American Studies Commons^™

The Operation Was Successful But The Patient Died: The Politics Of Crisis And Homelessness In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Evan Casper-Futterman

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

On July 4^th, 2007, a small group of housing activists set up a tent city encampment in a plaza adjacent to New Orleans City Hall. The action resulted in the creation of Homeless Pride, a small group of politicized Plaza residents. Six months later, hundreds of homeless people were moved from the park, and it was fenced off. Using archival videos, interviews, and news media, this thesis analyzes the opportunities and constraints that activists, service providers, and local officials faced in light of two intersecting and overlapping contexts. The first context is the immediate crisis of the levee …

Mapping Residential Segregation In Baltimore City, Alexandra S. Stein

Senior Theses and Projects

In 1910 Baltimore became the first city in the United States to enact residential segregation ordinances. Though the ordinances were ruled unconstitutional seven years after their implementation, their effects have shaped the lived experiences and built environment of Baltimore City up to the present. The subsequent slum clearance agenda, the introduction of racially biased real estate practices through redlining, racially restrictive covenants and blockbusting, and finally the race based site selection of federal housing project locations around the city have made Baltimore a tale of two cities, one black and one white.

Beyond The Storefronts, Justin Wright

American Studies Senior Theses

In recent years, gentrification has had the ability to radically change the landscape of Spanish Harlem due to an increase in both public and private sector attempts to revitalize the aging and long ignored area. It is the purpose of this paper to evaluate the positive and negative effects of gentrification as they apply to El Barrio. To do this several key questions must be asked. Who are the gentrifiers? Who are the winners and the losers? What promises were made to East Harlem residents? Were these promises fulfilled? What do the ‘native’ residents fear most? What do residents enjoy …

Modeling Roadside Safety Hazards To Predict Annual Crash Cost To Encroaching Vehicles In Rural Road Networks, Isidro Delgado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Roadside crashes account for a large portion of total fatal crashes that occur annually in the United States. About 30% of those fatalities are the result of single vehicle run-off-road crashes. A large proportion of these fatal crashes occur in rural roads when vehicles depart from the travel lane and collide with trees or other roadside safety hazards. Many of these run-off-road accidents occur in local roads that carry traffic volumes between 1,000 and 20,000 vehicles per day. Many of these roads are part of the jurisdiction of county authorities faced with the dilemma of having too many "potentially dangerous" …

Placing Reedy Creek Improvement District In Central Florida: A Case Study In Uneven Geographical Development, Kristine Bezdecny

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is primarily about the theory of uneven geographical development. In an era when it is proclaimed that, through globalization, the world has become flat, the unevenness of economic and social development is often overlooked or suppressed. As the nexus between global and local processes, the urban space often becomes the site of conflict between those defining the hegemonic narrative of the space, from a global and flat perspective; and those experiencing heterogenous local narratives, whose uneven positions are reinforced by this hegemonic narrative.

This study explores the conditions of uneven geographical development in the urban space of central …

A Discrete-Continuous Modeling Framework For Long-Distance, Leisure Travel Demand Analysis, Caleb Van Nostrand

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study contributes to the literature on national long-distance travel demand modeling by providing an analysis of households' annual destination choices and time allocation patterns for long-distance leisure travel purposes. An annual vacation destination choice and time allocation model is formulated to simultaneously predict the different destinations that a household visits and the time it spends on each of these visited destinations, in a year. The model takes the form of a Multiple Discrete-Continuous Extreme Value (MDCEV) structure (Bhat, 2005; Bhat, 2008). The model assumes that households allocate their annual vacation time to visit one or more destinations in a …

Operational Performance Evaluation Of Four Types Of Exit Ramps On Florida's Freeways, Linjun Lu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses primarily on the analysis of exit ramp performance related to safety and operations. The safety analysis focuses on the impacts of different exit ramp types for freeway diverge areas and different factors contributing to the crashes that occur on the exit ramp sections. The operational analysis is based mainly on simulations by TSIS-CORSIM. Different ramp effects and guidance for selecting optimal exit ramp type are concluded. Issues related to ramp sections and crossroad sections are also demonstrated. Minimum ramp length and minimum distance between ramp terminal and downstream or upstream intersections are calculated. The operational analysis was …

Urban Greenways: The Case For The Selmon Greenway, Alana Brasier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Across the country and world, cities are building urban greenways to achieve environmental, economic, and social objectives. Greenways are recreational trails that provide functions beyond recreation, such as stormwater management, economic development, community development, and aesthetic improvements. A plan to build an urban greenway in downtown Tampa is underway. The greenway is proposed to be built underneath and adjacent to the Selmon Expressway, in conjunction with a widening and redecking project. A feasibility study was performed and approved by the Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization; now the biggest hurdle standing in the way of the Selmon Greenway is finding funding. …