Whether urban renewal is a form of col- lective action that would call into opera- tion the organization of the entire com- munity may be debatable

While the Census figures suggest a $34,000 gap between homes inside and outside of the PAS catchment, a more detailed assessment of real estate transactions in University City (Steif, 2013) esti-mated a $100,000+ price differential.

ing to Penn’s Department of Residential Services, in 2013, approximately 27% of Penn undergraduates (2,800) and 30% of graduate students (3,500) lived off-campus in University City—a stark improve-ment over the mid-1990s. Yet, Penn’s estimated off-campus student popu-lation accounts for less than 15% of the neighborhood’s total population and, geographically speaking, the concentration of students tends to dimin-ish as one moves beyond a three- to four-block radius from campus.

reas. In fact, the tendency is for rapid growth to be associated with higher rates of unemployment (for general documentation, see Follett 1976; Appelbaum 1976; Hadden and Borgatta 1965, p. 108; Samuelson 1942; Sierra Club of San Diego 1973).

l limits to growthin favor of an optimistic, pro-growth narrative

unequivocal determination of the validity of findings is impossible (Becker, 1958; Bruyn, 1966; Lofland, 1971; Wolcott, 1992). More pro- foundly, for some phenomenologically oriented, inter- pretivist, and constructivist researchers, there is no unam- biguous social reality “out there” to be accounted for, so there is little need to evolve methodological canons to help explicate its laws (see Dreitzel, 1970).

problem of confidence in findings has not gone away.

methods of analysis are not well formulated.

Seen in traditional terms, the reliability and validity of qualitatively derived findings can be seriously in doubt (Dawson, 1979, 1982; Ginsberg, 1990; Kirk & Miller, 1986; Kvale, 1989a; LeCompte & Goetz, 1982

et, in the flurry of this activity, we should be mindful of some pervasive issues that have not gone away.

Yale University conducted an eco-nomic assessment of its impact onNew Haven and found that “Yale’sstrength and the health of the City, fiscally and socially, are inextricablylinked” (Economic Impact: Yale andNew Haven, 1993). The study’s find-ings motivated the University to com-mit over $41 million to a variety ofneighborhood revitalization projects in the city.

Chen (1990) and Patton (1986) describe a process in which stakeholders and evaluators "co-construct" the initiative's theory so as to maximize its utility for all, as a planning and management tool

Clearly, this will not be as powerful as evidence resulting from randomly assigned control and treatment groups,