Digital Commons Network^™

Columbia Corridor Drainage Districts Governance Study, Thomas Potiowsky, Jenny Liu, Mike Paruszkiewicz, Jeff Renfro, Marisol Cáceres, Peter Hulseman

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

This study focused on major questions related to drainage district consolidation in the Columbia Corridor, arising from the geographic and economic diversity that characterizes the four entities. The magnitude and type of economic activity within the districts varies considerably, and results in a broad range of operational resources and levee system requirements.

Empirical Evidence For The Scale Dependence Of Biotic Interactions, Jonathan Belmaker, Phoebe Zarnetske, Sara Zonneveld, Sydne Record, Angela L. Strecker, Lydia Beaudrot

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Aim: Although it is recognized that ecological patterns are scale dependent, the exact scales over which specific ecological processes operate are still a matter of controversy. In particular, understanding the scales over which biotic interactions operate is critical for predicting changes in species distributions in the face of the ongoing biodiversity crisis. It has been hypothesized that biotic interactions operate predominately at fine grains, yet this conjecture has received relatively little empirical scrutiny. We use US woodpeckers as a model system to assess the relative importance of biotic interactions, environmental suitability and geographic proximity to other intraspecific occurrence sites, …

Who Votes For Mayor? A Psu Pilot Research Report, Jason R. Jurjevich, Phil Keisling, Kevin Christopher Rancik, Carson Gorecki

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

Phil Keisling is director of the Center for Public Service at Portland State University in Oregon, which recently conducted research on who votes in mayoral elections with Knight Foundation support.

The last 10 to 20 years have been times of revitalization and progress for many of America’s big cities. While there are certainly exceptions, many major city downtowns have been revitalized, often with the money and energy of younger entrepreneurs. Committed and often well-educated “young creatives” have helped turn many urban cores into desirable places to live, work, and raise families.

But as much as younger residents have often played …

Focus On A Stem, Based In Place, Watershed Curriculum: A Confluence Of Stormwater, Humans, Knowledge, Attitudes, And Skills, Lecia Molineux Schall

Dissertations and Theses

This case study investigated the potential of a place-based watershed curriculum, using STEM principles, to increase watershed literacy and knowledge of human impacts on stormwater in the environment. A secondary goal was to examine whether the place-based connection and increased exposure to issues within their local watershed impacted the students' environmental attitudes and sense of place. Over 500 sixth graders participated in this localized curriculum, where they learned the science behind watershed issues on their own school campuses. They focused on ways humans can monitor and mitigate their impacts on stormwater, through engineering investigations. The mixed-method research study investigated the …

Localized Ecological And Educational Effects Of Environmental Service-Learning In Portland, Oregon, Steven Matthew Braun

Dissertations and Theses

Environmental service-learning is an intentional educational experience(s) wherein learners engage in meaningful activities designed to serve the environment. Environmental service-learning activities vary according to their learning and service goals and include ecomanagement, persuasion, legal action, economic action and political action. The purpose of this mixed methods research was to explore the ecological and educational impacts of grades 6-12 environmental education, with special attention to environmental service-learning throughout Portland, Oregon.

Ecological impacts considered restoration and conservation outcomes of several environmental service-learning programs including plant communities, soils, litter removal and trail maintenance. Educational outcomes considered aspects of environmental literacy including locus of …

Curating Massive Media, Dave Colangelo

School of Film Faculty Publications and Presentations

The European Union’s media art initiative Connecting Cities and New York-based Streaming Museum are two recent examples of curatorial models that operate through large, networked, digital displays. This growing exhibition category combines expressive media architecture and telecommunication elements to engage ‘trans-local’ sites and diverse publics in complex media spaces. By investigating the confluence of exhibition making, public art and urban experience, this article explores the relationship between spectacle and criticality with respect to shifting notions of space, identity and ‘the common’.

Note: At the time of writing, Dave Colangelo was affiliated with Ryerson University.

Where The Ends Don't Meet In 2014: Measuring Poverty And Self-Sufficiency Among Oregon's Families, Elizabeth Morehead, Sheila A. Martin

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

This report sheds light on the economic realities facing many of Oregon’s households and provides an initial picture of the extent of income inadequacy in Oregon. Although addressing this issue is challenging, it can be seen as encouraging that many householders with below-Standard incomes are already part of the workforce. It is possible that many householders have adequate levels of education and experience but face other barriers that keep their wages low or raise their expenses. Identifying and addressing such barriers is the next step in bringing household incomes and costs into balance.

Fourth Plain Forward: Action Plan For Vancouver's Multicultural Business District, Mandia Gonzales, Jamin Kimmell, Eddie Montejo, Lauren Patton, Kate Rogers, Anthony Thompson

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Fourth Plain Forward is an action plan for Fourth Plain's multicultural business district, created in collaboration with the City of Vancouver, Washington. Fourth Plain's business district reflects the rich diversity of its surrounding communities, but the area faces significant economic challenges. To address these issues, the action plan builds on the economic development goals outlined in the 2007 Fourth Plain Corridor Subarea Plan, and aims to improve conditions along the corridor for both businesses and residents. Broadly, Fourth Plain Forward outlines strategies and actions to grow economic security and opportunity, and maintain the area's diversity.

This project was conducted under …

Paalf People's Plan: East Portland Pilot, Todd Borkowitz, Lorrie Chang, Christine Corrales, Leslee Humphrey, D. H. Strongheart, Timothy Wood

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Recognizing the traumatic experience of being forced to move and losing community, this plan reflects the hopes of community members who seek to rebuild their lives in a new place. The East Portland Pilot Plan applies the urban planning practice of placemaking as a transformative intervention for addressing challenges and stabilizing the Black community in East Portland. This plan also emerges at a critical time, as existing city plans for East Portland indicate significant future public investment and development.

This plan has been written with a wide audience in mind. The material is relevant to homeowners, community activists, urban planners, …

Democratizing The City Through The Colonization Of Public Space: A Case Study Of Portland Food Not Bombs, Trent Adam Saari

Dissertations and Theses

The implementation of neoliberal economic and political policies is often touted as a way to increase overall individual well-being and freedom. While these policies may benefit those already wielding economic security and political power, marginalized populations often bear the negative cost associated with such policies. As deregulation and privatization increases, social safety nets and social spending are dramatically reduced. At the local level, liberalization has resulted in increased surveillance and regulation of public space. Organized resistance to global corporatization and increased economic and political marginalization has occurred across the globe. Resisting neoliberalism is complex as the adaptability of the state …

Learning From Educators Of Color: Licensed But Not Teaching In Oregon’S Public Schools, Ann Curry-Stevens, Analucia Lopezrevoredo

Center to Advance Racial Equity Publications and Reports

While the Minority Teachers Act has long been in existance (since 1991), it has not been enforced. It aims to ensure that the population of teachers represents the diversity of students in Oregon’s public classrooms, but remains far below those target levels. Today in Oregon, 35.5% of students are of color, while only 8.3% of Oregon’s teachers are of color.

Over the last two years, the Oregon Educator Equity Advisory Group (OEEAG) has been generating data to understand this issue and to make recommendations to the legislature to improve the diversity of educators in Oregon’s schools. Part of this investigation …

Greater Portland Pulse Use Cases: Examples Of How The Community Used Gpp January 2013-June 2015, Elizabeth Morehead

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Greater Portland Pulse (GPP) data is a valuable community resource that helps academics, government, reporters, community organizations, and private businesses better understand the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metropolitan area. With GPP’s 2014 website redesign, and increased presence on social media, GPP’s audience is rapidly expanding. GPP data is often: Cited in research studies, proposals to city councils, and strategic plans. Used to advocate for social change Used by government agencies and private sector businesses to promote economic development

Cathedral Waterfront Plan, Mathangi Murthy, Tabitha Boschetti, Michelle Anderson, Saumya Kini, Rosa Lehman, Violet Brown

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Cathedral Park Neighborhood Association anticipated the imminent development of 15-acres of waterfront property (the Steel Hammer Site) in the heart of their community and worked with the PSU MURP team to bolster the voice of the community through public engagement and thoughtful urban planning. The student team reached out to the neighbors, talked with shareholders, conducted site analysis, and developed a shared community vision for the Steel Hammer Site, which resulted the Cathedral Waterfront Plan that includes:

• Twelve community goals for future development
• Three scenarios demonstrating how development on the Steel Hammer Site could contribute to community priorities without …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet June 2015, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The June 2015 Monthly packet includes the June agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held May 2015.

Building Social Sustainability From The Ground Up: The Contested Social Dimension Of Sustainability In Neighborhood-Scale Urban Regeneration In Portland, Copenhagen, And Nagoya, Jacklyn Nicole Kohon

Dissertations and Theses

In response to growing social inequality, environmental crises, and economic instability, sustainability discourse has become the dominant "master signifier" for many fields, particularly the field of urban planning. However, in practice many sustainability methods overemphasize technological and economic growth-oriented solutions while underemphasizing the social dimension. The social dimension of sustainability remains a "concept in chaos" drawing little agreement on definitions, domains, and indicators for addressing the social challenges of urban life. In contrast, while the field of public health, with its emphasis on social justice principles, has made significant strides in framing and developing interventions to target the social determinants …

Discursive Security: F.B.I. Stings And The Nature Of Peace, Adam Testerman

Dissertations and Theses

The current study utilizes Critical Discourse Analysis and Thematic Analysis to study newspaper coverage of F.B.I. sting operations in The New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today. F.B.I. sting operations are a modern counter-terrorism policy designed to preempt acts of terrorism. This study develops a theoretical approach to understanding F.B.I. sting operations by reviewing the critique of security. The critique of security suggests that nations construct threats in order to produce and maintain ideological and practical hegemony. Thematic categories of the newspaper discourse are formulated and analyzed in the context of security. The study employs aspects of grounded theory …

Combining Systems Methodologies To Reduce Allergen-Related Food Recalls, Jill Marie Sweney

Dissertations and Theses

The risk of poor food safety is a major focus for managers in the food manufacturing industry. Despite industry-led and regulatory efforts to improve the overall food safety of US packaged consumer foods, product recalls and market withdrawals are increasing. This is especially true for the most frequent cause for food recall: the undeclared allergen. With industry trends leaning toward adoption of third-party food safety management certifications, a popular food safety code from the Safe Quality Foods Institute is evaluated using Systems Analysis. Three changes to the food safety code are proposed to address three of the top causes for …

Developing Key Sustainability Competencies Through Real-World Learning Experiences: Evaluating Community Environmental Services, Erin Lorene Anderson

Dissertations and Theses

This study focuses on sustainability in higher education and the competencies essential to address sustainability issues. Because sustainability issues are complex, "wicked", and dynamic, sustainability education programs need to reflect the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of the field. Graduates who are competent in sustainability research and problem solving will have the knowledge, skills, and attitude necessary to analyze a sustainability problem systemically and comprehensively, then will construct and implement interventions to reach optimal sustainability solutions. To prepare graduates, sustainability education programs should facilitate the development of key sustainability competencies (Wiek, Withycombe, & Redman, 2011). Such programs provide an interdisciplinary approach …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet May 2015, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The May 2015 Monthly packet includes the May agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held April 2015.

Travel Decisions & Their Implications For Urban Transportation: From Campus Transportation To Statewide Modeling, Gulsah Akar

PSU Transportation Seminars

The ability to forecast future transportation patterns under a particular land-use scenario or urban form is key to making informed decisions at the local and regional levels.

Although several researchers have explored the links between the built environment, socio-demographics and travel behavior, a consensus is not reached.

This talk highlights two recent projects. The first project focuses on individuals’ attitudes towards transportation, neighborhood characteristics and their effects on campus commuters’ transit use, and addresses the question whether attitudes, the built environment or a combination of both explains the resulting transit use better.

The second part presents the Regional Land Use …

Combining And Aggregating Environmental Data For Status And Trend Assessments: Challenges And Approaches, Kathleen G. Maas-Hebner, Michael Harte, Nancy Molina, Robert M. Hughes, Carl B. Schreck, J. Alan Yeakley

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increasingly, natural resource management agencies and nongovernmental organizations are sharing monitoring data across geographic and jurisdictional boundaries. Doing so improves their abilities to assess local-, regional-, and landscape-level environmental conditions, particularly status and trends, and to improve their ability to make short-and long-term management decisions. Status monitoring assesses the current condition of a population or environmental condition across an area. Monitoring for trends aims at monitoring changes in populations or environmental condition through time. We wrote this paper to inform agency and nongovernmental organization managers, analysts, and consultants regarding the kinds of environmental data that can be combined with suitable …

The Enigma Of The Spartan Woman, Jalena M. Post

Young Historians Conference

Active in both social and economic spheres, Spartan women possessed much more mobility than their counterparts in Athens. In the areas of education, the arts, land ownership, marriage, and family life, the women of Sparta enjoyed a large amount of sovereignty when compared to other ancient societies. The absence of Spartan men during almost constant times of war necessitated women taking on more responsibility than they would have otherwise, but to what extent? This paper strives to characterize the unique role of the women of Sparta during the classical period of Greek history, especially as in contrast to their Athenian …

Open Engagement 2015 Catalog, Jen Delos Reyes

Open Engagement

2015 — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — Place and Revolution

"Open Engagement is an artist-led initiative directed and founded by Jen Delos Reyes committed to expanding the dialogue around and serving as a site of care for the field of socially engaged art. We highlight the work of transdisciplinary artists, activists, students, scholars, community members, and organizations working within the complex social issues and struggles of our time. Since 2007, OE has presented ten conferences in two countries and six cities, hosting over 1,800 presenters and over 7,000 attendees. In addition, OE managed a publishing arm, and assembled a national consortium of …

Landforms Along The Lower Columbia River And The Influence Of Humans, Charles Matthew Cannon

Dissertations and Theses

River systems, such as the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest, USA have been influenced by human activities, resulting in changes to the physical processes that drive landform evolution. This work describes an inventory of landforms along the Columbia River estuary between the Pacific Ocean and Bonneville Dam in Oregon and Washington. Groupings of landforms are assigned to formative process regimes that are used to assess historical changes to floodplain features. The estuary was historically a complex system of channels with a floodplain dominated by extensive tidal wetlands in the lower reaches and backswamp lakes and wetlands in upper reaches. …

The Sfpark Pilot: Using Data To Make Cities Better, Kathryn Doherty-Chapman

PSU Transportation Seminars

SFpark was a federally-funded pilot program of a new approach to managing parking in San Francisco. It utilized real time data to identify parking availability, and demand-responsive parking pricing to help make parking easier to find. Parking management is an invaluable transportation demand management tool and the SFpark pilot demonstrated how data can help cities make smarter decisions. Come hear about the pilot evaluation results from a former SFpark staffer and PSU alum.

Whom Do You Trust? Doubt And Conspiracy Theories In The 2009 Influenza Pandemic, Shawn Smallman

International & Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The 2009 pandemic of H1N1 influenza led people around the globe to create narratives about the epidemic defined by the question of trust; these narratives ranged from true conspiracy theories to simply accounts in which mistrust and betrayal formed a motif. In particular, most of these narratives reflected a fear of capitalism and globalization, although in specific regions, other issues—such as religion—played a more central role. These stories were not unique to the H1N1 pandemic but rather have appeared with every contemporary outbreak of infectious disease. This paper will examine conspiracy theories and moral panics related to the H1N1 pandemic …

How Affordable Is Hud Affordable Housing?, Reid Ewing, Shima Hamidi

TREC Final Reports

This paper assesses the affordability of HUD rental assistance properties from the standpoint of transportation costs. HUD housing is, by definition, affordable from the standpoint of housing costs due to limits on the amounts renters are required to pay. However, there are no such limitations on transportation costs, and common sense suggests that renters in remote locations may be forced to pay more than 15 percent of income, a nominal affordability standard, for transportation costs. Using household travel models estimated with data from 15 diverse regions around the U.S., we estimated and summed automobile capital costs, automobile operating costs, and …

Research & Strategic Partnerships: Quarterly Review, Volume 2, Issue 3, Portland State University. Research & Strategic Partnerships

Portland State Research Magazine

This issue of the Research and Strategic Partnerships (RSP) Quarterly Review highlights emerging research leaders.

On the sustainability front, environmental engineer Stephen Talke applies a historian’s perspective to extract climate-related information from tide gauge records along the Columbia River dating back over 100 years.

Environmental biogeochemist Jennifer Morse is looking at the hidden carbon costs of “green” practices, like installation of urban bioswales and the establishment of an urban growth boundary, which may have higher ecological costs than previously thought.

In the health arena, you can read about Gerasimos Fergadiotis’s latest work to help diagnose and cure aphasia, the debilitating …

The Scales And Shapes Of Queer Women's Geographies: Mapping Private, Public And Cyber Spaces In Portland, Or, Paola Renata Saldaña

Dissertations and Theses

Queer women's relationship to space has been under-theorized due to the difficulties in identifying particular spatial patterns that can describe their presence in urban settings. Most of the research that has focused on queer space has mentioned the difficulty of mapping queer women. The purpose of this research is to identify the ways in which the scarcity of queer women-specific space in Portland, Oregon, has affected the development of a women's community based on a queer identity, the role of intersecting identities such as race and gender identity in these communities and spaces, as well as the implications of queer …

Who Is At The Forest Restoration Table? Final Report On The Blue Mountains Forest Stewardship Network, Phase 1, Rebecca J. Mclain, Kirsten Wright, Lee Cerveny

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Forest collaboratives have emerged throughout the western U.S. as a governance model to address complex ecological challenges that occur at the landscape scale across multiple landownerships and jurisdictional boundaries. Collaborative groups typically involve multiple parties with diverse interests working together to address complex management challenges. Collaboratives often provide input on or make recommendations about public lands actions and decisions. The Blues Stewardship Project was developed to better understand the size, composition, participation, and diversity of forest collaboratives and to identify organizations that may not currently be represented at the collaborative ‘table.’

The study focuses on five collaborative groups in the …