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April 28, 2005
Photos: West Oakland near MHS
These are backposted photos from a community mapping tour we did about a month ago.
West Oakland near MHS photo album
April 26, 2005
Article: Questions Linger Over NCLB Policy Shifts
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is trying to backpaddle on state accountability, but hasn't specified how or when policies will change.
Questions Linger Over NCLB Policy Shifts
Article: Wells Fargo Mortgages Discriminatory?
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has published a study accusing Wells Fargo of predatory lending. The bank responded by claiming the research is invalid.
Are financial institutions still red-lining based on race and class? Perhaps, but I've not read the study myself...
Wells Fargo Mortgages in Milwaukee Criticised as Discriminatory
Article: TN, Mayors, and Saving CDBG
For the 2006 budget, Bush has proposed consolidating CDBG with 17 other grant programs and moving them all to the Commerce Department as the "Strengthening America's Communities Initiative." Changes also include cutting 30% of the total budget for these programs combined. A variety of groups are protesting -- the House budget added $1.1 billion for community development (total of $14.2), and the Senate adopted an amendment to allocate $15.2 billion.
The Bush proposal is more than a simple consolidation or cost-cutting move. The administration aims to fundamentally change the direction of urban and rural anti-poverty policy by more directly focusing federal efforts on boosting private enterprise and away from the diffuse aid programs that currently serve low-income people and communities.
The Bush camp labeled CDBG "ineffective" and points out a lack of evaluation of the system.
Officials from Small City Fight to Save Community Development Grant Program
Article: High Rents Drive Away CA Mobile Homeowners
Mobile homeowners being forced out by rising rents -- these days, even mobile home communities show signs of gentrification.
The Housing Authority has been studying the possibility of seeking an eminent domain court order on the property, purchasing Monte del Lago from Equity Lifestyle Properties, then selling it back to a collective of the park's tenants.
High Rents Drive Away California Mobile Home Park Residents
CV studio, land use, planning articles
Article: Smart Growth at Tysons Center
An example of Smart Growth infill development -- converting an office park into a downtown with high-density housing. The article also points out a disconnect between the proposed "downtown" ideal of smart growth presented as the reason for further development in the area, and the likelihood of actually achieving such a community.
"We support more density in Tysons Corner and more homes in Tysons Corner, because that is the only way we can create a walkable, transit-friendly community," said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, a consortium of environmental groups.
Soaring View of Tysons Center on a Downtown
April 22, 2005
Article: Seattle Closing 10 Schools
10 Seattle Schools Targeted for Closure
Faced with a growing budget gap and years of declining enrollment, Seattle Public Schools yesterday unveiled a sweeping plan that calls for the closure of 10 schools, the conversion or expansion of 14 others, fewer choices for elementary students and reduced bus service for middle and high schools.
Article: Clearer NCLB
First National Suit over Education Law
April 21, 2005
Article: Lawmaker Steps in on Va. Growth
When the legislative branch takes it's work home with it at night.
Rep. Thomas M. Davis III said he will intervene in a contentious local issue by proposing legislation to scale back a massive development planned next to the Vienna Metro station, a project he acknowledges is near his own neighborhood.
Washington Post: Lawmaker Steps in on Va. Growth
Articles: Community Development Society
The CD Journal's next issue will be focused on the role of youth in community development. Issue 33-34 centered around theories of community development, but also included some school related papers.
- Investing In Communities: Social Capital's Role In Keeping Youth In School ~ Israel and Beaulieu (Vol.34, No.2)
Many community leaders view economic development as the primary strategy for improving social well-being. One approach to economic development is enhancing the local labor force’s human capital through formal education. In this article, we use a social capital framework to analyze how local institutions, specifically families and schools, affect educational achievement among public school students. We explore how social capital in the broader community context mediates the effects of family and school social capital on keeping students in school. Using hierarchical linear models to estimate these contributions, the results reaffirm the vital role of family social capital. They also show that attributes of school and community social capital make important contributions to staying in school. Our results suggest strategies that community development practitioners and local leaders can use to enhance educational outcomes and, in turn, the economic vitality of communities.
Article: Tax Breaks and Business Climate
How to woo big business to your state:
The truth is, a healthy civic culture makes a "good economic climate." The state that offers an educated work force, clean environment and fair tax structure need not beg for jobs. Local pride is a virtue that "pro-business" think tanks almost never measure.
There is also a great nod to funding for public schools:
My favorite idea for creative school funding comes from Nevada. Brothel owners there have offered to pay taxes, mainly as a goodwill gesture. Anything for the schools.
Seattle Times: A Healthy Business Climate Takes more than Tax Breaks
Article: NCLB Lawsuit
Michigan, Texas, and Vermont school districts (along with the NEA) filed against the United States Department of Education's NCLB Act, and the next day Utah's legislature passed a law requiring the lowest possible state spending on meeting the act's mandate. Connecticut has also expressed intent to sue the federal government. Secretary Spellings countered:
Returning to the pre-NCLB days of fuzzy accountability and hiding children in averages will do nothing [to help Utah students]...
NY Times: Districts and Teachers' Union Sue Over Bush Law
The section of the law in question:
(a) GENERAL PROHIBITION. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize an officer or employee of the Federal Government to mandate, direct, or control a State, local education agency, or school's curriculum, program of instruction, or allocation of State or local resources, or mandate a State or any subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this Act. [20 U.S.C. 7907(a).
The main argument of the suit claims that NCLB included express guarantee that the federal government must fund its mandate. From the text of the complaint itself:
Plaintiffs contend that the Secretary of Education is violating this 'Unfunded Mandates Provision' by requiring states and school districts to comply fully with all of the NCLB mandates even though states and school districts have not been provided with sufficient federal funds to pay for such compliance. Plaintiffs further contend that by failing to honor the commitment made by the Unfunded Mandates Provision -- namely, that the federal government would fund the mandates or not require compliance with them -- the Secretary of Education is violating the Spending Clause of the United States Constitution.
In the dance between federal and state control of education, the backlash against accountability is equaled only by the lack of foresight on the part of NCLB's authors. What is the solution -- nationalize education?
April 20, 2005
Lecture: CV plan proposal by WRT
WRT does consulting for public entities/municipalities nationally and is developing a short term (~five years) plan for springboarding Castro Valley's redevelopment. What are the first primary catalyst projects that should be targeted?
Continue reading "Lecture: CV plan proposal by WRT"
Article: NEA Files "NCLB" Lawsuit
And so it begins....
According to the suit, the gap between the spending authorized by the law and the actual amount that goes to the states has been growing since it was passed. Further, a number of calculations by the states show that even the authorized amount would not be enough to provide the tutoring and greater school time that low-achieving students would minimally need to reach the bar.
Edweek: NEA Files "No Child Left Behind" Lawsuit
Article: Rethinking America's Schools
The new issue of Philanthropy magazine features responses from leading education philanthropists to a previous essay by Frederick Hess on "Retooling K-12 Giving," which critiqued the school reform programs and strategies of selected national foundations. This online symposium, which features responses from Dan Katzir of The Broad Foundation, Ed Kirby of the Walton Family Foundation, Lowell Milken and Lew Solmon of the Milken Family Foundation, and Vartan Gregorian of the Carnegie Corporation.
Retooling K-12 Giving: A Response from Philanthropy Leaders
Paper: Academics v Civic Engagement in Public Schools
The report, released by the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), in partnership with the Association for Supervision and Curriculum (ASCD), questions the current focus on core academic subjects at the expense of an equally important role: preparing students to be engaged and effective citizens. The report is the product of collaborative discussion among policymakers, education practitioners, community groups, parents, and youth across the nation. The report offers a seven-step action plan to help schools refocus on the goal of creating both academically proficient and civically engaged students. The report also highlights several programs, including school-community partnerships that promote both quality academics and civic engagement.
Restoring the Balance between Academics and Civic Engagement in Public Schools
Detailed notes on the paper are in the extended...
Continue reading "Paper: Academics v Civic Engagement in Public Schools"
Paper: Do State Growth Management Regulations Reduce Sprawl?
Jerry Anthony, University of Iowa.
Thirteen states in the United States have adopted state growth management legislation that aims to preserve environmentally sensitive areas, improve the quality of urban areas, and reduce urban sprawl. Although there is a considerable amount of literature describing such policies, there is very little that examines the effectiveness of such policies. The author researched the efficacy of state growth management laws in controlling urban sprawl by examining the change in urban densities in 49 states over a 15-year period. He found that growth-managed states generally experienced a lesser density decline than states without growth management. However, regression analysis revealed that state growth management programs did not have a statistically significant effect in checking sprawl. The author concludes with several suggestions for modifying state regulations to curb sprawl more effectively.
Do State Growth Management Regulations Reduce Sprawl?
Paper: Displacement or Succession?
Lance Freeman of Columbia:
This article examines the extent to which gentrification in U.S. neighborhoods is associated with displacement by comparing mobility and displacement in gentrifying neighborhoods with mobility and displacement in similar neighborhoods that did not undergo gentrification. The results suggest that displacement and higher mobility play minor if any roles as forces of change in gentrifying neighborhoods. Demographic change in gentrifying neighborhoods appears to be a consequence of lower rates of intra neighborhood mobility and the relative affluence of in-movers.
Displacement or Succession? Residential Mobility in Gentrifying Neighborhoods
Article: Givings - The Flip Side of Takings
Kevin sent along an article about Oregon's November vote on establishing a takings law that grants private property owners the right to just compensation for any public action that decreases their property value. The author points out that private property owners (under this schematic) should be required to compensate the government for public actions that increase their property value -- a system of "givings"...
Givings: The Flip Side of Takings
April 19, 2005
Paper: Home Insecurity
After reading Mike Davis's article on the housing bubble this morning, here is an even more thorough survey of property value inflation, but this time based on corruption within the appraisals market. What a cold shower, to borrow against your property value only to learn that you can't sell your house for the amount of your mortgage (even without a downturn in the market).
Predatory lending targeting minority and sub-prime borrowers often involves appraisal fraud. Low-income aspiring homeowners are also targeted by developers who collude with dishonest appraisers in the aggressive marketing of new homes offered at inflated prices.
Home Insecurity: How Widespread Appraisal Fraud Puts Homeowners at Risk
Article: Showdown at Showplace Square
The Next American City's Urban/Rural Edge issue includes a discussion of a moratorium on non-industrial construction in San Francisco's Showplace Square.
TNAC: Showdown at Showplace Square: Does San Francisco Have Room for Industry?
Article: Riotous Real Estate
This clip was sent along to the planning list this morning. Mike Davis paints the painful state of housing demand (connected to public schools) in the nation's largest cities:
The bubble has already burst in San Francisco, and the April 11th issue of Business Week headlined fears that a general deflation – perhaps of international magnitude – is nigh. What will life be like in the United States (or Britain or Ireland) after the home-equity ATM shuts down?
TomDispatch: Riotous Real Estate
Books: Cities Reading List
Boldtype just published an issue on cities, including images from their favorite art books, reviews, and a reading list by city. The titles range from fiction to non-fiction and vary in how much they deal with a specific place.
Continue reading "Books: Cities Reading List"
April 18, 2005
Article: 1,116 Teachers Flunk Out
Although this article leans towards painting principal control over staffing as a threatening and destabilizing force, Chicago's investment in its education leadership may create a system of better teacher quality.
Chicago Sun-Times: 1,116 Teachers Flunk Out
Photos: Ireland, November 2004
These are backposted photos that have just been uploaded to flickr. A bit repetitive in terms of content: land, water, sky, and some potatoes.
Ireland, Nov. 2004 Photo Album
Article: The Schools Under Bloomburg
The NY Times reviews public opinion of Bloomburg's progress as head of the city's schools. Mayoral control of school districts is a slowly spreading trend (i.e. Chicago) that may or may not produce results in the future. For Bloomburg, taking on the plight of the school system could harm his political career -- it is not easy to evoke changes in test scores in such a large system in only two years. Putting the burden of student performance on such a well known and publicly elected official, however, builds in a higher, more publicized level of legislative accountability.
The Schools Under Bloomburg: Much Tumult, Mixed Progress
April 17, 2005
Photos: Pinnacles National Monument
Pinnacles National Monument is about 2 hours south of Mountain View via 101.
Pinnacles National Monument Photo Album
Continue reading "Photos: Pinnacles National Monument"
April 12, 2005
Photos: Castro Valley
These are photos of basic housing types, the elementary school, several pre-schools, churches, and civic buildings. Castro Valley's parcel lines reflect the agricultural history of the locale -- early residents had thriving poultry farms. Today the deep lots provide opportunities for infill housing, and many already include in-law units or townhouses. Although the populace voted twice not to incorporate, Castro Valley was recently designated a redevelopment area in Alameda County and has hired an urban design consulting firm to develop a general plan.
April 11, 2005
Brief: DOT v. Fortune Federal Savings and Loan Association
Department of Transportation v. Fortune Federal Savings and Loan Association, Supreme Court of Florida, 1988 [532 So.2d 1267]
Continue reading "Brief: DOT v. Fortune Federal Savings and Loan Association"
April 09, 2005
Articles: Education links
Two recent articles passed on to me regarding education -- both reference big ideas without providing much substance.
Common Dreams News Center put out an opinion piece, Bill Gates and the Corporatization of American "Public" Schools. The author, Phillip Kovacs, decries standards/test score based education as a corporate philanthropic agenda that fails to create democratic citizens.
Another article Successful Schools can Contribute to Neighborhood Revitalization references one specific group called The Big Picture Company as an example of improving scores via other social services for students and then calls for mayors to take on the role of educational change agents.
April 07, 2005
Notes: Land Use - Redevelopment
At what point does the ability of government, acting through a redevelopment agency, to forcibly take property from many private owners and transfer it to one private owner who will redevelop it threaten or undermine the legal foundation of private property?
Fairly straight forward notes...
Continue reading "Notes: Land Use - Redevelopment"
April 06, 2005
Photos: Plazas Tour - People
Photos of the Plazas Tour participants are posted under a private setting on flickr because some of the pictures include students. Flickr friends should be able to link to the set by clicking on the shot above.
Plazas Tour - People Photo Album
Plazas Tour with Walter Hood entry
April 05, 2005
Harvard's Civil Rights Project
Harvard's Civil Rights Project recently put out a study (mentioned in the entry below) highlighting discrepancies in graduation rates for African-American and Latino students. California papers are picking up on this pretty quickly... An article appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle regarding Oakland's exceptionally high drop-out rate -- roughly half of all high school students in Oakland do not graduate, which is significantly higher than surrounding districts in the region.
Study Puts Oakland Dropout Rate at 52%, Mayor Decries Crisis -- District Questions Research Accuracy
Report by the Civil Rights Project: Confronting the Graduation Rate Crisis in California
April 04, 2005
Article: Schools' Dropout Remedy - Get Small
The L.A. Times posted an article about the significantly higher dropout rate for African American and Latino students in the LAUSD. Rather than creating smaller structures to house fewer students, LA is developing a host of "small schools" within one school campus. McClymonds High School in West Oakland will be undergoing a similar structural shift in August as the school divides into two within one building. As of yet, little research has been done on whether or not such models are successful.
Are prototypical small schools, on the other hand, (i.e. neighborhood schools) a solution, or do they re-instigate the academic segregation that Brown v. Board of Education sought to undo?
L.A. school officials, said Barr of Green Dot charter schools, "get intoxicated with the idea of small schools, but they still don't trust the stakeholders. They still don't believe in the kids, that they can all succeed."
In order for school reform to be successful, said Barr, the district must grant school sites more control over their budgets, have higher expectations for students, help teachers feel motivated and make parental involvement a premium.
(Finally, the article also cites Pedro Noguera, who spoke on campus earlier this week!)
Schools' Dropout Remedy: Get Small
Photos: Mountain View Streetscape
In the 1980's, Mountain View began a push to create a pedestrian friendly downtown with an energetic retail/restaurant district. In the 1988 specific plan and in two updates since 2000, the city set forth guidelines and policies towards this end, including installing medians, trees, and wider sidewalks for traffic calming, instituting a strict facade design review for the "Historic Preservation Core" of the city, and creating a flexible parking system that can function as outdoor cafe space or diagonal slots.
Mountain View Streetscape Photo Album
Photos: Plazas Tour with Walter Hood
Our class ventured out on a plaza tour Saturday to gather images of different types of public spaces in the area, some more successful than others.
- Splash Pad Park near Lake Merritt in Oakland
- Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of City Hall in Oakland
- Jack London Square on Oakland's waterfront
- The Ferry Building at the Embarcadero in San Francisco
Notes for the extended entry are "under construction."
Photos: Frank Gehry's House
My recent trip to LA also included a drive by Frank Gehry's home in Santa Monica. Although the house is obviously different from its surrounding, it does blend fairly well with the neighborhood due to its massing, materials, and foliage.
Photos: The Getty
I had the chance to visit Richard Meier's Getty Center for the first time during a trip to LA the last weekend of March. The weather was perfect, and although I find Meier's constant shifting between surface materials a bit frantic, the complex was quite successful as an active public space filled with users.
April 02, 2005
Article: The Segregated Classrooms of a Proudly Diverse School
A NY Times article looks at the use of a leveled classroom system in New Jersey as a tool of "contemporary segregation." Affluent, mostly white students enroll in advanced placement courses, while mid and lower level classes are composed of less economically advantaged and minority students. At no point in the article does the school appear to be "proud" of its diversity, making this an interesting choice of title for the story. Times readers might shy away from a more honest headline along the lines of, "Public Education: The American Apartheid Continues."
The Segregated Classrooms of a Proudly Diverse School
April 01, 2005
Talk: "The Importance of Vibrant Cities in Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education"
Sociologist Pedro Noguera and Mayor Tom Bates of Berkeley both spoke at Cal today in the College of Environmental Design. The symposium was sponsored by IURD's Center for Cities and Schools.
My notes are limited mostly by my typing speed during the talk. Although Noguera was a dynamic speaker and often used analogies or specific examples to illustrate larger points, he calls for a variety of changes that seem less tangible: networking, investment in schools, university participation in local k-12 public education, and compromising around budget issues. How should such large changes be undertaken? Are there examples of the solutions he proposes, not just the problems?
Mayor Tom Bates took a pragmatic approach to the topic of the talk, though perhaps even less concrete, and ended with outlining programs the city has undertaken during his tenure.