GWIPP Research - Washington Area Studies
Title: What Difference Does Representation Make?
Researcher(s): Garry Young, Hal Wolman, and Royce Hanson (GWIPP)
Funding Source: Trellis Foundation
Start Date:
Research Status: Current
Summary:
Viable representation in Congress is a key goal for many citizens of the District of Columbia. Yet, the debate over representation lacks some specifics. What will be the substantive effect of representation? How will the District’s influence over Congress change and how will this change in influence alter public policies directly relevant to the District? These are questions the proposed project seeks to answer. In the project we will consider several different possible forms of District representation. We will then evaluate those forms in regard to their likely impact on policy benefits through legislation (passed or stopped) and fiscal allocation. We will also consider the impact of representation in other areas such as the congressional ombuds role, oversight of executive branch regulation, and the symbolic importance of representation.
Title: Foreign Capital Cities and Their Relationship to the National Government: What Washington, DC Can Learn
Researcher(s): Hal Wolman, Royce Hanson, and Garry Young (GWIPP)
Funding Source: Trellis Foundation
Start Date:
Research Status: Current
Summary:
The District of Columbia, as the capital of the United States, is in a unique set of circumstances with respect to other American cities, but it is not unique in the world. All countries have capital cities and they face many of the same problems as does Washington, DC. The object of this study is to determine what can be learned from these other cities and their relationship to their national governments that is relevant to the circumstances of Washington, DC and that will better inform the debate about the issues related to Washington's role as a capital city.
Title: Promoting Bicycling in Three Metropolitan Washington Counties
Researcher(s): Royce Hanson, Garry Young, and Kate Coventry
Funding Source: Active Living Research, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Start Date:
Research Status: Current
Summary:
There is increasing evidence that the built environment of communities can inhibit or enhance activity levels among all age groups. A key aspect of the built environment is provision of facilities and opportunities for bicycling, which has long been recognized as an activity with important health benefits. Yet the quality of bicycling facilities varies dramatically from community to community as some communities have recently developed high quality bicycling assets while other communities demonstrate very little progress in this regard. The cause of this variance remains unstudied.
This project consists of comparative case studies of policy changes in three counties of Metropolitan Washington-Arlington (VA), Fairfax (VA), and Montgomery (MD)-that have resulted in significantly different levels of bicycling facilities in each county despite a common metropolitan environment and many shared characteristics among the three counties. The study will explain how significant differences in the county policies evolved, why different policy tools were chosen, and the consequences of those choices.
Title: Thin the Soup or Shorten the Line: Choices Facing Washington Area Nonprofits
Researcher(s): Patricia Atkins, Mallory Barg, Joseph Cordes, & Martha Ross (GWIPP)
Funding Source: Fannie Mae Foundation
Start Date:
Research Status: Completed
Summary:
Research on the state of non-profit human services agencies in the Washington, D.C. region during changing economic conditions showed that non-profits are taking short term responses to their rising client need, their increasing costs, their expanded reporting requirements, and their sluggish revenue growth. Many have dipped into reserve funds, frozen salaries, reduced direct assistance, or initiated staff layoffs. Some responsive non-profit human services agencies have begun to make longer-term adjustments by restructuring their organizations to acquire new sources of revenue, expanding private donor campaign efforts, and initiating revenue sources that are more market-based. The report particularly focused on the fiscal contributions of local governments to the human services nonprofit sector, discovering a multitude of support processes unique to each of the six jurisdictions examined. Click here for the full paper.
Title: Measuring Progress in the Greater Washington Region: 2001 Potomac Index
Researcher(s): Martha Ross, Patricia Atkins, Stephen Fuller, Gregory Goodwin, David Robertson, Margery Turner, & Hal Wolman (GWIPP)
Funding Source: Brookings Institution
Start Date:
Research Status: Completed
Summary:
The 2001 Potomac Index charted the Washington region’s progress on a series of indicators grouped around five major themes. Research indicators show that the Greater Washington region has a strong economy, a highly educated population, and an extensive educational, philanthropic and nonprofit sector. It lags in performance on other indicators with a shortage of affordable housing, poor water quality in the Anacostia River, significant traffic congestion, poor air quality, and consumption of land in excess of population growth. A survey conducted for the Index showed that four out of five residents rate the region as an excellent, very good, or good place to live.