Urban Studies Commons^™

“You Can’T Hide Behind Being A House”: Examining The Policy Process, Design, And Implementation Of Short-Term Rental Regulations, A Case Study Of Nashville, Tn, Jamie L. Cathey

All Dissertations

Following the economic crash of 2008, the rapid expansion of platform capitalism and the recruitment of others to work for themselves using a company’s platform, has led to a ‘paradigm shift’ in which a sharing economy business model has enabled small entrepreneurial endeavors to become industry giants (Srnricek, 2017). One such platform, Airbnb, has created a new, informal tourism accommodation sector that is bringing with it questions of regulation and community impact. Airbnb regulation thus is a growing national and international trend affecting cities of all sizes and forcing policy response and change at the local government level. Current trends …

Housing Affordability Index: Mountain West Cities, November 2021, Olivia K. Cheche, Joshua Padilla, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet highlights data on the median household income, median home price, estimated monthly mortgage and taxes, and share of income used for homeownership in fifteen Mountain West housing markets, as originally outlined in the “RealtyHop Housing Affordability Index: November 2021” report. The RealtyHop report analyzes the affordability of housing markets for the 100 most populous cities in the United States.

Recruitment Machines, Community Power And Political Return On Investment (Proi): Economic Development Policy In The Age Of Amazon, Eric G. Griego Montoya

Political Science ETDs

ABSTRACT

A fundamental policy choice in economic development among local policy makers is the appropriate mix of “outside” strategies that use incentives to attract companies, and “inside” strategies that invest in smaller and local businesses. Using a mixed-methods research design, including national and state surveys along with qualitative analysis of interviews conducted with policy elites, I examine the role of ideology, elites, community, competition, social capital (trust and influence), and electoral politics in these policy decisions. I use new descriptive theoretical frameworks called “recruitment machines” and “Political Return on Investment (PROI)” to describe how and why local elected officials support …

Participatory Budgeting: A Librarian’S Experience, John P. Delooper

Publications and Research

This article discusses one librarian’s experience with the Participatory Budgeting process in New York City. It includes information about how New York’s Participatory Budgeting process works, as well as Participatory Budgeting’s principles, and some discussion of how libraries have utilized PB. In addition, it includes discussion of how librarian skillsets can be especially useful for participatory budgeting.

Population Growth In Mountain West Cities And Suburbs, 2010-2020, Dielle T. Telada, William E. Brown Jr.

Cities & Metros

COVID-19 altered population growth trends within large cities and the relative growth of cities and suburbs within the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. Brookings senior fellow William H. Frey suggests “that most big cities with populations exceeding 250,000 experienced lower population growth in the year the pandemic began than in the previous year.” This Fact Sheet examines annual growth rates within selected Mountain West metros and suburbs from 2010 and 2020.

Skill Downgrading Among Refugees And Economic Immigrants In Germany: Evidence From The Syrian Refugee Crisis, Plamen Nikolov, Leila Salarpour, David Titus

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Upon arrival to a new country, many immigrants face job downgrading, a phenomenon describing workers being in jobs below the ones they have based on the skills they possess. Moreover, in the presence of downgrading immigrants receiving lower wage returns to the same skills compared to natives. The level of downgrading could depend on the immigrant type and numerous other factors. This study examines the determinants of skill downgrading among two types of immigrants – refugees and economic immigrants – in the German labor markets between 1984 and 2018. We find that refugees downgrade more than economic immigrants, and this …

Vaccine Hesitancy Within Nevada Counties, June 2021, Kelliann Beavers, Madison Frazee-Bench, William E. Brown Jr.

Health

This fact sheet highlights estimated rates of vaccine hesitancy, vaccination rates, the index of social vulnerability, and the level of concern for 17 Nevada counties as of June, 2021. The data are reported in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) estimates.

Refugee Arrivals In The Mountain West, 2017-2021, Saha Salahi, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This fact sheet displays data on the influx of refugee arrivals by nation to five Mountain West States: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. Refugee Processing Center data, selected from annual reports and limited to the years 2017-2021, are presented.

Covid-19 And Nevada Counties: Employment Data, May 2019 And May 2021, Joshua Padilla, Katie M. Gilbertson, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet displays county-level employment data and unemployment rates for 17 counties in Nevada, as reported by The Daily Yonder article “Rural Employment Grew in May, but Fewer People Are Seeking Jobs” in July 2021. Bill Bishop and Tim Marema compiled data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for each county in the United States for May 2019 and May 2021.

Election Campaign Finance Rules In Canadian Municipalities: An Overview, Brittany L. Bouteiller

Centre for Urban Policy and Local Governance – Publications

The Money and Local Democracy Project explores the effects of campaign finance rules on municipal election campaigns and election outcomes in Canada. Governments around the world regulate election campaign financing to ensure that elections are fair and competitive, although they do so in different ways. Funded by a Western University Undergraduate Student Research Internship (UWO) grant, research assistant Brittany Bouteiller was tasked with conducting preliminary research on 65 municipalities across Canada to determine the availability of campaign finance data from local and provincial governments and to identify clusters or trends. This research bulletin summarizes her findings.

Pandemic Schooling: Lessons In Equity, Advocacy, And Racial Justice, Donna Rivera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

It was my fourth year of teaching at a Brooklyn elementary school when the COVID-19 pandemic forced school buildings, and the entire city, to enter a world of lockdown and quarantine. New York City was an early epicenter of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, and the virus quickly revealed severe racial and socioeconomic disparities across the city. A disproportionate number of cases, serious illnesses, and death has been experienced by low-income Black and Latinx communities. At the same time, 2020 also ushered in a national racial reckoning following the May murder of George Floyd.

In this thesis, I will provide a …

Sanctuary In The City Of Brotherly Love: Probing The Effectiveness And Broader Implications Of Philadelphia’S Sanctuary City Policies, Thomas A. Koenig

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

Amidst the already fraught politics of immigration, “sanctuary” policies, whereby state and local law enforcement agencies limit their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement authorities to varying degrees, have emerged as a particularly contentious issue. This paper sifts past the political vitriol surrounding the issue of “sanctuary” and uses original survey research in Philadelphia to answer a straightforward question: Are these policies working? That is, are the city of Philadelphia’s sanctuary policies actually building trust between its undocumented residents and local law enforcement, thereby laying the groundwork for higher rates of crime reporting and safer communities? My results from a survey …

Food Insecurity In Detroit: Exploring The Relationship Between Patient-Reported Food Insecurity And Proximity To Healthful Grocery Stores, Sara Santarossa, Alex B. Hill, Alexandra R. Sitarik, Mackenzie Taylor, Susan Hawkins, Katherine Scher, Aaron Sohaski, Mohammed Baseer, Rachael Dombrowski, Alexander Plum, Christine Lm Joseph

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

Objective:
The objective of the current study was to determine if patients of a large health care system in Detroit who self-identify as food insecure live further away from healthy grocery stores compared with food secure patients. Second, we explored whether food insecurity and distance to healthy grocery stores are related to ecological measures of vehicle availability in the area of residence.

Design:
A secondary data analysis that uses baseline data from a pilot intervention/feasibility study.

Setting:
Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Participants:
Patients of Henry Ford Health System were screened for food insecurity to determine eligibility for a pilot intervention/feasibility study …

Covid-19: Projected Employment Change In The Mountain West, 2019 - 2029, Peter Grema, Madison Frazee-Bench, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet summarizes a report by Mark Muro and Yang You of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution titled, “In some cities, the pandemic’s economic pain may continue for a decade.” Using February 2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) economic baseline data, the original report projects employment change for states and metros from prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to 2029. This fact sheet summarizes the findings for Mountain West states (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah) and the major metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in each state.

“You Never Know” Work And Precarity In Las Vegas Before And During Covid-19, Richard Reeves, Morgan Welch, Hannah Van Drie

Policy Briefs and Reports

In this brief we examine work and work-based policies in Las Vegas, Nevada – a theme that emerged strongly from focus group data collected in the fall of 2019. The middle-class Americans we talked with were concerned about upward mobility, the changing landscape of work as a result of automation and skills training, scheduling uncertainty, and employee benefits like time off and paid leave. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted and exacerbated these pre-existing issues for many workers. Much of the policy agenda in the last year has been understandably reactionary, as policymakers addressed immediate issues such as unemployment insurance, keeping workers …

Domestic Workers In The Mountain West, Olivia K. Cheche, Saha Salahi, Katie M. Gilbertson, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr., Eshaan Vakil

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet explores the number of domestic workers employed in the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah), as originally reported in the Economic Policy Institute’s “Domestic Workers Chartbook.” Data for domestic worker median wages compared to the median wages of nondomestic workers are also included.

“Treat Everybody Right”: Examining Foodways To Improve Food Access, Alex B. Hill

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

Detroit is regularly assumed to be a “food desert” despite contradicting evidence. With fruits and vegetables available at each of Detroit’s 70 independent, full-line grocery stores, there remains a lack of understanding among media and academics of residents’ perception and preferences for food access. A baseline study was initiated during the summer of 2014 to understand residents’ own perceptions of food access and to assess the socio-cultural foodways utilized by residents. A total of 207 Detroit residents participated in focus groups and interviews to discuss food provisioning. Residents identified a wide range of food access points, from home gardens and …

Affordable Housing In San Francisco: A Historical Analysis Of Its Finances And Policies, Ricky H. Tran

Master's Projects and Capstones

The affordable housing crisis is not new to San Francisco. As it has been made clear several times, The Bay Area continues to face a crisis of a massive wealth disparity as housing prices continue to rise as incomes for the top earners have risen dramatically since 1999. In San Francisco, rents and housing prices are one of the highest in the nation, and people are facing rent burdens, in which a large portion of their income goes to rent, as for those with low and extremely low income are facing severe rent burdens, which take up more than 50% …

Neighborhood Reinvestment: A Changing Community In The Urban South, Jackson Nutt-Beers

Master's Projects and Capstones

Since the mid-twentieth century, public and private actors across the country have been identifying sources of potential capital accumulation in the United States. Shortly after the passing of the Civil Rights Act by President Lyndon Johnson in the mid 1960s, many White families across the country fled the urban core for the suburbs leaving neighborhoods in the city center abandoned and without capital. During this period, Black families and other racial minority groups were forced to live in the blighted neighborhoods of the urban core due to a variety of racialized discriminatory housing practices that lead to the disinvestment of …

Budgetary Obstacles To Police Reform: The Case Of San Francisco, Hayden Anderson

Master's Projects and Capstones

In response to the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement issued a statement calling on cities to Defund the Police. The event sparked a nationwide reckoning that has reshaped the narratives and strategies for remedying the racial bias and police brutality apparent in the criminal justice system. The shift in police reform efforts embraces notions guiding police budgeting decisions. Today's advocates are transforming their approach to police reform to include budgeting decisions by promoting a municipal practice known as police budget reform. This Capstone explores the feasibility of successful police budget reform under current …

Brain Drain And Higher Education Capacity: A Case Study Of Nevada And The Western Undergraduate Exchange, Marie A. Falcone

Student Research

Policy initiatives such as the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE), a regional tuition saving agreement among colleges and universities operating in the western states, have the ability to increase mobility and promote human capital attainment. This brief will be focusing exclusively on how Nevada’s higher education system and related programs, specifically the WUE, can be improved to further attract and attain a higher-skilled workforce. This paper will cover a literature review of brain drain and its effects, investigate Nevada’s relationship with human capital and the WUE, as well as offer policy recommendations to improve attainment.

America's Best Small Cities In The Mountain West, Katie M. Gilbertson, Kelliann Beavers, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr., Fatma Nasoz

Cities & Metros

This fact sheet reports the rankings of small cities in the Mountain West, based on perceived desirability for living, visiting, and investment. Resonance Consultancy’s “America’s Best Small Cities 2020,” report examines six key metrics: “People,” “Place,” “Product,” “Programming,” “Promotion,” and “Prosperity.” 11 small cities in the Mountain West are ranked within the top 100 in the United States.

Evaluating Urban Parks Accessibility And Equity: A Case Study Of Hartford, Ct And New Haven, Ct, Natalie Roach, Mara Tu

Honors Scholar Theses

Public parks provide cities with environmental benefits, positive health effects, recreational opportunities, community building, educational spaces, and public amenities. However, certain populations have been systematically denied their fair share of these benefits because of unjust practices in the creation and maintenance of urban parks. With a lens of environmental justice, the goal of this research was to assess park quality and accessibility of two Connecticut cities, Hartford and New Haven, by gathering publicly available information as well as using GIS tools.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has an existing ParkScore rating system that evaluates the quality of a city’s …

Mapping Renewal: How An Unexpected Interdisciplinary Collaboration Transformed A Digital Humanities Project, Elise Tanner, Geoffrey Joseph

Digital Initiatives Symposium

Funded by a National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) Humanities Collections and Reference Resources Foundations Grant, the UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture’s “Mapping Renewal” pilot project focused on creating access to and providing spatial context to archival materials related to racial segregation and urban renewal in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas, from 1954-1989. An unplanned interdisciplinary collaboration with the UA Little Rock Arkansas Economic Development Institute (AEDI) has proven to be an invaluable partnership. One team member from each department will demonstrate the Mapping Renewal website and discuss how the collaborative process has changed and shaped …

Extension-Led Demonstration: Grameen Microfinance Methods And Capital Access For Low-Income Female Entrepreneurs, Mark A. Edelman

The Journal of Extension

A nonprofit community development financial institution and Extension collaborated to conduct a demonstration project to evaluate efficacy of Grameen peer-group microfinance methodology in addressing barriers faced by low-income women entrepreneurs in a small metro area. Program performance metrics achieved by 284 culturally diverse, low-income entrepreneurs (almost all women) over 5 years included a program loan repayment rate of 99%, increased average client income, bank savings accumulation, and increased opportunities for improved credit scores. Client survey responses indicated program methods developed confidence and skills in finances, leadership, and teamwork. Extension professionals may play various roles in such endeavors.

Police Shootings In The Mountain West, 2015 - 2021, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Madison Frazee-Bench, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Criminal Justice

The Washington Post publishes and regularly updates a dataset regarding the use of deadly force by police since 2015. This fact sheet extracts data for each state in the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah), and presents a regional perspective on the total number of individuals shot and killed by police, including demographic variables such as race, gender, and age. Two additional variables are included in this examination: the presence or absence of mental illness in the individual killed by police, and the presence or absence of a body-worn camera in incidents of deadly force by police.

America's Best Cities: Mountain West Cities, Katie M. Gilbertson, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr., Fatma Nasoz

Cities & Metros

This fact sheet reports the rankings of Mountain West cities, based on perceived desirability for living, visiting, and investment. Resonance Consultancy’s “America’s Best Cities 2020,” report examines the nation’s largest cities on six key metrics: “Place,” “Prosperity,” “People,” “Product,” “Programming” and “Promotion.” Nine Mountain West cities are ranked within the top 100 in the United States.

The Eviction Landscape In South Carolina, Ethan Magnuson

Senior Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the South Carolinian eviction crisis from the perspective of radical geography. South Carolina was chosen for the severity of its crisis and the lack of research at a sub-state level. Court records of eviction filings from 2019 were geocoded and tested for spatial clustering, which was clearly visible. Plaintiff names were used to identify the most frequent filers and distinguish landlords by type. At the census tract level, eviction filing counts were compared with neighborhood characteristics using negative binomial regression, and most were found to be significant in South Carolina. …

Community Development Corporations And Neighborhood Stability In Hartford And New Haven, Ct, Gabriell Nelson

Masters Theses

This study investigated the effects of CDC housing revitalization programs in Hartford and New Haven, CT on neighborhood stability. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, this study sought to connect the observed impacts in Hartford and New Haven with the literature on revitalization in formerly industrial cities. Data on three key indicators of neighborhood stability (property values, owner occupancy rates, and vacancy rates) were collected for the time period spanning 2000 to 2019. Street conditions were observed by a Google Street View “windshield survey” of the CDC focus areas; conditions were observed in 2011 and again in 2019 …

Building Trust And Communication: Overcoming Barriers To Political Incorporation Among Hartford’S Hispanic Immigrant And Migrant Population, Olivia Painchaud

Senior Theses and Projects

How are Hartford’s Hispanic immigrants and migrants participating politically? What inhibits or promotes their political incorporation? Close to half of Hartford’s total population identifies as Hispanic, with a portion of those individuals being immigrants or migrants to the city. As a community with a significant presence in Hartford, the political incorporation of Hispanic immigrants and migrants is necessary to ensure the adequate representation of all Hartford residents. This thesis investigates the extent of institutional support for Hispanic immigrant and migrant political incorporation in Hartford. Following an analysis of Hispanic political incorporation in Hartford’s history, the project involved two phases. Phase …