December 19, 2007
Blog update
Due to changes in personnel and shifts in responsibilities within the Department of Liaison & Outreach Services, the following blogs will be discontinued, effective Friday 12/21/07: Economic News; Political Science News and Public Administration & Urban Studies News.
For assistance with research in these disciplines and many others, please visit Start Your Research.
Eight Lessons to Promote Diversity in Public Places
In the November 2007 edition of
Making Places: News and Ideas from Project for Public Spaces, PPS discusses eight lessons to promote diversity in public places. These lessons represent the findings of a major PPS research initiative, ''Placemaking in a Pluralistic World: Using Public Spaces to Encourage and Celebrate Social Diversity,'' which was carried out during the summer of 2007.
December 17, 2007
Time = Learning
Adding 10 minutes per day to math instruction yields more points on test scores than increasing the school year by 40 days, according to the seventh edition of the Brown Center Report on American Education. The report also explores the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress and scrutinizes enrollment patterns in private and public school.
Read More »Source: The Brookings Alert
December 12, 2007
Mixed-Use Zoning, Infill Help to Drop Atlanta's Rate of Open Space Loss
Although the population in metro
Atlanta's 10-county core grew from 3.4 million in 2000 to 3.8 million in 2005 and surpassed 4 million this year, the larger 13-county area has cut its rural and forest land conversion from 112,000 acres in 2003-05 to 31,000 since then -- a roughly 71 percent reduction, which the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) attributes mainly to a recent home construction slump, the new popularity of mixed uses, and a marked influx of residents to dense urban centers, including Atlanta.
December 5, 2007
Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research
November 23, 2007
Analysis of Local Government Expenditures and Property Tax Growth
The Fiscal Research Center (AYSPS), the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, and the Georgia Public Policy Foundation jointly prepared this document. We believe it would be desirable for there to be a set of numbers that we agreed reflect the recent growth in expenditures and property taxes by type of government in Georgia. The objective was to produce a set of numbers for each level or type of government that were developed on a consistent basis across governments and over time, and that reflect actual changes and not differences over time or across types of governments in how the data are reported. Read more
November 20, 2007
EcoBrokers Helping Consumers Find "Green" Housing in Atlanta
Sensitive to consumer demand, Metro Atlanta's housing industry is going
"green," observes
Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie Hairston, reporting that after area home builders partnered with the Southface Energy Institute to devise the increasingly popular EarthCraft inspection program for environmentally sound construction, the city's Harry Norman Realtors brought in Colorado-based EcoBroker certification creator John Beldock on a three-day training session for 48 agents at its Buckhead Branch.
Source:
Smart Growth OnlineNovember 16, 2007
Research to Develop a Community Needs Index
This study tests an innovative index of real fiscal capacity that measures the extent to which communities are sufficiently resourced and able to deal with their problems without federal assistance. The study finds that it's possible to combine a needs index and a fiscal capacity index for the purpose of measuring relative need for CDBG and other federal support.
November 13, 2007
Mayors' Conference Makes Push for Greener, Walkable Cities
The federal government must do more to fight global warming than it has done in the past seven years, but for now, "cities must take up the slack," even if many are struggling to convince voters about benefits of "green" investments and anti-pollution measures, reports
New York Times writer Tom Cochran from the U
.S. Conference of Mayors' two-day Climate Protection Summit in Seattle, where former President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore via satellite, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and others stressed that sustainable and fiscally-strong cities must be walkable, livable and energy-efficient, offer residents jobs and focus "on people and public transit, not cars."
Source: SmartGrowth.org
November 12, 2007
HR 900 ("The GREAT Plan"): Reality Checking The Numbers
ATLANTA- Alan Essig, Executive Director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, responded today to Speaker Glenn Richardson's presentation and explanation of "The GREAT Plan" given at the Speaker's press conference last week. "The math simply still does not work," said Essig. "Caps on sales tax liability make it even more difficult to raise funds necessary to replace property tax. The plan still is likely to be billions of dollars short."
November 9, 2007
Public Transportation Continues to Rise in 2007
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) announced that Americans took 78 million more trips on public transportation during the first six months of 2007, compared to the first six months of 2006. This means that more than 5 billion trips were taken during this six-month period, representing a 2.3% increase in the second quarter and a 1.1% increase in the first quarter of 2007.
November 8, 2007
The Business of Affordable Housing
Who is producing housing for moderate and low-income households, and how do they stay in business? In
The Business of Affordable Housing, from the Urban Land Institute, you'll learn the secrets of ten firms, both for-profit and nonprofit, that are able to successfully produce affordable housing. Gain insight into best practices and diverse strategies for business plans, predevelopment, working with the community, complex financing, property management, and organizational growth and sustainability.
November 7, 2007
Atlanta Begins First-Ever Citywide Transportation Plan
Today the City of Atlanta took another major step toward becoming a world-class city with the launch of Connect Atlanta, the city’s first comprehensive plan (CTP) to address transportation and commuter needs to, from and within the city limits.
November 6, 2007
Measuring Overcrowding in Housing
This
report considers a number of operational measure of overcrowded
housing and then examines each using data from the American Housing
Survey. Both time-series and cross-sectional tabulations are presented.
An appendix to the report includes a review of the literature on the
effects of overcrowded housing on its occupants.
November 3, 2007
County Characteristics, 2000-2007 [United States]
This file contains an array of
county characteristics by which researchers can investigate contextual influences at the county level. Included are population size and the components of population change during 2000-2005 and a wide range of characteristics on or about 2005: (1) population by age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin, (2) labor force size and unemployment, (3) personal income, (4) earnings and employment by industry, (5) land surface form typography, (6) climate, (7) government revenue and expenditures, (8) crimes reported to police, (9) presidential election results (10) housing authorized by building permits, (11) Medicare enrollment, and (12) health profession shortage areas.
November 2, 2007
Two GSU PAUS graduates recognized in AJC
Georgia women move up --- to new levels of power - Heather Alhadeff, Assistant Director of Planning and Transportation, City of Atlanta, PAUS graduate and longstanding MPA Advisory Board Member and Jannine Miller, Policy Advisor for Transportation in the Office of Governor Sonny Perdue and MPA graduate were both recognized on the front page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as part of a "little-noticed trend" that puts Georgia in the "vanguard of change" given our state's exceptional pool of women heading up government transportation agencies, commissions and boards.
October 31, 2007
Transportation for a Metropolitan Nation
Debate on the nation's transportation policy focuses narrowly on new revenues needed to bolster the federal program. In recent testimony before the House Budget Committee, Fellow Robert Puentes argues that we should start with a clearer articulation of the goals, objectives, and desired outcomes.
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October 26, 2007
Safe Routes to School: 2007 State of the States Report
Included by Congress in the 2005 federal transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU,
Safe Routes to Schools (SRTS) provides funding to all 50 states and the District of Columbia to help communities improve infrastructure, such as sidewalks and bike paths, and to support education, encouragement and enforcement programs that make it safer and easier for children to walk and bicycle to schools.
October 25, 2007
MARTA and Public Transportation Providers Nationwide Substantially Reduce Greenhouse Gases, According to New Study
Taking MARTA is one of the best ways to go green and combat global climate change, according to a new study that was released by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). The study, Public Transportation's Contribution to U.S. Greenhouse Gas Reduction, was prepared for APTA by Science Applications International Corporation.
October 24, 2007
GreenLaw - Giving Georgia's Environment Its Day in Court
In 1992, a small group of dedicated lawyers launched GreenLaw (formerly the Georgia Center for Law in the Public Interest). Inspired by the essential need for a powerful public interest legal group to challenge industry and government actions that have degraded Georgia's environment, GreenLaw has worked closely with concerned citizens and environmental organizations.
GreenLaw is dedicated to preventing air and water pollution that endangers human health and degrades Georgia’s natural resources. GreenLaw achieves these goals by providing free high quality legal and technical assistance to environmental organizations and community groups throughout Georgia.
