Christopher Leo

I'M BACK

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:59:11 -0600

I'm back after some months of being out for medical reasons. I've just published the first of my new blog entries, but not at this address. I've moved my blog to a new platform. The new address is http://christopherleo.wordpress.com. The title of my latest entry speaks for itself: Will Calgary's new mayor succeed where Obama has failed?

With the new platform comes a new column, entitled "Passing Scene". It's a collection of brief entries containing comments about ideas and events that I encounter or that occur to me day to day.

Most new entries in that column, which runs down the centre of the blog,

TIME OUT

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:17:21 -0600

I'll have to be away from my computer for a couple of months. Please stand by. I'll be back, and will, as always, respond to all of the correspondence that comes to me in relation to to the blog.

Meanwhile, you might wish to check out some popular entries you may have missed the first time around.

THE AGE OF GOVERNANCE: SOME PROPOSED PRINCIPLES OF DEEP FEDERALISM
DOES MIXED-INCOME HOUSING AMELIORIATE POVERTY?
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT IN MANITOBA: MAKING DEEP FEDERALISM WORK
ETHICS GUIDELINES: LETTING THE POWERFUL OFF THE HOOK, HANGING SUBORDINATES OUT TO DRY
UN-CITYING OUR CITIES
Since I first published the next entry, I've added numerous organizations to my list of globally-networked social and political action groups:
HOW IS GLOBAL POLITICAL ACTION ORGANIZED? A LIST FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

THE MULTILEVEL GOVERNANCE OF URBAN GROWTH: A CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISON

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:27:20 -0600

Last May, I sketched out an idea for a research project that would look at what senior governments could do to ensure that those who make decisions about the growth of North American cities do a better job of respecting the environment. That idea has now matured into a research proposal. In this entry, I'll summarize the proposal and provide a link to the full proposal.

Here's the summary:

My proposed research will shed new light on a major, but much-neglected question: What can we learn from Europe and each other about how best to achieve sustainable growth in North American cities?

THE AGE OF GOVERNANCE: SOME PROPOSED PRINCIPLES OF DEEP FEDERALISM

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:53:01 -0600

In my most recent blog entry, I pointed out that the way we govern ourselves has changed fundamentally in the last 20 years or so, and yet we've given little thought to the principles by which we should pursue governance - the new name for what we used to call government. The governance revolution that swept over us while we slept...

SHOULD YOUTH FOR CHRIST BE INVOLVED IN GOVERNANCE? HOW ABOUT THE UNITED CHURCH OR NEW LIFE MINISTRIES?

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:45:26 -0600

The way we govern ourselves has changed fundamentally in the past 20 years, and we've barely noticed. The changes raise critical questions, which we have developed a habit of answering on a case-by-case basis, without considering the context and without being guided by principles. We need to do better than that.

IF CITIES CAN'T REGULATE URBAN GROWTH, WHO CAN? A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Wed, 19 May 2010 14:45:21 -0600

In both Canada and the United States, we have largely left urban growth issues to local governments, and many local governments have failed to manage them. Many will never succeed because local councils are not, in general, able effectively to resist development interests.

As a result, the growth of our cities is, in practice, primarily responsive to the interests of developers. These interests are frequently at odds with the considerations that bear on preservation of the environment, maintenance of agriculture, an efficient infrastructure network and a transportation system that serves the population as a whole.

Therefore, in a series of posts on the multi-level governance of land use I've argued that:

• In urban growth policy, unlike many other policy domains, too much local control is a recipe for bad policy.

DOES WINNIPEG HAVE TO KISS RAPID TRANSIT GOOD-BYE? A TWISTED TALE

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:35:26 -0600

The seemingly endless rapid transit debates in Winnipeg have taken a strange turn. Mayor Sam Katz, who began as a firm rapid transit opponent, relented in 2008 when he and former premier Gary Doer announced the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor, connecting downtown to the University of Manitoba. As recently as 2009, a second leg of the rapid transit system, eastward to Transcona, was on the city's wish list of infrastructure improvements.

Many Winnipeggers have probably concluded that, after more than 30 years of dithering, a rapid transit system is finally a done deal. That conception may have been reinforced by Mayor Katz's more recent declarations that he would prefer a much more expensive rail system to the bus rapid transit line now under construction.

Before you stand and cheer,

CASE STUDIES CAN PRODUCE THEORETICAL ADVANCES: HERE'S AN EXAMPLE

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:49:38 -0600

Case studies have unjustifiably acquired a reputation for being semi-anecdotal investigations of the small details of individual circumstances, research that is incapable of generating significant empirical or theoretical advances in knowledge. It is argued that the case study is, at best, a preliminary step, in that it may generate hypotheses that can later be tested using such “more reliable” methods as standardized questionnaires or statistical data. In the study of politics, however, that sequence of research initiatives may well work better in reverse.

DOES MIXED-INCOME HOUSING AMELIORIATE POVERTY?

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:40:48 -0600

One of the most troubling features of the way North American cities have developed in the past quarter century is social isolation, as our own desires and the dynamics of the real estate business sort us into spaces exclusive to ever-narrower slices of humanity. Separate spaces for people of different incomes, places reserved exclusively for the elderly, spaces from which children are barred, and more.

There is much to worry about in this trend, but most worrisome of all is the social isolation of the poor - the formation of neighbourhoods largely or wholly populated by people who live there only because they cannot afford to live elsewhere; ghettos, defined by poverty and often race, and marked by deteriorating public services and facilities, as well as limited opportunities for jobs, recreation and education.

Small wonder then that policy-makers have devoted thought and effort to attempts to recapture the social diversity that once was an essential feature of cities and that, even today, is a big part of what we mean by the word "urbanity". In part this has been done by dispersal programs whereby residents of low-income neighbourhoods are offered an opportunity to collect rent subsidies and use them to move to other neighbourhoods.

ARE SUBURBAN NEIGHBOURHOODS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH?

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:32:14 -0600

A growing body of research suggests that urban sprawl, in addition to being bad for cities, the environment and agriculture, may also take a toll on your health. For example, in a recent issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, one article reported that higher levels of urban sprawl were associated with increased response time for emergency medical services and a higher probability of delayed ambulance arrival. Here's what one of the authors of the article had to say:

LOCAL POLITICIANS CAN'T CONTROL SPRAWL. SO WHY IS IT THEIR JOB ALONE?

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:01:29 -0600

Few things are more important than the way we use our land, and yet, in North America, few things are more neglected. Among my urbanist colleagues, there are precious few who think that urban sprawl is a good thing, and even fewer who believe anything can be done about it. Why?

DOES IT MAKE SENSE TO BUILD A HIGHWAY THROUGH RIVER HEIGHTS?

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:52:50 -0600

The City of Winnipeg has set out on a plan to build a highway through River Heights and Waverley West, ultimately connecting Ness Avenue with the south perimeter highway. Three reasons are given for this, one of which makes a more modest version of the proposal defensible. A second one is indefensible, and the third is a really bad idea.

IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT IN MANITOBA: MAKING DEEP FEDERALISM WORK

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:35:15 -0600

This is the second in a series of two posts about the findings I'll be presenting next week in Toronto at the IPAC-PPM Cities and Public Policy conference. The previous post dealt with the mismanagement of homelessness in Winnipeg. This one focuses on the achievement of deep federalism in the administration of immigration and settlement in Winnipeg. In both entries, the overarching theme is that slow-growth cities have policy problems that are very different from those of cities that are growing rapidly, and that these differences are not being given the attention they deserve.

MISMANAGING HOMELESSNESS IN A SLOW-GROWTH CITY

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:12:59 -0600

I'll be at the IPAC-PPM Cities and Public Policy conference next week in Toronto, reporting on some of the things I've learned about the impact of federal government policies on Winnipeg. My overall theme will be that slow-growth cities have policy problems that are very different from those of cities that are growing rapidly, and that these differences are not being given the attention they deserve.

RAPID TRANSIT: COST OR OPPORTUNITY? IT’S UP TO US

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:51:48 -0600

With Jonah Levine

It’s taken Winnipeg a generation to get around to building the first leg of a rapid transit system. You might think that settles the matter, and that now we are down to inconsequential details. On closer examination, however, it becomes clear that many important decisions remain, decisions that could make the difference between a successful rapid transit system and a white elephant.