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| 1 | |
Members of Congress asked the Congressional Budget Office (CB)) to examine the costs that immigration poses on state and local governments. What did CBO find? |
| | A) | Unauthorized immigration burdens states and localities with having to provide costly law enforcement, social services, and public education. The costs of these services exceed the total sum that unauthorized immigrants pay in state and local taxes. |
| | B) | Only Arizona and New Mexico are greatly hurt by unauthorized immigration. In other states, the situation is much different. As the undocumented immigrants come to the United States to work, they wind up paying taxes that more than cover the costs of the services provided to them by states and localities. |
| | C) | Unauthorized immigration imposes a heavy burden on the federal budget but not on state and city budgets. Federal grants-in-aid to states and cities pay for most of the costs of immigration-related services in such areas as law enforcement, social services, and public education, lifting the financial burden that illegal immigration places on subnational governments. |
| | D) | The evidence shows that undocumented immigrants from Mexico are not the major cause of increases in immigration-related services provided by state and local governments. A "hidden" undocumented immigration from Poland and the former communist countries of Eastern Europe imposes more extensive service demands on state and local governments than does the unauthorized immigration from Mexico. |
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| 2 | |
Julia Vitullo-Martin takes a more positive view of immigration. What is her primary argument in favor of immigration? |
| | A) | The United States has a moral and legal obligation under international law to allow the entry of immigrants seeking economic opportunity. These obligations are a result of the United States having signed the United Nations charter and other international treaties.. |
| | B) | Throughout the country's history, immigrant entrepreneurs have contributed to the economic growth of the United States and of cities like New York. |
| | C) | Undocumented immigration has helped states and localities to balance their budgets. A careful review of payroll data reveals that immigrants pay more in state and local taxes than the costs of the subnational services they receive. |
| | D) | Immigrants contribute to the diversity of the student body in public classrooms. The presence of immigrants is essential to the diversity of ideas that is part of genuine education. |
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| 3 | |
Lance Freeman takes a fairly positive view of gentrification. His primary argument is that |
| | A) | a city needs the new economic growth provided by gentrification. The gain in new jobs resulting from gentrification outweighs the harm done by displacement. |
| | B) | gentrification helps end inner-city school segregation by bringing new diversity to public schools that once had only African-American and Hispanic students. |
| | C) | gentrification brings new opportunities that benefit low-income residents in areas undergoing change, including the opening of new stores offering better variety and quality of foods and other products. |
| | D) | the displacement that accompanies gentrification seldom produces serious problems. Poorer residents who are displaced by gentrification often wind up moving to opportunity-rich suburbs with better schools and job opportunities. |
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| 4 | |
Kathe Newman and Elvin Wyly, critics of gentrification, argue that |
| | A) | Freeman and his colleagues understate the ills of displacement and overstate the benefits that gentrification brings to the lives of poorer residents. |
| | B) | the displacement of the poor as a violation of residents' "equal protection" rights under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. |
| | C) | gentrification often hurts city economies, as businesses will not locate in sections of the city with escalating land values and rents. |
| | D) | Republicans have vigorously supported new gentrification-related development, as they know that the election ballots cast by the upper-income arrivals will help elect Republicans to City Hall. |
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| 5 | |
Dick Carpenter and John Ross, outspoken critics of eminent domain, argue |
| | A) | that the courts have too strictly defined a property's market value, effectively allowing local governments to take property for public purposes while paying owners only the most minimal compensation. |
| | B) | that cities too often take land from ethnic minorities, the poor, and middle-income home owners in order to aid new for-profit actions of powerful major corporations. |
| | C) | that the explicit language of the U.S, Constitution prohibits the government of taking of property for any purpose other than the building of a military base. |
| | D) | that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Kelo v New London effectively put an end of the ability of local governments to "take" private property for economic development purposes. |
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| 6 | |
Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson argues that |
| | A) | cities will be unable to act effectively in the critical areas of economic development and local job creation if the national government and the states place strong restrictions on the local use of eminent domain powers. |
| | B) | Eminent domain powers are a part of the American political tradition. Even in colonial America, cities used eminent domain powers in order take land for mills and harbor development. |
| | C) | under the constitutional doctrine of national supremacy, federal law supersedes state law. As a result, Peterson and the National League of Cities are asking for national legislation to explicitly authorize the local use of eminent domain powers, legislation that will counter any efforts by the states to reduce local eminent domain authority. |
| | D) | the Kelo ruling denies states the power to limit local eminent domain powers. As the Court observed, only the U.S. Congress, not the states, possesses the ability to regulate local eminent domain authority. |
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| 7 | |
Why, according to Mark Rosentraub, does San Diego's construction of Petco Park serve as a model for how cities should pursue new stadium development? |
| | A) | The city did not commit any taxpayer money to the construction of Petco Field and Ballpark Village. While the city used its eminent domain powers to help team owners to acquire the land for the ballpark, the city itself did not use public monies to aid the construction of the ballpark or of the revitalization of the area surrounding the new stadium. |
| | B) | State of California grants-in-aid provided the subsidies that were needed to keep the ball club in San Diego. As the presence of the ball team is an asset for economic development in a large portion of the state, the financial burden of assisting stadium development was borne by the residents of California and not placed solely on the shoulders of the residents of the City of San Diego. |
| | C) | The city used long-term bond to finance the construction of the new stadium, rather than burdening present-day taxpayers with the costs of construction. |
| | D) | The city and private interests formed a partnership that outlined their shared costs of building the stadium and investing in the mixed-used Ballpark District lying just outside the ballpark. |
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| 8 | |
Coates and Humphreys are economists who are skeptical of the claims made by stadium advocates. What is the overall conclusion that they draw from their review of various studies that have tried to measure the economic impact of new sports stadiums? |
| | A) | Stadiums do not generally give a boost to a region's economy. New stadium construction is not associated with an overall increase in income levels in a metropolitan area. |
| | B) | The construction of a new stadium only serves to benefit racial and ethnic minorities who serve as the concessions vendors and janitorial workers in the new stadium. |
| | C) | Only stadiums built in safe suburban areas seem to have a positive impact on the level of income in a metropolitan area. Too many suburbanites are reluctant to attend events in the central city, reducing the income-generating potential of stadiums located in the center of the metropolis. |
| | D) | While baseball ballparks have a positive effect on the level of income in a metropolitan area, football stadiums do not, as football teams have only very few game dates and do not draw a solid stream of visitors to the downtown. |
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| 9 | |
Healey and McCormack are enthusiastic backers of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) who have worked on number TIF projects in Chicago. They argue that |
| | A) | TIF arrangements offer pay-as-you-go-financing that allow cities to fund targeted improvements in infrastructure that can serve to attract new businesses without having to increase the property levied on home owners throughout the city. |
| | B) | TIF is offers a fair way to pay for public service and infrastructure improvements. A TIF levies a small additional small surcharge to the property taxes levied throughout a city. |
| | C) | The creation of a TIF offers a city considerable advantages when applying for federal grant money. The federal government prefers to give money to independent entities, such as a TIF authority, rather than to city officials who are inclined to use the money to fund patronage projects that reward major campaign contributors. |
| | D) | The creation of a TIF allows for regional planning and collaboration, as the boundaries of a TIF district usually extend beyond the central city to include major suburbs. |
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| 10 | |
Daniel McGraw casts a more critical eye on TIFs. He argues that |
| | A) | TIF creation violates state laws that require the uniformity of taxation. |
| | B) | TIFs essentially help large companies but ultimately diminish the tax yields from a project that a city could have used to support education and other public services. |
| | C) | TIFs eliminate the "base" for financing a project. The "increment" that remains is often too small to provide the full financing of a project, requiring cities in the near future to raise the property tax rates imposed on home owners and small businesses. |
| | D) | TIFs are short-lived and quickly fade from existence. As a consequence, the tax advantages they promise are too ephemeral to attract businesses to a city. |
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| 11 | |
According to Chief Bratton and other advocates, which of the following explains how broken-windows policing worked in New York City? |
| | A) | The police more aggressively policed fare evaders in city's subways, the street corner "squeegee men," and other quality-of-life offenders, sending a clear message that disorderly and criminal behavior would no longer be tolerated. |
| | B) | By overlooking the smaller infractions or "broken window," the police were able to devote additional personnel to solving outstanding homicide cases and to infiltrating drug cartels and organized crime syndicates. |
| | C) | Broken-windows policing entailed great cooperation between the New York City Police Department and the specialized federal units of Homeland Security and the FBI crime lab. Just as it takes many skilled craftspersons to build a solid house, effective crime fighting, too, requires a coordinated team effort. |
| | D) | The New York City Police Department shifted the emphasis of its activities from business districts to residential areas, a move that won the confidence of tenants and homeowners. |
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| 12 | |
William Harcourt disputes the claims made by broken-windows advocates. Harcourt argues that |
| | A) | the New York City reports are based on faulty data, as precinct officers often failed to report serious crimes in order to make their records look better to superiors. |
| | B) | police departments routinely inflate their success rates by overstating the number of cases that are classified as "closed," by accepting assuming that a person convicted of one crime was also responsible for numerous other crimes in an inner-city neighborhood. |
| | C) | the data used to claim New York's was based on crime rates in upper-middle-class and upper-income areas; the city's lower-income neighborhoods were underrepresented in the studies. |
| | D) | large numbers of cities, including cities that did not introduce order-maintenance policy, experienced a great reduction in crime during the same period |
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| 13 | |
Can a system of vouchers or tax credits include parochial (religious-based) schools? |
| | A) | No. The Supreme Court in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris ruled that such a program is a clear violation of the separation of church and state as required by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. |
| | B) | Yes. The Supreme Court in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris ruled that such a program does not violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as the program has a secular purpose of improving education, with aid given to parents who can freely choose where to send their children. |
| | C) | The answer varies from state to state. Each state's constitution determines whether educational vouchers (and tax credits) can be used in parochial schools. Schooling is a state, not a federal, constitutional responsibility. |
| | D) | It is unclear whether or not vouchers can be used in parochial schools as the Zelman ruling was decided on the basis of technicalities. As a result, there is continued confusion, with some federal circuit courts allowing the participation of parochial schools and other federal circuit courts striking down the use of publicly funded vouchers in parochial schools. |
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| 14 | |
How cans school vouchers be seen as a reaction against bureaucratic irresponsiveness? |
| | A) | The award of school vouchers helps to create a new competitive environment in public education. With the introduction of school vouchers, a city's public schools will either have to improve their performance or face the prospect of losing students and money to the newer schools. |
| | B) | In establishing the rules for charter schools, the states have issued new regulations that also govern the operation of a city's regular public schools, reducing tenure for teachers and mandating increased transparency in the making of school decisions. |
| | C) | Each school voucher is accompanied by a ballot that a parent can file at the end of the school year. No matter where a parent or guardian chooses to send a child, the parent can cast an advisory ballot on whether or not the principal of the local public school should be rehired for the next school year. The existence of such a ballot procedure leads principals to pay greater attention to the concerns of students and parents. |
| | D) | The newly established voucher academies will constitute a private monopoly, assuring them the protection and time necessary to establish innovative program of learning and enhanced parental participation. |
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| 15 | |
Which of the following is a commonly made criticism that is made against educational vouchers? |
| | A) | Vouchers will increase the power of teacher unions. |
| | B) | Vouchers will add to the power of the state and local school bureaucracy. |
| | C) | Vouchers will lead to increased taxes by adding expensive new voucher schools atop of the existing public schools. |
| | D) | Vouchers can aggravate school inequality, leaving many low-income students left behind in "dumping ground" when better students use vouchers to move to other schools. |
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| 16 | |
What is an add-on? |
| | A) | When a voucher academy responds to the needs of more advanced students by offering AP classes in an additional class period that is "tacked on" at the end of the normal school day. |
| | B) | A union-negotiated contract provision that requires overload pay any time that a teacher takes on an extra class, supervises a student club, or coaches a school athletic team outside of normal school hours. |
| | C) | The money parents may pay beyond the value of an educational voucher so that their child can attend a school that charges tuition that is higher than the amount awarded in the voucher. |
| | D) | the additional workload and responsibility that voucher school administrators impose on teachers, additional responsibilities for which teachers seldom receive additional compensation |
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| 17 | |
Sol Stern was once a strong advocate of school vouchers. Why did he change his position? |
| | A) | Stern has come to recognize that school vouchers raise serious constitutional concerns regarding the separation of church and state. |
| | B) | Stern worries that vouchers are anti-union and will unfairly undermine the power of public teacher unions. |
| | C) | Stern observes that the evidence on test scores shows that voucher systems have not really improved student performance. |
| | D) | Stern argues that vouchers, as seen in Milwaukee and Cleveland, have been used to give greater school choice by well-to-do families. Vouchers do not increase the choice of parents in these cities' poor and minority neighborhoods. |
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| 18 | |
According to Stern, what factor is serving to limit the ability of cities to use school vouchers as an effective tool of education reform? |
| | A) | Cities have turned away from vouchers in order to give increased funding to a city's public schools. |
| | B) | The U.S. Supreme Court has imposed restrictions that restrict the ability of students to use their certificates to attend most parochial and private schools. |
| | C) | Teacher unions have won lawsuits in more than ten major states, with state courts ruling that the enactment of a voucher system constitutes an abridgement of teacher contracts. |
| | D) | The deepening financial crisis and closing of Catholic schools in big cities means that big cities are facing a diminishing number of good schools that are willing to receive voucher students. |
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| 19 | |
What should conservatives do, according to Stern, rather than continuing to pin so much of their hopes on the expansion of voucher programs? |
| | A) | Stern argues for tax credits to promote school choice while at the same time giving new emphasis to merit pay plans and other incentives for better performance and educational innovation as part of a strategy to reshape education in existing public schools. |
| | B) | Stern argues for the formation of an alliance among parents, the teacher unions, and school management. Citizens are tired of the continuing conflict and bickering while schools continue to fail. Education is the one policy areas where consensual solutions can be identified. |
| | C) | Stern argues for increased federal aid. He argues that school problems, especially in the inner city, cannot be solved in the absence of adequate financial resources. |
| | D) | Stern argues for the greater use of computers in the classroom and for distance-learning alternatives to badly performing public schools. |
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| 20 | |
How do choice advocates like Jay Greene and Philip Enloe respond to Stern's view that vouchers have failed to improve education? |
| | A) | They argue for the need to bring legal challenges to existing state funding arrangements that fail to provide for the greater funding of voucher academies. |
| | B) | They argue that students possess a constitutionally protected "liberty right" to attend the school of their choice, including voucher schools. |
| | C) | State limitations on the issuance of voucher in Cleveland and Milwaukee and continuing state protections of public schools limit the good that vouchers can achieve, impairing the establishment of a truly competitive market-based system of education. Their solution is simply to greatly expand the number vouchers in order to create a truly competitive market-based system. |
| | D) | They argue for the state takeover of badly administered and failing public school systems. |
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| 21 | |
What do Lavertu and Witte report in the examination of the data regarding the performance of charter schools in Milwaukee? |
| | A) | The evidence clearly shows that charter schools work well. Students in charter schools show an increase in math and reading scores that are larger than those of comparable students who attend traditional public schools. |
| | B) | Charter schools lead to limited but still real gains. Students in charter schools did better in terms of math scores but showed no advantage in reading scores when compared to similar students in traditional city schools. |
| | C) | Although charter school students show no real gain in terms of math and reading scores, charter schools are still an attracting public program that has helped to racially integrate the Milwaukee public school system. |
| | D) | Lavertu and Witte recommend that Milwaukee shut down its system of charter schools, as test scores reveal that charter school students show not gains on math and reading exams. African-American parents are also highly critical of the city's charter schools, threatening to withdraw their children from the city's charter academies. |
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| 22 | |
Professor Miron made numerous criticisms of charter schools, as seen in his testimony before Congress. Which is not one of the points that Miron emphasized in his testimony? |
| | A) | Charter schools have strayed from the ideal of creating new opportunities for the work of innovative teachers. Instead, many charter schools are run by for-profit educational management organizations that stress computerized learning and other standardized practices that save money. |
| | B) | Charter schools continue to work under a vast maze of governmental regulations. Miron proposes that government decrease its regulation and oversight in order to allow charter schools greater program flexibility. |
| | C) | Enrollments in charter schools are often sorted by race, class, and ability. Charters have not served to promote racial integration. |
| | D) | On the whole, charter schools have not helped to increase student performance. Charter school students generally do not clearly score better than matched students at traditional public schools. |
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| 23 | |
Susan Popkin argues that HOPE VI has largely been a successful program. What did she find in her studies of the fate of HOPE VI tenants who were relocated with the assistance of Section 8 housing vouchers? |
| | A) | HOPE VI movers tended to find homes in suburban communities that offered substantial job opportunities and racially-integrated housing and schools. |
| | B) | The majority of HOPE VI movers found homes in more racially-integrated suburban communities. But their children suffered numerous problems in adjusting to their new school environments. As a result, HOPE VI movers exhibited high rates of return; nearly half of HOPE VI movers returning within three years to their old inner-city neighborhoods. |
| | C) | HOPE VI movers wound up living in housing units that were not any better than the old public housing units that were torn down. Still, the children of the HOPE VI movers enjoyed great benefits as there were able to attend schools that were less racially than the schools of their old public-housing neighborhoods. |
| | D) | HOPE VI movers tend to find homes that were substantially better and in areas that were less crime-ridden than were their old public housing units. |
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| 24 | |
In what way did HOPE VI moves fail to meet the expectations of HOPE VI enthusiasts? |
| | A) | The new neighborhoods were just as crime-ridden and dangerous as were their old neighborhoods. |
| | B) | Children of HOPE VI movers faced just as many risks and dangers in their new neighborhoods as they faced in their old neighborhoods. |
| | C) | HOPE VI did not greatly affect employment levels. The HOPE VI movers did not suddenly find good jobs that afforded them greater self-sufficiency. |
| | D) | Because of the limited buying power of the Section 8 housing vouchers, HOPE VI movers wound up renting housing units that were not qualitatively better than the public housing units they had left behind. |
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| 25 | |
Marjery Austin Turner and Susan Popkin of The Urban Institute describe numerous advantages of housing choice vouchers. Which of the following is not one of the gains that Turner and Popkin emphasize? |
| | A) | Housing vouchers expand the choice of neighborhoods in which a low-income family can choose to reside. |
| | B) | Families that use housing vouchers can move to areas with less exposure to drug trafficking and violent crime. |
| | C) | Housing vouchers can improve the life chances available to low-income families, with moves leading to gains in the health of family members and allowing children to attend better schools. |
| | D) | Housing vouchers lead to a reduction in teenage pregnancy and out-of-wedlock births. Teenagers of voucher movers gain a stronger sense of self-worth and make friends with teens who support future-oriented values. |
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| 26 | |
What does Christopher Swope worry is the major problem with the Section 8 housing voucher program" |
| | A) | Section 8 vouchers are plagued by fraud. Vouchers are sold on the black market, leading to the waste of billions of dollars as housing assistance each year. |
| | B) | Section 8 housing vouchers can lead to the reconcentration of the poor threatening the quality of life in marginal, struggling neighborhoods. |
| | C) | Section 8 housing vouchers are an entitlement program that represents an uncapped, ever-rising drain on public dollars. |
| | D) | Section 8 housing vouchers allow for the resegregation of neighborhoods, as recipients of different races choose to live in different neighborhoods in a city. |
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| 27 | |
Peter Wallison represents the views of the mortgage banking industry. Which of the following does Wallison see as one of the root causes of the nation's mortgage meltdown--the glut of mortgage foreclosures that has led to abandoned properties across the nation? |
| | A) | Government regulation: The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was one of the major programs that virtually forced banks to make unwise loans. |
| | B) | Government deregulation: The easing of the rules and supervision under the CRA allowed unscrupulous lenders to enter the field and offer loans to families who lacked the ability to repay them. |
| | C) | Government-imposed high interest rates and service fees: The provisions of the CRA required borrowers to pay higher-than-normal rates of interest and fees for unnecessary services, adding $200 to $500 to a family's monthly mortgage payment. |
| | D) | CRA requirements for increased consumer choice gave borrowers new opportunity to "walk away" from loans they were having difficulty repaying. |
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| 28 | |
Philip Ashton is a defender of the CRA. Which of the following does he see to be one of the root causes of the nation's mortgage meltdown--the glut of mortgage foreclosures that has led to abandoned properties across the nation? |
| | A) | Government regulation: however, it was the regulations of Fannie Mae—not those of the CRA—that virtually forced banks to make unwise loans. |
| | B) | Government deregulation: The easing of the rules of the CRA allowed unscrupulous lenders to enter the field and offer loans to families who lacked the ability to repay them. |
| | C) | State governments interfered with the mortgage market, forcing banks to steer loans to politically-connected developers who were overextended and lacked the means to repay those loans when the economy slowed. |
| | D) | The actions of unscrupulous community action groups like ACORN that virtually bankrupted the housing finance system. ACORN earned outrageous fees for placing loans with unbankable low-income people who later defaulted on their monthly mortgage obligations. |
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| 29 | |
The Environmental Defense Fund argues in favor of congestion pricing. Which of the following is not one of the arguments that EDF makes on behalf of congestion pricing? |
| | A) | A congestion zone pricing system will lead drivers to reschedule trips and to seek mass transit and other forms of alternative transit. |
| | B) | The congestion zone system has rejuvenated city centers in Europe, adding to the attractiveness of city areas by lessening traffic. |
| | C) | A congestion zone system will bring manufacturing jobs back to the city center. A congestion zone system reduces noncommercial vehicular traffic, clearing the road for heavy trucks that can serve industrial plants in the city center. |
| | D) | A congestion zone system generates revenue that can be used to upgrade public transportation systems. |
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| 30 | |
Which of the following is one of the main arguments made by the Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free Coalition in its fight against Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed congestion zone? |
| | A) | A congestion zone is counterproductive and will increase air pollution, especially in residential neighborhoods, as trucks will idle their engines in residential neighborhood rather than make deliveries in the congestion zone. |
| | B) | A congestion zone is inequitable as government officials will receive passes that exempt them from having to pay the high zone fees that ordinary automobile commuters have to pay. |
| | C) | A congestion zone is racially discriminatory as it will lead to the removal of the on-street pushcarts and food wagons that are largely operated by ethnic minority vendors. |
| | D) | A congestion zone will hurt the city's economy, as customers will find be reluctant to pay the congestion fee necessary do drive into the city and patronage retail stores in the city center. |
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| 31 | |
The U.S. PIRG, a public interest group, see numerous benefits in bringing high-speed rail (HSR) to the United States? Which of the following is not one of the arguments that PIRG makes on behalf of HSR? |
| | A) | HSR will reduce the need for travel by car between cities, reducing pollution. |
| | B) | HSR can dramatically reduce the number of short-haul flights between nearby cities, reducing the pollution associated with jet travel. |
| | C) | HSR will attract large volumes of passengers that will consequently bring new revenues to government. HSR systems will run in the "black," generating profits that cities can use to help balance their fiscal books. |
| | D) | HSR stations can promote the economic revitalization of neighborhoods located in the vicinity of the stations. |
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| 32 | |
Which of the following is an argument that economist Robert Poole makes against the introduction of high-speed rail systems? |
| | A) | HSR systems incur "externalities," costs to the natural environment that rail enthusiasts do not consider when they emphasize the benefits of HSR. |
| | B) | The advocates of HSR systems misconceive of high-speed rail as a "public good," when HSR is in fact a "pooled good" where public subsidies are inappropriate. |
| | C) | HSR trains in the United States are unlikely to run at very high speeds in urban and suburban areas. Such "higher speed" (not high-speed) trains are unlikely to promise a great enough saving in travel times to attract high levels of ridership. |
| | D) | The creation of a HSR system will increase the power if members of the public transit workers unions, who will be able to gain increases in wages and benefits simply by threatening work stoppages that will shut down a transit system that is such a vital piece of state and regional economies. |
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| 33 | |
According James McElfish, what is the dominant reason that the United States must initiate stronger policies to curb sprawl? |
| | A) | Sprawled development leads to the construction of large McMansions that are beyond the financial reach of working-class and lower-middle-class families. |
| | B) | Sprawl leads to the overconsumption of energy resources and the destruction of farm land and natural areas. |
| | C) | As a signatory party to the Kyoto Protocol, the United States is obligated under international law to take implement measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions. |
| | D) | Sprawled development is incompatible with good planning, as sprawl allows polluting factories to locate in upscale suburbs, right next to single-family homes and schools. |
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| 34 | |
What is Robert Bruegmann's overall argument in defense of sprawl? |
| | A) | Sprawl is the democratic choice. Americans tend to prefer large homes and suburban living. |
| | B) | Sprawl adds to economic efficiency. The American dream of owning a home in the suburbs provides workers with incentives to work even harder. |
| | C) | Sprawled development is essential for racial integration. The population of newly growing portions of the metropolis is disproportionately Latinos and African-American, allowing for increased levels of school integration in the metropolis. |
| | D) | Continued sprawled development is necessary to repay the vast debt that the United States has incurred in the building of interstate highways. |
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| 35 | |
Randal O'Toole argues that there are numerous problems with Portland's Smart Growth planning efforts, including the Portland area's urban growth boundary (UGB). Which of the following is not one of the criticisms of Portland that O'Toole makes? |
| | A) | Oregon officials have failed to expand the urban growth boundary to the extent necessary to accommodate the new population growth that is expected in the Portland region. |
| | B) | The UGB has led to exceedingly dense residential development, with multifamily housing and small homes shoe-horned into very small building sites. |
| | C) | Portland planners have exacerbated traffic gridlock by using funds for the construction of light-rail system rather than for highway improvements. |
| | D) | The Portland region has lost tens of millions of dollars in federal grants and financial assistance—and risks losing tens of millions more—as a result of its refusal to accept economic development assistance for the construction of new facilities in the green area lying just outside the UGB. |
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| 36 | |
How do Michael Lewyn and other advocates of Portland's growth management efforts attempt to counter the criticism that the region's urban growth boundary (UGB) has led to an escalation of home prices? |
| | A) | UGB advocates observe that sufficient land for new development exists inside the boundary line to accommodate new growth. Also, the UGB can be extended outwards if there is need for additional land for development. |
| | B) | The defenders of the Portland policy observe that Portland is a shrinking region with no demand for the construction of new housing. |
| | C) | The defenders of the Portland policy observe that voters in the region established the UGB through a popular referendum. The voters chose to limit growth and protect natural areas, even at the cost of increasing the price of housing. |
| | D) | Young professionals and newly married couples prefer to live in apartments and condominiums in the central city. There is o real demand for suburban development, as surveys show that only people older than age 55 have a strong preference for large single-family homes in the suburbs. |
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| 37 | |
What is Bernard's Frieden's overall criticism of suburban zoning and land-use policies? |
| | A) | The suburbs in the San Francisco Bay area enact seemingly good land-use and zoning restrictions in response to public pressures but then fail to provide the resources and follow-though to ensure that environmental protection regulations are obeyed. |
| | B) | Pollution spills over local boundaries. Yet San Francisco-area suburbs refuse to cooperate with one another to establish regional land-use and zoning measures that would effectively reduce pollution. |
| | C) | Suburbs in the Bay Area continue to ignore the need for environmental protection. Suburbs have discovered that they face no real penalty for continuing to pursue new development, even when such development violates the environmental safeguards set forth by state and federal laws. |
| | D) | More affluent suburbs use their land-use and zoning powers to maintain the exclusive character of their communities, an action that has served to increase the price of housing and decrease home affordability in the San Francisco Bay region. |
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| 38 | |
How does w. David Conn respond to Frieden's attack on land-use and zoning policies in the San Francisco Bay region? |
| | A) | Conn argues that democracy allows local communities to adopt land-use and zoning plans of their choosing, even if those policies do not match Frieden's vision of what "balanced" community development should look like. |
| | B) | Conn argues that Frieden understates the harm that new development can impose on natural areas. |
| | C) | Conn argues that the establishment of a regional authority with real land-use and zoning authority would be undesirable as it would entail the loss of grassroots democracy. |
| | D) | Conn emphasizes the important role that local zoning and land-use powers play in protecting property values. Local governments have a statutory obligation to protect considerable investment that home ownership represents. |
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| 39 | |
Robert Steuteville and Philip Langdon, practitioners of the New Urbanism, contend that |
| | A) | the New Urbanism can build sustainable communities and help restore a sense among residents that they are connected to their neighborhood. |
| | B) | the New Urbanism offers innovative, money-savings construction techniques that can reduce the price of new homes, allowing a larger number of working-class citizens to gain access to the suburbs. |
| | C) | the New Urbanism increases democracy by emphasizing citizen engagement in the planning process, especially the notion that urban design should reflect the choices made by "the people" rather than the preferences of professional planners. |
| | D) | the New Urbanism is an important part of the New Regionalism that emphasizes the importance of interlocal collaboration and sharing of services to save taxpayer money. |
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| 40 | |
Professor Myron Levine argues that the New Urbanism will constitute only a limited revolution. Which statement best describes his assessment of the impact of the New Urbanism in the United States? |
| | A) | Architecture cannot determine participation. New Urbanists will not succeed in their efforts to build extensive citizen engagement in urban planning processes. |
| | B) | Younger home buyers prefer apartment and condominium living and do not want New Urbanism's big homes with their large back yards and side yards. |
| | C) | Most home seekers will continue to look for the "most home" they can get for their money. They will not be attracted to New Urban housing that eliminates side garages in an effort to promote walkability instead of ease of automobile access. |
| | D) | The New Urbanism represents is a government-funded, top-down attempt to reshape the spatial dynamics of American communities. |
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| 41 | |
According to New York Times reporter Elisabeth Rosenthal, what is the current direction in transportation planning in Europe? |
| | A) | Planners are building new roads and widening existing highways, the consequence of the award of funds by the European Union to support physical construction projects that will bring the nations of Europe closer together. |
| | B) | In each European nation, planners are giving increasing emphasis to facilitating truck traffic by investing in reinforced highways that can accommodate heavy trucks. Each nation is seeking to increase its "economic advantaged" in an increasingly unified "Europe without borders." |
| | C) | Europe is beginning to suffer sprawled development that requires new road construction. City dwellers object to paying taxes to support the ecologically unsound practice of building new roads in what was rural and farm areas. |
| | D) | In cities across Europe planners have sought to improve the living environment or urban communities by eliminating parking spaces, shortening the time of green lights, and introducing other steps that serve to decrease automobile use and promote commuters to switch to alternative forms of transit. |
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| 42 | |
Joel Kotkin criticizes many of the urban development policies found in Europe. He argues that such policies should not be copied in the United States. What is his overall point? |
| | A) | It is senseless for the United States to try to copy such European concepts as "grand villa" living when such an approach would be an artificial transplant that does not reflect the cultural or architectural history of United States communities. |
| | B) | The European urban model gives too much deference to free-market development and its excesses. Americans, in contrast, prefer more balanced forms of urban development. |
| | C) | Americans value individualism and choice. Americans would resent the sort of strong-planning actions of Europe, with their emphasis on compact development, small homes, compact communities, and heavy taxes on gasoline and automobile ownership. |
| | D) | United States urban policy has traditionally provided extensive public housing and other housing assistance to the poor, including Section 8 housing vouchers. The European urban model, in contrast, gives much less attention to meeting the housing needs of poor and working-class families. |
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