as Ohio that borders these states, this study attempts to provide a new perspective. The work reported here finds no significant negative changes in unemployment, bankruptcy, or crime rates after casinos opened. Further, while in some regression models small increments in personal bankruptcy filings were noted, the most stringent model found no significant increases in personal bankruptcies related to a casino’s presence. While one study of three social problems will not close the gap between casino advocates and opponents, these results provide voters and public officials with important information from which to weigh the fiscal gains from casinos to determine if the benefits are attractive enough to warrant what is found to be a small risk of very modest (or no) increments in some selected social problems.

Location Theory, a Growth Coalition, and a Regime in the Development of a Medium-Sized City

Two perspectives define the debate over a general theory of urban political economy: Location theorists suggest needed social institutions develop around the nexus of cost efficiencies; proponents of regime theory and growth coalitions look to elite coordination to explain growth and the distribution of resources. The authors contend that coalitions do develop but occur in response to favorable cost factors and other geographically and technologically defined networks. Further, an evolutionary process is involved. Growth coalitions strive to and become regimes only to de-evolve into loosely coupled coalitions that respond to crises and opportunities but do not direct economic development.

Suburban City Investment in Professional Sports: Estimating the Fiscal Returns of the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers to Investor Communities

a trip &dquo;downtown&dquo; to the stadium. Prior to 1960, none of the 28 teams in the baseball major leagues (major leagues) or the National Football League (NFL) played their regular season home games outside of a central city. Increasingly this has changed; some fans now travel away from the central city to see a sports event. In 1977, 10 teams, or 19%, of the 53 professional baseball and football teams played their regular season home games in suburban cities. Included in this group are 8 teams that moved from a central city to a suburban community.

Historic designation and the rebuilding of neighborhoods: new evidence of the value of an old policy tool

Rebuilding central cities has focused on big-ticket items such as entertainment complexes and neighborhood-based initiatives. Historic preservation as one neighborhood-based strategy seeks to capitalize on intact collections of historic architecture and the pedestrian-friendly character of these pre-automobile neighborhoods to elevate property values and enhance the tax bases of central cities. While a majority of past studies indicate historic designation does enhance property values, some found no or negative impacts. By quantitatively assessing the impact of local historic district designations on the enhancement of residential property values, this paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between historic preservation and urban revitalization. The multi-city analysis focuses on preservation’s impacts on residential property values and the resulting positive and negative outcomes from district designation.