Strategies for Successfully Marketing and Stabilizing the Occupancy of Mixed-Income/Mixed-Race Properties: A Case Study of Auburn Court, Phase 1 in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Auburn Court is a 137-unit mixed-income, mixed-race property in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The property is nearly evenly divided between market-rate (34%) and moderate-rate (16%) units and low-income (50%) units. The surrounding community is an increasingly gentrifying mixed-use neighborhood with housing, offices, MIT research facilities, a hotel, and retail shopping. The property was completed in two phases because of the slow housing market in the mid-1990s. The first phase was completed in 1996 (77 units) and the second phase was completed in 2000 (60 units)

Strategies for Successfully Marketing and Stabilizing the Occupancy of Mixed-Income/Mixed-Race Properties: A Case Study of Parkview Terrace in Poway, California

Parkview Terrace was built in 1998 and is a 92-unit mixed-income, mixed-race property in Poway, California. Poway has grown in just 30 years from a rural farming community with a trailer park image to a very desirable community of multi-million dollar homes with a renowned public school system. It is just 15 miles northeast of San Diego.Although Parkview Terrace's initial tenant eligibility is capped at 50 percent of AMI, long resident tenure -- spurred by an exploding real estate market and plentiful employment -- finds 43 percent of households now at or above 60 percent of AMI. The immediate neighborhood, one of the lower income ones in the city, offers an extraordinary mix of modest residential, retail, municipal, recreational and educational opportunities, all within a few blocks

Strategies for Successfully Marketing and Stabilizing the Occupancy of Mixed-Income/Mixed-Race Properties: A Case Study of Academy Homes 1 in Roxbury, Massachusetts

Academy Homes I is a 202-unit mixed-income, mixed-race rental property located in the Jackson Square neighborhood of Boston's Roxbury district. While Roxbury's population has declined modestly (3.8 percent from 1990 to 2000), the Hispanic population has been growing steadily and Roxbury is now 63 percent Black and 24 percent Hispanic. Most (83 percent) of its residential properties are comprised of one, two and three family dwellings where the owner-occupancy rate is 61 percent. The median residential sales price in Roxbury reached $406,000 in 2003, surpassing Boston's$380,000 median sales price.Academy Homes was built in the 1960s under HUD's 221(d)(3) program. It received upgrades to major building components (such as roofs and windows) in 2000 after the current ownership took over in 1998. It has three types of units: 43 percent are project-based Section 8; 33 percent are low income housing tax credit (LIHTC); and 24 percent are market rate. It is in a mixed-income, mixed-race urban neighborhood where residents are comfortable with economic and racial diversity. It is diagonally across the street from a rapid transit "T" station. Schools, a sizeable grocery store, shopping and restaurants are all within walking distance. It is one of several large multi-family complexes clustered in the area that total 2000 units

Transforming High School Teaching and Learning: A District-wide Design

High school improvement is one of the most pressing issues facing American education but little attention has been paid to reform strategies that will improve teaching and learning. Drawing on the expertise of teachers, principals, superintendents, policy makers and researchers, a new paper from the Aspen Institute Program on Education, Transforming High School Teaching and Learning: A District-wide Design by Aspen Senior Fellow Judy Wurtzel, offers both a new framework and concrete suggestions for a new approach to high school improvement across an urban school district. The data on high school student performance and graduation rates make clear that significant increases in student achievement are necessary if all students are to graduate from high school fully prepared for post-secondary education, citizenship, and work. Recent high school reform has focused on organizational aspects of high school, particularly creating a wide variety of smaller schools, smaller learning communities, and alternative learning pathways to meet the needs of young people. However, while smaller schools may create the relationships and conditions that make high quality instruction possible, improved instruction and achievement does not flow directly from them. Given this track record, questions facing the high school reform movement include: -- What will it take to get high school instructional improvement that results in demonstrated increases in student learning? -- What supports do high school teachers need to be successful in improving instruction and from where will they get them? -- What changes affecting the professional role, knowledge, and skills of teachers are needed if reforms are to be successful? Though the ideas represented in the paper are not new -- some school districts and states have implemented some of elements described -- what is useful is the attempt to lay out a fairly comprehensive picture of high school instructional reform and to push the conversation about high school instructional improvement into some new territory. First, the paper builds on work done in many urban districts at the K- 8 level to create systems of "managed instruction," that is, deliberate efforts to align common curriculum and instructional materials, formative and benchmark assessments, extensive professional development, and instructional leaders who support a shared set of instructional practices. Second, the paper suggests how these approaches can be developed and implemented in ways that are both consistent with and reinforcing of a robust vision of teacher professionalism. Third, the paper recognizes the urgency of attracting and retaining a teacher workforce that embraces this new job description for high school teachers and can effect improvements in student learning. Finally, it is useful to note that this paper focuses primarily on the district role in improving high school instruction. This is because it seems increasingly clear that school districts are a key unit for instructional improvement. However, much of what is described here could be initiated or supported by states, by consortia of districts, or by networks of managed schools within or across districts

Clusters Of Innovative Firms: Absorptive Capacity In Larger Networks?

Firms are often compared in terms of their resources or capabilities (resource based view of the firm (Barney, 1991, 1997) dynamic capabilities (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000) and their performance on knowledge transfer (Argote & Ingram, 2000), absorptive capacity and relative absorptive capacity. Innovative firms are often located with other firms in clusters, with relationships and networks that have developed over time or in response to particular drivers and conditions. This paper investigates assumptions related to innovative firms and their environments and brings together research relevant to individual firms, notions of absorptive capacity and findings about clusters of firms. Firm relationships in cluster configurations are discussed and a research agenda proposed

Managing In Knowledge-Based Economies: Managing for Knowledge, Absorptive Capacity and Innovation

Management processes have evolved to meet changing internal and external environments through different organisational forms, systems and processes. The emerging phenomena of the knowledge based economy challenges not only the strategic management of a firm but also the understandings and competencies of managers, both individually and collectively. This paper examines the challenge of managing in the global networked context of the knowledge economy. Using the knowledge based view of the firm and knowledge of management processes, we argue that management in the twenty-first century involves not only the familiar processes of managing tasks, managing others and managing change, but also requires a strategic approach to managing for knowledge, absorptive capacity and innovation

An Overlap Analysis of Occupational Therapy Electronic Journals Available in Full-Text Databases and Subscription Services

In order to convert occupational therapy journal subscriptions from print to electronic, a university library, in collaboration with its Occupational Therapy Program, compared full-text databases and journal subscription services. This comparison was designed to identify the best combination of databases and individual subscriptions for the highest number of electronic titles and the best years of coverage. Originally published in: Journal of Electronic Resource in Medical Libraries, 5(4), 346-361