Brookings Press Blog

October 5 is World Habitat Day 2009

Brookings to commemorate day with event on sustainable cities

Since 1986, the United Nations has designated the first Monday in October every year as World Habitat Day. Its goal, according to the UN, is “to reflect on the state of human settlements and the basic right to adequate shelter for all.”

To commemorate World Habitat Day, on Tuesday, October 6, the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program will host a panel discussion focused on creating sustainable global cities. The speakers will include Brookings president Strobe Talbott; vice president and director of the Metropolitan Program Bruce Katz; Lisa Heinzerling, associate administrator in the EPA’s Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation; Darren Walker, vice president for foundation initiatives at The Rockefeller Foundation; Janette Sadik-Khan, commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation; the Honorable Greg Nickels, mayor of the city of Seattle and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors; and the Honorable S. Aparna, municipal commissioner of the Surat Municipal Corporation, India.

The challenges involved in creating sustainable global cities are also the focus of Matthew Kahn’s book Green Cities: Urban Growth and the Environment. As Kahn points out, “Urban population growth is a key driver of environmental degradation.” However, he observes, urbanization is also linked to economic growth, which can result in more sustainable technologies and greater demand for green goods, services, and policies.

- Register for the Brookings event

- Read Matt Kahn’s blog

HOPE VI and the New Promise of Public Housing in America’s Cities

Book launch hosted by current HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and former secretary Henry Cisneros

Among lessons learned, HOPE VI has taught us that replacing public housing with vouchers isn't always the best option for displaced families. “Many of them ended up in new ghettos of Section 8 because they took the path of least resistance and because landlords were unscrupulous and piled people on top of each other to get the money,” said Henry Cisneros, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under President Bill Clinton. “In some cases we didn’t improve people’s lives as we could have done,” he added. Today, current HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan faces many of the same challenges.

On July 14, the current and former HUD secretaries teamed together to host a discussion on the next steps for urban revitalization and opportunity. Secretary Donovan announced new funding for the current HOPE VI program and outlined the future of Choice Neighborhoods.

In the new book From Despair to Hope: Hope VI and the New Promise of Public Housing in America’s Cities, Cisneros and co-editor Lora Engdahl document the evolution of HOPE VI, one of the most ambitious urban redevelopment initiatives yet. The authors also chronicle the major federal effort to replace desolate public housing with mixed-income communities, and discuss the lessons learned.

- Learn more about the book, From Despair to Hope

- Read articles on the event from CQ Politics and Next American City

'When Mayors Take Charge' editor discusses the NYC school system

Joseph Viteritti on the success and room for improvement of mayoral control over public schools

The ideas espoused within editor Joseph Viteritti’s When Mayors Take Charge: School Governance in the City offers an innovative solution to the problem of public school governance. The Teachers College Record, a journal of analysis and research published by Columbia University’s Teachers College, recently produced a video in which Viteritti went into greater detail about the claims found within the book. According to Viteritti, the advent of mayoral control over public schools has begun to gain popularity, but many cities must now judge whether those who have already taken the step have proven successful. Using New York’s public school system as a case study, Viteritti outlines in the video the findings of a study conducted in preparation for the state legislature’s June decision to either renew or eliminate the 2002 law that handed the city’s schools over to its mayor. Viteritti’s conclusions show that mayoral control, while effective, does require certain checks and balances on the mayor’s power and increased accountability between the mayor, schools, and citizens.

Joseph Viteritti is currently Blanche D. Blank Professor of Public Policy at Hunter College, CUNY and chairman of the Department of Public Affairs.

- Learn more about When Mayors Take Charge

What happens when mayors take charge of schools?

School governance in the city

Public schools have been a source of contention when deciding who controls what in school districts. The Economist and The Detroit News take advice from Joseph Viteritti, editor of When Mayors Take Charge: School Governance in the City, in their reports on mayoral control of public schools. When Mayors Take Charge investigates cases of mayoral control in New York, Detroit, Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C. The Economist's "Mayoral control of schools in New York: Political prisoners" asserts that “lawmakers in Albany are not thinking about New York’s children or any of their constituents at the moment.” Correspondingly, The Detroit News comments in "Mayoral control of Detroit schools debated" that “parents and constituents are frustrated with what they perceive to be the incompetence of the 11-member school board they fought to elect, ending the 1999-2005 mayoral control.”

Viteritti pools insight from leading experts on how to tackle the factors behind the development of mayoral control and possible ways to improve the system as well its prospects for the future. He is the Blanche D. Blank Professor of Public Policy at Hunter College, CUNY. He previously served as special assistant to the chancellor of schools in New York and as senior adviser to superintendents in Boston and San Francisco. He was also recently the executive director of the Commission on School Governance in New York.

In When Mayors Take Charge, the urgent problem of low-performing urban schools is expertly sliced and diced by a band of historians and political scientists. Policy elites and street-level reformers need to know that mayoral control does matter to democratic participation and managerial efficiency but not necessarily to students' test scores. —Larry Cuban, Professor Emeritus of Education at Stanford University

- Learn more about When Mayors Take Charge

- Read the articles from The Economist and The Detroit News

Twenty-First Century Gateways

New book examines the popular destinations of immigrants

As we have seen in 2008’s Presidential Election, the issue of immigration has reemerged once again. In Twenty-First Century Gateways: Immigrant Incorporation in Suburban America (Brookings Institution Press, 2008), a multidisciplinary group of top-flight analysts focus on the fastest-growing immigrant populations in metropolitan areas with previously low levels of immigration—places such as Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C. Today, one in five immigrants live in these gateways. This book explores how the pace of change in this new geography of immigration has presented many local areas with challenges—social, fiscal, and political.

“In their remarkable new book, Singer, Hardwick, and Brettell reveal the new contours of immigrant adaptation and reception in places with little experience of immigration within living memory. Through nine carefully chosen case studies, Twenty-First Century Gateways offers new insights into the promises and pitfalls of America's diverse, multi-ethnic future.”—Douglas S. Massey, Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Princeton University

- Learn more about Twenty-First Century Gateways.

The Geography of Opportunity Wins ACSP’s 2007 Paul Davidoff Award

Biennial award one of the most prestigious in planning scholarship

The Geography of Opportunity: Race and Housing Choice in Metropolitan America, edited by Xavier de Souza Briggs, has won the 2007 Paul Davidoff Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP). Given every two years to the publication which most reflects Davidoff’s commitments and values, including social and racial justice, this is one of the most prestigious awards in planning and planning scholarship. Notably, this is the first time the award has gone to an edited volume, illuminating the importance of this still-relevant book.

- Learn more about The Geography of Opportunity.

- Learn more about the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning / ACSP.

Book Makes "Top 10" List

Planetizen Recognizes Green Cities for its Contribution to the Planning Field

Matthew Kahn's Green Cities was recognized by Planetizen as one of the top ten books published in the planning field during 2006.  According to Planetizen, "Kahn provides a new definition of a green city that will give planners a lot to think about as they face increasing population growth and urbanization."

All ten books were chosen based on a variety of criteria, including "editorial reviews, sales rankings, popularity, Planetizen reader nominations, number of references, recommendations from experts and the book's potential impact on the urban planning, development and design professions."

Planetizen describes itself as a public-interest information exchange provided by Urban Insight for the urban planning, design, and development community.

- See the entire Planetizen Top Ten, 2007 list.

- Learn more about Green Cities.