Urban Studies Commons^™

Water Shortage And Water Law: The Impending Crisis In Semi-Arid Climates, Bonnie Persons

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

Water is a business driver and a substantial source of both wealth and risk. Water is also under increasing statutory and legislative pressure as jurisdictions strive to manage water resources more holistically by addressing both surface and groundwater together, but on a more decentralized and sustainable basis. The potential collapse of the municipal water system in Cape Town, South Africa serves as a stark alarm for cities in arid and semi-arid, Mediterranean-like environments. This risk is especially true of cities like Marseilles, France and regions like California. By comparing the impacts of the water law in these different jurisdictions, this …

Three Cases In Point: A Comparison Of Legal Access To Housing For Low-Income And Homeless Populations In Cape Town, Marseille And Miami, Leila Lawlor

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

Miami, Cape Town, and Marseille have taken dissimilar approaches in their attempts to legislate and supply affordable housing to those in need. One of these cities has no justiciable right whatsoever, one has a right set out in its national constitution, and one has a right set out in its national law. These cities have had different degrees of success in aiding those in need of adequate housing; however, each of these cities continues to suffer from both a lack of affordable housing and a widening income gap. Examining the frameworks and the efforts of these three port cities establishes …

Ten Years Of The French Dalo And The Catalan Right To Housing Act: European Innovation In The Fields Of Land Use Planning And Housing, Camille Mialot, Juli Ponce

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

The main objective of this article is to give an overview for an international audience of the results of two acts which were passed the same year, 2007 - the French Enforceable right to housing (Droit au logement opposable, later referred as DALO) Act, and the Catalan Right to Housing Act (Llei catalana del dret a l´habitatge, CRHA). Both acts are good examples of legal innovations regarding land use and housing at the beginning of the 21st Century. The first one established an enforceable right to housing in France for the first time in French history. The second one is …

Social Dimensions And Social Function Born In Latin America: Property Limits In The U.S. And The European Union Legal Systems, Wellington Migliari

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

This article is a comparative analysis of property systems and their social dimensions between the United States (U.S.) and the European Union (EU). Throughout the article, we show how the fees and development taxes applied in the U.S. refer to an ex ante rationale assumed by private owners to compensate communities for land transformation or environmental impacts, while inside the EU, the political consensus is responsible for the imposition of limits in ex post abuses of ownership. Either in public administrations, or in the Council of Ministers of the EU, the social function of property is better understood as a …

Regional Public/Private Partnerships As Entrepreneurial Bricolage, John F. Mcardle

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

Entrepreneurial development of contaminated or blighted land, commonly referred to as “brownfield,” carries significant enterprise risk. When considering competing opportunities, capital tends to flow in an adverse direction from higher-risk activity where outcomes are less certain. In addition, a complicated regulatory landscape can increase transaction costs which further limit the desirability of these projects. Often, that leaves the remediation of environmentally compromised property in the hands of the public sector. Yet, in industrialized nations with significant brownfield presence, government is often unable to solely cure defects due to limited fiscal resources and competing policy imperatives. One solution to the problem …

The Emergence Of Metropolitan Areas As A New Form Of Interfederative Governance: A Comparative Study Of Aix-Marseille-Provence And The Metropolitan Region Of Rio De Janeiro, Aricia Fernandes Correia, Romulo S.R. Sampaio

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

The exponential demographic increase of the last century and the transformation of the cities, from industrial to service providers, added to the phenomenon of conurbation. In addition, the new social, environmental, economic, political and cultural dynamics of close cities, challenged the traditional municipal power and required a collaborative new management framework. Global cities became metropolitan areas. Issues of local urban interest are now of regional preoccupation. Governmental institutional frameworks and urban planning were not designed to match this new socioeconomic and environmental metropolitan order. This paper deals with the legal challenges of creating metropolitan governance structures comparing France and Brazil. …

The French Metropole: How It Gained Legal Status As A Metropolis, Janice Griffith

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

France’s long history of centralized governance has generated debates as to what powers should remain with the State and what powers should devolve to sub-national governments. To ameliorate the fragmentation resulting from the small size of France’s 36,000 plus municipalities, called communes, the State authorized the creation of general-purpose, inter-communal public institutions to perform municipal functions on behalf of the communes on a greater economy of scale. The article examines the trajectory that led to the creation in 2010 of the métropole, or metropolis, the most recent of these inter-communal bodies that is designed to undertake public functions in large …

The Future Of French Metropolis, Anne-Claire Mialot

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Julian Conrad Juergensmeyer, Karen Johnston

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Accessory Dwelling Units In Portland, Oregon, Matthew Gebhardt, Beth Gilden, Yael Kidron

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

The Institute for Sustainable Solutions is spearheading an initiative to make it easier and more affordable for Portland homeowners to construct a second house on their property—increasing housing options in a city with some of the fastest rising rents and lowest vacancy rates in the nation.

Called “accessory dwelling units” or ADUs, these small backyard homes can be used by family members or rented out to others in the community. They provide more affordable housing options while reducing pollutants that cause climate change.

In 2018, Matthew Gebhardt, assistant professor of Urban Studies and Planning, and Yael Kidron, Ph.D. candidate in …

The Use Of Mt. Mazama Volcanic Ash As Natural Pozzolans For Sustainable Soil And Unpaved Road Improvement, Matthew D. Sleep, Morgan B. Masley

TREC Final Reports

Natural pozzolans can be a replacement for portland cement in many applications. Some natural pozzolans are byproducts of industrial processes. Other natural pozzolans, such as volcanic ash, occur naturally. This study determined the suitability of Mt. Mazama volcanic ash as a natural pozzolan and explored innovative uses of the material for roadway improvement. Requirements of natural pozzolans are specified in ASTM C618 – coal fly ash and raw or calcined natural pozzolan for use in concrete. This study concluded that volcanic ash from Mt. Mazama meets chemical requirements of a natural pozzolan. In its unprocessed, natural form, Mt. Mazama volcanic …

Pedestrian Observation And Data Collection Curriculum Guide, Jennifer Dill, Tara Beth Goddard

TREC Final Reports

This guidebook provides a comprehensive set of class exercises suitable for students in courses related to travel behavior, traffic safety, urban planning and design, community health, or civil engineering. Exercises include activities developed through this project as well as an extensive set of educational materials drawn from online resources. The exercises developed as part of this project focus on pedestrians. They include elements of both traditional traffic counts and behavioral components, the latter of which are often lacking from current data collections efforts. By encouraging students to consider behavioral interactions of roadway users, these exercises can provide students with field …

Making Sustainable Roadways From 7,000 Year-Old Volcanic Ash, Matthew D. Sleep, Morgan B. Masley

TREC Project Briefs

Volcanic ash from Mt. Mazama, prevalent in Southern Oregon, could be used as a natural pozzolan for unpaved roadway improvements. Sustainability benefits would include reduced carbon emissions.

Nationwide Worker Database To Analyze Transit Outcomes Using An Economic And Demographic Lens, Robert Hibberd, Arthur C. Nelson

TREC Datasets and Databases

This extensive database project provides demographic data for workers, both in terms of where they live and where they work, for 39 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Planners and researchers can use this database to assess the extent to which transit stations and station areas are associated with economic and demographic change, and to forecast similar magnitudes of change through proposed new or expanded transit systems. Specific data elements include job numbers based on job sector, earnings, race, education, sex, and distance of census blocks to transit separated by mode type. Data were extracted as part of a larger project …

A Survey Of Ride-Hailing Passengers, Steven Gehrke

PSU Transportation Seminars

In less than a decade, the ride-hailing industry, led by Uber and Lyft, has dramatically transformed the way we travel in our metro regions. Rider adoption of these on-demand mobility services has proceeded much quicker than our understanding of their impacts to our urban transportation systems. Planning for this transformation in personal mobility, which will have unintended consequences, has been made more difficult by the scarcity in meaningful data made available by these ride-hailing companies. Public agencies responsible for managing congestion and transit services are hindered in their ability to successfully plan for the integration of this emergent travel mode …

Post-Katrina Retention Of Law Enforcement Officers: A Case Study Of The New Orleans Police Department, Richard A. Williams Sr

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a case study of the New Orleans Police Department and identified factors that affected the retention of law enforcement officers post-Hurricane Katrina. The NOPD was chosen because the agency was an extreme case and experienced the unprecedented separation of over 300 officers during and post- Hurricane Katrina. The variables examined included tenure, age, salary, education, and job satisfaction, as well as, race, sex, marital status, and New Orleans residency.

This research is significant because in a time of decreasing budgets and increased cost to replace employees, where skills are scarce and knowledge is important, recruitment is costly, …

Protecting San Francisco Residents From The Wolves Of Wall Street: A Case Study, Jessica Lindquist

Master's Projects and Capstones

This research conducts the first deep data analysis of the public complaints filed to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Consumer Complaint database by San Francisco residents. The case study highlights how consumer financial harms are a citywide problem: San Franciscans living at every income level and in every part of the city are struggling to resolve their financial issues with the wolves of Wall Street, the financial services industry. The recommendations center on what the city, particularly the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment, can do at a local level now that the Trump administration is focused on deregulating the …

Utrecht, Bike Capital Of The World, Martijn Rietbergen

PSU Transportation Seminars

Utrecht is a bustling, bicycle-friendly city in the Netherlands. Every day, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., over 125,000 cyclists ride to their work, school, university, public transport, shops or home through the city centre.

The municipality wants to make cycling even more attractive for these and other cyclists. Consequently, the bicycle is given precedence in the mobility policy of the municipality of Utrecht. We want to be the most bike-friendly city in the world. We want to keep our growing city livable, accessible and economically strong, and we are convinced that the bicycle can and should play a major …

Assessing The Potential For A Backfire Effect On Citizen Perceptions: A Test Of Hot Spot Policing In Las Vegas, Steven Andrew Pace

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Objects: In this dissertation, I explore whether the use of motorized police saturation patrol in high crime neighborhoods negatively impacts citizen perceptions of police activity, opinions about the police, and perceived safety level. This research focuses on evaluating

whether or not any backfire effects were attributed to the use of the hot spot policing tactic. Methods: I report on survey data from the Smart Policing Initiative (SPI), which entailed face-to face interviews in 12 hot spot neighborhoods (n=1,005) (6 paired locations) as part of an evaluation from the SPI on the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Mobile Crime Saturation Team. …

The Impacts Of Green Spaces On Crime In New York City, Matthew Edward Iannone Jr.

Student Theses 2015-Present

From the early 1960s through the mid-1990s, crime in New York City ran rampant. With a gradually dwindling police during this time, a high unemployment rate, and an rapidly increasing metropolitan population, crime peaked in the early 1990s, with the murder rate hitting a record-high of 2,245 in 1990. When Mayor Rudy Giuliani took office in 1994 and appoint Bill Bratton as the NYPD police commissioner, these rates immediately plunged. Numerous factors may have contributed to this sudden decline in crime: the police force grew significantly through the 1990s, more criminals were placed and held in prison, and the economic …