Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Webinar: A National Scan Of Bike Share Equity Programs: Best Practices And Lessons Learned, Nathan Mcneil, John Macarthur, Adriel Thornton

TREC Webinar Series

Connecting with cities and bike share operators from across the United States, Portland State University conducted a nationwide scan on what programs and initiatives were running to address equity in bike share. The report “National Scan of Bike Share Equity Programs” documents responses from over 70 bike share systems. This resource will help cities and operators navigate the range of actions that have been implemented to make bike share systems more equitable, examine successful strategies employed across the U.S., and understand how those successes (and challenges) are being measured and articulated. In doing so, we hope the report helps bike …

A Global Welcome: Metro Chicago's Approach To Immigrant Inclusion, Paul Mcdaniel, Rob Paral

Faculty Articles

Global cities significantly shape our world by driving solutions across a range of challenges, including migration. A new Chicago Council report, A Global Welcome: Metro Chicago’s Approach to Immigrant Inclusion, provides an overview of greater Chicago’s immigrant community and highlights unique approaches taken to create a more inclusive city, while also emphasizing ways for Chicago and other cities to improve. The report is authored by Paul N. McDaniel, Associate Professor of Geography at Kennesaw State University, and Rob Paral, Nonresident Fellow at the Chicago Council.

Economics Of Carbon Capture And Storage For Small Scale Hydrogen Generation For Transit Refueling Stations, Peter Psarras, Mark Henning, Andrew R. Thomas

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Refueling infrastructure for early adopters of hydrogen vehicles finally appears to be imminent. There is a consensus among long haul trucking and transit agencies that hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles are likely to be the most cost-effective strategy for transitioning to low or zero emission fuels, especially in cold weather climates. Hydrogen refueling stations will require careful planning to ensure costs are low and that carbon dioxide emissions are minimized. Until such time that refueling stations are commonplace, the most likely scenario for mitigating both costs and carbon intensity will be local, on site hydrogen generation at the refueling stations. …

Doctoral Education And The Academic Job Market In Planning: 2019-2020, Joanna Ganning

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report presents the results from the final year of a three-year study on doctoral education and the academic job market in Planning. The project set out to describe the academic job market in Planning and its trends, including both the availability of jobs and the rate at which new PhDs are granted. At the project’s end, the data show stability in several aspects of the academic job market in Planning, including the numbers of both graduates and jobs, timing of the job market, features of graduate training, and to a limited extent, the popularity of specializations.

Creating A Learning Community For Community Engagement For Detroit Practitioners, Virginia Stanard, Aaron Goodman, Madhavi Reddy

Community Development Practice

Through the support of the Community Development Society (CDS) Innovation in Community Engagement Fellowship, the Detroit cohort of fellows convened with the goal of building individual and community capacity through a yearlong, hands-on educational initiative that addressed innovative engagement within a community context. Connected by the Master of Community Development program at the University of Detroit Mercy as faculty, students, alumni, or community partners, the fellows embarked on a project entitled “Creating a Learning Community for Community Engagement for Detroit Practitioners.” The objective of the project was to explore the intersection between community engagement, democratic decision-making, and community development in …

Community Development, Quality Of Life, And Community Well-Being: Three Fields Ripe With Opportunities For Future Research And Practice, Craig A. Talmage

Community Development Practice

This perspective piece aims to spur conversations between quality of life, community well-being, and community development scholars and practitioners. The article showcases overlaps in concepts found across journals devoted to those three fields of inquiry. The major themes from those overlaps are discussed, so future directions for interdisciplinary research can be identified. The article finishes with specific attention to exploring how collaborations between the fields of quality of life (QoL), community well-being (CWB), and community development (CD) can better inform community development practice, so that community well-being and quality life can be positively shifted through evidence-based practice.

Comparing The Promise And Reality Of E-Scooters: A Critical Assessment Of Equity Improvements And Mode-Shift, Michael Glenn Mcqueen

Dissertations and Theses

In just three years, e-scooters have substantially disrupted and altered the urban mobility landscape. Throughout this period, they have been commonly touted as part of a larger micromobility solution that promises to erase equity barriers and solve the first-mile/last-mile problem. However, few studies in the nascent e-scooter literature have considered these claims. In this study, we surveyed students at Portland State University (n = 1,968) about the role that e-scooters, among other modes, played in meeting their general and university-related travel needs. We then estimated models that incorporated demographics, travel behavior, and latent attitudes distilled using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). …

A Return To State-Led Integrated Regional Planning? Emerging Approaches From Three U.S. States, Timothy Green, Donovan Finn

School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

After decades of neglect, several U.S. states have increased support for regional development planning, creating new programs, organizations, and funding streams to support it. Analysis of programs in three states (New York, Michigan, and Indiana) shows similarities among them as well as contrasts with prior episodes of state-led regional planning. The new programs deliberately sidestep older regional planning organizations like COGs and RPCs in favor of new organizations with larger roles for the private sector and greater access to public funds. The resulting plans focus on individual projects within a pro-development agenda, but still have potential to coordinate action at …

The Potential Of Green Infrastructure In Mitigating Flood Impacts On The Mobility Of Low Income And Minority Neighborhoods, Courtney Crosson, Yinan Zhang, Daoqin Tong

TREC Project Briefs

Short-term flooding from extreme storm events poses a serious transportation challenge in U.S. cities. This problem—which is anticipated to grow over the next century with our global climate crisis—is often hardest on vulnerable populations, including low-income and minority neighborhoods. This project advances national research methods for assessing flood vulnerability and prioritizing transportation improvement investments to ensure that no community is left stranded when the next flood occurs.

Housing And Food Insecurity At Portland State University, Greg Townley, Katricia Stewart, Jacen Greene, Marta Pettini

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

This report presents findings from Portland State University’s first housing and food insecurity survey of students and employees. It was conducted by The Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative (HRAC), a center formed to help address homelessness and its negative impact on individuals, families, and communities, with an emphasis on communities of color. Reducing homelessness in the PSU community was one of the foundational goals of the center, and this survey is an important step in that work.

This report examines the rates of housing insecurity, homelessness, and food insecurity among students and employees disaggregated by race and additional factors to …

Engaging Neighbors: Housing Strategies And Political Mobilization In Moscow's Renovation, Anna Zhelnina

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In summer 2017, residents of thousands of socialist-era apartment buildings in Moscow were invited to vote and decide whether their building should be included in the demolition and relocation program proposed by the Mayor’s Office. Renovation is an ongoing urban renewal plan, first announced in Moscow in February 2017, to demolish whole neighborhoods of socialist-era, five-story buildings and replace them with high-rises. The vast project affected more than 5,000 buildings with approximately a million inhabitants.

This dissertation addresses general questions of political agency and the possibility for diverse people in urban neighborhoods to produce change: to achieve desired policy outcomes, …

Data And Information As Our New Transport Infrastructure: An Exploration Into How The Modern Transport System Is Being Shaped By Information Communication Technology, Adam Davidson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is focuses on the role that data and information has in creating and altering behavior related to transportation. To do so, it lays out a theoretical model of technological transition and then follows it up with three case studies. The theoretical model provides a structure to consider how different actors in our transportation ecosystem – users, firms, policy actors – mix with technological evolution to uphold or incrementally recreate our transportation landscape. The case studies stand on their own to highlight important findings about how data and information are impacting transportation scenarios, but collectively reinforce the theoretical models. …

A Defense And Expansion Of The Theory Of Capitalist Ground Rent: Speculation, Securitization, And Struggles Over Land And Housing, Francesca Manning

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Why are the rents so high? Who is responsible for homelessness, for urban and rural displacement? How can these problems be combatted?

Recent literature addressing these questions has pointed to gentrification and the financialization of land and housing, faulted financialized landlords, hedge funds, and the irredeemable logic of finance, and pointed to the importance of land and housing regulation to prevent displacement.

However, theories of displacement—in both land and housing, on both urban and rural terrain—suffer from a lack of an underlying theory of the logic, tendencies, and limits of ground rent extraction in capitalism.

This dissertation develops a theory …

Urban Transportation System Flood Vulnerability Assessment With Special Reference To Low Income And Minority Neighborhoods, Courtney Crosson, Daoqin Tong, Yinan Zhang

TREC Final Reports

A flood vulnerability assessment of the City of Tucson, Arizona’s transportation systems was conducted with special reference to low-income and minority neighborhoods. Short-term flooding from extreme storm events pose a serious challenge to transportation system reliability and emergency response in cities across the United States. This problem, which is anticipated to grow over the next century due to climate change, is often hardest on vulnerable populations, including low-income and minority neighborhoods. Our work aimed to advance national research methods for assessing multi-modal transportation degradation due to flooding. We identified priority locations for Tucson to make transportation improvement investments for the …

Views That Matter: Race And Opinions On Climate Change Of Boston Area Residents, Lorena M. Estrada-Martínez, Paul Watanabe, Katsyris Rivera-Kientz

Sustainable Solutions Lab

A growing body of research finds that climate change places a disproportionate burden on communities of color in the United States. In spite of this evidence, important discussions taking place about climate change- such as how it is experienced, which policy solutions are most critical, and how we can prepare for and adapt to its impacts- often leave out the voices of the very communities most affected. In Massachusetts, for instance, numerous statewide surveys have gathered information about residents ' attitudes and beliefs about climate change, but to date, no studies have been designed to include the views of a …

Towards More Inclusive Smart Cities: Reconciling The Divergent Logics Of Data And Discourse At The Margins, Jane Yeonjae Lee, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this article, we survey a growing body of literature within geography and other intersecting fields that trains attention on what inclusive smart cities are, or what they could be. In doing so, we build on debates around smart citizens, smart public participation, and grassroots and bottom-up smart cities that are concerned with making smart cities more inclusive. The growing critical scholarship on such dis- courses, however, alerts us to the knowledge politics that are involved in, and the urban inequalities that are deeply rooted within, the urban. Technological interventions con- tribute to these politics and inequalities in various ways. …

Relating Green Space Characteristics To Student Housing Habits, Joshua Randall

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Urban Warfare: Emerging Geopolitical Conundrum, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Urban warfare is as old as human history. It is becoming increasingly important in international political and military planning due to increasing global urbanization and the presence of megacities (urban areas with populations exceeding 10 million) in many global regions and being in areas of recent and potential military conflict. 2018 World Bank data notes that approximately 56% of the world's population lives in urban areas which is up from 34% in 1960. Many of these megacities, including New York City, Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, Shanghai, and Manila are adjacent to oceanic waters and vulnerable to trade and supply …

Exploring How Social Networks Contribute To African Immigrants’ Ability To Procure A Sustainable Livelihood In New York City, Richmond Opoku Donyina

Capstone Collection

This research explores the effects of social networks on the ways that African immigrants in New York City secure, and sustain their livelihoods. Through lines of inquiry including social capital, livelihood resources, and economic activities, this research explores possible livelihood outcomes of Africans immigrants in New York City in relation to their social networks. By exploring themes through case studies of immigrants from different countries on the African continent, this research illustrates how becoming embedded in social networks in ones’ geographical jurisdiction widens an individual’s social capital, which in turn contributes to the probability of that individual in securing and …

Brave New World - Emerging Threats In Cybersecurity, Rhonda S. Binda

Open Educational Resources

The trifecta of globalization, urbanization and digitization have created new opportunities and challenges across our nation, cities, boroughs and urban centers. Cities in particular are in a unique position at the center of commerce and technology becoming hubs for innovation and practical application of emerging technology. In this rapidly changing 24/7 digitized world, governments are leveraging innovation and technology to become more effective, efficient, transparent and to be able to better plan for and anticipate the needs of its citizens, businesses and community organizations. This class will provide the framework for how cities and communities can become smarter and more …