Suchergebnisse

There is growing recognition that some degree of climate change is now unavoidable and all regions, sectors, and people are vulnerable to climate change impacts to varying degrees. In response, a variety of stakeholders, from local governments to social justice groups and corporations, are beginning to think about adaptation strategies to help reduce their risk. Adaptation planning it still in its infancy and local governments are struggling with how to navigate the planning process. A handful of communities in the United States have embarked on planning efforts and have engaged the local community in some manner. Here, we provide a detailed analysis of climate impacts, vulnerabilities, and adaptation options in a major economic center: Oakland, California. The goal of this study is to inform the development of a comprehensive and equitable climate adaptation plan effort. This research project engages active members of the Oakland Climate Action Coalition, including community-based organizations and resident leaders, in analyzing both the impacts of, and social vulnerabilities to, climate change. Further, it enumerates adaptation strategies that can be implemented at the local level, discusses their advantages and disadvantages, and identifies social equity concerns. Finally, it identifies trends and best practices in climate adaptation planning processes, focusing specifically on their efficacy in engaging the broader community and in addressing the needs of all residents, especially the most vulnerable. This paper is meant to serve as a tool for both city planners and community members everywhere, as they work in tandem to develop more equitable and resilient cities for the climate of the future.

An old and larger ethnic community, this center needs bicultural, bilingual caseworkers to encourage residents to seek assistance

Urban agriculture has enjoyed renewed popularity across North America over the past few years due to a vibrant food justice movement challenging disparities in access to healthy food, as well as to municipal policy and planning efforts focusing on urban sustainability and public health. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, this dissertation links critical political economic analysis and practical, action-oriented research grounded in community engagement to uncover the historical and geographic conditions necessary for the rise of a vibrant urban agriculture movement in Oakland California. In addition to being critical and reflective, this dissertation is also prescriptive in its examination of urban agriculture's potential to scale up in way that contributes significantly to food justice and urban sustainability. These two tasks mark the division of the dissertation into two equal parts comprised of three chapters each. Broadly, Part 1 (Origins) examines the historical and contemporary conditions, both necessary and contingent, that have given rise to the current urban agriculture movement in Oakland. In Chapter 1 I use the theoretical framework of metabolic rift (which I disaggregate into three interrelated forms: ecological, social, and individual) to explore the multiple origins of urban agriculture as a global phenomenon and demonstrate how it arises in response to the upheavals and alienation inherent to a capitalist political economy. In Chapter 2, I argue that understanding urban agriculture in Oakland today requires examining the city's uneven development. Through a historical overview of Oakland's economic geography from the early 20th century to the dawn of the Neoliberal era, I explain how the "demarcated devaluation" of industrial and commercial capital concentrated poverty in the city's flatlands and diminished food access for low-income people of color. In Chapter 3 I explain how the contemporary urban agriculture movement arose in response to this devaluation. Through a relational history linking seminal moments of flatlands activism (the Black Panther Party's Free Breakfast Program, the environmental justice movement, and a social justice-oriented urban greening movement) to the contemporary food justice movement, I reveal how a multi-racial, cross-class alliance was formed around urban agriculture which was able to contest the material implications of flatlands devaluation in new political arenas, marshalling financial support. These scalar politics have led to urban agriculture's increased institutionalization and ongoing policy efforts to scale it up. Part 2 (Obstacles and Opportunities) addresses the environmental and policy obstacles that must be addressed before such scaling up of urban agriculture can take place. Drawing on participatory methods, the three chapters in this part address specific technical questions defined in collaboration with community members. In Chapter 4 I present a GIS-based inventory of potential urban agriculture sites and calculate their potential contribution to vegetable consumption in Oakland. Overall, the inventory identified more than 800 acres of publicly owned land that could potentially be used for food production. Devoting 500 acres to urban agriculture could contribute 19 to 48% of current vegetable consumption in Oakland (or 6 to 15% of recommended consumption) depending on production methods. In Chapter 5 I evaluate the extent to which soil lead (Pb) contamination may be an obstacle to the expansion of urban agriculture in Oakland. I use a combination of GIS and spatial statistics to characterize the spatial distribution of Pb on vacant land at multiple scales across Oakland and to identify relationships between soil Pb levels and anthropogenic factors such as zoning, housing stock, roads, airport, and land use, as well as biophysical factors such as soil series, soil chemical characteristics, and vegetative cover. I also assess the extent to which total soil Pb is actually available for plant uptake. Using samples collected in the field and two greenhouse experiments, I evaluate two chemical extractants (DTPA and MgCl 2 ) in an effort to identify the best proxy for plant available Pb and to relate plant availability to a suite of soil chemical characteristics. While soil Pb levels were significantly higher in West Oakland and residential areas than other parts of the city, levels were generally lower than federal screening levels of 400 parts per million. Old housing stock (and lead paint) proved to be the primary anthropogenic factor affecting soil Pb levels, while soil phosphorus proved to be the most important chemical factor. In Chapter 6 I focus on the policy obstacles to the scaling up of urban agriculture through a case study on the efforts of the Oakland Food Policy Council (OFPC) to develop new zoning definitions and operating standards for urban agriculture. Ultimately, pressure on City Council members by the OFPC, as well as public pressure following two high profile events (the passage of an urban agriculture ordinance in San Francisco and the citation of a prominent urban farmer for zoning violations), were necessary to motivate planning officials to update urban agriculture zoning in Oakland. I conclude with the observation that while the technical obstacles to urban agriculture's expansion may easily be overcome, political obstacles remain. Furthermore, urban agriculture alone cannot feed a city such as Oakland or mitigate unequal access to healthy food, but rather must be part of a coordinated push for regional equity that addresses all aspects of the food system, from production to processing, distribution, and retailing.

Government support of public and private hospitals in Oakland and Berkeley, California was investigated. The private hospitals received government subsidies amounting to at least 60 per cent of their total revenues. The dollar amount of the subsidies to private hospitals was four and one-half times greater than government expenditures on the public hospital. In Oakland and Berkeley, as in many cities, public medical services have been reduced while both government health expenditures and private hospital revenues have increased sharply. The private hospitals, although all nominally non-profit, exhibit revenue maximizing behavior which results in socially unjust and medically irrational resource allocation. Funds might be found for public hospitals and clinics, and resources allocated more justly and rationally, if government expenditures in the private sector were brought under greater public scrutiny and control.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1975. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived

This book explores new forms of private, mutual municipal, public-private and 'reverse' state funding of public investments, co-payments and shared contributions, vouchers, and pooled public risk-financing. It includes case studies taken from the Nordic countries, UK, Spain, Slovenia, Slovakia, Turkey and South Korea.

International Case Studies in Service Learning contributes a deeper insight into the multifaceted nature of the subject and its associated perplexities. Featuring authors that have adopted a holistic approach, capturing various interventions and approaches and moving to discover the most accurate path towards gaining a complete picture of how service-learning impacts students, the chapters investigate the issue specifically through an emphasis on problem solving, experiential learning and community engagement. Shedding light on how successfully service learning has been adopted to the existing curriculum and the emergence of a new breed of students, who are aligned with the needs of the community and undertake collaborative work to solve real world issues, International Case Studies in Service Learning is invaluable to both researchers, teachers and scholars.