Transportation subsidies, economic efficiency, equity, and public policy

According to many environmentalists, the U.S. transportation sector is being subsidized by federal, state, and local governments. Whether or not road users are, in fact, paying the cost of using roads is a critical issue in supporting sustainable transportation. Subsidies increase road consumption above levels that would otherwise be dictated by the market. This paper compares different estimates of transportation subsidies, noting their strengths and weaknesses. Following this discussion, the issue of transportation as a public good is covered. How economic efficiency and equity are considered depends in large part on the role of transportation in society. If transportation is deemed a public good, then alternative evaluation criteria must be applied. If not, then economic efficiency would need to be considered. Both efficiency and equity could be enhanced by a pollution tax. Such a measure would improve equity by charging users for the pollution they generate. In addition, economic efficiency could be enhanced by internalizing the environmental externalities associated with transportation. This study, compares different estimates of transportation subsidies as a prelude to discussing economic efficiency and equity issues. The study does not develop a definitive answer to the problem of transportation subsidies, but rather highlights the important public policy issues that exist within this arena.     

Equity in the distribution of urban environmental amenities: the case of Washington,D.C.

This study examines equity issues in access to urban environmental amenities using Washington, D.C. as a case study. The amenities that are the focus of this study, urban trees and urban parks, have a range of social and health benefits for city dwellers, and Washington, D.C. is a major city with a large, diverse population and long-standing geographic divisions by race and class. Using spatial regression techniques, the study examines disparities in access to these amenities by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status at citywide and sub-city scales. Mixed evidence is found for disparities in access across amenities and across scales. The results emphasize the need for studies of access to urban environmental amenities to pay closer attention to the differences between amenities and to issues of scale.     

Constructing the News: The Role of Local Newspapers in Environmental Risk Communication*

Effective risk communication is central to good environmental risk management. While studies have shown that newspapers are the primary source of information to the public regarding environmental issues, little is known about how environmental news is used as a risk‐communication tool. This article explores the role of local information systems in risk communication, using newspaper content analysis as well as in‐depth interviews with journalists and community residents to develop a case study of an environmental assessment process for a nonhazardous industrial‐waste landfill. Results indicate that risk messages were chosen and shaped by journalists on the basis of their own exigencies. In addition, while newspapers were a major source of risk information, their impact was mitigated by resident distrust and access to other information sources, most notably their own personal information networks. These results have implications for environmental policy, as decision makers often use—either passively or actively—print media as a risk‐communication tool.     

PAUL WHEATLEY,AN APPRECIATION

I define how public space is constituted not by real property but by a regime made up of regulatory practices. What is at issue in assertions about the decline of public space is that this regulatory regime is reconfiguring liberty—that is, rights to public space—through a change in the conception of the public, of who and what belong as part of the public. By way of a case study (the redevelopment of the corner of Yonge and Dundas Streets in Toronto), I argue that liberty is defined by a multiplicity of practices (e.g., laws, regulations, urban design, surveillance, policing) that are oriented to a particular conception of the public, and which seek to guide the conduct of agents. This suggests that if our concern is to expand the political and social uses of public space then we need to turn our attention away from resources, spaces, and goods and toward how the regulatory regime configures liberty and in turn the possibilities that public space can be taken and made.     

Environmental Rationalism and Beyond: Toward a more just sharing of power and influence

Economics, especially the narrowly defined form of economics known as neo-liberal economics, along with its policy derivative known as economic rationalism, dominates public and political debate and decision-making in Australia and many other nations as the twentieth century approaches its close. In the context of environmental issues, as also in that of welfare issues, the present over-dominance is unhealthy. Despite the best attempts of environmental economists and ecological economists, they have had relatively little influence on the broader economic profession, or on the political and business communities. Economics and free trade also dominate the international scene at the expense of equity and environmental issues. Environmental debates, by their very nature, are usually complex, requiring interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches which include the economic perspective, but much else besides. Despite the importance of local context and spatial and temporal location, there is a need for a meta-theory or national philosophy to allow the integration across space and time so often needed. The present meta-theory, firmly based in economic rationalism, is inadequate as a basis for environmental decision-making. We desperately need a new meta-theory that explicitly integrates economic, environmental, welfare and many other perspectives. Perhaps such a meta-theory could be broadly based on the concept of sustainability, though much more work is needed to refine such an approach. A major swing in public opinion from the old meta-theory to the new is essential as a forerunner to political action, and education at all levels is needed to bring about this change. There are some signs that this change is already informing public opinion, and that it may have begun to influence mainstream Australian politics.     

南京义务教育资源的社会-空间可达性差异及效应研究

教育公平是社会公平的重要基础,也是多学科交叉的研究热点。城市地理学者惯用空间可达性方法评价城市内部教育资源配置的均衡性与公平性,基于此,结合学区制度下义务教育资源供给方式的特殊性,提出教育资源社会-空间可达性理念,分别以地理可达性、机会可得性和经济可能性衡量教育服务的获取难度及其空间差异。以公办小学和初中学区为空间单元,通过比较2008年和2018年南京主城区教育资源社会-空间可达性发现：地理可达性内城优于外围的空间差异正在缩小,而机会可得性和经济可能性的社会空间差异明显扩大,优质教育资源的获取难度显著增加。历史惯性、城市扩张、单位制度和学区制度等均是导致教育资源在空间上和群体间配置差异的重要原因,特别是学区制和市场化配置原则下,经济资本逐渐成为社会群体争夺优质教育资源、实现代际再生产的核心要素,终而形成教育资源、社会阶层和居住空间的互动循环与锁定机制。南京案例在中国大城市中具有代表性,由教育驱动的城市社会空间重构值得持续关注和积极规导,而不断缩小校际教育质量差异则是推进城市内部教育机会和教育质量公平的根本途径。     

Social Consequences of Gated Communities: The Case of Suburban Warsaw

This article aims to determine how three factors—the fence, the internal public space, and the type of building—affect the sense of community, as well as the perception of social divisions that gated communities generate and the need for integration between people living in and outside gated communities. Its results are based on the survey conducted in two villages, Józefos?aw and Julianów, located in the Warsaw metropolitan region. It has been found that the existence of a physical barrier in the form of a fence affects the perception of human relationships. Research has confirmed the negative impact of fencing off on social bonds, the sense of community, and attachment to the area beyond the housing estate. The study of Józefos?aw and Julianów, however, has proved that for the residents of suburban gated communities the key factor that can increase their sense of community is access to an internal public space. The sense of community and the attachment to the area of residence are also dependent on the type of building. Inhabitants of suburban gated communities dominated by multifamily housing are definitely characterized by a weaker attachment.     

Belongingness and the Harlem drummers

In this article, I analyze a recent conflict over drumming in a Harlem park to understand the ways in which cultural and racial symbols are employed in negotiations of space within cities. Specifically, I argue that racial belongingness—a racialized claim to space that exists outside of property rights and demarcated through iconography—can be used to both resist and facilitate gentrification in urban locales. The Harlem case illustrates how racial belongingness functions as a device that allows groups to contest power, representation, and access to public space across temporal, physical, and aural boundaries. Thus, I look closely at the city as a canvas and stage upon which passive forms of communication manifest in a racially and culturally coded fashion. Additionally, I argue that contemporary public space discourse is overly preoccupied with class, often neglecting the significance of race in the constitution and experience of urban space.     

医学地理学发展趋势及当前热点

本文从医学地理学两个主要分支——生态医学地理和保健地理领域入手,系统总结医学地理学研究内容与进展,并在文献阅读的基础上结合软件平台建立医学地理学的文献数据库,对高引用文献、高频词汇、作者国别和所属机构进行排名和识别。结果发现,医学地理学从关注“疾病”拓展到与“健康”相关的地理问题,研究的空间尺度从全球、国家、地方到社区再到建筑内部向更广泛和更细致发展,研究手段进一步丰富,更多空间分析技术和方法被应用。研究内容热点包括人类自身发展和社会经济活动对健康的影响,保健服务的空间关系、人们的保健行为对健康的影响,邻里环境尤其是社会经济因素对健康的影响,卫生与健康公平尤其是特殊群体的医疗服务问题。医学地理研究的学者来自医学和公共卫生相关研究机构的最多,其次是地理研究机构。大量的医学地理研究主要来自于美洲、欧洲等发达国家和中国、巴西等快速发展中的国家。本文认为医学地理学未来将向更广泛层面的福祉研究发展,研究的空间尺度将一步深化和细化,并加大对网络医疗等虚拟空间的深入研究,学科融合更广泛。     

“绿道-邻里”视角下建成环境对城市绿道使用的影响——以广州为例

基于“绿道-邻里”视角,采集了广州典型城市绿道上的市民使用人数与类型等属性,并运用多元线性回归模型探讨绿道周边建成环境（人口密度和土地类型混合度）与绿道使用之间的关系。结果表明：绿道周边建成环境作为绿道使用的潜在来源地和目的地,影响着城市绿道使用效果,步行和骑行可达范围内的居住区人口密度和绿道周边土地利用混合度均可作为绿道使用强度的解释因子,两者的增加均会带来绿道使用强度的提高;除此之外,周边居民区收入水平、年龄和时间等变量对城市绿道使用也会造成影响。研究结果可为城市绿道建设提供直接参考。     

Evaluating the Temporal Organization of Public Service Provision Using Space-Time Accessibility Analysis

In recent years, there has been increasing awareness about the impact of urban time policies on the quality of people's everyday lives. However, within the urban planning field, evaluations of public service delivery have primarily focused on the spatial rather than the temporal organization of public service facilities. This study tries to fill this gap by using space-time accessibility analysis to explore the extent to which changes in open hours affect the social equity of service provision. To this end an accessibility model is implemented and employed in a case study of public service provision in the urban area of Ghent, Belgium. Our analysis not only demonstrates that access to public services exhibits substantial hour-to-hour and day-to-day variations, but it also shows that individuals with certain personal and household attributes are affected differently by changes to the temporal regime of public service facilities.     

Syracuse,sidewalks, and snow: the slippery realities of public space

This article addresses sidewalks as particular kinds of public spaces. Sidewalks of residential areas have been understudied; debates have tended to concentrate on pedestrian flows in commercial districts. By discussing the snowy sidewalks of Syracuse, New York, this article asks how sidewalks appear in law, and how responsibility for sidewalks is divided between governments and property owners. According to law and ordinances, sidewalks are responsibility of adjacent property owners. Unofficial monitoring has turned property owners’ sidewalk responsibilities away from questions of liability to questions of morality. Sidewalks evince a moral order, where questions concern not only pedestrian flows or laws, but also attitudes of others. A snowy sidewalk appears as a contested moral order, whose publicity is questionable because of the sidewalk’s reliance on private responsibility and policing. In the end, then, this article provides insights into how laws concerning public space are both maintained and questioned in everyday practices, and how the regulatory systems advance—or hinder—the publicity of public spaces like sidewalks.     

浅析节事活动与地方文化空间生产的关系——以北京前门—大栅栏地区节事活动为例

基于空间生产理论,采取实地景观考察、问卷调查、访谈等研究方法,对北京前门—大栅栏地区的节事活动与地方文化空间生产的关系进行研究,分析地方政府在空间生产中发挥的特殊作用,以及节事文化空间的“第三空间”性质。研究表明：第一,政府在节事活动中占绝对的权力地位,以行政和财政手段投入节事活动,从而赋予实体空间新的文化符号意义,进而实现空间的再生产。第二,政府努力创造非排他的消费条件,从而使得人们公平地享受节事活动这一公共物品,在一定程度上克服了资本主义机制下空间再生产中的不公平性。第三,该区域的节事活动努力营造观念与实践、自我与他者融合的“第三空间”,使空间具有自下而上的再生产活力。第四,与历史密切联系的节事活动增强了历史街区独特的文化形象和文化资本。从结论延伸出两个建议：第一,区域性节事活动的策划组织人应将节事活动与本区域的历史植根联系起来,从而赋予地区实体空间恒久且独特的文化软资产。第二,强化个体日常社会实践和抽象文化符号的联系,加强个体对本区文化形象的理解,从而达到认同。     

Unsiting Nuclear Power Plants: Decommissioning Risks and Their Land Use Context*

Nuclear power plant siting provided the first significant public opportunity to examine nuclear safety and to affect nuclear policy. These discussions were prompted and fueled by perceptions of nuclear risk. Now, as we begin the process of nuclear decommissioning, we are finding that power plant removal—unsiting–is also likely to attract public interest. This paper presents a preliminary survey of how we are likely to react to this emerging theme, applying these findings within a land use context to see if it is likely to produce issues salient to the public. In so doing it also examines how these issues could affect decommissioning timing and type. It suggests that the most likely prospect is that power plants will remain on the landscape long after they are closed.     

POWER, NATURE AND NEOLIBERALISM: THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF WATER IN CHILE

Since the 1990s, international water sector reforms have centred heavily on economic and market approaches. In regard to water resources management, tradable water rights have been promoted, often supported by the neoliberal model adopted in Chile. Chile's 1981 Water Code was reformed to comprise a system of water rights that could be freely traded with few restrictions. International financial institutions have embraced the Chilean model, claiming that it results in more efficient water use, and potentially fosters social and environmental benefits. However, in Chile the Water Code is deeply contested. It has been criticised for being too permissive and has produced a number of problems in practice. Moreover, attempts to modify it have become the focus of a lengthy polemic debate. This paper employs a political ecology perspective to explore the socio‐environmental outcomes of water management in Chile, drawing on a case study of agriculture in the semi‐arid Norte Chico. The case illustrates how large‐scale farmers exert greater control over water, while peasant farmers have increasingly less access. I argue that these outcomes are facilitated by the mode of water management implemented within the framework of the Water Code. Through this preliminary examination of social equity and the environmental aspects of water resources management in Chile, I suggest that the omission of these issues from the international debates on water rights markets is a cause for concern.     

Citizenship,Community, and Struggles for Public Space

On April 16, 1993, a group of male students at the University of Colorado got into a fight with another group of males not associated with the university; this fight unleashed a broader debate over who should have access to the public spaces surrounding the university. We examine this debate in terms of its implications for citizenship, public space, and community. We discuss conflicts over public space and the role these conflicts have played in defining a citizenship that rejects notions of equal membership in a larger polity. This strategy is examined using newspaper accounts, interviews, and participant observation techniques to understand the conflict over access to “the Hill” in Boulder, Colorado. Central to these conflicts is the issue of how “the public” is constituted. As we detail the actions of agents involved in the Hill, it will become clear that this fight is about competing definitions of who belongs to the public, who is a citizen, and what should be the criteria for membership in the public or community.     

THE SOCIAL EQUITY OF URBAN SERVICE DISTRIBUTION: AN EXPLORATION OF PARK ACCESS IN PUEBLO,COLORADO, AND MACON,GEORGIA

The degree to which urban resources are distributed equitably is a research question that continues to be debated. While research dealing with urban service delivery has proliferated during the last 20 years, few studies have directly linked the spatial distribution of facilities (in the form of accessibility measures) with the spatial distribution of population subgroups in an effort to assess equity issues. In part, this may be caused by the methodological difficulties involved in trying to link these distributions. In this paper, I offer a methodological as well as an empirical contribution to the assessment of equitability in facility distribution. Utilizing data on parks in Pueblo, Colorado, and Macon, Georgia, I analyze the equitability of park distribution by comparing the spatial clustering of park access scores with the spatial clustering of selected socioeconomic variables. There is some empirical evidence that the spatial pattern of low access for Macon corresponds in certain areas to spatial clusters of high housing value and low percentages of non-White residents, while the reverse situation is true for Pueblo (i.e., low access corresponds with low housing value and high percentages of Hispanics). Thus, the results of the analysis do not support the notion of “unpatterned inequality” in urban service distribution. The paper is an application of ideas from exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and represents a new approach to the investigation of equity in the distribution of urban park facilities.     

The Politics of Eminent Domain: From False Choices to Community Benefits

Large-scale urban redevelopment projects catalyze moments of peril and opportunity. In the wake of the United States Supreme Court's Kelo v. New London decision affirming economic development as a public use under the takings clause of the Constitution, these perils and opportunities have again become a site of major contestation. An unusual alliance of libertarian property-rights ideologues and civil-rights organizations has joined forces to challenge the use of eminent domain in urban economic development. In this article, I analyze the history of these alliances and their implicit reinforcement of deeply reactionary constructions of property. I conclude with an evaluation of two emergent models—community benefit agreements and community equity shares—that provide promising community tools for alternatives to homeowner rule and neoliberal urban renewal.     

Reduction of disparities in access to green spaces: Their geographic insertion and recreational functions matter

Green spaces (GS) have many functions that can moderate the climate change impact and help prevent disease and thus alleviate public health expenses in a context of aging societies. However, several socioeconomic, demographic and geographic processes may render the access to GS challenging. Moreover, it is often critical to know what type of GS service to develop at a specific place. Also, measurements accuracy issues could be critical for planning and decision making. As an example of what could happen in many other cities of different sizes, we modeled and compared the access to GS, including several of their specific functions, in the Census Metropolitan Areas (CMA) of Montreal and Quebec City in Canada. We used the Quebec Integrated Chronic Disease Surveillance System (QICDSS) (average of 3 million people per year over 1996–2011) to measure over time, the proximity of each individual to the closest GS boundary using travel costs and spatial interaction models. ANOVA models and their corresponding base regressions were used to evaluate the statistical significance of the relationship of GS distances and surface to density, deprivation, gender and age, including interaction terms. The spatial clustering of the reduction of distances to GS was evaluated on a chronological basis. Unlike the larger CMA of Montreal, Québec City CMA showed greater equity in access to GS, largely due to the specific geographic insertion of linear GS. The CMA of Montreal showed an improvement in the access to GS which benefits the wealthy in the densest areas on the island of Montreal. Everything happens as if a green gentrification process affects the access to GS in Montreal. Our results suggest that for the promotion of GS as an important element of primary prevention in public health, both the quality or functions of GS and the geographic determinants of their access are of higher importance than a simple consideration of total GS surface per capita as often used by decision makers or public health promoters. They also underline the limits of standard measurements of attraction and accessibility and the complexity for large cities to promote environmental justice, given the complexity of their socio-demographic processes.     

旅游活动对黄石寨景区步道的影响评估

作为旅游景区基础设施的步道,高频率旅游利用会对其产生一定程度的影响。选取张家界森林公园的黄石寨景区为研究对象,运用"既成事实调查法",设置30个样点,选取了若干特征与指标来评估步道的受影响情况。结果显示,景区的步道扩展率为13.5%,步道冲蚀发生率为73.3%,步道损毁有14处,步道边缘的土壤性状和植被状况也发生了改变,这说明旅游活动对黄石寨景区步道产生了负面影响。而且山顶环寨游道受到旅游活动的影响最大,上山游道次之,下山游道最小,这与旅游利用强度密切相关。