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After declining from historically high levels following the Great Recession, homelessness in the United States is again on the rise due to an increase in the prevalence of unsheltered homelessness, and homeless encampments in public spaces such as parks. As such, there is significant interest in understanding opinion regarding community park agency activities intended to support unhoused users. Unfortunately, these actions and investments may also contribute to the process of environmental gentrification. In this note we use structural equation modeling of survey responses to examine how beliefs about the gentrification process influence public attitudes toward park and recreation agency activities intended to support people experiencing homelessness. Gentrification beliefs were significantly related to attitudes toward both housing-related and service-related agency activities. Managers and other decision makers should consider the potential impact of agency activities on the gentrification process, and seek to understand stakeholder attitudes toward gentrification as a phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe and persistent mental illnesses are frequently associated with homelessness and extensive use of public services. Cost savings after the provision of permanent supportive housing (PSH) have been examined in large metropolitan areas but not in medium-sized communities. Administrative and clinical data were collected to determine use of public services, such as use of emergency services, inpatient psychiatric and medical services, and correctional facilities, in the year preceding and the year subsequent to placement in PSH. Costs of the housing and the utilized services were also calculated. Ninety-one subjects were in housing first (HF) programs and 19 were in treatment first (TF) programs. Overall there was a net cost savings of over $1.2 million or $6134/consumer/year of PSH. Nearly all cost savings were in reduced service utilization which implies prevention of both medical and psychiatric morbidity. In HF the average per patient cost savings ($21,082.12) was not significantly greater than TF ($12,907.29; p = 0.33). Provision of PSH in a mid-sized city provides significant cost savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health sciences library public services underwent profound changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Circulation, reference services, instruction, interlibrary loan, and programming were all significantly affected. Libraries adapted by moving to virtual services, featuring online workshops, video consultations, and digital information sharing. Reference services moved to virtual consultations for a streamlined experience, and instruction transitioned to interactive video tutorials. Interlibrary loan services saw a decrease in print material lending but an increase in electronic subscriptions. Library programming shifted from in-person to virtual, focusing on wellness activities. This post-pandemic transformation underscores the importance of ongoing adaptation to meet changing user needs.

2020 is an election year in the United States. As we know from both past elections and the current election season, mudslinging, hyperbole, misinformation campaigns, and fake news proliferate the media landscape. Finding and recognizing reliable, accurate, nonpartisan election information can be challenging. Fortunately, several websites offer reliable, accurate, nonpartisan, and balanced information on the election and about voting. Some sources include information on how to register to vote, who can register to vote, and explain voting rights. Other sources provide links to or compile information on candidate voting records, where candidates get their funding, where they stand on issues, and fact check their statements. And, still others allow voters to get personalized information about what will be on their specific ballots, such as all the candidates running for local, state, and national offices, as well as bond measures, propositions, and other ballot initiatives. The reviews included in this issue's column comprise a sampling of reliable election websites spanning the various election topics mentioned above. Librarians can feel confident recommending these sites to their patrons looking for accurate, balanced, reliable election and voting information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors explain why social impact bonds (SIBs) are an excellent—and probably the only—example of the finance–social services–co-production link. They show how SIBs can provide a functional linking mechanism in social service systems. Furthermore, they can help boost the innovation and sustainability of this system. The co-production concept is related to practice by studying two prison SIBs (HMP Peterborough in the UK and Rikers Island in the USA). They explain why co-production is relevant and how it works in SIBs. In the ongoing debate regarding how to design sustainable public services, finance seems primarily considered as a mere instrument to be used to achieve the desired goals. This paper shows how social impact bonds can facilitate the creation of sustainable public service systems by increasing innovation and co-production. To investigate how the link between SIBs and co-production works in practice, the authors investigate two cases involving prisons (Peterborough and Rikers Island). They demonstrate why co-production is relevant and how it works in SIBs. The findings reported here have implications for the future of SIBs design and of 'non-conventional' social service delivery systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial public budget constraints across the United States have increased reliance on charities for some public service provision. This article builds a unique historical dataset and presents the first systematic look at the charities supporting U.S. national and state parks through the lens of coproduction along with other major theories of government-voluntary interaction and its consequences. The results suggest that parks-supporting charities are involved in a multi-dimensional pattern of coproduction with distinct and differentiated forms of involvement in public service provision at the state and federal levels. Their growth over time reflects theories of government failure and philanthropic insufficiency. And their permanency suggests the value of greater understanding of public service reliance on private philanthropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s, governments around the world have been engaged in a conflict over the appropriate role of public services in society. In the U.S. and elsewhere, public services have faced pressures to restructure, reduce the size of government, and make government more ‘business-like.’ This paper examines how the evolution of public services and public sector unions shaped the distinctive character of public sector industrial relations in the U.S. Next it demonstrates how this distinctive character made public services and public sector unions vulnerable to neoliberal attacks and New Public Management reforms. It concludes by theorizing about how the frameworks of citizenship at work and union renewal may be used to strengthen the essential identity and restore the positive role that public sector unions have traditionally played in society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Column description.TheBest of the Literaturecolumn is intended to keep librarians, administrators, and staff up to date with the most recent, relevant, and useful literature of the field. Columns may focus on a specific theme or topic or they may be a review of significant or interesting resources published within the past year. Columns generally begin with a brief introduction to the topic or theme of the column and include references and annotations for up to between 7–10 different resources. Readers are invited to suggest themes, topics, or resources to Linda Frederiksen. Articles published in the professional literature of library and information science during the past year are summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Local governments prioritize spending on various types and levels of public services. Although scholars have shown that citizen preferences and institutional factors, such as economic, political, and legal arrangements, play a role in resource allocation, scholars have not systematically examined the impact of local elected officials’ own ideological preferences on service prioritization. A better understanding of the impact of personal ideology on local government resource allocation is needed as this provision of funds has implications for democratic governance and responsiveness. We develop and use a novel measure of local elected official ideology using a 2011 survey of California local elected officials to test the hypothesis that local decision-maker ideology affects attitudes on funding-specific service categories. We find evidence that local elected officials’ attitudes toward service reductions are associated with both their own individual ideology, measured on the conservative–liberal spectrum, and the ideology of their constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As privatization of municipal service becomes commonplace, empirical evidence is necessary to ensure that services delivered are equitable and responsive to all citizens. This article looks specifically at social equity measures in municipal service privatization. Using panel data analysis with survey data from a large southwest city, it examines how privatization affects citizens’ reported quality ratings of solid waste service in communities of different ethnicities. The findings show that customers of privately delivered services generally report lower ratings than publicly delivered services; and in Latino-concentrated areas, these ratings are significantly lower. This article closes with policy suggestions to address the lack of attention to social equity measures in evaluation efforts of current service privatization practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inspiration for this column stems from repeated conversations with librarians who are struggling with campus assumptions about their roles and little acknowledgment of their influence on student success. Countering these perceptions is particularly crucial as public services continue to evolve, and people flourish in non-traditional roles while remaining true to select core services. This column includes practical strategies for elevating the reputation of public services across academic institutions, including building new relationships, advocating for colleagues and their specializations, actively participating in campus committees, simplifying basic data collection, designing outcomes-based assessments, setting expectations with data, and communicating success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketisation of urban service delivery gained renewed intensity in the crisis. Mobilising Polanyi’s concept of double movement, we analyse how marketisation of public services both creates and constrains the potential for urban counter movements in the USA and Europe. We identify three main urban responses: ‘hollowing out’, where cities engage in service cut backs; ‘riding the wave’, where cities attempt to harness the market; and ‘push backs’, where cities and citizen movements oppose marketisation. Although the city is constrained by marketisation at national and international levels, we find evidence of push back and, in it, the potential for public service alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Commercial air transport in rural and remote areas of the United States has a long history. After the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, carriers were free to serve any cities and routes they wished. In anticipation of carriers gravitating toward large urban markets, the Essential Air Service (EAS) program was created to maintain commercial service in smaller and more geographically isolated locales throughout the United States. EAS has been continuously funded since 1978, but has recently attracted the attention of many fiscal hawks. Serving only six passengers per flight, on average, with costs approaching $200 million, there are long held concerns that EAS is a poor use of federal monies. The purpose of this paper is to highlight costs of the EAS program and identify systemic inefficiencies in the allocation of EAS resources. We show that service redundancies exist, with EAS markets being cannibalized by both peer EAS airports and other commercial alternatives. Further, we highlight strategic consolidation possibilities for EAS allocations and services, facilitating federal appropriations reduction without sacrificing existing geographic service needs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Due to the rise in web-based communication, such as e-mail and declining surface mail volume over the past decade, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been forced to reconsider its universal service obligation (USO). The USO ensures that all American citizens, regardless of geographic location, receive postal service six days a week. Considerations of postal service reductions have largely been couched in analyses that examine the financial efficiency from a public service provision perspective, like maximizing postal delivery while reducing cost. However, little consideration has been given to the impact of postal service cutbacks, reductions in delivery dates, limitations on routes, and post office closures, on the well-being of rural citizens. Since most postal service reductions are occurring, or will occur, in rural areas, rural citizens are likely to be most profoundly affected by the diminution of the USPS. The USPS is an iconic institution with historical and social importance in many rural communities, and may have disproportional importance in places with few other communications and shipping alternatives. This article examines the history of the USO, and discusses some of the likely impacts of postal service cutbacks on rural areas, and how this may affect the well-being of rural citizens, businesses, and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the social and economic consequences of massive destruction of housing? A case study of the New York City fire epidemic of the 1970s is presented. Decision-makers regarded old neighbourhoods (with low-income families and/or racial minorities) as wastelands and developed policies such as urban renewal and reductions in public services ('planned shrinkage') which negatively impacted on the physical and social fabrics. Structural and functional continuity even after a disturbance - ecological resilience - depends on many non-disjunctive 'loose' relationships to diffuse these impacts. Systems based on 'tight' relationships amplify impacts. Families with resources relocate and reduce the community diversity and the density of loose ties. Low-income families whose homes are destroyed weaken the remaining social networks. The remnant cannot maintain social norms. This displacement leads to two possibilities: many small social networks that do not interact; or one large tight network with low diversity. The former confers pathological resilience; the latter, extreme fragility. Neither enforces social norms or generates political power. Both foster risk behaviours and hamper socialization of youth. Thus, concentrated housing destruction destroys healthy resilience and social control and support. Indirectly, it elevates the mortality rate through increased risk behaviours, high death rates among vulnerable elderly, and infectious and chronic diseases. Quelles sont les consequences sociales et economiques d'une destruction massive de logements? Il est presente une etude de cas sur l'epidemie d'incendies des annees soixante-dix a New York. Les decisionnaires ont considere les vieux quartiers (avec leurs familles a faible revenu et/ou leurs minorites raciales) comme des zones a l'abandon et ont developpe des politiques telles que la renovation urbaine et les reductions des services publics («reduction planifiee») qui ont eu des repercussions negatives sur les tissus physiques et sociaux. La continuite structurelle et fonctionnelle, meme apres une perturbation - la resilience ecologique - depend de nombreuses relations «distendues» non disjonctives permettant de rendre ces repercussions diffuses. Les systemes bases sur des relations «etroites» amplifient les repercussions. Les familles qui ont les moyens s'installent ailleurs et reduisent la diversite communautaire et la densite des rapports distendus. Les familles a faible revenu dont les habitations sont detruites affaiblissent les tissus sociaux restants. Celles qui restent ne peuvent pas maintenir les normes sociales. Ce declassement conduit a deux possibilites: de nombreux reseaux sociaux de petite taille qui n'ont pas d'interactions; ou bien un grand reseau aux liens resserres, mais presentant une faible diversite. Le premier confere une resilience pathologique; le second, une extreme fragilite. Ni l'un, ni l'autre ne renforce les normes sociales, ni ne genere de pouvoir politique. Les deux encouragent les comportements a risque et genent la socialisation des jeunes. Ainsi, la destruction des habitats concentres aneantit la resilience saine, ainsi que le controle et le soutien sociaux. Indirectement, cela eleve le taux de mortalite par l'accroissement des comportements a risque, par l'augmentation des taux de mortalite chez les personnes agees vulnerables et par les maladies infectieuses et chroniques. Mots cles: stabilite, communautaire, destruction de logements, structure sociale de proximite, reduction planifiee, sante publique, services publics, resilience, vie urbaine, renovation urbaine [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State and local governments across the United States have increasingly utilized collaborative, interorganizational approaches to the delivery of public services. This shift in governance structure often necessitates that public managers not only lead the agency in which they are employed, but also work within, and often lead, a network. These two different contexts in which public managers operate require different managerial and leadership approaches. This article discusses some of the differences between hierarchical leadership and network leadership, important aspects of collaborative leadership, and the leadership behaviors that are considered effective within collaborative governance structures. The article concludes with a discussion of some best practices for collaborative leadership, including the formation of joint commitment, the identification of resources, the creation of a shared understanding, the achievement of stakeholder support, and the establishment of trust. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents abstracts of articles about planning including those focusing on settlement house work and social reform, the development of heating and cooking technology in the U.S. in the 19th century and emergence of historic sites as tourist destinations in the U.S. in the late 19th century.

The article presents abstracts on city planning-related topics, including visions of waterfront development in postindustrial Philadelphia, the construction of a town planning perception of Colombo, and city planning and the U.S. census.

The article presents abstracts on urban studies including one about domestic space in the mid-20th century in Turkey, collective homeownership in the U.S. and the politics of sate fair employment practices legislation in the North 1945-1964.

Presents abstracts of articles related to city planning. "Promoting Retail Innovation: Knowledge Flows During the Emergence of Self-Service and Supermarket Retailing in Britain," by Andrew Alexander, Gareth Shaw and Louise Curth; "The Nature of Op Art: Bridget Riley and the Art of Nonrepresentation," by Simon Rycroft; "Was the 1937 U.S. Housing Act a Pyrrhic Victory?," by D. Bradford Hunt.

County officials in the seven-county metropolitan area of the State of Minnesota's Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul were seeking to redefine county roles in service delivery. This article reports on a process model that was piloted on two services. The model was commissioned by officials; was based upon and informed by literature and comparative experience; began with an examination of functions performed; involved participants in focusing the study; was context-focused; and involved local stakeholders in projecting the implications of alternative county roles.These characteristicscomplicated the research management process because the process took more time, involved more actors, and required more coordination than traditional research. However, having stakeholders identify alternatives and bring factual material to the process was critical to the success of the model and including the comparative and contextual research both strengthened the policy conclusions and improved the probability of their adoption and implementation. A case of a Minnesota county that followed the model in an effort to reform water governance within the county illustrated adoption of the approach. The stakeholder analysis process was previously applied in Africa, China and Southeast Asia and the model should be applicable to a wide range of settings and problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes and summarizes relevant federal legislative initiatives and analyzes their potential in providing support for community-based mental health care for adults in the U.S. It reviews five pieces of federal legislation to understand their explicit or implicit ability to advance community-based mental health services for adults. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 established the original block grant program. Public Health Service Act was revised as a part of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration Reorganization Act of 1992, which requires states to submit plans for the establishment and implementation of an organized community-based system of care for individuals with serious mental illness and children and adolescents with serious emotional and mental disorders. The Protection and Advocacy for Mentally Ill Individuals Act of 1986 and its amendments established a mechanism through which the states can set up systems to protect and advocate for the rights of mentally ill individuals.