Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Fruitful Communities: Evaluating The History And Impacts Of Treepeople’S Fruit Tree Program, Kayla B. Imhoff

Pitzer Senior Theses

TreePeople is a Los Angeles based non-profit organization that uses environmental education, initiatives, and programs to engage with the greater community to work towards the goal of a sustainable future for Los Angeles. The Fruit Tree Program is one of TreePeople’s longest running programs of 29 years, which distributes free bare-root fruit trees to economically disadvantaged communities as a source of fresh fruit and the other environmental benefits that trees offer. This paper is a comprehensive report detailing the history of the program and the impacts it has had on communities across Los Angeles County. Looking at three communities in …

Helping Connecticut Towns Plan For Climate Change, Juliana Barrett, Jennifer Pagach

Wrack Lines

A NOAA Climate Change Adaptation Training Workshop helps Connecticut towns plan ahead.

News - Georgia State University - Gsu Library Receives $210,000 Neh Grant, Christian J. Steinmetz

Georgia Library Quarterly

Georgia State University Library recently received a $210,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for “Planning Atlanta: A New City in the Making, 1930s – 1990s”, submitted by librarian Joe Hurley (Principal Investigator) and history professor Kate Wilson (co-PI).

Green Mind Gray Yard: Micro Scale Assessment Of Ecosystem Services, Erin Jolene Kirkpatrick

Dissertations and Theses

There is a spatial mismatch between the size of the area where people are living and the extent of land needed to ecologically support developed areas. More people are living in urban areas than any time in history, and the resources need to support cities have had to expand to try and meet the demands of increasing urban populations. However, areas of opportunity exist for urban areas to begin to positively contribute towards the available resources in a region. Because a large portion of urban areas is within private control, gaining a baseline understanding of how residents interact with ecosystem …

Disinvestment Trifecta: Parking, Highways, & Urban Renewal In Minneapolis An Historical Analysis Of The Gateway District, Scott Vargo

The Macalester Review

Minneapolis, like many post-industrial cities, went through a massive land transformation in the decades following WWII. While the factors behind this transformation are numerous, this paper will hone in on several inter-related developments that had significant detrimental effect on the vitality of Minneapolis: parking lots, the interstate highway system, and the never ending quest to vanquish traffic jams. Viewed through the lens of “urban renewal”, and focusing on the Gateway District of Minneapolis, this paper will examine how and why the combined forces of economics, suburbanization, and misdirected city planners converted a once vibrant neighborhood into a sea of asphalt …

Carbon Tax And Shift: How To Make It Work For Oregon's Economy., Jenny H. Liu, Jeff Renfro, Janai Kessi, Hudson Munoz

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

This study analyzes a carbon tax and tax shift in Oregon as a means of reducing market inefficiencies by placing a meaningful price on carbon emissions. This study shows that a carbon tax can reduce distortionary income taxes, and provide new revenue opportunities for Oregon. By taxing carbon emissions and reducing Corporate and Personal Income tax rates, Oregon can reduce the negative incentives created by income taxes while generating revenue and reducing carbon emissions. The report shows that putting a price on carbon in Oregon can result in reductions in harmful emissions and have positive impacts on the economy.

Traffic Safety Data: Expanding The Archive, Christopher Monsere, Myenwoo Lim, Chengxin Dai, Xiaowei Wu

TREC Project Briefs

A project expands the capabilities of the Oregon Traffic Safety Data Archive, a tool for helping traffic safety engineers and planners reduce the occurrence of traffic accidents.

Assessing The Potential Contribution Of Vacant Land To Urban Vegetable Production And Consumption In Oakland, California, Nathan Mcclintock, Jenny Cooper, Snehee Khandeshi

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

As urban agriculture grows in popularity, researchers are attempting to quantify its potential contribution to local food systems. We present the results of a vacant land inventory conducted in collaboration with the HOPE Collaborative, a multi-stakeholder, community-based initiative in Oakland, CA, USA. Vacant lots, open space, and underutilized parks with agricultural potential were identified using GIS and aerial imagery. Using visual interpretation, we identified 1201 ac (486.4 ha) of public land and 337 ac (136.4 ha) of private land that could potentially be used for vegetable production. Based on USDA loss-adjusted consumption data, we calculated the potential contribution of these …

Consolidated Public Safety Answering Point (Psap) Feasibility Study For Richland County Ohio, Daila Shimek, Eugene Kramer, Patrick Johnson, Charlie Post

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report provides an assessment of the feasibility of consolidation of two public safety answering points in Richland County, Ohio. The report describes the methodology used to assess the feasibility. The findings are that consolidation of dispatch services among the potential participating entities is feasible. Consolidation of services would reduce capital costs expended across the county for public safety emergency dispatching over the long term. Given the proposed investment equipment and staff, the level and quality of service provided by a consolidated dispatch center should exceed those currently being supplied.

Palliative Care And The Health Care Crisis In The United States: A Candid Conversation With Dr. Diane Meier, Diane E. Meier

Center for Policy Research

This paper is a synthesis of the 2012 Lourie Lecture, framed as a series of questions and responses, and supported by images used in the lecture. I’m going to focus on the growth of this new field called palliative care and will make the connection that the crisis afflicting healthcare in the United States cannot be addressed without widespread scaling and implementation of palliative care across the system. My subject is not end-of-life care, but rather care during serious illness. A serious illness is something a person can live with for many years, such as emphysema, or end-stage renal disease …

Measuring The Performance Of Transit Relative To Livability, Marc Schlossberg, Jennifer Dill, Liang Ma, Cody Meyer

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This project sought to understand the relationship between urban form, transit service characteristics, and ridership measured at the stop level. Most previous work in this area has looked at these issues separately, by either linking system performance (e.g. on-time performance, cost, etc.) to ridership or exploring the connection between urban form (e.g. density) and transit use. This project synthesized these disparate approaches. While transit service characteristics (e.g. frequency, travel time, etc.) are important to help individuals reach their desired destinations, most transit users are pedestrians at the beginning and end of any transit trip. Therefore, focusing on the walkable zone …

New Census Data Show Poverty On The Rise In Oregon And Nationwide, Jason R. Jurjevich, Jack Byerly

Publications, Reports and Presentations

The U.S. Census Bureau’s latest Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE), released in December 2012, show an increase in poverty in Oregon and nationwide from 2010 to 2011. During this period, the nation’s poverty rate rose from 15.3 percent ( /- 0.1 percent) to 15.9 percent ( /- 0.1 percent), while the rate in Oregon rose sharply from 15.8 percent ( /- 0.3 percent) to 17.3 percent ( /- 0.4 percent). Both the national and state increases are statistically significant. In 2011, Oregon had the sixteenth highest rate of poverty (tied with Oklahoma) among the fifty states and the …

Link Levy To Services- Not Urban Middle Class Assets, Tom Dunne

Articles

Paying any tax is an unwelcome burden, but in Ireland many have a particular aversion to taxes on their homes. We are not alone in this. Elsewhere, taxes on homes are also unpopular; witness the People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation which forced the California state government to cut property taxes. Nevertheless, residential property taxes remain an almost universal feature of developed countries because of compelling economic arguments for them. Also, local property taxes are regarded as the best means of funding local government.

Rarely, it seems to me, is there such a distance between what the public wants and …

Urban Forest Justice And The Rights To Wild Foods, Medicines, And Materials In The City, Melissa R. Poe, Rebecca J. Mclain, Marla R. Emery, Patrick T. Hurley

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Urban forests are multifunctional socio-ecological landscapes, yet some of their social benefits remain poorly understood. This paper draws on ethnographic evidence from Seattle, Washington to demonstrate that urban forests contain nontimber forest products that contribute a variety of wild foods, medicines, and materials for the well-being of urban residents. We show that gathering wild plants and fungi in urban forests is a persistent subsistence and livelihood practice that provides sociocultural and material benefits to city residents, and creates opportunities for connecting with nature and enhancing social ties. We suggest that an orientation toward human-nature interactions in cities that conceptualizes the …

Developing An Oregon Access Management Best Practices Manual, Karen Dixon, Xiang Yi, Lacy Brown, Robert Layton

TREC Final Reports

This report reviews an Oregon research effort to develop an Oregon Access Management Best Practices Manual. In particular, this research effort develops a resource to help transportation professionals quantify safety and operational effects of various access management strategies, provide measurable criteria to evaluate these access management techniques, and identify data collection practices necessary to successfully perform these assessments. It is the expectation that this manual can be used by engineers, decision makers, and educators to help the transportation community better understand the appropriate application of access management strategies and how to quantify benefits of the various access management options. This …

Aging In Hingham: A Community Affair, Jan Mutchler, Caitlin Coyle, Hayley Gravette

Gerontology Institute Publications

The purpose of this needs assessment is to investigate the needs, interests, and opinions of mature residents of Hingham, Massachusetts, relating to their aging experiences and needs for age-related services. This assessment was undertaken by the Gerontology Institute of the McCormack Graduate School at UMass Boston on behalf of the Town of Hingham Department of Elder Services (hereinafter referred to as the Department of Elder Services). The focus of this report is on Hingham residents aged 60+ (referred to here as “Seniors”) and residents aged 45-59 (referred to here as “Boomers”). Information about these two age groups was obtained both …

Preparing For The Rising Tide, Ellen Douglas, Paul Kirshen, Vivian Li, Chris Watson, Julie Wormser

Environmental, Earth, and Ocean Sciences Faculty Publication Series

On October 29, 2012, one of the largest Atlantic basin storms in recorded history hit the East Coast. Although Superstorm Sandy centered around New Jersey and New York when it made landfall, the massive storm system spanned 1,000 miles north to south, over three times the size of a typical hurricane.

Luckily for Boston, Sandy’s storm surge hit the city near low tide, causing relatively minor coastal flooding. Had the storm hit 5½ hours earlier, 6.6 percent of the city could have been flooded, with floodwaters reaching City Hall.

Events such as Superstorm Sandy highlight the growing relevance of climate …

Closing The Gap: Developing A Transportation Curriculum For The Oregon Young Scholars Program: Project Summary Report, Carla Gary, Bethany Steiner, Chuck Kalnbach

TREC Project Briefs

This OTREC educational proposal links experiential and transportation education from the University of Oregon with minority youth during the Summer ‘08 two-week session of the Oregon Young Scholar’s Program (OYSP). The grant provides OYSP an opportunity to create a transportation based curriculum during the Summer ‘08 program with the ultimate purpose of increasing minority interest and hopefully eventual employment in transportation related fields. OYSP was developed in 2005 to nurture the potential of marginalized minority students, to prepare these students for higher education, and to increase the awareness of their parents or caregivers about what it will take for these …

Development Of Mobile Mapping Technology To Facilitate Dialogue Between Transportation Agencies And The Public, Ken Kato, Marc Schlossberg, James Meacham

TREC Final Reports

The goal of this grant was to take the technological innovations for deploying survey instruments to mobile phones, developed under a previous OTREC grant, and publish them as globally accessible mobile applications (apps) for use in a variety of transportation planning settings. Under this grant, three applications have been developed for three distinctly different user groups. The first, JLA Involve, was developed and deployed for JLA, a Portland, OR.-based public involvement firm, to support their work with the City of Tualatin, OR., in updating their Transportation System Plan (TSP). The second was developed and deployed for the City of Eugene, …

The Impact Of Transit Oriented Development On The Travel Behaviors Of Workers In Denver, Colorado, Gregory J. Kwoka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To combat unsustainable transportation systems characterized by reliance on petroleum, polluting emissions, traffic congestion and suburban sprawl, planners encourage mixed use, densely populated areas that provide individuals with opportunities to live, work, eat and shop without necessarily having to drive private automobiles to accommodate their needs. Despite these attempts, the frequency and duration of automobile trips has consistently increased in the United States throughout past decades. While many studies have focused on how residential proximity to transit influences travel behavior, the effect of workplace location has largely been ignored.

This paper asks, does working near a TOD influence the travel …

Post 2015 -- What Comes After The Millennium Development Goals, Michael Switow

Social Space

In June 2013, a High Level Panel appointed by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on UN member states to adopt a sustainable development agenda that will “Leave No One Behind.” Michael Switow shares civil society’s analysis of this report, taking a look at what it got right, what was wrong and where it missed out altogether.

Ua30/2 Facilities & Campus Services Parking & Transportation Services, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Parking & Transportation Services.

Revisiting Equity: The Hud Sustainable Communities Initiative, Lisa K. Bates, Marisa Zapata

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

In 1974, Norman Krumholz boldly called on planners to advocate for equity in public resource allocation and administrative practices. In 2010, the Obama administration’s HUD-DOT-EPA Sustainable Communities Initiative—specifically in the form of the Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant

(SCRPG)—renewed this call for equity. But our review of the responses by thirteen grantees proved disappointing. The plans put forth by award winners recycle many of the activities from the Cleveland Policy Plan (CPP) without employing its overarching mission. Instead of boldness, we are left with a stark reminder about the lack of progress made since the City of Cleveland incited planners …

Oregon’S Electric Vehicle Industry, Jenny H. Liu, Jeff Renfro, Scott Stewart

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

In 2012, Drive Oregon and the Portland Development Commission (PDC) commissioned the Northwest Economic Research Center (NERC) to undertake a study of Oregon’s existing EV cluster. This report has two goals: define what we mean when we talk about an EV cluster in Oregon, and characterize and measure the existing EV cluster in order to identify Oregon’s strengths and opportunities.

Ua1b1/7 Wku Ceremonies, Dedications, Groundbreakings, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records regarding special ceremonies, dedications, groundbreakings not already housed in a particular office.

From Capability Trap To Capacity Development : Understanding Local Capacity For Managing Disasters, Asmita Tiwari

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The concept of capacity development is essential to the idea of governance and development. Over the decades, governments and development agencies have promoted capacity development programs. With the increasing number of disaster events and associated losses, there has been heightened attention given to governments' capacity to manage disasters. This is associated with a paradigm shift from reactive to proactive actions. Prevention requires capacity to understand, reduce, and manage risk. Nevertheless, a universally acceptable overarching framework of capacity development does not exist.

A Study Of Emergency Service Provider Costs For Chronically Homeless Persons In Washington County, Oregon, Scott Stewart, Janai Kessi

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

Individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Washington County are a growing community challenge. Services provided to the homeless population have tended to focus on providing support in cases of emergency, and by doing so are unlikely to address the root causes of homelessness. There is a growing recognition nationally that concentrating on provision of emergency services might be both inefficient and unnecessarily expensive. Recognizing these issues locally, Vision Action Network (VAN) and its partners have taken the initiative to both better understand homelessness in Washington County and to encourage progress toward its solution. As one part of that effort VAN …

Contesting The North Williams Traffic Operations And Safety Project, Amy Lubitow, Thaddeus R. Miller

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The North Williams Traffic Safety Operations Project, overseen by the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), was proposed in 2010. With an initial budget of $370,000, the project was designed to reduce conflict between buses, bicycles and motor vehicles on North Williams Avenue and improve the overall safety and accessibility of the street. As is common practice, PBOT’s first step in this project was to organize a stakeholder advisory committee (SAC) of interested business owners, neighborhood association representatives, residents, and key stakeholders living or working along North Williams Avenue who would be tasked with advising the city on the project. However, …

Making Accessibility Analyses Accessible: A Tool To Facilitate The Public Review Of The Effects Of Regional Transportation Plans On Accessibility, Aaron Golub, Glenn Robinson, Brendan Nee

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The regional transportation planning process in the United States has not been easily opened to public oversight even after strengthened requirements for public participation and civil rights considerations. In the effort to improve the public review of regional transportation plans, this paper describes the construction of a proof-of concept web-based tool designed to analyze the effects of regional transportation plans on accessibility to jobs and other essential destinations. The tool allows the user to analyze disparities in accessibility outcomes by demographic group, specifically income and race, as required by civil rights-related planning directives. The tool makes cumulative-opportunity measures of the …

Water Governance In Bolivia: Policy Options For Pro-Poor Infrastructure Reform, Daniel M. Maxwell

CMC Senior Theses

As the case with most countries across Latin America, unprecedented migration to urban areas has strained city infrastructure systems. More particularly, the region faces a pressing crisis of water security, where rapid urbanization has outpaced water sector development. This thesis addresses the water infrastructure reform in El Alto and La Paz, Bolivia, focusing on strategies to better promote water access for the peri-urban poor. The research investigates the level of progressivity of water service expansion and pricing regimes: in other words, does the present model of water distribution positively improve the lives of the poorest groups? By investigating these social …