Urban Studies Commons^™

Opinions And Perceptions Of Residents In New York City Public Housing. Map Evaluation Update Number 4., Sheyla A. Delgado, Jeffrey A. Butts, Gina Moreno

Publications and Research

This is the fourth of six updates presenting interim findings from the evaluation of the NYC Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP). As part of an evaluation of the New York City Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP), researchers from John Jay College of Criminal Justice collaborated with survey specialists from NORC at the University of Chicago to collect data from two probability samples of residents in public housing developments in New York City. This first iteration of collecting survey responses will be compared to the next wave of response to get an understanding of the effectiveness of …

Memos And Mega Projects: Applying Planners’ Perceptions Of Their Software To A Framework For The Future Of Planning, Richard L. Davis

Master's Projects

Software powers the modern urban planning department. However, the majority of academic attention on software in the planning profession has focused on highly specialized land use models, ignoring the importance of common applications that most planners rely upon throughout their workdays. For example, email’s impact on planning has gone largely undiscussed in the literature despite its role as one of the most commonly used software by planners. This report has a twofold purpose: 1) create a protocol for interviewing planners about the software they use routinely; 2) synthesize needs and expectations of planners gathered during interviews with relevant literature on …

Housing - Las Vegas And The Middle Class, Brookings Mountain West

Brookings Mountain West Special Events

Brookings Mountain West presents an event focusing on housing as part of “Las Vegas and the Middle Class,” a major project exploring public policy initiatives designed to improve the quality of life of the middle class in Las Vegas and to increase the number of people rising to join its ranks. Through independent, non-partisan analysis and policy development, we seek to advance public understanding of the challenges facing the middle class in Las Vegas, as well as barriers to upward mobility.

This event features presentations that examine Las Vegas as a model for understanding issues critical to the growth of …

Should Las Vegas Bet On Homeownership? Trends In Housing Affordability And Homeownership, Jenny Schuetz

Brookings Mountain West Publications

In many parts of the U.S., rents and housing prices are rising faster than household incomes. Low-income families have always been stretched to pay for housing without sacrificing other necessities. In recent years, housing costs have become a larger source of financial stress for middle-income families. While homeownership has been the primary channel for wealth building in the U.S., two recent trends raise questions about whether this is a viable strategy. First, many homeowners suffered severe financial losses due to housing price declines during the Great Recession (2007-2009). Second, homeownership rates for Black and Latino families lag those of white …

Democracy And Bureaucracy Of Smart Place: Coral Gables, Fl And The Role Of Aspirational Content In Local Governance, Ramon Trias

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role aspirational content on democracy and bureaucracy for governance of place in the United States. Place is a fundamental concept for municipal democracy and bureaucracy, as it defines the physical qualities of a community and their effect on people and quality of life. Smart Place would update theory and practices for local governance. Research reviewed process and content for the implementation of place, a gap in public administration theory. Literature review, historical research on 20^th century planning and zoning, research on 1920’s best practices on architecture and archival, qualitative findings and quantitative data on Coral …

Snap At The Community Scale: How Neighborhood Characteristics Affect Participation And Food Access, Nevin Cohen

Publications and Research

Cities are spatially diverse, with enclaves of particular demo- graphic groups, clusters of businesses, and pockets of low-income individuals living amid affluence.

This essay presents data from New York City to illustrate the importance of measuring and addressing neighborhood characteristics that affect Sup- plemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation and the purchasing power of SNAP benefits: pockets of “eligible-but-not-enrolled” in- dividuals, proximity between SNAP participants and jobs, and variations in food prices across neighborhoods.

It concludes with 5 exam- ples of how addressing these community-scale issues can increase SNAP participation and food access.

Kc 4.1: Rural Heritage And Urban-Rural Linkages In The Icomos Sdgs Policy Guidance, Ege Yildirim, Ilaria Rosetti, Patricia O'Donnell

ISCCL Scientific Symposia and Annual General Meetings // Symposiums scientifiques et assemblées générales annuelles de l'ISCCL // Simposios científicos yy las Asambleas Generales Anuales

This Knowledge Café aims to provide a discussion platform to contribute to the drafting of a new ICOMOS SDGs Policy Guidance, from the perspective of rural heritage, landscapes and rural-urban linkages. While 50%-plus of global populations are urban dwellers, we tend to forget that the other half dwell in rural places.

One of the 7 Priority Actions of the ICOMOS SDGs Working Group in 2018 is the preparation of a consolidated policy statement, as an effective tool for advocacy and communication to wider society and the development world. Based on the need to boost the role of cultural heritage in …

Portland Msa Economic & Population Outlook (October 2019), Thomas Potiowsky, Portland State University, Northwest Economic Research Center

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

A new entry for the record books: Portland MSA employment expansion is the longest on record, having surpassed the 1990’s expansion last September. And we now sit in October and are one month shy of a decade of job growth. While the length of this expansion is impressive, if we compare the same length of time (9 years and 9 months) of this expansion with that of the 1990s, jobs increased by 33.6% in the 1990s while increasing 24.4% in the 2010s.

The Portland MSA recorded the 4th fastest percentage gains in household income in the country from 2007 to …

The Mountain West: Affordable Housing Opportunities, Kaylie Pattni, Caitlin Saladino, William E. Brown

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet provides selected data pertaining to the Mountain West region from, The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes, a 2018 report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The report includes statistics “based on data from the 2016 American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS). THE ACS is an annual nationwide survey of approximately 3.5 million addresses.”

Black Women At Work In Corrections In The Era Of Mass Incarceration: Documenting Demographic Changes In The New York City Department Of Correction, Carolyn Fisher

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Recent work has popularized the idea that mass incarceration arose in the wake of the civil rights movement to maintain the social and economic subordination of African Americans previously enforced under Jim Crow. This discussion has not accounted for the many black Americans working in corrections, particularly in large metropolitan jail systems. This paper documents the increase in black women working as correction officers and administrators in the New York City Department of Correction since the late 1970s and explores the implications of this growth on the strict racial argument about mass incarceration. Using administrative and archival sources, it argues …

Rezoning, Real Estate, And The Dynamics Of Displacement In Inwood, Damaly Gonzalez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis asks how New York City’s rezoning process combine with the dynamics of real-estate sales to create displacement pressures for low-income communities of color. A case study of the recent rezoning of Inwood, a neighborhood in upper Manhattan, in August 2018, will help to illustrate these dynamics. Through an analysis of building sales and extreme rent inflation embedded in a historical and contemporary analysis of zoning and the influence of real-estate developers and owners on these processes, this thesis paints a dire picture of the risks faced by the mostly-Dominican-American renters in Inwood. The principal contribution of the …

Criminal Arrests In Clark County, Nevada, By Jurisdiction 2006-2016, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Caitlin Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Criminal Justice

Criminal arrests in Southern Nevada are on a downward trend. Despite a record-setting influx in population across the Las Vegas Valley and the surrounding metro area, officers in each of Clark County’s police jurisdictions arrest fewer people every year. The present study utilizes the Arrest Trends Tool created by the Vera Institute of Justice and the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program to measure the number of arrests made over ten years for a variety of illegal activities, including drug abuse, violence and murder, property crimes, sex crimes, alcohol-related crimes, theft, white collar crimes, and other offenses. This data set …

Accessory Dwelling Units In Portland, Oregon, Matthew Gebhardt, Beth Gilden, Yael Kidron

Matthew Gebhardt

The Institute for Sustainable Solutions is spearheading an initiative to make it easier and more affordable for Portland homeowners to construct a second house on their property—increasing housing options in a city with some of the fastest rising rents and lowest vacancy rates in the nation.

Called “accessory dwelling units” or ADUs, these small backyard homes can be used by family members or rented out to others in the community. They provide more affordable housing options while reducing pollutants that cause climate change.

In 2018, Matthew Gebhardt, assistant professor of Urban Studies and Planning, and Yael Kidron, Ph.D. candidate in …

Urban & Suburban Population Growth In The Mountain West, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Caitlin Saladino, William E. Brown

Demography

This Fact Sheet summarizes and adapts the findings of the Brookings Institution’s report on population growth and loss in the nation’s top 87 largest cities and top 53 metropolitan areas. For the purposes of this Fact Sheet, the focus of the report is narrowed to 14 cities and 5 metropolitan areas located within the Mountain West region of the United States (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah).

Economic Innovation Group (Eig) 2018 Distressed Communities Index (Dci): Nevada Counties, Lauren Fousek, Caitlin Saladino

Economic Development & Workforce

This Fact Sheet highlights the Economic Distress Indicators (EDI) for the 17 counties within Nevada. Using the Economic Innovations Group1 DCI (Distressed Communities Index),2 the Tables that follow report EDI for each of the 17 counties in Nevada, grouped within two time-frames (2007-2011 and 2012-2016), and showing change over time. The data provides the opportunity to compare how the Great Recession affected communities across the nation and how the ongoing recovery is reshaping the economies and social networks of our nation.

Municipal Annexation Reform In Texas: How A Victory For Property Rights Jeopardizes The State’S Financial Health, Julie Polansky Bell

St. Mary's Law Journal

Municipal annexation is the expansion of city boundaries. The greatest motivator behind municipal annexation is maintaining and improving economic prosperity of the annexing authority. The issue of annexation involves a balance of rights between property owners and municipalities of the state. Historically, Texas cities had broad annexation authority under an involuntary annexation scheme. However, in recent years the power has shifted as lawmakers have given property owners greater control over the annexation process. This trend culminated in the passage of the Municipal Annexation Right to Vote Act (MARVA) by the 85th Texas Legislature, which severely limits annexation authority.

Texas municipalities …

Full Potential Of Future Robotaxis Achievable With Trip-Based Subsidies And Fees Applied To The For-Hire Vehicles Of Today, John Niles

Mineta Transportation Institute

As described by Grush and Niles in their textbook, The End of Driving: Transportation Systems and Public Policy Planning for Autonomous Vehicles, there are two distinct market states for the future of automobility as vehicles become increasingly automated. The first, Market-1, is comprised of all vehicles that are manufactured and sold to private owners and used as household vehicles. This private consumer fleet will—through automated driver assistance systems (ADAS)—be increasingly capable of hands-off operation, even self-driving in certain environments such as limited-access expressways. The second category, Market-2, represents all the vehicles made expressly for the service market, i.e., roboshuttles and …

Factors In Refugee Resilience Building During Humanitarian Response, Rachel Starner

Capstone Collection

If countries hosting refugees want to build resiliency and reduce dependency on foreign relief, humanitarian response and local development need to be addressed simultaneously, and collaboration at all levels of stakeholders needs to take place in planning and decision making. Additionally, innovation and strong leadership are strong factors in creating and leading new ideas as funding and world leadership dynamics change, especially with traditional leaders such as the US and the UN losing influence. Observations made at the Mahama Refugee Camp in Rwanda as well as existing document analysis reflect these traits by active efforts of camp administrators and humanitarian …

Have You Seen The Poop Fairy?, Sergio Lozoya

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This research seeks to understand the effectiveness of the There is no Poop Fairy campaign through a public survey of dog owners. The There Is No Poop Fairy campaign was initiated in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2014, with the goal of getting dog owners to pick up and properly dispose of their dogs’ waste. The Rio Grande is contaminated with E. coli bacteria that originates in part from dog waste, which is carried to the river through storm water. Levels of E. coli in the Rio Grande have decreased dramatically within the past few years, coincident with the campaign. The …

Planning For Industrial Land And Industrial Jobs: An Evaluation Of New York City's Industrial Business Zone Program, Jennifer Davis

Masters Theses

In recent years, industrial preservation policies, which aim to preserve urban industrial activity and industrial employment often through the preservation of industrial land, have emerged as a flashpoint in cities across the country that have implemented these policies. While critics contend that industrial preservation policies amount to smokestack chasing in “post-industrial” cities like New York City, industrial preservationists argue that such policies help to preserve well-paying, middle-class jobs and thus represent a tool to mitigate rising income inequalities in cities. Despite considerable attention to these policies, minimal research has evaluated the effectiveness of industrial preservation policies as land use and …

Public Safety Trends In Map Communities And Matched Comparison Areas. Map Evaluation Update Number 3., Sheyla A. Delgado, Richard A. Espinobarros, Gina Moreno, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

This is the third of six updates presenting interim findings from the evaluation of the NYC Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP). As part of an evaluation of the New York City Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP), researchers from John Jay College of Criminal Justice collaborated with survey specialists from NORC at the University of Chicago to track key outcomes in MAP developments and matched comparison sites. Using the NYC Open Data portal and data from NYPD and SPARCS, the research team looked to see if the presence of MAP showed initial impacts in crime and victimization …

Rogue Transfer & Recycling Transfer Station Index: Synopsis, Northwest Economic Research Center

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

Rogue Transfer and Recycling, LLC (“RTR”) is a solid waste and recycling facility that collects and transfers solid waste and recycling materials from the Southern Oregon region. Currently RTR’s revenue and expenses are reviewed by Jackson County, Oregon in periodic rate reviews, with rates being adjusted in interim years by applying the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). RTR requested that Northwest Economic Research Center (NERC) conduct detailed research and develop a new indicator – based on independent, reliable, and timely data – that more closely tracks RTR’s changes in total expenses per ton than the CPI. …

The Portland Adu Market: Conditions, Costs, Drivers, Incentives, Northwest Economic Research Center, Institute For Sustainable Solutions

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

This report was researched and written by the Northwest Economic Research Center of Portland State University (PSU) in collaboration with the Institute for Sustainable Solutions (also at PSU) in order to explore the potential for accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to increase housing affordability in the Portland metropolitan region. Additionally, this report seeks to broadly assess the efficacy of the City’s SDC fee waiver for increasing affordability by increasing the rental housing supply.

In October and November of 2017, ISS conducted an online survey of ADU owners and occupants, the results of which constitute the most exhaustive collection of data regarding …

Poetic Representation Of Immigrant Bengali Women From Queens, New York: A Qualitative Exploration Of Narrative In Relation To Physical And Cultural Migration, Tabashshum J. Islam

Publications and Research

Poetic Representation of Immigrant Bengali Women from Queens, New York: A Qualitative Exploration of Narrative in Relation to Physical and Cultural Migration is a qualitative poetic inquiry and collaborative creative writing project. Five participants were interviewed and invited to engage in a collaborative writing process with the themes of immigration, cultural negotiation, and oral family history. All participants identified as college-educated Bengali women with a connection to Queens, New York, as well as being an immigrant or relative of an immigrant in the United States. From transcriptions of one-on-one interviews and personal notes, research-poetry was created to center on the …

Best Training Practices For Probation Officers And Staff Toward Building A More Sophisticated, Fair, And Effective System Of Juvenile Justice In San Diego County, Carissa Carrasquillo

Ethnic Studies Senior Capstone Papers

This report illustrates how probation leadership, officers, and staff in San Diego County can adopt best training practices to address and alleviate incidents in juvenile detention facilities and build a sophisticated, fair, and effective system of juvenile justice. The goal of implementing best training practices for probation officers and staff is to build a knowledgeable workforce to better serve youth and families and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system. This report analyzes how innovations in management and the introduction of new programs has proven effective through research- and evidence-based practices and direct community involvement. In particular, …

They Sold Our Park! How Local Governments Fail At Democracy, Zandria Michaud

Global Honors Theses

In 2016 the city of Kent, Washington sold a public park to a housing developer. While this sale may seem typical, what was disconcerting to Kent residents was not only that they were losing a park, but also that they knew nothing of the sale. The entire process of selling the park to a housing developer had been in the works for more than ten years, and yet, no one thought to ask the residents about it. From this sale, several issues arose regarding city level government democracy and the role of citizens in policy decision-making. By critically examining the …

Training As Restructuring: Cases From Entry-Level Healthcare And Manufacturing Workforce Training In Eastern Connecticut, Shelley Buchbinder

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since the 1980s, capital mobility and state restructuring have increased precarity in older industrial regions, such as eastern Connecticut (CT). These changes reconfigured labor markets, changing the work available, including the types, conditions, and skills required. Greater responsibility devolved onto poor and working-class people to navigate a labor market with insufficient living-wage work with 42.4% of jobs pay under $15/hour (Tung, Lathrop, & Sonn, 2015). Entry-level healthcare and manufacturing are two avenues for sub-baccalaureate, living-wage employment. Employment and Training (E&T) prepares people for entry-level jobs; it is a politically popular response to restructurings (Lafer, 2002; Laney et al., 2013). How …

Access To Opportunity Project: Final Report, Shawn Flanigan, Emily Lieb, Lisa K. Bates, Raphael Bostic, Sheryl V. Whitney

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This project’s goal is to lift up promising approaches, suggest new strategies and encourage honest conversations that result in public policy solutions to income and racial segregation and poverty. The overarching question that motivates this work is:

• What are effective policies and strategies that promote access to high-opportunity amenities for low-income families?

As a first step, the researchers surveyed efforts on the ground in the metropolitan areas encompassing Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and San Diego, California, to determine whether there were any candidates for deeper study. We selected these three metropolitan areas for several reasons. First, prior interaction revealed that …

A New Approach To Gentrification: Using The Case Of Hartford To Discover The Reasons Certain Cities Have Not Gentrified., Matthew Boyle

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis presents a new way of looking at and studying gentrification in light of the significant differences of opinion on the subject still found in scholarship roughly 50 years after it first appeared in scholarly literature. Understanding why gentrification does not occur may provide the broadly accepted insights into the phenomenon that studies so far have failed to provide. To initiate this new direction in the literature, I examine the case of Hartford, Connecticut, an old former industrial town that has not gentrified despite having a strong presence of service industry employment and many wealthy suburbs within its metropolitan …

Pedpdx: Addressing Equity Through Citywide Pedestrian Planning, Michelle Marx, Francesca Patricolo

PSU Transportation Seminars

Pedestrian safety and access is an equity issue. In Portland, inadequate pedestrian infrastructure and traffic safety concerns disproportionately impact low-income communities and people of color. The City is attempting to rectify these inequities through PedPDX, Portland’s new citywide pedestrian plan (anticipated for adoption in Spring 2019). PedPDX prioritizes sidewalk and crossing improvements and other investments, policies, strategies and tools to make walking safer and more comfortable across the city.

Come learn about the strategies PedPDX is using to address transportation equity in Portland, including establishing a data-based prioritization for citywide pedestrian investments, identifying roadway and behavioral characteristics most closely …