Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

A Gis Analysis To Identify Historical, Contemporary, And Spatial Housing Discrimination In Denver, Colorado, Ian Sharkey

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

This study analyzes the relationship between housing discrimination and equity within the City of Denver. This study creates a discrimination index by combining (1) historical Discrimination, (2) contemporary segregation, and (3) housing inequity data into an index to compare the Denver Department of Health and the Environment (DDPHE) 2020 equity index using a local bivariate analysis. This study found a negative linear relationship between the created and Denver equity indexes. The variables used for the discrimination index can explain some of the relationships, but future studies should use more variables for a discrimination index.

Using Gis To Identify Barriers To Access On The Rtd W Line In Denver, Colorado, Tristan Johnson

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Denver, Colorado has a long history of public transportation usage beginning with horse-drawn streetcars in 1871. As the automobile began to flourish however, the use of public transportation has languished. In 2013, the W light rail line opened serving the West Denver area. As Denver has moved toward a more transit-oriented growth model, this rail line can create a more vibrant future. Using GIS, a better understanding of the barriers to access for light rail travel is obtained and considering key variables outputs are created to assist policy makers in utilizing the W line. By using GIS to address population …

Unequal Burdens: Cost Burdens In The New York Metropolitan Area, 2000-2017, Marco Castillo, Kasey Zapatka

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This report analyzes different demographic cross-sections for cost-burdened households at various times over the study period (2000, 2010, and 2017).

Methods:

The metro areas include the Public Use Micro Areas (PUMAs) associated with following counties for New York (Rockland, Orange, Westchester, Putnam, Duchess, Nassau, Suffolk, Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, and Richmond), New Jersey, (Passaic, Bergen, Hudson, Essex, Union, and Middlesex), and Connecticut (Fairfield). Since counties are not identified in public-use microdata from 1950 onward and PUMAs change over time, we used consistent PUMA boundaries from 2000 to 2010 (https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/CPUMA0010#description_section). For more on this see a discussion here https://forum.ipums.org/t/i-can-see-couple-of-distinct-countyfips-whereas-the-rest-of-them-are-under-0-countyfips-for-minnesota/1585/4 …

Transit Equity: Trends In Commuting Among The Employed Population In New York City, 1990-2019, Beiyi Hu

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This report examines key trends in commuting among the employed population in New York City between 1990 and 2019.

Methods:

This report uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) data for all years released by the Census Bureau and reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa, (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/index.shtml). See Public Use Microdata Series Steven Ruggles, J. Trent Alexander, Katie Genadek, Ronald Goeken, Matthew B. Schroeder, and Matthew Sobek. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 5.0 [Machine-readable database]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2021.

Discussion:

Between 1990 and 2019, most of the employed …

Commuting Times To Work In The United States, 1990-2018, Sebastián F. Villamizar Santamaría

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This report documents the evolution of commuting times in the United States between 1990 and 2018, focusing on disparities with respect to race and ethnicity, sex, marital status, income, and poverty status

Methods:

This report uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) data for all years released by the Census Bureau and reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa, (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/index.shtml). See Public Use Microdata Series Steven Ruggles, J. Trent Alexander, Katie Genadek, Ronald Goeken, Matthew B. Schroeder, and Matthew Sobek. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 5.0 [Machine-readable database]. Minneapolis: …

A New Method To Bridge New Materialism And Emotional Mapping: Spatio-Emotional Experiences In Disaster-Affected Brazilian Favelas, Gemma Sou, Juliana Carvalho, Natalia Cidade, Maria Eugenia

The Qualitative Report

Within the field of emotional mapping, and mapping more broadly, nonhuman things are often understood as mere instruments - they have utility but not agency to shape meaning-making. In this paper we experiment with a new method that aims to challenge the dualism between human and non-human things by bridging new materialism and participatory emotional mapping. We experimented with this “new materialist methodology” during a one-day workshop to explore residents’ spatio-emotional experiences in a disaster-affected favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Reflecting on this one-day workshop, we argue that materials with diverse colors, textures, shapes, densities, weights, and smells are …

Ancient Lowland Maya Neighborhoods: Average Nearest Neighbor Analysis And Kernel Density Models, Environments, And Urban Scale, Amy E. Thompson, John P. Walden, Adrian Z. Chase, Scott R. Hutson, Damien Marken, Bernadette Cap, Eric Fries, M. Rodrigo Guzman Piedrasanta, Timothy S. Hare, Sherman W. Horn Iii, George J. Micheletti, Shane M. Montgomery, Jessica Munson, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kyle Shaw-Müller, Traci Ardren, Jaime J. Awe, M. Kathryn Brown, Michael Callaghan, Claire E. Ebert, Anabel Ford, Rafael A. Guerra, Julie A. Hoggarth, Brigitte Kovacevich, John M. Morris, Holley Moyes, Terry G. Powis, Jason Yaeger, Brett A. Houk, Keith M. Prufer, Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities including neighborhoods and districts. Both today and in the past, neighborhoods form a fundamental part of cities and are defined by their spatial, architectural, and material elements. Neighborhoods existed in ancient centers of various scales, and multiple methods have been employed to identify ancient neighborhoods in archaeological contexts. However, the use of different methods for neighborhood identification within the same spatiotemporal setting results in challenges for comparisons within and between ancient societies. Here, we focus on using a single method—combining Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) and Kernel Density (KD) …

Did The Covid Pandemic Result In An Exodus Of The Latino Population Of New York City And The New York Metropolitan Region?, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2021 One-Year samples indicate that despite the catastrophic health impact of COVID on the Latino population of the region, there was not a mass exodus of Latinos from the City or the metro area. The 2021 ACS One-Year samples, when compared with previous ACS One-Year samples, indicate that the City’s overall population increased by 0.5% between 2018 and 2021 and 1.3% between 2019 and 2021. The ‘Hispanic’ population, excluding Spaniards, rose by 0.2% between 2018 and 2021 and 1.4% between 2019 and 2021 according to these data.

Measuring The Exposure And Vulnerability Of Transit Riders To Cold Temperatures In London, Ontario, Armin Mahboubi

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Due to the expansion of suburban areas in many cities around the world, accessibility to public transit through walking has become a new challenge for riders. Considering the impacts of climate change in creating more extreme weather, such as extreme cold, heat, or flooding, transit riders may thus be at a higher risk of exposure for various weather-related illnesses (Fraser & Chester, 2016).

Using ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap software, and data collected from City of London’s Open Portal, the United States Geological Survey, Open Mobility Data, and Statistics Canada, the exposure and vulnerability of transit riders to cold temperatures in …

Planning For Micromobilities In Canada: Transportation Policy Review, Nathaniel C. Frisbee Ba, Jason Gilliland Phd, Jinhyung Lee Phd

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Canadian municipalities face a complex decision on how they tackle the ‘wicked problem’ of climate change over the next decades. One form of sustainable transportation that municipalities could pursue is light electric vehicles (LEVs), commonly referred to as e-bikes and e-scooters or referred to as a Power Assisted-Bicycle by Transportation Canada. Transportation-related policies and plans of Canadian municipalities were evaluated for their consideration of LEVs. Municipalities were selected based on having a university campus within their boundaries, as this is where the highest density of Canadian population resides. The analysis spreads across all 10 provinces in Canada.  There are significant …

How Urban Outmigration From Toronto Is Going To Impact Rural Ontario, Amanda M. Gutzke

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

These articles examine the outmigration of people from urban Ontario to rural Ontario during the Covid-19 pandemic. These articles use census data from Statistics Canada to explore population growth rates across CMAs and CAs. In addition, data from Statistics Canada is used to demonstrate the impact of intraprovincial migration on small towns and rural Ontario. Moreover, these articles touch upon semi-structured interviews with local elected officials, local administrative officials, and community leaders to showcase the impact of urban outmigration on rural Ontario. These articles argue that housing affordability is one of the most salient consequences of urban outmigration. These articles …

Public History Is Now, Sarah E. Dougher

Amplify: A Journal of Writing-as-Activism

A walking tour of downtown Portland in August 2021 raises questions for the writer about the purpose of “memory activism,” its relation to writing-as-activism. Drawing on critiques of urbanist Jane Jacobs and interrogating the concept of “reckoning,” the essay explores ways in which the streetscape and people there can deliver meaning and pose questions about systemic racism and unsheltered existence.

Making The Old City: Life Projects And State Heritage In Rhodes And Acre, Evan Taylor

Doctoral Dissertations

The “old city,” a widely recognizable category of urban space, has long been a locus of development projects, state monitoring, and mass tourism, while also being home to resident communities. This dissertation explores the intersections of community life and state-driven heritage projects in the Old Town of Rhodes, in the Greek Dodecanese, and the Old City of Acre (‘Akka), a Palestinian community in northern Israel/Palestine. Both old cities are UNESCO World Heritage sites and subjects of intense state-supported tourism development. However, their resident populations and their built environments, which coalesced mainly under Crusader and Ottoman rule, challenge the authorized heritage …

Building The Revolution: Ideology, Affect And Gender In Bolivarian Caracas, Andreina I. Torres A.

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Building the Revolution: Ideology, Affect and Gender in Bolivarian Caracas,” examines the Bolivarian Revolution (1998-present) as a heterogenous shifting political process, and terrain of struggle in which a multiplicity of actors disputed the meanings and direction of socialism in Venezuela. During three years of ethnographic and archival research in Caracas (between 2014 and 2017) I researched one of the many Campamentos de Pioneros (Pioneer Camps) that was part of the Movimiento de Pobladores y Pobladoras de Venezuela (Venezuela’s Settlers’ Movement). The pioneers sought to “rescue” and occupy centrally located land in the national capital in order to build housing for …

Our Streets: Increasing Equity In Active Transportation Planning Through Community Outreach, Jordan Hoy

Master's Projects and Capstones

ABSTRACT Significant research has demonstrated that active transportation infrastructure is essential for the growth and livability of San Francisco: it increases access to economic opportunities, promotes overall improved public health, encourages mobility without contributing to roadway congestion, prevents traffic injuries and fatalities, and supports the sustainability goals of the city. Despite the fact that communities of color will benefit the most from active transportation infrastructure development, historical disenfranchisement in tandem with a lack of diverse representation within public participation contributes to an inequitable distribution of walking and biking investments throughout the city of San Francisco. While research shows that Black …

Solving For Affordability In The San Francisco Housing Crisis: Is California’S Regional Housing Needs Allocation (Rhna) The Answer?, Matthew J. Mandich

Master's Projects and Capstones

Over the last two decades San Francisco has been suffering from a worsening housing shortage and affordability crisis, as housing production has lagged far behind job growth in the city and the region. As San Francisco’s housing market is especially supply constrained due to its unique geography, long-standing zoning laws, and convoluted permitting process, it is especially difficult to add the needed housing at an acceptable rate. Overall, this housing crisis has affected middle and lower income households the most as many have been forced to relocate due to rapidly increasing rents.

In an attempt to stimulate housing production state …

Disorientations, Noah Greene-Lowe

MFA in Visual Art

The materials that make up the ordinary and mundane in the United States also reinforce and normalize a white spatial imaginary. Conventions of mapping, imaging of land and landscape, and elements of the built environment continue to orient us in a logic of space as property. In my sculptural work, I employ strategies of disorientation and creative repair, or reconstruction, to unsettle the spatial practices of whiteness and structures of power embedded in the mundane, the familiar, and the domestic. I consider the planned cohousing community where I grew up as an influence on my work, and my whiteness. By …

Nevada Economic Development And Public Policy 2022-2026: A Sustainable Future For All Nevadans, The Lincy Institute, Brookings Mountain West

Policy Briefs and Reports

This report evaluates economic development efforts in the State of Nevada since the 2011 publication of Unify, Regionalize, Diversify: An Economic Development Agenda for Nevada; assesses demographic and economic trends for Nevada and its regions; examines how state and federal actions since the onset of COVID-19 can position Nevada and its regions to address long-standing economic, educational, and social deficits; and offers policy recommendations to be implemented in the next four years to facilitate a sustainable future for all Nevadans.

A 2020 Census Portrait Of America’S Largest Metro Areas: Population Growth, Diversity, Segregation, And Youth, William Frey

Policy Briefs and Reports

The nation’s major metropolitan areas—those with populations exceeding 1 million, which are home to nearly six in 10 Americans—have been a focal point of the nation’s economic vibrancy, politics, and racial and ethnic diversity. The 2020 census provides an opportunity to see how they fared in the 2010-2020 decade. Unlike the previous decade, major metro areas grew more sharply than their smaller-sized counterparts, and their cities showed growth surges even in a decade when the nation’s population registered historically low growth. Moreover, the increased racial and ethnic diversity that characterized the nation is especially concentrated in major metro areas and, …

In Place/Out Of Place Assignment, Peter Kabachnik

Open Educational Resources

This Geography assignment, ideal for Political Geography, Cultural Geography, Urban Geography, and so forth (and of course other related disciplines like Anthropology and Sociology), undergraduate courses, explores the concepts of in place and out of place. Based on a reading of the introduction of Tim Cresswell's 1996 book In Place/out of Place Geography, Ideology, and Transgression, this assignment is a great way to get students to think about these issues and connect them to their own experiences.

Site Selection For Norfolk Day Services Facility, Faith N. Witkowski, Hua Liu

College of Arts and Letters Posters

In October 2021, The Center: A Temporary Shelter transitioned from its downtown location to a residential area a few blocks away. After the move, a pressing, geographic-based question has surfaced: what makes the best location for the houseless population to be able to utilize resources? Using two methods, this study endeavored to answer this question in multiple ways, through different lenses. Method one's objectives are to find an optimal location(s) for a potential Norfolk day service facility based on 1) proximity to social and health services, 2) proximity to a neighborhood that would most benefit from a day center, and …

Social Production Of An Internal Colony: Urban Space In Black Chicago, 1945-1970, Connor M. Barnes

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

Utilizing an internal colonial model combined with Henri Lefebvre’s ideas about the social production of space, this paper argues the urban space in Black Chicago was intentionally constructed to maximize the control and exploitation of Black Chicagoans. Driven by material interests, primarily, and inextricably tied to America’s race-based hierarchy, hegemonic institutions confined and restricted Black space via discriminatory housing practices to ensure continued economic exploitation. To enforce the spatial barriers they had erected, hegemonic institutions weaponized the police force, using it to occupy and control Black space. This essay establishes theoretical background of internal colonialism and social production of space, …

Past-Futures Of Harlem: Black Urban Space At The Limits Of Spatial Justice, Dane C. Ruffin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The racial capitalist development of the U.S. metropolitan landscape has been shaped by the involuntary displacement and dispersal of Black communities. From the dispossession of the Half-Free Negro Lots around the Fresh Collect pond in the seventeenth century to the clearing of Seneca Village to build Central Park in the nineteenth century to the turn of the twentieth-century police-facilitated “race riot” in the Tenderloin district of Manhattan, which fueled the move to Harlem, the four-hundred year history of Black Manhattan alone provides substantial evidence of this and is in no way unique in this regard. Incomplete, yet ongoing, is what …

The Desert Southwest: Population Growth 2010-2020, Kelliann Beavers, Joshua Padilla, Katie M. Gilbertson, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

In 2021 the United States Census Bureau identified the Desert Southwest as one of the fastest growing regions in the country. The Desert Southwest encompasses portions of five states (Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas) including forty counties and ten metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). Using data from the Census Bureau, this fact sheet showcases population growth within Desert Southwest counties and metropolitan statistical areas from 2010 to 2020.

Blue Growth: A Transitions Approach To Developing Sustainable Pathways, Christina Kelly, Ben Mcateer, Frances Fahy, Liam Carr, Daniel Norton, Desiree Farrell, Rebecca Corless, Stephen Hynes, Zacharoula Kyriazi, Agnès Marhadour, Regis Kalaydjian, Wesley Flannery

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

The sustainable management of Blue Growth is an urgent issue for coastal states. Marine industries have rapidly expanded over the last two decades and this is projected to continue with the European Green Deal and post-COVID economic recovery policies. The intensification of Blue Growth could have adverse socio-ecological implications and must, therefore, be managed in terms of sustainability, natural resource boundaries, and coastal community well-being. Managing Blue Growth in a sustainable manner however, is challenging due to the longstanding inefficiencies and inertia of existing marine governance regimes. Adopting a transitions approach has been advanced as a way of steering regime …

Festivals And The City: The Contested Geographies Of Urban Events, Andrew Smith, Guy Osborn, Bernadette Quinn

Books / Book chapters

This book explores how festivals and events affect urban places and public spaces, with a particular focus on their role in fostering inclusion. The ‘festivalisation’ of culture, politics and space in cities is often regarded as problematic, but this book examines the positive and negative ways that festivals affect cities by examining festive spaces as contested spaces. The book focuses on Western European cities, a particularly interesting context given the social and cultural pressures associated with high levels of in-migration and concerns over the commercialisation and privatisation of public spaces.

The key themes of this book are the quest for …

Event Tourism, Public Policy And Socio-Cultural Development In Dublin, Bernadette Quinn, Ana Maria Fernandes Dr, Theresa Ryan Dr

Articles

In a highly globalised, competitive world, urban strategies often highlight festivals and events as activities which can attract tourists and investors, extend the tourism season and boost the economy. Event tourism as a term is now well established in the tourism lexicon, however, it is usually employed in quite a limited way that offers only partial insights into a complex phenomenon. To redress this deficit, this paper examines the case of Dublin, where for the last twenty-five years, policy-makers have been using festivals and events to boost the city’s international standing. The aim is to investigate whether policy-makers can strategically …

Environmental Racism In Baltimore: A Geographical Study Into The Connections Between Environmental Toxins And Public Health, Genevieve Block

Honors Theses

An investigation into the relationship between environmental toxins and environmental racism in Baltimore City, Maryland.

Community Responses To Food Insecurity During Covid-19: A Case Study In Sheffield, England, Nicole Kennard

Urban Food Systems Symposium

The COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to a group of newly food insecure people and deepened hardship for those already food insecure. The crisis disrupted national food supplies and created challenges to accessing and utilizing the food that was available. As financial struggle deepened for people, and some became unable to shop for food or cook due to isolation requirements and illness, many turned to community organizations to obtain food. In Sheffield, England, small community food organizations soon became the leaders of the city’s emergency food response. One such organization is the Foodhall Project, a community food organization which had previously …

“It’S Real”: Experiences Of Family Homelessness In Fort Worth, Texas, Bernd Scheffler, Dale Brooker Phd.

Pursue: Undergraduate Research Journal

Introduction: Despite the common public image of homelessness (read: a single “vagrant” person), families with children represent one-third of the homeless population—an especially-serious social problem since family homelessness has long-term negative impacts on two generations simultaneously. This interdisciplinary study examined the complexities of family homelessness in Fort Worth, Texas.

Methods: A literature review outlined pathways into family homelessness, shared experiences, and common intervention strategies. An original qualitative study followed, employing a phenomenological approach to interview families in a local rapid-rehousing program. Open-ended questions allowed free descriptions of personal realities. Audio-recorded responses were analyzed for relevant themes, commonalities, and variations.

Results: …