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The book review "Where the hood at? Fifty years of change in black neighborhoods" by Michael Lens focuses on the socioeconomic conditions of Black neighborhoods in the US from 1970 to 2017. Lens highlights historical forces that shaped Black neighborhoods, their convergence with non-Black neighborhoods, and regional variations in conditions. The book discusses the slow pace of neighborhood change, challenges of gentrification, and success stories in Atlanta and Washington, DC. Lens calls for policies based on Black residents' preferences to address disparities and improve existing Black neighborhoods. [Extracted from the article]

The "New Global Cities in Latin America and Asia" book edited by Pablo Baisotti explores the complexities of global cities beyond their economic functions, highlighting the impacts of globalization on multiculturalism and socioeconomic changes in Latin American and Asian cities. The volume emphasizes the need for a South-South dialogue in urban studies and employs multidisciplinary frameworks to analyze the consequences of neoliberal globalization on cities in these regions. The book also delves into specific case studies, such as the development of global urban regions and metropolitan secondary city clusters, to provide a nuanced understanding of urban transformations in the twenty-first century. [Extracted from the article]

The book review in the Journal of the American Planning Association discusses the volume "New York" by Jill S. Gross and H. V. Savitch, which is part of the Megacities Series by Agenda Publishing. The authors explore New York City's status as a megacity, its response to crises like bankruptcy in 1975 and 9/11, and its governance challenges. The book provides a comprehensive analysis of New York's government and governance, focusing on politics, power, and their impact on residents and institutions, making it a valuable resource for scholars in political science, policy, and urban studies. [Extracted from the article]

The book "Neighborhood" by Emily Talen explores the concept of neighborhoods in the digital age and their relevance in addressing contemporary challenges such as the pandemic, climate change, and immigration. Talen argues that neighborhoods are important for several reasons, including the demand for dwellings in historic city centers, the sense of identity and social relationships they foster, and their potential for social change. The book is divided into two parts, discussing the conceptual history of neighborhoods and exploring debates on design, planning, governance, social relevance, and segregation. The authors of the review agree with Talen's argument and suggest adding the debate on digitization processes and digital differences in neighborhoods. They emphasize the importance of neighborhoods in mediating between the physical environment and the social community, and the need for urban planners to engage with neighborhoods to create better futures. [Extracted from the article]

"True North, Down South: Tales of a Professional Canadian in America" by David Wayne Stewart is a personal memoir that explores the author's life from his Anglo-Quebec boyhood to his experiences as a "professional Canadian" living in the United States. The memoir is organized into four eras, each revealing different themes of personal growth and exploration. Stewart's reflections on his identity as a Canadian navigating different worlds offer insights into North American geopolitics and the challenges of living as an expat. The book provides a contemporary view of cross-cultural experiences and can help readers better understand the complexities of identity and belonging in a diverse society. [Extracted from the article]

"Urban Change in Central Europe: The Case of Kraków" is a comprehensive book edited by Jacek Purchla that delves into the developmental conditions of Krakow, Poland. The book explores the historical context, the role of local self-government units, barriers to development, and the impact of spatial planning on the city. It also addresses topics such as cultural heritage protection, economic life, and architectural development. The book provides valuable insights into the specific conditions of Krakow's development and can serve as a starting point for further research and discussion on urban development in Central and Eastern Europe. [Extracted from the article]

Increasing global population has resulted in increased urbanization of coastal areas across the globe. Such an increase generates many challenges for sustainable food production and food security. The development of aquaculture has proven to be an extremely good option to ensure food security (uninterrupted supply and good quality of food) by many countries, especially those with urban areas affected by space limitations such as Singapore. However, the implementation of aquaculture is not without its challenges and impacts to the environment, with Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) being one of the major concerns in coastal waters. In this review we analyze the development of the aquaculture industry with respect to HABs in Singapore and compare it to similar urban areas such as Hong Kong (SAR China), Salalah (Oman), Cape Town (South Africa), Valencia (Spain), Rotterdam (The Netherlands), Tampa bay (USA), Vancouver (Canada), and Sydney (Australia). Along with HABs, the abovementioned urban areas face different challenges in sustainably increasing their aquaculture production with respect to the economy and geography. This review further assesses the different production and monitoring strategies that have been implemented to counter these challenges while sustainably increasing production. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected the world with lockdowns and border closures resulting in logistical difficulties in seafood trade which has further accentuated the dependencies on food import. We conclude that the challenges faced by urban areas for sustainable achievement of food security through development of the aquaculture industry can be effectively managed through proper planning, management and collaboration of knowledge/skills on an international level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first two decades of the twenty-first century made it clear that globalization caused enormous population imbalances between large cities and mid- to small-size cities along with rural areas. Flexible response to healthcare systems crises in urban medical networks along with effective planning of city infrastructure to prevent any structural and operational "bottlenecks" are crucial factors of preventing public health crises like the current "coronacrisis.". [Extracted from the article]

Urban residents need to live in an ecologically sustainable way to mitigate and adapt to climate change. To discuss the model of urban ecological life, this paper focused on Satoyama landscapes and reviewed academic articles on the existing cases of Satoyama conservation by urban residents in the Greater Tokyo Area. We analyzed activities performed by participants, benefits to participants, and targeted and achieved ecosystems. Several findings were obtained from the review of published literature. First, the participants were mainly elderly men aged 60 years or older, who were not necessarily local people and who were motivated mostly by the need to conserve nature and improve their health. People with intellectual disabilities also enjoyed the benefits of Satoyama woodland management. Second, participants tended to recognize benefits in terms of health promotion, social cohesion, recreation, and resource utilization, rather than landscape and biodiversity conservation. Third, there were different directions of Satoyama conservation from the perspectives of nature and humans. The broader ecosystem beyond each site was not necessarily considered in Satoyama conservation. These findings show the potential of, and the necessity for, attracting other urban residents by including various activities that consist of not only vegetation conservation but also communal events based on different preferences. There is also a need for balancing environmental and socio-economic perspectives, and the targeted ecosystem should be further explored in collaboration with experts in ecology and landscape planning to make urban ecological life feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Obesity rates are recognized to be at epidemic levels throughout much of the world, posing significant threats to both the health and financial security of many nations. The causes of obesity can vary but are often complex and multifactorial, and while many contributing factors can be targeted for intervention, an understanding of where these interventions are needed is necessary in order to implement effective policy. This has prompted an interest in incorporating spatial context into the analysis and modeling of obesity determinants, especially through the use of geographically weighted regression (GWR). Method: This paper provides a critical review of previous GWR models of obesogenic processes and then presents a novel application of multiscale (M)GWR using the Phoenix metropolitan area as a case study. Results: Though the MGWR model consumes more degrees of freedom than OLS, it consumes far fewer degrees of freedom than GWR, ultimately resulting in a more nuanced analysis that can incorporate spatial context but does not force every relationship to become local a priori. In addition, MGWR yields a lower AIC and AICc value than GWR and is also less prone to issues of multicollinearity. Consequently, MGWR is able to improve our understanding of the factors that influence obesity rates by providing determinant-specific spatial contexts. Conclusion: The results show that a mix of global and local processes are able to best model obesity rates and that MGWR provides a richer yet more parsimonious quantitative representation of obesity rate determinants compared to both GWR and ordinary least squares. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major portion of the book is devoted to multiple-regression analyses of the determinants of per-capita government expenditures and tax revenues, beginning with the entire state-local sector and proceeding to the local sector alone, to metropolitan and nonmetropolitan local governments, and finally to the central-city and OCC portions of a judgment sample of 36 SMSAs in the country. The outstanding characteristic of these analyses is their conservatism. All are single-equation, linear, cross-sectional, highly-aggregated models relying heavily on such traditional independent variables as population density, per-capita personal income, and federal and state intergovernmental expenditures. Within this general framework, which in this reviewer's opinion is not one likely to produce many important insights into the complex causes of state and local fiscal behavior, the authors are assiduous in testing the significance of a wide variety of dependent and independent variables. In the process, unfortunately, they appear to have become beguiled by the attractions of their own model and end up drawing conclusions from it that appear both incautious and unwarranted. At the same time, new ground is broken in the analysis of metropolitan expenditure and tax patterns, and future researchers are provided with some intriguing hypotheses to attempt to reconfirm or deny. Four features of the study have been selected to illustrate both its contributions and its weaknesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suburban Ways of Living in 21st-Century North America by Markus Moos and Robert Walter-Joseph, eds A closer read reveals that editors Markus Moos and Robert Walter-Joseph have packed the book with innovative ways to think about the future of suburban planning. The planners and authors consider suburbs as a way of life, breaking down the urban-suburban binary to acknowledge that suburban ways of life are present in the central city as well. [Extracted from the article]

The article reviews the book "Reshaping Metropolitan America: Development Trends and Opportunities to 2030" by Arthur C. Nelson.

The article reviews the book "The Aging Population and Competitiveness of Cities: Benefits to the Urban Economy," by P.K. Kresl and D. Ietri.

The article reviews the books "The Enduring Legacy of Urban Ethnography: Myth and Reality" and "Urban Ethnography: Its Traditions and Its Futures," edited by Elijah Anderson.

The article reviews the book "Health Care in World Cities: New York, Paris, and London," by Michael K. Gusmano, Victor G. Rodwin, and Daniel Weisz.

The article reviews the book "Megaregions: Planning for Global Competitiveness," edited by Catherine L. Ross.