Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

State Tanf Spending: Does Devolution Matter?, Rhucha Samudra

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

Using the state-level panel data, this study examines the role of Second-Order Devolution (SOD) in state TANF spending patterns. The study uses the Within-Between RE model to examine this connection. No statistically significant effect of second-order devolution is observed. The race continues to be a strong predictor of state funding and complex effects for Black, Hispanic, and Asian clients are observed. Such effects encourage a nuanced discussion of the racialization of welfare policy beyond the dichotomous exploration of black-white differences. Implications of this evidence are discussed.

Race And The Rush To Reopen Schools During Covid-19, Emily M. Farris, Heather Silber Mohamed

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

While the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted student learning in the spring of 2020 and impacted nearly all of the 55 million students in kindergarten to 12th grade nationwide, it also magnified significant racial inequities in schools and society. Generations of systemic racism left communities of color and their neighborhood schools more at risk during the crisis. Over the summer of 2020, school leaders and communities considered whether to reopen school campuses or keep buildings closed for the 2020-2021 academic school year, and media began to highlight racial and ethnic difference in attitudes about those plans. Consistent with popular …

Impact Of Stand Your Ground, Background Checks And Conceal And Carry Laws On Homicide Rates In The U.S, Sounak Chakraborty, Charles E. Menifield, Ranadeep Daw

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

In recent years, the number of gun related killings appear to be on the rise. In fact, data show that gun related murders rose 32% between 2014 and 2017 (Gramlich 2019). While the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution allows citizens to bear weapons, many states have passed additional laws regulating the industry. These include restrictive and prohibitive laws. The goal of this paper is to assess the impact of changes in hand gun related legislation on firearm homicide rates in the United States for the period 1999-2015. More specifically, we focus on the impact of stand your ground, right …

Changing The Social Equity Language Game In Public Administration: An Ethical Perspective, Diana P. Negron, Parisa J. Vinzant, Staci M. Zavattaro, Adam M. Butz

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

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Managed Racial Capitalism: Understanding The Bureaucratic State’S Racialized Practices In Detroit, Michigan, Meghan Wilson, Prentiss A. Dantzler, Jason D. Rivera

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

Public administration navigates an important place in governing in that it is multidisciplinary and focused on practice, thus all theories need to be prepared to face critique from the people. At this watershed moment of social justice, political reckoning, and revolutionary imagination, it is key that public administration contends with the racist logics driving the field and the practice. In this article, we examine the ways that the current governing system fails to account for the racialized political economy, thus reproducing the inequality inherent in that system. The paper poses two questions: 1) How does the public administration of local …

Strategies For Introspection And Instruction Towards Antiracism In Public Management And Administration, Rachel Emas, Megan E. Hatch, Del Bharath, Tia Sherèe Gaynor

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

To be anti-racist is to be actively engaged in the fight against racism, as inaction only serves to reinforce racism and oppression. In teaching the next generation of public servants, educators have a responsibility to be antiracist in their classrooms. The development of this antiracist approach requires both introspective and instructional efforts. Building on knowledge from Critical Race Theory, Black Feminism, intersectionality, and public service pedagogy, this article discusses the internal work that educators must undertake to become antiracist before teaching students how to do so. Then, the article explores what steps faculty can take towards building an antiracist pedagogy …

What The Hell Is Wrong With America? The Truth About Racism And Justice For All, James E. Wright Ii, Stephanie Dolamore, Rajade M. Berry-James

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

A Call For Racial Justice And Improving Equity In Policing, Education, And Childcare, Charles E. Menifield

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of City-Level Parking Cash-Out And Commuter Benefits Ordinances, Gabriella Abou-Zeid, Allen Greenberg

PSU Transportation Seminars

For many workers, the decision to drive to work is an economically rational one that minimizes their commute costs. The vast majority of employers offer free workplace parking, with few in comparison offering benefits for transit, walking, biking, or other means of commuting. In effect, employers are incentivizing a behavior that increases roadway congestion, reduces physical activity, and increases emissions. Moreover, since lower-income households are less likely to own and have access to a private vehicle than moderate and higher-income households, free parking is a financial benefit that many lower-income employees cannot access.

Researchers from ICF and the Federal Highway …

Newtown Creek And New York City, Peter Spellane

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Minimizing Surface Run-Off, Improving Underground Water Recharging, And On-Site Rain Harvesting In The Kathmandu Valley, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal's political institutions and administrative units were thoroughly restructured in 2015 with the promulgation of the new Constitution. Several rural areas were combined to meet the definition of urban threshold criteria to classify rural areas into urban categories. Accordingly, over 3,900 local political and administrative units were amalgamated into 753 units, of which, 293 units are classified as urban. Within these newly defined urban areas, many natural environments have been converted into impervious surfaces such as paved roads, sidewalks, and building roofs. These impervious surfaces have drastically increased the amount of surface run-offs-often termed as "urban floods"--under increasing precipitation caused …

Everyday Verticality: Migrant Experiences Of High-Rise Living In Santiago, Chile, Megan Sheehan

Sociology Faculty Publications

Over the last three decades, Santiago, Chile has experienced rapid urbanisation. The city’s expansion has prompted the proliferation of high-rise residential buildings, mediated by spatial segregation along class lines and fragmented urban governance. Concurrently, economic opportunities in Chile have drawn regional labour migrants, resulting in an unprecedented increase in migratory flows. Drawing on ethnographic research, this article charts the everyday experiences of migrants in high-rise residences. As new arrivals seek housing, social networks channel migrants – particularly Venezuelans – into shared high-rise apartments, producing specific buildings as vertical enclaves. Lived experiences within the confines of verticality are frequently shaped by …

Understanding Social Class In Place: Responding To Supergentrification In Aspen, Colorado, Jenny Stuber, Krista E. Paulsen

Urban Studies and Community Development Faculty Publications and Presentations

Existing research portrays elite places as prone to exclusion, welcoming of upscaling, and focused on protecting their economic self-interests. This paper provides nuance to this research by exploring how stakeholders understand and respond to supergentrification. During the fall of 2016, a group of citizen activists in the exclusive community of Aspen, Colorado, initiated an ordinance seeking to limit the expansion of luxury chain stores. Drawing on qualitative data related to this case, we show that how communities respond to supergentrification depends on locally specific understandings of place and social class, and how class interests have been institutionalized in local policies. …

Community Transportation Academy: Course Curriculum And Implementation Handbook, Nathan Mcneil, Keith Bartholomew

TREC Final Reports

A Community Transportation Academy (CTA) is a course that harnesses the knowledge, technical expertise and passions of practicing transportation professionals in a city to immerse a cohort of interested and dedicated community members in transportation issues over a two to three month curriculum.

The CTA curriculum was developed by drawing from the Portland Traffic and Transportation (PTT or Portland CTA) course, along with the Wasatch Transportation Academy (WTA or Wasatch CTA, which was inspired by the Portland course). Planning academy courses in cities around the country are also good models to look to for how to structure and operate such …

Equity And Exclusion Issues In Cashless Fare Payment Systems For Public Transportation, Aaron Golub, Anne Brown, Candace Brakewood, John Macarthur, Sangwan Lee, Abubakr Ziedan

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many transit agencies in the United States plan to automate their fare collection and limit–or even eliminate–the use of cash fares, with the goals of expediting boarding, collecting data, and lowering costs. Yet about 10% of US adults lack a bank account or credit card, and many rely on restrictive cellphone data plans or do not have access to the internet or a smartphone. These riders will find it difficult to access transit in the future. This paper examines transit users’ experiences with fare technologies using a survey of riders in three cities. Our analysis reveals which riders are most …

Cpted And The City: The Impact Of Privately Owned Public Spaces On Crime In Manhattan, Julia Von Ferber

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Privately-Owned Public Spaces (POPS) are public recreational areas that are maintained and secured by a private owner. POPS contrast their surrounding environments of public streets in urban city centers, creating distinct social environments that influence pedestrian paths and behavior. This dissertation evaluates POPS and how their physical features influence the occurrence of various street crime types through the lens of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). Empirical evidence supports CPTED as a crime prevention strategy framework, primarily in residential neighborhoods rather than city centers. To quantitatively assess CPTED in an urban context, this study examined 255 outdoor POPS with unrestricted …

Purity, Exclusion, And Political Order In Colombia, Osha Smith-Gittelman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the relationship between purity and order, and the ways this relationship informs and reproduces exclusionary forms of governance. The starting point for this analysis is the puzzling use of the language of limpieza social [social cleansing] as a justification for violence in Latin America. Such language is publicly disseminated by vigilantes, criminal organizations, paramilitaries, and other extralegal armed actors as a frame for violence against those presumed to be criminals, drug users, sex workers, unhoused, LGBTQ, or mentally ill. Much has been written on criminal and political violence in the region, but there has been less emphasis …

Access To Power: Electricity And The Infrastructural State In Pakistan, Ijlal Naqvi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Pakistan would desperately like to produce enough electricity, but it usually doesn’t. This is the rare issue on which government and private sector can unite, and it is the cause of suffering for rich and poor alike across the entirety of the country. Despite prioritization by successive governments, targeted reforms shaped by international development actors, and featuring prominently in Chinese Belt and Road Investments, the Pakistani power sector still stifles economic and social life across the country. This book explores state capacity in Pakistan by following the material infrastructure of electricity across the provinces and down into cities and homes. …

Individual Perceptions Of Climate Anomalies And Collective Action: Evidence From An Artefactual Field Experiment In Malaysian Borneo, Terry Van Gevelt, T. Zamanb, K.N. Chanc, M.M. Bennettd

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

We explore the effect of individual perceptions of climate anomalies on collective action within a context of environmental complexity and uncertainty. To do so, we construct two competing propositions that are theoretically robust but with very different real-world implications. Our first proposition suggests that collective action to adapt to climate change is likely to be more effective when perceptions of climate anomalies converge within a community. Our second proposition suggests the opposite: that convergence is likely to hinder adaptation behaviour. We use a community co-designed measure of perceptions and an artefactual field experiment to test our propositions and explore the …

Forecasted Climate Analysis From 2000 To 2100 Using Rcp 4.5 And Rcp 8.5 Model Scenario As A Hazard Early-Warning System In Prague City, Czech Republic, Risty Khoirunisa

Smart City

In the last decades, the increasing number of populations in urban areas is dramatically increased. According to the to the 2018 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects more people live in urban areas, around 55 percent of the world’s population in 2018 and are projected into two thirds of global population in 2050. As the world continues to growth, the lands need to be converted thus deforestation happen. If this continues, the greenhouse gas emission will increase and the climate change will become a threat in the future. Therefore, it become essential to understand how the climate will change in the …

From The Editors, Ahmad Gamal

Smart City

No abstract provided.

Utility Redlining: Inequitable Electric Distribution In The Dte Service Area, Alex B. Hill, Jackson Koeppel

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

Key DTEE infrastructure is a decade or more past expected use in 4.8 kV areas. In Detroit, with double the vulnerability level as the region, most residents only have outdated electric infrastructure. Modernization efforts in Detroit favor industrial and municipal customers over residents.

Housing Availability In Nevada, 2017-2022, Annie Vong, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet examines data on housing availability across nine Nevada counties from 2017 to 2022. Eight Nevada counties are not represented in this fact sheet due to a lack of data in the original report. The original report by MarketWatch analyzes housing inventory from 2017 to 2022 and median list prices in 2022 across counties in the United States.

Weathering The Storm: Navigating Urban Ecologies Of Communication In Times Of Crisis, Austin Hestdalen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project explores cities as urban ecologies of communication in which crises emerge and are given significance within the dialogic relations cultivated among public actors attempting to make a living, together, within the shared historical-cultural contexts of everyday life. To describe cities as urban ecologies of communication is to describe them in terms of urban communication and its interdisciplinary foundations in the study of rhetoric, philosophy, planning, policy, architecture, sociology, geography, and media. The first chapter introduces the challenges of urban risk and crisis management within the complex ecologies of communication constituted by cities and reviews how ‘risk’ and ‘crisis’ …

Common Ground: An Examination Of Rural Planning And The Growing Amish Presence In Missouri, Krista Evans

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

How do rural communities in Missouri balance the potentially conflicting land use and economic planning needs between incoming and growing Amish populations and non-Amish populations? This qualitative research addresses a gap in the literature by examining the growing Amish population in rural America through the lens of community planning. A comparative case study was conducted in three Amish communities in Missouri and included interviews with public officials who engage in planning and planning-related tasks and an Amish leader at each case site. This project finds that Amish growth and expansion is resulting in both community conflicts and collaborative efforts in …

Neocolonialism In Cape Town: The Municipal Spatial Development Framework (Msdf) Through Critical Theory, Emily Dionne

Capstone Collection

Once the apartheid system in South Africa ended in the early 1990s, spatial planning in Cape Town needed to be reassessed to address its historically-racialized use. Led by city planners, this assessment resulted in the 1996 Municipal Spatial Development Framework (MSDF) Technical Report. Yet, there ended up being a disconnect between planning and implementation, and by the late 2000s, economic growth and development had largely remained in the historically-white areas of the city. Meanwhile, historically-Black neighborhoods and communities of color remained systemically neglected. In 2012, a new MSDF was approved to address the shortcomings of these efforts. While some integration …

Manual Of Sustainable Urban Practices Towards Long-Term Conservation, Haley Kilmer

Capstone Collection

This paper analyzes how urban living and design can be detrimental to the surrounding ecosystems and how it is directly affecting the biodiversity loss of an area. To answer this question, I first did extensive background research on urbanization, climate change, and biodiversity loss as it relates to urban ecosystems. Then, the public’s perceptions were collected through surveys and interviews in order to make meaningful suggestions in the construction of an interactive, biological corridor map. The results showed that increasing the biodiversity of an urban area can help to mitigate many of the common environmental challenges associated with living in …

An Analysis Of Decolonization Efforts In Urban Agriculture: A Pathway To Indigenous Food Sovereignty And Cultural Revitalization, Sarah Fisher

Environment and Sustainability Summer Fellows

My research focuses on applications of urban agriculture, relationships between Indigenous peoples and community-based agriculture projects, and decolonizing food systems. I provide insight on colonialist tendencies, or ways in which the marginalization of Indigenous peoples is deeply entrenched within government, educational, and other leadership settings, as a way to evaluate and restructure urban agriculture projects to serve, represent and heal Native communities. Conventional urban agriculture has many known benefits, including its capacity for food production; however, the extent to which Indigenous communities participate in and benefit from urban agriculture has not been widely studied. Ongoing exclusion of Indigenous peoples from …

Reconceiving The Relationship Between The Built Environment And Walking Behavior: Examining The Samples, Scales, And Methods In Travel Behavior Research, Jaime Pablo Orrego-Oñate

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation aims to formulate a mechanism for the relationship between the urban form and walking choice that can be consistent across contexts. The motivation is the lack of concordant results in the magnitude of the environmental influence on walking choice in urban areas found in the literature. The dissertation identifies a series of limitations in previous research that could cause mixed results in the magnitudes of the association. This research elaborates an approach to overcome these limitations by proposing a mechanism of the activity density over walking modal share by controlling for trip distance distribution. The aim is an …

An Analysis Of The Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Tulsa Remote Program, As An Effective Economic Development Strategy, Kristen J. Padilla

Dissertations and Theses

Cities do not exist in a vacuum. They are in constant competition for talented, educated individuals and growing, innovative businesses -even if that competition is not explicit or specific. Traditionally cities have been left with two economic development paths to help diversify their economies: attract talent but without jobs, or attract business but without a strong talent pool. However, due to technological advancements, exacerbated by the pandemic, a new and growing workforce that can work from anywhere has emerged, remote workers. This talent pool shifts traditional economic development attraction strategies from city to industry to city to talent.

Many remote …