Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Identity And Intersectionality For Big City Mayors: A Phenomenological Analysis Of Black Women, Constance J. Brooks

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The role of a mayor is integral within local governance. Their leadership and influence directly effectuates outcomes for the cities over which they preside. For big city mayors, their impact extends beyond local government and into the national policy arena. The way an individual demonstrates the role of mayor can be influenced by his/her perception of their own identity. However, within the realm of academic research dedicated to mayoral leadership and African Americans in politics, Black female mayors have largely been ignored. In particular, there are no known attempts at investigating the intersection of race and gender in understanding Black …

The Utah Model: Lessons For Regional Planning, Brenda C. Scheer

Brookings Mountain West Publications

Utah has become an unlikely leader in regional planning through a voluntary partnership of key leaders, agencies, local government, and the general public. Given that regional planning efforts around the nation have generally evoked strong reactions from residents concerned about losing local control, the success of Envision Utah—the organization that emerged as a key driver of regional planning in Utah—in building a consensus around regional growth management holds lessons for other regions.

Envision Utah adopted several strategies that have distinguished Utah’s regional planning efforts from other regions and given rise to what can be called the “Utah model” of collaborative …

Cooperation, Competition And The Development Of Institutional Capacity: Civil Rights And Public Transportation In Southern Nevada, Bruce Erwin Turner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the implementation of social goals through government action and the context and relations of agencies charged with demonstrating and enforcing equality in transit. Specifically, I explain complexities involved in the top-down federal mandate to demonstrate equal transit service for minority communities and low income residents. Institutional entrepreneurship by local government agencies influenced the legislation and regulation that they were charged to enforce. The local Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), created to enable a local voice in major capital road projects, acquired new institutional capabilities as federal agencies tasked them with implementing new social goals. Engineers and planners, initially …

Understanding Urban Sustainability And Quality Of Life: A System Dynamics Approach, Abby Elizabeth Beck

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

For an urban area to be sustainable, its resources cannot be depleted faster than they can replenish. If an urban area is to provide a high quality of life (QOL), it must offer and maintain an amenity package that satisfies its resident's preferences. Past studies on these topics all have a common thread: sustainability and QOL both pertain to people's relationship to capital. Capital is something that can accumulate and add value to a person or society. If sustainability and QOL are a function of people's relationship with capital, how they use it, deplete it, replenish it and transform it …