Place Matters: Metropolitics For The Twenty-First Century (Studies in Government and Public Policy)

Book Description

New edition of a classic. Three distinguished scholars challenge us to put the urban crisis back on the national agenda, both as a moral challenge to our conscience and an economic challenge to America's prosperity and our families' pocketbooks. Focusing on the growing concentration of poverty in our cities and older suburbs and the mounting costs of suburban sprawl, they argue that these problems have political origins and can thus be resolved through political means--but only if we fully understand the power of place.

Despite modern telecommunications--faxes, linked computers, etc.--where we live shapes our lives and fortunes as much as ever. Place affects our access to jobs and public services (especially education), our access to shopping and culture, our level of personal security, the availability of medical services, and even the air we breathe. Economic segregation is increasing in American metropolitan areas--the rich and poor continue to move apart from one another. This has devastating effects on those who are forced to live in areas of concentrated poverty. But it also imposes costs, often unrecognized, on middle class and rich families who in their effort to escape the problems of concentrated poverty, undermine the quality of their own lives by suffering the effects of unrestricted sprawl.

The central thesis of Place Matters is that economic segregation between rich and poor and the growing sprawl of American cities and suburbs are not solely the result of individual choices in free markets. Rather, these problems have been powerfully shaped by short-sighted government policies. The first order of business must be to overhaul those policies. In the process, both urban and suburban citizens will gain a keener awareness that they are all ultimately bound by common interests and share a common fate.

Not simply another polemic on the plight of the inner-city poor, Place Matters provides a practical road map for reform based on penetrating analyses of economic and demographic trends, voting patterns, and congressional politics. While "sounding the alarm," it also provides guidance and hope for elected officials at local, state, and federal levels, as well as policy makers, scholars, teachers, community activists, business leaders, economists, social workers, and the urban clergy.

This book is part of the Studies in Government and Public Policy series.

Customer Reviews:

Some Good Some Bad.......2007-05-11

This book is very much an academic book. Some of the recommendations are very mainstream that cities are doing already. Many cities are dedensifying the inner cities to spread the poverty around. (I think that is likely a good thing--it has a good chance of reducing spatial mismatch.) However, their plan for diversifying suburbs with minorities and women who will likely vote democratic because more people in the suburbs vote than in inner cities . . . and therefore congress will be predominantly democratic and voting for those policies favorable to cities . . . is not exactly absurd, but it is a bit forced.

Excellent.......2006-06-21

This book details in stark clarity the dilemma facing our urban environment today. We ignore it's lessons at our peril. Place Matters shows how we have systematically set up a system of the haves and have nots. Literally a tale of two cities. It is crucially important that we involve ourselves in the electoral process because who we elect most definitely determines how wealth and power are distributed in the United States of America. This book is a cogent coherent collection of mind blowing data about discriminatory social engineering against our urban environment.

Place Matters: A Policy Disaster.......2003-10-11

The policy recommendations put forth by the authors of Place Matters are the most absurd thing that you will ever read. It doesn't matter where you are on the political spectrum. This is frankly the stupidest idea that you will ever hear to help solve the problems of inner city America.

In order to "Deconcentrate Poverty," the authors want to move people from areas of high concentration of poverty into more affluent areas. They also want to take more affluent people and move them into the areas of high poverty. Absurd isn't it? This is problematic on several fronts.

First of all, this is completely not feasible. Residents of more affluent areas would never allow poorer people to move into their neighborhood. This is especially true today, with the slow growth movement stopping this same kind of plan in its tracks. Home owners associations continue to be successful in stopping the construction of low income housing in their neighborhoods. They don't want their property values to go down, and they will mobilize to stop this before it can happen.

Second of all, moving more affluent people into poorer neighborhoods will hurt the poor, not help them. Look at the example of Harlem today. After Bill Clinton moved to town, the rents have skyrocketed and the area is becoming more gentrified now.

Third, this is a racist liberal argument which believes that people of color cannot have effective political, social, or economic institutions unless accompanied by whites. Given that the vast majority of residents of the inner cities are people of color, liberals like Dreier et al have mounted a movement to validate people of color as a biologically inferior group in order to achieve parity with whites. In utilizing that strategy to achieve that goal in a society of endless discrimination, people of color must eventually certify themselves as inherently inferior and therefore have to resort to living in white communities in order to have a livable environment and functioning institutions. Why can't the inner cities have institutions that function well such as quality schools and safe communities? Why should inner city residents have to move to a predominately white neighborhood to receive these benefits?

As anyone can see, this is the most absurd book on solutions to inner city problems. As you can tell by now, this book is a complete waste of your time and money. You could honestly better spend your time starting an ant farm then reading through Dreier et al's nonsense.

i.e. How Progressives Think, For Dummies.......2003-07-25

This book is beneficial to both Progressives, and their arch-enemy, the Conservatives

For Progressives ---

the book is a Bible of Progressive politics. It gives readers a backround and a full instuctional book on how to create the policy-jewel of the Progressive movement, which is merging counties so that everyone shares the same tax duties (in other words, a contemporary form of Socialism)

Aside from tax-base sharing, the book offers other Progressive arguements that are very in tune with the Progressive movement --- a great book for anyone aspiring to become a Progressive Poseur

For Conservatives ---

Do you ever watch Progressives debate on Fox News and think to yourself, "What the heck is their logic??? What planet are they coming from??" If you would really like to get INSIDE the mind of a Progressive, and finally see what they truly think, their logic behind their thinking, and the ways that they reach their conclusions, then this is the book for you!

The book is a roadmap of all Progressive policies, allowing Conservatives to truly dissect their policy approaches, in a manner that would allow them to have the upper hand in a debate after thorough analyzing.

Conclusion ---

Many of the policy recommendations in here are far-fetched and are not very likely to occur anywhere in America ---- but nonetheless, it serves as a great Bible for Progressives, and for Conservatives, as an excellent reference to a Progressive cause that is extremely difficult to comprehend.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Planning, published by American Planning Association on December 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1487 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The city: half full or half empty? (Planners Library). (book review)
Author: Harold Henderson
Publication: Planning (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2001
Publisher: American Planning Association
Volume: 67 Issue: 12 Page: 38(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Developments in theories of financial markets and institutions, using the tools of the economics of uncertainty and of contracts, as well as results in game theory, have, over the last two decades, constituted an exciting and burgeoning field of research. This collection of readings draws together highlights of the 'second generation' literature in this area, emphasizing the theoretical, institutional, and policy-oriented regulatory implications of some of the key modelling techniques in the field. The collection divides into seven sections covering the monitoring role of banks and other intermediaries; liquidity demand and the role of banks and the government; bank runs and financial crises; bank regulation; inter-bank competition and bank--firm relationships; comparative financial systems; and imperfect credit markets and the macroeconomy. Each section comprises four articles previously published in top-ranking economics and finance journals, plus a discussion by a prominent scholar, who provides a synthesis and critique of the literature, and suggests promising directions for future research and application of results.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Book. Advanced and Up to Date reference.......2005-07-19

This book is a nice mix of intuitive explanation and rigorously proved results. It gives a very good overview of the issues involved and can form a useful tool for a researcher in this area. Not only does it tell the state of the art, but a perceptive researcher can also identify areas of future research.
Overall, a great reference.

Average customer rating:

Very solid, substantive guidance for launching a consultancy

How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant: Work with Your Clients & Promote Your Business
Timothy R V Foster
Manufacturer: Kogan Page
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Consulting | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0749438665

Book Description

Suitable for consultants from all backgrounds, contains strategies and techniques to help plan, build, and maintain relationships with your clients and prospects.

Customer Reviews:

Very solid, substantive guidance for launching a consultancy.......2003-11-04

With today's massive layoffs and not-so-voluntary early retirements, more people are entering the ranks of consultants than ever before. If you have never been self-employed, had to rustle up clients and build a business, this can be rather frightening. Let Tim Foster's book serve as your guide. His advice is uniformly sound and comprehensive. It's even organized so that you can work your way through the recommended steps and check them off as done. So whether you've been an engineer or a sales executive, whether you hate making cold calls or don't mind talking your way into an appointment, you'll find suitable, reliable guidance here.

Customer Reviews:

Great education -- stimulates creativity -- fun to read.......2000-05-06

Over the years I've used this book frequently for several reasons. First, it gives an overview of the creative process and how a person can take an idea and move it to a completed, marketable book, movie, or invention. I like this aspect because I sometimes need to check to see if I have overlooked any important steps.

Second, it contains an excellent introduction to patent and copyright law. Anybody trying to make money with ideas needs to know the basics of the law that protects a person's property in ideas. I have referred to the book often to refresh my recollection of the legal aspects.

Third, the book contains many short vignettes about other creative people who succeeded in turning an idea into a book, screenplay or product, and how they succeeded. These stories cheer me up and motivate me to keep looking for new ideas and new ways to bring them to market.

Fourth, it discusses many of the "nuts and bolts" of the business aspects of negotiating, publishing and selling. From the book I learned many of the terms of art, and how industry insiders think and act.

It's a fun book to read, too. Well-organized, light and direct writing style, easy on the eyes. The book has an excellent table of contents and index, which really make finding information easy.

Mr. Coleman is a professional writer and knows a great deal especially about writing and selling articles, books and screen plays. Ms. Neville is an accomplished intellectual property lawyer. Together they have produced a fine volume that will help inventors, writers and anybody else who wants to understand the business of creativity.

Average customer rating:

Funny

Best all-around guide and fun to read

It lets you know what is possible

Good resource for Europeans, not Americans

Buy this book!!!

Work Your Way Around the World, 11th (Work Your Way Around the World)
Susan Griffith
Manufacturer: Vacation Work Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Job Hunting | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Unemployment | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Reference | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Travel | Subjects | Books
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The Back Door Guide to Short-Term Job Adventures: Internships, Summer Jobs, Seasonal Work, Volunteer Vacations, and Transitions Abroad

Teaching English Abroad

International Jobs: Where They Are and How to Get Them, Sixth Edition

World Volunteers (3rd Edition): The World Guide to Humanitarian and Development Volunteering (World Volunteers: The World Guide to Humanitarian & Development Volu)

Delaying The Real World

ASIN: 1854582747

Book Description

This eleventh edition of the unique and acclaimed guide for the working traveler explains how to find temporary work around the world, not only in advance, but also when on the spot while traveling. It incorporates hundreds of first-hand accounts from people who have actually done the jobs with the finest hard factual information to offer authoritative advice on how to find work. Work Your Way Around the World gives information on all the main areas of temporary work including the tourist industry, agriculture, teaching English, childcare, and voluntary work, plus insiders' information on how to work a passage or to earn money by using your initiative when you spot a local opportunity. This book provides dates and details of harvests from Denmark to New Zealand, childcare jobs and voluntary projects worldwide, and explains how to become a barmaid, pineapple picker, film extra, jackaroo, ranch hand, prawn fisherman, camp councelor, etc.

Customer Reviews:

Funny.......2006-11-28

So far I've only read Teaching English Abroad. I'm hoping this book is just a current version of that book, because TEA is phenomenal. BTW, I am American, and the paragraph about Americans not finding work only concerns Saudi Arabia. Those Americans who don't find helpful info in this book couldn't shoot fish in a barrel with a shotgun.

I'm glad I read the reviews for this book, as I got a chuckle from the English Teachers (I suppose) who write "wanderlust" as "wonder lust," and write, "if you have few money."

Best all-around guide and fun to read.......2003-01-02

While this book is written from a British perspective, it is an excellent guide for anyone who wants to travel around the world on limited funds. The author relies on "been there done that" travelers to supply information and anecdotes from the road and I can vouch from experience that those nuggets show up in revised editions.

I bought this book before my first trip around the world and it led to my first English teaching job--in Istanbul, Turkey. (Griffith's Teaching English Abroad title is a good guide for the teaching path specifically). This is also a good book to read when deciding what you're NOT willing to do. Comparing some of these jobs to working another few months at home instead to save more money puts things in perspective.

Understand that this is a guide to short-term work opportunities, so it does focus on ways to make enough to get to the next destination. It's not an international career guide, but rather an inside scoop on where to get paid while you travel. It's an entertaining read and a good investment for shoestring travelers.

Tim Leffel
author, The World's Cheapest Destinations

It lets you know what is possible.......2001-10-19

I was introduced to an early edition of this book by a couple of English blokes I lived with in Minneapolis in 1989. Above all, it made me realize that travelling around the world for a working class fellow was a realistic option. It gives a lot of specifics on how to find work in different parts of the world. I have seen no other book that comes close to providing the information that a working traveller needs. Being in its tenth edition shows that many others have found it valuable as well.

I spent a year working and travelling in Europe and Africa. Working your way around the world is a good way to educate yourself.

Good resource for Europeans, not Americans.......2000-11-04

As an American student looking to find work in Europe, this book was absolutely no help to me at all. It is published in Great Britain, and probably 95% of the addresses she gives are in the UK. I found a couple of interesting ones in the U.S., but all the good ones were not American. Also, prices are in pounds, not dollars, which makes it difficult for an American to fully comprehend without a calculator and info on exchange rates. If you are British, this would probably be a great book for you!

Another thing which I found not very helpful is that the book is targeted to people who want to just want to hop from place to place, hence the title. It is geared for the vagabond worker, and assumes that these people will settle for whatever job it takes to stay travelling.

What really turned me off was that the book highly suggested hitchhiking as the primary mode of transportation, and spent a great deal of space discussing the beneftis of hitchhiking. Any other travel book strongly discourages this!

In a nutshell, if you are not British and you do not feel comfortable with hitchhiking, do not buy this book!

Buy this book!!!.......1999-10-15

If you're interested in working while you travel this is thebook to read before you go! Although the book is written from theEuropean traveler's perspective, the latest edition does also give advice on how Americans can find jobs in the discussed regions. Particularly helpful are the author's specific recommendations of places to look (i.e. likely streets, areas, and companies). The one thing I appreciates about this book, is that it's realistic. She doesn't tell you that you're job search is going to be easy when it in all liklihood will not. When you're seriously planning to go abroad you don't want rhetoric, you want reality and that is what the author provides.

Book Description

A former professional gambler and casino worker lifts the dark curtain on the secrets of the gambling world. Learn how to spot a scam, work a slot machine for big cash, run an inside job on a casino floor, outwit the house at craps or poker, deal a dirty deck and much more.

Customer Reviews:

Packed with humor and good advice.......1999-05-13

Excellently written and full of interesting information I didn't know existed about gamblers, card sharps, crooked games, casino's, slot machines and many other facets of gambling. I live near the gambling casino's in Mississippi and the glossary at the end of this book, which is full of gamblers terms and phrases, helped me feel and talk like a pro in a few minutes. Although I consider myself a novice gambler, I've used some of the terms and phrases on my trips to the casino's, and received a feeling of respect from casino employee's as well as seasoned gamblers.

A interesting and informative book on gambling........1999-03-01

The author tells, in easy to understand detail, secrets of the gambling world. This book is not only interesting, but funny. Being in the gaming business myself, I found this book revealed many things I didn't know. The author explains how people in the gaming industry fleece the unsuspecting gambler, and the author shares experiences not many people hear about. I liked the entire book, from cover to cover. The author includes a glossary defining words and phrases that I never knew existed, which I feel makes the book worth buying for this information alone. I hope the author writes a sequel.

Easy to understand, very entertaining and educational........1999-02-26

This easy to read book gives an insight to the world of gambling rarely talked about. The author does a magnificent job of detailing various aspects of the gaming world. This book is a must for novice gamblers and those who wish to make gambling a profitable business.

Parts of this book are extremely funny, and the entire book is very entertaining. Even if you aren't a gambler or care less about the gambling scene, try this book, it WILL surprise you.

Book Description

As the prime force behind trade throughout the Western Hemisphere, the United States is emerging with two trade projects--the newly-signed North American Free Trade Agreement and the projected New American Community. This volume provides a clear, concise guide to all aspects of the 5-volume NAFTA accord, its side agreements, and the unfolding New American Community. It covers specific issues, rationalizations, ideologies, controversies, and recommended actions. With special emphasis on the North American Free Trade Agreement, the volume will provide a major resource for both academics and decision makers in industry and government. Written by a leading authority on U.S. Latin American trade, the volume includes entries, arranged alphabetically, on NAFTA and other trade-related topics. The NAFTA entries are based on the five-volume treaty or official government and nongovernmental publications. Since the New American Community is still emerging, the non-NAFTA entries are interpolations from past trade accords and existing nationwide agreements or ideas based on global concepts and directives, especially the European Union.

Encyclopedia of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the New American Community, and Latin-American Trade:

Average customer rating:

Encyclopedia of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the New American Community, and Latin-American Trade:
Jerry M. Rosenberg
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTUTDU

Average customer rating:
WTO at the Margins: The Experience of South Pacific Countries, economic paper 46
Roman Grynberg
Manufacturer: Commonwealth Secretariat
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0850926874

Book Description

This title is a compilation of papers on the South Pacific and World Trade Organization. It conveys the experience of the South Pacific countries in respect to the WTO: in particular the accession process, the management of WTO affairs and other related topics (including fishing subsidies). It will be useful for policy-makers, academics and students.

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Buryat Republic Investment & Business Guide (Russian Regional Investment & Business Guides)
USA International Business Publications
Manufacturer: International Business Publications, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0739729608

Book Description

This investment and business guide contains basic information on economy, business & investment climate and opportunities in the region, as well as information on selected export-import, business and investment opportunities, including, export-import, industrial development, banking & finance, government and business contacts. The guide also provides listing and contact information for major industrial, trade, service and other companies in the region, as well as information on selected export-import, business and investment opportunities.

Buryat Republic Regional Investment and Business Guide (World Business and Investment Opportunities Library)

Average customer rating:

Buryat Republic Regional Investment and Business Guide (World Business and Investment Opportunities Library)

Manufacturer: Intl Business Pubns USA
ProductGroup: Book
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