Analyzing Accessibility Using Parcel Data: Is There Still an Access–Space Trade-Off in Long Beach,California?

This article analyzes the impact of changing housing and neighborhood characteristics on the accessibility of neighborhood businesses using Long Beach, California, as a case study. Although advocates of smart growth and New Urbanism encourage land use mixing, aggregate-level analysis can be too coarse to pick up on fine-grained aspects of urban streetscapes. This study uses assessor parcel records and a point-based business establishment data set to analyze city-wide patterns of accessibility from individual dwelling units to thirty-one types of neighborhood businesses, including grocery stores, service shops, drug stores, doctor's offices, and banks. Regression results compare parcel-level and neighborhood-level drivers of accessibility between 2006 and 2015 to gauge the aggregated effect of recent economic, demographic, and built environment changes on this aspect of urban spatial structure. Larger homes in older, multiunit buildings and higher income neighborhoods show substantial increases in accessibility to most establishment types, suggesting a trend toward both greater accessibility and larger dwelling units—despite the traditional trade-off between access and space. Although gradual increases in home and business density increased overall accessibility over this period, weaker neighborhood-level results indicate that this trend is less pronounced in high-poverty and non-white areas.     

Housing differentiation and housing poverty in Chinese low-income urban neighborhoods under the confluence of State-market forces

ABSTRACT

Based on a large-scale household survey conducted in six large Chinese cities, this study is among the first attempts to juxtapose factors related to institution, market, and demography to examine the complex patterns and mechanisms of housing differentiation and housing poverty in low-income neighborhoods, which are conventionally conceived as homogenous substandard settlements. Results of Theil indices and multivariate regression models convey several interesting findings. First, the forces of the market and the State have projected different impacts on various aspects of housing status. Institutional factors had significant impacts on some costly and durable housing indicators such as housing tenure and housing area, while market forces have swiftly transformed the most malleable aspects of housing conditions, such as housing facilities, and will eventually replace some institutional legacies. Second, within-group housing differentiation is more palpable than between-group housing differentiation, suggesting that low-income neighborhoods in large Chinese cities are fluid and heterogeneous. Third, different institutional elements have different impacts on housing poverty. The well-functioning market remuneration system helps reduce the risk of housing poverty, yet working poor remains a severe problem. These findings can inform policies promoting social mix and housing affordability.     

空间功能视角下的公共服务对房价的影响——以成都市为例

房价的快速上涨和城市内部房价的巨大差异引起社会广泛关注,调控房价,防止局部区域房价过热势在必行。本文从城市空间功能的视角出发,以成都市2016年房价为例,基于地理探测器分析公共服务对房价的影响。结果表明：成都平均房价为8480元/m²,并从市中心沿交通环线和放射状干线同时向郊区递减,形成圈层加放射格局,总体上呈现西高东低、南高北低的特点。公共服务(主要包括医疗、金融和教育服务)对房价的影响以第三圈层和西南方最为显著,且高于城市层面上整体的影响。公共服务对房价的影响显著受不同区域的空间功能差异的影响,公共服务和空间功能差异会加剧房价的分异格局,并推动局部房价过热。因此,显著地受到在房价调控中,不仅要有传统的金融、经济政策,还要注重空间功能和公共服务的优化。     

London: a sustainable city?

Observations include:
Ian Livingstone, London: a sustainable city?, p.77
Michael Parkinson, Key challenges for European cities: achieving competitiveness, cohesion and sustainability, p.78
Chris Hamnett, London's housing, p.80
Sarah Curtis, Health in London, p.84
Martin Frost, London's transport—investing for sustainability, p.92
Chris Birks, Mike Owen and Brian Arkell, London's water resources: threat or opportunity, p.92
Sean D Beevers, David C Carslaw and Gary W Fuller, London's air quality: nitrogen dioxide and particles (PM10) in London's air—present and future, p.97
Adam D Read, Where there's muck there's brass—the 'cost' of London'swaste?, p.103     

Multiscale geographically and temporally weighted regression: exploring the spatiotemporal determinants of housing prices

Understanding scale effects is important and indispensable for geography studies. However, spatial and spatiotemporal statistical tools for measuring the operational scales of different processes are rather limited. This article extends the popular geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model to consider operational scale effects by proposing multiscale GTWR (MGTWR), which offers a flexible and scalable framework for identifying and analysing multiscale processes by specifying flexible bandwidths for various covariates. Then, MGTWR is employed to explore spatiotemporal variations and how influential factors are associated with housing prices in Shenzhen. This article attempts to extend GTWR to MGTWR in consideration of scale effects, thereby highlighting the importance of different levels of spatiotemporal heterogeneity. Furthermore, the empirical results of this study can provide valuable policy implications for real estate development in areas where urban planning should address multiscale effects in both temporal and spatial dimensions.     

Fiscal geographies: “Placing” taxation in urban geography

As the state’s primary means of both redistributing wealth and incentivizing private investment, tax plays an outsized role in a range of critical urban processes, including (re)development, gentrification, financialization, and local and regional governance. We argue, through reference to existing literature in urban and economic geography, as well as our own research on taxation and the state, that urban scholarship could benefit by close and careful engagement with taxation and the tax system. We term this new vein of research “fiscal geographies” and see it as offering potential for more nuanced study of urban political economy, politics, and processes.     

Chinese migrants in Melbourne and their house choices

Meanings behind the choice of the migrant house are explored through an examination of 12 houses of migrants who emigrated from mainland China to Melbourne during the 1990s and 2000s. A qualitative investigation shows that there are three interconnected meanings behind the choice of houses in Melbourne: a desire to counter past experiences of housing in China, a desire to improve future opportunities through housing, and the wish to blend into Australian society. While much of the literature claims that migrant housing represents the ethnic character of their owners through architectural features, these Chinese houses do not resemble past houses in China in any physical way. The location of the house in a ‘good’ suburb was the most important factor when choosing the house. The house should be located near good educational, transport and shopping services before the built form becomes important. Chinese migrants wish to assimilate into Australian society through their choice of ordinary houses that do not communicate their ethnic identity through their external façades, while also adopting Australian ways of living that are focused on gardens and backyards.     

邻避设施空间分布特征及其与周边住宅价格的关系——广州案例

随着中国城镇的快速发展以及市民环境意识的提高,由邻避设施引发的矛盾日益增多。合理规划邻避设施,是促进环境正义、推动社会和谐的重要课题。论文从“规划云平台”获取广州主城区邻避设施的地理信息数据,通过Python语句编码收集广州主城区小区平均房价数据,运用克里金插值法分析邻避设施的空间分布特征,构建多元线性回归模型和地理加权回归模型研究邻避设施与周边住宅价格的关系。研究发现,广州主城区邻避设施的布局与低收入住宅区的分布在空间上具有一致性,邻避设施主要分布在房价较低的住宅区周边;邻避设施对周边小区房价的影响与邻避设施的类型和所在区位相关,城市边缘区的邻避设施对房价造成了显著的负面影响,而城市中心良好的区位条件、基础设施与公共服务配套一定程度上抵消了邻避设施的负外部性;污名化类的邻避设施对房价的影响程度明显小于污染类、风险聚集类和心理不悦类邻避设施。本研究对有关城市邻避设施的科学规划布点具有一定的借鉴和指导意义。     

The right to infrastructure: a struggle for sanitation in Fresno,California homeless encampments

In 2013, Fresno, California was home to more than 5,000 homeless people, many of whom took refuge in sprawling downtown encampments. Citing unsanitary conditions, Fresno officials implemented a policy of bulldozing the encampments while providing housing vouchers to a small number of residents. Yet homeless Fresnans by and large demanded the provision of sanitation in the encampments as an alternative to eviction. In doing so, they invoked their right to urban infrastructure. Drawing from literature on informal housing in the Global South, this paper argues that individual housing rights present a limited framework through which to understand homeless people’s right to the city, and that a truly radical right to the city should reflect the demand for sanitation infrastructure emerging from the streets.     

居住环境剥夺测度及其对房价的影响——以兰州市为例

小区是居民日常生活和构建社会关系的重要场所,由于居住环境差异,导致剥夺现象发生。为探究居住环境剥夺对房价的作用机制,构建居住环境剥夺测度体系,创新了居住环境剥夺指数计算方法,运用混合地理加权回归模型和地理探测器分析居住环境剥夺与房价的关系。结果表明：（1） 兰州市平均房价为12566.93元·m^-2,空间上呈现出多核心、组团式分布格局,表现为从核心向外逐级递减的趋势。（2） 基于6个维度服务设施数量和种类差异,居住环境剥夺也呈现出不同空间分布格局。（3） 所有服务剥夺均与房价呈负相关,教育服务剥夺对房价影响力最强,生活服务剥夺对房价影响力最弱,教育和交通服务剥夺交互作用对房价解释力最强。研究结果对促进资源配置公平和城市健康快速发展至关重要。