Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

The Effect Of Urbanization On The Embodied Energy Of Drinking Water In Tampa, Florida, Mark Vincent Eli Santana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing urbanization has serious implications for resource and energy use. One of these resources is drinking water. The increased amount of impervious surfaces associated with urban development is responsible for increased runoff during rain events, which may have a negative impact on the quality of nearby bodies of water, including drinking water sources. The growing populations associated with urbanization require a higher water demand. In addition, urban drinking water systems use energy to collect, treat, and distribute a safe reliable effluent to users. Therefore, this study focuses on the degree to which urbanization influences the embodied energy of drinking water …

Mapping Adult Migration In Cleveland, Ohio, Richey Piiparinen, Jim Russell, Eamon Johnson

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

Negotiating The Neighborhood: The Role Of Neighborhood Associations In Urban Planning Processes, Lane K. Holden

Sociology Honors Projects

To promote collaborative urban planning, the United States Federal Government requires that city and regional governments consult communities affected by planning processes. Neighborhood associations were originally created to engage community members in local social justice issues in order to meet this mandate. Relying on these organizations raises questions about whether they fulfill their potential: what role do community members play in urban planning? Do neighborhood associations feel like they participate effectively in the urban planning process? How do these associations perceive the extent to which the government uses their input? To address these questions, this study examines perceptions of urban …

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 …

Intersectionality And Planning At The Margins: Lgbtq Youth Of Color In New York, Clara Irazabal, Claudia Huerta

Clara Irazabal

Through an intersectional lens, this article reflects on the dialog between planning and gender, feminist, and queer studies to analyze the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth of color (YOC) community in New York City (NYC). The community is subject to multiple disenfranchisements, given their ethno-racial status, class, age, gender, and sexual orientation. This community's limited access to safe public spaces and amenities, housing, health services, job training, and other opportunities is an urban planning challenge insufficiently understood or addressed. Our methodology includes participant observation and analysis of an LGBTQ YOC tour of West Village in NYC, interviews …

Feasibility Analysis And Strategic Measures For Promoting Viable New Urban Development, Elizabeth J. Farr

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis demonstrates that New Urbanism is both an advisable and feasible method for reducing carbon emissions to mitigate global climate change. New Urban areas commonly generate lower carbon emissions compared to conventional suburban development due to lower car use and higher levels of walking and use of other forms of transportation. Economic and political feasibility of New Urban development is determined by analyzing case studies, housing price premia, financing, and fiscal impact. The many contexts and perspectives involved in the planning process are analyzed to determine if New Urbanism is advisable in the larger setting in which developers, advocates, …

From Progressive Planning To Progressive Urbanism: Planning's Progressive Future And The Legacies Of Fragmentation, Stephen Atkinson, Joshua Jorgensen

Conflux

Since the 1980’s numerous urban scholars have taken to proclaiming one city or another as being ‘progressive.’ Planning websites like American Planning Association, Planetizen or Progressive Planning Magazine are inundated with examples of progressive planning in action. The examples of touted progressive cities are many: Burlington, Berkeley, Cleveland, Boston, L.A., Chicago, Cincinnati, Portland, Minneapolis, Austin, Denver, and Seattle have all been championed as progressive cities. Most of them come with brackets: Boston was progressive [under Mayor Flynn]; Chicago was progressive [under Mayor Washington]; Burlington was progressive [under Mayor Sanders]. There is also no shortage of descriptors about what makes a …

Cuyahoga County’S Tax-Base Challenge: Renewing And Redeveloping Core Communities, Thomas Bier, Charlie Post

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Two major factors threaten the well-being of Cuyahoga County: the approaching build-out of its outer suburbs, which will severely limit tax-base growth through new construction, and the aged condition of inner suburbs, which jeopardizes property values. The situation calls for unprecedented cooperative action among elected officials to secure the county’s future.

Recent changes in the value of real estate in Cuyahoga County compared with adjacent counties shows the seriousness of the situation and the criticality of the primary course of action: redevelopment and renewal in Cleveland and inner suburbs.

A Newer Geography Of Jobs: Where Workers With Advanced Degrees Are Concentrating The Fastest, Richey Piiparinen, Jim Russell, Charles Post

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

From 2005 to 2013, the Cleveland metro ranked 5th in the nation in the growth of percentage of workers with an advanced degree. Greater Cleveland ranks 10th in the nation with 17% of its labor force with a graduate or professional degree, moving up from 22nd place in 2005. Cleveland’s 12-point rank change was third largest, behind Indianapolis and Providence. The brief suggest Greater Cleveland is part of a next generation of second-tier metros entering into the upper echelon of the knowledge economy.

How The City Grows: Urban Growth And Challenges To Sustainable Development In Doha, Qatar, Andrew M. Gardner

All Faculty Scholarship

This book chapter considers how sustainable development fits in the social, political, and cultural context of contemporary Doha, Qatar. After a review of sustainable development and urban development in Qatar, this chapter makes several contentions. First, it contends that sustainable development poses a challenge to the political stability of a society that distributes state-controlled wealth to its citizenry through urban development. Second, it points to the fact that Qatar's tribal/authoritarian political regime is antithetical to some of the bottom-up democratic principles thought to underpin sustainable development. Finally, it suggest that the consignment of sustainable development efforts to the spatial discourse …

Green Infrastructure And The Sustainability Concept: A Case Study Of The Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan, Jessica Fisch

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Sustainability has been touted as an ideal in city and environmental planning in recent decades, evolving to include environmental, economic, and equity-focused goals. While much has been written about these ideals, it remains unclear how their inherent tensions and challenges affect planning practice. This thesis analyzes these goals as they are perceived and prioritized in The Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan, a regional water management plan released by Waggonner and Ball Architects in September 2013, utilizing interviews with architects involved in the plan’s development, staff at agencies involved in green infrastructure implementation, and advocacy groups involved in and affected …

Impacts Of Climate Change On The Evolution Of The Electrical Grid, Melissa Ree Allen

Doctoral Dissertations

Maintaining interdependent infrastructures exposed to a changing climate requires understanding 1) the local impact on power assets; 2) how the infrastructure will evolve as the demand for infrastructure changes location and volume and; 3) what vulnerabilities are introduced by these changing infrastructure topologies. This dissertation attempts to develop a methodology that will a) downscale the climate direct effect on the infrastructure; b) allow population to redistribute in response to increasing extreme events that will increase under climate impacts; and c) project new distributions of electricity demand in the mid-21^st century.

The research was structured in three parts. The first …

Converting Garages Into A Dissertation: A Conversation With Jacob Wegmann, Jonathan P. Bell

Jonathan P. Bell

UrbDeZine, June 17, 2014. In part 1 of the article, I highlight that burgeoning scholarship on "informality" in the U.S. housing market fails to address the implementation side of planning: the regulation and enforcement of unpermitted dwelling units. Part 2 includes a Q&A with PhD candidate Jacob Wegmann on his groundbreaking dissertation examining the impacts of extralegal dwelling units on the political economy and housing market in Southeast Los Angeles County. The enforcement perspective is core to Wegmann's study. URL: http://losangeles.urbdezine.com/2014/06/17/converting-garages-into-a-dissertation-a-conversation-with-jacob-wegmann/

Interpreting The Roman Squatting Tradition, Shaun J. Mcgann

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis addresses the rich tradition of urban occupations, also known as "squatting", in Rome, Italy. I argue that Roman squatting had its origins mainly in the Social Center Movement of the late 1970s and a preceding wave of occupations aimed at garnering affordable housing. In order to provide a context for these social movements, I first briefly describe the urban development history of the city since the late 1800s. The Roman pattern of urban development favored private interests and land speculation in a manner that resulted in overconsumption and the marginalization of a large sect of the population. In …

Distributional Consequences Of Public Policies: An Example From The Management Of Urban Vehicular Travel, Winston Harrington, Elena Safirova, Conrad Coleman, Sébastien Houde, Adam M. Finkel

All Faculty Scholarship

This paper uses a spatially disaggregated computable general equilibrium model of a large US metropolitan area to compare two kinds of policies, “Live Near Your Work” and taxation of vehicular travel, that have been proposed to help further the aims of “smart growth.” Ordinarily, policy comparisons of this sort focus on the net benefits of the two policies; that is, the total monetized net welfare gains or losses to all citizens. While the aggregate net benefits are certainly important, in this analysis we also disaggregate these benefits along two important dimensions: income and location within the metropolitan area. The resulting …

Cities, Disaster Risk And Adaptation, Christine Wamsler

Christine Wamsler

Worldwide, disasters and climate change pose a serious risk to sustainable urban development, resulting in escalating human and economic costs. Consequently, city authorities and other urban actors face the challenge of integrating risk reduction and adaptation strategies into their work, although related knowledge and expertise are still scarce.

Cities, Disaster Risk and Adaptation explores ways in which resilient cities can be ‘built’ and sustainable urban transformations achieved. The book provides a comprehensive understanding of urban risk reduction and adaptation planning, exploring key theoretical concepts and analyzing the complex interrelation between cities, disasters and climate change. It further provides an overview …

Reflections On Community Planning In San Francisco, Rachel Brahinsky, Miriam Chion, Lisa Feldstein

Politics

This paper builds on a dialogue between barrio planners and municipal planners on spatial and economic changes in San Francisco’s Mission District. The Mission is a predominantly Latino neighborhood with vibrant streets that have reflected and been transformed by the investments and displacement of recent decades. Though the Mission has seen tremendous upheaval with the influx of new capital and communities, this paper contends that efforts of community members shaped the development of the neighborhood with street-level planning expertise. We find that an attempt by community members to define their own development proposals and engage in land use decisions– rather …

This Land Is My Land: The Evolution And Future Of Urban Homesteading In The United States, Emma Brennan

African & African American Studies Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Proximity In Reducing Auto Travel: Using Vmt To Identify Key Locations For Development, From Downtown To The Exurbs, Robert B. Case

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to discover the VMT impact of each level of proximity in order to help government identify key locations for housing development, and thereby lower VMT and reduce dependence on foreign oil. By discovering the VMT impact of each level of proximity, this dissertation provides a) the first known means of calculating the proximity-based VMT benefit of subject locations by individual proximity level, and b) the new finding that it is likely that high VMT benefit can be achieved at moderate proximity levels acceptable to many households, enabling representative governments to be politically successful while …

Collaborative Decision-Making Processes In Planning: Opportunities And Challenges In The City Of Rafaela, Argentina, Maria Belen Alfaro

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

There is a large body of literature in the planning field on the topic of collaborative processes of decision-making, particularly in the United States and Europe. However, there appears to be less debate on the subject of complementing these ideas with contributions from urban governance. This research aims to contribute to that complementary work. In order to accomplish that, this thesis presents first a theoretical analysis of collaborative rationality and urban governance contributions. This analysis focuses on the articulation of those aspects that can offer a more holistic framework for addressing urban issues in a more inclusive way. Second, it …

Multifamily Units In Dispersed City: Measuring Infill And Development By Neighborhood Type In The Kansas City Region, Andrew J. Mcmillan

ETD Archive

Multifamily development patterns remain an overlooked aspect of the research examining urban growth and morphology. This study examines multifamily development patterns in the Kansas City Metropolitan Statistical Area from 1990 to 2010. Additionally, this study examines patterns of multifamily infill in order to determine (1) the growth rate of multifamily development within four infill scenarios, (2) whether high density neighborhoods receive disproportionate amounts of multifamily development, and (3) the rates of development in inner city, inner-ring, and outer-ring neighborhoods. This study found that rates of multifamily development were grew at up to twice the rate of single-family development in certain …

Hoffman Triangle 2012: Neighborhood Profile Report, Michelle M. Thompson, Josh Baer, Rachael Bauer, Frank Carter, Patrick Coyle, Alex Depriest, Malissa Dietsch, Lawrence Guimont, Kevin Harrison, Nelson Hollings, Annabeth Mccall, Tara Mckeefry, Valerie Mcmillan, Brooke Perry, Adarian Pike, Kevin Potter

Dr. Michelle M. Thompson, GISP, FRGS

Hoffman Triangle is located in the Central City neighborhood of New Orleans. It is bounded by South Claiborne Avenue to the South, Toledo Street and Washington Avenue to the West and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the East. It is a neighborhood that continues to evolve and significantly grow after the Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In order to support the work that the Neighborhood Development Foundation, Associated Neighborhood Development and the Hoffman Triangle Neighborhood Association are doing to improve the quality of life of all existing and future residents, WhoData.org and the University of New Orleans – Department of …

The City Of New Orleans Blight Fight: Using Gis Technology To Integrate Local Knowledge, Michelle M. Thompson Phd

Dr. Michelle M. Thompson, GISP, FRGS

Planners have a unique ability to consume information and address both policy and practical issues on a variety of scales – from neighborhood to regional to international. The use of information technology, specifically geographic information systems, continues to expand the planners’ toolkit. Applying these tools requires planners to go beyond synchronous inductive and deductive reasoning and move towards ‘integrated thinking’. Spatial literacy allows citizen planners to question and advocate for public policies based upon community data that has not been readily available to decision makers in municipal government. This report identifies examples of how a public participation geographic information system …

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 …

Producing Edible Landscapes In Seattle's Urban Forest, Rebecca J. Mclain, Melissa R. Poe, Patrick T. Hurley, Joyce Lecompte, Marla R. Emery

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Over the next decades, green infrastructure initiatives such as tree planting campaigns, and ecological restoration will dramatically change the species composition, species distribution and structure of urban forests across the United States. These impending changes are accompanied by a demand for urban public spaces where people can engage in practices such as gleaning, gardening, and livestock production. This article analyzes the institutional framework that undergirds efforts in Seattle, Washington to normalize the production and use of edible landscapes. We focus attention on the role of grassroots fruit gleaning groups and highlight their bridging function between Seattle's agriculture and forestry policy …

Gathering In The City: An Annotated Bibliography And Review Of The Literature About Human-Plant Interactions In Urban Ecosystems, Rebecca J. Mclain, L. P. Buttolph, Melissa R. Poe, K. Macfarland, J. Hebert, N. Gabriel, Patrick T. Hurley, Laura Brody, Martina Dzuna, Marla R. Emery, S. Charnley

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

The past decade has seen resurgence in interest in gathering wild plants and fungi in cities. In addition to gathering by individuals, dozens of groups have emerged in U.S., Canadian, and European cities to facilitate access to nontimber forest products (NTFPs), particularly fruits and nuts, in public and private spaces. Recent efforts within cities to encourage public orchards and food forests, and to incorporate more fruit and nut trees into street tree planting programs indicate a growing recognition among planners that gathering is an important urban activity. Yet the academic literature has little to say about urban gathering practices or …

A Needs Assessment Of Knowledge, Skills, And Values For Urban Planning Professionals Based On Competencies Set Forth By Professional Planning Organizations, Chade Saghir

Wayne State University Dissertations

Continuing education and training is pivotal in today's fast-paced technology driven society. A profession is defined by the theories and techniques that competent practitioners utilize in their everyday work. Therefore, determining the competencies that practitioners must possess for any given profession is a prerequisite for a respected profession. Most professions are bounded by competencies that are dictated by professional organizations and education programs, yet the real test is how practitioners view these competencies as they relate to their job. For a profession to reach the ultimate goal of improving society the first step is to align professional organization, education, and …

Public Policy And Sexual Geography In Portland, Oregon, 1970-2010, Elizabeth Morehead

Dissertations and Theses

Drawing on the concept of sexual geography, this study examines the social and political meanings of sexualized spaces in the urban geography of Portland, Oregon between 1970 and 2010. This includes an examination of the sexual geography of urban spaces as a deliberate construct resulting from official and unofficial public policy and urban planning decisions. Sexual geographies, the collective and individual constructions of sexuality, are not static. Nor are definitions of deviant sexual practices fixed in the collective consciousness. Both are continuously being reshaped and reconstructed in response to changing economic structures and beliefs about sex, race and class. Primary …

Recovery In A Shrinking City: Challenges To ‘Rightsizing’ Post-Katrina New Orleans, Renia Ehrenfeucht, Marla Nelson

Renia Ehrenfeucht

No abstract provided.

Public Space Planning As A Catalyst For Dweller Initiated Slum Upgrading: Ahmedabad, India, Christopher Bystedt

Master's Theses

This research observes how public space planning can improve slum upgrading projects, focusing on two case study slums in Ahmedabad, India.

The inclusion of formal public space planning into slum upgrading schemes can act as a catalyst for dweller-initiated housing improvements. While municipalities that choose to upgrade their slums are primarily concerned with supplying bare necessity infrastructure—such as water, sewage, and paving—most upgrading schemes ignore the reality that slum communities are complex, integral components of the urbanization process. These settlements deserve and necessitate comprehensive design and planning services which will integrate the community into the larger urban fabric.

This thesis …