The focus of this research was to examine the effects of mayoral control on operational and financial structures within school systems. Furthermore, this study focused on the public perception and political implications of the mayor’s position on local education. The four systems chosen for this study were: Boston, Chicago, District of Columbia, and New York City. All four systems were total control districts, which allowed for each mayor to appoint a majority to the school board and appoint a superintendent or chancellor to oversee the day to day operations of the school district. This study focused on operational and financial structures, which make up a sizable portion of the larger organizational structure. These indicators often drive how services and expenditures eventually affect the core business of these school systems. From an operational perspective, this study was focused on expenditures, both in aggregate form and for instructional related services, pre and post takeover. From a financial perspective, this study focused on changes to revenue sources, return on investment, interest on school debt, and capital outlay. From a political perspective, this study examined the data from the various State of the City addresses over the last four years in each of the four cities, along with polling data available for New York City and the District of Columbia. This study was concluded with a summary of findings, and implications for future research, policy, and practitioners. The research showed that New York City and Boston generally outperformed the District of Columbia and Chicago in the operational and financial metrics used in the study. Furthermore, the number of years a city had been iv under mayoral control and operational and financial indicators had no significant relationship. It was recommended that future researchers should continue to study the benefit of benchmarking metrics of organizational performance to ensure mayors are held accountable for the reforms they espouse during election cycles. Ultimately, mayors’ success in managing their school systems will be based on where they prioritize. This research offered a cross section of metrics by which mayors can benchmark their effectiveness as they change operational, financial, and organizational structures to bring about better, overall organizational performance from their school system.

San Felipe de Neri, a neighborhood located in the Historic District of Panama, is the object of physical, economic and social transformations that are affecting its residents' daily lives. Revitalization and gentrification drive these transformations as wealthy Panamanians invest in the neighborhood, and affluent foreigners flock to it since it became a World Heritage Site in 1997. This dissertation addresses perceptions and reactions residents have because of these physical, economic and social challenges. This study poses four main questions: 1. What physical, economic, and social (quality of life) changes have taken place in the Historic District of San Felipe from the early twentieth century to the present? To what extent are these changes the result of global processes, local processes, or both? 2. How do residents perceive these changes? Is there any significant difference in opinions and attitudes among residents regarding changes that revitalization and gentrification impose on the neighborhood? If so, how and why are they different? 3. To what extent have residents participated in these transformations? and 4. How do residents who have been relocated perceive these changes? My research analyzes Smith's five characteristics of a third wave of gentrification: first, the transformed role of the state; second, the penetration by global finance; third, changing levels of political opposition; fourth, geographical dispersal; and fifth, the sectoral generalization of gentrification and its relevance for my case study of San Felipe. This methodology enlists quantitative and qualitative methods to address these research questions to gain insight about residents' perspectives regarding these transformations. Findings indicate that both residents and ex-residents of San Felipe view the outcomes of revitalization and gentrification in mixed ways. Both groups mostly agree that the improvement of the physical conditions of the neighborhood is a positive outcome for preserving the material heritage, and for encouraging international and national tourism benefiting the country. Regardless of their economic and social status, residents claim that the place where they have lived for a long time is no longer theirs, except in their memories. They face the threat of eviction and an uncertain future. Former residents—those who have been displaced—have mixed views as well. On the one hand, they have improved their living standards because they now have better housing infrastructures. On the other hand, their new locations are scattered about the city and are often in dangerous areas that lack the amenities of San Felipe. Others feel that in the process they have lost a home; a place filled with meaningful memories and to which one day they dream of returning. A diverse residential population is the only way to save historic centers from becoming museums that present a pastiche and a 'façadism' catered to the international consumer. Preserving the human and physical patrimony is the most viable way to achieve sustainability and development in historic areas. Associations had no permanent places to meet with residents. This eroded the desire of residents to participate, and encouraged them to accept whatever owners wanted to give them to move out of the neighborhood. In the end, they became disenfranchised. A lack of both leadership and strong social movements, and the dissemblance of grass-root organizations through co-optation, clientelism, and even deception became the norm in the neighborhood. / Ph. D.

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In this study the role of special districts in providing local public services is assessed. Using economic theory, it is determined, theoretically, that special districts do provide an institution by which consumption, production, and distributional efficiency in the provision of local public goods and services can be attained. This view is contrasted to the view of special districts held by the "reform tradition," a set of ideas about how local government can be most efficiently organized. Assuming that a centralized local governmental administration is the most efficient, the reformists deduce that the proliferation of special districts will result in more costly provision of local public services as well as "unresponsive local government." These propositions have led at least five states to create state regulatory agencies that have effectively controlled the growth of special districts. In light of these two contrasting views on the role of special districts in the provision of local public services, the "economic interpretation" and the refer tradition, the question of the effects of special districts on the cost of providing local public services becomes an empirical one. The effects of restricting the growth of special districts in three states, California, Oregon, and Washington, on the cost of providing municipal services are examined. It is determined that restricting the growth of special districts increases the costs of providing such services, contrary to the reformist predictions. Further evidence is presented that shows that consumer-taxpayers are more satisfied with the public services provided by smaller local governmental jurisdictions such as special districts than with many larger, general purpose units of government. The evidence brought forth in this study also supports the conjecture that special district growth restrictions are a means of enhancing the monopoly power of existing local governmental jurisdictions. For policy purposes, it is concluded that a legal framework that permits the creation and dissolution of special districts by the groups of individuals served by them is most conducive to attaining consumption, production, and distributional efficiency in the provision of local public services. / Ph. D.

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