Urban Studies Commons^™

New Beginnings Homeless Transition Village, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

More than three million Americans experience homelessness annually. Emergency shelter capacity is limited while local governments are unable to provide even temporary housing. Informal housing involving interim self-help solutions are now popular adaptive actions for obtaining shelter despite nonconformance with city codes. Unfortunately, most informal solutions have resulted in objectionable tent cities and squatter campgrounds where the local response has simply been to move the problem around. Our homeless transition village plan prototypes a shelter-first solution using a kit-of-parts that can be replicated in other communities. Village design reconciles key gaps between informal building practices and formal sector regulations, creating …

Willow Heights Livability Improvement Plan, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

Willow Heights is a 43-year old public housing complex owned by the Fayetteville Housing Authority (FHA) within the federal public housing portfolio administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The school’s design center was commissioned by a local foundation to study an alternative to the FHA’s plan to sell the downtown Willow Heights complex to a developer of high-income housing, necessitating relocation of low-income residents to another complex outside of downtown. Using equity as a driver of decision making, the studio introduced scenario planning to organize reluctant stakeholders in considering transformations to the five-acre complex.

The Balancing Act: A Look At Dynamic School District Boundaries, Sheila Martin, Madison Levy

Metroscape

How do school districts throughout the Portland region respond to changes in student populations that cause overcrowding or under enrollment? In this article, we explore some of the key trends in school enrollment, describe the challenges faced by some of the districts in the region, and describe how different districts address those challenges.

One Step At A Time: Counting Pedestrians Students Learn Pedestrian Observation And Data Collection In The Field, Jennifer Dill, Tara Beth Goddard

TREC Project Briefs

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 …

Zero Textbook Cost Syllabus For Paf 3005 (Public Affairs In New York City), Daniel Williams

Open Educational Resources

In this course, we will learn about governing of New York City through the perspective of early 20th century events that contributed to modern governance. We will learn how to use archival material to expand our knowledge of historical events associated with New York City governance, gain simulated firsthand experience of a major event from the early 20th century that helped formulate modern government, and gain a broader understanding of governance through historical material.

On The Outskirts: How French Suburbs Face Disproportionate Inequality, Krysta Suzanne Gingue

Honors Theses and Capstones

Through studying banlieues , their structures and influence on the individual, this paper will prove physical and structural policies perpetuate racial and economic disenfranchisement in France. In the following sections this paper will briefly inform the reader of France’s current racial climate, and how the most negative eruptions of civil unrest grow in the banlieues , while also commenting on literature surrounding France’s societal and political climate and scholarly work focused on relations studies. Later it will address the shortcomings of studies taking place in France and the importance of continued scholarly analysis and explanations of French society’s expectations of …

The Need For Enhanced Physical Infrastructure In The United States, Tanvi Gandham

CMC Senior Theses

An examination of necessary infrastructure improvements in the United States.

Exclusionary Megacities, Wendell Pritchett, Shitong Qiao

Faculty Scholarship

Human beings should live in places where they are most productive, and megacities, where information, innovation, and opportunities congregate, would be the optimal choice. Yet megacities in both China and the United States are excluding people by limiting the housing supply. Why, despite their many differences, is the same type of exclusion happening in both Chinese and U.S. megacities? Urban law and policy scholars argue that Not-In-My-Back-Yard (“NIMBY”) homeowners are taking over megacities in the U.S. and hindering housing development. They pin their hopes on an efficient growth machine that makes sure “above all, nothing gets in the way of …

The Politics Of Gentrification In Charlotte, Nc: A New South City Meets The Urban Realities Of 21st Century Prosperity., David Cole

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Excerpt from Introduction

In the Fall of 2017, Amazon Inc. opened an unprecedented nationwide bidding competition.[1] The huge online retailer was seeking a home for its second headquarters, dubbed “HQ2,” which could potentially include 50,000 high-paying jobs and billions of dollars of investment into a local economy.[2] The company completed a request for proposal (RFP) that detailed the baseline amenities that cities applying for the headquarters must have. This included Interstate access, a metropolitan population of over 1 million, an international airport, and the presence of a research university.[3]

“When One Shingle Sends Up Smoke”: The Summit Beacon Advises Akron About The Epidemic Cholera, 1849, Elizabeth Hall

Nineteenth-Century Ohio Literature

Elizabeth Hall explains the American cholera epidemic of 1849, with special attention to how cholera afflicted Akron, a booming canal town in Northeast Ohio. The article presents the full text of 1849 Akron newspaper articles on cholera and explains how their mix of good and bad information was published right before scientific breakthroughs in cholera research.

The Landscape: Cully Neighborhood, Eavan Moore

Metroscape

This installment of The Landscape focuses on Portland's Cully neighborhood, briefly reviewing its history, demographic trends, and current planning efforts.

Growing Deeper Roots: Toward Resilient Urban Forests, Sachi Arakawa

Metroscape

This article examines the urban forest in Portland, Oregon, as part of a complex system that requires management, education and outreach to remain healthy and sustainable. It also reviews the economic and ecological benefits of a health urban forest.

How Do Stressed Workers Make Travel Mode Choices That Are Good For Their Health, Safety, And Productivity?, Liu-Qin Yang, Brad Wipfli, Lee Cyr, Kristina Marie Currans, Liming Wang

TREC Final Reports

It is well recognized in transportation and psychology research that commuting stress has consequences for commuters' travel safety, home environment, and work performance. Little research has addressed questions involving the possible interdependence between work stress, family stress, and commuting stress: Do workers having many demands from work and family life get more stressed out from a stressful commute? Or do stressed workers try to cope with work and non-work stress by choosing more relaxing travel modes?

This proposal integrates the perspectives from transportation, psychology, and health science by focusing on the relations between commuting stress, commuting mode choice, and consequences …

Book Review Of, City Unsilenced: Urban Resistance And Public Space In The Age Of Shrinking Democracy, Naomi Adiv

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Book review of, Jeffrey Hou and Sabine Knierbein, City Unsilenced: Urban Resistance and Public Space in the Age of Shrinking Democracy, New York and London: Routledge, 2017.

In response to austerity politics and market-based governance of urban land, large-scale social protest has erupted in the public spaces of cities across the globe. In City Unsilenced: Urban Resistance and Public Space in the Age of Shrinking Democracy (Routledge, 2017), editors Jeffrey Hou of UW-Seattle and Sabine Knierbein of SKuOR, Vienna – both scholars of the dynamics of public space – have compiled the stories, strategies and theories derived from social movements …

Growth Without Displacement: A Test For Equity Planning In Portland, Lisa K. Bates

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portland, Oregon, is considered a pioneer of regionalism, integrated land-use and transportation planning, and sustainability as a criterion for planning policy. After four decades of land-use planning, Portland has a national and international reputation for urban livability and climate change mitigation. While these successes are laudable, in the past decade Portland’s underrepresented and underserved communities have been raising a voice to demand that planners address issues of income and racial inequality. In response to and in collaboration with communities, over the past five years Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) has adopted an equity strategy with a racial justice …

Cascadia Connect: Car-Free Access To The Outdoors, Kara Boden, Brandon Crawford, Matt Gray, Tony Lamb, Maricelith Valencia, John Whitman

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

As outdoor recreation areas in Oregon become more popular, increased auto-related congestion results in strained resources, environmental degradation, and diminished visitors’ experiences. This project proposes policies, strategies, and a variety of approaches to help transportation agencies and land managers facilitate car-free access to outdoor recreation areas. The plan also proposes approaches to increase access to recreation areas for transit-dependent visitors and under-represented communities who face significant barriers to access today. The Background Report includes data; interview, survey and focus group themes; site visit findings; and personal travel anecdotes.

How Commute Mode Choices Can Control Stress Levels, Liu-Qin Yang

TREC Project Briefs

This research integrates perspectives from transportation and psychology research by focusing on the relations between commuting stress, commuting mode choice, and consequences of such choice for commuters’ health, travel safety, and work performance. To fill the gaps in the transportation and psychology literatures, the project addresses two key research questions:

1) Under what circumstances workers experiencing commuting stress are more likely to commute via car vs. public transit vs. bicycle vs. on foot?

2) What are the different implications of choosing different commuting modes for commuters’ mental and physical health?

Introduction To Data Science: Executive Summary, Liming Wang

TREC Project Briefs

This education project created the curriculum for a new course: Introduction to Data Science for Planners, Engineers, and Scientists. The course helps students and professionals tackle the challenges of processing high volumes of data.

Empowering Portland's Youth To Choose Car-Free Mobility, Autumn Shafer, Jared Macary

TREC Project Briefs

Little is known from research about how to motivate youth to choose non-car mobility, especially specific Portland-area youth. Understanding the current attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of youth in relation to non-car mobility contributes to the sustainability of a long-term transportation system. Transportation system-related beliefs and behaviors of youth are likely to influence their willingness to access and support transportation services as adults. Today’s youth are tomorrow’s riders, bikers, walkers, voters, and transportation planners. Thus, it is important to develop age-appropriate messaging strategies and tactics that promote youth non-car mobility.

This project seeks to build on the sparse national and non-Portland …

Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership: Economic Impact Analysis -- January 2018 Update, Emma Willingham

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

The Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), founded in 1988, is a network of non-profit agencies staffed by industry professionals and consultants. Historically, MEP has sought to increase the competitiveness of small to mid-size enterprises (which as a group comprise 99% of all U.S. manufacturing firms) by providing expert guidance and access to resources. In recent years, the severe economic recession sparked increased interest in the strength of the manufacturing sector, due to its longtime status as one of the major drivers of the domestic economy. Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership (OMEP), the Oregon branch of MEP, works to provide data-driven analysis …