Street Addressing and the Management of Cities

Street Addressing and the Management of Cities
Author: Catherine Farvacque-Vitkovi?
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2005
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0821358154

There has been a dramatic demographic shift from rural areas to cities in sub-Saharan African countries over the last few decades. This continuing urbanisation trend has created new challenges for local governments in terms of managing urban services, since over half of the city streets in these countries have no names or addresses, and the problem is particularly acute in the poorest neighbourhoods. This publication examines the use of street addressing initiatives to address this problem, giving information on current and future applications, considering examples of use in many African countries, and setting out a methodological guide for implementing such initiatives.

The Address Book

The Address Book
Author: Deirdre Mask
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2020-04-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1250134781

Finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction | One of Time Magazines's 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 | Longlisted for the 2020 Porchlight Business Book Awards "An entertaining quest to trace the origins and implications of the names of the roads on which we reside." —Sarah Vowell, The New York Times Book Review When most people think about street addresses, if they think of them at all, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail or a traveler won’t get lost. But street addresses were not invented to help you find your way; they were created to find you. In many parts of the world, your address can reveal your race and class. In this wide-ranging and remarkable book, Deirdre Mask looks at the fate of streets named after Martin Luther King Jr., the wayfinding means of ancient Romans, and how Nazis haunt the streets of modern Germany. The flipside of having an address is not having one, and we also see what that means for millions of people today, including those who live in the slums of Kolkata and on the streets of London. Filled with fascinating people and histories, The Address Book illuminates the complex and sometimes hidden stories behind street names and their power to name, to hide, to decide who counts, who doesn’t—and why.

Better Cities, Better World

Better Cities, Better World
Author: Catherine Farvacque-Vitkovic
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 482
Release: 2019-07-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 146481337X

The planet is becoming increasingly urban. In many ways, the urbanization wave and the unprecedented urban growth of the past 20 years have created a sense of urgency and an impetus for change. Some 54 percent of the world population—3.9 billion people—lives in urban areas today; thus, it has become clear that “business as usual†? is no longer possible. This new configuration places great expectations on local governments. While central governments are subject to instability and political changes, local governments are seen as more inclined to stay the course. Because they are closer to the people, the voice of the people is more clearly heard for a truly democratic debate over the choice of neighborhood investments and city-wide policies and programs, as well as the decision process on the use of public funds and taxpayers’ money. In a context of skewed financial resources and complex urban challenges—which range from the provision of basic traditional municipal services to the “newer†? agenda of social inclusion, economic development, city branding, emergency response, smart technologies, and green investment—more cities are searching for more effective and innovative ways to deal with new and old problems. Better Cities, Better World: A Handbook on Local Governments Self-Assessments is at the heart of this debate. It recognizes the complex past, current, and future challenges that cities face and outlines a bottom-line, no-nonsense framework for data-based policy dialogue and action; a common language that, for the first time, helps connect the dots between public investments programming (Urban Audit/Self-Assessment) and financing (Municipal Finances Self-Assessment). It helps address two key questions, too often bypassed when it comes to municipal infrastructure and services financing: Are we doing the right things? Are we doing things right? Better Cities, Better World: A Handbook on Local Governments Self-Assessments offers a bit of everything for everyone. • Central governments will be attracted by the purposefulness and clarity of these tools, their impact on local government capacity and performance building, and how they improve the implementation of transformative actions for policy change. • City leaders and policy makers will find the sections on objectives and content instructive and informative, with each issue placed in its context, and strong connections between data and municipal action. • Municipal staff in charge of day-to-day management will find that the sections on tasks and the detailed step-by-step walk through the process give them the pragmatic knowhow that they need. • Cities’ partners—such as bilateral and multilateral agencies, banks and funds, utility companies, civil society, and private operators—will find the foundations for more effective collaborative partnerships.

Place Names in Africa

Place Names in Africa
Author: Liora Bigon
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2016-06-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319324853

This volume examines the discursive relations between indigenous, colonial and post-colonial legacies of place-naming in Africa in terms of the production of urban space and place. It is conducted by tracing and analysing place-naming processes, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa during colonial times (British, French, Belgian, Portuguese), with a considerable attention to both the pre-colonial and post-colonial situations. By combining in-depth area studies research – some of the contributions are of ethnographic quality – with colonial history, planning history and geography, the authors intend to show that culture matters in research on place names. This volume goes beyond the recent understanding obtained in critical studies of nomenclature, normally based on lists of official names, that place naming reflects the power of political regimes, nationalism, and ideology.

The Political Life of Urban Streetscapes

The Political Life of Urban Streetscapes
Author: Reuben Rose-Redwood
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2017-07-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317020715

Streetscapes are part of the taken-for-granted spaces of everyday urban life, yet they are also contested arenas in which struggles over identity, memory, and place shape the social production of urban space. This book examines the role that street naming has played in the political life of urban streetscapes in both historical and contemporary cities. The renaming of streets and remaking of urban commemorative landscapes have long been key strategies that different political regimes have employed to legitimize spatial assertions of sovereign authority, ideological hegemony, and symbolic power. Over the past few decades, a rich body of critical scholarship has explored the politics of urban toponymy, and the present collection brings together the works of geographers, anthropologists, historians, linguists, planners, and political scientists to examine the power of street naming as an urban place-making practice. Covering a wide range of case studies from cities in Europe, North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia, the contributions to this volume illustrate how the naming of streets has been instrumental to the reshaping of urban spatial imaginaries and the cultural politics of place.

A Guide to the World Bank

A Guide to the World Bank
Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2007-06-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821366955

The World Bank Group is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. Its focus is on helping the poorest people in the poorest countries by using its financial resources, staff, and extensive experience to aid countries in reducing poverty, increasing economic growth, and improving quality of life. In partnership with more than 100 developing countries, the Bank Group is striving to improve health and education, fight corruption, boost agricultural support, build roadsand ports, and protect the environment. Other projects are aimed at rebuilding war-torn countries or regions, providing basic services such as access to clean water, and encouraging investments that create jobs. In addition to this critical groundwork around the world, various parts of the World Bank Group are involved in activities ranging from conducting economic research and analysis to providing financial and advisory services to governments and private enterprises. This completely revised and updated second edition provides an accessible and straightforward overview of the World Bank Group's history, organization, mission, and purpose. Additionally, for those wishing to delve further into subjects of particular interest, the book guides readers to sources containing more detailed information, including annual reports, Web sites, publications, and e-mail addresses for various departments. It also provides information on how to work for or do business with the World Bank. A good introduction for anyone interested in understanding what the World Bank Group does and how it does it, this book shows readers who want to learn more where to begin.

Improving Municipal Management for Cities to Succeed

Improving Municipal Management for Cities to Succeed
Author: Independent Evaluation Group, World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 126
Release: 2009-07-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0821380443

Cities now house half the world s population and produce 70 percent of its GDP. Managing them well helps development. Strengthening municipal management of planning, finance, and service provision has been at the core of World Bank support through municipal development projects (MDPs). This book reviews how, worldwide, nearly 3,000 municipalities have benefitted from 190 World Bank-supported MDPs over the past decade, three quarters of which achieved satisfactory outcomes. The finance dimension of MDPs computerized accounting, revenue generation, and municipal credit produced some of the best results, but weaker outcomes came from attempts to stimulate private finance of municipal services. City planning, used by municipalities worldwide, was not a strong priority for MDPs. But building municipal information systems, for example in Chile, were successful. Monitoring and evaluation rarely worked well, except when municipalities themselves were convinced of its usefulness, such as in Russia, Tunisia, and Colombia. Results in managing service provision were mixed. The poverty focus of MDPs was strikingly weak across the portfolio. Cost-benefit analysis rarely prioritized municipal investments. But MDPs helped municipalities strengthen their procurement function. MDPs helped municipalities manage services more effectively. Better results still can come from a stronger poverty focus, more attention to planning and prioritizating investments, and more effective operation and maintenance of such investments.

Municipal Finances

Municipal Finances
Author: Catherine D. Farvacque-Vitkovic
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2014-06-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821399144

This book tells a fascinating story on municipal finances for local government practitioners with rich examples, global practices, and good and bad experiences the authors gained in decades of field work.

Arbitrary Lines

Arbitrary Lines
Author: M. Nolan Gray
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2022-06-21
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1642832545

It's time for America to move beyond zoning, argues city planner M. Nolan Gray in Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It. With lively explanations, Gray shows why zoning abolition is a necessary--if not sufficient--condition for building more affordable, vibrant, equitable, and sustainable cities. Gray lays the groundwork for this ambitious cause by clearing up common misconceptions about how American cities regulate growth and examining four contemporary critiques of zoning (its role in increasing housing costs, restricting growth in our most productive cities, institutionalizing racial and economic segregation, and mandating sprawl). He sets out some of the efforts currently underway to reform zoning and charts how land-use regulation might work in the post-zoning American city. Arbitrary Lines is an invitation to rethink the rules that will continue to shape American life--where we may live or work, who we may encounter, how we may travel. If the task seems daunting, the good news is that we have nowhere to go but up

Resilient Urban Regeneration in Informal Settlements in the Tropics

Resilient Urban Regeneration in Informal Settlements in the Tropics
Author: Oscar Carracedo García-Villalba
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2020-09-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9811373078

This book focuses on the implementation of slum upgrading projects and the last generation of citywide programmes that define the future urban configuration of informal settlements, from a citywide perspective, in the Earth’s tropical region. The book presents a study on regeneration experiences in Asia and Latin America and it identifies important points of connection and similarities between the two cases, while also determining that, compared to Asia, informality in Latin America is in its ‘second generation.’