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TeTT Methodology for local development
and our favourite urban concepts
Human urbanism
Main Street Program
Land Value Taxation
Eco-city
Long-term project elaboration examples
Human urbanism
TeTT philosophy is briefly the following: do not prepare
urban plans for but with the inhabitants. Urban plans and
concepts are documents what have an impact on the life of all of us so
all of the ‘urbe’, the local community have the right to participate in
its preparation. As a conclusion, TeTT urban planning is based in a
social research with the largest participation possible of local people,
NGO-s, companies etc.
Our
social research
methodology for local development have the following steps:
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Document reading
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Interview
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Research plan with combination qualitative and
quantitative methods
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Participant observation
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Focus groups, participation groups
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Elastic survey
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Statistical data analysis
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Interpretation, with or without visual perspectives
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Monitoring
Links:
www.uni-corvinus.hu/antropologia/mod
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Main Street Program
Your downtown or traditional commercial district is the most visible
indicator of community pride, along with its economic and social
health. It is either an asset or a liability in the effort to recruit
new residents, new businesses and industries, retirees, tourists, and
others to your community and to keep those you already have. Quality of
life is what separates successful cities and towns from declining
communities in the new millennium. Finally, your downtown or
neighborhood commercial district is the visual representation for your
community's heritage. The architecture of your commercial district is a
physical expression of your community's history. The Main Street
approach encourages forward-thinking economic development in an historic
preservation context so this community asset and legacy can be passed on
to future generations.
Coincidentally, the four points of the Main Street approach correspond
with the four forces of real estate value, which are social, political,
physical, and economic.
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Organization
involves getting everyone working toward the same goal and
assembling the appropriate human and financial resources to
implement a Main Street revitalization program.
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Promotion sells
a positive image of the commercial district and encourages consumers
and investors to live, work, shop, play and invest in the Main
Street district.
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Design
means getting Main Street into top physical shape. An inviting
atmosphere, created through attractive window displays, parking
areas, building improvements, street furniture, signs, sidewalks,
street lights, and landscaping, conveys a positive visual message
about the commercial district and what it has to offer.
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Economic Restructuring
strengthens a community's existing economic assets while expanding
and diversifying its economic base. The Main Street program helps
sharpen the competitiveness of existing business owners and recruits
compatible new businesses and new economic uses to build a
commercial district that responds to today's consumers' needs.
Links:
www.mainstreet.org
www.ncdca.org/mainst
www.dhcd.virginia.gov/MainStreet
www.nebraskamainstreet.org
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Land Value Taxation
Land value taxation (LVT), or
site value taxation, is the policy of raising state revenues by
charging each landholder a portion of the value of a site or parcel of
land that would exist even if that site had no improvements. It is
different from a property tax, which includes the value of buildings and
other improvements on the land.
Claimed advantages. (as per the [British
Land Value Tax Campaign])
· A
NATURAL SOURCE OF PUBLIC REVENUE. All land makes its full
contribution to the Exchequer, allowing reductions in existing
taxes on labour and enterprise.
· A
STRONGER ECONOMY. If we tax labour, buildings or machinery and
plant, we discourage people from constructive and beneficial
activities and penalise enterprise and efficiency. The reverse
is the case with a tax on land values, which is payable
regardless of whether or how well the land is actually used. It
is a payment, based on current market value, for the exclusive
occupation of a piece of land. In the longer term, this
fundamentally new and different approach to revenue raising will
stimulate new business and new employment, reducing the need for
costly government welfare.
· MARGINAL
AREAS REVITALISED. Economic activities are handicapped by
distance from the major centres of population. Conventional
taxes such as VAT and those on transport fuels cause particular
damage to the remoter areas of the country. Land Value Tax, by
definition, bears lightly or not at all where land has little or
no value, thereby stimulating economic activity away from the
centre - it creates what are in effect tax havens exactly where
they are most needed.
· A
MORE EFFICIENT LAND MARKET. The necessity to pay the tax obliges
landowners to develop vacant and under-used land properly or to
make way for others who will.
· LESS
URBAN SPRAWL. Land Value Taxation deters speculative land
holding. Thus dilapidated inner-city areas are returned to good
use, reducing the pressure for building on green-field sites.
· LESS
BUREAUCRACY. The complexities of Income Tax, Inheritance Tax,
Capital Gains Tax and VAT are well known. By contrast, Land
Value Tax is straightforward. Once the system has settled down,
landholders will not be faced with complicated forms and demands
for information. Revaluation will become relatively simple.
· NO
AVOIDANCE OR EVASION. Land cannot be hidden, removed to a tax
haven or concealed in an electronic data system.
· AN
END TO BOOM-SLUMP CYCLES. Speculation in land value - frequently
misrepresented and disguised as "property" or "asset"
speculation - is the root cause of unsustainable booms which
result periodically in damaging corrective slumps. Land Value
Taxation, fully and properly applied, knocks the speculative
element out of land pricing.
· IMPOSSIBLE
TO PASS ON IN HIGHER PRICES, LOWER WAGES OR HIGHER RENTS.
Competition makes it impossible for a business producing goods
on a valuable site to charge more per item than one producing
similar goods on less valuable land - after all, producers and
traders at different locations are paying different rents to
landlords now, yet like goods generally sell for much the same
price and employers pay their workers comparable wages. The tax
cannot be passed on to a tenant who is already paying the full
market rent.
· AN
ESTABLISHED AND PROVEN SYSTEM. Local government variants of Land
Value Taxation, known as Site Value Rating, are accepted
practice in, for example, Denmark and Australia.
Links:
http://landvaluetax.org
http://www.henrygeorge.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_tax
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Eco-city
Most of
the world's population now lives in cities. So if we are to address the
problems of environmental deterioration and peak oil adequately, the
city has to be a major focus of attention.
EcoCities is about re-building cities and towns based on ecological
principles for the long term sustainability, cultural vitality and
health of the Earth's biosphere. Ecocity within its bioregion is
comprehensible and do-able, and can produce a healthy and potentially
happy future.
An
ecocity is a human settlement that enables its residents to live a good
quality of life while using minimal natural resources.
Four
main points:
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Buildings:
Its buildings make best use of sun, wind and rainfall to help supply
the energy and water needs of occupants.
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Biodiversity: It
is threaded with natural habitat corridors, to foster biodiversity
and to give residents access to nature for recreation.
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Transport: Its
food and other goods are sourced from within its borders or from
nearby, in order to cut down on transport costs. The majority of its
residents live within walking or cycling distance of their
workplace, to minimize the need for motorized transport. Frequent
public transport connects local centers for people who need to
travel further. Local car sharing allows people to use a car only
when needed.
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Industry: The
goods it produces are designed for reuse, remanufacture, and
recycling.The industrial processes its uses involve reuse of
by-products, and minimize the movement of goods.
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Economy: It has a
labor intensive rather than a material, energy, and water intensive
economy, to maintain full employment and minimize material
throughput.
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Links:
www.ecocity.com
www.ecocityprojects.net
www.ecocitybuilders.org
www.tciconferences.com/ecocity2006/ecocity2006.htm
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