Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

How The Consumption Of Green Public Spaces Contributes To Quality Of Life: Evidence From Four Asian Cities, Antonietta Di Giulio, Marlyne Sahakian, Manisha Anantharaman, Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu, Rupali Khanna, Srikanth Narasimalu, Dunfu Zhang

Sociology & Anthropology Department Faculty Publications

While green public spaces have been studied in relation to biodiversity and climate change, and in relation to health and social inclusion, there is a need to further understand how they relate to a broader understanding of human wellbeing. Evidence suggests that public spaces play an important role with a view to happiness and mental health, but further evidence is needed on how people actually use such spaces and how human needs are met – and how this might compare across different contexts. This necessitates to linking conceptually, empirically and practically the consumption of such spaces, the notion of the …

Refining The Nutrition Environment Measures Survey (Nems) For Healthy Community Stores: Adaptations To Capture Alternative Food Retailers And Align With Dietary Guidelines, Alex B. Hill, Ravneet Kuar, Samantha M. Sundermeir, Christina Kasprzak, Megan Winkler, Sara John, Rachael D. Dombrowski, Bree Bode, Joel Gittelsohn

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

Inadequate consumption of healthy food is an ongoing public health issue in the United States. Food availability measures of supply versus consumption of healthy foods are disconnected in many studies. There is a need for an objective assessment of the food environment in order to assess how the food supply aligns with the Healthy Eating Index (HEI). Data were collected as part of the Healthy Community Stores Case Study Project, including a refined Nutrition Environment Measures Survey for Healthy Community Stores (NEMS-HCS) and an updated Healthy Food Availability Index that aligns with the Healthy Eating Index (HFAHEI). This paper will …

Diagnosing The Present With An Ecotopian Lexicon, Chirag Giri, Adam Liebman

Annual Student Research Poster Session

The book An Ecotopian Lexicon (2019) presents a collection of thirty terms and concepts from speculative fiction, anthropology, and the sociology of subcultures, each explored by a different author. The lexicon intends to address our collective “poverty of imagination” when it comes to avoiding global environmental collapse and building a different world, evidenced by the increasing dominance of apocalyptic narratives in popular culture. Although the book’s primary aim is to explore diverse concepts for imagining better futures, we have analyzed the form and content of the book for what they tell us about the present.

Did The Covid Pandemic Result In An Exodus Of The Latino Population Of New York City And The New York Metropolitan Region?, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2021 One-Year samples indicate that despite the catastrophic health impact of COVID on the Latino population of the region, there was not a mass exodus of Latinos from the City or the metro area. The 2021 ACS One-Year samples, when compared with previous ACS One-Year samples, indicate that the City’s overall population increased by 0.5% between 2018 and 2021 and 1.3% between 2019 and 2021. The ‘Hispanic’ population, excluding Spaniards, rose by 0.2% between 2018 and 2021 and 1.4% between 2019 and 2021 according to these data.

Climate Adaptation And Risk Preparedness In Florida’S East Coast Cities: Views Of Municipal Leaders, Sheila A. Young, Kenyon C. Lindeman, Samantha R. Fowler

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Cities along Florida’s Atlantic coastline are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, posing significant challenges for city planners. How cities see themselves in terms of developing or implementing their climate change adaptation action plans depends, in part, on the extent to which they perceive climate-related events as risks, and their city size. Data were obtained from city leaders (i.e. mayors, city/town managers, or their designees) from 86 cities along Florida’s Atlantic Coast from January to May 2021 to quantitatively assess factors influencing city adaptation planning. Validity and reliability were obtained for the survey. Multiple regression analyses showed significant …

The Role Of Diverse Values Of Nature In Visioning And Transforming Towards Just And Sustainable Futures, Adrian Martin, Patrick O’Farrell, Ritesh Kumar, Uta Eser, Daniel Faith, Erik Gomez- Baggethun, Zuzana V. Harmáčková, Andra-Ioana Horcea-Milcu, Juliana Merçon, Martin Quaas, Julian Rode, Ricardo Rozzi, Nadia Sitas, Yuki Yoshida, Tobias Nyumba Ochieng, Ann-Kathrin Koessler, Natalia Lutti Hummel, Lelani Mannetti, Gabriela Arroyo-Robles

USI Publications

The chapter assesses the role of nature’s diverse values in supporting social-ecological transformations towards more just and sustainable futures. This is approached as a two-fold and mutually complementing task: a) assessing the diverse values that have been considered in developing and creating visions for, and scenarios of the future, particularly those relating to more just and sustainable futures; and b) assessing how interventions to incorporate more plural valuation into decisions can serve as leverage points for enabling and governing transformation towards just and sustainable futures.

Beyond Academia: A Case For Reviews Of Gray Literature For Science-Policy Processes And Applied Research, Yuki Yoshida, Nadia Sitas, Lelani Mannetti, Gabriela Arroyo-Robles, Marta Berbés-Blázquez, David Gonzalez Jimenez, Valerie Nelson, Aidin Niamir, Zuzana V. Harmáčková

USI Publications

Gray literature is increasingly considered to complement evidence and knowledge from peer-reviewed literature for science-policy processes and applied research. On the one hand, science-policy assessments need to both consider a diversity of worldviews, knowledge types and values from a variety of sectors and actor groups, and synthesize policy-relevant findings that are salient, legitimate and credible. On the other hand, practitioners and scholars conducting applied research, especially in environmental and health-related fields, are affected by the time lag and documented biases of academic publication processes. While gray literature holds diverse perspectives that need to be integrated in science-policy processes as well …

Accessing Opportunities For Household Provisioning Post-Covid-19, Kelly Clifton, Amanda Howell, Kristina M. Currans, Gabriella Abou-Zeid, Max Nonnamaker, Paula C. Carder

TREC Final Reports

In this project, we used a mixed-methods study to collect critical information to evaluate the extent to which people modified their shopping behavior, either by choice or necessity, to meet their provisioning needs during the COVID-19 crisis and the following recovery. First, four waves of a cross-sectional survey were administered online to a representative sample of households in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington. This longitudinal, comparative study responded directly to a critical research gap and advanced behavioral science by providing a rich survey dataset to support and test theories of behavioral change and technology adoption. Second, focus groups were …

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.

Outdoor Thermal Comfort Research In Transient Conditions: A Narrative Literature Review, Yuliya Dzyuban, Graces N. Y. Ching, Sin Kang Yik, Adrian J. Tan, Shreya Banerjee, Peter Jay Crank, Winston T. L. Chow

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In recent years, urban planners and designers are paying greater attention to Outdoor Thermal Comfort (OTC) studies due to the imminent threat of the Urban Heat Island and climate change on human health. Historically, indoor thermal comfort research assumed steady-state conditions, centralizing on the concept of thermal neutrality to determine optimal environmental parameters. Such research pivoted to investigating how non-steady-state, transient environmental conditions influence comfort. Recent studies underscore the usefulness of positive alliesthesia in providing a productive framework for OTC evaluation. In this article we first clarify the concepts related to thermal comfort-related terms, scales, and models in the literature. …

Analysing Impacts Of Urban Morphological Variables And Density On Outdoor Microclimate For Tropical Cities: A Review And A Framework Proposal For Future Research Directions, Shreya Banerjee, Ngai Yan Ching, Sin Kang Yik, Yuliya Dzyuban, Peter Jay Crank, Xin Yi Pek, Winston T. L. Chow

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Modifying urban morphology, defined as mass, density, and orientation of building stock in cities, are well-known heat mitigation strategies addressing urban heat islands (UHI) at various scales and consequent thermal discomfort. However, varying morphological aspects may have divergent effects on Outdoor Thermal Comfort (OTC) in cities. Unlike UHI, which is derived from urban-rural temperature differences, OTC can be quantified by thermal comfort indices considering the objective assessment of microclimatic variables including air temperature (Ta), relative humidity (RH), mean radiant temperature (TMRT), and wind speed (Va), as well as a subjective assessment of individual perception. In Singapore and other tropical cities, …

Developing Climate Resilient Cities, Winston T. L. Chow

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

We need to be quicker.

The Future Of Architecture: Measuring The Sustainability Of Paradigm Shifting Architectural Interventions, Jake M. Cohen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sustainable development in the built environment seems paradoxical given that the architecture, construction, and buildings sector is one of most polluting, wasteful, and inefficient industries. Despite this notion, the role of the architect is evolving and their influence on design is expanding beyond ideas for physical structures and into designing interactions between the built environment and components such as policy, material usage, sustainability, and urban regeneration. Architects that are able to implement paradigm shifting design ideas that improve the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability can be catalytic for systemic change and act as a vehicle to move away …

An Examination Of Incentive Programs To Attract Remote Workers, Molly Schnoke, Jack Yochum, Madeline Frantz, Georgina Figueroa

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic changed the nature of work for many Americans, and the use of these attraction programs escalated quickly. Remote work attraction has quickly become a valuable strategy for municipalities aiming to bolster and target their economic development. The rise of this tool, with its focus on individual community investment rather than traditional models of employer attraction or workforce development, has the potential to reshape economic development policy at the local level. This brief explores the nature of these programs: where they are, what they offer, their conditions, and their early indicators of success.

In order to …

Portland State And The Downtown Portland Plan - 50 Years Later With Ethan Seltzer, Ethan Seltzer

PDXPLORES Podcast

Fifty years ago, the City of Portland developed a plan for the downtown corridor with a radical vision of what a central city could be. The downtown we know today is the result of that plan. In this episode of PDXPLORES, Professor Emeritus Ethan Seltzer discusses the 1972 downtown plan and how Portland State evolved into an urban-serving university alongside the downtown corridor.

Click on the "Download" button to access the accompanying article Portland, Portland State, and the Urban University Idea.

Transcript for audio below as additional file.

Link to city archive documents

https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/oscdl_cityarchives/

Can Micropolitan Areas Bridge The Urban/Rural Divide?, Sheila Foster, Clayton P. Gillette

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

There exists a well-known and significant divide between urban and rural areas in the United States. The divide has been documented along multiple dimensions – social, economic, and political – and is seen as a detrimental characteristic of our national identity and capacity for both economic development and civil political discourse. In this Article, we explore a subset of the urban/rural divide and propose a mechanism for reducing its economic and political effects within that limited realm. Specifically, we focus on the subset of rural areas that lie within what the Office of Management and Budget defines as micropolitan areas. …

50 Years And Counting: Why Environmental Preservation Is Embedded In Oregon Culture, Carl Abbott

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the years following World War II, suburban growth began consuming Willamette Valley farmland. Increasingly affluent families were snapping up vacation properties with mountain and ocean views. Oregonians in the latter half of the 1960s responded with conferences, reports and finger-wagging at the bad example of California. In 1969, the legislature acted with Senate Bill 10. The legislation established land-use regulation as a state concern, requiring local governments to develop land-use plans in line with 10 statewide goals. The intention was good, but the measure lacked teeth for monitoring and enforcement. McCall promised to fix the problems when he ran …

Statistical Inference For Multimodal Travel Time Reliability, Avinash Unnikrishnan, Miguel Figliozzi, Subhash C. Kochar

TREC Final Reports

Travel time reliability is a key metric of interest to practitioners and researchers because it affects travel choice and the economic competitiveness of urban areas. This research focuses on three travel time reliability metrics – buffer index, modified buffer index, and the relative width of travel time distributions. The key novel contributions of this research include using the multivariate delta method to prove that the sampling distributions of the three travel time reliability metrics are asymptotically normal. The asymptotic standard error for the three reliability metrics is derived. The asymptotic normality and the standard error result are used to arrive …

Minimizing Surface Run-Off, Improving Underground Water Recharging, And On-Site Rain Harvesting In The Kathmandu Valley, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal's political institutions and administrative units were thoroughly restructured in 2015 with the promulgation of the new Constitution. Several rural areas were combined to meet the definition of urban threshold criteria to classify rural areas into urban categories. Accordingly, over 3,900 local political and administrative units were amalgamated into 753 units, of which, 293 units are classified as urban. Within these newly defined urban areas, many natural environments have been converted into impervious surfaces such as paved roads, sidewalks, and building roofs. These impervious surfaces have drastically increased the amount of surface run-offs-often termed as "urban floods"--under increasing precipitation caused …

Everyday Verticality: Migrant Experiences Of High-Rise Living In Santiago, Chile, Megan Sheehan

Sociology Faculty Publications

Over the last three decades, Santiago, Chile has experienced rapid urbanisation. The city’s expansion has prompted the proliferation of high-rise residential buildings, mediated by spatial segregation along class lines and fragmented urban governance. Concurrently, economic opportunities in Chile have drawn regional labour migrants, resulting in an unprecedented increase in migratory flows. Drawing on ethnographic research, this article charts the everyday experiences of migrants in high-rise residences. As new arrivals seek housing, social networks channel migrants – particularly Venezuelans – into shared high-rise apartments, producing specific buildings as vertical enclaves. Lived experiences within the confines of verticality are frequently shaped by …

Understanding Social Class In Place: Responding To Supergentrification In Aspen, Colorado, Jenny Stuber, Krista E. Paulsen

Urban Studies and Community Development Faculty Publications and Presentations

Existing research portrays elite places as prone to exclusion, welcoming of upscaling, and focused on protecting their economic self-interests. This paper provides nuance to this research by exploring how stakeholders understand and respond to supergentrification. During the fall of 2016, a group of citizen activists in the exclusive community of Aspen, Colorado, initiated an ordinance seeking to limit the expansion of luxury chain stores. Drawing on qualitative data related to this case, we show that how communities respond to supergentrification depends on locally specific understandings of place and social class, and how class interests have been institutionalized in local policies. …

Equity And Exclusion Issues In Cashless Fare Payment Systems For Public Transportation, Aaron Golub, Anne Brown, Candace Brakewood, John Macarthur, Sangwan Lee, Abubakr Ziedan

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many transit agencies in the United States plan to automate their fare collection and limit–or even eliminate–the use of cash fares, with the goals of expediting boarding, collecting data, and lowering costs. Yet about 10% of US adults lack a bank account or credit card, and many rely on restrictive cellphone data plans or do not have access to the internet or a smartphone. These riders will find it difficult to access transit in the future. This paper examines transit users’ experiences with fare technologies using a survey of riders in three cities. Our analysis reveals which riders are most …

Community Transportation Academy: Course Curriculum And Implementation Handbook, Nathan Mcneil, Keith Bartholomew

TREC Final Reports

A Community Transportation Academy (CTA) is a course that harnesses the knowledge, technical expertise and passions of practicing transportation professionals in a city to immerse a cohort of interested and dedicated community members in transportation issues over a two to three month curriculum.

The CTA curriculum was developed by drawing from the Portland Traffic and Transportation (PTT or Portland CTA) course, along with the Wasatch Transportation Academy (WTA or Wasatch CTA, which was inspired by the Portland course). Planning academy courses in cities around the country are also good models to look to for how to structure and operate such …

Individual Perceptions Of Climate Anomalies And Collective Action: Evidence From An Artefactual Field Experiment In Malaysian Borneo, Terry Van Gevelt, T. Zamanb, K.N. Chanc, M.M. Bennettd

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

We explore the effect of individual perceptions of climate anomalies on collective action within a context of environmental complexity and uncertainty. To do so, we construct two competing propositions that are theoretically robust but with very different real-world implications. Our first proposition suggests that collective action to adapt to climate change is likely to be more effective when perceptions of climate anomalies converge within a community. Our second proposition suggests the opposite: that convergence is likely to hinder adaptation behaviour. We use a community co-designed measure of perceptions and an artefactual field experiment to test our propositions and explore the …

Utility Redlining: Inequitable Electric Distribution In The Dte Service Area, Alex B. Hill, Jackson Koeppel

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

Key DTEE infrastructure is a decade or more past expected use in 4.8 kV areas. In Detroit, with double the vulnerability level as the region, most residents only have outdated electric infrastructure. Modernization efforts in Detroit favor industrial and municipal customers over residents.

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.

An Analysis Of Decolonization Efforts In Urban Agriculture: A Pathway To Indigenous Food Sovereignty And Cultural Revitalization, Sarah Fisher

Environment and Sustainability Summer Fellows

My research focuses on applications of urban agriculture, relationships between Indigenous peoples and community-based agriculture projects, and decolonizing food systems. I provide insight on colonialist tendencies, or ways in which the marginalization of Indigenous peoples is deeply entrenched within government, educational, and other leadership settings, as a way to evaluate and restructure urban agriculture projects to serve, represent and heal Native communities. Conventional urban agriculture has many known benefits, including its capacity for food production; however, the extent to which Indigenous communities participate in and benefit from urban agriculture has not been widely studied. Ongoing exclusion of Indigenous peoples from …

Computer And Broadband Internet Access In Nevada And The Mountain West, Peter Grema, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Transportation & Infrastructure

This fact sheet examines data on computer and broadband internet access throughout the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah). The original dataset from the United States Census Bureau is comprised of information from the American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates on total households with a computer and broadband internet access for various geographic areas and demographic groups throughout the United States.

The Stamford Experience In The Twenty-First Century: Analyzing Urban Development Conflict At The Neighborhood Level, Michael Hernandez

Honors Scholar Theses

At a time when mid-size cities around the country are growing rapidly and taking on all kinds of development, it is important for scholars to understand residents’ views on development. This paper reviews some of the extant literature on urban development conflict, with a focus on the legacy of urban renewal, models of citizen participation, urban redevelopment, and the back-to- the-city movement towards an understanding of resident opposition to development. The literature review also helped create a framework to answer three questions: (1) what is (or are) the central conflict(s) over urban development in Stamford, Connecticut since 2007, (2) considering …

Evidence Of Alliesthesia During A Neighborhood Thermal Walk In A Hot And Dry City, Yuliya Dzyuban, David M. Hondula, Jennifer K. Vanos, Ariane Midell, Paul J. Coseo, Evan R. Kuras, Charles L. Redman

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Designing cities for thermal comfort is an important priority in a warming and urbanizing world. As temperatures in cities continue to break extreme heat records, it is necessary to develop and test new approaches capable of tracking human thermal sensations influenced by microclimate conditions, complex urban geometries, and individual charac-teristics in dynamic settings. Thermal walks are a promising novel research method to address this gap. During a ther-mal walk in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, we examined relationships between the built environment, microclimate, and subjective thermal judgments across a downtown city neighborhood slated for redevelopment. Subjects equipped with GPS devices participated in …