Eric J Heikkila
Biographic Data
| ID | 6320148 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eric J Heikkila |
| GIVEN NAMES | Eric J |
| FAMILY NAME | Heikkila |
| SIGNATURE | HEIKKILA E J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Southern California |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 95 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 19 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1986 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Do land use regulations help give rise to informal settlements? Evidence from Buenos Aires
Polycentric Urbanization and Sustainable Development in China
This paper addresses urbanization in the context of China's efforts to meet its commitments regarding the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper focuses specifically on governmental policies to promote polycentricity, with multiple urban centers of a similar scale within metropolitan areas, rather than a traditional single, dominant central business district. Polycentric urban forms have the potential to reduce average c…
Can Land Use Regulation Be Smarter? Planners’ Role in the Informal Housing Challenge
Persistent urbanization is challenging planners to reimagine the absorptive capacities of cities. While more and more city dwellers respond to the challenge with informal solutions, policy and planning responses have fallen short of providing compelling answers. We propose redirecting attention to the use of land. This paper develops a model that centers on the role of land use regulation in conditioning and sustaining housing informality. Taking…
Seven Prototypical Chinese Cities
Not all Chinese cities are alike, and these differences are reflected in the challenges posed by urbanisation and the corresponding responses cities undertake, including the formulation of mandated five-year plans. These plans emerge from and contribute to a larger discursive process by which planners and other actors frame an understanding of the key issues that cities need to address. This research undertakes a content analysis of the 11th five…
Adaptation to Flooding in Urban Areas
New Orleans and Bangkok are vivid examples of major urban areas recently affected by massive inundations of floodwaters. The pending effects of climate change may exacerbate this problem; yet, local decision makers lack a clear and consistent framework for analyzing the costs and benefits of alternative modes of adaptation. This article offers a primer on the economic analysis of three distinct modes of adaptation, with a view to assist planners …
Economic Development in the Shadow of Angkor Wat
Economic development does not occur in a vacuum, and this holds especially for human settlements in World Heritage locations, where the “meaning” of place is highly contested. This article examines this issue in the context of Siem Reap, Cambodia, in the shadow of Angkor Wat.The authors introduce a conceptual framework motivated by Roland Barthes and Jean Baudrillard to unravel and delineate four distinct sources of value, derived respectively fr…
Exploring the Dual Dichotomy within Urban Geography
This study argues that the concept of fuzzy urban sets is particularly well suited to analyzing aspects of a dual dichotomy that characterizes much of the literature on urban geography. By treating individual urban areas ("cities," or in this case "Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Areas") as subsets of one aggregate fuzzy urban set, the method can address the dichotomy pertaining to the structure of urban systems within cities versus those a…
From Urban Enclave to Ethnic Suburb
Three Questions Regarding Urbanization in China
The three questions addressed in this article pertain, respectively, to the contributing factors, outcomes, and policy interventions associated with urbanization in China. Contributing factors include transition to a market-driven economy, political devolution, demographic changes, globalization, and technological change. These are unravelled with care, with a conclusion that embedded markets are the central contributing factor, with globalizatio…
Southern California and the World
As underscored by the emergence of the Los Angeles school of contemporary urban studies, the Southern California experience—its popular culture, politics, economics, spatial structure, ethnic diversity, technologies, and lifestyles—has an impact and relevance well beyond it own immediate geographic setting. This book explores the parallel and interlinked constructions of identities, imaginations, and activities in and between Southern California …
Rethinking Fiscal Impacts
Conventional fiscal impact analysis, as applied by many planners, uses inputs as a proxy measure for outputs. We argue that it is the impacts of urban development on outputs, not on inputs, that are of fundamental concern. Moreover, we provide evidence that inputs are often a poor proxy for outputs, and so we call upon the planning profession to rethink its approach to fiscal impact analysis. To this end we outline a conceptual framework for fisc…
Confucian Planning or Planning Confusion
This paper examines the relationship between culture, planning, and urban form m the context of Confucian Asia. Three distinct paths of influence are explored. First, urban form is itself an important expression or manifestation of culture. Second, culture has an indirect influence on urban form through its direct influence on the practice of planning. Third, urban form in turn influences culture by shaping, literally and figuratively, the contex…
Microeconomics and Planning
This instructional piece, designed for planning students at the graduate or undergraduate level, uses a sequence of diagrams to illustrate fundamental economic concepts related to traffic congestion. The level of congestion that arises in a transportation system in the absence of policy intervention is contrasted with the optimum planner's-solution. Four alternative policies are evaluated: do nothing, expand supply, restrict demand, and implement…
Urban sprawl, density, and accessibility
Urban Sprawl, Density, and Accessibility
Residential Property Values, the CBD, and Multiple Nodes
In this paper, a hedonic regression model of house prices in Los Angeles County is tested with use of 1970 and 1980 data on dwelling characteristics, neighborhood variables, and measures of accessibility to the central business district and subcenter nodes. Many of the coefficient estimates on the dwelling traits and neighborhood variables are robust, and where coefficients change there are obvious explanations. The most dramatic finding is that …
Using Simple Diagrams to Illustrate the Economics of Land Use Zoning
The purpose of this teaching note is to introduce students to the basic economic arguments regarding land use zoning. To this end, a simple yet versatile diagram is introduced to graphically illustrate several key eco nomic concepts, including con strained and unconstrained equilib rium, aggregate value, market value, and market failure. It is the fixed na ture of the total supply of land that makes this exposition possible, and that distinguishe…
What Happened to the CBD-Distance Gradient
Hedonic regression methods are used to assess the impact of dwelling and structure characteristics, neighborhood effects, and multiple locations on a sample of almost 11000 residential property sales in Los Angeles County in 1980. Correction for the dwelling characteristic permits the analysis to be interpreted in terms of land values rather than property values per unit area. The selected equation explains more than 93% of the variation in the d…
Expert Evaluation of Municipal Revenues and Expenditures by Land Use Category
This paper outlines a method for assessing experts' evaluation of how municipal revenues and expenditures are allocated across land use categories. The method includes selection of experts, the nature of their interactions, and the process by which their diverse opinions may be meaningfully aggregated. This method is implemented for the City of Vancouver, using two distinct groups of experts. The results from these two groups' efforts are strikin…
Toward an Evaluative Framework for Land Use Policy in Industrial Districts of the Urban Core
This paper provides a preliminary analysis of costs and benefits associated with exclusionary zoning, a policy vehicle which seeks to preserve or promote industry in the urban core especially (where competition for land resources is typically the greatest), by prohibiting the incursion or encroachment of 'higher uses.' The paper examines arguments commonly advanced pertaining both to alleged 'costs' of exclusionary zoning (e.g., relating to effic…
What Happened to the CBD-Distance Gradient
Hedonic regression methods are used to assess the impact of dwelling and structure characteristics, neighborhood effects, and multiple locations on a sample of almost 11000 residential property sales in Los Angeles County in 1980. Correction for the dwelling characteristic permits the analysis to be interpreted in terms of land values rather than property values per unit area. The selected equation explains more than 93% of the variation in the d…
Three Questions Regarding Urbanization in China
The three questions addressed in this article pertain, respectively, to the contributing factors, outcomes, and policy interventions associated with urbanization in China. Contributing factors include transition to a market-driven economy, political devolution, demographic changes, globalization, and technological change. These are unravelled with care, with a conclusion that embedded markets are the central contributing factor, with globalizatio…
Residential Property Values, the CBD, and Multiple Nodes
In this paper, a hedonic regression model of house prices in Los Angeles County is tested with use of 1970 and 1980 data on dwelling characteristics, neighborhood variables, and measures of accessibility to the central business district and subcenter nodes. Many of the coefficient estimates on the dwelling traits and neighborhood variables are robust, and where coefficients change there are obvious explanations. The most dramatic finding is that …
Toward an Evaluative Framework for Land Use Policy in Industrial Districts of the Urban Core
This paper provides a preliminary analysis of costs and benefits associated with exclusionary zoning, a policy vehicle which seeks to preserve or promote industry in the urban core especially (where competition for land resources is typically the greatest), by prohibiting the incursion or encroachment of 'higher uses.' The paper examines arguments commonly advanced pertaining both to alleged 'costs' of exclusionary zoning (e.g., relating to effic…
Do land use regulations help give rise to informal settlements? Evidence from Buenos Aires
Can Land Use Regulation Be Smarter? Planners’ Role in the Informal Housing Challenge
Persistent urbanization is challenging planners to reimagine the absorptive capacities of cities. While more and more city dwellers respond to the challenge with informal solutions, policy and planning responses have fallen short of providing compelling answers. We propose redirecting attention to the use of land. This paper develops a model that centers on the role of land use regulation in conditioning and sustaining housing informality. Taking…
Seven Prototypical Chinese Cities
Not all Chinese cities are alike, and these differences are reflected in the challenges posed by urbanisation and the corresponding responses cities undertake, including the formulation of mandated five-year plans. These plans emerge from and contribute to a larger discursive process by which planners and other actors frame an understanding of the key issues that cities need to address. This research undertakes a content analysis of the 11th five…
Exploring the Dual Dichotomy within Urban Geography
This study argues that the concept of fuzzy urban sets is particularly well suited to analyzing aspects of a dual dichotomy that characterizes much of the literature on urban geography. By treating individual urban areas ("cities," or in this case "Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Areas") as subsets of one aggregate fuzzy urban set, the method can address the dichotomy pertaining to the structure of urban systems within cities versus those a…
Confucian Planning or Planning Confusion
This paper examines the relationship between culture, planning, and urban form m the context of Confucian Asia. Three distinct paths of influence are explored. First, urban form is itself an important expression or manifestation of culture. Second, culture has an indirect influence on urban form through its direct influence on the practice of planning. Third, urban form in turn influences culture by shaping, literally and figuratively, the contex…
Adaptation to Flooding in Urban Areas
New Orleans and Bangkok are vivid examples of major urban areas recently affected by massive inundations of floodwaters. The pending effects of climate change may exacerbate this problem; yet, local decision makers lack a clear and consistent framework for analyzing the costs and benefits of alternative modes of adaptation. This article offers a primer on the economic analysis of three distinct modes of adaptation, with a view to assist planners …
Rethinking Fiscal Impacts
Conventional fiscal impact analysis, as applied by many planners, uses inputs as a proxy measure for outputs. We argue that it is the impacts of urban development on outputs, not on inputs, that are of fundamental concern. Moreover, we provide evidence that inputs are often a poor proxy for outputs, and so we call upon the planning profession to rethink its approach to fiscal impact analysis. To this end we outline a conceptual framework for fisc…
Toward an Evaluative Framework for Land Use Policy in Industrial Districts of the Urban Core
This paper provides a preliminary analysis of costs and benefits associated with exclusionary zoning, a policy vehicle which seeks to preserve or promote industry in the urban core especially (where competition for land resources is typically the greatest), by prohibiting the incursion or encroachment of 'higher uses.' The paper examines arguments commonly advanced pertaining both to alleged 'costs' of exclusionary zoning (e.g., relating to effic…
Expert Evaluation of Municipal Revenues and Expenditures by Land Use Category
This paper outlines a method for assessing experts' evaluation of how municipal revenues and expenditures are allocated across land use categories. The method includes selection of experts, the nature of their interactions, and the process by which their diverse opinions may be meaningfully aggregated. This method is implemented for the City of Vancouver, using two distinct groups of experts. The results from these two groups' efforts are strikin…
Using Simple Diagrams to Illustrate the Economics of Land Use Zoning
The purpose of this teaching note is to introduce students to the basic economic arguments regarding land use zoning. To this end, a simple yet versatile diagram is introduced to graphically illustrate several key eco nomic concepts, including con strained and unconstrained equilib rium, aggregate value, market value, and market failure. It is the fixed na ture of the total supply of land that makes this exposition possible, and that distinguishe…
What Happened to the CBD-Distance Gradient
Hedonic regression methods are used to assess the impact of dwelling and structure characteristics, neighborhood effects, and multiple locations on a sample of almost 11000 residential property sales in Los Angeles County in 1980. Correction for the dwelling characteristic permits the analysis to be interpreted in terms of land values rather than property values per unit area. The selected equation explains more than 93% of the variation in the d…
Residential Property Values, the CBD, and Multiple Nodes
In this paper, a hedonic regression model of house prices in Los Angeles County is tested with use of 1970 and 1980 data on dwelling characteristics, neighborhood variables, and measures of accessibility to the central business district and subcenter nodes. Many of the coefficient estimates on the dwelling traits and neighborhood variables are robust, and where coefficients change there are obvious explanations. The most dramatic finding is that …
Urban sprawl, density, and accessibility
Urban Sprawl, Density, and Accessibility
Microeconomics and Planning
This instructional piece, designed for planning students at the graduate or undergraduate level, uses a sequence of diagrams to illustrate fundamental economic concepts related to traffic congestion. The level of congestion that arises in a transportation system in the absence of policy intervention is contrasted with the optimum planner's-solution. Four alternative policies are evaluated: do nothing, expand supply, restrict demand, and implement…
Confucian Planning or Planning Confusion
This paper examines the relationship between culture, planning, and urban form m the context of Confucian Asia. Three distinct paths of influence are explored. First, urban form is itself an important expression or manifestation of culture. Second, culture has an indirect influence on urban form through its direct influence on the practice of planning. Third, urban form in turn influences culture by shaping, literally and figuratively, the contex…
Rethinking Fiscal Impacts
Conventional fiscal impact analysis, as applied by many planners, uses inputs as a proxy measure for outputs. We argue that it is the impacts of urban development on outputs, not on inputs, that are of fundamental concern. Moreover, we provide evidence that inputs are often a poor proxy for outputs, and so we call upon the planning profession to rethink its approach to fiscal impact analysis. To this end we outline a conceptual framework for fisc…
Southern California and the World
As underscored by the emergence of the Los Angeles school of contemporary urban studies, the Southern California experience—its popular culture, politics, economics, spatial structure, ethnic diversity, technologies, and lifestyles—has an impact and relevance well beyond it own immediate geographic setting. This book explores the parallel and interlinked constructions of identities, imaginations, and activities in and between Southern California …
Three Questions Regarding Urbanization in China
The three questions addressed in this article pertain, respectively, to the contributing factors, outcomes, and policy interventions associated with urbanization in China. Contributing factors include transition to a market-driven economy, political devolution, demographic changes, globalization, and technological change. These are unravelled with care, with a conclusion that embedded markets are the central contributing factor, with globalizatio…
From Urban Enclave to Ethnic Suburb
Economic Development in the Shadow of Angkor Wat
Economic development does not occur in a vacuum, and this holds especially for human settlements in World Heritage locations, where the “meaning” of place is highly contested. This article examines this issue in the context of Siem Reap, Cambodia, in the shadow of Angkor Wat.The authors introduce a conceptual framework motivated by Roland Barthes and Jean Baudrillard to unravel and delineate four distinct sources of value, derived respectively fr…
Exploring the Dual Dichotomy within Urban Geography
This study argues that the concept of fuzzy urban sets is particularly well suited to analyzing aspects of a dual dichotomy that characterizes much of the literature on urban geography. By treating individual urban areas ("cities," or in this case "Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Areas") as subsets of one aggregate fuzzy urban set, the method can address the dichotomy pertaining to the structure of urban systems within cities versus those a…
Adaptation to Flooding in Urban Areas
New Orleans and Bangkok are vivid examples of major urban areas recently affected by massive inundations of floodwaters. The pending effects of climate change may exacerbate this problem; yet, local decision makers lack a clear and consistent framework for analyzing the costs and benefits of alternative modes of adaptation. This article offers a primer on the economic analysis of three distinct modes of adaptation, with a view to assist planners …
Seven Prototypical Chinese Cities
Not all Chinese cities are alike, and these differences are reflected in the challenges posed by urbanisation and the corresponding responses cities undertake, including the formulation of mandated five-year plans. These plans emerge from and contribute to a larger discursive process by which planners and other actors frame an understanding of the key issues that cities need to address. This research undertakes a content analysis of the 11th five…
Can Land Use Regulation Be Smarter? Planners’ Role in the Informal Housing Challenge
Persistent urbanization is challenging planners to reimagine the absorptive capacities of cities. While more and more city dwellers respond to the challenge with informal solutions, policy and planning responses have fallen short of providing compelling answers. We propose redirecting attention to the use of land. This paper develops a model that centers on the role of land use regulation in conditioning and sustaining housing informality. Taking…
Polycentric Urbanization and Sustainable Development in China
This paper addresses urbanization in the context of China's efforts to meet its commitments regarding the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper focuses specifically on governmental policies to promote polycentricity, with multiple urban centers of a similar scale within metropolitan areas, rather than a traditional single, dominant central business district. Polycentric urban forms have the potential to reduce average c…
Do land use regulations help give rise to informal settlements? Evidence from Buenos Aires
Economics (14 works) · Geography (13 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Engineering (10 works) · Housing Market and Economics (10 works) · Political science (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Civil engineering (7 works) · Land use (7 works) · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis (7 works)