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This paper examines the variant roles that specific forms of networked-based social capital play in supporting the democratic functions of a neighbourhood governance network in Los Angeles. A significant body of empirical work has demonstrated the positive role that social capital plays in the functioning of civil society, but there has been less attention to the manner in which different types of network-based social capital promote support efficacy of multifaceted civic organisations. This paper utilises network measures from a survey of the members of a neighbourhood governance network in Los Angeles to explore the associations between types of network ties -- within group; among groups; to different external stakeholders -- and perceived self-efficacy of the member associations. We find that internal cohesion, or bonding social capital, promotes both advisement of city officials and promotion of local participation, suggesting that this network-based resource is fungible. Other network structures appear to have value in different contexts, in that stakeholder connections promote participation, while bridging social capital is associated with perceived success in advising city officials. The findings suggest that architects of participatory reform should be attentive to system goals in establishing supports for varying forms of system relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US fashion industry is a useful lens through which to view the transformation of the country’s urban economic systems. Initially an industrial vanguard, fashion has evolved into a more design-oriented sector and a central part of the ‘cognitive-cultural economy’. Fashion is also a clear demonstration of place-specific comparative advantage and specialisation, intensely linked to ‘place in product’. The paper traces the fashion industry’s evolution from 1986 to 2007, focusing on New York and Los Angeles. The composition of the industry in each locale demonstrates each city’s comparative advantage and these advantages may be key determinants of their future fortunes. Using geographical information systems (GIS), fashion’s current spatial form is studied. Within the industry’s sub-sectors, spatial patterns and similar geographical clustering emerge. The industry may be facing somewhat of a reconfiguring of its economic geography; however, the fashion industry’s spatial-structural patterns persist within each city. We also find that fashion, like high technology and Hollywood, tends to produce regional network agglomerations, strong headquarter cities and co-location of particular sectors. Our findings are consistent with the larger theoretical and empirical observations on the post-industrial landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper suggests a new concept, ‘spatial capability’, for understanding how women’s freedom of mobility is systematically constrained. Based on the capability approach, it demonstrates that women’s adaptive daily culture causes individual agents voluntarily to limit their mobility. Through the orally expressed experiences of 42 married Korean immigrant women in Los Angeles, this research effectively argues how the marginalisation of the subjects in the migration decision, along with their limited daily mobility, constitutes their spatial capability. It also shows that their daily culture, including their gender roles and their Christianity, enhances their constraints by adapting the limits and ultimately becomes the limitation itself. Gendered mobility should be approached in terms of potential freedom and accompanied by a consideration of the dialectic relationship that exists between the social constraints and the individual agents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Accessibility is a fundamental concept in theories of metropolitan spatial structure. Urban economic models explain urban structure as a function of access to jobs; accessibility is capitalised into land values, which in turn explain the population distribution. Studies of residential land values show that many factors contribute to the value of a given location: the characteristics of the housing unit, its location with respect to social and environmental amenities, as well as access to jobs, services and other economic opportunities. Empirical studies typically use job access as a proxy for more generalised access to economic activities. However, jobs represent many different activities, from retail shopping to heavy manufacturing, and the value of access to these activities may be positive or negative. In this paper, accessibility measures based on industry sectors have been developed, allowing the separating out of possible different effects. Their impacts are tested on residential land values using data from the Los Angeles region. A multilevel modelling approach is used in order to control for neighbourhood-level attributes common to multiple properties. It is found that the various access measures have different and significant effects on land values, but attributes of the dwelling unit, together with access to the coast, explain most of the variation. The multilevel model is confirmed; there is significant correlation among properties within the same neighbourhood. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study analyses 'the culture of capability poverty' of 42 Korean immigrant women who live in Los Angeles to uncover the systemic road to gendered urban poverty. Through in-depth interviews, this research observes the interaction between sub-culture and capability in the subject's career domain, reinterpreting Lewis' culture of poverty thesis within Sen's capability approach. The subjects have developed their culture of capability poverty within that domain-such as low aspiration and heavy reliance on their Christianity-as a response to career-decision constraints including a strong woman's image, their childhood education and job market inequality. This paper concludes that, while their sub-culture is a positive life-strategy mechanism for dealing with their gender situation, it ultimately becomes lack of capability, poverty itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Little appears to be known about the value of urban green spaces (tree canopy cover and grassy areas) in a Mediterranean climate, or in relation to multifamily buildings. This study starts addressing this gap by quantifying the impact of urban green spaces on the value of 1197 multifamily buildings sold in 2003/04 in Los Angeles, California. To assess the robustness of the results, a spatial Durbin model is contrasted with a geographically weighted regression model and an extensive sensitivity analysis is conducted. It is found that increases in grassy areas either on the parcels of multifamily buildings or in their vicinity (200 metres outward from each parcel boundary) would typically not enhance their value and neither would more parcel tree canopy cover (TCC); by contrast, most multifamily properties would benefit from an increase in vicinity TCC. These results have implications for tree planting programmes that rely heavily on private property owners. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Spatial behaviour and decision-making require knowledge of the urban environment, including opportunities available and the means to reach them. Thus, variations in spatial knowledge can result in radically different levels of effective accessibility, despite similar locations, demographics and other factors commonly thought to influence travel behaviour. Cognitive maps, which develop primarily through wayfinding and travel experience, are individuals' repositories of spatial knowledge. This paper examines whether differences in cognitive maps can be explained, in part, by variations in travel mode. Adults were surveyed in two Los Angeles neighbourhoods with relatively low auto use and high transit use. The data show that spatial knowledge does indeed vary with previous experience with travel modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article analyses the governance arrangements underlying the regeneration process of a central area in Los Angeles from the 1970s until now. The Arts District is emblematic of this rising interest from developers in central places that were just 45 years ago either 'no man's land' or illegally occupied by artists. The analysis applies three main governance models that have been used in contemporary research to explain urban regeneration processes - Private type; Bottomup; and Consensus-building - to look at the following research question: Are these models sufficient to characterise regeneration processes in the network society context? Data for the analysis were collected through semi-structured interviews with social actors as well as from policy documents related to adaptive re-use. The main finding is that the governance arrangements during the main phase of the regeneration of the area do not fit with the governance models utilised for the analysis. A group of new entrepreneurs are active in re(scaling) processes: they use 'spaceless' interactions - professional networks at the national scale - to influence the evolution of the area. The ANT framework is used to analyse why and how these networks play in the regeneration process. The innovative regeneration process is like a 'translation' process where professional networks play an important role in 'enrolling actors' but also in 'circulating the translation', thus establishing this regeneration model at the national scale in America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autonomous efforts to improve local business environments have become an increasingly important impetus for economic development. Business improvement districts (BIDs), as one of such autonomous organisations, have clearly demonstrated benefits for promoting commercial areas over the last two decades. When BIDs spread over a city, however, not every commercial district succeeds in establishing BIDs despite some initial efforts. This research examines the types of challenges that these neighbourhoods experience in order to form BIDs. This study is based on census data analyses and in-depth interviews with city employees, BID consultants, executive directors of BIDs and community stakeholders in Los Angeles. The results show that the areas with unsuccessful attempts of BID formation in Los Angeles are relatively low-income immigrant neighbourhoods. Some of these neighbourhoods have struggled with disengaged property owners, spatial conflicts among diverse ethnic groups, immigrants’ skepticism towards government and the chronic presence of informal economic activities. These findings suggest that some disadvantaged neighbourhoods are not adequately informed or organised to form BIDs. Public officials and community workers can support these neighbourhoods by providing direct assistance for the development of collective vision and action among community stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing components of Murray Schafer’s soundscape typology from his inimitable 1977 work, The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World, my exploratory study qualitatively and comparatively explores the sonic landscape and noise pollution ‘texture’ of Bangkok, Thailand and Los Angeles, California. By employing Schafer’s soundscape concepts to explain how people subjectively accommodate and generate the noises and sounds of cities, I hope to move beyond the conventional quantitative measurements of sound through decibels. The study argues that urban sociology’s blind spot is that qualitative examinations of the sonic environment have not been undertaken. By making operative Schafer’s soundscape concepts I make the preliminary argument that a qualitative understanding of urban noise reveals social structure insofar as cultural accommodations of noise, urban configurations of a city and degrees of development of a city are concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Directing growth towards compact rail corridors has become a key strategy for redirecting auto-oriented regions towards denser, mixed-use communities that support sustainable travel. Few have examined how travel of near-rail residents varies within corridors or whether corridor land use–travel interactions diverge from regional averages. The Los Angeles region has made substantial investments in transit-oriented development, and our survey analysis indicates that although rail corridor residents drove less and rode public transit more than the county average, households in an older subway corridor with more near-transit development had about 11 fewer daily miles driven and higher transit ridership than households along a newer light rail line, a difference likely associated with development patterns and the composition and preferences of residents. Rail transit corridors are not created equally, and transit providers and community planners should consider the social and development context of corridors in efforts to improve transit access and maximise development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study compares urban landscapes in the Portland and Los Angeles metropolitan areas at the neighbourhood level by operationalising six smart growth indices and mapping their spatial distribution patterns and time trends. Analysis results show that the two metropolitan areas have both strengths and weaknesses in different aspects of smart growth. Most neighbourhoods in both regions do not excel in all six smart growth measures: they are at the high ends of some smart growth indices but at the low ends of others. Some smart growth features such as mixed land use and mixed housing are already pervasive in suburban areas. Density in some mature suburban neighbourhoods is also relatively high. A large number of neighbourhoods in suburban and exurban areas exhibit high levels of socioeconomic diversity. Time trend analyses suggest that in both regions, older neighbourhoods tend to be ‘smarter’ than newer ones, except for racial/ethnic diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research examines the impact of accessibility on the growth of employment centres in the Los Angeles region between 1990 and 2000. There is extensive empirical documentation of polycentricity—the presence of multiple concentrations of employment—in large metropolitan areas. However, there is limited understanding of the determinants of growth of employment centres. It has long been held that transport investments influence urban structure, particularly freeways and airports. Using data on 48 employment centres, the effects are tested of various measures of accessibility on centre employment growth: highway accessibility, network accessibility and two measures of labour force accessibility. Access to airports is also tested. It is found that, after controlling for centre size, density, industry mix, location within the region and spatial amenities, labour force accessibility and network accessibility are significantly related to centre growth. It is concluded that accessibility continues to play an important role in urban spatial structure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is a natural extension of the current discussion on occupational clustering and economic growth. It is argued that, while there has been increased interest in the role of occupations, little has been done from a methodological and empirical approach to discover how the study of occupations can illuminate the study of industry. Prior work in cluster analysis has generally taken an 'either/or' approach towards occupational and industrial analysis. Porter's clustering model has illuminated the cross-fertilising linkages across industries, but this is only half the story. It is argued that what drives these clusters is not only the industry, but also the people and their occupational skills and, therefore, such analysis must be expanded. Using the case of the IT sector in Los Angeles, the industry approach is combined with an 'occupational cluster analysis'. It is concluded that this approach leads to a better understanding of regional competitiveness and growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]