No Straight Lines: Local Leadership and the Path from Government to Governance in Small Cities

Book review by Mark Seasons of No Straight Lines: Local Leadership and the Path from Government to Governance in Small Cities, Terry Kading editor

An examination of modern family communication and moral values in America and Europe

The number one concern of some American voters in the 2004 presidential election was moral values. This paper is an examination of the American family and its fascination with so-called traditional moral values. The results of the analysis are then contrasted to European families, who seem to, according to some research, be less concerned with such traditional beliefs and values. Moral values are defined, explored, and cross-referenced between the two cultures in order to get a better understanding of how they play a part in modem family communication

The Equity Dimension of Climate Change: Perspectives From the Global North and South

The articles in this thematic issue represent a variety of perspectives on the challenges for equity that are attributable to climate change. Contributions explore an emerging and important issue for communities in the Global North and Global South: the implications for urban social equity associated with the impacts caused by climate change. While much is known about the technical, policy, and financial tools and strategies that can be applied to mitigate or adapt to climate change in communities, we are only now thinking about who is affected by climate change, and how. Is it too little, too late? Or better now than never? The articles in this thematic issue demonstrate that the local impacts of climate change are experienced differently by socio-economic groups in communities. This is especially the case for the disadvantaged and marginalized - i.e., the poor, the very young, the aged, the disabled, and women. Ideally, climate action planning interventions should enhance quality of life, health and well-being, and sustainability, rather than exacerbate existing problems experienced by the disadvantaged. This is the challenge for planners and anyone working to adapt to climate change in our communities

Four Seasons Hotel: Early Supper Menu

The Four Seasons Hotel located at Simmonscourt Road in Dublin 4 offers a wide range of fine dining experiences. This Early Bird menu is available from 18.00 -1900 hours and offers two courses for €25 and three courses for €30.https://arrow.tudublin.ie/menus21c/1056/thumbnail.jp

Four Seasons Hotel, Dublin: Four Square Menu

The Four Seasons Hotel located at Simmonscourt Road in Dublin 4 offers a wide range of fine dining experiences. This lunch menu offers the best of high quality ingredients to provide the best of Irish cooking. One Tray-Four flavours offers four dishes selected by the restaurant chef and offers a quick alternative for lunch.https://arrow.tudublin.ie/menus21c/1055/thumbnail.jp

Does mixed-use development benefit everyone? Housing affordability in a changing labour market

Mixed-use development is one of the canonical elements of modern urban planning theory and practice. The principles of this approach to development are applied throughout the world and have seen a resurgence in the last several decades as part of the rise of populist movements such as smart growth and new urbanism. At the same time, cities across the industrialized world have been reshaped within the broader context of fundamental restructuring in the labour market over the past several decades. The urban core of the post-industrial city has increasingly become the site of residential development amongst various complementary land uses, marketed to an upwardly mobile professional class. Who benefits from this kind of mixed-use development in the housing market? Despite its popularity, mixed-use development is not often examined with regard to the affordability of housing. This study explores the affordability of housing in areas zoned as mixed-use in the old City of Toronto in relation to shifts in the occupational structure of the city’s workforce between 1991 and 2006. Using census data and spatial analysis methods, the cartographic and analytical outputs of this study demonstrate two major findings: first, that housing in mixed-use areas was more expensive than the rest of the city over the study period; and second, that socioeconomic polarization between classes of occupations is not only evident in mixed-use areas, but in some ways more pronounced than in the rest of the city. Based on these findings, the study concludes with a realistic assessment of why and how academics, practitioners and policymakers active in urban planning should step up efforts to couple the revitalization of Toronto’s urban core with gains to the affordability of housing

Classifying the Ice Seasons 1982-2016 Using the Weighted Ice Days Number as a New Winter Severity Characteristic

Sea ice is a key climate factor and it restricts considerably the winter navigation in severe seasons on the Baltic Sea. So determining ice conditions severity and describing ice cover behavior at severe seasons are necessary. The ice seasons severity degree is studied at the years 1982 to 2016. A new integrative characteristic named the weighted ice days number of the season is introduced to determine the ice season severity. The ice concentration data on the Baltic Sea published in the European Copernicus Programme are used to calculate the maximal ice extent and the weighted ice days number of the seasons. Both the ice season severity characteristics are used to classify the winters with respect of severity. The ice seasons 1981/82, 1984/85, 1985/86, 1986/87, 1995/96 and 2002/03 are classified as severe by the weighted ice days number. Only three seasons of this list are severe by both the criteria. We interpret this coincidence as the evidence of enough-during extensive ice cover in these three seasons. In the winter 2010/11 ice cover extended widely for some time, but did not last longer. At 2002/03 and a few other ice seasons the Baltic Sea was ice-covered in moderate extent, but the ice cover stayed long time. For 11 winters (32 % of the period) the relational weighted ice days number differs considerably (> 10 %) from the relational maximal ice extent. These winters yield one third of the studied ice seasons. Statistically every 6th winter is severe by the weighted ice days number whereas only statistically every 8th winter is severe by the maximal ice extent on the Baltic. Hence there are more intrinsically severe seasons than the maximal ice extent gives. The maximal ice extent fails to account with the ice cover durability. The weighted ice days number enables to describe the ice cover behavior more representatively. Using the weighted ice days number adds the temporal dimension to the ice season severity study