Urban Studies Commons^™

Ua3/4/2 President's Office-Downing Construction File, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records regarding the planning, construction and maintenance of buildings on the WKU campus. Downing held several positions at WKU before becoming president. Some of these records date to that earlier period.

Performance Enhancement Of Bridge Bracing Under Service And Extreme Loads, Peter Dusicka, Max Taylor Stephens, Kate Fox-Lent

TREC Final Reports

As truck loads continue to get bigger, the demand on many aging bridges increases. Slender steel structural elements widely used in bridge superstructures and braced substructures to resist these loads are built primarily for tension, however, and can buckle under compressive loads. Portland State University associate professor Peter Dusicka set out to develop and demonstrate the concept of retrofitting bridge brace elements with fiber reinforced composites in order to provide restraint against buckling. The advanced materials consisted of a combination of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite pultruded sections and wet lay-up wraps intended to be applied in the field. This …

Impacts Of Low-Speed Vehicles On Transportation Infrastructure And Safety, Katharine M. Hunter-Zaworski, Linda Cornell

TREC Final Reports

There are increasing numbers of low-speed electric vehicles (LSVs) on public roadways. These vehicles are designed to be used within protected environments and on roadways with a maximum posted speed of 25 mph. Currently these vehicles are not subject to the same federal requirements for occupant protection as passenger cars. This research project investigated safety standards, operating regulations, and LSV manufacturer materials from sources around the world. The purpose of the research was to determine positive and negative impacts that LSVs, including Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) and Medium Speed Electric Vehicles (MSEVs), are likely to have for the Oregon Department …

Preston Road Corridor Study: Community Preference Report, City And Regional Planning Institute Of Urban Studies, City Of Celina, Texas

Institute of Urban Studies Publications - Archive

No abstract provided.

Cultivating The Commons An Assessment Of The Potential For Urban Agriculture On Oakland’S Public Land, Nathan Mcclintock, Jenny Cooper

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This is an inventory of open space with potential for agricultural production on land both owned by public agencies and within the city limits of Oakland, California. The inventory was conducted between the summer of 2008 and spring of 2009 and is part of an ongoing movement to develop a more resilient, sustainable, and just food system in Oakland. This project aims to locate Oakland’s "commons"—land that is owned by public agencies and therefore a public resource—and assess the potential for urban agriculture (UA) on this land. We hope that this assessment can be used 1) to inform policy decisions …

Analysis And Evaluation Of Safety Impacts Of Median Types And Midblock Left Turn Treatments For Urban Arterials, Timur Mauga

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Urban growth leads to new land-uses abutting arterials requiring driveways for their accessibility. Uncontrolled number and locations of such access points causes safety, mobility and accessibility problems. The solution to these problems is access management (AM) which controls the number and location of the access points. AM techniques are normally documented in the form of guidelines for engineers and planners to follow when implementing the techniques. However, AM guidelines may not cover every technique due to the fact that AM is still growing. For example, the current AM guideline prepared by The Nevada Department of Transportation addresses many AM techniques. …

Progressive Housing Policy In The 21st Century: A Contrarian View, George Fallis

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

After years of cutbacks to housing programs in Canada, there has emerged a consensus that a progressive housing policy requires significant construction of new social housing units to address both the problems of housing affordability and homelessness. This paper argues that large scale social housing should not be the focus of progressive housing policy in the 21st century. We should use the progressive goals of the original welfare state, but we should modify the programs designed to meet these goals. The paper examines the income and personal insecurities faced by low-income households today, contrasting them with the insecurities faced in …

Putting Artists On The Map: A Five Part Study Of Greater Cleveland Artists' Location Decisions - Part 2: Profiles Of Artist Neighborhoods, Mark Salling, Gregory Soltis, Charles Post, Sharon Bliss, Ellen Cyran

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

A series of reports detailing the residential and work space location preferences of Cuyahoga county's artists.

Decision Models For Foreclosed Housing Acquisition And Redevelopment: A University Of Massachusetts Multi-Campus Collaborative Project - Processes And Findings To Date, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Jeffrey Keisler, Senay Solak, David Turcotte, Rachel B. Drew, Armagan Bayram, Emily Vidrine

Public Policy and Public Affairs Faculty Publication Series

The recent housing foreclosure crisis has had devastating impacts on individuals, communities, organizations and government. In response, several community development corporations (CDCs) have sought new ways to assist neighborhoods suffering from the myriad effects of high foreclosures, including neighborhood instability, increased vandalism and crime, lower property values, and economic disinvestment. This research project focuses on activities of community-based organizations that acquire and redevelop foreclosed properties to support neighborhood stabilization and revitalization. However, the costs of pursuing this strategy far exceed the resources available to typical CDCs. Thus, our project seeks to solve the following decision problem: What subset of a …

Analysis Of Bus Collision Incidents Using Transit Its And Other Archived Operations Data, James G. Strathman, Paul Herman Wachana, Steve Callas

TREC Final Reports

This report analyzes factors contributing to bus operations safety incidents at TriMet, the transit provider for the Portland Oregon metropolitan region. The analysis focuses on 4,631 collision and non-collision incidents that occurred between 2006 and 2009. Empirical analysis of these incidents draws on a wide array of operator-level data recovered by transit ITS technologies in combination with information from TriMet’s human resources, scheduling, and customer relations databases. Incident frequencies are estimated in relation to operators’ demographic characteristics, employment status, assigned work characteristics, service delivery and performance indicators, temporal factors, and customer information. Apart from identifying factors that are empirically related …

Vidor, Comprehensive Land-Use Plan, Institute Of Urban Studies

Institute of Urban Studies Publications - Archive

No abstract provided.

Demographic, Economic And Social Transformations In Bronx Community District 4: High Bridge, Concourse And Mount Eden, 1990 - 2008, Astrid S. Rodríguez

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report analyzes demographic and socioeconomic characteristics among the five largest Latino nationality groups during 1990-2008 in the NYC Community District 4 of the borough of the Bronx, which comprises the neighborhoods of High Bridge, Concourse and Mount Eden.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Dominicans are the largest Latino subgroup in the Bronx’s Community District 4, accounting for over 30% …

Perceptions And Evaluation Of An Urban Environment For Pedestrian Friendliness: A Case Study, Elizabeth H. Lee

Master's Theses

Public health is an increasingly important issue addressed from both environmental and public health sectors for the future development of urban environments. From a planning perspective, one possible solution is to increase walkability throughout the cities. Many assessment methods are being developed and administered to evaluate the quality of existing urban environments to promote walkable cities/communities. The results from using these methods provide policymakers and stakeholders with valuable information regarding the existing physical conditions of the environment. Although several US cities started to develop and refocus plans toward pedestrian-oriented policies approaches, results from this particular study determined that the quality …

Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Greening An Older Modest-Sized Home, Delilah Zoe Leval

Master's Theses

This professional project estimates the upfront costs and utility savings expected from greening an approximately 1,100 square foot home built in the 1950s in the San Francisco Bay Area. Two sets of upgrades (alternative and original) were compared for costs and benefits. The alternative set (which included ceiling insulation and omitted upgrading to dual-pane windows) clearly out performed the original set. The alternative set would be expected to reduce resident utility bills by 28% annually, and to prevent approximately 2,700 lbs of carbon dioxide emissions annually. The water efficiency upgrades were the best performing group of upgrades, as they had …

City Of Arlington Animal Services: Strategic Planning Retreat Draft Report, Institute Of Urban Studies, City Of Arlington, City Of Arlington -- Animal Services Division

Institute of Urban Studies Publications - Archive

No abstract provided.

Making Choice That Change Lives, Yizhao Yang

TREC Project Briefs

Children’s ability to walk or bike to school depends largely on where they live. Surprisingly, we know very little about how families make choices about where to live in relation to school travel. Existing school travel research has generally focused on the effects of environmental characteristics on the likelihood of children walking or biking to school. This project took a more comprehensive approach by examining the relationships between transportation to school, neighborhood walkability and where families choose to live.

The Uneven Distribution Of Social Suffering: Documenting The Social Health Consequences Of Neo-Liberal Social Policy On Marginalized Youth, Michelle Fine, Brett G. Stoudt, Maddy Fox, Maybelline Santos

Publications and Research

In 2009, British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett published "The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Strong", in which they argue that severely unequal societies produce high rates of ‘social pain”: adverse outcomes including school drop out, teen pregnancy, mental health problems, lack of social trust, high mortality rates, violence and crime, low social participation. Their volume challenges the belief that the extent of poverty in a community predicts negative outcomes. They assert instead that the size of the inequality gap defines the material and psychological contours of the chasm between the wealthiest and the most impoverished, enabling …

Sustainability Makes Dollars And Sense, John R. Bartle, Gerard Wellman

Faculty Books and Monographs

Environment Omaha has suggested many changes in the metropolitan Omaha area in the hopes of improving Omaha’s environment. We all want a better environment, but is it practical? What will it cost and what improvements can we expect? This document provides answers to these questions focusing on each of the five content areas of Environment Omaha’s study: the natural environment, urban form and transportation, building construction, resource conservation, and community health.

Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District: Economic Impact Of Operating And Capital Expenditures, 2012– 2016, Ziona Austrian, Candice Clouse, Iryna Lendel

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Contested Landscapes, Asian Cities, Lily Kong, Lisa Law

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A decade and a half after Cosgrove and Jackson (1987) wrote their seminal piece on ‘new’ cultural geography, the discipline of geography has experienced a ‘cultural’ turn. Economic geography, for instance, has been infleected through perspectives that take on board cultural retheorisations (see Thrift and Olds, 1996; Thrift, 2000). Within urban studies, the acknowledgement of culture’s powers is not new (see, for example, Agnew et al., 1984). Yet, geographers scrutinising urban landscapes have moved the field, using some of the retheorised perspectives that Cosgrove and Jackson (1987) encapsulated. Of most pertinence to this volume is the retheorised notion of culture …

Empirical Observation Of The Impact Of Traffic Oscillations On Freeway Safety, Christopher M. Monsere, Soyoung Ahn

TREC Final Reports

Traffic oscillations are typical features of congested traffic flow that are characterized by recurring decelerations followed by accelerations (stop-and-go driving). The negative environmental impacts of these oscillations are widely accepted, but their impact on traffic safety has been debated. This report describes the impact of freeway traffic oscillations on traffic safety. This study employs a matched case-control design using high resolution traffic and crash data from a freeway segment. Traffic conditions prior to each crash were taken as cases, while traffic conditions during the same periods on days without crashes were taken as controls. These were also matched by presence …

The Nasa Glenn Research Center: An Economic Impact Study Fiscal Year 2009, Iryna Lendel, Sunjoo Park

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

'The Edge Of The Island': Neighborhood Identity And Evolving Community In 'Liminal Places', Gordon Douglas

Faculty Publications, Urban and Regional Planning

This paper examines the contemporary processes at work in urban areas without clear spatial identities that are simultaneously facing the challenges of cultural change and gentrification. I do so through the close analysis of one such ‘liminal place’ on Chicago’s West Side. I use the phrase ‘a community on the edge of the island’ to describe the area, inspired by an interview subject who referred to the tenuous search for a sort of ideal bohemian hipness as the need to stay as “close to the edge of the island” as possible without actually leaving it. Making use of ethnographic and …

The Boulevard Study: From Arterial To Asset -- Examining The Role Of The Multi-Way Boulevard In Coordinated Transportation And Land Use Planning, Mark L. Gillem

TREC Final Reports

Cities that were once considered the most-desired places to live or for businesses to locate are now seeking ways to unclog their increasingly congested roadways and regain their quality of life. U.S. Department of Transportation Strategic Plan Background Cities across the U.S. that are struggling with congestion resort to remedies that are increasingly difficult to implement. Adding capacity is a more challenging proposition given limited land availability, greater environmental constraints, and fiscal barriers. Replacing individual trips with transit has seen limited success and can typically only be justified at greater levels of density than many communities currently support. Multiway boulevards …

Modeling Of The Single Coil, Twin Fan Air-Conditioning System In Energyplus, Clayton Miller, Chandra Sekhar

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper outlines the conceptual development of a building energy simulation model for the Single Coil, Twin Fan Air Conditioning (SCTF) system in the whole building simulation program EnergyPlus. The SCTF system is a unitary, multi-zone system which conditions the outdoor ventilation and recirculated return air in two separate streams through a single compartmented cooling coil and supplies these unmixed streams via two variable speed fans and a dual duct arrangement to zonal mixing boxes. The main challenges addressed in EnergyPlus include the existing inability to concurrently simulate unmixed air streams within a centralized VAV system, supply and control outdoor …

The Ohio Energy Industry: Analysis Of The Ohio Energy Business Inventory Survey, Merissa C. Piazza

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

Preservation Ethics In The Case Of Nebraska's Nationally Registered Historic Properties, Darren Michael Adams

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation focuses on the National Register of Historic Places and considers the geographical implications of valuing particular historic sites over others. Certain historical sites will either gain or lose desirability from one era to the next, this dissertation identifies and explains three unique preservation ethical eras, and it maps the sites which were selected during those eras. These eras are the Settlement Era (1966–1975), the Commercial Architecture Era (1976–1991), and the Progressive Planning Era (1992–2010). The findings show that transformations in the program included an early phase when state authorities listed historical resources pertaining to the settlement of the …

Regional Travel Options 2007-08 Program Evaluation, Jennifer Dill, Stephan Brown

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

To help implement the Growth Concept, Metro’s Regional Travel Options (RTO) Program works to increase awareness of non-SOV alternatives and increase the provision of those alternatives. The program complements other strategies, including land use policies and infrastructure investment. The most comprehensive data available for this evaluation come from commute surveys of employees at work sites that participate in outreach programs offered by TriMet. All of the RTO evaluations have used these data as a benchmark for overall progress, though the data only captures commute travel. The 2008 data reflect the commute patterns of about 120,000 employees commuting to 549 worksites. …

Export West: How Mountain West Metros Can Lead National Export Growth And Boost Competitiveness, Mark Muro, Emilia Instrate, Jonathan Rothwell

Brookings Mountain West Publications

In the beginning of 2010, with U.S. output growth modest and job growth nonexistent, President Obama devoted a portion of his State of the Union Address to “fi xing the problems that are hampering our growth.” One of these problems, according to the president, was a lack of international export sales. The president linked an increase in exports to an increase in jobs, and pledged to double the nation’s exports over the next five years.2 Since then, export growth has emerged as a key tenet of numerous economic visions including those of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution …

Northeast Ohio Economic Brief, Afia Yamoah

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.