Appendix A — Influences and Acknowledgements
The work in this book is mine, and when I inevitably get something wrong, the blame lies solely with me. But academia is a story of mentorship and legacy, and my concept of urban social science has been shaped dramatically, both directly and indirectly by the ideas and interactions with the generation of scholars above me. I owe the contents of this book to them.
Gerrit Knaap and Casey Dawkins taught me land policy, location theory, and housing economics, and I would not understand land markets, the regulated landscape, or regional planning without them. Fred Ducca taught me to think like a modeler and Rolf Pendall brought me into the Urban Institute’s work on housing vouchers, without which I would’ve had no data for my dissertation. I’m really lucky that Kris Marsh was around to supervise my entire three-degree career at Maryland, and that Willow Lung-Amam joined URSP in time to serve on my committee; they taught me both quantitative and qualitative aspects of location choice and community input.
When I applied to PhD programs, I sent an unsolicited essay on the measurement of neighborhood effects to Robert Beauregard who read it and returned really thorough editorial comments, including that I should immerse myself in more of Sampson’s work; writing back to me was an incredibly generous gesture and (even though I didn’t get into Columbia) his suggestion alone probably changed the entire trajectory of my research career.
Ingrid Gould-Ellen is the best housing economist on the planet and an idol of mine. Her work has profoundly influenced my perspective, and she was kind enough to give me feedback on my work studying neighborhood sorting among voucher holders during her visit to UMD when I was finishing my dissertation years ago.
Karen Chapple has been similarly supportive of my work on neighborhood change, and has had a big impact on my understanding of gentrification processes, particularly during our conversations at Maryland and Berkeley.
I’m still a bit giddy that I’ve managed to publish a paper with Luc Anselin (even if there are another dozen authors also on the piece). I’ve wanted to ‘be good at’ spatial econometrics since I entered academia and I never could’ve imagined I might end up working side-by-side with Luc and Serge. When I was in grad school, Luc was the most cited person in four disciplines (!) (planning, geography, ag econ, and regional science, if memory serves) by, like, an order of magnitude.
George Galster is one of my greatest intellectual inspirations, but also one of the kindest and most thoughtful contributors in at least a generation of urban scholars. George’s impact on the field is dramatic and widely known, but he has always been willing to read my papers and send detailed feedback, or take time out of his day to meet with me and discuss my research agenda or career path. We as a discipline are so lucky to have you, George.
I have always looked up to the generation of neighborhood sociologists ahead of me, in particular the work of Stephanie DeLuca, Robert Sampson, Patrick Sharkey, Elizabeth Bruch, Lincoln Quillian, Robert Mare, Sean Reardon, and Ann Owens. The same is true of the urban modelers of yore, especially the housers: John Kain, John Quigley, Richard Arnott, Alex Anas, Michael Wegener, and Paul Waddell.
Serge Rey has been the closest and most influential mentor I have ever had. Shortly after finishing my postdoc in spatial data science, I turned down a tenure-track offer to stay at the UCR Center for Geospatial Sciences with Serge, and if I hadn’t done so, I probably would have left the academy by now. Certainly I never would have written this book. Apart from constant encouragement and wisdom, Serge has given me carte blanche to work on the topics that interest me most and build the software I think will be most impactful–all while being a close personal friend. He’s also among this generation’s most poignant and prolific spatial scientists and spatial disparity scholars; I’m incredibly lucky to have spent most of my career working with him. Thank you for everything Serge
Kieran Donaghy, Geoff Hewings, John Carruthers, and Heather Stephens (among others) have all welcomed me as one of their own and made regional science feel like home. Jamal Green, Kyle Walker, and Rafa Pereira have all been my internet buddies since back when twitter was cool, and they have all shared ideas, support and feedback ever since.
My colleagues from the PySAL community have quickly become my close friends and dearest collaborators over the years. Some of my fondest times in academia have been spent with Renan Cortes, Wei Kang, Ran Wei (and Serge) at UCR as we refactored, optimized, or parallelized a piece of segregation, tobler, or geosnap. I’m a much better programmer (software engineer?) and scientist thanks to constant interaction with Levi Wolf, Dani Arribas-Bel, Martin Fleishmann, and James Gaboardi. Levi, in particular, has been an invaluable resource for this book and I’ve workshopped at least half the ideas here with him at some point. He’s the heir to the Anselin throne of spatial hegemony, and If I ever need a logic, sanity (or wellness :P) check, he’s the person I ask1.
I would have neither my education nor (what remains of) my sanity without my wife and partner Antonia Knaap2. Apart from being my best friend, endless support system, and the economic engine of our household that allowed me to finish grad school, she tolerates me daily as I walk around frowning, shaking my head, and muttering endlessly to myself as I reformulate a sentence, equation, or paper idea. I’m eternally grateful for you.
The book is dedicated to my mother Jody Knaap who taught me about humans, not social science. She had an innate Rawlsian world-view and was a model of ethics, compassion, and dedication to others. She would be so insufferably proud (of me, not herself) if she could read this today. I love you mom.
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It doesn’t hurt that he’s Isard’s great-grand-student either. I don’t think I’d trade my training for anyone else’s, but the intellectual lineage Isard \(\rightarrow\) Anselin \(\rightarrow\) Rey \(\rightarrow\) Wolf (and Kang) is quite a legacy in regional science.↩︎
Ah. Upon discovering this acknowledgement, Toni diligently reminded me that it’s not actually clear I have any sanity… Whatever portion exists I owe to her :). (I forgot to credit her additional role as editor)↩︎