Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Local Governmental Development Of Alternative Food Systems In Distressed Urban Areas, Jeremy Earle

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Alternative food systems (AFS) projects are designed to address issues of environmental justice, food security and insecurity, community health disparities between the affluent and the poor, and access to healthful foods in distressed urban areas. Past research has questioned the efficacy and long-term viability of such interventions, particularly in distressed primarily Black urban areas. The purpose of this intrinsic case study (ICS) was to understand the ways in which local governmental entities collaborated with each other and with nongovernmental partners to help develop an AFS in South Florida through the creation of a market garden called the PATCH. Critical race …

The Relationship Between Nigerian Local Government Administrative Leadership Styles And Organization Outcomes, Adebayo A. Adanri

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite the multitude of existing studies of leadership and organizational outcome, there are few empirical studies of these phenomena in Africa. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship between Nigerian local government administrative leadership and organizational outcome and between perceived leadership effectiveness and transformational leadership factors, based on Bass's full range leadership theory (FRLT). Data were collected through the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaires administered to a randomly selected sample of 240 department heads in 30 local governments in Osun State, Nigeria. Regression result shows a statistically significant correlation between the local public administrators' leadership practices and organizational …

The Storytelling Of Public Spaces: Rhetoric, Community, And Social Change, Lindsay Kathryn Hamilton

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation examines how public art, broadly defined, contributes to the dialogue of public places. It assumes that public places are filled with rhetoric--from commercial, governmental, private, and other sources. This rhetoric is mainly concerned with the public as audience, receivers of information who are then expected to act in certain ways - following the directions of street signs or entering shops when a window display attracts their attention, for example. Public art, particularly community-based art, can be used to make public places more democratic, providing platforms for people and communities to talk back and reassert their identities. The case …

Resident-Led Urban Agriculture And The Hegemony Of Neoliberal Community Development: Eco-Gentrification In A Detroit Neighborhood, Theodore Pride

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation employs a Gramscian framework as an alternative approach to understand the utilization of neoliberal community-based development—which advocates free-market schemes to development, and a refocus from institutional and structural causes of poverty to endogenous community forces (social capital and community capacity building)—by low-income residents in hyper-abandoned and disinvested urban neighborhoods. Using a case study of resident-led neighborhood development in the low-income neighborhood of Brightmoor in Detroit, Michigan, I show how “everyday discourse” of urban decline in Detroit and the possible rehabilitation of the city shape the “common sense” understanding of the “problem-and-solution equation” associated with the process of neighborhood …

Night Access Plan, Lea Anderson, David Backes, Abe Moland, Taylor Phillips, Rae-Leigh Stark, Shane Valle

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Oregon Health and Science University is a microcosm of the 24-hour city, and it’s essential that patients, employees, students and others have safe and convenient 24-hour access to its medical campuses. Access to and from the main campus is always complicated, but even more so at night. The Night Access Plan lays out a strategy to make getting to and from OHSU at night and early in the morning safer, more convenient, and affordable.

A video about this project may be viewed here.

This project was conducted under the supervision of Matthew Gebhardt, Susan Gibson-Hartnett, Ethan Seltzer and Marisa …

The Small Area Fair Market Rent System In The Richmond Region: An Evaluation Of Current Voucher Concentration, Move To Opportunity Counseling, And Value Capture Planning, Catherine L. Bray

Theses and Dissertations

In June of 2015, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to establish a more effective Fair Market Rent System using Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) in the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) instead of the current 50^th Percentile FMRs. The 50^th Percentile FMR is currently in use in the Richmond, Virginia region, and the region is likely to be among early adopters of the new SAFMR System. This thesis assesses existing conditions that will affect implementation of the Small Area Fair Market Rent (SAFMR) System. First, it evaluates …

Fast-Food Restaurant Industry: A Cleveland Perspective 1930-2016, Richard Klein

MSL Academic Endeavors eBooks

This writing will focus on some the major fast-food establishments that served Greater Cleveland and how they evolved over time. Emphasizes will also be placed on some of the smaller as well as larger restaurants. To lend additional clarity, this study will investigate some leading national chains whose innovations within the industry set the pace for current development.

Proximity To Children: A Geospatial Approach To Understanding The Relationship Between Fast Food And Schools, Andrew Atwong

CMC Senior Theses

In a time when Americans are waking up to the health consequences of consuming fast food, researchers have discovered that fast food restaurants seem to be located in greater concentrations near primary or secondary schools. While this phenomenon affects the food environments of some children and carries implications as to their short term and long term health (which has also been well researched), this paper focuses primarily on fast food restaurants that are within walking distance of schools. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to integrate geospatial, business, demographic, and food quality data, I use linear regressions to examine whether and …

The Forward Cities Cleveland Experience: Overview And Analysis, Ziona Austrian, Merissa Piazza, Sydney Martis

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The city of Cleveland is part of Forward Cities, a four-city initiative focused on inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship. Forward Cities is a national learning collaborative, and its two-year pilot project includes the cities of Cleveland, Detroit, Durham, and New Orleans.

Forward Cities gives participating cities an opportunity to:

• Explore issues of inclusive innovation (so that the city/region’s current entrepreneurial boom does not leave the most vulnerable behind);
• Identify the most effective ways for supporting and developing leaders, entrepreneurs and businesses, in low income neighborhoods; and
• Discuss strategies to build innovative leadership and an entrepreneurial workforce, especially in traditionally disconnected communities …

Solidifying Segregation Or Promoting Diversity? School Closure And Rezoning In An Urban District, Thomas J. Shields

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Purpose: Layered with myriad considerations, school closure and rezoning processes in urban school systems are politically fraught with the potential for damaging consequences. This article explores the politics and impacts of a closure and rezoning process in Richmond, Virginia, through the lens of themes applicable to urban school systems and students across the nation. These include the intersection of closure and rezoning with growing White reinvestment in urban school systems, as well as the importance of focusing on diversity and equity during a time of intense pressure to close schools.

Research Methods/Approach: Drawing on the case of Richmond, Virginia, we …

Solidifying Segregation Or Promoting Diversity? School Closure And Rezoning In An Urban District, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Kimberly Bridges, Thomas J. Shields

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

Purpose: Layered with myriad considerations, school closure and rezoning processes in urban school systems are politically fraught with the potential for damaging consequences. This article explores the politics and impacts of a closure and rezoning process in Richmond, Virginia, through the lens of themes applicable to urban school systems and students across the nation. These include the intersection of closure and rezoning with growing White reinvestment in urban school systems, as well as the importance of focusing on diversity and equity during a time of intense pressure to close schools.

Research Methods/Approach: Drawing on the case of Richmond, …

Getting To The Heart Of Great Public Spaces, Su Fern Hoe, Jacqueline Liu, Tan Tarn How

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has flaggedthe start of car-free Sundays in the Civic District and Central BusinessDistrict this year.This move to make the area people-friendly is part of a $740 millionplan, announced in the 2015 Budget, to revitalise the Civic District andtransform it into "an integrated arts, culture and lifestyleprecinct". Highlights of the plan include the Jubilee Walk - an 8km trailthat wraps around landmarks from the National Museum to the Esplanade - and thenewly opened National Gallery Singapore

Adopting The Lifelong Communities Initiative In The Atlanta Metropolitan Area, Corneil Montgomery

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The older adult population has been growing since 1950. The quality of life of older Atlanta citizens may be reduced if adopted Lifelong Communities (LLC) initiative principles are executed poorly or not at all. The purpose of this case study was to describe and explore the experiences of local government officials in Atlanta, Georgia who have adopted LLC initiatives. Research questions focused on local government officials' experiences adopting the LLC initiative, their use of the LLC principles, as well as the benefits and challenges encountered when integrating principles within organizations and communities to ensure quality of life for persons served. …

The Impact Of Gentrification On The Youth Of Church Hill, Alicia R. Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focus on the topic of gentrification and how the youth have been impacted by this movement in the neighborhood of Church Hill. Given that there are many youths in the community, this thesis specifically focuses on how students have been impacted in regards to their sense of place and their new mentoring relationships with the new residents in the community. Through open-ended interviews with both high school students and post high school graduate students and mentors to the youth, this study focuses on how the students have altered where they spend their time and how they are affected …

Perceptions Of The Homeless Toward Nonprofit Human Service Provider, Lequan M. Hylton

Theses and Dissertations

As the debate intensifies regarding developing remedies to meet the needs of America’s homeless, one solution is for governmental agencies to collaborate with and employ organizations from the nonprofit sector to assist with the needs of the homeless population. Included in the nonprofit sector, faith-based organizations (FBOs) have historically been a source of debate and contention in terms of collaborations with the government. However, Presidents Reagan, George H. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama have embraced the idea of including FBOs in the pool of service providers offering human services. In the Richmond, Virginia region, FBOs and nonreligious nonprofit …

Adopting Sustainability Innovations In Restaurants: An Evaluation Of The Factors Influencing Owner-Managers’ Decisions In Richmond, Virginia, Anna Salzberg

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors influencing restaurant Owner-Managers’ decisions to adopt sustainability innovations in restaurants. A cross-sectional survey research design is used for this study, which entails distributing a survey to restaurants in the City of Richmond, Virginia, to gain an understanding of the factors influencing sustainability innovation adoption. Drawing from both the innovation adoption theory and the theory of planned behavior, the researcher contributes a baseline of the restaurants’ sustainability and the Owner-Managers’ intrinsic motivations. By integrating innovation adoption theory’s perceived innovation characteristics and measuring restaurants’ past sustainability behavior, this study increases the overall …

Indicators Of The Metroscape: Housing Cost Burden, Elizabeth Morehead

Metroscape

Elizabeth Morehead focuses on the percentage of households spending 30 percent or more of their income on housing.

The State Of The Portland Msa Housing Market, Portland State University. Northwest Economic Research Center

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

On its surface, the rapid increase of home prices in the Portland Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) resembles the overheated moments before the housing bubble burst in 2007. OnPoint Community Credit Union, concerned that history may already be repeating itself, asked the Northwest Economic Research Center (NERC) to investigate speculation within the Portland housing market, provide a forecast of home prices, and summarize potential market headwinds and tailwinds.

To accomplish this, NERC estimates the change in local home prices due to ‘fundamental’ drivers. Using population and income to estimate a fundamental home price index (HPI), this analysis compares the fundamental HPI …

Who Is Portland? Using Data To Understand The Portland Water Bureau Customer Base, Portland State University. Institute Of Portland Metropolitan Studies

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

This study is a demographic analysis of the Portland Water Bureau customer base in the Portland metro region.

Accuracy Of Bicycle Counting With Pneumatic Tubes In Oregon, Krista Nordback, Sirisha Murthy Kothuri, Taylor Phillips, Carson Gorecki, Miguel Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Interest in counting bicycles and establishing nonmotorized counting programs is increasing, but jurisdictions still struggle with how to integrate bicycle counting into standard practice. In this paper, the authors share findings and recommendations for how to minimize error for bicycle counting from tests conducted in conjunction with the Oregon Department of Transportation. This research studied three types of off-the-shelf pneumatic tube counters for counting bicycles, including equipment from five manufacturers: two bicycle-specific counters, three varieties of motor vehicle classification counters, and one volume-only motor vehicle counter. Tests were conducted both in a controlled environment and in on-road mixed traffic to …

Environmental Influences On Elite Sport Athletes Well Being: From Gold, Silver, And Bronze To Blue Green And Gold, Aoife Donnelly, Tadhg Macintyre, Nollaig O'Sullivan, Giles Warrington, Andrew Harrison, Eric Igou, Marc Jones, Chris Gidlow, Noel Brick, Ian Lahart, Andrew Lane

Articles

This paper considers the environmental impact on well-being and performance in elite athletes during Olympic competition. The benefits of exercising in natural environments are recognized, but less is known about the effects on performance and health in elite athletes. Although some Olympic events take place in natural environments, the majority occur in the host city, usually a large densely populated area where low exposure to natural environments is compounded by exposure to high levels of air, water, and noise pollution in the ambient environment. By combining methods and expertise from diverse but inter-related disciplines including environmental psychology, exercise physiology, biomechanics, …

Planning For Planet Or City?, Mark Davidson

Geography

If we now live with a planetary urban process (Brenner & Schmid, 2015a), the very idea of “future cities” must be brought into question. Indeed, we might ask whether urban planning has morphed into planetary planning, with its primary charge being the construction of vast networks of urban systems coordinating a global capitalist process. This commentary cautions against such over-extended theories of urbanization and related planning practices. Although global capitalism has engendered profound spatial changes, the concept of the city remains a crucial social and political idea. By outlining the continued centrality of the city to social and political life, …

Deny, Deny, Deny, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Some commentators argue that new housing supply and less restrictive zoning will not reduce housing prices in high-cost cities. This article discusses and critiques their arguments.

How To Make Suburbia Less Sprawling, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Review of Retrofitting Sprawl, edited by Emily Talen.

The Roots Of Expensive Zoning, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Review of Zoning Rules, by William Fischel.

Building Participatory Organizations For Common Pool Resource Management: Water User Group Promotion In Indonesia, Jacob I. Ricks

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

States are increasingly striving to create participatory local organizations for joint management of common pool resources. What local conditions determine success of such state efforts? What effect do these efforts have? Drawing on controlled comparisons between three districts in Indonesia and an original survey of 92 water user groups, I demonstrate that local political contexts condition the effectiveness of participatory irrigation policies. When irrigation is politically salient, local politicians pressure bureaucrats to better engage with farmers. The data also show that training programs are not as effective at increasing water user organization activity as frequent contact between bureaucrats and farmers.

Assessment Of Measured And Perceived Microclimates Within A Tropical Urban Forest, Winston T. L. Chow, Siti Nur ‘Assyakirin Binte Ali Akbar, Su Li Heng, Matthias Roth

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Urban greenery is a favoured approach applied towards reducing urban warmth and climate discomfort, but ascertaining its measured and perceived effectiveness in tropical climates is relatively understudied. To this end, we investigated microclimate differences within an urban park (the Singapore Botanic Gardens) to assess if variations in plot-scale land cover affect both objective (measured) and subjective (surveyed) microclimate data. Over two monsoonal seasons, we obtained data from four distinct sites—a tropical rainforest stand, a palm tree valley, a water-body feature, and the park visitors’ centre. Measured climate data (e.g. air temperature, vapour pressure, wind velocity and globe temperatures) were used …

Ohio Federal Military Jobs Commission Report, Gary O'Connell, Donald Campbell, Denis Glenn, Loren Reno, Colleen Ryan, Martha Smith, Applied Policy Research Institute, Wright State University

Defense Policy

APRI staff provided research support to the Ohio Federal Military Jobs Commission as they met and developed their final report on strengthening the state's federal military jobs sector. APRI primarily provided research and authorship for Chapter 3 of the report, titled Expand Small Business Federal Contracting. Chapter 3 discusses the strategy to enhance communication and collaboration among State entities in order to create statewide response to the federal initiatives that make contracts available to small business and veteran-owned businesses. Placing Small Business Development Centers and Procurement Technical Assistance Centers on a common information technology netowrk and educating small businesses on …

Wasted New York, Aliza D. Chasan

Capstones

Trash may not be treasure, but it can be groceries. The United States Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency announced plans this year to halve food waste by 2030, but dumpster divers - also known as freegans - have been eating away at food waste for decades. Cutting down on organic waste can help feed the hungry, save money and minimize the environmental impact of rotting food in landfills. Many individuals, private groups and the New York City government are all working to cut down on organic waste.

Brooklyn Trash Problems, Christina Diaz

Capstones

Walk through the streets of New York and at some point you’ll inevitably pass by a wafting smell of garbage, but residents of North Brooklyn are handling more than their share of the smelly load and they’re tired of getting dumped on.

A newly formed coalition of neighbors and environmental activists has begun a turf war against Brooklyn Transfer LLC, a waste transfer station located on Thames Street in East Williamsburg, which handles private commercial waste through ­­­­­­­­­­­­­Five Star Carting.

Link to Map: https://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=1769408