Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Examining Emergency Citizen Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic: Emergent Groups Addressing Food Insecurity In Portland, Oregon, Aliza Ruth Tuttle

Dissertations and Theses

Emergency response agencies commonly focus on how hard infrastructure will interact with extreme climatic and geologic events: bridges during an earthquake and buildings following a tornado, for example. Peoples' actual experience of these extreme events vary, however, based on socially constructed consequences of natural hazard events and their interaction with a depleted or robust social safety net.

Previous research shows people living with depleted social safety nets and who experience a natural hazard event are likely to help where they see disaster. Individuals consistently form groups, called emergent groups, to organize their efforts. This research explored emergent groups that formed …

Heat, Wildfire And Energy Demand: An Examination Of Residential Buildings And Community Equity, Chrissi Argyro Antonopoulos

Dissertations and Theses

Extreme heat and wildfire events are becoming more prolific and exacerbated by climate change, carrying significant implications for environmental and social systems. Residential buildings play a central role in protecting people from heat and pollutant exposure during extreme weather events, but the level of protection varies dramatically depending on building energy efficiency and technology availability. Low-income and communities of color have higher energy burdens compared to affluent populations, and underserved communities often do not have financial resources for, or access to, advanced building technologies. This dissertation explores the impacts of extreme heat and wildfire on residential buildings, focused specifically on …

Adoption And Use Of E-Grocery Shopping In The Context Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: Implications For Transport Systems And Beyond, Gabriella Abou-Zeid

Dissertations and Theses

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic drastically impacted travel for in-person shopping, commute trips, global supply chains, and food business operations. Previously mundane tasks, like shopping for food and household items, became markedly different as new social distancing and mask guidelines were put in place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Concurrently, e-commerce sales in the U.S. skyrocketed. E-grocery pickup and delivery services saw unprecedented expansions. The adoption and use of e-grocery services have implications for equity and mobility, although the nature of the relationship of e-grocery to the latter is still unclear. Enhancing our understanding of the drivers of (and …

Comparing The Promise And Reality Of E-Scooters: A Critical Assessment Of Equity Improvements And Mode-Shift, Michael Glenn Mcqueen

Dissertations and Theses

In just three years, e-scooters have substantially disrupted and altered the urban mobility landscape. Throughout this period, they have been commonly touted as part of a larger micromobility solution that promises to erase equity barriers and solve the first-mile/last-mile problem. However, few studies in the nascent e-scooter literature have considered these claims. In this study, we surveyed students at Portland State University (n = 1,968) about the role that e-scooters, among other modes, played in meeting their general and university-related travel needs. We then estimated models that incorporated demographics, travel behavior, and latent attitudes distilled using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). …

"I Should Have Moved Somewhere Else": The Impacts Of Gentrification On Transportation And Social Support For Black Working-Poor Families In Portland, Oregon, Steven Anthony Howland

Dissertations and Theses

Portland has faced a mass displacement of Black households from the historically segregated area of Albina through various phases of urban renewal, urban deterioration, and gentrification. A substantial number of them have moved to East Portland, a suburban segment of the City of Portland that was unincorporated county land prior to the 1990's. As Black people have left Albina, the roots of Blackness there have eroded from the area as businesses and churches catering to them have also closed as a result of lost patrons.

In this study I interviewed 27 low-income working-age Black people with children with the sample …

The Impacts Of The Bicycle Network On Bicycling Activity: A Longitudinal Multi-City Approach, Wei Shi

Dissertations and Theses

Bicycling is a promising approach to improve health, environment, and economic development of urban places. Theoretically, a bicycle network's component goes beyond lanes and paths, and would generate greater impacts than the sum of its parts. However, most previous research focused on how individual types of bicycle-related infrastructure could promote bicycling. Few empirical studies investigated how bicycle networks impact bicycling activity. This project attempts to address this question. Specifically, how to properly measure bicycle networks, and what impacts bicycle networks have on bicycling activity, e.g. bike ridership and bike mode choice, across different cities and longitudinally.

To address the first …

Social Equity In Transit Service: Toward Social And Environmental Justice In Transportation, Torrey Lyons

TREC Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores social equity as it applies to public transportation. Transit has long been considered a tool to alleviate inequity by limiting the effects of spatial mismatch and providing access to opportunity to disadvantaged populations. This theory, however, has not been adequately proven empirically. The first chapter of this dissertation tests the theory that spatial mismatch is moderated by quality transit service. We do this by taking a cross section of the largest urban areas in the United States and applying structural equation modeling to identify relationships between exogenous and endogenous factors. We find that higher quality transit service …

Cyclist Path Choices Through Shared Space Intersections In England, Allison Boyce Duncan

Dissertations and Theses

In the last several years, there has been growing worldwide interest in making streets safer for all users--pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists. One approach, shared space, is a traffic calming technique as well as urban design concept. This technique strives to fully integrate the roadway into the urban fabric by removing elements such as lane markings, curbs, and traffic signs. By removing these elements and creating a more plaza-like space, these sites become ambiguous and no user group as priority. The technique is relatively new, and the majority of existing research concerns pedestrians only. This mixed methods research focused on six …

Travel Mode Choice Framework Incorporating Realistic Bike And Walk Routes, Joseph Broach

Dissertations and Theses

For a number of reasons--congestion, public health, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, demographic shifts, and community livability to name a few--the importance of walking and bicycling as transportation options will only continue to increase. Currently, policy interest and infrastructure funding for nonmotorized modes far outstrip our ability to model bike and walk travel. To ensure scarce resources are used most effectively, accurate models sensitive to key policy variables are needed to support long-range planning and project evaluation, and to continue adding to our growing understanding of key factors driving walk and bike behavior. This research attempts to synthesize and advance …

The Impacts Of Urban Renewal: The Residents' Experiences In Qianmen, Beijing, China, Yongxia Kou

Dissertations and Theses

The study examines the influences of the Qianmen urban renewal project on its original residents, which is one of a few demonstration projects under the new policy orientation of urban renewal practices in Beijing, China, entering the new century. It employs "residential satisfaction" as an evaluative indicator to understand the residents' experiences before and after urban renewal. Seventy-two residents were interviewed. Among them, 25 remained in Qianmen; 20 relocated to Hongshan, a neighborhood in the central city area; 21 moved to Longyue, a neighborhood in one of the suburban areas; and 6 residents relocated to other locations.

The study found …

Neighborhood Commercial Corridor Change: Portland, Oregon 1990-2010, Kelly Ann Howsley-Glover

Dissertations and Theses

Commercial corridors in neighborhoods experiencing change have been relegated to a footnote in research on residential phenomena. It is taken for granted that the process of change experience by businesses within these neighborhoods mirrors that of the residential change. This assumption is often predicated on the underlying model of invasion succession, suggesting that inmovers displace native populations, whether they are residents or businesses. Analyzing time series data on neighborhood commercial corridor change, research attempted to first test data against the invasion succession model to see if it is an effective framework for analysis. Second, through comparison of case study areas …

Peak Of The Day Or The Daily Grind: Commuting And Subjective Well-Being, Oliver Blair Smith

Dissertations and Theses

To understand the impact of daily travel on personal and societal well-being, researchers are developing measurement techniques that go beyond satisfaction-based measures of travel. Metrics related Subjective Well-Being (SWB), defined as an evaluation of one's happiness or life satisfaction, are increasingly important for evaluating transportation and land-use policies. This dissertation examines commute well-being, a multi-item measure of how one feels about the commute to work, and how it is shaped. Data are from a web-based survey of workers (n=828) in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., with three roughly equally sized groups based on mode: bike, transit and car users. Descriptive analysis shows …

Green Mind Gray Yard: Micro Scale Assessment Of Ecosystem Services, Erin Jolene Kirkpatrick

Dissertations and Theses

There is a spatial mismatch between the size of the area where people are living and the extent of land needed to ecologically support developed areas. More people are living in urban areas than any time in history, and the resources need to support cities have had to expand to try and meet the demands of increasing urban populations. However, areas of opportunity exist for urban areas to begin to positively contribute towards the available resources in a region. Because a large portion of urban areas is within private control, gaining a baseline understanding of how residents interact with ecosystem …

Street Art, Ideology, And Public Space, Tiffany Renée Conklin

Dissertations and Theses

The concept of the city has come to play a central role in the practices of a new generation of artists for whom the city is their canvas. Street art is a complex social issue. For decades, its presence has fueled intense debate among residents of modern cities. Street art is considered by some to be a natural expression that exercises a collective right to the city, and by others, it is seen as a destructive attack upon an otherwise clean and orderly society. This research focuses on various forms of street art from the perspective of the urban audience. …

The Incorporation Of Direct Democracy : Populism And Initiative Practices As Contested Terrain, Larry Galizio

Dissertations and Theses

What are the democratic implications of the increasing professionalization of direct democracy?

The dissertation takes a critical approach to the "initiative-industrial complex" and offers a counter-thesis to prevailing scholarly research on the substantial growth in the use of political consultants in initiative campaigns. The political economic analysis approaches direct legislation campaigns and elections as constituent parts of a system of legitimation for the existing set of social relations.

An historical analysis reveals that the contemporary era of initiative activity rivals that of its frequent use during the populist and progressive eras; and that in the early 21st century direct legislation …

Impacts Of Climate Change And Urban Development On Water Resources In The Tualatin River Basin, Sarah Praskievicz

Dissertations and Theses

Potential impacts of climate change on the water resources of the Pacific Northwest of the United States include earlier peak runoff, reduced summer flows, and increased winter flooding. An increase in impervious surfaces, accompanied by urban development, is known to decrease infiltration and increase surface runoff. Alterations of flow amount and pathways can alter water quality through dilution or flushing effects. I used the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS) modeling system to investigate the relative importance of future climate change and land use change in determining the quantity and quality of …

"Whose Streets? Our Streets!" Urban Social Movements And The Transformation Of Everyday Life In Pacific Northwest Cities, 1990-1999, Leanne Claire Serbulo

Dissertations and Theses

This project returns to the questions that were once at the center of the urban studies debate over social movements. What are urban social movements, and what impacts do they leave on the cities where they occur? Urban protests in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington are used as the foundation for exploring the following research questions: What urban social movements occurred in the Pacific Northwest during 1990s? What goals were these movements struggling for? What impacts did urban social movements have on daily life in Portland and Seattle?

While this project has continuity with earlier attempts to identify, describe, and …

Special Focus Programs, Magnet Programs And Schools, And Early Childhood Education Centers: Equal Access In Portland Public School's Elementary Options, Nancy Seidule Hauth

Dissertations and Theses

As parents and educators demand more choice programs in their school districts, it is important for district officials to govern issues around equal access. When specialty programs are designed by grassroots groups and school staff without district-level guidance or funding, as it is in Portland, Oregon, equal access provisions can be overlooked resulting in lower ethnic and socio-economic diversity.

The purpose of this study was threefold: to determine if all families in Portland Public School district have equal access to special focus/magnet programs at the elementary grades; to better understand the link between Portland's past desegregation policies and current choice …

Patterns Of Time, Place, And Culture: Land Use Zoning In Portland, Oregon, 1918-1924, Meg Merrick

Dissertations and Theses

Until recently, few have questioned the notion that the separation of uses in land use zoning is inherently correct. Many observers of the city are now suggesting that zoning, as it has been practiced in this country over the last 80 years, has created cities that are fractured and function poorly. Others propose that zoning should be reconsidered as a remedy for urban dysfunction. They suggest that the whole notion of zoning be rethought.

The purpose of this study is to uncover some of the underlying rationales and methodologies that set the model for zoning. This study examines the rationales …

Korean-American Elders In Independent Living Arrangements, Shinok Lee

Dissertations and Theses

Many Korean-American elders in America are new immigrants who are faced with cultural change and adjustment problems. In recent years, these Korean-American elders have been undergoing a change in their living situation by moving away from their adult children into independent living arrangements. This study draws on a sample of 50 Korean-American elders in subsidized housing who are over the age of sixty and live in the Portland, Oregon Metropolitan area to investigate factors involved in their choice of and their well-being in independent living arrangements. Through interviews, the study specifically gives attention to why the elders moved, whether they …

Reading Neighborhood Character : A Semiotic Analysis Of Three Portland, Oregon Neighborhoods, Jodi Hanson Tanner

Dissertations and Theses

The character of a neighborhood is demonstrated through environmental cues that tell the casual passerby about a neighborhood and its residents, including such aspects as privacy, neighboring, and wealth. Neighborhoods may be made up of residents all speaking the same message, such as exclusivity or independence; these neighborhoods give coherent messages and have strong identifiable character. Other neighborhoods may seem fragmented or have unclear character because the residential make-up is changing over time. Residents reflect aspects of themselves through the physical surroundings that make up a neighborhood.

This study examines three neighborhoods in a preliminary effort to identify which characteristics …

Violent Youth Gangs In Portland: A Study Of The City's Response, Debra Lynn Lindberg

Dissertations and Theses

Youth gangs infiltrated Portland's illegal drug trade in the early 1980s. By the mid-1980s, entire neighborhoods in some parts of the city were affected. Residents expressed fear that their children would be drawn into gangs. Violence between rival gangs was frightening. Citizens, law enforcement and social services personnel organized to defend themselves and adjust programs to manage the problem. City officials denied a problem existed until a gang style shooting death forced recognition. The shooting death was catalytic in that it launched an effort to respond with a continuum of services. The House of Umoja was one of the services. …

Physical And Environmental Features That Contribute To Satisfaction With Hospice Facilities, Arezu Movahed

Dissertations and Theses

Improving the quality of remaining life for individuals who are terminally ill and their families is an issue that has become increasingly important in recent years. This issue has evolved from perceived deficiencies of conventional health care institutions in meeting the needs of people who are in the final stages of their life, when curative measures are no longer deemed appropriate. In response to deficiencies in care of the terminally ill and their families, there has been a movement toward humanizing conventional health care and making it more holistic. Hospice care, which is consistent with this movement, has evolved as …

Pretrial Release In Criminal Courts: A Study Of Three Oregon Counties, Melvin Earl Degraw

Dissertations and Theses

Pretrial release (PTR) is the permanent or temporary freedom from incarceration for criminal defendants awaiting adjudication of their cases in court. From Anglo Saxon times in England, people accused of non-capital crimes were generally permitted to remain free until judicial officials could hear the charges against them. In America, pretrial release has been advocated by the courts since the colonial era. The U. S. Constitution requires that bail not be excessive, but leaves governments free to decide how bail laws are administered. The study briefly traces the historical developments of PTR up to the present time. The study then centers …

Private Profit Versus Public Service: Competing Demands In Urban Transportation History And Policy, Portland, Oregon, 1872-1970, Martha J. Bianco

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation is a case study of the history of urban transportation policy in Portland, Oregon, between 1872 and 1970. The emphasis is on mass transit policy formulated and implemented by the private and public sectors as response to crises within both the local transit industry and the urban political economy. These crises are placed in the context of the continuing conflict between the industry's right to profit and its obligation to meet the competing demands of its constituencies: ridership's demands for low fares and comprehensive service; labor's demands for competitive wages; downtown businesses' demands for peak-hour service; and the …

Determining The Property Value Impact Of Landfills, Okwuchukwu Gerald Uba

Dissertations and Theses

The decline in property value can be due to owner's act or exogenous act from the operation of landfills. Landfill neighbors, especially home owners, perceive landfill operation to pose environmental safety problem such as ground water contamination and methane gas leakage that could affect home value.

Owners of landfills, especially those landfills that accept only dry waste (limited purpose landfill), claim that since their facilities meet the requirements of environmental regulations and the type of waste they accept could not possibly produce methane gas and leachate there is no property value impact of their facilities.

Several studies have shown that …

Rapists And Their Parental Relationships, Yaeko Steidel

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation attempts to find out what associations exist between dysfunctional parental relationships in the childhood of rapists and the rapists' violent acts. It also briefly examines the sociocultural effects which nurture such relationships.

Rape, a crime very prevalent in our society today, is now perceived as an acute expression of men's contempt for and anger against women. The former interpretation of rape as primarily a sexually motivated crime is no longer popular. This dissertation attempts to trace the origin of the rapist's psyche from his dysfunctional parental relationships.

Rare data on rapist's family relations from a recent FBI survey …

Residential Mobility And Revitalization In Portland Between 1970 And 1980: A Study Of The Urban Structural Impacts On Neighborhood Revitalization, Sheka Gassimou Kamara

Dissertations and Theses

Evidence of physical decline due in part to the rapid encroachment of commercial and industrial activity into some of Portland's residential areas in the mid-1960s and efforts to combat the forces of time and change through neighborhood revitalization provide the basis for this study. Additionally, some of the characteristics often employed in explaining the phenomenon in cities are manifested in the city of Portland. For example, Portland is endowed with a distinctive and well established downtown area that provides opportunities for the establishment of businesses as well as white-collar job opportunities. By the standards of the U.S. Bureau of the …

Hawthorne Boulevard: Commercial Gentrification And The Creation Of An Image, Rachel Ann Hardyman

Dissertations and Theses

Portland's Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard illustrates commercial gentrification in progress. Once a declining service district, "Hawthorne" is now one of the city's most popular shopping streets. Tracing and classifying businesses, using address listings from city directories, gives an accurate picture of changes since 1980. Three parallel trends can be distinguished in the makeup of the business mix: a shift from services to retailing; a move towards a regional, rather than a neighborhood, market area; and a cultural upgrading associated with the influx of increasingly expensive stores. Classification also aids in the definition of a tipping point at which revitalization became gentrification. …

Adolescent Shoplifting And Situational Stimuli, James A. Chambers

Dissertations and Theses

Adolescent shoplifting has provoked limited and somewhat controversial perspectives within the sociological and psychological literature. These controversies center around the empirical variables used for analysis. A companion argument focuses on the subjective and objective measurement of these variables. This research explicated variables from the sociological literature to test their relationship, using multiple linear regression, to adolescent shoplifting behavior. These variables and situational stimuli were operationalized in a simultaneous model to demonstrate a proximate occurrence of the attitude-situation-behavior reciprocal. This reciprocal is a learning theory which suggests that direct and vicarious experiences accompanied by rewards and punishment, in one's environment, lead …