Land Lines April 2009
Challenges in Reusing Vacant, Abandoned, and Contaminated Urban Properties
The character of institutions, political settings, and social relationships is critical in determining whether nonprofit developers are effective in reusing vacant, abandoned, and contaminated properties in their communities.
Municipally Imposed Tax and Expenditure Limits
For many years, researchers have puzzled over the causes and consequences of voter-approved tax and expenditure limits (TELs), a fiscal rule that weakens the ability of elected officials to raise revenues or make expenditures.
Measuring Informality in Housing Settlements
The confusing and contradictory responses by Latin America experts who participated in our survey call attention to potentially misleading policies that might be fomented by erroneous perceptions and weak indicators.
This issue highlights the myriad challenges of redeveloping vacant and contaminated land in U.S. cities; the features, prevalence, and outcomes of city-imposed tax and expenditure limits; and an analysis of measuring housing informality in Latin America.