Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Federal Transit Administration's Impact On Public Transportation In The United States, Amy Changchien

PSU Transportation Seminars

The Federal Transit Administration invests in building the capacity and improving the quality of public transportation throughout the United States of America. Under FTA's leadership, public rail, bus, trolley, ferry, and other transit services have reached greater levels of safety, reliability, availability, and accessibility. Come hear the highlights of FTA's impacts and participate in an interactive question/answer session and discussion on career options in public transportation.

Rising Rates And Customer Concerns, City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

10 Tips To Tell Your Story In A Thought-Provoking And Technically Truthful Way, Dave Johnson

PSU Transportation Seminars

How do you explain complex ideas? What do you say when reporters ask you to guess about the future? ODOT spokesperson and public affairs manager Dave Thompson will share tips on how to explain a complex topic to reporters and concerned citizens.

Thompson worked as a broadcast news reporter, producer and anchor for 20 years, including anchoring the weekend news at KPTV from 1992 to 2000. He’s been in public relations another 14 years, leading pre-IPO angel-invested startup branding efforts and providing company and government agency perspective to reporters and citizens. And of course, apologizing for Portland’s congestion and warning …

Seasonal Dynamics Of A Suburban Energy Balance In Phoenix, Arizona, Winston T. L. Chow, Thomas J. Volo, Enrique R. Vivoni, G. Darrel Jenerette, Benjamin L. Ruddell

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Observations of local-scale urban surface energy balance (SEB), which include fluxes of net all-wave radiation (Q*), and eddy covariance measurements of sensible (QH) and latent heat (QE) were collected in an arid Phoenix, AZ suburb from January to December 2012. We studied diurnal variations in SEB partitioning over four distinct seasons: winter, equinoxes, and summer; the latter period is further subdivided into (1) months prior to and (2) months occurring during the North American Monsoon. Largest flux densities were observed in summer, with most available energy partitioned into QH. Much less energy is partitioned into QE, but this term is …

Oregon Property Tax Capitalization: Evidence From Portland, Jenny H. Liu, Jeff Renfro

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

The passage of Measures 5 and 50 drastically changed the way property taxes were assessed in Oregon. The measures were intended to limit the ability of government to raise property taxes, while achieving other goals such as equalizing school funding across the state. The property tax system that resulted is complex and has introduced inequities into the system based on differing rates of changes between assessed value (AV) and real market value (RMV). The League of Oregon Cities (LOC) asked the Northwest Economic Research Center (NERC) to investigate the effect of the tax structure on residential sale prices as part …

Diverted Opportunity: Inequality And What The Southnorth Water Transfer Project Really Means For China, Britt Crow-Miller

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

The article discusses China’s South-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) and argues that not only does the SNWTP reflect existing spatially articulated power discrepancies, but it reinforces and potentially exacerbates those inequalities by prioritizing Beijing’s present and future water needs above those of its neighbors and locking them in place for decades to come. Smaller, regional cities and rural areas — Shijiazhuang and Baoding in Hebei, Nanyang in Henan and the gritty, struggling towns and villages around Danjiangkou Reservoir — might have gained muchneeded jobs and government investment in the short term around the construction of the Middle Route, but without …

Poverty And Service Delivery In Suburban America Framing Paper, Debra J. Rog, Kathryn W. Hexter, Kathryn A. Henderson, David Hubble, John R. Haight, Martena C. Reed, Austin Boxler

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

In the United States today, contrary to popular belief, living in the suburbs is not synonymous with living the American dream. An unprecedented number of people in the suburbs are living on household incomes of less than $20,000, many on much less. Increasingly, individuals and their families need to rely on services and public benefits to meet their basic needs (Kneebone & Berube, 2013).

Over the past 30 years, poverty in the suburbs has grown due to multiple factors, including job decentralization, shifts in the location of affordable and subsidized housing, and the relocation to the suburbs of lower income …

Aesthetically Designed Maps: Development And Perception, Catherine Wang

Graphic Communication

This research explored the creative element of subway map creation in light of its effectiveness. Printed subway maps, used often for metropolitan cities and areas, are limited in physical dimension and scale, carrying minimal information. The New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Tokyo, Paris, London and Moscow subway maps highlight similar design and abstraction that fulfill the basic necessary elements for subway patrons. Over the years since the first metro map for each city was created, maps have become more simplified by removing physical land features and reference points to make way for expanding and new subway lines, stations, and …

Development Of Future Land Cover Change Scenarios In The Metropolitan Fringe, Oregon, U.S., With Stakeholder Involvement, Heejun Chang, Roberrt W. Hoyer

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

We describe a future land cover scenario construction process developed under consultation with a group of stakeholders from our study area. We developed a simple geographic information system (GIS) method to modify a land cover dataset and then used qualitative data extracted from the stakeholder storyline to modify it. These identified variables related to our study area’s land use regulation system as the major driver in the placement of new urban growth on the landscape; and the accommodation of new population as the determinant of its growth rate. The outcome was a series of three scenario maps depicting a gradient …

Tunnel Road Safety: A Look At Older Drivers' Performance And Sight Impairment, Edith Lopez

Master's Theses

In California, there is an observed trend in which collisions cluster in and around tunnels. The break in road continuity created by the tunnels disturbs traffic flow that can lead to collisions. One of the main contrasts between open roads and tunnel roads occurs in lighting. Drivers with sight deficiencies are unable to adapt their sight to the change in the lighting environment and may crash due to misperception of road alignment, vehicle’s speed and other physiological reactions, such as tension. The suspect population group of crashes occurring under the influence of tunnels conditions is older drivers.

The literature suggests …

Community-Based Management Of Tricholoma Matsutake: A Case Study Of South Korean Mountain Villages, Terry Van Gevelt

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Tricholoma matsutake (S. Ito and S. Imai) Singer commercialisation provides significant economic benefits to rural communities, mainly in China, Japan and South Korea. Recently, a growing body of research has questioned the impact of commercialization on harvesting behavior and the supply of matsutake. One key question arising from this literature is whether or not community-based management (CBM) has a positive impact on matsutake supply. I surveyed nine mountain villages in Gangwon and North Gyeongsang provinces in South Korea. Four villages were found to have begun CBM of matsutake in the mid-1980s to early-1990s. All four villages continued to engage in …

Ageing In Place, Man Fuk, Edward Leung

International Conference: Overcoming Challenges in Active Ageing

No abstract provided.

The Development Of Active Aging Learning Center In Taiwan: Meeting Today's Challenges, Ai Tzu, Iris Li

International Conference: Overcoming Challenges in Active Ageing

No abstract provided.

Measuring Urban Bicyclists' Uptake Of Traffic-Related Pollution, Alexander Y. Bigazzi

PSU Transportation Seminars

Urban bicyclists’ uptake of traffic-related air pollution is still not well quantified, due to a lack of direct measurements of uptake and a lack of analysis of the variation in uptake. This paper describes and establishes the feasibility of a novel method for measuring bicyclists’ uptake of volatile organic compounds (VOC) by sampling breath concentrations. Early results from the data set demonstrate the ability of the proposed method to generate findings for transportation analysis, with statistically significant exposure and uptake differences from bicycling on arterial versus bikeway facilities for several traffic-related VOC. These results provide the first empirical evidence that …

Bike Planning Methods In Oregon Communities, Tara Weidner

PSU Transportation Seminars

In this seminar, Tara Weidner will discuss changes in the works to the State Analysis Procedures Manual (APM) to include three graduated levels of bike planning methods for use in Oregon communities, based on community size, data needs, and planning stage. These include the Bike Level of Traffic Stress (BLTS), a sketch tool used to assess bike network connectivity, the data-heavy Highway Capacity Manual Multi-modal Level of Service (MMLOS) procedures, and a simplified MMLOS developed by the same researchers.

A Recipe For An Online, Geospatial Transit Performance Archive, Jon Makler

PSU Transportation Seminars

Where and when does overcrowding happen on TriMet's bus network? Which routes have the best on-time performance? Portland State University and TriMet have collaborated to make this kind of data available to anybody through Portal, PSU's transportation data archive for the Portland/Vancouver region. This presentation will cover the use of General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data for mapping TriMet’s performance data and the development of Portal’s innovative transit application. In the MAP-21 era of performance management, see how tools like Portal can support enhanced agency decision-making as well as community engagement.

The General Public’S Weather Information-Seeking And Decision-Making Behavior During Tornado Outbreaks In The Oklahoma City Metroplex In May 2013, Chen Ling, Michelle Madison, Jessica Adams, Kevin Warren, Michael Mudd, Kim Graves Wolfinbarger, Lans Rothfusz

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

Severe weather impacts the lives of many people. Today's technology allows weather information to be distributed to the general public in many ways. However, it is not clear how people obtain information regarding severe weather, and how they make decisions based on the information. This study surveyed people in the Oklahoma City metroplex about their weather information–seeking and decision-making behaviors during the May 2013 tornado outbreaks. The preliminary results based on 124 survey responses show that people used and trusted television news most to obtain the severe weather information, followed by siren, weather radio, radio, looking at the sky, and …

Regional Water Providers Consortium Population, Housing Unit, And Household Estimates 1990 To 2013, Charles Rynerson, Kevin Rancik

Publications, Reports and Presentations

Water providers have an ongoing need for estimates and forecasts of the total population and the number of housing units and households within their service areas. While some of the water providers within Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties have obtained this information periodically on an individual basis, a complete and systematic set of estimates and forecasts for all members of the Regional Water Providers Consortium has not been prepared for nearly 10 years. The Portland Water Bureau (PWB), on behalf of the Regional Water Providers Consortium, requested that the Portland State University Population Research Center (PRC) update service area boundaries …

Book Review Of, California Cuisine And Just Food, Nathan Mcclintock

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book, California Cuisine and Just Food, by Sally K Fairfax, Louise Nelson Dyble, Greig Tor Guthey, Lauren Gwin, Monica Moore and Jennifer Sokolove.

Radical, Reformist, And Garden-Variety Neoliberal: Coming To Terms With Urban Agriculture’S Contradictions, Nathan Mcclintock

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

For many activists and scholars, urban agriculture in the Global North has become synonymous with sustainable food systems, standing in opposition to the dominant industrial agri-food system. At the same time, critical social scientists increasingly argue that urban agriculture programmes, by filling the void left by the "rolling back" of the social safety net, underwrite neoliberalisation. I argue that such contradictions are central to urban agriculture. Drawing on existing literature and fieldwork in Oakland, CA, I explain how urban agriculture arises from a protective counter-movement, while at the same time entrenching the neoliberal organisation of contemporary urban political economies through …

Suburban Heat Islands: The Influence Of Residential Minimum Lot Size Zoning On Surface Heat Islands In Somerset County, New Jersey, Jennifer Renee Cox

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The process of suburbanization blurs regional bounds, forms mega-regions and fosters the expansion of multifaceted environmental problems, such as the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Defined by differences in air- and surface- temperature between rural and urban areas, UHI is the result of the characteristics of urbanization which modify the land surface condition, urban geometry, thermal properties of construction materials, anthropogenic heat and air pollution, which increase storage and re-radiation of heat to the atmosphere. Climate change is predicted to worsen the UHI effect. Hence, the objective of this research to characterize the UHI effect as it pertains to suburban …

Jim Rockford Or Tony Soprano: Coastal Contrasts In American Suburbia, Carl Abbott

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Both in television shows such as The Rockford Files and The Sopranos and in the fiction of writers such as John Updike, Richard Ford, and Douglas Coupland, popular culture draws a distinction between Atlantic Coast and Pacific Coast suburbs. The differences revolve around two themes. The first concerns the roles of place and space. The second is the varying weight of history, often as manifested through families and social ties. Eastern suburbs and suburbanites are commonly depicted as embedded in place, rooted in time, and entangled in social networks. Western suburbs and suburbanites are often imagined as the opposite—isolated in …

The Meaning, Experience, And Value Of 'Common Space' For Women And Children In Urban Poor Settlements In India, Anupama Reddy Nallari

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Housing and basic services in urban poor settlements have been the focus of bi-lateral agencies, national governments as well as NGOs and CBOs. However, little attention has been paid to understanding the value of "common spaces" in these settlements, or in the planning and design of "common spaces" in upgraded or redeveloped settlements. Common spaces include communal areas like childcare and play facilities, religious and cultural establishments, shops, physical infrastructure like roads and sanitation, and informal spaces like courtyards, steps, lanes, and corridors where women perform daily chores and interact and children play. This dissertation focuses on understanding the significance …

Apotheosis Of The Public Realm: Civic Classicism In New York City's Architecture, Paul Andrija Ranogajec

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the years around the consolidation of Greater New York in 1898, a renewed interest in republican political theory among progressive liberals coincided with a new kind of civic architecture. For the first time in American history, cities and the urban public emerged as crucial parts of democratic citizenship, at least for progressives such as Frank Goodnow, Frederic Howe, and Herbert Croly. At the same time, New York City was promoted as the nation's cultural and commercial capital: the "American metropolis," in Croly's words. Architects, too, played a key role in articulating the city's and the urban public's new status …

How Do You Build A Community? Developing Community Capacity And Social Capital In An Urban Aboriginal Setting, Gus Hill Phd, Martin Cooke

Lyle S. Hallman Social Work Faculty Publications

Previous literature has identified social capital as an important resource for successful community development activities, and there have been some attempts to adapt the concepts of social capital to the particular context of First Nations. However, little information is available about how social capital itself might be developed or improved in Aboriginal communities. Moreover, urban Aboriginal communities are different from rural First Nations, Inuit or Métis communities in structure, composition, activities, and diversity, and deserve specific attention and their own models of community development. This paper presents a framework to guide development initiatives in urban Aboriginal contexts that is drawn …

Regional Planning, Greenhouse Gases, And Urbanfootprint Open Source Software, Garlynn Woodsong

PSU Transportation Seminars

Since about 2008, the planning world has been experiencing a paradigm shift that began in places like California and Oregon that have adopted legislation requiring the linking of land use and transportation plans to outcomes, specifically to the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs). In response to this need, Calthorpe Associates has developed a new planning tool, called UrbanFootprint, on a fully Open Source platform (i.e. Ubuntu Linux, PostGIS, PostGreSQL, etc.). As a powerful and dynamic web and mobile-enabled geo-spatial scenario creation and modeling tool with full co-benefits analysis capacity, UrbanFootprint has great utility for urban planning and research at multiple …

Modeling Injury Outcomes Of Crashes Involving Heavy Vehicles On Texas Highways, Salvador Hernandez

PSU Transportation Seminars

A growing concern related to large-truck crashes has increased in the State of Texas in recent years due to the potential economic impacts and level of injury severity that can be sustained. Yet, studies on large truck involved crashes highlighting the contributing factors leading to injury severity have not been conducted in detail in the State of Texas especially for its interstate system. In this study, we analyze the contributing factors related to injury severity by utilizing Texas crash data based on a discrete outcome based model which accounts for possible unobserved heterogeneity related to human, vehicle and road-environment. We …

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.

A Second Chance For Oregon, High School Dropouts, And The Ged, City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Identficaton And Characterization Of Pollutant Hot Spots Integratng Probe Vehicle, Traffic And Land Use Data, Katherine Eleanor Bell, Miguel Figliozzi

PSU Transportation Seminars

Identification and Characterization of PM2.5 and VOC Hot Spots on Arterial Corridor by Integrating Probe Vehicle, Traffic, and Land Use Data: The purpose of this study is to explore the use of integrated probe vehicle, traffic and land use data to identify and characterize fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and volatile organic compound (VOC) hot spot locations on urban arterial corridors. An emission hot spot is defined as a fixed location along a corridor in which the mean pollutant concentrations are consistently above the 85th percentile of pollutant concentrations when considering all other locations along the corridor during the same time …