Margaret Dewar - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Margaret Dewar

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Jun 19, 2019

Handbook on the Geographies of Energy. Cheltenham/Northampton: Edward Elgar The spatiality o... more Handbook on the Geographies of Energy. Cheltenham/Northampton: Edward Elgar The spatiality of energy systems and the multiple ways of conceptualizing them are the focus of energy geography. Within this rapidly expanding field of scholarship, the Handbook on the Geographies of Energy in Edward Elgar's Handbook series represents an important collection of 37 chapters which have been carefully compiled by Barry D. Solomon and Kirby E. Calvert. The editors argue that there is a general trend among geographers to identify and bind their work topically. Fields of topical study in geography can be characterized as the academic borderlands between different sub-disciplines in geographical thinking (p. 3), and one such area is the study of energy geography. The Handbook fruitfully attempts to explore the academic borderland of energy geography with its wide range of issues related to the materiality, distribution and appropriation of energy resources in different parts of the world. Given the wide spectrum of issues and approaches, the Handbook is divided into six parts focusing on each of these borderlands, namely: fuels, energies, energy consumption, landscapes of energy production, distribution and use, energy at the nexus, and conceptual approaches in energy geographies. As one might expect, the Handbook does not follow a single argument. The editors characterize the volume as not fully comprehensive, but as 'a handy resource that is intended to serve as a guide through the complexities and nuances of the various geographical issues as they are brought to bear on energy issues' (p. xxiii). They also admit that there are some missing pieces to the puzzle of energy geographies. This is partly because the book is mostly written from a North American or British perspective: 22 of the authors are based in the United States, 15 in the UK, 10 in Canada and only 13 in (predominantly European) countries from the rest of the world. Nevertheless, recognizing that 'geography matters' in energy research and not only in the global North, the editors have included some valuable chapters related to the situation in India, Africa and Brazil, for example. It is difficult to summarize the main arguments of the Handbook due to the fact that each of the chapters follows its own line of reasoning within the energy geography borderlands. However, it is possible to take a closer look at each of the different sections. The thematic focus of Part I is on fuels such as oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear fuels and biofuels. Part II, on the other hand, focuses more on kinetic flows of energy and the capacity to do work (especially with regard to renewables like solar, wind and hydro power). Most of

The Geojournal library, 2016

Detroit has lost population and employment since World War II and has experienced loss of demand ... more Detroit has lost population and employment since World War II and has experienced loss of demand for housing and other real estate. As of 1950, slums characterized areas to the east and west of downtown. Urban renewal through the early 1970s removed some slums, but population decline, job loss, and disinvestment continued. As property values rose somewhat in the 1990s, many residents refinanced their homes with mortgages with unfavourable terms. When homeowners could not pay, mortgage holders foreclosed on large numbers of homes in middle- and working-class areas. Many residents moved out of the city leaving vacancies in previously intact neighbourhoods. The vacancies introduce blight and weaken neighbourhood housing markets. In middle-class neighbourhoods, residents and community organizations have responded by working to restore confidence in the future so that neighbourhoods again become ones where many people choose to live. In low-income areas, where disinvestment and abandonment have continued for decades, residents have taken over neglected land to enhance quality of life.

Economic Development Quarterly, May 1, 1992

Housing Policy Debate, Jan 27, 2020

Projects financed through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, the largest producer... more Projects financed through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, the largest producer of affordable housing in the United States, face ownership transition after 15 years in service when tax-credit investors leave. In Detroit, Michigan, projects whose transitions were complete but that were subject to additional affordability restrictions fared much worse than national surveys showed. Many projects continued to provide affordable housing, but a share experienced mortgage or tax foreclosure, and many units became permanently uninhabitable, increasing disinvestment in neighborhoods. Projects reaching year 15 from 2016 through 2022 were under considerable financial stress as of 2015 and would likely need financial restructuring. Few high-capacity nonprofit developers existed to assume property ownership. The intervention of mission-driven syndicators helped stabilize numerous projects. Detroit's experience illustrates the challenges LIHTC projects are likely to face in weak-market cities. Additional studies should investigate the year-15 challenges in diverse housing markets and the efforts to address those challenges.

Economic Development Quarterly, Jul 22, 2013

Many tax incentive zones encourage employers to hire workers in distressed places. A well-develop... more Many tax incentive zones encourage employers to hire workers in distressed places. A well-developed literature on hiring low-skilled workers has much to say about why such zones have resulted in little employment for nearby residents of distressed areas but has not informed evaluation or policy for zones. Using the Detroit Empowerment Zone experience as a case, this article finds that referrals, usually from employees, determined hiring, resulting in industrial districts with few local workers and retail districts with many more, with workplaces segregated by race and ethnicity. Although skill requirements and screening approaches should not have excluded many qualified local workers, employers in industrial areas had negative stereotypes of workers from nearby neighborhoods. Trusted intermediaries such as community-based organizations may enable tax incentive zones to produce jobs for local workers by breaking down stereotypes and inserting a new “mouth” in the word-of-mouth hiring practices.

Oxford University Press eBooks, Sep 18, 2012

This article examines the state of knowledge about how urban planning can comprehend and address ... more This article examines the state of knowledge about how urban planning can comprehend and address the issues facing cities with extensive residential disinvestment and abandonment. It analyses why planning rarely addresses issues facing the most abandoned areas of cities, except to encourage growth and redevelopment, and how planners can think about or understand the causes of widespread urban abandonment. The article suggests that the principles of efficiency and equity can provide guidance for planners' interventions, and discusses the future of planning in the context of abandonment.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Oct 26, 2021

Few studies have examined the combined effects of affordability, housing conditions and neighborh... more Few studies have examined the combined effects of affordability, housing conditions and neighborhood characteristics on the housing stability and health of low-income homeowners. We begin to address these gaps through a mixed-method study design that evaluates the Make-it-Home program (MiH) in Detroit, Michigan, aimed at helping low-income tenants become homeowners when their landlords lose their homes to tax foreclosure. We compare the 'intervened group' of MiH homeowners to a 'comparison' group of similarly situated households whose homes experience property tax foreclosure at the same time. The comparison group represents the likely outcomes for the participants had they not participated the program. Participants will be surveyed twice (intervened group), or once (comparison group) per year over a three-year period, regarding their housing and neighborhood conditions, health, life events, and socio-economic status, including income and employment. We will use property and neighborhood census data to further examine the conditions experienced. The findings for policy and program development from this study are timely as the nation faces a chronic shortage of affordable housing for both purchasers and renters. The results suggest ways to improve the MiH program and lay out approaches for researchers to navigate some of the complexities associated with this type of research.

Urban Research & Practice, Nov 1, 2012

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or s... more This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Housing Policy Debate, 2017

Abstract Mortgage foreclosures hit Detroit, Michigan hard between 2005 and 2014, especially in wh... more Abstract Mortgage foreclosures hit Detroit, Michigan hard between 2005 and 2014, especially in what we define as strong neighborhoods; there, more than one third of homes experienced foreclosure. Before the crisis hit, these selected tracts had largely intact physical environments and higher owner occupancy, household income and property value than the citywide median. In some of them residents worked intensely to abate the neighborhood effects of mortgage foreclosures. This study examines those efforts’ effectiveness. We selected neighborhoods with the most extensive efforts, as measured, for instance, by creation of community-based plans and applications for grants, and we conducted interviews and field observations to examine those efforts. To assess strengthening of neighborhood housing markets, we applied a modified adjusted interrupted time-series approach to evaluate changes in prices as one measure of neighborhood change. We found that strong resident initiative supported by community development organizations and external assistance led to increased neighborhood housing prices, compared with comparable neighborhoods. However, when initiative, context, and support were weaker, community-based efforts could not prevent considerable decline.

States may not be getting their money's worth from development programs formulated without be... more States may not be getting their money's worth from development programs formulated without benefit of economic analysis. Minnesota's programs for its Iron Range, located in the northeastern part of the State, illustrate how analysis can get sacrificed in political tug-of-wars. The resulting programs may overlook projects with a good chance of success or encourage projects that will not achieve economic development goals.

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Detroit’s experiences have long mirrored those of many cities: rising industrialization and popul... more Detroit’s experiences have long mirrored those of many cities: rising industrialization and population growth in the early twentieth century, suburbanization of industry and of white population following World War II, industrial restructuring that dismantled the region’s economic base from the 1970s on, and racial tensions throughout that hindered regional progress. Today, however, Detroit stands alone among large American cities in both the depth and breadth of its distress. Thousands of homes and many acres of land are vacant and abandoned. Residents are disproportionately poor and racially segregated. The tax base is decimated. What can scholars and practitioners learn about urban processes and planning from research on such an outlier city? We argue, based on examination of literature, that research on Detroit can advance understanding of cities and urban planning because of its extreme conditions. Researchers, for example, are able to observe phenomena in Detroit that likely exist elsewhere but go unnoticed. The magnifying effects of the city’s decline make the invisible visible. Detroit also allows researchers to untangle certain phenomena, such as gentrification, from the context of growth where they are usually observed, casting those phenomena in a new light. The large swaths of vacant urban land in Detroit are also an asset to researchers. They allow testing of hypotheses that would be difficult to assess in more intact, densely populated areas. Such research can have broad application to heavily developed urban areas elsewhere. Furthermore, Detroit research can expose the shortcomings of policies that presume strong real estate markets but do not work as expected in disinvested neighborhoods where property demand is very weak. Detroit’s extreme conditions also pose a challenge for some of the disciplines that contribute to urban planning. These disciplines have tended to focus on how and why cities and regions grow, who benefits when they do, and how to renew growth when it ebbs. Not enough attention has been paid to understanding decline. Scholars have figuratively modeled urban phenomena only across the range that variables exhibit during growth, leaving out the range during decline. The challenge that Detroit poses for urban studies is to flesh out that model – to understand the spatial, social, political and economic dynamics of change and how decline may differ from growth.

State and Regional Research Center Working Paper 88-01. Funded by the Northwest Area Foundation t... more State and Regional Research Center Working Paper 88-01. Funded by the Northwest Area Foundation through a project titled 'Policies and Strategies for Rural Economic Development.'

Geographical Review, 2021

Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2015

When owners stop paying property taxes, a government forecloses on the property. This research co... more When owners stop paying property taxes, a government forecloses on the property. This research compares outcomes after auctions, the common way governments sell tax-reverted property, with outcomes after sales from a city department and a land bank authority. Data on a random sample of sold properties came from field research and administrative sources. Auctions failed in returning property to reuse compared to other ways of selling tax-reverted property. Managed sales led to more owner-occupied homes, additions of side lots to homes and businesses, and redevelopment and reuse as well as fewer returns to foreclosure and less property flipping.

Journal of Planning Education and Research, 1998

The University of Michigan's Detroit Community Outreach Partnership Center generates faculty-... more The University of Michigan's Detroit Community Outreach Partnership Center generates faculty-student teams who work on community development projects with Detroit's community organizations. Projects are designed to enrich students' experiential learning in community settings and to help build communities' organizational capacity. This relationship has exposed a culture clash between universities and community organizations in at least three major areas: the style of work, social justice understanding, and power relations. Further, although the COPC is committed to a community-driven planning model, the nature of the community-university relationship tends to push the work toward a consultant-driven model. Improving community-university collaboration will require restructuring of university pedagogy.

Economic Development Quarterly, 1992