Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Homelessness Research: Shaping Policy And Practice, Now And Into The Future, Dennis P. Culhane, Vince R. Kane, Mark Johnston

Dennis P. Culhane

Analysis Of The Spatial And Temporal Dynamics Of Street Hawking: A Case Study Of The Accra Metropolitan Area, Alex Owusu Barimah, Stephen Abrokwah, Stephen Frimpong

Stephen Frimpong

To the street hawker, it is a means of making a living but to the managers of the metropolis, street hawking is a menace. These differences in perception have led to a game plan tied to spatio-temporal diurnal traffic regimes. While the city authorities plan may be to evict the street hawkers, the plan of the hawkers is to outwit the city authorities through make-shift hawking patterns in order to make a living. The difference in the two positions can be characterized by the city manager’s need for clean and less congested city streets, and the hawker’s desire to sell …

Walking In The Land Of Cars: Automobile-Pedestrian Accidents In Hillsborough County, Florida, Marc Aaron Poling

Marc A Poling

Analyses of traffic accidents are often focused on the characteristics of the accident event and hence do not take into account the broader neighborhood contexts in which accidents are located. This thesis seeks to extend empirical analyses of accidents by understanding the link between accidents and their surroundings. The case study for this thesis is Hillsborough County, Florida, within which the city of Tampa is located. The Tampa Bay region ranks very high in terms of accident rates within U.S. metropolitan areas and is also characterized by transport policies which favor private automobiles over mass transit options, making it an …

“Who Sows Misery Collects Rage:” Cultivating Insurrection In Crisis Barcelona, Justin Ak Helepololei

Justin AK Helepololei

Barcelona as cosmopolitan, business hub and tourist destination can seem the antithesis of popular, anticapitalist struggle. And yet a walk through the city reveals a diffusion of efforts to resurrect Barcelona's insurrectionary past. Forms of embodied contestation are increasingly common features of the urban landscape: loud marches defend squatted social centers as displaced families take back bank-owned apartments. Protesters armed with pots and pans occupy schools and hospitals, draping building facades with banners explaining this endless economic downturn “no és crisi, és capitalisme!” While the spectacular encampments of Spain's 15M movement have been long evicted from public plazas, indignados continue …

Kalama's Front Yard: A Preliminary Waterfront Site Plan For The Port Of Kalama, Kenneth Rencher, Michelle Miller, Lisa Hendriksen, Leslie Hamilton

Michelle Miller

The Kalama Waterfront Preliminary Site Plan sets the groundwork and approach for development of an underutilized 33-acre tract owned by the Port of Kalama. The Plan is intended for the Port of Kalama to use as a starting point for waterfront development. The Plan and implementation strategies will aid the Port by providing a conceptual view of the waterfront and a process by which to begin putting the vision of Kalama's Front Yard in motion. This project was conducted under the supervision of Sy Adler, Deborah Howe, Connie Ozawa, and Sumner Sharpe.

Parcel-Level Redevelopment Strategies For Distressed Neighborhoods, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Justin Hollander

Michael P. Johnson

Certain distressed neighborhoods cannot support traditional residential-focused development. For these communities, we develop decision models for acquisition and redevelopment of chronically vacant lands and structures for primarily non-residential and greening uses. We address social benefits and costs of redevelopment strategies, parcel clustering to exploit economies of scale, and conflicting values among stakeholders. We illustrate our models using data from Baltimore, MD.

Community-Based Analytics: Big Data And Decision Making For Community-Based Organizations, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Community-based organizations face significant challenges in identifying data needs, and assembling data resources for service provision, strategy design and advocacy. We develop principles by which CBOs can develop and share large datasets in order to formulate and solve decision problems that improve the well-being of localized, often marginalized or distressed communities. We illustrate these ideas using field research from Boston, MA.

Tablero De Control Para La Gestión Por Objetivos Y Resultados En La Provincia De Buenos Aires: Anteproyecto Para El Organismo De Control Del Agua De Buenos Aires (Ocaba), Federico Del Giorgio Solfa

Federico Del Giorgio Solfa

El Organismo De Control Del Agua De Buenos Aires: Funcionamiento Y Organización Territorial En Perspectiva De La Regionalización Bonaerense, Federico Del Giorgio Solfa, Alfonso Roberto González

Federico Del Giorgio Solfa

"Toxic" Workplaces: The Negative Interface Between The Physical And Social Environments, Linda Too, Michael Harvey

Linda Too

Toxic real estate has been used as a negative phrase to describe non-performing assets on a firm's balance sheet. Today there is another form of "TOXIC" real estate that needs management's attention, i.e. physical workplaces that are harmful to employees on a day-in and day-out basis. Particularly when productivity of workforce is now central to business competitiveness, it is timely to explore the interface between physical and social environments as many of the social/psychological impacts on employees have not been recognized or calibrated. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the links between physical workplace and social behaviour.

The Question Of Legacy And The 2008 Olympic Games: An Exploration Of Post-Games Utilization Of Olympic Sport Venues In Beijing, Xiaowei Yu

Xiaowei Yu

The last two decades have seen more and more cities joining the competitions for hosting the Olympic Games, resulting in soaring investments, both public and private, in Olympic-related projects. The Olympic Games have become a two-week gigantic event with tremendous costs burdening host cities. Meanwhile, the last three decades have witnessed underused facilities and lack of financial support for maintenance of the Olympic venues after the Games. Based on previous literature, the “white elephant” effect has happened in every Olympic city during the last twenty years. In terms of Beijing, scholars have yet to substantially investigate the post-Games utilization of …

Revitalizing Distressed Older Suburbs, Kathryn W. Hexter, Edward W. Hill, Brian A. Mikelbank, Benjamin Y. Clark, Charles Post

Benjamin Y. Clark

No abstract provided.

Teaching Planners To Deal : The Pedagogical Value Of A (Simulated) Economic Development Negotiation, Laura Wolf-Powers

Laura Wolf-Powers

Three decades after planners in North America and Europe began adopting the public–private partnership approach, such arrangements have become the norm in urban redevelopment and city-building. As a result, when teaching real estate development as a facet of urban economic development, academic practitioners of planning face an uneasy dichotomy between deliberation—which embraces the “plannerly” virtues of inclusivity and participation—and negotiation, the procedural vocabulary of public–private contracting. This dichotomy is felt acutely by instructors who are interested in incorporating principles of equity and social justice into redevelopment pedagogy.

This paper describes a classroom exercise in which students apply negotiation and project …

Feasibility Study Of Consolidating Public Safety Answering Points In South Euclid, Beachwood, Euclid, Shaker Heights, And University Heights, Ohio, Daila Shimek, Kyle Johnson, Eugene L. Kramer, Nathaniel Neider

Daila Shimek

The study conducted by the Center for Public Management (PM) found that, for two of three scenarios analyzed, it is legally, technologically, and financially feasible to consolidate public safety answering points (PSAPs) in South Euclid, Beachwood, Euclid, Shaker Heights, and University Heights, Ohio. Of the scenarios found feasible, the study estimates a decrease in costs ranging from almost $687,700 to $1.1 million, depending upon the configuration of the PSAP. When factoring in capital costs, the savings ranges from $555,000 to $898,000, but lead to an increase in costs of $189,000 in a PSAP dispatching for police only. At the local …

Property Value Impacts Of Foreclosed Housing Acquisitions Under Uncertainty, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Senay Solak, Rachel B. Drew, Jeffrey Keisler

Michael P. Johnson

Community development corporations seek to stabilize neighborhoods affected by the recent foreclosure crisis through acquisition and redevelopment of distressed properties. One rationale for this work is the alleviation or avoidance of negative foreclosure impacts. We estimate the lost value to proximate properties associated with a single foreclosure through a Markov chain representing probabilistic transitions between foreclosure stages. We apply our model to a case study of foreclosure properties in Chelsea, MA. A rank ordering by estimated property value impacts indicates significant potential gains in social value as compared to current community development practice. We extend our basic model to address …

'Michelle Thompson (University Of New Orleans) Coordinates Whodata', Michelle Thompson

Michelle M. Thompson

Urban Affairs Association Member News

Michelle Thompson (University Of New Orleans) Coordinates Whodata.Org, Michelle Thompson

Michelle M. Thompson

Michelle M. Thompson, Phd (University of New Orleans) is the Coordinator of WhoData.org which is a New Orleans-based community-municipal-university partnership using an applied public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) model. Since 2009, WhoData has standardized training for residents to assess neighborhoods, photograph blight indicators, create maps, and share findings with the public and city government. The community data information system, www.whodata.org, houses the property condition survey results while neighborhood profile reports and maps are on www.whodata.net. The WhoData team is supported by the University of New Orleans Department of Planning & Urban Studies, residents from City of New Orleans, the …

Feasibility Study For Consolidation Of Public Safety Answering Points In Perry County Ohio, Daila Shimek, Kyle Johnson, Eugune L. Kramer, Patrick Johnson, Nat Neider

Daila Shimek

This report provides an assessment of the feasibility of consolidation of the public safety answering points (PSAPS’s) in Perry County, Ohio and the Village of New Lexington (in Perry County), Ohio. The report describes the methodology used to assess the feasibility of consolidating these PSAPs. The findings are that consolidation of PSAPs and dispatch services among the participating entities would not be feasible if the decision is made purely on costs. However, a consolidated PSAP would reduce the duplication of services and redundant capital projects. This in turn would free up funds to maintain and replace capital items as they …

Predictors Of Cycling In College Students, Lynda B. Ransdell, Susan G. Mason, Thomas Wuerzer, Ka Man Leung

Thomas Wuerzer

Objectives: To (1) assess cycling-related questions that have been added to the electronic version of the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment II (ACHA-NCHA), (2) examine cycling prevalence, and (3) identify predictors of cycling in college students. Participants: Predominately female (69%), undergraduate (89%), and white (85%) students (N = 949) from a large, urban, northwestern, bicycle-friendly university completed the electronic version of the ACHA-NCHA II. Methods: Thirty cycling-related questions were added to the ACHA-NCHA II and a subsample of questions was analyzed. Results: Cycling questions added to the ACHA-NCHA II scale were reliable and valid, based on the …

Ethics, Ethics Rules And Professional Behavior, Jaap Vos

Jacobus J. "Jaap" Vos

Basic introduction one ethics and the AICP Code of Ethics.

Uplifting: Improvements In Boston Area Client Well-Being, Ryan Kling, Lisa Kalimon, Tanya Stepasiuk, Bukola Usidame, Ryan Mclane, Ryan Whalen, Ana Maria Sanchez, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

LIFT-Boston, a local non-profit organization, entered into a collaborative partnership in September 2012 with McCormack Graduate School Public Policy Ph.D. students and faculty to develop and execute a research project. The goals of this endeavor were to assist LIFT-Boston in understanding the outcomes associated with its services and enable the organization to further pursue service goals. The primary research questions respond to the organization’s most fundamental questions. These include how the organization’s unique service model impacts clients across several objective and subjective dimensions of well-being. Secondary questions focus on how these impacts may translate into increases or decreases in student …

Worker Experiences Of Accessibility In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Kate Lowe, Mariana Marmol

Kate Lowe, PhD

No abstract provided.

Turismo En Quito: 2008-2012, Fernando Carrión Mena Arq.

Fernando Carrión Mena

Quito busca posicionarse como una ciudad de destino turístico en relación a tres funciones que atraen personas desde afuera de la urbe: el centro histórico como Patrimonio de la Humanidad, la mitad del mundo que es una determinación de la geografía planetaria y la concentración de las oficinas y aparatos del sector público gracias a su condición de capital. A estas funciones de destino turístico habrá que añadir que se trata de un lugar enclavado en una geografía llamativa con la presencia del volcán Pichincha, del Panecillo y de la irregularidad de su territorio, que le otorgan una personalidad propia. …

Social Change, Professor Vibhuti Patel

Professor Vibhuti Patel

Rights of Adolescent Girls in India: A critical Look at Laws and Policies by Saumya Uma is timely publication about the most neglected segment of our society namely adolescent girls. Perceived as burden by their parents, neglected by policy makers, subordinated by patriarchal system, crushed before they bloom due to omnipresent misogyny; adolescent girls in India have to tread tight rope walk. The author rightly avers that in India experiences of adolescence for girls are greatly different from that for boys. For boys, adolescence is marked by greater autonomy in decision making about career, financial independence, enhanced status and expanded …

Cuba As ‘Exception’: Unesco’S World Heritage Program And The Neoliberal Management Of Historic Centers.”, Matthew Hill, Maki Tanaka

Matthew J. Hill

No abstract provided.

Cartographers Of The New Millenium, Michelle Thompson, Brittany Arceneaux, Mason Lipscomb

Michelle M. Thompson

Brittany Arceneaux and Dr. Michelle Thompson discuss the 'WhoData' project. The video was created by Mason Lipscomb of UNO.

Environmental And Social Justice Movements And Policy Change In Los Angeles: Is An Inside‐Outside Game Possible?, Martha Matsuoka, Robert Gottlieb

Martha Matsuoka

No abstract provided.

Climate Change Adaptation Chapter: Marshfield, Massachusetts, Joshua H. Chase, Jonathan G. Cooper, Rory Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Filipe Antunes Lima, Sally R. Miller, Toni Marie Pignatelli

Jonathan G. Cooper

Climate change, understood as a statistically significant variation in the mean state of the climate or its variability, is the greatest environmental challenge of this generation (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001). Marshfield is already being affected by changes in the climate that will have a profound effect on the town’s economy, public health, coastal resources, natural features, water systems, and public and private infrastructure. Adaptation strategies have been widely recognized as playing an important role in improving a community’s ability to respond to climate stressors by resisting damage and recovering quickly. Based on review of climate projections for the …

Decentralization Is Dead, Long Live Decentralization! Capital City Reform And Political Rights In Kampala, Uganda, Christopher Gore

Christopher D Gore

African cities are currently experiencing some of the highest population growth rates in the world. Accompanying this growth is constant and continuing pressure on national and local governments to develop political and institutional structures that respond to the multiple demands this demographic change provokes in relation to service delivery, economic development and social wellbeing. In response to these challenges, national governments are reviewing the political and administrative structures of their capital cities, sometimes recentralizing authority. This article examines the reforms to Kampala, capital city of Uganda. The article explains how the national government gradually created the legal conditions necessary to …

Fortalecimento Da Oposição Na Venezuela, Prof. Dr. Eloi Martins Senhoras

Elói Martins Senhoras

No abstract provided.