The French Metropole: How it Gained Legal Status as a Metropolis

France’s long history of centralized governance has generated debates as to what powers should remain with the State and what powers should devolve to sub-national governments. To ameliorate the fragmentation resulting from the small size of France’s 36,000 plus municipalities, called communes, the State authorized the creation of general-purpose, inter-communal public institutions to perform municipal functions on behalf of the communes on a greater economy of scale. The article examines the trajectory that led to the creation in 2010 of the métropole, or metropolis, the most recent of these inter-communal bodies that is designed to undertake public functions in large metropolitan areas. The article first describes France’s territorial organization of sub-national units and the decentralization movements that resulted in the devolution of more power from the State to local and regional governments. The article presents the rationale for this decentralization and analyzes the conditions that led to the State’s transfer of more power to the metropolitan level of governance. It concludes that the cooperative arrangements among the communes, structured by inter-communal bodies, was instrumental to the creation of the métropole with legal status. An examination of the French experience with metropolitan governance should prove helpful to other entities or individuals engaged in the formation and evaluation of metropolitan governments

Revitalization of Inner City Housing Through Property Tax Exemption: New York City’s J-51 to the Rescue

In early 1975 the New York State Urban Development Corporation, which had built a major share of governmentally assisted housing in the state, suffered a financial collapse. The city looked to the obvious. Any new housing program had to satisfy three criteria. First, the program needed to supply an immediate impetus to reverse the declining housing market. Second, any capital for reconstruction had to come from the private mortgage market because the city had lost its credit. Finally, the costs of any city housing program would have to be spread over many years

The Sustainable Beef Profit Partnership Approach to the Adoption of New Beef Industry Technologies

Technology adoption in the Australian beef industry has been low and slow compared to the intensive livestock and cropping industries. The principles of accelerated adoption provide an innovative solution to this problem. In the Beef CRC, Sustainable Beef Profit Partnership (BPP) members will meet regularly to measure their current performance, set targets for future productivity increases, and use a profitability framework to assess the potential impact of new technology. Capacity building and partnership outcomes will also be assessed. The BPP teams will be supported with appropriate tools and resources. The information generated will be used to underpin the achievement of Beef CRC commercialisation outputs and profitability outcomes.Accelerated adoption, continuous improvement and innovation, beef industry, profit, Livestock Production/Industries,