The Center for Urban Land Economics Research (CULER) is a facet of the Program in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that fosters research on markets for land improvements and their related capital markets. Highlights on-site include recent CULER working papers in full-text (1997-present), a bibliography of past papers (1991-1996), and a concise list of...

From the Community Development Research Center within the New School University, this new working paper is authored by Edward Blakely, one of the foremost urban policy academics and practitioners in the United States. In the 35-page paper, Professor Blakely examines the use of arbitrage theory as "a means of valuing community assets in urban low-income communities." As Professor Blakely points out...

The issue of concentrated poverty is one that continues to engage the attention of social workers, politicians, and scholars alike. In this intriguing 24-page report from the Brooking Institution's Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, Paul A. Jargowsky presents findings that suggest that concentrated poverty declined significantly during the 1990s. Some of his findings include statistics...

Beginning in the early 1990s, the urban cores of many American cities experienced a building renaissance, with the construction of new commercial buildings and tourist-themed facilities continuing apace for over a decade. Despite this development, inner city retail development has generally stagnated over the past few years, with the exception of a few cities. In this 32-page report released in...

The spatial dimension and geographic variation of poverty has been the subject of great scholarly debate among policy-makers and academics for numerous decades. Some have commented that dense concentrations of underclass persons create a "culture of poverty," while others lay the blame on architects, urban planners, and a host of others. This engaging and useful site is a product of the Bruton...

Throughout the twentieth century, numerous commentators, pundits, and scholars have proffered numerous strategies for maintaining the vitality and economic growth of urban areas. Some of the more traditional forms of economic development have included the construction of sports facilities, festival marketplaces, and new buildings for established cultural institutions, such as art museums and opera...

In many urban areas around the United States, certain neighborhoods have few, if any, traditional financial services available for local residents. This intriguing report, produced by the Urban Institute Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center (for the Fannie Mae Foundation), explores the alternative financial service providers (such as check-cashing outlets) that some 56 million adults...

Launched in 1999 by the UN-HABITAT group, the Global Campaign on Urban Governance was designed to support the implementation of the Habitat Agenda goal of "sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world." Specifically, the Campaign is dedicated to increasing the capacity of local governments around the world to practice good urban governance, with specific attention paid to the...

In the urban policy literature, there are many issues which attract the attention of scholars, politicians, and other practitioners. One rather thorny issue that continues to be of great interest is often called the "spatial mismatch. At the risk of oversimplifying this issue, the essence of this concept is that most job growth and creation occurs at some distance from those persons who are in...

Ever since the rise in importance of the automobile, many public intellectuals, academics, urban planners, and sociologists have lamented the decline of traditional downtowns across America. In this report from The Brookings Institution, Christopher B. Leinberger explores the key facets that are necessary to effectively revitalize downtown areas. In the report, Leinberger comments on the...