The Miracle Mile Arts Cluster in the City of Angels: A Study of Neighborhood Economic Agglomeration

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 Cluster economies establish criteria in which to examine an industry, its mechanism of production, its effect on the city’s economy, and its potential for sustainability in an unknown future. Clusters can be defined by a geographic concentration of firms and institutions of a particular industry, the subsequent consumer efficiency achieved from the geographic concentration, an interconnectedness between firms, buyers and suppliers and clients and firms, and the potential to generate collective action in the production of goods and services (Porter 1998). This study uses these conditions as a basis for examining a group of galleries and museums in the Miracle Mile neighborhood of Los Angeles in order to establish the existence of an arts cluster economy. The study finds a significant concentration of art facilities in the Miracle Mile neighborhood with location quotients for both galleries and museums substantiating data regarding the increasing number of establishments. A survey of visitors corroborated that consumers experience greater utility in attending art facilities in the Miracle Mile, and interviews with galleries and vendors, as well as informal conversation with museum representatives, revealed interactions between businesses as well as the presence of collective action. However, barriers to collective action, such as heterogeneity of firms, inhibit the Miracle Mile
cluster from achieving optimal production of collective action, suggesting the possibility of public intervention such as the implementation of specific community plans, public signage programs and outside agents to increase the effectiveness of the arts cluster economy.

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The Integrating (and Segregating) Effect of Charter, Magnet, and Traditional Elementary Schools: The Case of Five California Metropolitan Areas

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For most children the racial composition of their neighborhood determines the racial composition of their school. Segregated housing patterns translate into a highly segregated educational system, which can then result in disparities in educational opportunities and an institutionalized mechanism for the reproduction of racial inequality. To better understand the extent to which the racial composition of charter and magnet schools deviates from their neighborhood composition, we analyze public elementary schools in five California metropolitan. Our findings suggest that individual schools can expose children to a more racially integrated or segregated educational environment than their local neighborhood. Magnet schools, on average, provide students with a more integrated environment than the local neighborhood, while charter schools provide a more segregated environment.

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The High Cost of Free Parking

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American drivers park for free on nearly ninety-nine percent of their car trips, and cities require developers to provide ample off-street parking for every new building. The resulting cost? Today we see sprawling cities that are better suited to cars than people and a nationwide fleet of motor vehicles that consume one-eighth of the world’s total oil production. Donald Shoup contends in The High Cost of Free Parking that parking is sorely misunderstood and mismanaged by planners, architects, and politicians. He proposes new ways for cities to regulate parking so that Americans can stop paying for free parking’s hidden costs.