City Adoption of Environmentally Sustainable Policies in California's Central Valley

This paper seeks to explain why communities adopt environmentally sustainable policies by using survey and archival data from the Central Valley region of California. An environmental policy sustainability index was developed for 100 incorporated cities in the Central Valley. The authors then used regression and cluster analyses to test which independent variables expressing three theoretical perspectives (Tiebout's public goods development model, Peterson's fiscal capacity model, and Logan and Molotch's interest group/growth machine model) are best at explaining this index. The results suggest that sustainable policies are more likely to occur in cities with better fiscal health and whose residents are of higher socioeconomic status. Small, less-developed cities will need substantial technical, financial, and planning assistance to move toward greater sustainability. Many medium-sized, more developed cities may also need technical assistance, but are otherwise capable of becoming more environmentally sustainable. Large cities should be encouraged to share their experiences in becoming more sustainable with smaller cities.

• Record URL:
  http://tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01944360902952295
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/4626214
• Authors:
  • Lubell, Mark
  • Feiock, Richard
  • Handy, Susan L
• Publication Date: 2009

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 293-307
• Serial:
  • Journal of the American Planning Association
  • Volume: 75
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: American Planning Association
  • ISSN: 0194-4363
  • Serial URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjpa20/current

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cities; Cluster analysis; Environmental protection; Indexes (Information management); Policy making; Regression analysis; Surveys; Sustainable development; Theory
• Geographic Terms: Central Valley (California)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Policy; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01138873
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 31 2009 9:23AM