Flame and Fortune in the American West
Flame and Fortune in the American West

Author: Gregory Simon

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 0520292790

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Flame and Fortune in the American West creatively and meticulously investigates the ongoing politics, folly, and avarice shaping the production of increasingly widespread yet dangerous suburban and exurban landscapes. The 1991 Oakland Hills Tunnel Fire is used as a starting point to better understand these complex social-environmental processes. The Tunnel Fire is the most destructive fire—in terms of structures lost—in California history. More than 3,000 residential structures burned and 25 lives were lost. Although this fire occurred in Oakland and Berkeley, others like it sear through landscapes in California and the American West that have experienced urban growth and development within areas historically prone to fire. Simon skillfully blends techniques from environmental history, political ecology, and science studies to closely examine the Tunnel Fire within a broader historical and spatial context of regional economic development and natural-resource management, such as the widespread planting of eucalyptus trees as an exotic lure for homeowners and the creation of hillside neighborhoods for tax revenue—decisions that produced communities with increased vulnerability to fire. Simon demonstrates how in Oakland a drive for affluence led to a state of vulnerability for rich and poor alike that has only been exacerbated by the rebuilding of neighborhoods after the fire. Despite these troubling trends, Flame and Fortune in the American West illustrates how many popular and scientific debates on fire limit the scope and efficacy of policy responses. These risky yet profitable developments (what the author refers to as the Incendiary), as well as proposed strategies for challenging them, are discussed in the context of urbanizing areas around the American West and hold global applicability within hazard-prone areas.

American Babylon
American Babylon

Author: Robert O. Self

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2005-08-28

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 0691124868

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A gripping portrait of black power politics and the struggle for civil rights in postwar Oakland As the birthplace of the Black Panthers and a nationwide tax revolt, California embodied a crucial motif of the postwar United States: the rise of suburbs and the decline of cities, a process in which black and white histories inextricably joined. American Babylon tells this story through Oakland and its nearby suburbs, tracing both the history of civil rights and black power politics as well as the history of suburbanization and home-owner politics. Robert Self shows that racial inequities in both New Deal and Great Society liberalism precipitated local struggles over land, jobs, taxes, and race within postwar metropolitan development. Black power and the tax revolt evolved together, in tension. American Babylon demonstrates that the history of civil rights and black liberation politics in California did not follow a southern model, but represented a long-term struggle for economic rights that began during the World War II years and continued through the rise of the Black Panthers in the late 1960s. This struggle yielded a wide-ranging and profound critique of postwar metropolitan development and its foundation of class and racial segregation. Self traces the roots of the 1978 tax revolt to the 1940s, when home owners, real estate brokers, and the federal government used racial segregation and industrial property taxes to forge a middle-class lifestyle centered on property ownership. Using the East Bay as a starting point, Robert Self gives us a richly detailed, engaging narrative that uniquely integrates the most important racial liberation struggles and class politics of postwar America.

Civics 108
Civics 108

Author: Roger L. Kemp

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2022-07-24

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 1665565306

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It should be remembered that government organizations, like their business counterparts, have distinct life cycles. During their lives, public organizations generally go through four phases: growth, stability, retrenchment, and revitalization. Different political and management strategies are needed to set the course and properly guide an organization through each phase of its development. Strategy is concerned with defining purposes and developing goals and plans for an organization’s future direction and growth. While some cities, particularly those in suburban areas with an expanding tax base, are in the growth or stability phase of their life cycle, many others have entered the retrenchment or revitalization phase of their development. Sound budget reduction strategies will assist public officials in this latter category as they debate and adopt policies that ultimately lead to the financial self-help and renewal necessary for the future.

State and Local Fiscal Policy
State and Local Fiscal Policy

Author: Sally Wallace

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 1849803552

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The last few decades have presented a new set of challenges and opportunities for public finances. Demographic trends have put substantial pressure on non-discretionary public expenditures such as health care, while legal challenges have put pressure on education financing. The author illustrates how these national trends have also impacted state and local finances some directly, others indirectly. The economic downturn further constrains state and local governments options for dealing with national trends. Constituents sentiment toward the size of government further exacerbates fiscal choices for state and local governments. In this broad and illuminating volume, experts on public finance discuss innovations in state and local tax policy implemented or considered over the course of the last three decades. The authors provide original work that analyzes whether state and local governments have gone outside the box to deal with the strains of current public finances or have gotten along by adhering to the status quo. Well-known scholars in the area of state and local public finance consider actual practices and analyze potential policy changes for the future. Public policy and public finance scholars and students as well as policy makers will find much of interest in this impressive and original collection.

Tax Crusaders and the Politics of Direct Democracy
Tax Crusaders and the Politics of Direct Democracy

Author: Daniel A. Smith

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-11-15

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 113516259X

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Daniel A. Smith exposes the truth about the American tax revolt. Contrary to conventional wisdom, recent ballot initiatives to limit state taxes have not been the result of a groundswell of public outrage; rather, they have been carefully orchestrated from the top down by professional tax crusaders: political entrepreneurs with their own mission. These faux populist initiatives--in contrast to genuine grassroots movements--involve minimal citizen participation. Instead, the tax crusaders hire public relations firms and use special interest groups to do the legwork and influence public opinion. Although they successfully tap into the pervasive anti-tax public mood by using populist rhetoric, these organizations serve corporate interests rather than groups of concerned neighbors. The author shows that direct democracy can, ironically, lead to diminished public involvement in government. Smith looks at the key players, following the trail of money and power in three important initiatives: Proposition 13 in California (1978), Proposition 2 1/2 in Massachusetts (1980), and Amendment 1 in Colorado (1992). He provides a thorough history of tax limitation movements in America, showing how direct democracy can be manipulated to subvert the democratic process and frustrate the public good.

Managing America's Cities
Managing America's Cities

Author: Roger L. Kemp

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 471

ISBN-13: 0786458216

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This work describes the operations of a typical municipal government and examines the many productivity trends that are occurring in city halls across America. Much of the focus is on the increasing need for planning in city government to ensure that productivity goals are met. It thoroughly examines the roles of the council, manager, and clerk in promoting increased productivity. It then looks at such municipal departments as legal, finance, fire, human services, library, police and public works, demonstrating proven techniques and structures in each that improve service. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

State Taxation Policy
State Taxation Policy

Author: Michael Barker

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780822305354

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This volume discusses the problems of state governments in coping with contemporary issues of redesigning taxation policies to encourage economic growth.