Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Health And Healthcare: Designing For The Social Determinants Of Health And Blue Zones In North Nashville, Rebecca Tonguis, Honor Thomas, Olivia Hobbs

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Owned by North Nashville’s First Community Church, a now empty site in the Osage-North Fisk neighborhood of North Nashville has been identified as a potential site for a new location of The Store, in addition to a community-centric architectural development based on the social determinants of health and informed by the principles behind Blue Zones, the locations with the highest lifespans in the world. Opened by Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley, The Store is a free grocery store that “allow[s] people to shop for their basic needs in a way that protects dignity and fosters hope”, for which North Nashville …

An Analysis Of The Public Participation Processes Employed For An Urban Greenway Project, Maeve O'Connell

Articles

The purpose of this study is to examine the public participation mechanisms employed for a proposed new infrastructure project. Public participation is a core characteristic of a contemporary democratic society as policy makers are increasingly encouraged to engage with citizens for learning and legitimacy. Participation is a loose concept with many forms and interpretations. This study explores the key characteristics of public participation formats, challenges to and the criteria for success. This analysis is then applied to the proposed local infrastructure consultation process. An additional survey is designed and its role in the public participation process is assessed. The processes …

The State-Led Platformisation Of Financial Services: Frictionless Ecosystems And An Expansive Logic Of "Smartness" In Singapore, Orlando Woods, Tim Bunnell, Lily Kong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article explores the role of the state in driving the platformisation of industry, and in doing so offers a counterpoint to scholarship that focusses on the exploitative effects of private sector-led platformisation. That scholarship views platformisation as the latest incarnation of neoliberal urbanism, with the profit-maximising tendencies of the private sector driving the proliferation of platforms throughout everyday life. Notwith- standing, there remains a need to consider alternative models of platformisation. Drawing on 31 interviews with architects of Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative, we consider the state-led platformisation of financial services. We argue that state-led platformisation can open up marketplaces …

Metropolitan Transportation Commission Discretionary Transit Funding Methods Evaluation, Christopher E. Ferrell, John M. Eells, David Reinke, Richard Lee

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

In 2021, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) approached the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) with a proposal to have MTI provide an evaluation of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC’s) operational discretionary funding allocation policies and methods for Bay Area transit operators. The research was done in two parts. Part 1 investigated MTC’s past and current allocation methods for discretionary operational transit funding programs; Part 2 involved the evaluation of outcomes if MTC employed alternative allocation methods. After the Part 1 review of MTC’s various transit funding programs, the federal pandemic relief funds and the Transportation Development Act/State Transit Assistance …

Enabling An Equitable Energy Transition Through Inclusive Research, Michael Ash, Erin Baker, Mark Tuominen, Dhandapani Venkataraman, Matthew Burke, S. Castellanos, M. Cha, Gabe Chan, D. Djokic, J.C. Ford, Anna P. Goldstein, David Hsu, Matt Lacker, C. Miller, D. Nock, A.P. Ravikumar, Allison Bates, Anna Stefanopoulou, E Grubert, D.M Kammen, M. Pastor, S.Z, Attari, S. Carley, D.L Clark, D. Dean-Ryan, U. Kosar, Kerry Bowie, Tina Johnson

ETI Publications

Comprehensive and meaningful inclusion of marginalized communities within the research enterprise will be critical to ensuring an equitable, technology-informed, clean energy transition. We provide five key action items for government agencies and philanthropic institutions to operationalize the commitment to an equitable energy transition.

Governing Smart Cities As Knowledge Commons - Introduction, Chapter 1 & Conclusion, Brett M. Frischmann, Michael J. Madison, Madelyn Sanfilippo

Book Chapters

Smart city technology has its value and its place; it isn’t automatically or universally harmful. Urban challenges and opportunities addressed via smart technology demand systematic study, examining general patterns and local variations as smart city practices unfold around the world. Smart cities are complex blends of community governance institutions, social dilemmas that cities face, and dynamic relationships among information and data, technology, and human lives. Some of those blends are more typical and common. Some are more nuanced in specific contexts. This volume uses the Governing Knowledge Commons (GKC) framework to sort out relevant and important distinctions. The framework grounds …

Research@Smu: Sustainable Living, Singapore Management University

Research Collection Office of Research

Sustainable Living is one of the three key priorities of the SMU 2025 Strategy, and the University is committed to develop it into an area of cross-disciplinary strength. The articles in this booklet highlight impactful sustainability research accomplishments at SMU, which spans five broad pillars: Sustainable Business Operations; Sustainable Finance and Impact Assessment; Sustainable Ageing and Wellness; Sustainable Urban Infrastructure; and Sustainable Agro-business and Food Consumption.

Contents:

Sustainable Business Operations

• Managing the Load on Loading Bays
• Going the Last-mile
• Feeding a Growing World
• Pooling the Benefits of Sharing a Ride

Sustainable Finance and Impact Assessment

• When Going Green Becomes a …

Manufactured Homes In Nevada Counties, Joshua Padilla, Annie Vong, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet presents data on the share of manufactured homes in each of Nevada’s 17 counties, as reported in the June 2022 The Daily Yonder article, “With Housing Shortage Still Ongoing, Manufactured Homes are Gaining Ground,” by Kristi Eaton. The original report includes data made available by the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) for each county in the United States from 2009 and 2018.

Executive Summary: Driving The Southern Nevada Health Economy Forward, Tripp Umbach

Policy Briefs and Reports

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) plans to develop an integrated academic health center within the Las Vegas Medical District (LVMD).1 The academic health center includes UNLV’s five health science schools and mental and behavioral health, which is distributed among several colleges (medicine, liberal arts, urban affairs, and education) in the university. University Medical Center (UMC), a major teaching hospital, will also be an important driver of the academic health center. For the purposes of this report, UNLV’s medical and health science entities along with UMC are referred to collectively as the UNLV Academic Health Center.

Driving The Southern Nevada Health Economy Forward: Benefits Of A Transformational Unlv Academic Health Center, Tripp Umbach

Policy Briefs and Reports

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) plans to develop an integrated academic health center within the Las Vegas Medical District (LVMD). The academic health center includes UNLV’s five health science schools and mental and behavioral health, which is distributed among several colleges (medicine, liberal arts, urban affairs, and education) in the university. University Medical Center (UMC), a major teaching hospital, will also be an important driver of the academic health center. For the purposes of this report, UNLV’s medical and health science entities along with UMC are referred to collectively as the UNLV Academic Health Center. Additional academic health …

Aclp - Broadband Planning Tool Kit - October 2022, New York Law School

Reports and Resources

This Tool Kit provides state and local policymakers with a range of resources and analyses for use during broadband planning. The Tool Kit focuses on the array of grant and other funding opportunities available to states and localities as a result of the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act, as well as other pandemic-era stimulus programs. However, the Tool Kit is also useful for broadband planning outside of these specific funding programs. Indeed, the Tool Kit offers foundational planning resources that can be used now and in the future by officials, ISPs, and other stakeholders in the broadband space.

Housing Availability In Nevada, 2017-2022, Annie Vong, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet examines data on housing availability across nine Nevada counties from 2017 to 2022. Eight Nevada counties are not represented in this fact sheet due to a lack of data in the original report. The original report by MarketWatch analyzes housing inventory from 2017 to 2022 and median list prices in 2022 across counties in the United States.

Balancing Mission And Margins: What Makes Healthy Community Food Stores Successful, Sara John, Megan R. Winkler, Ravneet Kuar, Julia Deangelo, Alex B. Hill, Samantha M. Sundermeir, Uriyoán Colón-Ramos, Lucia A. Leone, Rachael D. Dombrowski, Emma C. Lewis, Joel Gittelsohn

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

Mission-driven, independently-owned community food stores have been identified as a potential solution to improve access to healthy foods, yet to date there is limited information on what factors contribute to these stores’ success and failure. Using a multiple case study approach, this study examined what makes a healthy community food store successful and identified strategies for success in seven community stores in urban areas across the United States. We used Stake’s multiple case study analysis approach to identify the following key aims that contributed to community store success across all cases: (1) making healthy food available, (2) offering healthy foods …

Urban Utopia Or Pipe Dream? Examining Chinese-Invested Smart City Development In Southeast Asia, Yujia He, Angela Tritto

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

With increasing public–private partnership and international cooperation in smart city development across the Global South, Chinese firms are poised to take advantage of growing business opportunities, a situation that few studies have examined. This empirical case study of the Forest City, a Chinese-invested greenfield smart city project in Iskandar Malaysia, begins to fill that gap. This megaproject represents the coming together of overlapping economic development interests of the local authorities and the profit motivations of the Chinese investor. However, the project’s use of the ‘smart city’ discourse contrasts with the reality of limited technology adoption. Its visibility and considerable socio-economic …

Forms Of Community Engagement In Neighborhood Food Retail: Healthy Community Stores Case Study Project, Ravneet Kuar, Megan R. Winkler, Sara John, Julia Deangelo, Rachael D. Dombrowski, Ashley Hickson, Samantha M. Sundermeir, Christina Kasprzak, Bree Bode, Alex B. Hill, Emma C. Lewis, Uriyoán Colón-Ramos, Jake Munch, Lillian L. Witting, Angela Odoms-Young, Joel Gittelsohn, Lucia A. Leone

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

Community engagement is well established as a key to improving public health. Prior food environment research has largely studied community engagement as an intervention component, leaving much unknown about how food retailers may already engage in this work. The purpose of this study was to explore the community engagement activities employed by neighborhood food retailers located in lower-income communities with explicit health missions to understand the ways stores involve and work with their communities. A multiple case study methodology was utilized among seven retailers in urban U.S. settings, which collected multiple sources of data at each retailer, including in-depth interviews, …

Nevada Economic Development And Public Policy 2022-2026: A Sustainable Future For All Nevadans, The Lincy Institute, Brookings Mountain West

Policy Briefs and Reports

This report evaluates economic development efforts in the State of Nevada since the 2011 publication of Unify, Regionalize, Diversify: An Economic Development Agenda for Nevada; assesses demographic and economic trends for Nevada and its regions; examines how state and federal actions since the onset of COVID-19 can position Nevada and its regions to address long-standing economic, educational, and social deficits; and offers policy recommendations to be implemented in the next four years to facilitate a sustainable future for all Nevadans.

Top Boomtowns In The Mountain West, Ally M. Beckwith, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Cities & Metros

This fact sheet highlights data on the top boomtowns in the Mountain West region in 2019 and 2021. The original SmartAsset report includes data on the rapid economic growth and prosperity in boomtown cities through new employment opportunities and residents.

The Rise Of Southern Nevada As A Cluster For Metropolitan Transit Technology Innovations, Arthur C. Nelson

Policy Briefs and Reports

Southern Nevada is emerging as the nation’s leader in private sector-driven innovations in transportation technologies. From the humble beginnings of a monorail system serving a portion of major hotel and gaming venues along the Las Vegas Strip, now supplemented by an array of people movers, Southern Nevada continues to attract transit innovations in tunneling, Hyperloop, and driverless vehicle delivery technologies. The region may soon anchor a high-speed rail system connecting Southern Nevada to Los Angeles. The purpose of this briefing paper is to frame the nature of this emerging transportation cluster and the opportunities this creates for Southern Nevada to …

Increasing Healthy Food Access For Low-Income Communities: Protocol Of The Healthy Community Stores Case Study Project, Joel Gittelsohn, Christina M. Kasprzak, Alex B. Hill, Samantha M. Sundermeir, Melissa N. Laska, Rachael D. Dombrowski, Julia Deangelo, Angela Odoms-Young, Lucia A. Leone

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

Improving healthy food access in low-income communities continues to be a public health challenge. One strategy for improving healthy food access has been to introduce community food stores, with the mission of increasing healthy food access; however, no study has explored the experiences of different initiatives and models in opening and sustaining healthy food stores. This study used a case study approach to understand the experiences of healthy food stores in low-income communities. The purpose of this paper is to describe the methodology used and protocol followed. A case study approach was used to describe seven healthy food stores across …

Comparative Analysis Of Zoning Of Food Retail And Urban Agriculture For Richmond, Virginia, Hannah Quigley Mph, Meghan Dinofrio, Sarah Shaughnessy Mph, Aicp, John C. Jones Mpa, Phd

Environmental Studies Publications

This research partnership between local public health practitioners and urban food systems scholars suggests improvements to City of Richmond, Virginia’s zoning code related to food retail and urban agriculture by drawing inspiration from other American central cities. The authors created an empirical process to identify potential sister cities to Richmond as a source for high quality comparative examples. Next, the authors then engaged in a non-empirical, purposive process of identifying potential zoning code improvements from both identified sister cities, as well as other communities. Time and capacity constraints dictated the non-empirical nature of this search. Recommendations for improvement to Richmond’s …

Festivals And The City: The Contested Geographies Of Urban Events, Andrew Smith, Guy Osborn, Bernadette Quinn

Books / Book chapters

This book explores how festivals and events affect urban places and public spaces, with a particular focus on their role in fostering inclusion. The ‘festivalisation’ of culture, politics and space in cities is often regarded as problematic, but this book examines the positive and negative ways that festivals affect cities by examining festive spaces as contested spaces. The book focuses on Western European cities, a particularly interesting context given the social and cultural pressures associated with high levels of in-migration and concerns over the commercialisation and privatisation of public spaces.

The key themes of this book are the quest for …

Profiling Food Festivals By Type, Name And Descriptive Content: A Population Level Study, Muhammet Kesgin, Rajendran S. Murthy, Rick Lagiewski

Articles

Purpose: This research aims to classify and describe food festivals and examine the patterns in food festival naming and festival descriptions in online media. Design: This research represents the first population-level empirical examination of food festivals in the United States using a purpose-built dataset (N=2626). Methodology includes text mining to examine food festival communications. Findings: Food festival size varies across local and regional spheres within the country. Food festivals employ geographical (place-, destination-based) associations in their names. Food festivals’ descriptions and online communications showcase a welcoming environment predominantly emphasizing family-oriented and live entertainment experiences. Food festivals across the country show …

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 …

Chinese-Invested Smart City Development In Southeast Asia - How Resilient Are Urban Megaprojects In The Age Of Covid-19?, Yujia He, Angela Tritto

Diplomacy and International Commerce Reports

Smart cities are emerging as major engines for deploying intelligent systems to enhance urban development and contribute to the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG). In developing economies facing rapid urbanization and technological change, new cities are being built with smart technologies and ideals, complete with business districts and residential, retail, entertainment, medical, education facilities to entice businesses and talents to relocate. Governments tout the potential of such “greenfield” smart cities for innovation and sustainability. Yet such urban megaprojects are often extremely expensive, prompting governments to partner with private players such as property developers, investors, and tech firms to …

Tourism And The Climate Crisis: A Travelers' Guide To Low Carbon, Madison Mcconnell, Jonathon Day

Tourism Insights

This report provides recommendations for reducing your carbon footprint while travelling

“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 …

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 …

St. Cloud Metro Area Visitor Profile & Economic Impact Final Report Summer 2019-Winter 2020, Kristy Modrow, Brigid Tuck, Pengyu Qian, Hungchih Yu, Andrea Haataja

St. Cloud Metro Area Visitor Profile Study

This report is a summation of results from fall summer 2019, fall 2019, and winter 2020 St. Cloud Metro Area Visitor Profile Surveys.

In 2019, the St. Cloud City Hall, St. Cloud Area Convention and Visitor Bureau, and Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) contracted with St. Cloud State University School of Public Affairs, Geography & Planning Department, and the Hospitality and Tourism Program to conduct a visitor profile survey from summer 2019 to spring 2020. Spring 2020 area events and airport travel were suspended due to COVID-19, thus concluding the study. Therefore, the fourth seasonal report could not be …

What Is The Digital City?, Amit Midha, Archan Misra

Perspectives@SMU

Urban metropolises must adapt and evolve to address disruption and sustainability challenges

School Of Public Affairs 2020 Annual Report, Danae Swanson

School of Public Affairs Annual Reports

The School of Public Affairs’ annual report presents a magazine-style look back at the school’s year. Contents include the stories and accomplishments of current students, alumni, faculty, and other community partnerships. It also celebrates the generous giving of donors. A limited amount of print copies are produced and mailed to constituents. Support and collaboration of the annual report is regularly given by University Communications, the St. Cloud State University Foundation, St. Cloud State University Alumni Relations, University Archives, and the Departments of Criminal Justice, Economics, Geography & Planning, and Political Science.

Note: The School of Public Affairs annual report evolved …