Up Against the Law: Legal Structuring of Political Opportunities in Neighborhood Opposition to Group Home Siting in Massachusetts

Abstract

Conflicts over siting of group homes for people transitioning out of homelessness or struggling with addiction illustrate the multiscalar dynamics at play between locally-based activism and supra-local laws. In Massachusetts, the state-scale legal environment limits the effectiveness of opposition to group housing; nonetheless, such opposition occurs at the municipal level. Drawing on media accounts, official documents, and interviews with stakeholders in conflicts over group home siting in Worcester, Massachusetts, I investigate the dynamics between neighborhood place claims, the responses of the local state, and the state-wide laws governing group home siting. Examining the legal frameworks relevant to social movement grievances demonstrate that law structures the political opportunities available for protest and local government response.     

The Sun City Wars: Chapter 3

A revealing indicator of social fragmentation in metropolitan America is the proliferation of common interest developments (CIDs), communities defined by restrictive covenants, deed restrictions, community associations, and citizens groups that wield substantial political influence and power. In Phoenix, large-scale retirement communities represent a conspicuous form of CID, populated by Anglo, middle, and upper-middle class elderly migrants who display high levels of political organization and participation. We present a case study of heated conflict between retirees in Sun City West—who see themselves as separate from the larger metropolitan region—and surrounding communities in the Dysart School District. The conflict is fraught with age, social class, and cultural tensions and evolves around seniors wielding political muscle in defeating school funding measures, controlling the Dysart governing board, and seeking to de-annex themselves out of the district to avoid paying school taxes. We argue that political conflict between advantaged seniors and neighboring working class Latino communities is symptomatic of troubling divisions across urban social space in America, raising thorny questions about the nature and scale of community, political representation and power, and fostering the public good in the face of "secession of the successful" from the larger polity.     

石羊河流域农业经济和生态环境协调发展研究

 经济和环境的协调发展是可持续发展的关键。根据石羊河流域各市县区的经济和环境状况,选取了其中的3县1区为研究对象,并根据当地的实际情况及主要特点构建了农业经济发展与生态环境质量的评价指标体系,并且通过实地调研和走访各主管部门搜集整理到相关数据,利用熵权法及协调度、协调发展度模型对2010年石羊河流域3县1区的协调度及协调发展度进行测算,基于协调发展等级标准,对该流域内3县1区的农业经济和生态环境协调发展程度进行了初步判别。结果表明：3县1区协调度都在0.5～0.7之间,基本属于勉强或初级协调状态,协调发展水平较低,对此,提出进一步促进石羊河流域农业经济和生态环境协调发展的对策建议。     

Location approximation for local search services using natural language hints

Local search services allow a user to search for businesses that satisfy a given geographical constraint. In contrast to traditional web search engines, current local search services rely heavily on static, structured data. Although this yields very accurate systems, it also implies a limited coverage, and limited support for using landmarks and neighborhood names in queries. To overcome these limitations, we propose to augment the structured information available to a local search service, based on the vast amount of unstructured and semi‐structured data available on the web. This requires a computational framework to represent vague natural language information about the nearness of places, as well as the spatial extent of vague neighborhoods. In this paper, we propose such a framework based on fuzzy set theory, and show how natural language information can be translated into this framework. We provide experimental results that show the effectiveness of the proposed techniques, and demonstrate that local search based on natural language hints about the location of places with an unknown address, is feasible.     

A Review of “Breathing Space: How Allergies Shape Our Lives and Landscapes”

This paper expands the human capital model to compare the migration propensities of Cubans, Mexicans, and Puerto Ricans within the U.S. between 1985 and 1990. Using the 5% PUMS from the 1990 U.S. Census, both aggregate migration streams and micro-level migration propensities are estimated for Cubans, Mexicans, and Puerto Ricans. The effects of personal factors, the economic environment, and the presence of fellow nationals are examined in the context of larger geographic patterns, and discussed in terms of each nationality's immigration history and cultural context.

While many factors effect migration behavior similarly, there are notable differences in the way education, English fluency, and unemployment rate affect migration propensity of the native-born and foreign-born of each nationality. Differences are also apparent at the macro-level. Puerto Ricans show signs of dispersing out of New York; Mexicans are redistributing within the Southwest; and Cubans are re-concentrating in Florida. Both levels of analysis point to how immigration history, settlement patterns, and cultural context influence migration behavior. The results demonstrate the benefits of using an expanded human capital approach to explain migration differences, and highlight the diversity of population redistribution occurring within Hispanic nationalities.     

COMMENTS ON “SPATIAL VARIATION OF HILLSLOPE PROFILES IN THE CUMBERLAND PLATEAU,KENTUCKY” BY EDMUND B. WOOOS

Book Reviewed in this article:

Main Street: Northeastern Oregon: The Founding and Development of Small Towns. Barbara Ruth Bailey.

Food Politics: The Regional Conflict. David N. Balaam and Michael J. Carey, eds.

The International Economy and Industrial Development: Trade and Investment in the Third World. R. Ballance, J. Ansari and H. Singer.

Neighborhoods in Urban America. Ronald H. Bayor, ed.

The English Heartland. By Robert Beckinsale and Monica Beckinsale.

Regional Dimensions of Industrial Policy. Michael E. Bell and Paul S. Lande, eds.

Tension Areas of the World. D. Gordon Bennett, ed.

Latin America: an Introductory Survey. B. W. Blouet and O. M. Blouet, eds.

Integration and Division: Geographical Perspectives on the Northern Ireland Problem. Frederick W. Boal and J. Neville H. Douglas, eds.

Energy and Land Use. Robert W. Burchell and David Listokin, eds.

Slopes and Weathering. Michael Clarke and John Small.

Alaska's Rural Development. Peter G. Cornwall and Gerald McBeath, eds.

The Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America. Galen Cranz.

World Congress on Land Policy, 1980, Proceedings. Matthew Cullen and Sharon Woolery, eds.

Oregon Divided: A Regional Geography. Samuel N. Dicken and Emily F. Dicken.

Urban Food Marketing and Third World Rural Development. T. Scarlett Epstein.

South Africa: Spatial Frameworks for Development. T. J. D. Fair.

Institutions and Geographical Patterns. Robin Flowerdew, ed.

Industrialization of U.S. Agriculture, An Interpretive Atlas. Howard F. Gregor.

Planning Theory: Prospects for the 1980s. Patsy Healy, Glen McDougall and Michael J. Thomas, eds.

Neighborhood Mobilization: Redevelopment and Response. Jeffrey R. Henig.

The American Urban System: A Geographical Perspective. R. J. Johnston.

Climate, History and the Modern World. Hubert H. Lamb.

Climate and History: Studies in Past Climates and Their Impact on Man. T. M. L. Wigley, M. J. Ingram and G. Farmer.

China: Railways and Agricultural Development, 1875–1935. Ernest P. Liang.

A Desirable Energy Future—A National Perspective. Robert S. Livingston, T. D. Anderson, T. M. Besmann, M. Olszewski, A. M. Perry, and C. D. West.

Topothesia: Essays Presented to T. S. Ó Máille. B. S. Mac Aodha, ed.

Transportation for the Poor: Research in Rural Mobility. Hal S. Maggied.

Land Uses in American Cities. Harold M. Mayer and Charles R. Haves.

Industrial Organisation and Location. Philip McDermott and Michael Taylor.

Human Adaptability: an Introduction to Ecological Anthropology. Emilio F. Moran.

Regional Analysis and the New International Division of Labor. Frank Moulaert and Patricia W. Salinas, eds.

The Nuclear War Atlas. Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada:

Urbanization and Environmental Quality. Isao Orishimo.

The Garden of Eden: The Botanic Garden and the Re-Creation of Paradise. John Prest.

Earthfire, The Eruption of Mount St. Helens. Charles Rosenfeld and Robert Cooke.

Contest for the South China Sea. Marwyn S. Samuels.

The Future of the Wetlands: Assessing Visual-Cultural Values. Richard C. Smardon, ed.

Tucson: the Life and Times of An American City. C. L. Sonnichsen.

The Geography of Multinationals. Michael Taylor and Nigel Thrift, eds.

Impact of Marine Pollution on Society. Virginia Tippie and Dana Kester.

Reviving the Industrial City: the Politics of Urban Renewal in Lyon and Birmingham. Jerry A. Webman.

Andean Reflections: Letters from Carl O. Sauer While on a South American Trip under a Grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, 1942. Robert C. West, ed.

Cartographic Drawing with Computers. P. Yoeli.     

临沂市耕地质量等级状况探析

通过开展耕地质量等级成果补充完善工作,对全面掌握和科学量化耕地质量等级状况,实现国土资源管理部门对耕地的科学化、规范化管理,逐步建立耕地质量等级定期动态调查评价制度、耕地质量等级与产能年度更新报告制度,实现耕地占补平衡由数量管理为主向质量为主、数量为辅的转变,对提升耕地资源保障能力和国土资源管理水平具有重要意义。     

墨西哥地质、矿产及矿业经济概况

墨西哥合众国矿产资源丰富,经济环境相对稳定,矿业是其经济支柱。墨西哥地质格局由古老的基底残片与古洋壳不断增生拼合而成。活跃的地质过程造就了分布广泛、数量众多、类型各异的矿产,按成因来看这要有低温热液型、矽卡岩型、MVT(密西西比河谷型)、VMS(火山岩块状硫化物型)、SEDEX(沉积喷流型)、IOCG(铁氧化物铜金矿)等类型。本文介绍了墨西哥的地质概况、六个主要的成矿期、各矿种分布特征;另外,墨西哥政府对矿产的勘查、开发等有相对开放、优惠的政策;在墨西哥未来经济中,矿业仍将扮演重要角色。     

关于保障性住房

廉租房和公租房不可能产生投资回报,必然形成财政＂窟窿＂。政府不宜包得太多。保障性住房建设,不可能使房价下降。根本解决办法是把自主性需求与投资、投机需求切割开,建立单独的供应体系。比较好的办法是大力发展住宅合作经济。     

典型喀斯特城市水资源与社会经济发展耦合度评价——以贵阳市为例

运用系统科学和可持续发展理论,结合喀斯特发育典型的贵阳市区域特征,构建评价指标体系及水资源与社会经济发展耦合模型,运用模糊集对模型计算水资源系统和社会经济系统综合指数。结果表明:2002—2010年贵阳市水资源系统综合发展程度相对较低,与社会经济系统发展水平差距较大,水资源与社会经济发展耦合度分别为0.5、0.49、0.42、0.46、0.42、0.34、0.41、0.48,整体处于颉颃阶段。今后应对城市河段和部分工矿企业比较发达的区域实行高污染企业转移或疏散,降低高耗水、高污染排放产业比重,提高水资源利用效率;提高市民节水意识,推广节水型小区建设;加大对石漠化治理力度,提高植被覆盖率,提高生态蓄水能力;加大水利工程、集雨工程建设力度,提高客水资源利用率,调整国民经济布局,使之与水资源时空分布相匹配等,以提高水资源与社会经济发展的协调能力,促进整个贵阳市的可持续发展。