Public Policy Commons^™

Lifestyles, Buildings And Technologies: What Matters Most?, Loren Lutzenhiser, Huafen Hu, Mithra Moezzi, Anthony Michael Levenda, James Woods

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

There is considerable variation across households in energy use, even within similar climates and housing styles. There is also considerable variation in energy savings following upgrades of housing and appliances. We combine empirical data on household consumption with advanced simulation modeling techniques to investigate just how much behavior matters in determining consumption levels. compared to weather, technology and building characteristics. We explore several new concepts, including the BETA (building, environment, technology, activity) Model of household energy use, a habitation zone approach that can be used to differentiate BETA effects, and a hybrid (simulation/ statistical) end-use consumption analysis approach. For illustrative …

Environmental Migrants And The Future Of The Willamette Valley: A Preliminary Exploration, Alison Wicks

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

This report reviews existing data and research on predicted impacts of climate change in the Northwestern United States, and specifically focuses on the level of preparedness to accommodate new population growth due to climate migration in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Climate change impacts in Oregon are predicted to be less severe than in other areas of the country. Generally, models project warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers in the Willamette Valley and other areas west of the Cascade Range. This will likely make the Willamette Valley a more desirable place for environmentally displaced people to locate. This report considers how …

Sticky Points In Modeling Household Energy Consumption, Loren Lutzenhiser, Mithra Moezzi, David Hungerford, Rafael Friedmann

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

A variety of approaches have been proposed to explaining individual household energy consumption, its variation, and its potential reduction. Some focus on technology, some on costs, and some on a combination of behaviors, attitudes, intentions, and norms. All try to make sense of a problem that, from a modeling perspective, involves hundreds of potentially important factors, yet is supported by highly inadequate or at best selective data. While there is value in "doing the best one can" with the resources at hand, building a defensible science requires a cold hard look at the quality of theory, research and data. This …

What’S Missing In Theories Of The Residential Energy User, Mithra Moezzi, Loren Lutzenhiser

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Residential energy use has been envisioned in varied ways, each highlighting different factors and capturing a partial truth. This paper outlines assumptions of core theories about household energy use. It gives an abbreviated list of major empirical findings framed by these theories. It then identifies a new set of "blind spots" created by overly-simple reliance on models and by data shortcomings that in combination may block development of a more sophisticated understanding of energy use. Policies and program strategies, in turn, can become oriented toward simplistic approaches to change. We point to the need for improved interpretation and elaboration of …

The Winners In China’S Urban Housing Reform, John R. Logan, Yiping Fang, Zhanxin Zhang

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Housing reform in China has proceeded on two tracks: privatization of public housing and development of a new private housing sector. During this period of transition, rents have remained relatively low in the remaining public housing, and purchase prices offered to occupants of public housing have been well below market prices. Although these rents and prices are partly based on known formulas, there is considerable variability in how much people pay for similar apartments. This study uses 2000 Census data to estimate the housing subsidy received by the remaining renters in the public sector and purchasers of public housing, based …

"Whose Streets? Our Streets!" Urban Social Movements And The Transformation Of Everyday Life In Pacific Northwest Cities, 1990-1999, Leanne Claire Serbulo

Dissertations and Theses

This project returns to the questions that were once at the center of the urban studies debate over social movements. What are urban social movements, and what impacts do they leave on the cities where they occur? Urban protests in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington are used as the foundation for exploring the following research questions: What urban social movements occurred in the Pacific Northwest during 1990s? What goals were these movements struggling for? What impacts did urban social movements have on daily life in Portland and Seattle?

While this project has continuity with earlier attempts to identify, describe, and …

An Anatomy Of A Community-University Partnership: The Structure Of Community Collaboration, W. Barry Messer, Kevin Kecskes

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portland State University for the past twelve years has been engaged in a transformation of its general education program and a renewal of its urban mission. A major thrust of this reform has focused on broadening the involvement of students and faculty in community-based learning and scholarship. Curricular and administrative changes have significantly raised the presence of the university in the community and resulted in numerous academic units actively engaging in community collaboration. The collaboration has proven to be an important platform by which the university has expanded its boundaries into the community through actions involving many challenges to the …

Self-Help Support Groups: Choices In Participation Among Women Facing Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Sle), Maria A. Pfeifer

Dissertations and Theses

This research study explored the experiences of 19 women who had been diagnosed with, or were still seeking the diagnosis of SLE (lupus) and their decisions regarding support group participation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the variety of factors influencing their choices in types and sources of support, their coping strategies and the reasons behind their decisions to either choose or not choose lupus support groups as a viable support resource. Those women identified as support groups attendees recalled a more emotion-focused response to their diagnosis and showed stronger reliance on seeking emotional forms of support. Conversely, …

Washington County Housing Study For Washington County Department Of Housing Services, Portland State University. Population Research Center

Publications, Reports and Presentations

This report describes Washington County's demographic and socioeconomic characteristics based on 2000 census data and some administrative data collected from State and local government agencies. It also presents trends for the County for the 1990 to 2000 period. The aim of this report is to ensure that plans for Washington County can be based on the best possible information.

Transportation Solutions: Collaborative Problem Solving For States And Communities, National Policy Consensus Center

National Policy Consensus Center Publications and Reports

In April 2003, the National Policy Consensus Center (NPCC) hosted a colloquium for people involved in transportation collaborations—federal and state agency representatives, consultants, dispute resolution professionals and representatives from professional associations and local planning organizations. The colloquium was co-sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and the Florida, Oregon, and California Departments of Transportation.

This report summarizes lessons learned about transportation collaborations and offers recommendations for governors and state transportation officials on ways to enhance the use and effectiveness of collaborative problem solving around transportation …

Behavioral And Community Impacts Of The Portland Needle Exchange Program, Kathleen Joan Oliver

Dissertations and Theses

Research questions were: 1: Will Drug Injectors Use An Exchange In A StateWhere Syringes Are Legal? 2: Will Drug Injectors Using An Exchange Decrease Risky Behavior? 3: Will Frequent Clients Change Risk Behaviors More Than Infrequent Clients? 4: Will Drug Injectors Using An Exchange Change Risk Behaviors More Than A Comparison Group Not Using An Exchange? 5: Does An Exchange Have An Impact On The Number Of Discarded Syringes On The Streets? 6: Is There A Difference In The Rate Of Spread Of HIV Infection Among Users And Non-Users Of The Exchange. Drug injectors will use needle exchange programs, even …

Pretrial Release In Criminal Courts: A Study Of Three Oregon Counties, Melvin Earl Degraw

Dissertations and Theses

Pretrial release (PTR) is the permanent or temporary freedom from incarceration for criminal defendants awaiting adjudication of their cases in court. From Anglo Saxon times in England, people accused of non-capital crimes were generally permitted to remain free until judicial officials could hear the charges against them. In America, pretrial release has been advocated by the courts since the colonial era. The U. S. Constitution requires that bail not be excessive, but leaves governments free to decide how bail laws are administered. The study briefly traces the historical developments of PTR up to the present time. The study then centers …

Implementing Community Policing: A Documentation And Assessment Of Organizational Change, Emmajean Williams

Dissertations and Theses

Four research questions guided this documentation and assessment of the Portland Police Bureau's conversion to community policing. These questions generated a description of the events and circumstances that created the perceived need for change in the Bureau's role and function; a search for justification for selecting community policing as an alternative policing approach; a comparative analysis of past attempts to implement innovative change of a similar dimension in police organizations; and an assessment of the process by which the Bureau implemented this new policing strategy. The findings indicate that the prominent factors driving this change are first, the limitations of …

Determining The Property Value Impact Of Landfills, Okwuchukwu Gerald Uba

Dissertations and Theses

The decline in property value can be due to owner's act or exogenous act from the operation of landfills. Landfill neighbors, especially home owners, perceive landfill operation to pose environmental safety problem such as ground water contamination and methane gas leakage that could affect home value.

Owners of landfills, especially those landfills that accept only dry waste (limited purpose landfill), claim that since their facilities meet the requirements of environmental regulations and the type of waste they accept could not possibly produce methane gas and leachate there is no property value impact of their facilities.

Several studies have shown that …

Land Use Findings: Central City Plan (Draft), Portland (Or.). Bureau Of Planning

Ernie Bonner Collection

No abstract provided.

May 15, 1984 Primary Ballot Measures Report, City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Trouble In River City: An Analysis Of An Urban Vice Probe, Joseph S. Uris

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation is an historical case study of a highly publicized investigation of vice and official corruption which took place in Portland, Oregon from 1954 to 1958. Three major relevant areas of social science literature are reviewed. These are: historical material on American reform and corruption, criminology and political science. This literature suggests both the ubiquity and usefulness of vice and corruption in the urban situation.

A set of propositions regarding vice, corruption and reform was developed from these works. These propositions were then examined in terms of the vice probe and political situation in Portland, Oregon.

The triangulation method …

Report On Formation Of A People's Utility District In Multnomah County (Multnomah County Measure No. 1), City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Report On Constitutional Real Property Tax Limit Preserving 85% District's 1977 Revenue (State Measure No. 6), City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Report On Dedicates Oil, Natural Gas Taxes To Common School Fund (State Measure No. 03), City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Eliminates Mandatory Fluoridation Of City Water (Municipal Measure 51), City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Veterans' Home And Farm Loan Eligibility Changes (State Measure No. 4), City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Report On Common School Fund Constitutional Amendment (State Ballot Measure No. 1), City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.