Sujata Shetty

Complexity and Change in the Foreclosure Process in Toledo, Ohio

This paper analyzes the characteristics of foreclosure cases in Lucas C ounty, Ohio, from 2004 to 2008. We use a rich source of secondary data to track foreclosure filings through the legal process to their ultimate result in either the loss of a home or the dismissal of the case. We supplement the secondary data with interviews from officials involved in the process and with a discussion of the changes that have occurred during the foreclosure crisis. Our analysis suggests that the process has accelerated slightly despite the increase in cases and that basic interventions have substantially reduced the number of foreclosure filings that eventually result in the loss of a home. Unexpectedly, the characteristics and results of the process seem to vary little across income categories and neighborhoods. In addition, while most foreclosure cases are straightforward in a legal sense, there is evidence of larger trends that are introducing increasing complexity into the process.

Including Students’ Geographies in Geography Education: Spatial Narratives, Citizen Mapping, and Social Justice

Abstract Preparing students to become active, participatory citizens is more than promoting personal responsibility. It requires actively engaging with others in order to improve one’s community. Using a critical geography approach, this article describes research with students living in urban areas that engaged them in fieldwork and citizen mapping of the neighborhood around their high school. We were interested in how they interacted with this environment and their perceptions of social justice issues in the community. Student groups worked together to identify and investigate topics of their choosing in order to produce and present their findings and recommendations to community stakeholders. We collected data from these students through case studies, sketch maps, and interviews, which revealed an increase in understanding of their neighborhood and an appreciation for the use of spatial thinking and technologies in addressing issues that they care about as citizens.

Teaching Spatial Thinking and Geospatial Technologies Through Citizen Mapping and Problem-Based Inquiry in Grades 7-12

Abstract Our project introduced students in grades 7 through 12 to spatial thinking and geospatial technologies in the context of challenges in their community. We used a mix of levels of inquiry to advance learning from teacher- to student-guided through a citizen mapping group activity. Student-suggested problem-based topics included parks and community gardens, crime, housing, and youth employment opportunities. Qualitative methods were used to evaluate students’ knowledge of spatial thinking and geospatial technologies, including map interpretation, a case study, daily exit slips, and interviews. Overall, the students’ awareness of their community, spatial thinking, and geospatial technologies increased as a result of participation.

Book Review: Hanlon, B. (2010). Once the American Dream: Inner Ring Suburbs of the Metropolitan United States. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. 224 pp. ISBN 978-1-59213-936-1

meaningful case studies, such as industrial Pittsburgh and immigrant suburbs of Chicago, provide the reader with poignant examples of growth and decline in metropolitan America, in addition to place-based examples of “the new metropolitan reality.” The work is also a timely challenge to many scholars’ preconceived notions of the rich-suburb, poor-city metropolitan structure. Similar works have emerged recently, but this is one of the first to provide an interregional analysis of suburban diversity and complexity. And although the empirical methods of Chapters 6 and 7 are rather parsimonious, they provide informative and compelling evidence for the need of a new metropolitan model that can explain the structure of modern U.S. metropolises. Two minor weaknesses are apparent. First, the authors’ policy recommendation in Chapter 12 that federal government should play an increased role in metropolitan development seems misplaced. Although there is undoubtedly a fiscal gap that could be filled by lawmakers in Washington, there is little evidence to suggest that a “National Commission on Infrastructure” or a “New Metropolitan Green Deal” would be an effective approach to reducing the metropolitan ills that the authors identify. On the contrary, recent empirical evidence from Partridge and Rickman (2006) suggests that the most effective place-based policies for concentrated poverty alleviation originate not at the federal level but rather from statelevel economic development policies. However, their advocacy for federal intervention still has merit from an environmental sustainability perspective, although this is only a secondary focus of the book. Second, the authors fail to develop a comprehensive model that might help practitioners and policy makers address questions of future decline. For instance, will affluent outer suburbs also be susceptible to the wave of urban growth and decay that began in central cities and has worked its way to inner suburbs? Is this an inevitable process resulting from aging infrastructure and superstructure, or is it more of a systematic institutional process that policy makers can address? Did suburban decline spur the economic downturn, or did the economic downturn spur suburban decline? Although these questions are not completely ignored in the book, they are mentioned only in passing. But perhaps these questions are more suited to a dedicated volume of their own.

Regional equity through community development planning: the Metro Detroit Regional Investment Initiative

Beginning in late 2003, the Detroit Local Initiatives Support Corporation, with Ford Foundation funding, began a yearlong community-based process to arrive at a conceptual idea of what regional equity means in the Detroit region. This process, called the Metro Detroit Regional Investment Initiative (MDRII), resulted in the formation of several coalitions of Detroit community groups and the local governments of some of the citys inner-ring suburbs. Three cross-border coalitions were funded and have embarked on a pilot project that seeks to implement the idea of regional equity. These three coalitions are currently working both to build relationships with each other and to work on joint community development projects. For those familiar with the Detroit of metro region and its history of contentious city–suburb relations, this collaboration is unprecedented. This paper studies the MDRII to examine the process and outcomes so far. Methods used include surveys, focus groups, and long interviews with members of the participating communities and governments. A critical examination of the process provides the opportunity to link regional equity to community development and draw specific lessons for practice.