Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

Preventing Carbon Emissions With Imaging-Based Civil Infrastructure Assessment And Evaluation, Thomas Schumacher

PSU Transportation Seminars

For concrete bridges without existing plans, simplified and highly conservative load rating (structural evaluation) methods may be used, which can lead to unnecessary load restrictions, unjustifiable strengthening, or in the worst case, preventable replacements. Avoiding these outcomes not only saves money but it prevents carbon emissions from longer travel and construction activities and resources associated with replacement.

This presentation discusses a case study of a prestressed concrete bridge that required a load rating, and for which no plans existed. Imaging and image fusion using radar and ultrasonic measurements taken from the top and bottom of the slab were performed to …

Charging Ahead: Prioritizing Renewable Energy For Electric Minibuses In The Philippines, Thomas Stringer, Sandy Mae Gaspay, Varsolo Sunio, Manuel Burelo

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This study evaluates the environmental and economic impacts of transitioning to electric minibuses (e-jeepneys) in the informal transportation sector of the Philippines. Using a comprehensive model that simulates different e-jeepney uptake scenarios and electricity grid configurations, we analyze carbon emissions and energy costs. Data from the 2023 energy grid and vehicle emission standards are utilized to assess various grid scenarios, including net-zero and natural gas options. Our findings reveal that a 10% increase in e-jeepney uptake results in significant reductions in both carbon emissions (36 gCO2/km) and energy costs (0.70 PHP/km) when paired with a decarbonized grid. The study underscores …

2024 Oregon Statewide Homelessness Estimates, Franklin H. Spurbeck, Jacen Greene, Marisa Zapata

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

The Point-in-Time (PIT) Count is a census of people experiencing both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness on a single night in January. The federal government requires this at least every other year as a condition of funding it distributes to Continuums of Care (CoCs), networks of government agencies and service providers that manage homelessness services and funding in specific regions. The unsheltered PIT Count is only required during odd-numbered years. Because of the cost and complexity involved, not all CoCs conduct an unsheltered count in even-numbered years. In 2024, all Oregon CoCs submitted sheltered PIT Count data. Only some conducted an …

The Life Of Or Measure 110: Evolution, Implementation, And Impact, Matthew D. Albertson

Anthós

In 2020, Oregon voters approved Measure 110, a groundbreaking policy that decriminalized possession of small quantities of controlled substances and redirected cannabis tax revenues to treatment and recovery centers. This article examines the passage, implementation, and rollback of Measure 110 with HB 4002, enacted in 2024. Drawing on state audits, legislative records, and public health data to contextualize Measure 110 within broader debates on public health, criminal justice reform, and policy-making, Albertson analyzes the progressive policy’s aspirational, reform-minded goals and the practical shortcomings in its enactment. Albertson argues that while Measure 110 has faced justified criticism and partial reversal, it …

Whipped Into Shape: Infrastructure As Punishment For The Unruly Citizen, Eliza Mortimer

Anthós

This article interrogates how inflexible designs and policies of airline seating, as well as critical socio-political rhetoric, discipline and marginalize bodies that do not conform to normative standards. Situating airline seating within fat and disability studies models, Mortimer argues that these punitive measures are not neutral, but rather reflective of cultural narratives of productivity, morality, and bodily discipline. Mortimer draws from ethnographic analyses of first-person accounts and policy reviews to demonstrate how shrinking seats, rigid policies, and moralized discourse construct a “space of calculability” that pressures fat individuals to monitor and minimize their bodies to justify their presence in public …

Assisted Living, Residential Care, And Memory Care Staffing Level Dynamics: Oregon, 2017–2023, Sarah Dys, Ozcan Tunalilar

Institute on Aging Publications

Objectives

To examine changes in staffing levels over time in Oregon assisted living and residential care (AL/RC) communities between 2017 and 2023.

Design

Longitudinal study of licensed AL/RC communities.

Setting and Participants

A total of 1720 setting-year observations from 535 individual AL/RC communities in Oregon between 2017 and 2023.

Methods

Primary data were collected through the Oregon Community-Based Care (CBC) study. Staffing levels were estimated as care staff hours per resident per day and reported overall and by staff type, including registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants, certified medication aides, unlicensed care staff, life enrichment staff, and social …

Philanthropy Under Uncertainty: Muslim Religious Giving During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Osman Umarji, Rafeel Wasif, Shariq Siddiqui, Zeeshan Noor

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study investigates the demographic, religious, and psychological correlates of charitable giving during times of uncertainty. We employ structural equation modeling to understand the mechanisms that underlie faith-based philanthropy amongst Muslims. For this purpose, we analyzed Muslim American philanthropy during the month of Ramadan in 2020, a month traditionally associated with increased religiosity and philanthropy. Utilizing a sample of 1,722 Muslims in the United States and Canada, uncertainty intolerance was associated with financial anxiety (B = .26), which in turn was related to donating less money (B = -.06). Financial anxiety was also associated with subjective financial well-being (B =.-.22), …

Piloting A Zero-Emission Delivery Zone In Downtown Portland, Art Pearce, Sarah Pullman, Jacob Sherman

PSU Transportation Seminars

The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) was awarded a nearly $2 million Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grant by the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) in Fall 2023 to pilot the country’s first regulated Zero-Emission Delivery Zone in downtown Portland and test digital infrastructure tools. This project will test an innovative set of incentives and regulations to better understand what technology and strategies municipalities can use to support and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the freight sector.

While other cities in the United States have piloted voluntary Zero-Emission Delivery Zones (ZEDZs) to encourage the transition of commercial fleets to …

Ev Charging At Multifamily Properties: Moving Beyond Barriers, Whit Jamieson, Anna Guida, Connor Herman

PSU Transportation Seminars

Transportation is the top contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the US and light-duty vehicles are the #1 contributor to transportation emissions. Mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is key in the fight toward a more sustainable future, but there are several factors that have delayed our transition to EVs.

EV charging at home is the most convenient and cost-effective charging option for EV drivers, but people living in multifamily housing face serious barriers to accessing home charging. During this session, we will explore why EV charging at multifamily housing is critical to mass adoption of EVs, barriers to charging …

Bike Buses: An Evaluation Of An Emerging Active Transportation To School Intervention, Evan Howington, Nathan Mcneil, John Macarthur

TREC Faculty and Staff Publications

Bike buses are a relatively new form of active transportation to school (ATS) that have primarily emerged in Europe and the United States. A form of coordinated, group bike riding along a defined route to school, bike buses are an outgrowth of Safe Routes to School interventions in North America that seek to reverse the declining rates of walking and biking to school among children. Our initial phase of research included a literature review of social and environmental factors affecting ATS in the contemporary North American context, and two convenience surveys of bike bus coordinators and parent participants. This initial …

Addressing Transportation Emissions Through State Climate And Energy Policy, Amy Schlusser

PSU Transportation Seminars

Oregon has adopted policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the energy and transportation sectors. This presentation will provide some background on these policy frameworks and explore how these policies impact transportation fuels and the transportation sector more broadly.

Fast-Tracking Transit: Unveiling Portland's First Bus Rapid Transit Line And Signal Optimization Strategies, Mark Haines, Jesse Stemmler

PSU Transportation Seminars

This presentation on the Division Transit Project will provide an overview of the project elements including roadway design, bus station design, traffic signal timing and operations and the Next Gen Transit Signal Priority (TSP) system. We will discuss some lessons learned and provide before and after results from the project.

Let Knowledge Serve The City! A Decade Of Better Block Psu Projects, Ryan Hashagen

PSU Transportation Seminars

Better Block PSU works with Planning and Civil Engineering students to bring community ideas to life! Over the last 10 years, the pathway has resulted in many real world pop ups and capital projects implemented by volunteers and PBOT.

Bike Buses: An Evaluation Of An Emerging Active Transportation To School Intervention, Evan Howington, John H. Macarthur, Nathan W. Mcneil

PSU Transportation Seminars

Bike Buses are a relatively new form of Active Transportation to School (ATS) that have gained popularity in Europe and the United States in recent years. Generally, a bike bus consists of one or more adult supervisors, often parents, who guide a group of students along a defined ‘route’ to one or more schools. Using literature from the last 15 years published on ATS in North America, we identify four thematic areas of influence on Bike Buses: school policies, parent and student attitudes and behaviors, the urban environment, and the street environment. We conclude that Bike Buses can be situated …

Exploring Determinants Of Transit Recovery After The Covid-19 Pandemic, Udit Khandelwal

Dissertations and Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted public transit systems across the US, resulting in substantial declines in ridership and revenue. At the same time, ridership has increased to different levels in cities. This thesis explores the determinants of transit recovery in American cities post-pandemic. It analyzes data from the National Transit Database (NTD) and employs a two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression model first laid out by Taylor et al. (2008) for data from 2000. Similar to the results of that paper, the thesis finds strong correlation between transit ridership and variables for transit supply and urban and demographic characteristics for 2019 …

Ghg Inventory From Building Washington State Department Of Transportation Roadways, Milad Ashtiani

PSU Transportation Seminars

State departments of transportation (DOTs) are increasingly focusing on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, especially with new regulations like the Buy Clean Acts in California, Oregon, and Washington. This project, in collaboration with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), aims to assess the agency's carbon emissions through a life cycle assessment of construction materials such as cement, concrete, steel, and asphalt, which are now under heightened scrutiny.

While WSDOT has already implemented strategies to reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions (related to direct and energy-related activities), there has been limited focus on Scope 3 emissions—those generated upstream in …

The Carbon Crater: Comparing Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Emissions To Historical Planetary Events, Hal T. Nelson, Paul Reynolds, Brian W. Jewett

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

Equilibrium climate sensitivity modeling relies heavily on paleoclimate records that were affected by meteorite impacts and volcanic explosions. This paper conducts a thought experiment by re-assembling known data and theories to shed new light on anthropogenic carbon waste. Anthropogenic activity, meteorite impacts and volcanic explosions all extract material from the Earth’s crust and deposit it in the atmosphere. This thought experiment tests if the mass of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from 1851 to 2021 is comparable to the mass of atmospheric emissions from historical planetary events. Approximately 3.60 trillion tons of anthropogenic carbon dioxide equivalents are converted into volume and …

The Impacts Of A Multimodal Safety Project On North Lombard Street In Portland, Oregon, Jason Anderson

PSU Transportation Seminars

North Lombard Street/US-30 Bypass is a critical corridor in North Portland, serving both commercial and residential interests. This corridor is also ranked 11th in terms of fatal and serious injury crashes in Portland. The Oregon Department of Transportation and the Portland Bureau of Transportation undertook a reconfiguration to improve multimodal safety and accessibility for all users. The reconfiguration happened between North Fiske Ave and North Boston Ave. Improvements included additional curb ramps that meet ADA standards, safer crosswalks with fewer lanes to cross, buffered bike lanes, new pavement and center turn lanes, traffic signals, and RRFBs and median refuge islands. …

Transportation Decarbonization: A State Perspective, Tara Weidner

PSU Transportation Seminars

Oregon continues to be a leader in Transportation Decarbonization efforts nationally. The webinar will outline the state’s transportation GHG reduction roadmap, developed in 2012 to tackle legislatively mandated GHG reduction goals, with associated GHG targets for the state’s 8 metropolitan areas. Learn how this north star has guided our collective efforts within the state. How monitoring and new initiatives and regulations have kept us on course to these ambitious goals. And what actions remain to close the gap, both systematic changes at state and local levels, as well as individual choices by private firms and households. Actions that will both …

Understanding Travel Behavior And Accessibility For Older Adults: A Comprehensive Framework, Andy Hong, Cathy Liu, Ja Young Kim, Zihao Wen

TREC Final Reports

This study used a mixed-method design to examine travel behavior and accessibility of older adults. The research team conducted a statewide survey and focus groups to gather travel behavior data of older adults (50+) residing in Utah. The study also employed a two-step floating catchment area method, a novel spatial technique, and integrated the survey data to accurately measure travel accessibility of older adults. Using the survey data of 724 older adults as well as the focus group interviews of 18 older individuals, we found a significant dissatisfaction and vulnerability experienced by older adults with limited mobility. The distribution patterns …

Eviction In Oregon's Subsidized Affordable Housing, Yi Wang, Lisa K. Bates, Azad Amir-Ghassemi, Minji Cho, Marisa Zapata, Jacen Greene, Colleen Carroll, Devin Macarthur

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Despite Oregon's expanded investments in affordable housing development and eviction prevention, over 5,400 eviction cases were filed in the state’s subsidized housing from January 2019 to December 2023. This report maps out the landscape of subsidized housing eviction in Oregon and brings attention to the high share of eviction judgments in subsidized eviction cases, the disproportionate rate of eviction filings from housing-authority-contracted management companies and nonprofit housing providers, and the great disparities in legal representation between landlords and tenants.

How Can Dei Training Change The Culture Of An Organization To Achieve Belonging And Retain Diverse Employees?, Kaisa S. Holt

University Honors Theses

Studies show the need for innovation and higher productivity yields can be best achieved through workforce heterogeneity. Creating effective DEI training frameworks is crucial for belonging, sustainable social well-being and enacting real change. This is key to proactively shifting our current system from one that responds to the need for DEI on a surface level to something that is regenerative. The aim of this review is to evaluate characteristics and enhancements added to evidence-based DEI training between 2020 and 2024. Studies were identified using the Portland State advanced database of academic journals on the DEI training and impacts of the …

Participatory Democracy: The Potential For Civic Transformation Understanding Participants' Learning In The Milwaukie Citizens Jury, Amanda Grace Hudson

Dissertations and Theses

Faced with unresponsive government institutions and the limitations of representative democracy, participatory and deliberative democrats have created alternative models for robust democratic participation such as civic juries, civic assemblies and participatory budgeting. Advocates claim that these methods create better citizens and better outcomes and they claim these forums act as a school of democracy. The schools of democracy theory describes participation as a virtuous circle--that doing democracy will make people more democratic. While these processes often produce enthusiastic supporters and encouraging results, there has been very little research to date that attempts to explain how and why people learn and …

Project Turnkey Evaluation, Anna Rockhill, Sarah Mercurio, Franklin Holcomb Spurbeck

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

In 2020-2021 Oregon legislators approved $74.7 million to assist communities to purchase local motels and convert them into emergency shelters. The goal was to help keep people safe during COVID and to address the need for housing for victims of the wildfires in light of the deficit of appropriate shelter resources facing the state. A total of 19 projects received funding, and by 2023 all of the projects were providing services to people experiencing homelessness. Combined, this resulted in 865 new units of emergency shelter-- a 20% increase in the state’s supply. According to an analysis done by Oregon Community …

Promoting Cultural Humility, Belonging, And Inclusion To Improve Well-Being Among Direct Care Staff In Oregon Assisted Living, Residential Care, And Memory Care Communities, 2024, Jacklyn Kohon, Dani Himes, Laura Rodriguez, Sarah Dys, Paula Carder, Diana Jacoby, Madeline Fox

Institute on Aging Publications

The voices and experiences of those working and living in assisted living, residential care, and memory care (AL/RC) settings in Oregon are highlighted in this study to understand cultural humility, belonging, inclusion, and intersectional experiences related to sustaining the workforce and promoting quality care. This qualitative study collected data through individual and focus group interviews with a total of 68 people, including 25 direct care staff, voice memos or interviews with 9 former direct care staff, interviews with 9 administrators, interviews with 7 management representatives (owner/operators, human resources specialists, directors of operations, among other titles), and interviews with 18 current …

Climate And Extreme Weather Event Impacts On Administrators, Direct Care Staff, And Residents In Oregon Assisted Living, Residential Care, And Memory Care Communities, 2024, Dani Himes, Jacklyn Kohon, Madeline Fox, Laura Rodriguez, Sarah Dys, Diana Jacoby, Paula Carder

Institute on Aging Publications

This brief report on AL/RC staff and resident experiences with climate events highlights the voices of AL/RC direct care staff, former direct care staff, residents, administrators, and management representatives to promote well-being in these care settings. This study can inform Oregon’s efforts to support long-term care workforce readiness for future climate emergencies and inform future quantitative data collection on AL/RC and other long-term care workers, including those employed in home health agencies, nursing facilities, and adult foster homes.

Analyzing The Legitimacy, Effectiveness, And Legacy Of The United Nations, Hunter Wade Calley

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the legitimacy and effectiveness of the United Nations since its establishment, while also exploring the shortcomings of its predecessor, the League of Nations. The legitimacy of the United Nations and the role the organization plays in the world of international politics, the flaws of the UN Security Council, and the impact of the Cold War on the legitimacy and processes of the United Nations are especially highlighted throughout this thesis.

The successes and shortcomings of the United Nations are best understood given the historical context of the League of Nations, the organization founded to bring world powers …

Adopting Oer Course Materials: Instructor Experiences, Jenny Ceciliano

Dissertations and Theses

Traditional commercial textbooks used in postsecondary courses are often problematic due to their rigidity, tendency to mirror the dominant culture, and the substantial cost imposed upon students. Although replacing these texts with open educational resources (OER) can facilitate more equitable and inclusive pedagogical practices while removing a significant expense, there has been insufficient research surrounding instructors' experience of transitioning from a commercial textbook to OER course materials. Through semi-structured interviews with nine postsecondary instructors who teach with OER course materials, this basic qualitative study explores the experience of that transition. The findings indicate that adopting OER is a challenging and …

The Nexus Between Revenue Decentralization Reforms And Economic Growth, Frankline Muthomi, Titus M. Ndunda

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

Revenue decentralization represents a framework that facilitates enhanced fiscal autonomy for subnational governments, thereby enabling the tailoring of services to meet local needs and potentially fostering economic growth. In Kenya, the ratification of the 2010 constitutional formalized novel revenue frameworks aimed at supporting the operations, management, and sustainability of devolved county governments. However, there remains a paucity of empirical analysis examining the relationship between the revenue decentralization reforms and county-level economic growth. We begin by identifying the main sources of county revenues within the decentralization frameworks, then investigate the dynamic interrelation with county economic growth. Through panel vector autoregression estimation …

Building Partnerships Through Third-Party Facilitation: Best Practices From The Community Collaborative Initiative, Shariq Siddiqui, Abdul Samad, Rafeel Wasif

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

Small minority group organisations rarely collaborate with other nonprofits owing to a lack of expertise and resources. Third-party facilitators can help these groups navigate the process of collaboration. However, the literature has largely ignored their role in the process. We address this gap by studying the challenges third-party facilitators face in the collaboration process and best practices they can apply using the Community Collaboration Initiative (CCI), a unique third-party-facilitated collaboration process working with Muslim American nonprofits.