Our Research

Our Research

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There goes our family friendly neighborhood: residents’ perceptions of institutionally driven inner-city revitalization in Buffalo

Description:

This article examines residents’ perceptions of inner-city revitalization in legacy cities. The analysis focuses on neighborhoods undergoing revitalization in a legacy city, Buffalo, NY. The article draws from data for a larger research project called Turning the Corner which was sponsored by the Urban Institute. The focus of that project was to identify planning strategies to address negative externalities caused by neighborhood change and heightened risks of displacement due to revitalization. Data were collected through a series of focus groups with residents and stakeholders
in working-class, minority neighborhoods which were identified as being in the early stages of revitalization. Two findings emerged from the analysis. First, residents perceived urban revitalization to have a destabilizing effect on traditional neighborhoods. Second, residents perceived revitalization as detrimental to the sustainability of family-friendly neighborhoods. Insights from the analysis are used to prompt planners’ advocacy for revitalization strategies aimed at protecting minority, working-class neighborhoods when institutionally driven revitalization occurs.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman Henry Louis Taylor Jr Li Yin Camden Miller Pascal Buggs
Publication year: 2019

Are We Still Going Through the Empty Ritual of Participation? Inner-City Residents’ and Other Grassroots Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Public Input and Neighborhood Revitalization

Description:

This article revisits Arnstein’s “ladder of citizen participation” focusing on inner-city residents’ perceptions of public input in neighborhood revitalization projects. It draws from data collected in Buffalo, New York for a larger project that aimed to address negative externalities caused
by neighborhood change. Data were collected using focus groups in neighborhoods in the early stages of revitalization. Nine focus groups took place across three neighborhoods experiencing encroachment from hospitals and universities. Data analysis was guided by standpoint theory, which
focuses on amplifying the voices of groups traditionally disenfranchised from planning processes. The findings suggest that the shortcomings of public input identified by Arnstein a half century ago remain problematic. Residents continue to perceive limited access to urban planning processes
and believe outcomes do not prioritize their interests. This is particularly problematic in minority, working-class neighborhoods when institutionally driven development occurs. Recommendations emphasize enhancing planners’ fidelity to strategies that expand citizen control.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. Li Yin Camden Miller Pascal Buggs
Publication year: 2019

Perceptions of Residential Displacement and Grassroots Resistance to Anchor Driven Encroachment in Buffalo, NY

Description:

This article examines perceptions of institutional encroachment and community responses to it in Buffalo, NY. Specifically, we focus on residents’ perceived effects of anchor institution (e.g. hospital and university) expansion on core city neighbourhoods. Through this analysis we offer insights into the processes driving neighbourhood displacement in the contemporary period. Data were collected through a series of focus groups with residents and other stakeholders in working class, minority neighbourhoods which were identified as being in the early stages of neighbourhood revitalization. A total of nine focus groups were held across three neighbourhoods experiencing encroachment due to institutional investments. The focus groups were held during the fall of 2017. The data were coded and analysed using ATLAS.ti software. The analysis was guided by standpoint theory, which focuses on amplifying the voices of groups traditionally disenfranchised from urban planning and policy processes. The findings from the analysis highlight how the expansion of anchor institutions transforms the built environment, neighbourhood identity, and everyday life in urban communities. Residents perceived change brought on by institutional encroachment as relatively unabated and unresponsive to grassroots  concerns. On balance, residents perceived the benefit of neighbourhood revitalization accruing to anchor institutions while low-income, minority
residents cope with negative externalities in a disproportionate manner. This led to heightened concerns about residential displacement and concomitant changes in their neighbourhoods’ built and social environments.

Authors: Robert Silverman Henry Louis Taylor Jr. Li Yin Camden Miller Pascal Buggs
Publication year: 2019

Buffalo Turning the Corner Report

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Buffalo Turning the Corner
Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. Li Yin Robert Silverman
Publication year: 2019

Building the Neighborly Community in the Age of Trump

Description:

Abstract:

With no moral compass, the current higher education civic engagement movement has wreaked havoc on inner city communities, especially for low-income people and people of color. This chapter explains why this happened, who it benefits, and why it largely continues unquestioned. A bold new vision is charted for higher education’s civic engagement movement that is built upon principles of systems change and a fundamentally reimagined version of cities founded on social justice. Theoretical and practical solutions are also discussed.

Kronick, R. F., Ed. (2020). Emerging Perspectives on Community Schools and the Engaged University. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-0280-8

Click here to see the full chapter

Authors: Henry Louis Taylor
Publication year: 2019

Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs): An analysis of the First Year Implementation in Metropolitan areas and barriers to voluntary implementation in other areas

Description:

Kelly Patterson and Robert Silverman of the University at Buffalo have completed a review of first year implementation of the HUD Small Area Fair Market Rent rule (adopted in 2016, suspended in 2017, reinstated by litigation, and effective April 2018).  One important takeaway of their survey is a troubling trend in a number of PHAs that are using their flexibility in setting “payment standards” to blunt the positive effect of the rule by raising rent caps in low income neighborhoods and lowering rent caps in higher income neighborhoods. The report also explores voluntary adoption of “SAFMRs” by looking at the potential in the Buffalo region.

 

Authors: Kelly L. Patterson Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2019

Measuring Fidelity to HUD’s Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) Rule: Lesson from the First Year Implementation

Description:

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued its final rule for the implementation of Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) in November of 2016 (Federal Register, 2016). In August of 2017, HUD attempted to suspend the SAFMR rule, but in December of 2017 a U.S. District Court judge ordered it to be reinstated (Open Communities Alliance v. Carson, 2017). The new rule became effective in January of 2018, with implementation in mandatory areas beginning in April of 2018. There are currently 24 metropolitan areas mandated to implement SAFMRs. The adoption of SAFMRs is voluntary in all other metropolitan areas.

The SAFMR rule is intended to better align the setting of payment standards for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program with the goals of promoting residential choice and mobility. The rule is needed since the traditional method of setting payment standards based on the 40th or 50th percentile of rents in a metropolitan region (“Fair Market Rents or FMRs”) has contributed to the concentration of HCVs in low-income and minority neighborhoods. The SAFMR rule bases payment standards on average rents in ZIP codes, a geography more sensitive to rental variation across metropolitan areas. Basing payment standards on SAFMRs is argued to provide voucher holders with greater access to employment, quality schools, transportation, and other desired amenities (i.e. high-opportunity neighborhoods). SAFMRs expand access to housing in ZIP codes where average rents are higher than metropolitan FMRs. They also avoid overpaying landlords in low-rent areas like those examined by Desmond and Wilmer (2019).

In this article we summarize core findings from the more detailed report we authored for PRRAC about the initial implementation of the SAFMR rule. In particular, we highlight the degree to which the setting of payment standards by public housing authorities (PHAs) falls short of aligning with SAFMR equity goals. At the end of this article, we make recommendations for future HCV program implementation where PHAs use SAFMRs.

The Rationale for Small Area Fair Market Rents

HUD’s new SAFMR rule was developed in response to a number of concerns about the effectiveness of the HCV program in deconcentrating poverty and providing low-income households with access to upward mobility. These concerns date back to issues raised in cases like Gautreaux v. Chicago Housing Authority (1969), Walker v. HUD (1990), and Thompson v. HUD (2005). Housing mobility programs were developed as part of the court-ordered remedies in these three cases, permitting recipients of housing vouchers to move out of segregated, high poverty neighborhoods. These programs have continued to thrive in Chicago, Dallas, and Baltimore. The development of policies scaling up these programs in other cities has become increasingly salient, since HCVs are one of HUD’s primary tools to provide affordable housing to low-income households. For example, there were over 2.2 million rental units subsidized with HCVs in 2017 (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2017). HCV units represented over 48% of all rental units subsidized across the eight federal programs designed to subsidize rental housing. Almost 5.3 million people were housed using HCVs in 2017, comprising almost 55% of all renters receiving housing assistance across the eight federal rental subsidy programs.

In addition to programs and policies adopted in response to court decisions, advocates have pressed HUD to pursue administrative rule changes to address shortcomings in HCV implementation. In particular, advocates have long been critical of how the use of metropolitan-wide FMRs, and the calculation of payment standards based on them, impede geographic mobility and housing searches in high-opportunity neighborhoods (Thrope, 2018).

One of the more poignant critiques of metropolitan-wide FMRs is that they fall short of providing tenants with adequate subsidies to rent in high-opportunity neighborhoods. Researchers have identified this as problematic since metropolitan-wide FMRs, whether set at the 40th or 50th percentile rent, by definition fall below average rents in relatively high-cost submarkets in metropolitan areas (Palm, 2018; Treat, 2018; Thrope, 2018). This limitation of FMRs is compounded by data lag, since FMRs are calculated using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) which is released two years from its date of collection. One rationale for HUD allowing PHAs to set payment standards within a 90%-110% range of its published FMRs it to address some of these limitations. However, in many high-opportunity areas, the ability to set payment standards at 110% of FMRs still does not close the affordability gap. To address this issue, SAFMRs were introduced as a tool to promote housing opportunity on a metropolitan-wide scale.

The first test of this tool came in 2011 as a result of a court settlement that resolved a complaint charging that payment standards based on FMRs in the Dallas metropolitan areas resulted in the concentration of vouchers in low-income areas (Ellen, 2018; Treat, 2018). Under the settlement, all PHAs in metropolitan Dallas agreed to use SAFMRs when setting payment standards. An early analysis of outcomes in Dallas suggested that the adoption of SAFMRs resulted in improved neighborhood quality for HCV recipients and modest cost savings for PHAs (Collinson & Gannong, 2014). Shortly after the Dallas settlement, HUD created its own SAFMR demonstration program. Five new PHAs along with two PHAs from the Dallas metropolitan area that were already implementing SAFMRs were included in the demonstration program. At the end of the SAFMR demonstration program, HUD released an evaluation report (Dastrup et al., 2018). The report indicated that the switch to SAFMRs made HCV holders slightly more likely to live in high-opportunity ZIP codes. The report also found that the switch to SAFMRs resulted in modest reductions in overall costs for PHAs.

In November of 2016, HUD published the final version of the SAFMR rule and it began implementing it in April of 2018. At that time, PHAs in 24 metropolitan areas were mandated to adopt SAFMRs. Across those metropolitan areas, 180 PHAs administered 413,591 vouchers, which accounted for about 19% of all HUD vouchers (see Table 1).

The Alignment of Payment Standards with SAFMR Goals

One of our goals in this research was to assess how faithful PHAs were to the goals of the SAFMR rule in their local implementation. Under the new rule, PHAs can set payment standards between 90% and 110% of SAFMRs. In part, this range allows PHAs to account for local market conditions when adjusting payment standards. For example, in areas where fair market rents are changing rapidly and published SAFMRs are not in line with current trends, the 90%-110% range gives

PHAs flexibility to address data lag issues. The 90% to 110% range also gives PHAs flexibility to pursue more aggressive strategies to expand renters’ access to high-opportunity areas, particularly if they adopted payment standards at 90% in low-rent ZIP codes and payment standards at 110% in high-rent ZIP codes. This approach to setting payment standards incentivizes moves to high-opportunity areas since it tilts the ceiling for subsidies in the manner described by Collinson and Ganong (2014). Tilting the ceiling for subsidies entails setting subsidies below FMRs in low-rent ZIP codes and setting subsidies above FMRs in high rent ZIP codes.

While taking these issues into consideration, at minimum, one would expect payment standards to cluster near 100% of published SAFMRs if a PHA has fidelity to the equity goals of the new rule. Under this scenario, a PHA would strike a metropolitan-wide balance between ZIP codes where SAFMRs were less than metropolitan-wide FMRs and ZIP codes where SAFMRs were greater than metropolitan-wide FMRs. This is an important balance to strike, since it generates program cost savings in low-rent ZIP codes, removes incentives for voucher concentration in low-rent ZIP codes, and frees up resources needed to enhance HCVs in high-rent ZIP codes. Striking this balance is critical to maintaining a PHA’s volume of HCVs while expanding housing options in opportunity areas.

If a PHA diverges from payment standards clustering near 100% of published SAFMRs, how payment standards are set can be viewed as an indication of relatively high or low fidelity to the new rule. In instances where there is high fidelity, a PHA would set payment standards in low-rent ZIP codes closer to 90% of SAFMRs while setting payment standards closer to 110% of SAFMRs in high-rent ZIP codes. Setting payment standards in this manner would maximize the incentive for tenants to move to high opportunity areas while reducing possible overpayments to landlords in low rent ZIP codes. In contrast, low fidelity would be most pronounced in instances where a PHA sets payment standards in low-rent ZIP codes closer to 110% of SAFMRs while setting payment standards closer to 90% of SAFMRs in high-rent ZIP codes. Set ting payment standards in this manner would minimize the incentive for tenants to move to high-opportunity areas while increasing overpayments to landlords in low-rent ZIP codes. This scenario would effectively undercut the equity goal of the SAFMR rule by bringing payment standards back in line with something approximating metropolitan-wide FMRs.

Our analysis suggests that in the aggregate PHAs in the 24 metropolitan areas had low fidelity to the equity goals of the SAFMR rule. Although average payment standards hovered around 100% of published SAFMRs, there was a divergence between the setting of payment standards in low opportunity and high-opportunity areas. In low-opportunity areas, payment standards were consistently above 100% of published SAFMRs. In high-opportunity areas payment standards were consistently below 100% of published SAFMRs. This reflected the opposite pattern of setting payment standards that would be predicted if PHAs had high fidelity to the equity goals of the SAFMR rule. Setting payment standards in this manner creates disincentives for moves to high-opportunity neighborhoods and reinforces existing patterns of HCV concentration in low-opportunity areas. Moreover, setting payment standards in this manner increases the likelihood that landlords will be overpaid in low-rent areas and PHAs will forego cost-savings that can be used to enhance payment standards in high-opportunity ZIP codes. This reinforces existing geographic patterns of voucher distribution and results in the use of fewer HCVs in high-rent ZIP codes. It is important to note, of course, that there was variation in the degree to which payment standards diverged between high-opportunity and low-opportunity ZIP codes in individual metropolitan areas.

There were four main trends observed at the metropolitan level. The first was in metropolitan areas where payment standards followed a similar pattern to the aggregate data reflected in Table 2, or “low fidelity” to the goals of the SAFMR rule. Eleven of the 24 metropolitan areas fell into this category. They included the following metropolitan areas: Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Colorado Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Worth-Arlington, Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Jacksonville, Monmouth-Ocean, Pittsburgh, Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, and Urban Honolulu.

The second trend in payment standards involved eight metropolitan areas where payment standards were at or above 100% of SAFMRs in both high-opportunity and low-opportunity zips codes. This trend was found in the following metropolitan areas: Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, Dallas, Gary, Jackson, North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria. These metropolitan areas exhibited a relatively high degree of fidelity to the equity goals of the SAFMR rule in the sense that they erred on the side of adopting payment standards that were at or higher than 100% of SAFMRs across the board.

The third trend in payment standards involved five metropolitan areas where payment standards were below 100% of SAFMRs in both high-opportunity and low-opportunity zips codes. This trend was found in the following metropolitan areas: Bergen-Passaic, Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, San Antonio-New Braunfels, and San Diego-Carlsbad. These metropolitan areas exhibited a relatively low degree of fidelity to the equity goals of the SAFMR rule in the sense that they adopted payment standards that were below 100% of SAFMRs across the board. This may have the effect of encouraging the concentration of HCVs in low-opportunity areas, particularly in metropolitan areas with tightening rental markets.

The Alignment of Tenant and Landlord Notification Materials with SAFMR Goals

Notification materials were used in our analysis to measure how well information conveyed to tenant and landlords aligned with SAFMR goals. Tenant notification materials were provided by 22 PHAs. Landlord notification materials were provided by 12 PHAs. Findings indicated that the thrust of tenant notifications was to alert tenants about the upcoming reductions in payment standards in low rent neighborhoods, and to what extent they would be held harmless if payment standards were reduced in their area due to the adoption of SAFMRs.

In addition to notifying tenants that SAFMRs were being adopted and that this may impact their level of rental assistance in the future, nine PHAs also included language explaining the equity goals of the new policy, but this type of notice appeared to be the exception rather than the rule. A good example was the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency’s notification that, “with the SAFMRs you will be able to use your voucher in more places than would have been possible before—including neighborhoods that have high-performing schools, reduced crime, access to grocery stores, parks, medical facilities, childcare, transportation, and other amenities.”

The Alignment of HUD Monitoring with SAFMR Goals

In addition to issues related to the setting of payment standards and notification materials, our analysis found that the implementation of the SAFMR rule was hampered by a lack of proactive monitoring by HUD. For example, PHAs are not required to submit their administrative plans, payment standards, or materials used to notify tenants and landlords about SAFMRs to HUD. Instead, they are expected to keep these records in-house and available if HUD requests to inspect them. This is problematic since there is no central repository where these materials are stored and made publically available for inspection. This impedes researchers and advocacy groups from accessing information about the implementation of the SAFMR rule and shifts the burden of public disclosure from HUD to members of the general public. The lack of a public repository for implementation materials also hinders the free flow of information between PHAs interested in identifying best practices to adopt when planning their implementation strategies.

Recommendations for PHAs that use SAFMRs

The successful implementation of SAFMRs hinges on the degree to which PHA administrators show fidelity to the equity goals of the SAFMR rule, and notify tenants about their new opportunities under the rule. These goals focus on setting payment standards that create incentive structures to enable moves to high-opportunity neighborhoods while removing incentives to move to or stay in low-opportunity neighborhoods. Importantly, the reduction of payment standards in low rent areas provides PHAs with the cost savings needed to pay for higher payment standards in high-rent areas. The reduction in payment standards in low rent areas also corrects for the tendency to overpay landlords when FMRs are used. In essence, payment standards based on SAFMRs bring HCV subsidies in line with market-based rents across a metropolitan area.

The results presented in this article indicate that PHA administrators lack high levels of fidelity to the equity goals of the SAFMR rule. This has led to less than optimal implementation. Despite these findings, there are signs that once PHAs gain experience in the use of SAFMRs they apply the policy with greater efficacy. For example, some of the highest levels of fidelity to SAFMRs were found in the place with the most experience using them to set payment standards, the Dallas metropolitan area. Still, there is a need to fine-tune the SAFMR rule in anticipation of its use by a larger group of PHAs in the future. To this end, we offer the following three recommendations

Recommendation #1: HUD must enhance its emphasis on the equity goals of SAFMRs. To foster this commitment to promoting HCV holders’ mobility, HUD must invest more resources in educating PHAs, tenants, and landlords about these goals and their relationship to the setting of payment standards in high rent and low rent areas. In addition, using SAFMRs to set payment standards that promote residential choice and mobility should be the central focus of the tenant notification process. At minimum, materials circulated during the tenant notification process should include information about the availability of housing units and quality of neighborhood amenities in high-opportunity neighborhoods.

Recommendation #2: HUD must strengthen the guidelines for setting payment standards so they are in line with the equity goals of the SAFMR rule, which includes the goals of enhancing the cost-effectiveness of SAFMRs. These guidelines should be more explicit about the value of lowering payment standards over time in low-rent areas for new tenants (while holding existing tenants harmless) and to increase payment standards in high rent areas. Revised guidelines should emphasize setting payment standards in a manner that tilts the ceiling for subsidies as described by Collinson and Ganong (2014). In other words, guidelines should encourage PHAs to set subsidies at 90% of SAFMRs in low-rent ZIP codes and set subsidies at 110% of SAFMRs in high-rent ZIP codes. These types of guidelines can be reinforced with incentives to PHAs, such as awarding additional vouchers and funding for mobility counseling to authorities that adopt this strategy.

Recommendation #3: HUD must increase its monitoring and reporting requirements for the implementation of the SAFMR rule. Under its current administrative practices, PHAs are not required to submit their administrative plans, payment standards, or materials used to notify tenants and landlords about their internal implementation policies related to the SAFMR rule to HUD. A central repository needs to be created where these materials are stored and made publically available for inspection. This repository can be used as a resource: by HUD when monitoring the implementation of the SAFMR rule, by researchers and advocacy groups, by PHAs interested in identifying best practices, and by the general public.

Click here to see the full Poverty & Race Journal

Authors: Kelly L. Patterson Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2019

Integrating ‘Big Data’ into the Analysis of the Dynamic Spatial Patterns of Hotel Development

Description:

The spatio-temporal relationship between tourism product similarity and spatial proximity has not been adequately studied empirically because of data and methodological limitations. New forms of data available at high temporal frequencies and low levels of spatial aggregation, together with large commercial data and expanding computational ability allow a variety of theories, old and new to be explored and evaluated more meticulously and systemically than has been possible hitherto. This study uses spatial visualization and data harvesting to synthesize a variety of data for exploring the evolution of hotel clusters and co-location synergies in US cities. The findings question the reliability of the current data to be used for identifying and analyzing the formation of tourist destination clusters and their dynamics. We conclude that synthesizing social media and large commercial data can generate a more robust database for research on tourism development and planning and improving opportunities for the examining spatial patterns of tourism activities. We also devise a protocol to combine ‘social media’ sources with big commercial sources for tourism
development and planning, and eventually other sectors.

Authors: Li Yin Liang Wu Sam Cole Laiyun Wu
Publication year: 2019

Exploring Multidimensional Spatiotemporal Point Patterns Based on an Improved Affinity Propagation Algorithm International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Description:

Affinity propagation (AP) is a clustering algorithm for point data used in image recognition that can be used to solve various problems, such as initial class representative point selection, large-scale sparse matrix calculations, and large-scale data with fewer parameter settings. However, the AP clustering algorithm does not consider spatiotemporal information and multiple thematic attributes simultaneously, which leads to poor performance in discovering patterns from massive spatiotemporal points (e.g., trajectory points). To resolve this issue, a multidimensional spatiotemporal affinity propagation (MDST-AP) algorithm is proposed in this study. First, the similarity of spatial and nonspatial attributes is measured in Gaussian kernel space instead of Euclidean space, which helps address the multidimensional linear inseparability problem. Then, the Davies-Bouldin (DB) index is applied to optimize the parameter value of the MDST-AP algorithm, which is applied to analyze road congestion in Beijing via taxi trajectories. Experiments on different datasets and algorithms indicated that the MDST-AP algorithm can process multidimensional spatiotemporal data points faster and more effectively.

Authors: Haifu Cui Liang Wu Zhanjun He Sheng Hu Kai Ma Li Yin Liufeng Tao
Publication year: 2019

The University, Neighborhood Revitalization, and Civic Engagement: Toward Civic Engagement

Description:

This essay analyzes and syntheses key theories and concepts on neighborhood change from the literature on anchor institutions, university engagement, gentrification, neighborhood effects, Cold War, Black liberation studies, urban political economy, and city building. To deepen understanding of the Columbia University experience, we complemented the literature analysis with an examination of the New York Times and Amsterdam newspapers from 1950 to 1970. The study argues that higher education’s approach to neighborhood revitalization during the urban renewal age, as well as in the post-1990 period, produced undesirable results and failed to spawn either social transformation or build the neighborly community espoused by Lee Benson and Ira Harkavy. The essay explains the reasons why and concludes with a section on a more robust strategy higher education can pursue in the quest to bring about desirable change in the university neighborhood.

Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr D. Gavin Luter Camden Miller
Publication year: 2018

Reflections of an Activist Scholar

Description:

Reflections of an Activist Scholar: Henry Louis Taylor Jr. on The Planners Network‘s online page. The Planners Network is an association of professionals, activists, academics, and students involved in physical, social, economic, and environmental planning in urban and rural areas, who promote fundamental change in our political and economic systems.

Authors: Henry Louis Taylor Jr.
Publication year: 2018

Interview: Reflections of an Activist Scholar

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Interview with Henry Louis Taylor Jr. about his role as an activist, a scholar, an urban planner and an historian by the Social Science Space blog website, an online social network on social sciences.

Authors: Henry Louis Taylor Jr.
Publication year: 2018

A possible world and the right to the university – Reflections on higher education in the United States

Description:

Chapter 18 in the Higher education for diversity, social inclusion and community: A democratic imperative publication.

Authors: Henry Louis Taylor Jr. D. Gavin Luter Pascal Buggs
Publication year: 2018

The Impact of Single-Family Rental REITS on Regional Housing Markets: A Case Study of Nashville

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The Impact of Single-Family Rental REITS on Regional Housing Markets: A Case Study of Nashville
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Authors: Ken Chilton Robert Mark Silverman Rabia Chaudhry Chihaungji Wang
Publication year: 2018

Rethinking shrinking cities: Peripheral dual cities have arrived

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Rethinking shrinking cities: Peripheral dual cities have arrived
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Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2018

Model CBAs and Community Benefits Ordinances as Tools for Negotiating Equitable Development: Three Critical Cases

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Model CBAs and Community Benefits Ordinances as Tools for Negotiating Equitable Development: Three Critical Cases
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Authors: Nicholas Belongie Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2018

Critical Consciousness and Schooling: The Impact of the Community as a Classroom Program on Academic Indicators

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The present study investigates the extent to which a program guided by the principles of critical pedagogy, which seeks to develop critical consciousness, is associated with the improved academic performance of students attending a low-performance middle-school in Buffalo, New York.
The students were enrolled in an in-school academic support program called the Community as Classroom, which used critical project-based learning to show students how to improve neighborhood conditions. The study found that the Community as Classroom program bolstered student
engagement as reflected in improved attendance, on-time-arrival at school, and reduced suspensions. Although class grades did not improve, standardized scores, particularly in Math and Science, dramatically improved for these students from the lowest scoring categories. We suspect that given increased student engagement and dramatically improved standardized test scores, teacher bias might be the cause of no improvements in class grades. We conclude that critical pedagogy, which leads to increased critical consciousness, is a tool that can lead to improved academic performance of students. Such a pedagogy, we argue, should be more widely used in public schools, with a particular emphasis on their deployment in Community Schools.

Authors: D. Gavin Luter Austin M. Mitchell Henry L. Taylor Jr.
Publication year: 2017

Siting affordable housing in neighborhoods of opportunity: An assessment of HUD’s affirmatively furthering fair housing mapping tool

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Siting affordable housing in neighborhoods of opportunity: An assessment of HUD’s affirmatively furthering fair housing mapping tool
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Authors: Robert Mark Silverman Li Yin Kelly L. Patterson
Publication year: 2017

Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs): A Typology for Shrinking Cities

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Community benefits agreements (CBAs)
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Authors: Kelly L. Patterson Molly Ranahan Robert M. Silverman Li Yin
Publication year: 2017

Optimizing Cruising Routes for Taxi Drivers Using a Spatio-temporal Trajectory Model

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Much of the taxi route-planning literature has focused on driver strategies for finding passengers and determining the hot spot pick-up locations using historical global positioning system (GPS) trajectories of taxis based on driver experience, distance from the passenger drop-off location to the next passenger pick-up location and the waiting times at recommended locations for the next passenger. The present work, however, considers the average taxi travel speed mined from historical taxi GPS trajectory data and the allocation of cruising routes to more than one taxi driver in a small-scale region to neighboring pick-up locations. A spatio-temporal trajectory model with load balancing allocations is presented to not only explore pick-up/drop-off information but also provide taxi drivers with cruising routes to the recommended pick-up locations. In simulation experiments, our study shows that taxi drivers using cruising routes recommended by our spatio-temporal trajectory model can significantly reduce the average waiting time and travel less distance to quickly find their next passengers, and the load balancing strategy significantly alleviates road loads. These objective measures can help us better understand spatio-temporal traffic patterns and guide taxi navigation.

Authors: Liang Wu Sheng Hu Li Yin Yazhou Wang Zhanlong Chen Mingqiang Guo Hao Chen Zhong Xie
Publication year: 2017

Street Level Urban Design Qualities for Walkability: Combining 2D and 3D GIS Measures

Description:

Much of the physical activity and built environment literature has focused on composite walkability indices based on the D variables– design, density, diversity, destination accessibility, and distance to transit. This literature, however, has largely ignored the microscale streetscape features that affect the pedestrian experience. Five street level urban design qualities were recently identified and defined for quantitative measures although these  measures are mostly through subjective field observation. View related features such as long sight line and proportion of sky have not yet been objectively measured due to the limitation of data and method. This study uses both 2D and 3D GIS to objectively measure street level urban design qualities in Buffalo, New York and tests their correlation with observed pedestrian counts and Walk Scores. Our results showed that 3D GIS helped to generate objective measures on view related features. These objective measures can help us better understand the influence of street level urban design features on walkability for designing and planning healthy cities.

Authors: Li Yin
Publication year: 2017

Urban policy without broaching the topic of race, really?: Response to David Imbroscio’s “Urban policy as meritocracy: A critique.

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Urban policy without broaching the topic of race, really?: Response to David Imbroscio’s “Urban policy as meritocracy: A critique
Description:
Authors: Robert Mark Silvermen
Publication year: 2016

Neighborhoods of Opportunity: Developing an Operational Definition for Planning and Policy Implementation

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Neighborhoods of Opportunity: Developing an Operational Definition for Planning and Policy Implementation
Description:

This article synthesizes existing literature to examine the emerging concept of neighborhoods of opportunity and places it in the context of past efforts to define neighborhood opportunity. Place-based and people-based approaches to urban revitalization and community development are linked to this concept. The place-based approach focuses on promoting inner-city revitalization in order to create neighborhoods of opportunity and the people-based approach focuses on connecting people to opportunities that already exist in the regions where they live. These approaches are
examined in relation to how they influence emerging models for siting affordable housing in both distressed inner-cities and more opportunity rich suburbs that surround them. The article concludes with recommendations for a new tiered approach to place-based and people-based strategies for affordable housing siting in core city and regional contexts

Authors: Kelly L. Patterson Robert Mark Silverman Li Yin Laiyun Wu
Publication year: 2016

Mapping Urban Impervious Surface by Fusing Optical and SAR data Based on the Random Forests and D-S Theory

Description:

The proliferation of impervious surfaces results in a series of environmental issues, such as the decrease of vegetated areas and the aggravation of the urban heat island effects. The mapping of impervious surface and its spatial distributions is of significance for the ecological study of urban environment. Currently, the integration of optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data has shown advantages in accurately characterizing impervious surface. However, the fusion mainly occurs at the pixel and feature levels which are subject to influences of data noises and feature selections, respectively. In this paper, an innovative and effective method was developed to extract urban impervious surface by synergistically utilizing optical and SAR images at the decision level. The objective of this paper was to obtain an accurate urban impervious surface map based on the random forest classifier and the evidence theory and to provide a detailed uncertainty analysis accompanying the fused impervious surface maps. In this study, both the GaoFen (GF-1) and Sentinel-1A imagery were first used as independent data sources for mapping urban impervious surfaces. Then additional spectral features and texture features were extracted and integrated with the original GF-1 and Sentinel-1A images in generating impervious surfaces. Finally, based on the Dempster-Shafer (D-S) theory, impervious surfaces were produced by fusing the previously estimated impervious surfaces from different datasets at the decision level. Results showed that impervious surfaces estimated from the combined use of original images and features yielded a higher accuracy than those from the original optical or SAR data. Further validations suggested that optical data was better than SAR data in separating impervious surfaces from non-impervious surfaces. The fused impervious surfaces at the decision level had a higher overall accuracy than those produced independently by optical or SAR data. It was also highlighted that the fusion of GF-1 and Sentinel-1A images reduced the amount of confusions among the low reflectance of impervious surface and water, as well as for low reflectance of bare land. An overall accuracy of 95.33% was achieved for extracting urban impervious surfaces by fused datasets. The spatial distributions of uncertainties provided by the evidence theory displayed a confidence level of at least 75% for the impervious surfaces derived from the fused datasets.

Authors: Zhenfeng Shao Huyan Fu Peng Fu Li Yin
Publication year: 2016

Low-Wage Workers and the Myth of Post-Racialism

Description:

This paper investigates the growing gap between the rich and the poor in America and the over-representation of people of color among low-wage workers.

Authors: Lori Martin
Publication year: 2015

Imag(in)ing Everyday Geographies: A case study of Andrew Buckles’ Why Wait? Project

Description:

This article introduces an interdisciplinary collaboration that brings together sympathetic trends in qualitative geographic visualization (from the perspective of one author who is a geographer) and contemporary generative artistic practices (from the perspective of the other author, who is an artist and theorist)—attempting to represent a diverse array of creative and multi-modal data through generative and participatory digital methods. We present how this convergence expands categories of meaning, allowing us to explore experiential/embodied as well as creative/imaginative engagements with everyday geographies distinct to a digital age. The article mediates on the idea of mapping the imagination and the ways we imagine quotidian spaces, as well as possibilities for new methods for the analysis and representation of spatial and emotional complexity. We particularly explore strategies of integrating multiple technologies and multiple-modes of representation for mapping and re-mapping complexities of social and creative living in order to help provide alternate ways to imagine, represent and engage different forms of embodied and imaginative geographies. This article presents a case study with the artist Andrew Buckles, in Seattle, Washington, correlating representational and participatory digital data including geospatial, temporal, audio, video as well as electroencephalography readings from brainwave sensors.

Authors: Jin-Kyu Jung
Publication year: 2015

Neighborhood characteristics and the location of HUD subsidized housing in shrinking cities: An analysis to inform anchor-based urban revitalization strategies

Project Name:

Neighborhood characteristics and the location of HUD subsidized housing in shrinking cities: An analysis to inform anchor-based urban revitalization strategies
Description:

This article focuses on the manner in which affordable housing fits into anchor-based strategies for urban revitalization. It involves quantitative analysis of the location of existing HUD-subsidized housing in relation to neighborhood characteristics. The goal of the article is twofold. First, we examine the degree to which neighborhood characteristics associated with neighborhoods of opportunity correlate with the location of HUD-subsidized housing in shrinking cities. Second, we make recommendations for more equitable approaches to anchor-based urban revitalization. Our analysis uses a unique database developed to measure neighborhood characteristics in shrinking US cities. Our findings suggest that the location of affordable housing is not correlated with proximity to institutional and neighborhood amenities, where anchor-based revitalization is targeted. As a result, we make recommendations to link future affordable housing siting to anchor-based strategies for inner-city revitalization.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman Kelly L. Patterson Li Yin Laiyun Wu
Publication year: 2015

Housing abandonment and demolition: Exploring the use of micro-level and multi-year models

Project Name:

Housing abandonment and demolition: Exploring the use of micro-level and multi-year models
Description:

Policies focusing on enforcing property code violations and the improvement of vacant properties are argued to be more efficacious than demolition policies to fight urban blight. This study applies parcel level data to a multi-year hybrid modeling structure. A fine-grained analysis is conducted on the dynamic patterns of abandonment and demolition for a unique period of four years before and after the City of Buffalo’s stepped-up demolition efforts. Results showed that proximity to vacant and abandoned properties, sustained over the years, had the greatest impact on the possibility of a property being abandoned. The second greatest positive impact on property abandonment was small lot front size. Results also showed that neighborhood vacancy density had the greatest negative impact on surrounding housing sales prices over the years. There was no significant impact of demolition on housing sales prices. These findings suggested that the City should aim to have more incentive programs that are tailored to control the number of vacant properties, rather than focusing primarily on demolition-oriented programs.

Authors: Li Yin Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2015

Municipal property acquisition patterns in a shrinking city: Evidence for the persistence of an urban growth paradigm in Buffalo, NY

Project Name:

Municipal property acquisition patterns in a shrinking city: Evidence for the persistence of an urban growth paradigm in Buffalo, NY
Description:

The purpose of this article is to examine municipal property acquisition patterns in shrinking cities. We use data from the City of Buffalo’s municipal
property auction records to analyze the spatial distribution of properties offered for sale in its annual tax foreclosure auction. In addition to these data, we examine demolition and building permit records. Our analysis suggests that cities like Buffalo follow strategies based on an urban growth paradigm when responding to abandonment. This paradigm operates under the assumption that growth is a constant and urban development is only limited by fiscal constraints, underdeveloped systems of urban governance, environmental degradation, and resistance by anti-growth coalitions. We recommend that planners in shrinking cities de-emphasize growthbased planning and focus on rightsizing strategies. These strategies are based on
the assumption that growth is not a constant. Consequently, urban revitalization is concentrated in a smaller urban footprint.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman Li Yin Kelly L. Patterson
Publication year: 2015

Creating sustainable urban built environments: An application of hedonic house price models in Wuhan, China

Description:

Abstract:

Due to rapid urbanization, auto-mobility, and industrialization, the increasing desire to protect environments and satisfy residents has led to an emphasis on the creation of sustainable urban environments in China. This paper is an empirical study using hedonic price models to examine a comprehensive set of environmental sustainability elements including green space, transit systems, and central business districts (CBDs) and compare their relative importance in Wuhan, China. The results show that among all housing characteristics, environmental sustainability elements had the greatest impacts on house prices. Natural water resources have the most significant positive effects on property values when they are integrated with cultural, tourism, and commercial resources to form natural recreation clusters or areas. Also, home buyers are willing to pay more for housing clusters or subdivisions with proximity to CBDs. In addition, the significant negative effects of light rail on house prices within a 1-mile radius indicate that it has not become an attractive amenity to home buyers, due to combined effects of other neighborhood amenities, little land use diversity, and the fare system. These results have implications for local and regional governments in setting priorities for sustainable development.

Authors: Hao Huang Li Yin
Publication year: 2015

‘Big Data’ for Pedestrian Volume: Exploring the use of Google Street View Images for Pedestrian Counts

Description:

New sources of data such as ‘big data’ and computational analytics have stimulated innovative pedestrian oriented research. Current studies, however, are still limited and subjective with regard to the use of Google Street View and other online sources for environment audits or pedestrian counts because of the manual information extraction and compilation, especially for large areas. This study aims to provide future research an alternative method to conduct large scale data collection more consistently and objectively on pedestrian counts and possibly for environment audits and stimulate discussion of the use of ‘big data’ and recent computational advances for planning and design. We explore and report information needed to automatically download and assemble Google Street View images, as well as other image parameters for a wide range of analysis and visualization, and explore extracting pedestrian count data based on these images using machine vision and learning technology. The reliability tests results based on pedestrian information collected from over 200 street segments in Buffalo, NY, Washington, D.C., and Boston, MA respectively suggested that the image detection method used in this study are capable of determining the presence of pedestrian with a reasonable level of accuracy. The limitation and potential improvement of the proposed method is also discussed.

Authors: Li Yin Qimin Cheng Zhenxin Wang Zhenfeng Shao
Publication year: 2015

Neighborhood Parks and Reduction in Stress among Adolescents: Results from Buffalo, New York

Description:

Abstract:

Planners and landscape architects have long recognized the critical role of green space in urban environments. This cross-sectional field study of 68 adolescents determined the association between percent neighborhood park area and perceived stress among adolescents, while controlling for physical activity. This study is the first to examine this association using objective measures of park area and adolescents physical activity. A multivariate regression model indicated that percentage of park area (β = -62.573, p < 0.03) predicts perceived stress among adolescents. Access to neighborhood parks buffers adolescents against perceived stress after controlling for socio-economic status and physical activity. Policy recommendations for incorporating parks into neighborhood design are given.

Authors: Denise Fada A. Seelbinder Solhyon Baek Samina Raja Li Yin James N Roemmich
Publication year: 2015

Municipal property acquisition patterns in a shrinking city: Evidence for the persistence of an urban growth paradigm in Buffalo, NY

Description:

Abstract:

The purpose of this article is to examine municipal property acquisition patterns in shrinking cities. We use data from the City of Buffalo’s municipal property auction records to analyze the spatial distribution of properties offered for sale in its annual tax foreclosure auction. In addition to these data, we examine demolition and building permit records. Our analysis suggests that cities like Buffalo follow strategies based on an urban growth paradigm when responding to abandonment. This paradigm operates under the assumption that growth is a constant and urban development is only limited by fiscal constraints, underdeveloped systems of urban governance, environmental degradation, and resistance by anti-growth coalitions. We recommend that planners in shrinking cities de-emphasize growth-based planning and focus on rightsizing strategies. These strategies are based on the assumption that growth is not a constant. Consequently, urban revitalization is concentrated in a smaller urban footprint.

Authors: Robert M. Silverman Li Yin Kelly L. Patterson
Publication year: 2015

Park design and children’s active play: a microscale spatial analysis of intensity of play in Olmsted’s Delaware Park

Description:

This paper offers a microscale exploration of the role of park design on the intensity of physical activity among youth. The actual, unstructured use of a park—specifically, Delaware Park, an Olmsted-designed park in Buffalo, New York—by ninety-four children was observed and analyzed objectively using geographic information systems, global positioning systems, and accelerometers. Data were analyzed at the scale of 25 ft × 25 ft cells overlaid as a grid on the entire park. Results from the regression analysis show that particular features of parks—especially complexity in landscape surfaces, proximity to sport facilities and playgrounds, and the availability of pedestrian trails—enable greater intensity of youth physical activity in a park.

Authors: Solhyon Baek Samina Raja Jiyoung Park Leonard H Epstein Li Yin James N Roemmich
Publication year: 2015

The impact of street network connectivity on pedestrian volume

Description:

This paper investigates the impact of street network connectivity on pedestrian volume. Street
network connectivity measured in most current studies captures only the metric characteristics
of streets or physical connectivity. A whole different type of connectivity, visual connectivity, is
largely ignored. Described in basic terms, higher physical connectivity means shorter travel time
to reach the same number of destinations while higher visual connectivity means fewer turns to
see the same number of destinations. Despite the correlation of these two connectivity constructs, studying both physical and visual connectivity is essential to better understand the role of
street network on pedestrian activity. Using pedestrian counts of 302 street segments in Buffalo,
New York, structural equation modelling highlights the multiple relationships between street network connectivity, built environment characteristics, and pedestrian volumes. Our findings
suggest that both the conventional metric-based measure of physical connectivity and geometric based measure of visual connectivity have significant positive impacts on pedestrian volumes,
together with job density and land use mix. This outcome can encourage practitioners to pay
attention to both the geometry of street network and its metric characteristics in order to create
a pedestrian-friendly environment.

Authors: Amir Hajrasouliha Li Yin
Publication year: 2015

Striving for a Healthier Buffalo: A Community Health Needs Assessment for the Greater Buffalo United Ministries

Project Name:

Greater Buffalo United Ministries Community Health Needs Assessment
Description:

The purpose of the Community Health Needs Assessment is to identify the unmet health challenges of the Greater Buffalo United Ministries (GRUM) communities in Erie and Niagara Counties. It will outline a strategy for addressing those needs, and to develop a set of performance indicators and metrics to monitor progress in meeting those needs. This assessment will provide GRUM and the Greater Buffalo United Affordable Healthcare Network (GBUAHN) with the framework needed to forge an implementation strategy to address the unmet health needs of the GRUM community.

Publication year: 2014

Beyond School-to-Prison Pipeline and Toward an Educational and Penal Realism

Description:

Much scholarly attention has been paid to the school-to-prison pipeline and the sanitized discourse of “death by education,” called the achievement gap. Additionally, there exists a longstanding discourse surrounding the alleged crisis of educational failure. This article offers no solutions to the crisis and suggests instead that the system is functioning as it was intended—to disenfranchise many (predominately people of color) for the benefit of some (mostly white), based on economic principals of the free market. We begin by tracing the economic interests of prisons and the prison industrial complex, juxtaposing considerations of what we call the “educational reform industrial complex.” With a baseline in the economic interests of school failure and prison proliferation, we draw on the critical race theory concept of racial realism, to work toward a theory of educational and penal realism. Specifically, we outline seven working tenets of educational and penal realism that provide promise in redirecting the discourse about schools and prisons empowering those interested in critically engaging issues of racism that permeate U.S. orientations to education and justice.

Authors: Lori Martin
Publication year: 2014

Racism, Rodeos, and the Misery Industries of Louisiana

Description:

Racism is a multilevel and multidimensional system whereby minority groups are oppressed and scapegoated by the dominant group. Claims that America has become a post-racial society notwithstanding, manifestations of racism are all around us, especiallyin the state of Louisiana. Louisiana is home to some of the poorest, and the leasteducated citizens in the nation. The state is also the site of one of the country’s mostnotorious prisons. Angola, a former—and present penal—plantation, is a majority black prison where the inmate ‘rodeo’ provides annual entertainment for largely whiteaudiences and hundreds of thousands of dollars to supplement services for prisoners thatcould arguably be paid for in less dehumanizing ways. White racial frame is a useful paradigm for understanding the linkages between mass incarceration, the exploitation ofthe Black body, the miseducation of Black youth, as well as the persistent racialeconomic inequality in Louisiana and in US society as a whole. We extend the idea of white racial frame further by introducing a concept we call “bridges to benefits”. Bridges to benefits are networks of white privilege, which flow between institutions, such as education, the economy, and the law, which involve capitalizing on the misery of Blacks while simultaneously protecting white supremacy.

Authors: Lori Martin
Publication year: 2014

Code clouds: Qualitative geovisualization of geotweets

Description:

The popularity of geotagged social media has provided many research opportunities for geographers and GIScientists in the digital age. This article reviews innovative approaches to studying spatially linked social media, and applies lessons taken from qualitative GIS and geographic visualization to improve these approaches. I introduce the idea of “code clouds” as a potential technique for the qualitative geovisualization of spatial information. Code clouds can depict and visualize analytic codes, or codes identifying key ideas and themes, that are generated through digital qualitative research. Rather than transforming qualitative forms of data into categories or numbers, code clouds attempt to preserve and represent the context of data as a visualized outcome of qualitative analysis. Professor Jung use examples from an exploratory case study of geotweets in King County, WA, to demonstrate how code clouds can be applied to the production of meanings through qualitative geovisualization.

Authors: Jin-Kyu Jung
Publication year: 2014

Community through the eyes of children: blending child-centered research and qualitative geovisulization

Description:

Community is an ambiguous concept, and the meanings of community as a subject of study have received a great deal of attention across various disciplines. This paper discusses how children’s diverse meanings of community shape and are shaped by the social, cultural, and physical environments of their everyday lives. To explore these meanings I combine principles of child-centered research and qualitative geovisualization into a research methodology. I demonstrate that this integration displays the transformative nature of qualitative analysis and visualization to support interpretive analysis of various forms of qualitative and spatial data together, and offers us a hybrid methodological framework for gaining insights into the diverse meanings of community held by the children. The main case study is drawn from a multi-year research collaboration called the Children’s Urban Geography (ChUG), in which I participated along with children who lived in a relatively poor but emerging multi-cultural Hispanic neighborhood in Buffalo, NY.

Authors: Jin-Kyu Jung
Publication year: 2014

Back to the Future: Public Schools as Neighborhood Anchor Institutions—The Choice Neighborhood Initiative in Buffalo, New York

Project Name:

Back to the Future: Public Schools as Neighborhood Anchor Institutions —The Choice Neighborhood Initiative in Buffalo, New York
Description:
Authors: D. Gavin Luter Linda McGlynn Henry Louis Taylor, Jr
Publication year: 2014

Striving for a Healthier Buffalo: A Community Needs assessment for the Greater Buffalo United Ministries

Project Name:

Striving for a Healthier Buffalo: A Community Needs assessment for the Greater Buffalo United Ministries
Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor Jr
Publication year: 2014

Urban, Suburban, and Rural Contexts of School Districts and Neighborhood Revitalization Strategies: Rediscovering Equity in Education Policy and Urban Planning

Project Name:

Urban, Suburban, and Rural Contexts of School Districts and Neighborhood Revitalization Strategies: Rediscovering Equity in Education Policy and Urban Planning
Description:

This article revisits the debate about school reform and homeownership-based strategies for neighborhood revitalization. It is based on an analysis of school districts in New York State using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and the New York State Education Department (NYSED). Findings indicate that the relationship between schools and housing values varies across urban, suburban, and rural school districts. It is recommended that education reformers and urban planners advocate for states and the federal government to assume a more central role in the promotion of educational equity and the subsequent stabilization of neighborhoods in older core cities.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2014

Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Plan

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

The Perry Choice Neighborhood Planning grant (PCN) produced a plan that transforms the BMHAPCN into a viable and sustainable mixed-income neighborhood that functions as a platform which enables residents to become economically secure and self-sufficient, to realize their full potential and to develop the critical consciousness and capacity that empowers them to guide the development of the community over time. To realize this outcome in practice, the Perry Choice Neighborhood planning initiative is informed by three core goals, which are viewed through the lens of neighborhood, housing, and people that inform all aspects of the planning process.

Publication year: 2013

The Perry Choice Neighborhood Safe Neighborhood Safe Neighborhood Initiative

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

This report describes the Perry Choice Neighborhood – Safe Neighborhood Initiative, designed to transform the PCN into a safe and secure community.

Publication year: 2013

The Perry Choice Neighborhood Mini-Education Pipeline Strategy

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

The Mini-Education Pipeline represents the education and school reform strategy that accompanies the broader Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Plan.

Publication year: 2013

Perry Choice Neighborhood Life Chances Center Potential Income and Expense Report

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

The purpose of this report is to determine the the estimated expenses and income for the BMHA-PCN proposed Life Chances Center (LCC).

Publication year: 2013

Neighborhoods Matter: The Role of Universities in the School Reform Neighborhood Development Movement

Description:

By focusing on a federal Choice neighborhood initiative, this study will not only make the case for connecting school reform and neighborhood development but also present a model that demonstrates how this can happen. The study will also make a stronger case for the university’s unique role in fostering neo-collaborative structures fit to take on wicked problems of neighborhood distress and urban decline.

Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., D. Gavin Luter, and Linda McGlynn
Publication year: 2013

Anchor Institutions: An Interpretive Review Essay

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. and D. Gavin Luter
Publication year: 2013

Universities as Anchor Institutions

Description:
Authors: Eugenie Birch, David C. Perry, and Henry Louis Taylor, Jr.
Publication year: 2013

Chasing a Paper Tiger: Evaluating Buffalo’s Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice

Description:

This article focuses on a specific component of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) strategy to implement a fair housing strategy, its requirements for local jurisdictions that receive community development block grant (CDBG) dollars to prepare an analysis of impediments to fair housing choice (AI) report.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman, Kelly Patterson, and Jade Lewis
Publication year: 2013

Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement

Project Name:

Universities as Anchor Institutions
Description:
Authors: Eugenie Birch David C. Perry Henry L. Taylor
Publication year: 2013

Universities as Anchor Institutions

Project Name:

Universities as Anchor Institutions
Description:
Authors: Eugenie Birch David C. Perry Henry Louis Taylor, Jr
Publication year: 2013

Neighborhoods Matter: The Role of Universities in the School Reform Neighborhood Development Movement

Project Name:

Neighborhoods Matter: The Role of Universities in the School Reform Neighborhood Development Movement
Description:

Where you find distressed neighborhoods, you will also find poorly performing public schools. Yet many contemporary school reform efforts ignore neighborhood-level factors that undeniably impact school performance. The purpose of this study is to use a case study approach with social institutional and urban school reform regime frameworks to demonstrate why school reform and the re-creation and redevelopment of distressed neighborhoods should occur simultaneously. At the same time, researchers will examine the role of higher education in catalyzing partnerships with so-called anchor institutions for the explicit purposes of simultaneously improving neighborhoods and reforming schools. By focusing on a federal Choice neighborhood initiative, the study will not only make the case for connecting school reform and neighborhood development but also present a model that demonstrates how this can happen. The study will also make a strong case for the university’s unique role in fostering neo-collaborative structures fit to take on wicked problems of neighborhood distress and urban decline.

Authors: D. Gavin Luter Linda McGlynn Henry Louis Taylor, Jr
Publication year: 2013

Chasing a paper tiger: Evaluating Buffalo’s analysis of impediments to fair housing choice

Project Name:

Chasing a paper tiger: Evaluating Buffalo’s analysis of impediments to fair housing choice
Description:

This article focuses on a specific component of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) strategy to implement fair housing policy, its requirement for local jurisdictions that receive community development block grant (CDBG) dollars to prepare an analysis of impediments to fair housing choice (AI) report. The article’s analysis is based on an evaluation of the City of Buffalo’s 2004 AI report. The evaluation was conducted by a local fair housing organization in collaboration with university-based researchers. The findings from the evaluation revealed that the City had made little progress in implementing the action plan from its AI report over an eight year period. This was an outgrowth of local funding constraints, limited staff capacity, ambiguous HUD rules for AI reporting, and a lack of political will to pursue fair housing in Buffalo. In light of these findings, we recommend that HUD: mandate timeframes for AI implementation, require AI updates at regular intervals, and more clearly specify the format and content of AI reports. We also recommend that HUD require jurisdictions to include evaluation plans in their AI reports and measure outcomes from the implementation of AI action plans. These reforms will enhance the ability of AI reports to serve as effective planning tools for the affirmative furthering of fair housing policy.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman Kelly L. Patterson Jade Lewis
Publication year: 2013

Assessing Walkability in the City of Buffalo: Application of Agent-Based Simulation

Description:

Abstract:

Significant research has been conducted on how environmental attributes influence people’s decisions to walk. In much of this
research, however, environmental attributes are averaged for neighborhoods or census geographies for sampled populations. Moreover, the
effect of an agent’s walking choices on other actors is not adequately represented by either objective or perceived measures in the literature.
Macro-level patterns of walkability arise from interactions across actors and urban environments. The agent-based approach allows for
modeling individual uses of the environment by treating the populations as objects that can interact with the environment and other people.
This study builds on previous research on pedestrian movement and geographic information system (GIS) measures of the built environment
using the agent-based approach to explore the dynamics of the built environment and people’s decision-making processes concerning walking. The results show that models that take individual perspective into account and include social interaction can better capture characteristics
of the built and social environment that influence people’s walking choices. This method lays out a new framework for assessing macro-level
patterns of walkability across a city using micro-level data.

Authors: Li Yin
Publication year: 2013

Neighborhood for Playing: Using GPS, GIS, and Accelerometry to Delineate Areas within which Youth are Physically Active

Description:

Abstract:

Despite the documented importance of the neighbourhood environment on youth physical activity, little empirical research exists regarding the geographical boundaries of neighbourhoods within which youth are physically active around their homes. Studies and public policies often arbitrarily assume the extent of these boundaries, which vary from study to study. This paper combines GPS data, diaries and accelerometry to delineate empirically the local area and distance within which youth play in Erie County, New York. The study found that youth tend to be physically active within a quarter-mile radius around their homes and to focus on one section of the often assumed circled neighbourhood.

Authors: Li Yin Samina Raja Xiao Li Yuan Lai
Publication year: 2013

Business Development in the Perry Choice Neighborhood

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

This study provides an analysis of the number, composition, and types of businesses found in the Perry Choice Neighborhood.

Publication year: 2012

Neighborhood Support Services Report: A Needs Assessment of the Perry Choice Neighborhood

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

This report provides a needs assessment of the Perry Choice Neighborhood and a comprehensive Support Services Plan for the neighborhood.

Publication year: 2012

The Perry Choice Neighborhood – Neighborhood Based Supportive Service Network

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

This report described the Perry Choice Neighborhood Supportive Service Network. The proposed PCN Supportive Services Network will provide high quality case management and service coordination for residents through a partnership with the UB School of Social Work and the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority to ensure that the challenges facing residents wellbeing are met holistically and that residents receive the technical support they need to connect to appropriate services.

Publication year: 2012

The Walking Tours: Narratives About the Commodore Perry Housing Development

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

This report describes the results of the Perry Choice Neighborhood Walking Tours. The walking tours were designed to create person-to-person conversations with neighborhood residents and members of the planning team.

Publication year: 2012

Perry Choice Neighborhood Mini-Education Pipeline System

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

This report is part of a working paper series on the Perry Choice Neighborhood Mini-Education Pipeline Strategy. This working paper details the goals, structure, and organization of the Mini-Education Pipeline System.

Publication year: 2012

Perry Choice Neighborhood In-School Supportive Service Analysis

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

This report is part two of a working paper series on the Perry Choice Neighborhood Mini-Education Pipeline Strategy. This working paper provides and analysis and inventory of the existing in-school supportive services in the four MEP partner schools.

Publication year: 2012

Establishment of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority Section 3 Business Development and Employee Training Center: A Concept Paper

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

This concept paper outlines a strategy to use the HUD Section 3 Act to “capture” business development and employment opportunities to empower and produce economic self-sufficiency among public housing residents and other very low- and very-low income groups and to use these resources to transform their neighborhoods into great places to live, work and raise a family.

Publication year: 2012

The Perry Choice Neighborhood Supportive Service Network Management Structure

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

This report outlines the management structure for the Perry Choice Neighborhood – Neighborhood-Based Supportive Service System.

Publication year: 2012

The Perry Choice Neighborhood – Neighborhood-Based Supportive Service Collaborative

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

The Supportive Service Collaborative is a component of the PCN Supportive Services System. This report details the need for, the organization of, the mission and organization and management structures of the Collaborative.

Publication year: 2012

The Perry Choice Neighborhood – The Neighborhood-Based Supportive Service Network Funding Strategy

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

This preliminary assessment analyzes potential funding sources for the PCN Supportive Service Network.

Publication year: 2012

The Perry Choice Neighborhood Life Chances Center Overview Report

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

This report provides an overview of the BMHA-PCN Life Chances Center (LCC). The LCC is a proposed neighborhood-based multi-service community center which seeks to create a neighborhood anchor and centralized hub of activity in the Perry Choice Neighborhood.

Publication year: 2012

The Perry Choice Neighborhood Supportive Service Partner Report

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

This report provides an overview of each of the partners in the Perry Choice Neighborhood Supportive Service Network.

Publication year: 2012

The Perry Choice Neighborhood Supportive Service System Threshold Plan

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

This report outlines a threshold plan for improving the supportive service infrastructure in the Perry Choice Neighborhood (PCN). This threshold plan provides a set of baseline ideas about the enhancement of supportive services in the PCN.

Publication year: 2012

The Perry Choice Neighborhood Service Delivery Analysis Report

Project Name:

Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority - Perry Choice Neighborhood Transformation Project
Description:

This report examines the spatial distribution of supportive services and institutions within the framework of the Perry Choice Neighborhood and Commodore Perry Development and examines the perspectives of both the residents and the service providers with regards to the current service delivery framework.

Publication year: 2012

The Four Horseman of the Fair Housing Apocalypse: A Critique of Fair Housing Policy in the USA

Description:

This article examines US fair housing policy from a critical perspective.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman, and Kelly L. Patterson
Publication year: 2012

Dawn of the Dead City: An Exploratory Analysis of Vacant Addresses in Buffalo, NY 2008-2010

Description:

This article examines residential vacancy patterns in Buffalo, NY, using data from a unique data set.

Authors: Li Yin, Robert Mark Silverman, and Kelly Patterson
Publication year: 2012

The Nonprofitization of Public Education: Implications of Requiring Charter Schools to be Nonprofits in New York

Description:

This article examines charter schools applying a nonprofit conceptual frame of reference.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2012

Making Waves or Treading Water? An Analysis of Charter Schools in New York State

Description:

This article compares charter schools and other public schools in New York State.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2012

he Nonprofitization of Public Education: Implications of Requiring Charter Schools to be Nonprofits in New York

Description:

This article examines charter schools applying a nonprofit conceptual frame of reference. The proliferation of charter schools is framed as a form of nonprofitization of public education. The implications of this trend are discussed. This discussion is contextualized through an examination of charter schools in New York. The case analysis is supported with data from the New York State Department of Education, the US Census Public Education Finance Report, and IRS Form 990 data. The findings suggest that there is mixed evidence for better school outcomes between charter schools and other public schools, while differences that do exist may be driven by socio-economic inequalities and other factors. This raises questions about the future of nonprofit schools and the degree to which they are accountable to traditional constituencies served by the public education system.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2012

The four horsemen of the fair housing apocalypse: A critique of fair housing policy in the USA

Description:

This article examines US fair housing policy from a critical perspective. We describe the impact of the expansion of neoliberal ideology on the fair housing assistance program (FHAP), the fair housing initiatives program (FHIP), and the scope of US Department of Justice activities. Prior findings from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and IRS Form 990 are summarized. We argue that neoliberalism has contributed to the underdevelopment, underfunding, and poor implementation of US fair housing policy. We offer three recommendations for fair housing reform. The first focuses on the need to remove fair housing activities from HUD and place them in an independent fair housing agency. The second focuses on the need for the federal government to mandate fair housing enforcement across all governmental programs and agencies. The third focuses on the need for increased lobbying, litigation, and activism by community-based advocacy organizations for reform.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2012

Report on Community Meetings for Residents of McCarley Gardens

Project Name:

The Fruit Belt Redevelopment Project
Description:

This report is on the first of three meetings with residents of Buffalo’s Fruit Belt Neighborhood, which will be held regarding the construction of 49 new town houses that St. John Fruit Belt Community Development Corporation will be building in the neighborhood.

Publication year: 2011

Back to the Future: Public Schools as Neighborhood Anchor Institutions

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., D. Gavin Luter Linda McGlynn
Publication year: 2011

International tourism in Cuba: Can capitalism be used to save socialism

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. and Linda McGlynn
Publication year: 2011

How local public administrators, nonprofit providers, and elected officials perceive impediments to fair housing in the suburbs: an analysis of Erie County, New York

Description:

This article examines how local public officials, nonprofit providers, and elected officials in the suburbs of Erie County, NY perceive impediments to fair housing.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman and Kelly Patterson
Publication year: 2011

The effects of perceived funding trends on non-profit advocacy

Description:

This paper seeks to examine executive directors’ perceptions of the relationships between access to funding and an organization’s programmatic and advocacy activities.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman and Kelly Patterson
Publication year: 2011

A Case for Expanding Nonprofit Activities in Affordable Housing: An Analysis of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Outcomes 1987-2006

Description:

This article compares nonprofit outcomes in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program to outcomes in the private and public sector.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman and Kelly Patterson
Publication year: 2011

Black Real Estate Professionals’ Perceptions of Career Opportunities: The Economic Detour Redux

Description:

This article focuses on black professionals’ perceptions of career opportunities in the real estate industry and discrimination in housing markets. The analysis is based on a national survey of black real estate professionals administered between July and December of 2009.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2011

Debt to Society: Asset Poverty and Prisoner Reentry

Description:

Every year, millions of people exit American jails and prisons and attempt to reintegrate into society. Ex-offenders face many obstacles during the transition. Scholars contend that securing employment is central to a successful transition. A job that allows an ex-offender to earn an income above the poverty line is especially significant, recent studies have shown. Consequently, many prisoner reentry initiatives are focused on expanding employment opportunities for ex-offenders. However, the almost exclusive emphasis on employment as the measurement of economic well-being is short-sighted because it ignores the importance of financial education and asset ownership. Prisoner reentry programs should include an emphasis on financial education in addition to an emphasis on employment as a means of reducing recidivism rates and improving the economic well-being of the ex-offenders and receiving communities. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy implications.

Authors: Lori Martin
Publication year: 2011

Geovisualizing Childrens transport exclusion: Childrens Afterschool Activity Opportunities in the Buffalo Metropolitan Area

Description:

This research investigates current and potentially desired opportunities available for children’s afterschool activities in the U.S. Buffalo metropolitan area. By analyzing and geographically visualizing travel paths, excluded children’s activity space, and existing activity opportunities in the 3D view using GIS, the study looks at how children’s activity opportunities are limited by any socio-spatial factors such as racial distribution,
median income, current transportation system and geographical distribution of activity opportunity. Especially, it focuses on finding out if there have been children’s unequal activity opportunities between the city and the suburban area. There is an abundance of research that has looked at accessibility to opportunities based on the transportation system. However, only few studies have focused on children’s mobility even though their mobility is typically constrained and tied to those of adults in the household. With more direct engagement with children and representation of their activity space in GIS, this article is intended to discuss transport exclusion and related socio-spatial constraints from the perspective of children.

Authors: Jin-Kyu Jung
Publication year: 2011

Including Voices of the Excluded: Lessons from Buffalo, NY

Description:

This chapter examines two community development case studies related to social inclusion and exclusion in the public participation process. Each focuses on dimensions of public participation in community development organizations and processes. The first case study examines the role of public participation in the governance of community-based housing organizations in Buffalo, NY. Here, public participation is examined in relation to organizational autonomy, patronage politics and bureaucratic structures. This case study illustrates how grassroots control of community-based housing organizations is reduced by institutional constraints placed on community development activities. The second case study examines a neighborhood planning project in Depew, NY (an industrial suburb of Buffalo). The scope and impact of public participation is explored in the context of planning techniques applied to neighborhood revitalization efforts in Depew. Competing interests among residents, business and local government are explored. This case study focuses on the manner in which university-based consultants working on community development projects approach resident empowerment. Constraints on achieving full participation due to limited capacity in the public sector are discussed. Combined, the two case studies highlight the barriers to expanding the voice of disenfranchised groups in the governance of grassroots organizations and the planning of neighborhood development projects. Lessons are drawn from these case studies to outline strategies for expanding the scope of public participation in community development activities, particularly in relation to the role of disadvantaged groups in grassroots decision-making.

Authors: Henry Louis Taylor
Publication year: 2011

The Historic Roots of the Crisis in Housing Affordability: The Case of Buffalo, New York, 1920-1950

Project Name:

The Historic Roots of the Crisis in Housing Affordability: The Case of Buffalo, New York, 1920-1950
Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr.
Publication year: 2011

The effects of perceived funding trends on nonprofit advocacy: A national survey of nonprofit advocacy organizations in the United States

Description:

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine executive directors’ perceptions of the relationship between access to funding and an organization’s programmatic and advocacy activities. Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on data from a national survey of executive directors of non-profit advocacy organizations in the USA. The organizations were selected because they served minority and disadvantaged groups, and were heavily reliant on public funding. Findings – The findings indicate that several factors are associated with how organizations balance their programmatic and advocacy activities. They include dependence on public funding, constituencies served, and perception of funders. Despite evidence for institutional pressures to reduce advocacy activities, the results indicate that such activities are sustainable in organizations with a strong individual donor base. In essence, a stable source of grassroots resources can counter institutional pressures to reduce advocacy. Research limitations/implications – This study focuses on a specific subgroup of advocacy organizations. Although it offers insights into their perceptions, the findings do not necessarily reflect more general perceptions. Social implications – The findings enhance understanding of impediments to non-profit advocacy that stem from trends in public funding and regulations related to non-profit lobbying and advocacy activities. The findings also enhance understanding of the extent to which the influences of the emerging non-profit industrial complex are offset by traditional grassroots support for non-profit advocacy. Originality/value – This paper adds to the body of research on non-profit decision making in relation to the balance between programmatic and advocacy work. It adds to the understanding of how organizations interface with larger institutions in society and the constraints that institutional ties entail.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2011

How Unwavering Is Support for the Local Property Tax?: Voting on School District Budgets in New York, 2003-2010

Description:

This article examines voting results for school district budgets in New York from 2003-2010. Despite annual local property tax increases, 91.9% of proposed school district budgets were approved by voters during the period examined. Using data from the New York State Education Department (NYSED) and the American Community Survey (ACS), several socioeconomic variables influencing school district budget voting are examined. The findings indicate that school districts serving larger populations are more likely to vote for local property tax increases. However, these effects are mitigated by the size of minority populations in a district, overall growth in school budgets, and increased voter turnout. In light of these findings, recommendations are made to assist school boards and administrators in planning school finance policy. It is argued that school districts should adopt participatory budget tools and enhance community-based decision-making in order to promote sustainable educational resources.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2011

The Highland Avenue Brownfield Opportunity Area Nomination Document

Project Name:

The Highland Avenue Brownfield Opportunity Area Project
Description:

This Nomination Document is the product of the Step 2 Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) Program for the Highland Community Area in Niagara Falls, NY. The City of Niagara Falls, through their involvement in the BOA Program and the development of this document, has embarked on a journey to transform approximately 560 acres – of which more than 275 is brownfield land – into a more prosperous, economically diverse, socially strong, high quality, safe destination for new employment, residential and community uses.

Publication year: 2010

Non-Married Women and Black Ethnicity: An Analysis of the Likelihood of Homeownership

Description:

The number of non-married women is on the rise in America and these women are making their presence known, especially where homeownership is concerned. Non-married women are among the fastest growing segment of first time home buyers. Despite these recent trends, few studies have examined the determinants of homeownership for this group. For the few studies that have not ignored this population, most examine differences between non-married Black and White females, but most do not address within group differences. The present study uses data from the 2000 decennial census to determine if ethnicity matters for non-married Black women. The results show that ethnicity explains some, but not all, of the variations of homeownership for non-married Black women

Authors: Lori Martin
Publication year: 2010

Extending the Qualitative Capabilities of GIS: Computer-Aided Qualitative GIS

Description:

A number of approaches for integrating GIS and qualitative research have emerged in recent years, as part of a resurgence of interest in mixed methods research in geography. These efforts to integrate qualitative data and qualitative analysis techniques complement a longstanding focus in GIScience upon ways of handling qualitative forms of spatial data and reasoning in digital environments, and extend engagements with ‘the qualitative’ in GIScience to include discussions of research methodologies. This article contributes to these emerging qualitative GIS methodologies by describing the structures and functions of ‘computer-aided qualitative GIS’ (CAQ-GIS), an approach for storing and analyzing qualitative, quantitative, and geovisual data in both GIS and computer aided data analysis software. CAQ-GIS uses modified structures from conventional desktop GIS to support storage of qualitative data and analytical codes, together with a parallel coding and analysis process carried out with GIS and a computer-aided data analysis software package. The inductive mixed methods analysis potential of CAQ-GIS is demonstrated with examples from research on children’s urban geographies.

Authors: Jin-Kyu Jung
Publication year: 2010

The Community as Classroom Initiative: The Case of Futures Academy in Buffalo, New York

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor
Publication year: 2010

The Establishment of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Section 3 Employment and Business Development Center

Project Name:

The Establishment of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Section 3 Employment and Business Development Center
Description:

This concept paper outlines a strategy to use the HUD Section 3 Act to “capture” business development and employment opportunities to
empower and produce economic self-sufficiency among public housing residents and other low- and very-low income groups and to use these resources to transform their neighborhoods into great places to live, work and raise a family

Authors: Henry Louis Taylor Jr
Publication year: 2010

Food Environment, Built Environment, and Women ‘s BMI: Evidence from Erie County, New York

Description:

Abstract:

The authors present the results of a neighborhood-scaled exploratory study that tests the association of the
food environment and the built environment with women’s body mass index (BMI) in Erie County, New
York. The proximity of women’s homes to a supermarket relative to a convenience store is associated with
lower BMI. A diverse land use mix in a neighborhood is positively associated with women’s BMI, especially
when restaurants dominate nonresidential land use. The article offers suggestions for how food environments
may be improved using planning strategies

Authors: Li Yin
Publication year: 2010

Public Participation and Community Outreach for the Highland Avenue ‐ Step 2 BOA Nomination Study

Project Name:

The Highland Avenue Brownfield Opportunity Area Project
Description:

This report sets clear public participation and community outreach strategies for the Highland Avenue ‐ Step 2 BOA Nomination Study.

Publication year: 2009

Community Outreach for the Development of a Community Vision to Inform a Community Benefit Agreement Between the University at Buffalo and the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus

Project Name:

The Fruit Belt Redevelopment Project
Description:

This plan details the results of a community outreach strategy to inform the creation of a community benefits agreement among UB, he BNMC and the Fruitbelt Neighborhood.

Publication year: 2009

A Social Resettlement Plan for the McCarley Gardens

Project Name:

The Fruit Belt Redevelopment Project
Description:

This report is a proposal to the St.John Fruit Belt Development Corporation for the completion of a comprehensive study for a resettlement plan for residents of McCarley Gardens in Buffalo.

Publication year: 2009

The Futures Academy Community Garden Project

Project Name:

Futures Academy Community & Creative Placemaking Initiative
Description:

This report proposes the creation of the Futures Academy Community Garden in a series of vacant, city-owned parcels across from Buffalo Public School 37.

Publication year: 2009

The Historical Overview of Blacks in the Fruit Belt: The Continuing Struggle to Build a Vibrant Community

Project Name:

The Fruit belt Redevelopment Project
Description:

This report provides and overview of the history of blacks in Buffalo’s Fruit Belt and the classic tale of how urban policies have destabilized the African American community and robbed low to moderate‐income blacks of the wealth producing power of home-ownership.

Publication year: 2009

The Connection: Schooling, Youth Development, and Community Building – The Futures Academy Case

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. and Linda McGlynn
Publication year: 2009

Nonprofit perceptions of local government performance in affordable housing

Description:

The purpose of this paper is to examine how executive directors of nonprofit organizations perceive local government performance in affordable housing. It builds on a larger body of research concerning the affordable housing activities of government and community-based nonprofit housing organizations at the local level.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2009

Perceptions of Nonprofit Funding Decisions: A Survey of Local Public Administrators and Executive Directors of Community-Based Housing Organizations

Description:

This article compares how local public administrators and executive directors of community-based housing organizations (CBHO) perceive nonprofit funding decisions.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2009

Computer-Aided Qualitative GIS: A Software-Level Integration of Qualitative Research and GIS

Description:

A growing number of geographers are conducting mixed methods research involving the integration of quantitative and qualitative data in GIS. Contributing to these efforts, this chapter describes software-level modifications that adapt GIS to enable inclusion of qualitative data as well as interpretive codes associated with these data. These innovations enable GIS to serve as a platform for dynamically integrating quantitative and qualitative data throughout the analysis process. Further, this chapter shows how GIS may be meshed with computer-aided qualitative analysis software (CAQDAS) to support inductive interpretive analysis. The value of GIS is in its ability to represent both qualitative and quantitative data along with their spatial information, and the value of CAQDAS lies in its ability to provide better means of storing, managing, and analyzing qualitative data. The system described here enables researchers to take advantage of all of these capabilities as they are working with multiple forms of data. Further, the linkage between GIS and CAQDAS that I have developed enables researchers to carry out many different forms of analysis, such as exploratory data visualization, conventional forms of spatial analysis, grounded theory, and other approaches.

Authors: Jin-Kyu Jung
Publication year: 2009

The connection: schooling, youth development, and community building-The Futures Academy case.

Description:

Universities, because of their vast human and fiscal resources, can play the central role in assisting in the development of school-centered community development programs that make youth development their top priority. The Futures Academy, a K-8 public school in the Fruit Belt, an inner-city neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, offers a useful model of community development in partnership with the Center for Urban Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo. The goal of the project is to create opportunities for students to apply the knowledge and skills they learn in the classroom to the goal of working with others to make the neighborhood a better place to live. The efforts seek to realize in practice the Dewey dictum that individuals learn best when they have “a real motive behind and a real outcome ahead.”

Authors: Henry Louis Taylor Linda McGlynn
Publication year: 2009

Cincinnati, 1877-1896

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor
Publication year: 2009

Solving the Deway Problem: Where do we go from here?

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor Linda McGlynn
Publication year: 2009

Sandwiched between Patronage and Bureaucracy: The Plight of Citizen Participation in Community-based Housing Organisations in the US

Description:

This article examines how directors of community-based housing organisations (CBHOs) in the US define the role of citizen participation in their organisations. In particular, it describes how local political and administrative structures affect the scope of citizen participation in the governance and decision-making processes of CBHOs. This is an important topic since these organisations implement housing and community development programmes in urban neighbourhoods, and citizen participation has been considered important to the legitimacy of these efforts. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with CBHO executive directors in Buffalo, New York. In particular, the executive directors of CBHOs that concentrate their efforts on the management, development and rehabilitation of affordable housing were interviewed. In addition to data from in-depth interviews, data from fieldnotes, the US census, IRS 990 forms and informal conversations with local government officials and representatives of intermediary organisations were used in the analysis. Existing theories concerning citizen participation and non-profit administration are elaborated upon and applied to CBHOs. The extent to which these organisations create opportunities for grassroots planning is considered and recommendations for expanding citizen participation are proposed.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2009

Report on the Brownfield Opportunity Area Mini‐ Course

Project Name:

The Highland Avenue Brownfield Opportunity Area Project
Description:

This publication reports on the completion of a Brownfield Mini-Course that was to created to solidify a common knowledge base and language on brownfield development between neighborhood residents and stakeholders and City Officials and the project consultant team and to provide residents with deeper insight into brownfield development so that might participate at a higher level in community visioning and planning sessions.

Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr.
Publication year: 2008

Solving the Dewey Problem: Where Do We Go From Here?

Description:

The purpose of this essay is to contribute to the development of the Penn Thesis by identifying the major challenges that must be overcome to advance Dewey’s goal of transforming the United States into a socially just, participatory, democratic society.

Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. and Linda McGlynn
Publication year: 2008

The Hidden Face of Racism

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr.
Publication year: 2008

The role of citizen participation and action research principles in Main Street revitalization

Description:

This article examines the use of citizen participation techniques during the planning process for neighborhood revitalization in the Village of Depew which is an industrial suburb of Buffalo, New York. The article focuses on how research principles can inform and enhance traditional approaches to citizen participation.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman, Henry Louis Taylor Jr., and Christopher Crawford
Publication year: 2008

Mortgage Lending Disparities in Metropolitan Buffalo: Implications for Community Reinvestment Policy

Description:

This article examines patterns of mortgage lending in metropolitan Buffalo, New York.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2008

CBOs and Affordable Housing

Description:

Since the late 1960s, community based organizations (CBSs) have become increasingly responsible for implementing affordable housing policy. Scholars have referred to this process ass the non-profitization and devolution.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2008

The Influence of Nonprofit Networks on Local Affordable Housing Funding

Description:

This article examines public administrators’ perceptions on the effects of non-profit networks on local affordable housing activities of community-based organizations (CBSs).

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2008

Sandwiched between Patronage and Bureaucracy: The Plight of Citizen Participation in Community-based Housing Organisations in the US

Description:

This article examines how directors of community-based housing organizations (CBHOs) in the US define the role of citizen participation in their organisations.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2008

Black asset ownership: Does ethnicity matter?

Description:

Research has shown that blacks are relatively disadvantaged when compared with whites on a host of sociological indicators including on income, education and occupational status. Recent research has shown blacks are not all equally disadvantaged. In some cases such as in the case of blacks in Queens County, New York, blacks surpass whites in terms of median income, especially foreign-born blacks. Yet, blacks fare worse when compared with whites on indicators of asset ownership. Despite that, some black ethnic groups including those with roots in the Caribbean or from Africa have been shown to have higher rates of home ownership and higher housing values than African-Americans. However, few studies include measures of asset ownership beyond these indicators when assessing the extent to which ethnicity matters for blacks. The present study examines the following research questions: (1) What factors explain variations in the likelihood of ownership and the levels of interest, dividends and rental income owned for blacks? (2) Is ethnicity a significant predictor for black respondents? (3) Does education and occupation matter more for some black ethnic groups than for others? The findings reveal that ethnicity plays a significant role in the acquisition and accumulation of interest, dividends and rental income, but it does not account for all of the variations observed for blacks. The findings shed further light on the complexities associated with understanding wealth inequality and racial and ethnic group variations.

Authors: Lori Martin
Publication year: 2008

Cashing in on the American Dream: Racial Differences in Housing Values 1970–2000

Description:

Home ownership represents much more than shelter; home ownership is also indicative of an individual’s or a group’s social and economic standing. Racial and ethnic differences have been observed not only in home ownership but also in housing values. The present study examines the extent to which differences in housing values between Asians, blacks, Hispanics and whites, and among black ethnic groups, can be attributed to race and ethnicity or to other sociological factors such as age, gender, marital status, region, occupational score, nativity, year of immigration and English proficiency. Changes in the determinants of housing values between 1970 and 2000 are assessed over time as well as changes in the level of inequality on housing values between whites and non‐whites. The findings reveal that the housing gap between whites and non‐whites over the past few decades has actually grown over time. As home values make up the largest component of the average American’s portfolio, these findings may be significant in understanding and explaining the persistence of the racial wealth gap in America.

Authors: Lori Martin
Publication year: 2008

Strategic Assimilation or Creation of Symbolic Blackness: Middle-Class Blacks in Suburban Contexts

Description:

The black middle class has been the subject of a great deal of scholarly inquiry. Recently, scholars have directed their attention towards understanding how middle class blacks negotiate their racial identity. Some contend that blacks engage in strategic assimilation, working and sometimes living alongside members of the dominant group, while simultaneously maintaining social ties with members of their own racial group. To examine changes in the size and composition of the black middle class in various suburban contexts comparisons were made of selected demographic data from 1990 and 2000. The purpose of the study is to see if middle class blacks are engaging in strategic assimilation. The findings reveal that the size of the black middle class increased between 1990 and 2000 and that demographic differences exist between members of the black middle class based upon whether or not they reside inside or outside of the suburbs. The findings support the contention that middle class blacks are not engaging in strategic assimilation.

Authors: Lori Martin
Publication year: 2008

Using Capitalism to Save Socialism: International Tourism in Havana, Cuba

Description:

Following the fall of the Soviet Bloc in 1989, a somber Fidel Castro informed the Cuban
people that their Revolution hovered on the brink of disaster. Faced with an
unprecedented economic crisis and few options, the Cuban government, reluctantly
returned to international tourism as the foundation for economic salvation. Since then
international tourism has multiplied fifteen-fold. While reintroducing tourism may have
saved Cuba from a political and economic catastrophe – foreign tourists, mostly from
capitalist countries, have enabled Cuba and the Revolution to survive – this use of
capitalism to save socialism has also produced formidable challenges. In particular, the
emergence of a consumer culture and the subsequent ‘‘dollarization’’ of the economy, pose
a grave threat to Cuban society as products are increasingly evaluated, purchased, and
consumed on the basis of their symbolic content and meaning for social status.
Nonetheless, it will be argued in this paper that since Cuban society remains anchored by
highly functional, stable, well-organized neighborhoods and a flourishing, innovative
informal economy, embedded values of cooperation may serve as a counteractive force to
the rise of a culture of consumerism and materialism. Based on this premise, the paper
concludes with an examination of three possible scenarios for the future of tourism in
Cuba.

Authors: Henry Louis Taylor Linda McGlynn
Publication year: 2008

The role of citizen participation and action research principles in Main Street revitalization: An analysis of a local planning project

Description:

This article examines the use of citizen participation techniques during the planning process for neighborhood revitalization in the Village of Depew which is an industrial suburb of Buffalo, New York. The article focuses on how action research principles can inform and enhance traditional approaches to citizen participation. In particular, we discuss our role as university-based consultants in the local planning process and how drawing from action research principles helped us remain focused on advocating for broad-based citizen participation. Our analysis was based on the application of action research principles and participant observation techniques. During the time that each of us was involved in the planning process for Depew’s neighborhood revitalization, reflexive field notes and other data were collected. The article critiques how citizen participation was used to plan for neighborhood revitalization in Depew, and discusses the degree to which action research principles can be applied to future citizen participation efforts.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman Henry Louis Taylor Christopher G. Crawford
Publication year: 2008

CBOs and affordable housing

Description:
Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2008

The Influence of Nonprofit Networks on Local Affordable Housing Funding: Findings from a National Survey of Local Public Administrators

Description:
This article examines public administrators’ perceptions of the effects of non- profit networks on local affordable housing decisions. It builds on a larger body of research concerning the affordable housing activities of community- based organizations (CBOs). This analysis is based on a national survey of public administrators responsible for affordable housing programs in U.S. cities with populations over 100,000. The survey included questions about: CBO performance, factors influencing CBO funding decisions, and local government structure. This article provides insights into decision-making surrounding CBO funding at the local level. These insights improve our understanding of the connection between public administrators’ perceptions, funding patterns, and interorganizational relations.
Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2008

The Dynamics of Land Development in Resort Communities: A Multi-agent Simulation of Growth Regimes and Housing Choice

Description:
Over the past thirty years, recreation communities in many parts of the globe have gone through cycles of diversification and integration into complex recreation regions. As resort communities mature, they face increasing pressures on scarce recreational resources, demands for economic diversification, and changing attitudes toward tourism on the part of local residents. A variety of land-use management practices and economic development initiatives has emerged in resort towns in response to resource congestion and other growth issues. In this paper we explore alternative growth strategies through a simulation of housing decisions by primary actors in resort land markets. We use a multi-agent system to model the dynamics of growth regimes, assess the influence of recreational and town amenities, and evaluate the effect of alternative growth processes on long-term development patterns. Our case study area is Steamboat Springs and surrounding parts of Routt County, a four-season recreational region in northwestern Colorado.
Authors: Li Yin Brian Muller Yuseung Kim
Publication year: 2008

The Dynamics of Residential Segregation in Buffalo: An Agent-Based Simulation

Description:

Abstract
Race and class factors have been studied as underlying causes of segregation for many
years. Individual choices on race and economic constraints of living in one area versus
another play an important role in residential segregation. An attempt has not yet been
made to simulate the interplay of neighborhood racial and economic composition
in forming segregation using empirical micro-level data. Using City of Buffalo data,
this study explores how individuals’ housing location choices with respect to racial
composition and housing sale prices in their neighborhoods can give rise to aggregate
patterns of residential segregation and how segregation at one point in time was
contributing to increased segregation at later stages. The results show that observed
patterns of segregation in the city could plausibly arise from the interaction of racial
and economic factors. This study also demonstrates the application of such models
on exploring the possible effects of proposed integration efforts.

Authors: Li Yin
Publication year: 2008

Regional Governance and Hazard Information: The Role of Co-ordinated Risk Assessment and Regional Spatial Accounting in Wildfire Hazard Mitigation

Description:

Abstract:

With the threat of wildfire hanging over many communities in the Western and Southern United States, wildfire mitigation is evolving into a significant public responsibility for rural and urban edge county governments. Regional governance is an important piece of the effort to reduce wildfire risks although still weakly developed as a policy arena. This project explores two dimensions in which planning support systems can support regional governance: assessing patterns of wildfire risk accumulation; and, evaluating land use planning alternatives and their effects on cumulative risk levels. These tools are examined for regional governance using a prototype planning information system, the Alternative Growth Futures (AGF) tool, a scenario-building approach developed at the University of Colorado Denver. The project develops a hybrid urban growth model that integrates logistic regression techniques and methods for simulation of growth alternatives. This model is used to evaluate the attractiveness of undeveloped building sites with respect to natural amenities, distance to primary urban services and site characteristics such as slope. The model and scenario-testing framework are reasonably robust and suggest that regional spatial accounting methods have potential as a framework for inter-governmental and public discussion around wildfire planning.

Authors: Brian Muller Lin Yin
Publication year: 2008

Brown to Green: Building a 21st Century Sustainable Community, A Strategic Plan for Regeneration of the Highland Avenue Community Niagara Falls, New York

Project Name:

The Highland Avenue Brownfield Opportunity Area Project
Description:

This proposal outlines a regeneration strategy for Niagara Falls’ Highland Avenue Community. The goal is to develop a strategic plan that identifies five priority projects that will function as catalysts that will spawn the community’s rebirth.

Publication year: 2007

Highland Avenue Public Participation Plan

Project Name:

The Highland Avenue Brownfield Opportunity Area Project
Description:

This is a proposal to the City of Niagara Falls to develop and implement a public participation plan for the Highland Avenue Brownfield Opportunity Area Step 2 Nomination Study.

Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr.
Publication year: 2007

Building a Better Neighborhood Housing Partnership

Description:

Prior research has examined the role of intermediary organizations in affordable housing development and community-based housing organization (CBHO) capacity building. This article builds on this work by examining an applied research project aimed at assessing the feasibility of creating a neighborhood housing partnership (NHP) organization in Buffalo, New York.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman and Kelly Patterson
Publication year: 2007

Building a better neighborhood housing partnership. Housing and Society

Description:
 Prior research has examined the role of intermediary organizations non-affordable housing development and community-based housing organization(CBHO) capacity building. This article built on this work by examining an applied research project aimed at assessing the feasibility of creating a neighborhood housing partnership (NHP) organization in Buffalo, New York. NHPs are
nonprofit umbrella organizations created through public-private partnerships.
They provide technical assistance, training, monitoring, and funding support to local CBHOs. This research was based on case study analysis. Selected NHP best practices in western New York and northeastern Ohio were described, and CBHO capacity in Buffalo was examined. Recommendations were discussed for 
reforms to Buffalo’s nonprofit housing sector shaped by institutional conditions in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. This analysis highlighted how local 
intermediaries need to be designed in response to these conditions, and offers insights into why NHP structures vary across the U.S.
Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2007

The Neighborhood and Home Environments: Disparate Relationships with Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviors in Youth” Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Description:

To increase participation in physical activity, it is important to understand the factors associated with a child’s choice to be physically active or sedentary. The neighborhood and home environments may be related to this choice. To determine whether the neighborhood environment or number of televisions in the home environment are independently associated with child physical activity and television time. The associations of the neighborhood and home environments on active and sedentary behaviors were studied in 44 boys and 44 girls who wore accelerometers and recorded their television watching behaviors. Neighborhood environment variables were measured using extensive geographic information systems analysis. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to predict physical activity after controlling for individual differences in age, socioeconomic status, percentage overweight, and time the accelerometer was worn in Step 1. Sex of the child was added in Step 2. A neighborhood design variable, street connectivity, accounted for an additional 6% (p <or= .01) of the variability in physical activity in Step 3. A block of variables including a measure of neighborhood land use diversity, percentage park area, and the interaction of Percentage Park Area x Sex then accounted for a further 9% (p <or= .01) of the variability in physical activity in Step 4. Increased access to parks was related to increased physical activity in boys but not in girls. The number of televisions in the home accounted for 6% (p <or= .05) of the variability in television watching behavior. Neighborhood environment variables did not predict television watching that occurs in the home. The neighborhood environment is more strongly associated with physical activity of boys than girls. Sedentary behaviors are associated with access to television in the home environment. To promote physical activity in children, planners need to design environments that support active living and parents should limit access to television viewing in the home.

Authors: James N Roemmich Leonard H. Epstein Samina Raja Li Yin
Publication year: 2007

Residential Location and the Biophysical Environment: Exurban Development Agents in a Heterogeneous Landscape

Description:

Abstract. Agent-based models offer a promising framework for analyzing interactions between agents
and a heterogeneous landscape. Researchers have identified a complex of factors that influence
exurban development, including demographic shifts and location attractiveness of natural amenities
as a magnet to amenity-seeking migrants. Attractiveness is often defined in terms of local or on-lot
amenities, including scenic views, the availability of natural features, and low levels of noise. However, exurban-growth models have not fully incorporated a fundamental insight of this literature, that
the location behavior of exurban residents is sensitive to fine-grained variations in their biophysical
environment. In this study we evaluate how agents and households operate in exurban environments
and respond to biophysical features. We simulate household decision-making in terms of preferences
for features such as site accessibility, two-dimensional amenities, and three-dimensional scenic views.
Our results show that, as we build two-dimensional and three-dimensional landscape layers, our
model captures the characteristics of landscape change with increasing accuracy. This approach has
considerable potential to improve our ability to describe development dynamics in heterogeneous
land markets.

Authors: Li Yin Brian Muller
Publication year: 2007

Assessing Indirect Spatial Effects of Mountain Tourism Development: an Application of Agent-based Spatial Modeling

Description:
Abstract
Many resort communities in the U.S. Rocky Mountain West are experiencing rapid in-migration and growth because the natural and built amenities in those areas attracted people and investment. This study uses an agent-based model to explore how homeowners’ investment and reinvestment decisions are influenced by the level of investment and amenities available in their neighborhoods in a case study area of town of Breckenridge, Colorado to help understand the dynamics and the indirect spatial impacts of amenity-led mountain tour-ism development. This paper found that individual level of appreciation of amenities and continuing investment in a neighborhood attracted investment and reinvestment, and created pressure for high density resort housing development at the aggregate level. Agent-based model is a useful tool to simulate the dynamics behind the housing investment and reinvestment and to investigate the indirect spatial effects of high-density resort development.
Authors: Li Yin
Publication year: 2007

Understanding Residents Concerns Over The St. John Town House Initiative

Project Name:

The Fruit Belt Redevelopment Project
Description:

This report presents finding from four focus group meetings on resident’s concerns about the St. John Church Town House Initiative.

Publication year: 2006

Central city socio-economic characteristics and public participation strategies

Description:

This article aims to examine the mechanisms used by municipalities to stimulate public participation and, in part, to argue that contrasts between the socio-economic make-up of central cities in the USA and Canada explain these divergent techniques.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2006

Highland Avenue deserves help from Power Authority

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor
Publication year: 2006

Understanding Residents Concerns Over the St. John Town House Initiative

Project Name:

Understanding Residents Concerns Over the St. John Town House Initiative
Description:

This report presents finding from four focus group meetings on resident’s concerns about the St. John Church Town House Initiative in Buffalo, NY.

Authors: Dr. Henry Louis Taylor, Jr.
Publication year: 2006

Central city socio-economic characteristics and public participation strategies: A comparative analysis of the Niagara region’s municipalities in the U.S. and Canada, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

Description:

Purpose – This article aims to examine the mechanisms used by municipalities to stimulate public participation and, in part, to argue that contrasts between the socio-economic make-up of central cities in the USA and Canada explain these divergent techniques. Design/methodology/approach – The article is based on a survey of planning departments measuring the types of public participation strategies used by local governments. Findings – The article’s findings indicate that Canadian municipalities adopt a broader range of public participation techniques related to: voluntarism and public engagement, neighborhood and strategic planning, and e-government. In contrast, the article’s findings indicate that US municipalities are more likely to promote public participation through mechanisms such as annual community meetings and referendums on public issues. Research limitations/implications – The conclusion of the article offers recommendations for expanding the scope of public participation and developing strategies that maximize citizen input in community development activities in both countries. Practical implications – The survey was conducted to identify the scope of public participation techniques used by local governments in the Niagara region. One limitation of this methodology is that it does not gauge the effectiveness of the participation techniques used by local governments or the intensity of public engagement. However, the results from this study provide future researchers with a mechanism for focusing future analysis. Originality/value – The findings can assist in identifying new directions for enhancing public participation in the USA and Canada.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2006

Association of access to parks and recreational facilities with the physical activity of young children

Description:

Abstract: Objective.To determine associations of the neighborhood and home television environments with young children’s physical activity.Method.32 boys and 27 girls age 4 to 7 years wore accelerometers for 3 weekdays and 1 weekend day. The number of televisions in the home and television watching of the child were monitored using TV Allowance™units for 3 weeks. A geographic information system was used to measure neighborhood environment variables.Results.Hierarchical regression analysis was used to predict physical activity, initially controlling for sex, age, socioeconomic status, adiposity,and child television watching in step 1. In step 2, the number of televisions did not significantly increase the amount of variability accounted for in the prediction of physical activity. In step 3, housing density and the interaction of housing density by sex accounted for an incremental 12%(p<0.05) of the variability and in step 4 percentage park plus recreation area accounted for a further 10% (p<0.05) of the variability. Greater housing density predicted increased physical activity of boys, but not girls.Conclusion.Neighborhoods with increased proximity between homes and a greater proportion of park area are associated with greater physical activity in young children

Authors: James Roemmich Leonard H. Epstein Samina Raja Li Yin Jodie Robinson Dana Winiewicz
Publication year: 2006

Caught in the Middle: Community Development Corporations (CDCs) and the Conflict between Grassroots and Instrumental Forms of Citizen Participation

Description:

This article examines the role of citizen participation in community development corporations (CDCs).

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2005

Community socioeconomic status and disparities in mortgage lending: An analysis of Metropolitan Detroit

Description:

This note examines the effects of community socioeconomic status on mortgage lending patterns in Metropolitan Detroit.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2005

Redlining in a Majority Black City?: Mortgage Lending and the Racial Composition of Detroit Neighborhoods

Description:

This article examines the effects of population and housing characteristics on mortgage lending patterns in the City of Detroit.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2005

The Battle over the Ex-Slave’s Fortune: The Story of Cynthia Hesdra

Description:

Few people are familiar with the name of Cynthia Hesdra. She was born a slave in the North During her lifetime though, she owned a successful laundry business and real estate in New York and New Jersey. She was also involved in the historic “underground railroad” station in Nyack, NY. She died at the age of 71 with a fortune estimated at around &100,000. By today’s standards she was a millionaire. Her family fought over her estate in a series of trials, which included a precedent setting trial involving handwriting analysis. The story of Cynthia Hesdra provided insight into the economic contributions of blacks in the North prior to the twentieth century. This article examines the life and times of Cynthis Hesdra and other blacks during her lifetime, using historic census data, court records, historic newspaper articles, and other sources. Initially, Cynthia Hesdra’s estate went to her husband, Edward, but the state would eventually take ownership of the ex-slave’s fortune.

Authors: Lori Martin
Publication year: 2005

A home of her own: an analysis of asset ownership for non-married black and white women

Description:

Race and gender are strong predictors of asset ownership including home ownership, self-employment and interest, dividends and rental income. Yet, seldom have the two concepts been linked in the socio-logical literature on wealth inequality. Additionally, potentially important determinants such as business income have often times been excluded from the analyses despite findings suggesting that business income may be an important indicator for racial and minority groups who would otherwise be regulated to employment in low status jobs in the secondary labor market.

Authors: Lori Martin
Publication year: 2005

Community socioeconomic status and disparities in mortgage lending: An analysis of Metropolitan Detroit

Description:

This note examines the effects of community socioeconomic status on mortgage lending patterns
in Metropolitan Detroit. Data from 2000 HMDA reports and the 2000 U.S. Census are analyzed using
multiple regression. The results from this analysis have two important implications for research on
mortgage lending. First, they indicate that the effects of variables linked to a community’s socioeconomic
status on mortgage lending patterns are highly intercorrelated. As a result, variations in mortgage lending
appear to be the result of the combined effects of a number of socioeconomic variables acting together.
Second, the results from this analysis indicate that the socioeconomic status of a community is positively
correlated with mortgage lending activity. In other words, a decline in neighborhood socioeconomic
status is significantly correlated with a decline in mortgage lending

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2005

From Theory to Practice: The Quest to Radically Reconstruct Buffalo’s Inner-City Neighborhoods

Project Name:

The Inner City Transformation Project
Description:
The Inner City Transformation Project (ICTP) was launched in 2001 to develop a model of community development that can be applied to the radical reconstruction of distressed neighborhoods in metropolitan Buffalo and similar size cities in the United States. The project is based on the assumption that distressed urban neighborhoods now represent the epicenter of racism and social class inequality in the United States and that the quest to dismantle racism must start with the radical reconstruction of these neighborhoods.
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr.
Publication year: 2004

The Masten District Neighborhood Plan

Description:
A Strategy for Redeveloping the Masten District and Transforming it into a great place to live, work, play and raise a family.
Authors: Center for Urban Studies
Publication year: 2004

The Masten District Plan

Project Name:

Masten District Revitalization
Description:

The Masten District Plan is a strategy for redeveloping Buffalo’s Masten district and transforming it into a great place to live, work, play and raise a family.

Publication year: 2004

The Fillmore Avenue Commercial Redevelopment Plan

Project Name:

The Fillmore Avenue Commercial Redevelopment Project
Description:

The Fillmore Avenue Commercial Redevelopment Plan provides a vision for the Fillmore Avenue commercial corridor that is one of a vibrant, thriving passageway that serves as the cultural commons for the Martin Luther King, Jr. neighborhood and a Gateway to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. The Fillmore commercial corridor will be a symbol of the vibrancy of King’s Dream and a place that brings people together from across the race and class divide to shop, play, and interact.

Authors: Sam Cole Henry Louis Taylor, Jr.
Publication year: 2004

Fruit Belt/Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Tax Increment Financing District

Description:

This proposal seeks to establish a TIF (Tax Increment Finance) district for this the Fruit Belt and the adjacent Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

Authors: Sam Cole Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. Richard Milgrom Samina Raja
Publication year: 2004

From Theory to Practice: The Quest to Radically Reconstruct Buffalo’s Inner City Neighborhoods

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor
Publication year: 2004

The Masten District Neighborhood Plan

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor
Publication year: 2004

The Fillmore Avenue Commercial Redevelopment Plan

Project Name:

Masten District Revitalization
Description:

This report provides a strategy for the commercial redevelopment of the Fillmore Avenue commercial corridor in Buffalo, New York. As the gateway to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, and the spine that holds the two western and eastern sections of the neighborhood, the redevelopment if the Fillmore Avenue commercial corridor is central to the redevelopment of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Neighborhood.

Publication year: 2003

Citizens’ District Councils in Detroit: The Promise and Limits of Using Planning Advisory Boards to Promote Citizen Participation

Description:

This article examines the promise and limits of using planning advisory board to augment citizen participation.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2003

Progressive Reform, Gender and Institutional Structure: A Critical Analysis of Citizen Participation in Detroit’s Community Development Corporations (CDCs)

Description:

This article examines the institutional context in which community-based organisations are embedded.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2003

Fruit Belt/Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Tax Increment Financing District

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor
Publication year: 2003

Progressive Reform, Gender and Institutional Structure: A Critical Analysis of Citizen Participation in Detroit’s Community Development Corporations (CDCs)

Description:

This article examines the institutional context in which community-based organisations are embedded. Two emergent themes in the literature on community development are
examined critically: the woman-centred model for community organising; and the thesis concerning the community development industry system. The analysis is based upon data from field
research with community development corporations (CDC) in Detroit, Michigan. The findings
from this research indicate that the prospects for developing progressive community development
strategies in grassroots organisations are constrained by barriers to financial resources and
limited access to the policy-making process. As a result, recommendations are forwarded for the
creation of autonomous funding sources, expanded democratic decision-making in communitybased organisations and the linking of progressive reform to broad-based coalition building and
multiple oppression politics.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2003

Futures Academy: The Case for Maintaining its Magnet/Residence School Status

Project Name:

Futures Academy Community & Creative Placemaking Initiative
Description:

The report makes the case for maintaining Buffalo Public School 37, Futures Academy, as a Magnet/Residence School. The retention of the school’s current status is one of the keys to successfully rebuilding the Fruit Belt/Medical Campus neighborhood. A strong pre-K through Eighth Grade elementary magnet/residential school is central to attracting new residents to the community.

Publication year: 2002

Vying for the Urban Poor: Charitable Organizations, Faith-Based Social Capital, and Racial Reconciliation in a Deep South City

Description:

In this article the mobilization of social capital is examined as it relates to the formation of collaborative partnerships among charitable organizations

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2002

Fruit Belt Redevelopment Plan: Preliminary Study

Project Name:

The Fruit Belt Redevelopment Project
Description:

This study follows two earlier works published by the Center for Urban Studies, The Turning Point: A Strategic Plan of Action for the Fruitbelt/Medical Corridor (March 27, 2001) and Fruit Belt/Medical Corridor Tax Increment Financing District (February 12, 2002). The original report argued that better social, economic and physical connections could be established between the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC), a wealth generating district within the city, and the adjacent Fruit Belt residential area, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Buffalo.

The study documented in this report was the first attempt to visualize the physical potential of the residential neighborhood. The work took as proceeded under the assumptions stated in the earlier reports about the amount of residential and commercial / social amenity space that could be anticipated in this redevelopment. It was viewed as an opportunity for the existing community members to make initial suggestions about development they would like to see.

Authors: Center for Urban Studies Richard Milgrom
Publication year: 2002

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Cultural District & Cultural Corridor: A Strategic Plan and Action Agenda For the Masten District

Description:

The purpose of this report is to develop a strategic plan and action agenda for Buffalo’s Masten District, which is based on the turning point threshold concept. Every neighborhood has a turning point threshold, which is that point where a snowballing effect takes place that transform the neighborhood when investments rise above it. The ultimate goal of this project is to outline a plan, which if successfully implemented, will push the Masten District beyond the turning point threshold.

Publication year: 2001

The Turning Point: A Strategic Plan and Action Agenda for the Fruit Belt/Medical Corridor

Project Name:

The Fruit Belt Redevelopment Project
Description:

This report is a strategic plan and action agenda that guides the restoration of Buffalo’s Fruitbelt Neighborhood and the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC). The plan and agenda constructs a framework to guide restoration, identifies potential sources of revenue and formulates an implementation strategy.

Publication year: 2001

Neighborhood characteristics, community development corporations and the community development industry system: a case study of the American Deep South

Description:

This article examines the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and community development corporations (CDC).

Authors: Robert Mark Silvermen
Publication year: 2001

CDCS and Charitable Organizations in the Urban South

Description:

This article examines how community development corporations (CSC’s) and other nonprofits access social capital when constructing collaborative partnerships for urban revitalization projects.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2001

Reconsidering wealth, status, and power: Critical Demography and the measurement of racism

Description:

Sociologists have a long tradition of studying the effects of differentials in indicators of socioeconomic status by race. In fact, since Duncan’s classic study on poverty, differences on such indicators have often been considered a measure of the “cost of being black.” This paper employs the new paradigm in the study of population, Critical Demography, to develop a measure of racism based upon estimates of the differentials in wealth, status and power. Specifically, the study asks three questions: (1) How is racism measured relative to wealth, status and power in the United States? (2) Based upon this measure, how has racism changed over time? and (3) What are the theoretical implications of this measure for the study of race and ethnicity in sociology, demography and the social sciences in general? The findings provide evidence of Mertonian serendipity: once macro-level measures of racism are controlled, blacks actually exceed whites in levels of education, income and housing values. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of measuring racism from a Critical Demography perspective.

Authors: Lori Martin
Publication year: 2001

Neighborhood characteristics, CDC emergence and the community development industry system: A case study of the American Deep South

Description:

This article examines the relationship between neighbourhood characteristics and community development corporations (CDC). It is hypothesized that housing tenure and race are correlated with CDC emergence. The methodology for this analysis is primarily quantitative. Variables from the US Census are analyzed using logistic regression. Results from this analysis are augmented with ethnographic and archival data. In particular, data from interviews with CDC directors are examined to understand how neighbourhood characteristics and the community development industry system influence CDC development. This study’s findings assist planners in understanding how demographic characteristics of communities and interorganizational networks shape the services CDCs provide.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 2001

The Health Status of the Near East Side Black Community: A Study of the Wellness and Neighborhood Conditions Buffalo, New York

Description:

The purpose of this study is to gain insight into black community wellness by examining a number of health, social, economic, cultural, and lifestyle issues that affect the health status of Buffalo’s Near East Side black community.

Publication year: 2000

Black Business , Group Resources, and the Economic Detour: Contemporary Black Manufactures in Chicago’s Ethnic Beauty Aids Industry

Description:

This article examines the experiences and attitudes of contemporary Black manufactures in the ethnic beauty aids industry. This industry produces specialized haircare products and cosmetics for Black consumers. Although this article focuses on owners of manufacturing businesses in a single industry, it is important because Black manufactures have historically been active in the ethnic beauty aids industry.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 1999

The Effects of Racism and Racial Discrimination on Minority Business Development: The Case of Black Manufactures in Chicago’s Ethnic Beauty Aids Industry

Description:

In this paper, the historical development of Chicago’s ethnic beauty aids industry is examined from the perspective of black manufactures. The central argument of this paper is that the business strategies of black manufactures in Chicago’s ethnic beauty aids industry have been shaped by racism and racial discrimination in mainstream society from the industry’s inception to the contemporary period.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 1998

Race, Consumer Characteristics, and Hiring Preferences: The South Side of Chicago

Description:

This paper is based on a series of interviews with Korean owners of beauty supply stores on the South Side of Chicago which were conducted from January 1996 to August 1996.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 1998

Middleman Minorities and Sojourning in Black America: The Case of Korean Entrepreneurs on the South Side of Chicago

Description:

This article argues that Korean entrepreneurs on the South Side of Chicago have a sojourning orientation similar to the type described by middleman minority theory.

Authors: Robert Mark Silverman
Publication year: 1998

The effects of racism and racial discrimination on minority business development: The case of black manufacturers in Chicago’s ethnic beauty aids industry

Project Name:

The effects of racism and racial discrimination on minority business development: The case of black manufacturers in Chicago’s ethnic beauty aids industry
Description:

This article examines the experiences and attitudes of contemporary Black manufacturers in the ethnic beauty aids industry.

Authors: Robert Mark Silvermen
Publication year: 1998

The Bailey Avenue Project

Project Name:

The University Community Initiative
Description:

As part of the University Community Initiative, the Bailey Avenue Project was an undertaking by the UB Center for Urban Studies at the request of University District Council member Kevin Helfer to identify the realities and perceptions of the Bailey Avenue business community.

Authors: Denise Raymond
Publication year: 1997

Is There a Suburban Market for Housing in Buffalo, New York?

Description:

The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a suburban market for housing in buffalo; and , if such a market exists, what can the city do to capture a greater share. The ultimate goal of the study is to outline an intervention strategy that will enable the city to increase its share of the regions’s middle income housing market.

Publication year: 1997

The University Community Initiative: Recreating the University Community

Project Name:

The University Community Initiative
Description:

This report outlines the strategic planning process of the University Community Initiative. The University Community Initiative was a regional collaboration that brought together people, institutions, and businesses with an interest in the development of the University Community.

Publication year: 1997

No More Ivory Towers: Connecting the Research University to the Community

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor
Publication year: 1997

Governance in Erie County: A Foundation for Understanding and Action

Project Name:

The University at Buffalo Governance Project
Description:

The University at Buffalo Governance Project was an interdisciplinary research effort to study governance issues in Erie County. The Governance Project was founded upon the premise that a vigorous region requires competent, informed decision making, especially in the public sector.

Publication year: 1996

The Impacts of Police Consolidation on the Masten District

Project Name:

The Impacts of Police Consolidation on the Masten District
Description:

The study analyzed the impact of a proposed consolidation plan for the Buffalo Police Department in the Martin Luther King Jr. Neighborhood.

Publication year: 1996

An Analysis of the Erie County Housing Market

Project Name:

The University Community Initiative
Description:

As part of the University Community Initiative, this working paper analyzes the housing market in Erie County, New York.

Publication year: 1996

Black in Buffalo: A late-century progress report

Description:

In this essay commissioned by The Buffalo News, Henry Louis Taylor takes a look at the struggles of community building and neighborhood development within Buffalo’s East Side.

Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr.
Publication year: 1996

Black in Buffalo: A Late Century Report

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor
Publication year: 1995

Social Transformation Theory, African Americans and the Rise of Buffalo’s Post-Industrial City

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor
Publication year: 1991

Television, Violence, African American and Social Controls 1950-1976

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor, Jr.
Publication year: 1983

Television Violence, African-Americans, and Social Control 1950-1976

Description:
Authors: Henry Louis Taylor
Publication year: 1983