Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Community-Focused Problem-Solving With Operations Research And Analytics, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Planetizen Blog Posts- First Half Of 2019, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Community Operational Research: A Survey Of The Discipline, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Gerald Midgley, Jason D. Wright, George Chichirau

Michael P. Johnson

Emerging Trends And New Frontiers In Community Operational Research, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Gerald Midgley, George Chichirau

Michael P. Johnson

Course Syllabus: Honors 490 Mayor's Symposium: Housing In A Changing City, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Community-Engaged Operations Research: Trends, New Frontiers And Current Applications, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Decision Modeling For Housing And Community Development: A Methodology For Evidence-Based Urban And Regional Planning, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Environmental Advocacy: Insights From East Asia, Mary Alice Haddad

Mary Alice Haddad

Measuring Success: Community Analytics For Local Economic Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Sandeep Jani

Michael P. Johnson

Data And Analytics For Neighborhood Development: Smart Shrinkage Decision Modeling In Baltimore, Maryland, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Justin Hollander, Eliza D. Whiteman

Michael P. Johnson

Many older cities in the United States confront the problem of long-term decline in population and economic activity resulting in blighted conditions that make conventional revitalization initiatives unlikely to succeed. Smart shrinkage, a planning approach that emphasizes alternative land uses while preserving quality of life, offers a way for cities to remain desirable places to live and work. However, there is little research on empirical methods to support planning decisions consistent with smart shrinkage. We present results from two studies with planners from the City of Baltimore that provide novel insights regarding ways in which planners can perform vacant property …

Researching What Matters With Community Members: Session Introduction, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Data and technology can and do change people’s lives, but most often they are conceived as market-driven entities, where changes in people’s lives arise from consumption of goods and services they pay for. Of course, government is a big user of technology and data, but impacts are usually aggregate in nature, not usually targeted at specific communities. Yet, with inequality and structural barriers to economic and social progress quite high in the U.S., can there be a way to think of data and technology as a means to support individual and group opportunity, engagement, action for social justice? The purpose …

The Smart Cities Movement And Advancing The International Battle To Eliminate Homelessness - Barcelona As Test Case, John Travis Marshall, Jessica Venegas

John Travis Marshall

Barcelona is a leader in the smart cities movement, a movement that aims to help cities deliver services to citizens more efficiently and economically as a way of making the city a more inviting and inclusive place to live and work. As with any city committed to forward-looking economic, social, and urban development initiatives, it is important to consider whether ambitious goals to reinvent the city include an agenda to solve the persistent problems that have faced major cities for decades, including affordable housing and caring for roofless or homeless men and women. This article ties together the challenges Barcelona …

Affordable Housing For Sustainable Cities: A North American Perspective, Detroit Metropolitan Area And Montreal (Quebec), Courtney Lauren Anderson, Maryse Grandbois

Courtney L Anderson

Housing is an integral part to elevating and maintaining a quality of life to ensure a healthy and productive citizenship. The overwhelming number of citizens in Montreal and the United States who are unable to find housing that is less than 33% of their income stifles that economic progression of individuals and the society in which these individuals live. The ability for cities to dictate their own plans for creating and maintaining affordable housing without mandates from the federal vacillates among the various levels of government with each level having certain positive and negative elements. Although city autonomy can provide …

Redistributing Power In Mississippi: The Reversal Of Section 4 Of The Voting Rights Act, Gloria J. Billingsley, Sylvester Murray

Sylvester Murray

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 unconstitutional, essentially defanging preclearance requirements of Section 5 and leaving racial and other previously disenfranchised minorities unprotected. Using social contract theory as the theoretical framework, empirical field study research was used to examine whether the Voting Rights Act has achieved the results in Mississippi that the Supreme Court’s decision to revoke Section 4 has assumed. Data were collected on race-specific voter registration and voting data, measures of vote discrimination, litigations and Mississippi legislative activity regarding voting rights. Findings indicate that the gap between minority and …

Assessing Urban Freeway Deconstruction : A Survey Of 21 Cities With Case Studies Of San Francisco And Milwaukee., Doddy Aditya Iskandar 1973-

Doddy Iskandar

This study evaluates the effect of urban freeway deconstruction on the local economy. Scholars for years debated the role of urban freeway on the local economy. Those who found a positive effect of urban freeway use national data to support their finding. However, other scholars found the effect of urban freeway on the local economy mixed. Four major questions are raised in this study: What are the key factors of the city that affect the decision to remove urban freeways? What are the similarities and differences between cities that choose to remove their urban freeways? Does freeway deconstruction bring about …

Increasing Environmental Performance In A Context Of Low Governmental Enforcement: Evidence From China, Mary Alice Haddad

Mary Alice Haddad

Data, Analytics And Community-Based Organizations: Transforming Data To Decisions For Community Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

The past ten years have seen a revolution in two disciplines related to operations and strategy design. “Big Data” has transformed the theory and practice of producing and selling goods and services through methods associated with computer science and information technology. “Analytics” has popularized primarily quantitative models and methods by which organizations and systems can measure multiple aspects of performance. As these fields rely on information technology to collect, store, process and share data, we refer to the collection of knowledge and applications associated with Big Data and analytics as “data analytics and information technology.” The impacts of data analytics …

Strategy Design For Community Response To Distress And Decline Using Data Analytics, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

The foreclosure crisis in the U.S. has resulted in immense economic and social losses for individuals and neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods face long-term declines in population and economic activity that have been compounded by the foreclosure crisis. How can government and non-profit organizations design responses to neighborhood distress that reflect distinctive community characteristics and are consistent with long-term policy and planning goals? In this talk, I discuss alternative decision modeling strategies that support neighborhood health. Where foreclosure responses are likely to ensure that neighborhoods remain vital places for residential housing, productive strategies may include property acquisition and redevelopment. Other neighborhoods, however, …

Converting Garages Into A Dissertation: A Conversation With Jacob Wegmann, Jonathan P. Bell

Jonathan P. Bell

UrbDeZine, June 17, 2014. In part 1 of the article, I highlight that burgeoning scholarship on "informality" in the U.S. housing market fails to address the implementation side of planning: the regulation and enforcement of unpermitted dwelling units. Part 2 includes a Q&A with PhD candidate Jacob Wegmann on his groundbreaking dissertation examining the impacts of extralegal dwelling units on the political economy and housing market in Southeast Los Angeles County. The enforcement perspective is core to Wegmann's study. URL: http://losangeles.urbdezine.com/2014/06/17/converting-garages-into-a-dissertation-a-conversation-with-jacob-wegmann/

Legal Compliance And Window Dressings Do Not Make It Ethical, Jaap Vos

Jacobus J. "Jaap" Vos

Presentation for annual ethics session of APA Idaho.

Community-Based Analytics: Big Data And Decision Making For Community-Based Organizations, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Community-based organizations face significant challenges in identifying data needs, and assembling data resources for service provision, strategy design and advocacy. We develop principles by which CBOs can develop and share large datasets in order to formulate and solve decision problems that improve the well-being of localized, often marginalized or distressed communities. We illustrate these ideas using field research from Boston, MA.

Feasibility Study For Consolidation Of Public Safety Answering Points In Perry County Ohio, Daila Shimek, Kyle Johnson, Eugune L. Kramer, Patrick Johnson, Nat Neider

Daila Shimek

This report provides an assessment of the feasibility of consolidation of the public safety answering points (PSAPS’s) in Perry County, Ohio and the Village of New Lexington (in Perry County), Ohio. The report describes the methodology used to assess the feasibility of consolidating these PSAPs. The findings are that consolidation of PSAPs and dispatch services among the participating entities would not be feasible if the decision is made purely on costs. However, a consolidated PSAP would reduce the duplication of services and redundant capital projects. This in turn would free up funds to maintain and replace capital items as they …

Ethics, Ethics Rules And Professional Behavior, Jaap Vos

Jacobus J. "Jaap" Vos

Basic introduction one ethics and the AICP Code of Ethics.

Uplifting: Improvements In Boston Area Client Well-Being, Ryan Kling, Lisa Kalimon, Tanya Stepasiuk, Bukola Usidame, Ryan Mclane, Ryan Whalen, Ana Maria Sanchez, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

LIFT-Boston, a local non-profit organization, entered into a collaborative partnership in September 2012 with McCormack Graduate School Public Policy Ph.D. students and faculty to develop and execute a research project. The goals of this endeavor were to assist LIFT-Boston in understanding the outcomes associated with its services and enable the organization to further pursue service goals. The primary research questions respond to the organization’s most fundamental questions. These include how the organization’s unique service model impacts clients across several objective and subjective dimensions of well-being. Secondary questions focus on how these impacts may translate into increases or decreases in student …

Nonpunctuated And Sweeping Policy Change: Bhutan Tobacco Policy Making From 1991 To 2009, Michael S. Givel

Michael S. Givel

This paper examines policy outputs associated with the 2004 Bhutan antitobacco law, including 2009 amendments, to determine if the law is congruent with punctuated equilibrium or social policy realism theories of policy change. There was no direct and sudden tobacco policy output change in Bhutan due to a shock to the policy system contrary to what punctuated equilibrium theory would predict. Rather, policy change was sweeping but nonpunctuated. This paper reconfirms prior findings of social policy realism theory that various and complex policy output patterns occur due to a mixture of contingent and complex factors. Under social policy realism, a …

Bureaucratic Advocacy And Ethics A State-Level Case Of Public Agency Rulemaking And Tobacco Control Policy, Michael S. Givel, Andrew Spivak

Michael S. Givel

Before 2001, the Oklahoma Department of Health achieved little to protect the public from the dangers of secondhand tobacco smoke. In an ongoing effort between 2000 and 2003, the department joined with health groups to lobby for stronger requirements, resulting in a new Oklahoma administrative rule in 2002 and legislation in 2003 regulating secondhand tobacco smoke. This action was congruent with the American Society of Public Administration's Code of Ethics for interactive democratic policymaking, in which administrators are required to serve the public interest with compassion, benevolence, fairness, and optimism.

Progress Delayed: State Of Tobacco Control Policymaking In Oklahoma From 2005-2011, Michael Givel, Ami Stearns, Andrew Spivak

Michael S. Givel

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY • Oklahoma’s 1987 Smoking In Public Places Act required the inclusion of smoking sections in restaurants and pre-empted more stringent local anti-tobacco laws with state regulations. • With the 2001 arrival of an aggressive new Commissioner of Health, Dr. Leslie Beitsch, the tide turned with new legislation (Senate Joint Resolution 21 in 2003) that prohibited smoking inside public places and restaurants were allowed to build separately-ventilated “smoking rooms.” • In 2004, State Question 713 increased the cigarette tax by 80 cents per package. • Dr. Beitsch resigned in 2003 and since that time, efforts toward clean air have …

In Search Of The Less Hazardous Cigarette, Michael Givel

Michael S. Givel

Since the 1950s, despite considerable and long-term tobacco industry and government efforts, attempts to develop a less risky cigarette that reduces harmful ingredients, generally or specifically, have failed. Moreover, even under ideal conditions with adequate scientific testing, the efficacy of purportedly reducing the severe health effects cannot be scientifically verified for up to 20 years after the introduction of a product on the market. A key and central provision in the 2009 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) legislation is to reduce the risk or harm of cigarettes. Because creating a less risky cigarette is not currently possible, this renders …

Deconstructing Social Constructionist Theory In Tobacco Policy: The Case Of The Less Hazardous Cigarette, Michael Givel

Michael S. Givel

Scholars in tobacco control have utilized a social construction approach to test and explain tobacco control policy and advocacy. Some recent tobacco control policy research has contended that Philip Morris's support of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation of tobacco (including purportedly reducing the harm of cigarettes) is to obtain the social construction goal of a socially responsible company. However, the primary motivation for Philip Morris's support of proposed FDA regulation and harm reduction for cigarettes was to maintain the company's market stability and profitability implemented by U.S. political process and institutions. In tandem with this, Philip Morris …

Mother Earth "Speaks": Change Yourself, Change The World, Use The Archetypal Energy "Harmony" As A Guide, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

In relation to the Cosmos, we all, as human beings, live on this tiny planet we call Earth, a planet that supports and sustains life, as we know it. There are many different kinds of people, plants, and animals functioning in harmony with soil, air, and water--all linked to one another in a complex web of life to form one Earth community. Unfortunately, we often take this miracle and ecosystem of life for granted. When, however, we take the ecosystem of life too much for granted, Mother Earth "speaks," reflecting imbalances and dis-harmonies. When Mother Earth "speaks," her message is …