Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Anticipating The Fall Line: A Plan For Equitable Trail-Oriented Development On Commerce Road, Eric King

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Once completed, the Fall Line trail will provide a 43-mile active transportation route through Central Virginia from Ashland to Petersburg. Three miles of the trail’s alignment follow Commerce Road in Richmond’s Southside. As Manchester continues to undergo rapid change, trail-oriented development (TrOD) offers an opportunity to accommodate growth and transform the industrial corridor into a mixed-use destination as envisioned by the city’s master plan. While TrOD within the study area represents both economic and community development, relatively low residential property values and median incomes within surrounding neighborhoods warrant proactive measures to mitigate potential displacement pressures. Drawing from precedents set by …

Developing Agrihoods: The Context For Petersburg, Brandon L. Archer

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Petersburg has an extensive history of navigating through challenging times. From its inception, African Americans have played an important role in the development of the city, and today that spirit is still present. As evidenced by an extensive network of community support and stakeholders, the Petersburg Youth Farm has matured into a resource for not just the residents of the neighborhood but of the city as a whole. By incorporating some innovative planning techniques and building a housing development truly dedicated to community needs, we can improve lived experiences in the city.

By adopting the recommendations set forth in this …

Uwt Experiences In The Townships Of South Africa, Bridging Borders, Breaking Bread, Fern Tiger, Christopher Knaus, Maija Thiel, Anneka Olson, Autumn Diaz

Conflux

In late August, 2017, twelve students representing all academic levels (undergraduate, masters, and doctorate) from all three University of Washington campuses (Tacoma, Bothell, Seattle) journeyed to Cape Town, South Africa, where they participated in a three-week UWT study abroad course. Students examined a range of community development activities and gained an understanding of pressing “township” development issues, including a range of conflicts between business interests and community needs. Students also learned how schools and non-governmental organizations have sought to empower and transform communities. This paper synthesizes key reflections of this remarkable urban experience from Professor Fern Tiger, Christopher Knaus and …

Housing And Community Development, Yana Kucheva

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Focusing On Equity In Regional Plans, Kristine M. Williams

TREC Project Briefs

Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) have long been required to consider the equity implications of their regional transportation plans and processes.

Evaluating The Distributional Effects Of Regional Transportation Plans And Projects, Kristine Williams, Aaron Golub

TREC Final Reports

Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) have long been required to consider the equity implications of their regional transportation plans and processes. Funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, this research aims to provide additional guidance to MPOs on how to evaluate distributional equity in regional plans and projects. The report begins with an overview of federal requirements related to equity in transportation planning. We then synthesize contemporary methods for measuring transportation equity and the distributional effects of plans and projects from a review of the literature and MPO plans and studies. The report concludes with exploratory case studies of …

City Of Oberlin, Comprehensive Housing Study And Needs Analysis, Kirby Date, Kathryn W. Hexter, Charlie Post, N. Colt Ossoff, Arleesha Wilson

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The Center for Community Planning and Development was engaged by the City of Oberlin, Ohio to develop a comprehensive housing needs assessment. A fact-finding study with recommendations, it is intended to support future policy discussion and visioning as part of the City’s planned comprehensive plan process in the coming year. This study was completed with input and guidance from the City and a Housing Study Steering Committee of community stakeholders, a Community Open House, and interviews with residents, workers, business owners, and community leaders. Data analysis demonstrated a need for additional housing for low-income families, starter housing for younger households, …

Community Land Trusts: A Help Or Hindrance To Community Development In The United States, Andrew Kuka

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

The availability of affordable housing in the United States continues to be an issue for Americans who are on the brink of homelessness, rely on housing subsidies, or struggle to pay their mortgages or rents. These issues, as well as the gentrification threat that community development poses to low-income residents can have deleterious effects on democratic participation and community development efforts. One proposed solution to these problems is the implementation of more community land trust programs nationally. This paper will assess the practicality of CLTs, and what such an implementation would mean for individuals, government entities, community members, and community …

Greater University Circle Initiative: Year 5 Evaluation Report, Kathryn W. Hexter, Candi Clouse, Kenneth Kalynchuk

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

In 2015, the partners of the Greater University Circle Economic Inclusion Initiative reached an important milestone—5 years of working together to revitalize the seven neighborhoods that comprise Greater University Circle (GUC). This milestone offers an opportunity to take a step back and reflect on why the group first came together as well as their collective accomplishments, challenges, and opportunities. This fifth evaluation report includes a very brief summary of the history of the Initiative before launching into reflections from the participants on the major accomplishments, challenges, and opportunities on the horizon. It concludes with significant outcomes to date. The report …

Neighbors Building Community - A Community Empowerment Initiative Through Community Mapping, Mark J. Salling

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Cleveland State University’s Office of Civic Engagement, through an Engaged Learning Enhancement Grant, funded a pilot demonstration project to evaluate the use of community mapping for assisting with community assessments of neighborhood issues in a west side neighborhood of Cleveland. The project used neighborhood residents to collect and map data on a variety of neighborhood issues, specifically dilapidated buildings, potentially dangerous dogs, pot holes, broken sidewalks, offensive graffiti, trash in vacant lots, dead trees, and more.

The pilot project educated the participants about neighborhood issues, while providing the community with documentation on issues that can be presented to council representatives …

Slavic Village Neighborhood Retail Market Study, Kirby Date

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Slavic Village is a revitalizing urban neighborhood in the southeast area of the City of Cleveland. A historic neighborhood that was once home to 75,000 immigrants of Polish and Slavic descent, it has seen steady decline since the 1960’s, along with other Cleveland neighborhoods, and was especially hard hit during the housing and foreclosure crisis of 2007-2010. However, in the present day, it has many assets and opportunities that make it poised to become one of the vibrant Cleveland neighborhoods of the future.

This study was done as part of a student project to look at the potential to re-invigorate …

Strong Cities, Strong Communities Fellowship Program Final Report 2012-2014, Kathryn Hexter

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The management team of the Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) Fellowship Program — The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), Cleveland State University (CSU), and the Virginia Tech Metropolitan Institute (MI) — is pleased to present this final report on outcomes and impacts of the program. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and The Rockefeller Foundation were our primary champions in conceptualizing and funding this pilot program to build capacity in local government through embedded mid-career professionals. As a pilot initiative, the SC2 Fellowship program has proven that project-based and cohort-oriented urban fellowships can deliver …

Understanding The Location Decisions Of The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority's Housing Choice Voucher Holders: Pilot Study, Kathryn Hexter, W Dennis Keating, Mittie Davis Jones, Brian Mikelbank, Michael Veres, Joyce Huang

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The goal of the Housing Choice Voucher Program is to assist low-income families in renting decent, safe, and affordable housing. Voucher holders are free to select a unit and location that best meets their needs within the guidelines of the program. The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA), which administers the program in Cuyahoga County, was interested in learning more about how housing choice voucher holders decide where they want to live. CMHA was also interested in understanding the barriers that might be preventing voucher holders from moving to areas of greater opportunity and how it could partner with cities to …

Downtown Market Study: City Of Olmsted Falls, Ohio, Kirby Date

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

As the first step in establishing an economic development committee under a new mayoral administration, the City of Olmsted Falls worked with the Center for Community Planning and Development at the Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University, to prepare an analysis of market strengths and weaknesses for retail, office, housing and lodging in the City’s historic downtown area. This study was performed by economic development student Kirby Date, who is also a professional planner and coordinator of the Community Planning Program at the Levin College. In addition to the market study, a downtown survey of visitors and residents, …

Retail Market Study: Village Of Middlefield, Ohio, Kirby Date

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The Village of Middlefield engaged the services of the CSU Center for Community Planning and Development to do a study of their retail market.

The Village had two goals:

1) Develop ideas to fill vacancies in Village retail spaces.

2) Make recommendations for strengthening Village retail business.

This study was developed to help the Village meet these goals.

People And Place: Understanding The Processes, Outcomes And Impacts Of Interventions Of The Fairmount Corridor Initiative, Center For Social Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Through a 5 year grant, the Center for Social Policy (CSP) serves as a strategic learning and evaluation partner to The Boston Foundation (TBF). TBF’s investment and people and place-based initiatives seek to make sustainable, positive change through community and economic development in neighborhoods along the Fairmount-Indigo transit line in Boston. From 2010-2012, the Center team worked closely with Mattapan United and Millennium 10 (in Codman Square/Four Corners) to identify community priorities for neighborhood change. From 2013-2015, the Center team is evaluating these neighborhood change efforts, as well as other initiatives aimed at increasing economic well-being for neighborhood residents. The …

Being A Change-Agent In The Context Of International Cross-Cultural Community Development Work, Nicolette Slagle

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

January, 2011, I joined the 123 rd group of Peace Corps volunteers heading for Thailand, becoming one over 5,000 volunteers who have served in that nation. Thailand is one of the longest continuously running programs in Peace Corps history. Through Corps' relationship with the kingdom, the goals and objectives for various programs have shifted and changed. I served in one of the last groups under Community -Based Organizational Development (CBOD) project framework. This program was itself a result of Thailand’s 1997 constitution that stressed de -centralization of the gov ernment's functions. Volunteers in this program were assigned to a subdistrict …

Washington Park Main Street Plan, Benjamin Bergenholtz, Derek Dandurand, Valerie Fram, Tracy Jonsson, Kimberly Lindner, Carolyn Reid, D.J. Sevigny, Alexandra Skerry, Timothy Guimond, Brooke Kourafas, Elise Murphy, Matt Berry, Erik Butler, Kayla Nerone, Arnold Robinson, Jeremy Wells, Julie Coon, Joel Cooper

Historic Preservation

There is an immense variety of privately owned businesses. They will be stakeholders because their businesses are located there, but they will also be assets in themselves in drawing people to the area. There is basically everything anyone could possible want or need in this area. There are two gas stations, a Family Dollar, a liquor store, a few sit down restaurants, numerous places where one can get a quick bite to eat, a frame shop, a clothing store, a pawn shop, a store with fresh produce (which is hard to find in urban areas), a store that sells sports …

Razing Lafitte: Defending Public Housing From A Hostile State, Leigh Graham

Publications and Research

The contentious politics of the demolition of Lafitte public housing in post- Katrina New Orleans and its replacement with mixed-income properties is a telling case of the strategic conflicts housing advocates face in public housing revitalization. It reveals how the qualified outcomes of HOPE VI interact with local institutional and historical circumstances to confound the equity and social justice goals of housing and community development advocates. It shows the limits to public housing revitalization as an urban recovery strategy when hostile government leadership characterizes a region, and the state is recast as an adversary rather than revitalization partner. This case …

Advancing The Human Right To Housing In Post-Katrina New Orleans: Discursive Opportunity Structures In Housing And Community Development, Leigh Graham

Publications and Research

In post-Katrina New Orleans, housing and community development (HCD) advocates clashed over the future of public housing. This case study examines the evolution of and limits to a human right to housing frame introduced by one nongovernmental organization (NGO). Ferree’s concept of the discursive opportunity structure and Bourdieu’s social field ground this NGO’s failure to advance a radical economic human rights frame, given its choice of a political inside strategy that opened up for HCD NGOs after Hurricane Katrina. Strategic and ideological differences within the field limited the efficacy of this rights-based frame, which was seen as politically radical and …

Urban League Of Central Carolinas – Civil Rights Organizations In A New Era: An Action Research Study Of One Organization’S Pursuit Of New Strategies, Harry L. Alston

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

What leadership approaches and operational strategies should traditional civil rights organizations, like the Urban League, undertake to in this post-civil rights era? Specifically at the local level, what expectations must the Urban League of Central Carolinas satisfy to reassert its leadership in Charlotte? In recent years, an increasing array of social enterprises across different sectors has emerged to address failures in civil society. Civil rights organizations have long served a niche in the battle for an equitable society. However, the role of civil rights organizations in community revitalization has been diffuse and subject to fundraising constraints. I undertook this action …

Land Use Innovation: Experiences In The Adoption Of Land Use Policies To Promote Active Living, Jennifer Dill, Deborah A. Howe

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Obesity continues to be a major public health problem in the United States. As of 2007, 28.8% of adolescents were either overweight or obese. The rise in obesity may, in part, be attributable to declines in physical activity (PA) levels. In 2007, only 34.7% of adolescents met the national PA guidelines. Since PA levels decrease between childhood and adolescence, the middle school transition is a particularly vulnerable period that warrants special attention. In 2003, Somerville, Massachusetts organized an Active Living by Design (ALbD) partnership to promote community- wide active living through promotion activities (maps), policy changes, programs to engage immigrant …

Urban Form In Europe And America, Pietro S. Nivola

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Why do America's cities sprawl whereas European cities remain comparatively compact, and what difference do the patterns of urban development make? Pietro Nivola, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, addresses these questions. Nivola examines two kinds of determinants of urban form: (1) market forces, including those influenced by geography, demographics, and technological change, and (2) public policies shaping national transportation systems, tax policy, educational institutions, and more. He also discusses the implications of the different cityscapes for energy consumption.

Achieving Sustainable, Compact Development In The Portland Metropolitan Area: New Tools And Approaches For Developing Centers And Corridors, Gil Kelley, Sheila A. Martin, Elizabeth Mylott

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

This report represents the work of a group of local public, private and institutional experts in real estate development and finance convened by the Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies at Portland State University. This was done at the request of Metro, which wanted outside expert advice on ways to achieve more robust development of centers and corridors in the Portland metropolitan area, an important aspect of implementing the 2040 Growth Concept. Although the expert advisory group (EAG) enthusiastically took on this task, it wanted to first back up a step and deliberate over whether and to what extent center and …

Financial Intermediaries For Community And Economic Development In Ohio: Market Assessment, Ziona Austrian, Brian A. Mikelbank, Afia Yamoah, Charles Post, Candice Clouse, David O. Kasdan

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report describes the results of an in-depth market assessment study conducted for the Finance Fund by the Center for Economic Development and the Center for Housing Research and Policy at Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Urban Affairs. The Finance Fund, located in Columbus, Ohio, is a statewide nonprofit financial intermediary. It finds funding and provides resources to support organizations that assist low- and moderate-income families and communities.1 The Finance Fund works primarily within low-income rural and urban communities throughout the state of Ohio by connecting local community development organizations and small businesses with needed funding in the form …

From Urban Frontier To Metropolitan Region: Oregon's Cities From 1870 To 2008, Carl Abbott

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Presentation and paper from 2008 "Toward One Oregon" Conference. A revised version of this presentation was published in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, 110(1), 74-95.

From Urban Frontier To Metropolitan Region: Oregon's Cities From 1870 To 2008, Carl Abbott

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

An essay is presented which compares the development of Portland, Oregon, to the growth of other cities in the state. Particular focus is given to its economic stability and political influence. The changing relationship with Oregon's population, economics and cultural relations in the different parts of the state is examined. In addition, the urban-systems approach shows three equal periods in the state's development with close-in neighbors in modern economic geography.

Permanently Failing Organizations? Small Business Recovery After September 11, 2001, Leigh Graham

Publications and Research

Small businesses in Lower Manhattan after September 11, 2001, paint a telling portrait of vulnerability after disasters. This qualitative analysis of recovery for small retail and service firms with 50 or fewer employees is based on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and documentary research from September 2001 through 2005. A postdisaster emphasis on place-based assistance to firms conflicted with macro-level redevelopment plans for Lower Manhattan. Small business recovery was impeded as aid programs responded to a new sense of urgency, attachment to place, and prestorm conceptions of the neighborhood at the expense of addressing community-wide economic changes accelerated by the disaster. Ingredients …

Gateway Gardens Site Analysis, Chris Gage, Rory Renfro, Jessica Sarver, Ben Sturtz, Nicole Wolters

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Gateway Gardens Site Analysis takes a comprehensive look at a largely-vacant land area in Portland’s Gateway District. Currently owned by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), the 38-acre site currently serves as right-of-way for surrounding freeways, namely Interstates 84 and 205.

The project team developed a sequential process for completing this report. To gain an understanding of the project site, the initial step consisted of identifying key historical events and land uses that formed the site into what it is today. The team then conducted an in-depth existing conditions analysis, covering a wide range of elements including natural and …

Community-Based Learning And Social Justice, Karen Gibson

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This is a reflective essay on the ways in which community-based learning (CBL) enriches the work life of a faculty member who retains working-class roots and an interest in social justice. Using examples from courses and applied research on community development, housing, ,:and poverty, the essay explains how meaningful relationships with community organizations act as a counter-balance to the isolation of an academic career. It also discusses the value of community-based learning when teaching about social justice themes.