Book Description

This book is the product of a six-year project from the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP) which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It assesses how conflicting claims to scarce natural resources (land, farmer's rights) can be resolved in the agricultural and pastoral systems or arid and semi-arid regions of West Africa. Based on research in Mali, this book describes the approach, components and outcomes of the project and describes hwo the model can be applied elsewhere to improve resource management and community initiatives. The book will be of significant interest to those working in the areas of rural sociology and development and agricultural, development and natural resource economics. ... Read more

Book Description

With an increasing focus on the potential of the private sector to provide public transport (and many other city) services, Jonathan Richmond's new book examines the relationship of politics to economics in motivating government decision-making. Evidence from more than 100 interviews, conducted for seven case studies in Denver, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San Diego, shows that ideologically as well as financially-backed power plays have driven outcomes.

Cases review the experiences in five cities which have debated bus service contracting. They compare the political environments and decision-making outcomes in a city such as Denver — where a Republican-dominated state legislature mandated that a fixed percentage of service be privatized — and Los Angeles — where expansion of privatization has met resistance from a Democratic state legislature. Cases additionally explore the political reactions to attempts by private jitney (12-15 seat van) operators to set up shop independently in two other cities. The behavior of politicians, planners, managers, labor unions and service users is studied to understand motivations and actions.

In Indianapolis, the Republican mayor tried to apply principles successfully used to contract other public services, and found more resistance than he'd expected from transit management and labor. In Denver, the state legislature followed a Ronald Reagan recipe for contracting a fixed percentage of bus services without examining whether any particular percentage made sense. Those for and against privatization have each produced their own unreliable data to prove their cases. The need to remain competitive through low wages has driven private labor annual turnover rates to 170 percent.

In San Diego, contracting has saved money, but pushed wages below poverty levels at the public agency, which must compete with private enterprise to keep costs down. Labor won a concession on minimum wages after pleading tragedy to the regional transit board, but asked to exempt union shops from the requirement to keep union labor competitive, whatever the misery for union members. In California, union-supported state Democrats from Los Angeles have been blind to constituent wishes, and pushed through a highly-restrictive bill which makes it all but impossible to set up new regionalized private service providers. Parroting union lobbyists, the legislators have shown no interest in confronting issues of service to those they represent.Las Vegas presents the biggest success story for privatization, with an operation focused on service quality and efficiency that has never been provided by a public agency. Despite its success, the local union is unhappy about the focus on low wages that are part and parcel of keeping down the costs of privatized operations.

In New York and Miami, members of the Caribbean community have started jitney operations, which have often been illegal. While they have provided a high level of community service, much enjoyed by local residents, the bus drivers unions have tried to put them out of existence. Under great union pressure, the New York City Council has refused to allow jitneys to legally collect passengers hailing them on the streets. In Miami, the county both provides bus services and regulates jitneys, imposing a series of regulations which make it hard to establish service. In all of this, transit passengers are seen as dependent children under a credo that dates from the principles of the Victorian Workhouse: welfare should be provided to the poor, but the service doesn't have to be any more pleasant than the greasy gruel supplied by the workhouse. Transit managers can insist that their hard-seated, slow, and infrequent buses provide the "best" possible service, because they do not recognize users' perspectives as relevant. Quoting Hillel's famous version of the Golden Rule, "Do not do to your neighbor what you find hateful," the book concludes that to make progress, participants must see things from each other's perspectives. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Good lessons and warnings
Excellent and well written. You get the sense that the author must have interviewed 1000 people--union officials, politicians, transit managers, contractors, ex-contractors, wanna-be contractors, and a few Hatian immigrants in Miami who just want to run their jitneys in peace. He adds some good points to the old debate about "cream skimming" and whether there really is a need for a monopolistic transit agency to provide a monolithic brand of transit service. This book is fun reading, and very useful reading for anyone (like myself) who deals with public employee labor issues, transit or otherwise.

Real Service needs real policy
This book is great reading for all public policy makers trying to bring real service delivery to the public. At first impression it appears to be about buses. Reading the case studies, it becomes apparent that this is really a book about issues management and the political and practical factors that enter into any private/public infrastructure conflict. The examples in the case studies could just as easily be applied to ferry services, prisons or any contestable infrastructure interaction. This is a must read for anyone involved or interested in public policy.

written with flair and passion
I am not a specialist, but the subject of urban and transportation studies has always fascinated me, and I have read Richmond's passionate account of the struggle over public transport in various American cities with great pleasure. I want to add to the other reviewers' discussion of the academic merits of the book that I was personally moved by the book's ending, where the author shifts gears and calls upon all sides of the conflict to think about common good, and to be decent rather than ruthless towards one another. Richmond has done a scientist's job: He has examined various strategies adopted by the labor, the management, the overseeing agencies, the elected politicians, the working class communities dependent upon public transport, and many other parties of this conflict. He compares, analyzes, and draws conclusions. But at the end of the day, the more you look into such matters the more you see a lot of plain human meanness and a lot of short-sightedness. The old-testament call at the end of this book captures, to my mind in a profound way, both the hope and a certain hopelessness of an intellectual who studies social conflicts.

Politics and Public Transportation
Jonathan Richmond does a wonderful job exploring the real workings of how public transportation policy is really developed. In his work, The Private Provision of Public Transport, Richmond skillfully addresses the hidden drivers that often operate behind the scenes to drive public transportation policy.

Richmond takes you on a political romp through the public transportation policy setting agenda highlighting the various impacts that party affiliation, special interest and labor can have on setting transportation policy.

Furthermore, Richmond does a fine job pointing out perceived or real differences, that exist between public and private operation of public transportation. An area that sometimes is often blurred.

One begins to wonder, after reading this book, if public transportation policy is really developed with the public's best interest in mind?

A first accurate description of the US transit situation
The relationship between US transit operators and local governments is very different from what it is in Europe. Unlike Europe, most operators are publicly owned. The book decsribes a few experiences of private operation of urban transit and paratransit. It shows how difficult it is for local governments to save money by out-contracting and some of the risks involved. Very interesting case studies are presented such as Denver, Phoenix or Las Vegas and each is different. Las Vegas is shown as the only really positive experience of out-contracting, probably because transit demand is relatively high on the strip.

The book also shows that because of high employement in the US, it is very hard to find drivers and this can lead to failure: a well known company for example had to withdraw from its Denver operation because of the lack of drivers.

One may wonder, after reading this book if the reason why US private companies do not succeed in doing better than the public sector is that local governments contract and pay per mile or per hour. The only way the companies can make profit with such contracts is by reducing salaries which is bound to lead to social difficulties.

Why not try the French model where operators collect revenues from the fare box and get a lump sum per year from the local government to operate the transit systems? In France, an important task of an operator is marketing: users are clients and not just users.

A probable follow up on this very good analysis would be to make international comparisons with more successful situations and thus better understand the US transit market ... Read more

Book Description

Enterprise 2000 explores an economic region stretching from Niagara Falls to Oakville (where the Toronto sprawl begins).

This economic region takes in the political regions of Greater Hamilton, Halton and Niagara. With Hamilton at its core, the region encompasses over 1 million people and boasts a highly diversified economy. Enterprise 2000 looks at this region on the cusp of a new millennium and examines how a new generation is being prepared for challenges ahead. The book combines detailed text with stunning photography by Paul Sparrow. It's a perfect blend of a community coffee table book with a business book. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The book of our future
If you want to know how the Hamilton area is preparing to meet the chalenges of the new millennium, be sure to read this book. There's even an entire chapter on how the new generation is getting ready for what lies ahead. This book is very informative and it also features terrific photography of Southern Ontario scenes. I highly recommend it.

The book of our future
The book Enterprise 2000 is really cool! It discusses the way the businesses work and how the financial companies work. It is a really cool book and it has beautiful pictures and very descriptive articles. I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars because it's a really good book. Read it for yourself. ... Read more

Book Description

This book provides an in-depth investigation of the role of the private and public sectors in land markets and regional economics, and explores the reasons behind government intervention in the interests of sustainable growth.The authors explore the subject of regional development and changing land use in a variety of different countries. They examine broad themes such as urban structure, infrastructure and eco-structure, and look in detail at issues including housing, transport and technology clustering. They also demonstrate that for a proper understanding of long-term changes, the broader institutional settings and policy regimes are of critical importance, as it is within this framework that private and public actors interact. It is therefore vital to search for institutional arrangements where conflicts of interest can be dealt with in a constructive way, and where ecological values are taken into consideration. The contributions in this book highlight these difficulties and offer practical proposals to improve current practices. Regional scientists, geographers and development policymakers will welcome this rigorous exploration of the roles of the private and public sectors in the context of economic development. ... Read more

Book Description

This authoritative handbook provides a comprehensive account of migration and economic development throughout the world, in both developed and developing countries.

Some of the world’s most experienced researchers in this field look at how population redistribution patterns have impacted on urban development in a wide selection of advanced and developing countries in all the major regions of the world over the past half century. The study results show that, despite local differences, there are signs of remarkable similarities in the underlying forces that drive the migration process and urban development across the development spectrum.

The International Handbook of Urban Systems is a must for social and economic geographers, urban and regional planners, regional scientists, urban, regional and development economists and sociologists. ... Read more

Book Description

Following on from their previous book Economic Efficiency and Productivity Growth in the Asia-Pacific Region, the authors in this volume analyze the economic performance of many of the major economies in the Asia-Pacific region including Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China and Japan. They examine economic and productivity growth, competitiveness and efficiency developments in the region.

An introductory essay by the editors surveys recent economic developments in the region while introducing and cohesively integrating the chapters that follow. The studies employ a variety of modern analytical constructs and empirical techniques of open economy growth accounting as well as the measurement of productivity change, technical change and economic efficiency. A number of the chapters examine the entire region while others focus exclusively on a nation or industry. Several chapters study the causes and consequences of the financial crises in the region in 1997 from a recent historical perspective.

This book will be of special interest to scholars of economic growth and its determinants as well as all those interested in the Asian economies. ... Read more

Book Description

Widely recognized as an authoritative assessment of the world's natural resource base, the World Resources series offers a comprehensive guide to the global environment. This edition features a special report on northern consumption, as well as regional reports on China and India, providing key environmental and developmental trends in the world's two most populous nations. As always, World Resources provides more than 120 pages of data tables covering 146 countries, and features a wide variety of charts, tables, and other graphics--many unique to this book--that make it the most complete and current reference available on the subject, and an indispensable sourcebook for anyone concerned with the state of the world environment. ... Read more

Book Description

This introductory but innovative textbook on the economics of cities is aimed at students of urban and regional policy as well as of undergraduate economics. It deals with standard topics, including automobiles, mass transit, pollution, housing, and education but it also discusses non-standard topics such as segregation, water supply, sewers, garbage, fire prevention, housing codes, homelessness, crime, illicit drugs, and economic development.

Its methods of analysis are primarily verbal, geometric, and arithmetic. The author achieves coherence by showing how the analysis of various topics reinforces one another. Thus, buses can tell us something about schools and optimal tolls about land prices. Brendan O'Flaherty looks at almost everything through the lens of Pareto optimality and potential Pareto optimality--how policies affect people and their well-being, not abstract entities such as cities or the economy or growth or the environment. Such traditionalism leads to radical questions, however: Should cities have police and fire departments? Should tax preferences for home ownership be repealed? Should public schools charge for their services? O'Flaherty also gives serious consideration to such heterodox policies as pay-at-the-pump auto insurance, curb rights for buses, land taxes, marginal cost water pricing, and sidewalk zoning.