Digital Commons Network^™

Public Land Revisited: Municipalization And Privatization In Newark And New York City, Samuel Stein, Oksana Mironova

Publications and Research

Public land plays a central role in contemporary urban planning struggles. Using a comparative case study approach focused on the north-eastern US cities of Newark and New York City, we uncover patterns of land acquisition and dispossession that fit five broad and often overlapping periods in planning history: City Beautiful, metropolitan reorganization, deindustrialization, and devaluation, followed by hyper-commodification in New York City and redevelopment amidst disinvestment in Newark. Through this periodization, we find that accumulation and alienation of urban public land has largely taken place through two modes of municipalization (targeted and reactive) and two modes of privatization (community-led and …

Climate Futures 1| Climate Futures, Design And The Just Transition, Schedule, Liberal Arts Division, Ncss Graduate Program

Climate Futures Symposia

Schedule of events distributed at the Symposium.

Growing A Sustainable City: The Question Of Urban Agriculture, Hamil Pearsall

Sustainability Seminar Series

This presentation examines urban agriculture in Philadelphia and highlights the challenges of institutionalizing this historically informal urban activity into formal city policy over the last two decades. Urban agriculture has become a symbol of Philadelphia’s economic revitalization, sustainability, and increasingly, its gentrification. Often characterized by advocates as an urban panacea, gardening and farming seem to promise solutions to many different urban problems, such as blighted vacant lots, food insecurity, stormwater runoff, and neighborhood decline. However, questions of land tenure, the use of economic resources, and the long-term viability of urban agriculture shape the political discourse about the future of growing …

Growing A Sustainable City?: The Question Of Urban Agriculture By Christina D. Rosan And Hamil Pearsall, Matthew Zantingh

The Goose

Review of Christina D. Rosan and Hamil Pearsall's Growing a Sustainable City?: The Question of Urban Agriculture.

Assessment Of Expanding Light Rail Transit Systems Versus Highway Systems: Influence On Land Use Change And Habitat Fragmentation, Behnoud Aghapour

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses - Archive

The purpose of this research is to assess and investigate the impact of expanding the Light Rail Transit (LRT) systems versus conventional highway systems for land use change, land formation, and habitat fragmentation in the Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) metropolitan area as a highly developing urban area. The DFW metropolitan area is one of the fastest growing urban areas in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2016). Successfully accommodating this population growth requires North Texans to collectively address important issues including: environmental degradation, suburbanization, suburban sprawl, landscape formation and fragmentation, lack of public transportation, community and well-being needs, transportation expansion, …

Life After Dark, Austin Bamford

Masters Theses

Witnessing the movements of the moon, stars, Milky Way and meteors is a fundamental first step in examining our roles in the universe and revealing the material origins of the landscapes we inhabit. It is this cosmic understanding that leads us to steward our environments and identify who we are.

We see the choreography of the stars not only by seeing the celestial bodies with telescopes or the naked eye, but also by experiencing the ways in which ambient light interacts with ground—changing by the minute, season and year. It is the dynamics between source and surface that catches us …

The Mass Mobility Of America: A Multimodal Guide, Christian Carroll

Honors Projects

America has a problem-and its root is mobility. With the world everchanging at the hands of technology and social media, other forms of once well-revered technology, such as the combustible engine and coal-powered locomotives, are now at a crossroads. The automobile still dominates the transportation landscape-this is seen through city layouts that have promoted sedentary lifestyles, an increase in infrastructure costs, and a rise in carbon dioxide emissions. All three of these issues are part of a bigger problem in modern society- a lack of affordable and reliable healthcare, a crumbling American transportation infrastructure, and a world facing issues of …

Theses And Professional Projects: 2016/2017 Ay

Focus

For fulfilment of the MCRP degree at Cal Poly’s CRP department, the student may choose between developing a thesis or a professional project, or a specific individual project in a final planning studio.

The following abstracts are from master’s theses and projects defended in the 2016/2017 AY. They are available to download from Cal Poly’s Kennedy Library at http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses.

Dream And Reality: The Selective Implementation Of The Kessler Plan In Dallas, Molly A. Plummer

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses - Archive

This research examines George Kessler’s 1911 A City Plan for Dallas to understand the gaps between the ideals of the City Beautiful era plan and impact on the realized physical design of the city. As inequality rises in our urban centers (insert citation), it is increasingly important for us to understand our social and political environments that shaped the landscapes that physically reinforce that inequity. As stated by Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar in their history of Central Park, “its meaning as a public institution also has two dimensions: its political character as property and its cultural character as an …

Progress For Whom, Toward What? Progressive Politics And New York City’S Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, Samuel Stein

Publications and Research

In both its historical Progressive Era roots and its contemporary manifestations, U.S. urban progressivism has evinced a contradictory tendency toward promoting the interests of capital and property while ostensibly protecting labor and tenants, thus producing policies that undermine its central claims. This article interrogates past and present appeals to urban progressive politics, particularly around housing and planning, and offers an in-depth case study of one of the most highly touted examples of the new urban progressivism: New York City’s recently adopted Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program. This case serves to identify the ways in which progressive rhetoric can disguise neoliberal policies. …

Direct Potable Reuse In Small-To-Medium Sized Inland Communities: Lessons Learned For Public Education And Outreach, Claudia B. Pratesi

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Drought, growing populations, and potential conflict over water in the American Southwest have water authorities examining highly treated wastewater as an option to augment municipal supplies. Direct potable reuse (DPR) holds promise for improving sustainability and reliability of potable water supplies by generating high-quality drinking water from wastewater. Despite research demonstrating that DPR can be safe, one of the biggest hindrances to DPR is negative public perception. Attempts to implement some DPR project have failed, while others have proceeded quickly. Using insights from the literature and interviews with water managers, this study aims to: (1) examine existing community conditions related …

We Walk With Time, Time Does Not Walk With Us, Angelina L. Grey

Architecture and Planning ETDs

The conceptual framework of Indigenous placemaking is defined as a fundamental and complex approach to the processes of the Indigenous planning paradigm. To identify placemaking is to acknowledge and recognize Indigenous place-based knowledge as essential planning tools when working with Indigenous communities. Colonization and western acculturization adjudicated the divestment of Indigenous languages and cultures through western policies and Indian school education. Today, Indigenous worldviews are tainted with extreme levels of sociocultural disparities. The implementation of Indigenous planning processes establishes an understanding to Indigenous community-building through shared knowledge and collaboration. The concepts of placemaking thus enables and empowers Indigenous communities to …

Baden Community Open Space Plan, Rod Barnett

Books and Monographs

A team led by professor Rod Barnett has completed the Baden Community Open Space Plan. In summer 2016, Barnett and a team of research assistants collaborated with the on-the-ground team to engage residents to understand their needs. This data, combined with ecological data points, and public health assessments collected in the community, informed the proposed masterplan. In the voids created by voluntary buyout and demolition, the Baden neighborhood has an opportunity to redefine how infrastructure and greenspace can come together to create a space that serves residents. The team of partners has included the Green City Coalition, the City of …

Assessing Vulnerability To Extreme Heat In San Luis Obispo County, Julia Isabella Cannata

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

A Geospatial Assessment Of Social Vulnerability To Sea-Level Rise In Coastal San Luis Obispo, Jesse A. Carpentier

Master's Theses

This project is an assessment of social vulnerability to sea-level rise in the unincorporated coastal area of the County of San Luis Obispo (County) using geospatial and statistical analysis. The intention of this assessment is to inform local climate adaptation efforts now required by state legislation. A social vulnerability index was generated at the Census block group level using 32 variables positively correlated with social vulnerability. The social vulnerability score for each block group is the sum of scores generated for the following principle components: (1) race/ethnicity and disability status, (2) social isolation and age, (3) income, and (4) housing …

A Comparison Of Park Access With Park Need For Children: Case Study In Cache County, Utah, Shuolei Chen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Childhood obesity is one of the nation’s most serious health problems. There are growing efforts to prevent childhood obesity by improving opportunities for physical activity in their communities. The outdoor settings of the built environment, such as parks and open spaces, can offer children opportunities for physical activities, experience with nature, and social interaction, which contribute to children’s physical and psychological health. However, children’s physical access to parks is often inequitable. Simultaneously, the quality of parks also varies. These disparities caused the inequitable distribution of health-promoting features of built environment among disadvantaged groups who may not have access to other …

The Histories Of New York City’S Parks, Catherine Mcneur

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This is the introduction to the Journal of Planning History volume 16 issue 2, 2017.

Climate Change In The Hudson River Estuary: Promoting Adaptation And Resilience Through Stakeholder Engagement In Design And Visualization, Gabrielle S.D. Weiss

Bard Center for Environmental Policy

In response to the growing risk to communities from climate change impacts, Professor Cerra at the Cornell University School of Landscape Architecture developed the Climate Adaptive Design (CAD) program. CAD is being implemented as a partnership between the Hudson River Estuary Program (Estuary Program) and Cornell that utilizes participatory design and visualization to engage communities about planning for future climate impacts. The goal of CAD is to build climate resilience, galvanize community participation and education, and build links to external sources of support including local institutions of higher education. This thesis outlines background for the development of the program and …

Dispatches, Sunny Spillane

Art Inquiries

No abstract provided.

Race, Class, And Gentrification Along The Atlanta Beltline, Natalie Camrud

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines issues of affordability and gentrification in neighborhoods around the Atlanta BeltLine. The BeltLine is a Transit Oriented Development project that is an adaptive reuse of an old freight rail corridor circling the city of Atlanta. The rapid new development occurring along the BeltLine is gentrifying neighborhoods and displacing communities. This thesis examines past urban redevelopment projects in Atlanta to see what the affects were on marginalized communities, and how the BeltLine is either similar or different to past development initiatives.

Voices Of Cully: A Case Study Of The Living Cully Weatherization And Home Repair Project 2.0, Lucy J.T. Cultrera

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Cully neighborhood is situated in the Northeast quadrant of Portland, Oregon. It is 2.75 square mile plot of land and home to roughly 13,000 people. In addition to being one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Portland, it is the most densely populated, with the smallest amount of parkland per capita. Over the last two decades, home value has increased 203% in Cully, compared to a 90% citywide increase. Amidst these development trends are stories of incredible resilience, resistance and activism from the affected community. My project is a case study of one anti-displacement initiative, which was developed and …

Solar Urban Planning: Addressing Barriers And Conflicts Specific To Renewable Energy Policy And The Current Field And Practice Of Urban Planning Within The Context Of A Changing Climate, Toryl P. Hanna

Capstone Collection

The world is in a period of rapid urbanization while experiencing unprecedented rise in global temperature as a result of climate change. Questions have been raised as to how strategies for urbanization will be able to address the fetish for energy, while halting carbon emissions produced by traditional energy sources for urban inhabitants around the world. First, this paper seeks to look to cities, at the intersection of solar energy and the field of urban planning, looking into the opportunities and challenges that are currently surfacing. Conflicts and barriers in traditional urban land use patterns emerge as a topic of …

Regulation Of Recreational Marijuana In Small Cities And Counties In Colorado, Katherine Nesse, Colin Victory

SPU Works

In November 2016 the number of states where recreational marijuana sales are legal increased to eight. Thousands of cities and counties are now on the front lines of regulating these new land uses. Local governments in Colorado, the first state to implement recreational marijuana legalization, are models for jurisdictions in other states. We study counties and municipalities in the eight micropolitan statistical areas in Colorado to learn how they regulate recreational marijuana businesses. We reviewed codes, ordinances, and other documents of 43 local governments and interviewed planners in a third of these jurisdictions. These places were purposefully selected and reflect …

Landscapes Of Environmental Justice: A Post-Structural Analysis Of Ecological Structures And Environmental Discourses, Sima Namin

Planning Dissertations - Archive

Although application of ecological concepts and looking at the city as an 'ecological space' or ecosystem is not new in planning (e.g. Chicago school), in the context of environmental justice research there is a need for a more integrated approach towards the complex interrelations between human aspects of urban landscapes and urban ecology. Consequently, the first starting point of my research is that studying environmental justice also requires an understanding of environmental health. The second defining point of this research is influenced by the notion of questioning science and research as a 'social construct.' Drawing on Foucault's legacy of discourse …

Local Approaches To Regional Problems: Suburban Government Responses To Portland's Regional Housing Crisis, Emma Deppa

Dissertations and Theses

The Portland metropolitan region has seen unprecedented growth in the last three decades, resulting in both economic expansion and considerable gentrification. While lauded for its commitment to sustainability and a "smart development" ethos, many questions remain for the city with respect to the needs of displaced residents and a burgeoning population of young professionals. This study examines how various levels of government implement growth management policies to accommodate these demographic changes, and aims to assess whether and how the consequences of growth, especially gentrification and displacement, are meaningfully addressed. Qualitative interviews were conducted with staff members and elected officials from …

The Connection Between Neighborhood Walkability And Life Longevity In A Midsized City, William W. Riggs, John Gilderbloom

Focus

Riggs and Gilderbloom discuss a study for Louisville, KY that confirms the relationship between walkability and health, offering lessons for similar urban areas. Investigating years of projected life lost as it relates to neighborhood walkability, they found that more walkable areas are predictors of longevity. The study suggests that the trend toward longer lifespan may be connected to gentrification-related displacement and racial homogenization in walkable neighborhoods. The findings can help shape urban design policies and interventions that support physical activity.

Community Design Centers (Cdcs) On The Upsurge: Investigating Perceptions Amongst Cdc Leaders And Administrators In Texas, Robert Kevin Rodriguez

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses - Archive

For several decades, community design centers (CDCs) have specialized in professional design and planning assistance to non-profit groups, agencies, and individuals that lack the funding or resources to otherwise receive such services (ACD 2016). Notwithstanding the historical context under which CDCs were originally created, their persistent presence since the year 2000 has seen the number of CDCs nearly triple in North America, from just under 70, to "over 200 active organizations, covering ever-expanding geographic, disciplinary, and strategic territories" (ACSA 2014, 4). Yet, this growth aside, "CDCs remain a somewhat silent partner in the world of design" (Curry 2004, 70) with …

Unearthed: Advocating Against Fracking And Breaking The Bond Of The Imagined World Order, Colleen E. Cloonan

ENV 434 Environmental Justice

While discussing the imagined world order, it is evident that the world is not perfect. Over the course of the centuries, the earth has been maimed by humans, whether it be during the agricultural age or throughout the process of industrialization into the modern era. Humans must realize that sooner, rather than later, we must address the environmental destruction we are causing. A specific case, with that such as hydraulic fracturing of shale, otherwise known as fracking, provides as an example of one of the environmental justice issues that is plaguing the earth. However, there are complications. In the consumer …

Syllabus: Social Ecologies Of Harlem, Spring 2016, Jacqueline Margetts

2016 Spring Social Ecologies of Harlem

No abstract provided.

Brownfield To Brightfield: Influences On Attitude, Brittni Leigh Olesen

All Theses

The purpose of this study is to analyze what factors influence a person’s attitude towards a brownfield site converted into a future solar energy farm through the RE-Power America’s Land Initiative to help increase the success of implementing solar energy farms in cities. Five different factors, including: spatial, public participation, local context, personal values, and socio-demographic factors are analyzed and tested using descriptive statistics and measures of association. Among other tests, measures of association were used to determine that egalitarian viewpoint, education and income had statistically significant relationships with acceptance towards the potential solar energy development. However, all of these …