Kinder Institute Reports and Presentations

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1911/105136

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 93

Houston Region Grows More Ethnically Diverse, With Small Declines in Segregation. A Joint Report Analyzing Census Data from 1990, 2000, and 2010
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2012) Emerson, Michael O.; Bratter, Jenifer; Howell, Junia; Jeanty, Wilner
Houston’s population grew substantially between 1990 and 2010. Between 2000 and 2010, the Houston metropolitan area added more people (over 1.2 million) than any other metropolitan area in the United States. That growth has brought important changes to the region. This report focuses on two such changes—the changes in racial/ethnic diversity and in residential segregation between the four major racial/ethnic groups.
How Public Space is Used in Ancient Cities: The Case of Songo Mnara, a Medieval Swahili City in Tanzania
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2013) Fleisher, Jeffrey
This paper will discuss a number of ancient and contemporary examples of public space to explore the important distinctions between how they were planned and built, and how they were shaped by subsequent events and practices. Then, using Songo Mnara as a case study, I describe the research at the site and the interpretations of the public spaces in this ancient urban setting.
‘Making Babies': Religion and Moral Diversity in Views on Abortion and Human Genetic Engineering
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2013) Laws, Terri; Emerson, Michael O.; Wadsworth, W. Duncan
This white paper using PALS data discusses how race, gender, and frequency of attendance at worship services can impact attitudes about the morality of abortion, the use of genetic engineering to guide child characteristics as well as the basis for moral views. The majority of whites and Hispanics say they base their moral views on their personal conscience. The majority of African Americans, however, say that they base their moral views on God’s law. Attitudes about the morality of abortion are influenced by frequency of religious worship. Respondents who said they attend worship services two or more times per month are most likely to believe that abortion ought to be restricted. Women were more likely than men to say that using human engineering to make a smarter baby is “always wrong.” This paper suggests that moral diversity and diverse moral messaging remain important aspects of American life. Furthermore, for some communities, religious messaging has a clear impact on their attitudes about the use of medical technologies. These influences are important to take into account in public policy debates such as accessibility to and funding for medical research.
Exceptional Political Participation among African Americans: Countering the Overall Decline
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2013) Emerson, Michael O.; Peifer, Jared L.
Americans, in general, have become less political active from 2006 to 2012. However, blacks have countered this trend with increased political participation. This black exceptionalism remains when narrowing the sample to respondents that voted for Obama in 2008. This suggests Obama’s status as the first black President is responsible for this increased political participation among blacks.
Religious Change and Continuity in the United States: 2006-2012
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2013) Emerson, Michael O.; Essenburg, Laura J.
Examining the same adult Americans from 2006 to 2012, this report explores how Americans have changed and stayed the same in their religious beliefs and practices. We find that 15% of adult Americans switched religious traditions during this period, with nearly 40% of those switchers exiting religious traditions altogether. The next most common move was to Evangelical Protestantism from other faith traditions, including some who in 2006 were not in a religious tradition. We also find substantial volatility in worship attendance and congregational switching. Only 45% of adult Americans attend worship with the same frequency in 2012 as they did in 2006, and over one-third switched congregations. Other changes identified in this report are a declining confidence in clergy, an increased confidence in faith and God’s care, and a substantial jump in the proportion of Americans who view all religions with equal respect.
What is Marriage? Americans Dividing
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2013) Emerson, Michael O.; Essenburg, Laura J.
Debates have swirled around the legal definition of marriage, as U.S. states and indeed national governments consider the issue. This report draws on the longitudinal Portraits of American Life Study (PALS) to examine how the adult American public defines legal marriage, and whether that definition is changing over time. Interviewing the same 1294 Americans in 2006 and 2012, we track responses to the statement, “the only legal marriage should be between one man and one woman.” The findings include that in both years, the slight majority of adult Americans agree with the statement, and there was no significant overall change between 2006 and 2012. Yet, many Americans changed their minds over the period (some changing from agreeing to disagreeing, others from disagreeing to agreeing). The patterned manner in who changed their minds resulted in more division in 2012 than in 2006 in how Americans define marriage. Specifically, divisions have grown along educational, religious, and age lines. The patterns suggest a growing cultural divide across the nation.
What should be done with Illegal Immigrants? The Views of Americans
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2013) Miller, Renita; Emerson, Michael O.
Examining the same adult Americans from 2006 to 2012, this report explores how Americans have changed and stayed the same in their religious beliefs and practices. We find that 15% of adult Americans switched religious traditions during this period, with nearly 40% of those switchers exiting religious traditions altogether. The next most common move was to Evangelical Protestantism from other faith traditions, including some who in 2006 were not in a religious tradition. We also find substantial volatility in worship attendance and congregational switching. Only 45% of adult Americans attend worship with the same frequency in 2012 as they did in 2006, and over one‐third switched congregations. Other changes identified in this report are a declining confidence in clergy, an increased confidence in faith and God’s care, and a substantial jump in the proportion of Americans who view all religions with equal respect.
The Voices of Houston: A Linguistic Survey
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2013) Willis, Christina M.
This report summarizes the initial findings of the Voices of Houston Project: A Linguistic Summary, which seeks to determine the extent of the linguistic diversity found in the Houston Greater Metropolitan Area. The Linguistic Survey will provide an account of the linguistic diversity of the Houston Area by asking two related questions: (1) Which languages are spoken in the Houston area?; and (2) Where are these languages spoken?
The Process of Minority Incorporation in Local Politics and Government
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2013) Marschall, Melissa; Mikulska, Anna
Despite the fact that more than nine in ten black elected officials represent local rather than federal or state government, the study of minority representation in American local politics and elections has been a relatively unexplored area of inquiry. In this paper take an historical approach and examine the processes of black office-seeking and office-holding in local government. Our study relies on data compiled by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Research and the Southern Regional Council's Voter Education Project as well as Louisiana State Secretary of State election returns and candidate characteristics collected by the Local Elections in America Project (Marschall and Shah 2010). In the first set of analyses, we examine trends in the number and distribution of African American candidates and elected officials across office levels and types so that we can better understand: (1) where African -Americans have made the most progress, (2) what patterns might exist across offices, and (3) where we see little or no progress in black office-holding in Louisiana. From here we conduct a multivariate analysis to understand how the election of black council members in Louisiana occurred over time. Using event history analysis, we examine how municipal electoral arrangements and other institutional factors, as well as the socio-economic and racial context of cities shape the timing of the initial election of a black candidate for city council. This analysis spans the period immediately following passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, when the first African Americans won elected office since Reconstruction, up until 2010.
The efficacy of preparing for natural disasters
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2013) Stein, Robert; Buzcu-Given, Birnur; Duenas-Osorio, Leonardo; Subramanian, Devika
Previous research has identified a host of actions individuals take in preparation for pending natural disasters. We do not know, however, how these preparations affect outcomes, including property damage, personal injury and evacuation behavior. In this study we argue that different modes/types of preparation produce different outcomes and are associated with different predictors. We test our hypotheses with data from a survey conducted with residents of Harris County, Texas, after Hurricane Ike in 2008. We find that preparations for hurricanes cluster around two distinct dimensions; preventative preparation (e.g., raising the level of residence, purchasing insurance) and mitigating preparation (e.g., buying water and food, filling gas tank). We tested the relationship between preparation and outcomes by defining preparation as a function of risk and other determinants of risk identified in the literature including prior hurricane experience, demographics, living closer to the coast, and information seeking. We find that those who prepare are most likely to confront greater risk from approaching hurricanes than those who do not prepare. We also find that preventative preparation has a significant and negative effect on bad outcomes, specifically in property damage. Mitigating preparation, however, has a significant and negative effect on the likelihood individuals evacuate, especially residents of non-evacuation areas. Our findings have strong implications on how emergency planners and local officials should prepare for and communicate with the public before severe weather episodes.
The Regulatory Nature of Urban Ports: The Case of Houston
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2015) Elliott, James R.; Shelton, Kyle; King, Lester O.
Classic urban ecology argues that cities grow by connecting economically with other places. As they do, local zones of similar land use emerge, producing natural areas. While still valuable, this paradigm and recent efforts to rehabilitate one of its core concepts –succession – fails to adequately explain how certain urban zones, born relatively free of government regulation, come to be increasingly defined by it over time. The present study engages this lacuna and its relevance to urbanization generally. Using the case of Houston’s Ship Channel, it investigates how a locally important zone develops politically through successive regulation intended to contain risks associated with its own development. In this way we extend insights of urban ecology to consider how government not only leverages infrastructure that gives rise to certain urban zones but also comes to wrap them in regulation that promotes and insulates their continued development, at significant risk to local residents.
Shifting Gears: Framing Bike-sharing Trends in Sun Belt Cities
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2015) Walker, Kelsey; Shelton, Kyle
While bike-sharing is typically framed as a means of transportation for weekday commuters, a new analysis of the programs in Austin, Denver, Fort Worth, and Houston indicates that users frequently turn to bike-sharing for recreational purposes in these cities. This finding is critical to our understanding of bike-share programs, which are poised to proliferate and expand in the Sun Belt and elsewhere in the coming years. As planners, policymakers, and program operators throughout the country develop bike-share systems, they can benefit from a richer understanding of how people use bike-share programs in lower-density, automobile-oriented urban environments. However, despite the rise of bike-sharing systems, comparative studies of bike-sharing activity are lacking, particularly for cities in the southern and western United States. To shed light on the role that bike-share systems inhabit in these areas, this study examines bike-sharing trips in Austin, Denver, Fort Worth, and Houston, comparing and visualizing the type and volume of trips in the four cities.
Will Migration Worsen Urban Safety? Empirical Studies in Shanghai
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2015) Tan, Jing; Ren, Yuan
Poverty, crime rates increase and decrease in social security are often considered as “Urban Disease” during the process of urbanization and large amount of migrants’ influx into cities. With empirical studies in Shanghai, the authors try to analyze the relations between migrants’ absolute and relative congregation and the impacts to urban safety. The authors build a Public Safety Index (PSI) to measure the urban safety, make descriptive mapping of urban safety in Metropolis Shanghai from 2000 to 2010, and illustrate main reasons on urban safety. The empirical evidences show that although the correlation between population congregation and urban safety is significant, while controlled related variables, we could see non-hukou immigrants congregation actually has no significant influence to urban safety, and what really matters are the population’s age structure, educational level, marriage and family status, community-building and environment, economic development and labor market situation, and etc. Therefore, the authors suggest that the local authority should take migratory inclusive policies, which puts more emphasis on improving education, providing employment, enhancing community-building and community facilities construction, and so on, instead of carrying out strict population control policies to achieve the target of urban safety and immigrant development.
Tolerance toward Immigrants as a Dimension of Cosmopolitanism: Explaining Attitudes toward Immigrants in Houston
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2015) Paredes, Cristian L.
In this study, I argue that attitudes toward immigrants in the U.S. are particularly different in metropolitan areas characterized by ethno-racial diversity brought about by immigration in order to explain tolerance toward immigrants as a dimension of cosmopolitanism. I further examine whether the influences of individual and contextual characteristics on attitudes toward immigrants in Houston, the metropolitan research setting, reveal how its inhabitants have gradually been accepting their complex foreign diversity as normal. Using data from the Houston Area Survey, I found that the proportion of immigrants in communities is directly associated with tolerance, that white-collar workers are not more tolerant than non-white-collar workers, and that the effect of education on tolerance toward immigrants is not always positive. The conceptualization of tolerance toward immigrants as a dimension of cosmopolitanism serves to explain tolerance not only as a reflection of public opinion, but as a disposition toward the acceptance of diversity in receiving societies.
The Shifting City: Houston's Unequal History of Racial Change
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2016) O'Connell, Heather
Houston is often referred to as the most racially diverse metro area in the country and a harbinger of the types of demographic shifts the nation is likely to face in the future. The area has undergone tremendous demographic shifts in recent decades, the most notable of which is the increase in the Hispanic population. In 2000, non-Hispanic whites made up 42 percent of Harris County’s population, and Hispanics made up 33 percent. A decade later, those proportions had almost exactly flipped. This report examines how the racial/ethnic composition of individual census tracts in Harris County has changed — or in some cases, has not — in the face of 30 years of demographic shifts across the region.
Mayoral Elections in Kentucky: 2010-2014
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2016) Marschall, Melissa; Lappie, John
Political observers’ assumptions about local election trends are often based on anecdotes, incomplete observation or simply conventional wisdom. However, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research and its Center for Local Elections in American Politics offer a first-of-its-kind way to analyze elections. Mayoral elections in Kentucky, perhaps because they are held in Novembers of even-numbered years, tend to have respectable voter turnout rates. However, there is an alarming lack of competition in Kentucky mayoral elections; well over half of mayoral elections were uncontested between 2010 and 2014. Even when there is more than one candidate, mayoral elections tend not to be close. Kentucky policymakers would be well advised to take steps to rectify this situation.
Mayoral Elections in Indiana: 2003-2015
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2016) Marschall, Melissa; Lappie, John
Political observers’ assumptions about local election trends are often based on anecdotes, incomplete observation or simply conventional wisdom. However, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research and its Center for Local Elections in American Politics (LEAP) offer a first-of-its-kind way to analyze elections. Several important trends emerge in Indiana. The analysis of election data reveals that more than 20 percent of all mayoral elections in Indiana cities go uncontested. The trend is especially pronounced in the state’s smallest cities. The report also shows that during the study period, there has been a steady decline in turnout in both primary and general elections.
Mayoral Elections in California: 1995-2014
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2016) Marschall, Melissa; Lappie, John
Political observers’ assumptions about local election trends are often based on anecdotes, incomplete observation or simply conventional wisdom. However, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research and its Center for Local Elections in American Politics offer a first-of-its-kind way to analyze elections. In California cities where mayoral elections coincide with the presidential elections, voter turnout is more than double that of cities where mayoral elections are conducted off cycle, LEAP found. This study confirms existing work on the relationship between the timing of elections and turnout but also sheds important new empirical light on the nature and magnitude of this relationship. Policymakers will find this analysis helpful when seeking ways to improve political participation and strengthen local democracy in America.
Filling Potholes: Analyzing the City of Houston's Response
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2016) Walker, Kelsey; Shelton, Kyle
All mayors pledge to fix potholes. When Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner made the promise, he also created a website where citizens could track whether a pothole had been filled. The Kinder Institute conducted an independent analysis to verify the numbers collected on that site between January 4 and January 21, 2016.
The Houston Pension Question: How the City’s Pension Liability Grew and the Options for Reform
(Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2016) Kinder Institute for Urban Research
Houston today faces an increasing unfunded liability for its employee pensions that totals at least $3.9 billion, as of 2015, up from $212 million in 1992. If no action is taken, that unfunded liability (officially known as the unfunded actuarial accrual liability, or UAAL) is expected to continue growing. However, the city has some options—however painful—that can reduce the unfunded liability and restrain its future growth.

Browse

Browsing Kinder Institute Reports and Presentations by Issue Date

Results Per Page

Sort Options