Policymakers who wish to deconcentrate assisted housing for low-income and special-needs households into areas where these households are underrepresented are at odds with citizens who wish to keep such housing out of their neighborhoods. One side sees the expanded opportunities and quality of life for residents. The other side sees an invasion of undesirable neighbors who will undermine their quality of life, security, and property values. In Baltimore County and Denver, jurisdictions that differ in many respects, innovative efforts during the tail end of the twentieth century to spatially deconcentrate assisted households of various types met with vocal, well-organized community opposition in both locales. In Denver, scattered-site public housing and the supportive housing for special needs populations programs were targeted. In Baltimore County, the Section 8 Moving to Opportunity rental assistance program proved a lightning rod for protest. The authors seize the analytical opportunity provided by these programs in Denver and Baltimore County to explore fundamental issues concerning the deconcentration of assisted housing. Does assisted housing of various types cause negative neighborhood impacts? Do impacts vary across different sorts of neighborhoods? How does the spatial concentration of assisted housing or the scale of the facility affect impacts? What are the mechanisms through which these impacts transpire? How can deconcentration policies be revised to minimize any negative impacts? This book provides answers to these questions by bringing to bear a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods.

NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) protests are often criticized as parochial and short-lived, generating no lasting influence on broader processes related to environmental politics. This volume offers a different perspective. Drawing on cases from around the globe, it demonstrates that NIMBY protests, although always arising from a local concern in a particular community, often result in broader political, social, and technological change. Chapters include cases from Europe, North America, and Asia, engaging with the full political spectrum from established democracies to non-democratic countries. Regardless of political setting, NIMBY movements can have a positive and proactive role in generating innovative solutions to local as well as transnational environmental issues. Furthermore, those solutions are now serving as models for communities and countries around the world.

Rajiv Surendra was filming Mean Girls, playing the beloved rapping mathlete Kevin Gnapoor, when a cameraman insisted he read Yann Martel's Life of Pi. So begins his "lovely and human" (Jenny Lawson, author of Furiously Happy) tale of obsessively pursuing a dream, overcoming failure, and finding meaning in life. “This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. I found myself standing dangerously close to the edge of a cliff. Far below me was an incredible abyss with no end in sight. I could turn back and safely return to where I had come from, or I could throw caution to the wind, lift my arms up into the air . . . and jump.” —From The Elephants in My Backyard What happens when you spend ten years obsessively pursuing a dream, and then, in the blink of an eye, you learn that you have failed, that the dream will not come true? In 2003, Rajiv Surendra was filming Mean Girls, playing the beloved rapping mathlete Kevin Gnapoor, when a cameraman insisted he read Yann Martel’s Life of Pi. Mesmerized by all the similarities between Pi and himself—both are five-foot-five with coffee-colored complexions, both share a South Indian culture, both lived by a zoo—when Rajiv learns that Life of Pi will be made into a major motion picture he is convinced that playing the title role is his destiny. In a great leap of faith Rajiv embarks on a quest to embody the sixteen-year-old Tamil schoolboy. He quits university and buys a one-way ticket from Toronto to South India. He visits the sacred stone temples of Pondicherry, he travels to the frigid waters off the coast of rural Maine, and explores the cobbled streets of Munich. He befriends Yann Martel, a priest, a castaway, an eccentric old woman, and a pack of Tamil schoolboys. He learns how to swim, to spin wool, to keep bees, and to look a tiger in the eye. All the while he is really learning how to dream big, to fail, to survive, to love, and to become who he truly is. Rajiv Surendra captures the uncertainty, heartache, and joy of finding ones place in the world with sly humor and refreshing honesty. The Elephants in My Backyard is not a journey of goals and victories, but a story of process and determination. It is a spellbinding and profound book for anyone who has ever failed at something and had to find a new path through life.

Baltimore is the setting for (and typifies) one of the most penetrating examinations of bigotry and residential segregation ever published in the United States. Antero Pietila shows how continued discrimination practices toward African Americans and Jews have shaped the cities in which we now live. Eugenics, racial thinking, and white supremacist attitudes influenced even the federal government's actions toward housing in the 20th century, dooming American cities to ghettoization. This all-American tale is told through the prism of Baltimore, from its early suburbanization in the 1880s to the consequences of "white flight" after World War II, and into the first decade of the twenty-first century. The events are real, and so are the heroes and villains. Mr. Pietila's engrossing story is an eye-opening journey into city blocks and neighborhoods, shady practices, and ruthless promoters. -- Book jacket.

The final report of the blue-ribbon commission appointed by Pres. Bush to study government regulations that drive up housing costs for American families. Examined the effects of rules, regulations, and red tape at all levels of government on the costs of housing in America. Graphs.

"2001 marks the beginning of the International Building Exhibition (IBE) Rotterdam-Hoogvliet with the theme WiMBY! - Welcome into My Backyard!" "One of the biggest obstacles for contemporary urban planning and the urban environment is the NiMBY phenomenon - Not in My Backyard. This represents the personal fear of the urbanite for the implications of collectivism, for everything that is unusual or new. It also refers to the fear and unwillingness of large institutions, companies and governmental organizations to share their knowledge and coordinate their agendas in communal projects." "WiMBY! (Welcome into My Backyard!) is the motto for a new design and organizational culture in which complexity is deliberately confronted in order to discover and apply innovative and pioneering possibilities. It also signifies the application of an urban ethic in which the changes that overcome the urban dweller are seen as potential sources of enrichment for the resident of the collective city." "The objective of IBE Rotterdam-Hoogvliet, set to continue through 2010, is to heighten the profile of Rotterdam's urban planning and architecture and make a decision contribution to the repositioning of Hoogvliet as a sustainable and attractive place to live and work." "WiMBY! is first and foremost a voyage of discovery into the potential of all the New Towns, satellite towns, Trabantstadte, Garden Cities, Villes Nouvelles and other growth epicentres that were built in the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved