Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Measuring Rental Affordability Dynamics For The Southern United States With Constant Quartile Mismatch, Bradley Curtis

Honors Theses

This project centers on the topic of rental housing affordability for southern metropolitan areas in the United States. In an attempt to understand how rents have changed in relation to incomes in cities throughout the American south, this study uses IPUMS data to compare changes in the distributions of rents and incomes from 2000 to 2019 for each of the geographies in question. The Constant Quartile Mismatch metric employed in this project was first implemented in the study "A constant quartile mismatch indicator of changing rental affordability in US Metropolitan areas, 2000 to 2016". This thesis hopes to extend the ...

Treatment Access For Dual Diagnosis Substance Use And Mental Health Disorders, Pedro Banuelos

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In 2018, of 1.3 million Latinx adults in the United States facing concurrent issues with substance use disorders (SUD) and mental health disorders (MHD) 93% remained untreated for either diagnosis. This is concerning since Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) data reveals that this population is at greater risk for suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts. They also face structural barriers such as employment, housing, legal involvement, and insurability that further impede access to treatment.

This study’s purpose was to examine barriers to accessing treatment for Latinx populations confronting co-occurring SUDs and MHDs. This study used a ...

Measuring Social Vulnerability In Transit Deserts Of United States Metro Areas, Junfeng Jiao, Josh Conrad, Amin Azimian

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This study was aimed at identifying areas in the US that need both transit improvements and anti-displacement protection. First, rather than focusing on transit-dependent populations, we developed a new method of accounting for overall transportation demand among independent residents in comparison with public transit supply. Next, we analyzed transit deserts in metro areas using the social vulnerability index. Results indicated that living in transit deserts across 200 metro areas today are approximately 24.6 million people, of which about 19% live below the poverty line. Additionally, residents of transit deserts exhibit, on average, a social vulnerability that is approximately 21 ...

Case Study Of Property Value Transfer Attributed To Transit: Spatial And Temporal Hedonic Price Impact Of Light Rail In Minnesota’S Twin Cities, Kate Ko

Journal of Public Transportation

Does the proximity of transit increase property values, and can one example apply to another? Using a spatial and temporal hedonic price framework, a study of light rail transit’s impact on residential property values compares the station area property impacts of the Green and Blue lines in Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The study also points to when “value transfer” (used here to describe the comparison and application of property value impacts near transit) is appropriate, and what practitioners should keep in mind to maximize the effectiveness of the exercise. In the case of value transfer for transit, the study ...

Cleveland Heights Police Department 2019 Traffic Ticketing Patterns, Ronnie A. Dunn

Urban Publications

In response to the police-involved killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, and the historic mass demonstrations and protests calling for racial justice and police reform in cities and towns, large and small, across the country and around the world that ensued in its wake, the City of Cleveland Heights engaged The Diversity Institute at Cleveland State University to collaborate in assessing and enhancing the community-oriented policing practices of the Cleveland Heights Police Department (CHPD). This report provides demographic data for the department’s sworn personnel and an analysis of the 2019 traffic enforcement data of the CHPD. A ...

The Slow Violence Of Business As Usual Planning: Racial Injustice In Public Health Crises, Monika Sharma

Masters Theses

This thesis is a critical analysis of the normative planning practice in relation to the aspirational principles of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) (especially Section A, Part 1: Overall Responsibility to the Public). By exploring several dimensions of typical, or Business As Usual, planning practices in a local planning department in Springfield, Massachusetts and contextualized within larger planning concerns in the United States, I illustrate that socio-spatial, racialized oppression is deeply embedded in these common practices. Through a multimethod approach that includes historical survey, archival research, interviews, and direct observation, I argue that most professional planning operates from ...

Petco Park: Evaluating Economic Health Of The Dining Establishment Industry In The Vicinity Of A Downtown Major League Baseball Stadium, Georgy Shukaylo

Masters Theses

This thesis analyzes the economic health of the dining establishments in

Downtown San Diego, CA, specifically in the vicinity of Petco Park. Opened in

2004, Petco Park is home to the San Diego Padres, a Major League Baseball

franchise. In addition, it serves as a venue for outdoor concerts and shows. The

venue is used for most of the year due to an expanded Major League Baseball

schedule, especially compared to other professional sports. Much of the

transformation of San Diego’s Downtown can be attributed to the late 1990’s East

Village Revitalization Plan, which included municipal anchors like ...

Novel Method For Probabilistic Evaluation Of The Post-Earthquake Functionality Of A Bridge, Vesna Terzic, William Pasco

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

While modern overpass bridges are safe against collapse, their functionality will likely be compromised in case of design-level or beyond design-level earthquake, which may generate excessive residual displacements of the bridge deck. Presently, there is no validated, quantitative approach for estimating the operational level of the bridge after an earthquake due to the difficulty of accurately simulating residual displacements. This research develops a novel method for probabilistic evaluation of the post-earthquake functionality state of the bridge; the approach is founded on an explicit evaluation of bridge residual displacements and associated traffic capacity by considering realistic traffic load scenarios.

This research ...

The Dominican Population Of The New York Metropolitan Region, 1970-2019, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This study focuses on the demographic and socioeconomic changes occurring within the Dominican population of the New York metropolitan area between 1970 and 2019. By 2019 Dominicans had become the largest Latino nationality in New York City having surpassed Puerto Ricans a decade earlier in sheer numbers.

Methods:

This report uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) data for all years released by the Census Bureau and reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa, (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/index.shtml). See Public Use Microdata Series Steven Ruggles, J. Trent ...

Employment Trends And Poverty Status: Men And Women In The New York City Metro Area Between 2000 And 2017, Sarah Kostecki

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This report examines employment trends and poverty status among men and women aged 25-54 in the New York City metropolitan area. The report assesses the characteristics of these persons, while examining trends and differences in poverty status by sex, race/ethnicity, and across the five largest Latino nationalities.

Methods:

This report uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) data for all years released by the Census Bureau and reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa, (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/index.shtml). See Public Use Microdata Series Steven Ruggles, J ...

Does Gender Climate Influence Climate Change? The Multidimensionality Of Gender Equality And Its Countervailing Effects On The Carbon Intensity Of Well-Being, Christina Ergas, Patrick Trent Greiner, Julius Alexander Mcgee, Matthew Thomas Clement

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The carbon intensity of well-being (CIWB) (a ratio measuring the amount of CO₂ emitted per unit of life expectancy at birth) is an increasingly popular way to measure the ecological efficiency of nations. Although research demonstrates that economic development typically reduces this efficiency, little research has explored the extent to which social equality improves it. This study uses panel data for 70 nations between 1995 and 2013 to assess how various aspects of gender equality affect the ecological efficiency of nations. We estimate a series of Prais-Winsten regression models with panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE) to assess how increases in ...

St. Cloud Metro Area Visitor Profile & Economic Impact Final Report Summer 2019-Winter 2020, Kristy Modrow, Brigid Tuck, Pengyu Qian, Hungchih Yu, Andrea Haataja

St. Cloud Metro Area Visitor Profile Study

This report is a summation of results from fall summer 2019, fall 2019, and winter 2020 St. Cloud Metro Area Visitor Profile Surveys.

In 2019, the St. Cloud City Hall, St. Cloud Area Convention and Visitor Bureau, and Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) contracted with St. Cloud State University School of Public Affairs, Geography & Planning Department, and the Hospitality and Tourism Program to conduct a visitor profile survey from summer 2019 to spring 2020. Spring 2020 area events and airport travel were suspended due to COVID-19, thus concluding the study. Therefore, the fourth seasonal report could not be issued ...

The Eviction Landscape In South Carolina, Ethan Magnuson

Senior Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the South Carolinian eviction crisis from the perspective of radical geography. South Carolina was chosen for the severity of its crisis and the lack of research at a sub-state level. Court records of eviction filings from 2019 were geocoded and tested for spatial clustering, which was clearly visible. Plaintiff names were used to identify the most frequent filers and distinguish landlords by type. At the census tract level, eviction filing counts were compared with neighborhood characteristics using negative binomial regression, and most were found to be significant in South Carolina ...

Experiences Of African American Veterans With Regards To Ethnicity, Mental Health, And Homelessness, Jeffrey Redmond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Having a secure and permanent home is an important foundational, psychological need because it influences the fulfillment of other aspects of a person’s life. Given the importance of shelter in the well-being of any individual, the problem of homelessness among veterans underscores the significance of ensuring that veterans have access to this basic human need. This phenomenological, qualitative study explored the lived experiences of African American homeless veterans regarding to ethnicity, housing, mental health, and being unhoused with the intent of understanding or identifying meaning in regards to these experiences. The overrepresentation of African American homeless veterans leads to ...

The Impact Of Ride Hail Services On The Accessibility Of Nonprofit Services, Dyana P. Mason, Miranda Menard

TREC Final Reports

Nonprofit organizations are responsible for providing a significant level of human services across the United States, often in collaboration with government agencies. In this work, they address some of the most pressing social issues in society – including homelessness, poverty, health care and education. While many of these organizations consider location and accessibility crucial to supporting their clients – often locating services near bus or train stops, for example – little is known about the impact of new technologies, including ride hail services like Lyft and Uber, on nonprofit accessibility. These technologies, which are re-shaping transportation in both urban and suburban communities, are ...

Moving Cleveland Above The Trend: New Residential Centers, Iryna V. Lendel, Merissa Piazza, Molly Schnoke, Shneur Kushner

Urban Publications

A recent report conducted by the Center for Economic Development examined the structural and policy factors of economic growth in mid-sized metropolitan areas (MSAs). The Center used factor analysis as a data-reduction technique to identify five factors influencing mid-sized regional economies: 1) Innovation and Talent, 2) Entrepreneurship in High-Cost Areas, 3) New Residential Centers, 4) Retirement Destinations, and 5) Polarization. These factors also contribute to changes in regional employment, gross regional product (output), and per capita income. This brief outlines the initial analysis’ primary takeaways related to New Residential Centers and explores how Northeast Ohio can incorporate successful policies and ...

Exploring The Qualities Of Child-Friendly Outdoor Spaces: A Field Study In Low Income Neighbourhoods - Case Study: Sabra, Beirut, Lebanon, Farah Ahmad Mefleh, Hiba Mohsen, Baher Farahat

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Children’s play areas are from the past an indispensable right for children, in which it allows children to build their physical environment and assess it cognitive thinking. But today, the city, especially in low-income population suffers from a clear shortage of open spaces, where the leftover spaces are left empty used for garbage, old tanks car parts, and many other bad issues. This has negatively affected society, mainly children, where they become vulnerable to many social ills and problems that threaten their lives and behaviour. This paper tries to ameliorate and presents adequate children’s play areas, for the ...

Investigating Urban Sustainability In American Cities, Fatema Hussaini

Scholars Week

Investigating urban sustainability in American Cities

The characteristic of our era is urbanization and, consequently, the creation of small and large cities. The rapid growth of urbanization has had negative consequences for the environment. Environmental sustainability is an essential issue for the international community. Environmental sustainability assessment has been one of the essential tools in the sustainable development planning process. Assessing the environmental sustainability of cities is necessary to achieve proper urban planning and, at the same time, in line with the natural environment variables. For this reason, the purpose of this research is to evaluate urban sustainability in American ...

Urban Life In The Shadows Of Infrastructural Death: From People As Infrastructure To Dead Labor And Back Again, Jean-Paul Addie

USI Publications

Grounded in the writings of AbdouMaliq Simone and the theoretical project of Southern urbanism, the concept of “people as infrastructure” has radically reframed how we understand and study urban infrastructure as a modality of social practice. This paper begins by appraising the impact that people as infrastructure has had on urban geography and critical infrastructure studies before moving to consider how notions of infrastructural violence can deepen our understanding of the concept’s content and context. In particular, this intervention brings people as infrastructure into dialogue with the Marxist concept of “dead labor” to bridge experiential and structural epistemic readings ...

The Soniferous Experience Of Public Space: A Soundscape Approach, Kenya Dubois Williams

Dissertations and Theses

This research explores the awareness and perceptions of practitioners regarding the role of the soundscape in understanding and managing public spaces. Without considering the role of the soundscape as part of public spaces, urban planners, designers, and policy officials cannot accurately engage in placemaking that provides a complete sensory experience. The antiquated practice of enforcing noise codes has been the traditional approach to mitigate noise (unwanted sounds). However, sound is an overlooked element in the sensory experience of cities and how individuals and communities construct a "sense of place." This study considers the implications of the soundscape approach and soundwalks ...