Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Center For Economic Development Welcomes The White House Opportunity And Revitalization Council And U.S. Eda, Iryna Lendel, Merissa Piazza, Matthew B. Ellerbrock

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

Toward Car Free Key West, Mary Bishop

Journal of Transportation Demand Management Research

This paper explores the transportation problems created by the large volume of tourist arrivals to the island of Key West, Florida. A survey of visitors to the island was conducted to uncover their perspectives related to the barriers and benefits of various transportation modes in hopes to inform City staff on the development of transportation options that will meet the needs and desires of tourists. The results from 398 respondents revealed a variety of trends, including varying travel choices depending on the number of visits, where visitors were from, and arrival types. From these trends, priority groups for behavior change …

Food Deserts Debunked And Decentered: From Deficit To Relational Mapping For Food Justice In Worcester, Ma, Brenna Robeson

Sustainability and Social Justice

The mapping of food deserts has become a standardized component of food and health policy work concerned with expanding food access. These maps often follow a similar format of spatially identifying where grocery stores are absent in communities, thus suggesting a straightforward problem diagnosis and intervention blueprint. This paper questions the over-emphasis among many food and health policy practitioners on these technically engineered policy stories, specifically for their obstruction of histories of white supremacy and capitalism within the US food system and urban landscapes. A mixed-methods approach is applied to a case study of Worcester, MA which appropriates GIS to …

New Jersey's Waste Management Data: Retrospect And Prospect, Jordan Howell, Katherine Schmidt, Brooke Iacone, Giavanni Rizzo, Christina Parilla

School of Earth & Environment Departmental Research

Reliable data about collection, volume, tonnage, stream composition, and disposal price have long been described as key components of successful solid waste management planning. Yet, concerns about data quality and quantity have continued to limit even the most sincere, progressive waste management schemes. This paper examines solid waste management data that has been collected in the US state of New Jersey starting in the 1960s. We present the origins of waste management data collection in New Jersey and trace some of the applications that have been made with the data over time. We compare the New Jersey dataset to waste …

No.05: Food Security And The Changing Landscape Of Food Retailing In Nanjing, China, Zhenzhong Si, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ The expansion of supermarkets and online food markets are changing the complexion of food retailing in Nanjing. At the same time, traditional forms of retail display considerable resilience.

■ Nanjing has low levels of food insecurity overall as measured by the HFIAS and HDDS. The one in five households who are food insecure are primarily low-income and female-centred.

■ Concerns over food safety are a major characteristic of all consumers in Nanjing irrespective of income and food security status.

■ Policy implications include ensuring food access for households with higher levels of food insecurity, promoting trustworthy food sources in …

No.04: Enabling Informal Food Vending In Urban South Africa, Godfrey Tawodzera, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ Food vending is an important component of the South African economy, where it provides employment, income, livelihoods and contributes to the food security of poorer households.

■ Policies towards the informal food sector in most South African cities are restrictive and often punitive, and undermine the critical contributions of informal food vending.

■ To maximize their impacts, informal food vendors need an enabling policy environment with less red tape, better infrastructure, greater financial and other supports, and public recognition of their positive role in the urban food system.

Designing Single-Family Residences: A Study Of The Positive Impact Of Interior Design In Creating New Home Value, Shawn M. Falcone

Interior Design Program: Student Creative Activity

This study seeks to demonstrate that interior designers should be included as primary stakeholders in the home construction market. The market demand for new single-family homes in America is a relative constant. The primary stake and role that land developers, architects, draftsman, home builders, bankers, appraisers, real estate agents, and buyers have in the home construction market is clear. What is less clear is the role in value an interior designer has in the home construction market. This thesis examines the impact designers have on home value when their expertise is utilized in space planning (i.e.: layout, function, room utilization, …

North Wasco County School District Enrollment Forecasts 2019-20 To 2028-29, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Charles Rynerson, Joshua Ollinger

School District Enrollment Forecast Reports

North Wasco County School District population, housing, and social and economic profile.

A Comprehensive Examination Of Electronic Wayfinding Technology For Visually Impaired Travelers In An Urban Environment, Martin Swobodzinski, Amy T. Parker

TREC Final Reports

In this project, we distilled an inventory of smartphone-based electronic travel aid technology for the wayfinding of visually impaired travelers in an urban environment based on a thorough review of software marketplaces and the academic literature. Subsequently, we solicited structured input from domain experts and visually impaired individuals on their experiences and evaluations pertaining to personal telecommunication technology for safe and efficient wayfinding. The insights gained from this project are instrumental for the conceptualization and development of integrated route planning and guidance application that address the distinct information needs and expectations of individuals with a vision-related functional impairment. The very …

Update On Electricity Customer Choice In Ohio: Competition Continues To Outperform Traditional Monopoly Regulation (Executive Summary), Andrew R. Thomas, William M. Bowen, Mark Henning, Edward Hill, Adam Kanter

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Key Findings at a Glance:

Deregulated Markets Save Ohio Electricity Consumers Billions

• Since 2011, deregulation has saved Ohio consumers $23.9 billion.
• The Study Team anticipates that savings will continue for the near term to be around $3 billion per year. However, these savings may be lost, in whole or in part, if deregulated energy markets continue to be undermined by cross subsidies.

Competition Outperforms Monopoly Regulation

• Competition has driven down average electricity prices in deregulated Midwestern states while their regulated peers have seen a steady increase in price of generated electricity.

Update On Electricity Customer Choice In Ohio: Competition Continues To Outperform Traditional Monopoly Regulation (Full Report), Andrew R. Thomas, William M. Bowen, Mark Henning, Edward W. Hill, Adam Kanter

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The purpose of this study is to provide an update to the research team’s 2016 report “Electricity Customer Choice in Ohio: How Competition Has Outperformed Traditional Monopoly Regulation” using data for 2016 through 2018.

Key Findings:

1. Since 2011, Ohio consumers have saved $23.9 billion because of deregulation.

2. Competition has driven down average electricity prices in deregulated Midwestern states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois), while their regulated peers (Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin) have seen a steady increase in price of generated electricity.

3. The Study Team anticipates that savings will continue for the near term to be around $3 billion per year. …

Spring 2019 Commuting And Parking Survey Report Prepared For West Chester University, Eric K. Foster

WCU Campus Sustainability Initiatives

A second annual commuter survey was conducted at West Chester University in the spring of 2019. The purpose of the survey was to measure community members' current commuting and parking habits and to informally investigate their willingness to participate in alternate forms of transportation. Data from the previous year's survey is compared to 2018 survey data.

Urban (Un)Planning And Social Vulnerability In The Context Of Rapid Urbanization And Data Constraints: A Quantitative Study Of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania., Sheliza Bhanjee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores intersections between vulnerability and urban planning in Sub-Saharan Africa, where distinct forms of urbanization are occurring and where there are significant data constraints limiting local studies and urban assessments in the region. The three studies which make up this dissertation offer methodological and theoretical pathways toward examining and measuring the influence of urbanization and planning factors on vulnerability of urban populations in the region. The first study is a literature review and examines existing literature for vulnerability conceptualization in urban environments, the notion of ‘urban vulnerability’, and roles of urban planning and related factors in relation to …

Impartiality, Social Network Effects And Collective Memory: Three Essays On Trust In Police., Matthew Robert Fischer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an historical and empirical examination of police organizational efforts at influencing public perceptions of trust in police. It begins with an historical overview of police organizational reform, focusing on the various strategies employed by police reformers have attempted to influence public perceptions of police trustworthiness and legitimacy. It uses Rothstein’s impartiality as Quality of Government thesis and the theory of collective memory to argue for an understanding of the importance of the normative context in which police tactics and strategies are deployed for garnering trust in police and how the presence of social network effects for trust …

Municipal Annexation Reform In Texas: How A Victory For Property Rights Jeopardizes The State’S Financial Health, Julie Polansky Bell

St. Mary's Law Journal

Municipal annexation is the expansion of city boundaries. The greatest motivator behind municipal annexation is maintaining and improving economic prosperity of the annexing authority. The issue of annexation involves a balance of rights between property owners and municipalities of the state. Historically, Texas cities had broad annexation authority under an involuntary annexation scheme. However, in recent years the power has shifted as lawmakers have given property owners greater control over the annexation process. This trend culminated in the passage of the Municipal Annexation Right to Vote Act (MARVA) by the 85th Texas Legislature, which severely limits annexation authority.

Texas municipalities …

Electronic Wayfinding For Visually Impaired Travelers: Limitations And Opportunities, Martin Swobodzinski, Amy T. Parker

TREC Project Briefs

In this project, we distilled an inventory of smartphone-based electronic travel aid technology for the wayfinding of visually impaired travelers in an urban environment based on a thorough review of software marketplaces and the academic literature. Subsequently, we solicited structured input from domain experts and visually impaired individuals on their experiences and evaluations pertaining to personal telecommunication technology for safe and efficient wayfinding. The insights gained from this project are instrumental for the conceptualization and development of integrated route planning and guidance application that address the distinct information needs and expectations of individuals with a vision-related functional impairment. The very …

Lidar-Based Sinkhole Detection And Mapping In Knox County, Tennessee, J Clint Shannon, David Moore, Yingkui Li, Cathy Olsen

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

Sinkholes are one of the major causes of damage to roads, buildings, and other infrastructure throughout the US. Sinkholes near or on roads are especially costly and occasionally deadly. Knox County and much of East Tennessee are located within karst areas (comprised of porous and soluble limestone and dolomite), deeming it at risk for sinkholes. Currently, Knox County uses contour maps to manually identify sinkholes. Supported by a geographic information system (GIS), we developed a streamlined model to identify the locations and extents of potential sinkholes using 1.3-ft resolution LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data and applied it to the …

Enhanced Transit Corridors In Portland's Central City, Gabe Graff, Kelly Betteridge

PSU Transportation Seminars

Over the past two years, the Portland Bureau of Transportation and TriMet have joined forces to identify, design and build capital and operational treatments to help buses move more quickly and reliably through Portland’s increasingly congested Central City. Already the densest concentration of people and jobs in Oregon, Portland’s Central City is growing fast and increasing the speed and reliability of transit is key to achieving our City and region’s transportation, climate and livability goals. Working in partnership on PBOT’s Central City in Motion plan and TriMet and Metro’s Enhanced Transit Corridor program, the two agencies have identified a series …

Webinar: Aging In Place: Improving Mobility For Older Adults, Alan Kenneth Delatorre, Ivis Garcia Zambrana, Ja Young Kim

TREC Webinar Series

Aging in place can simply be defined as staying in your home as you age; aging in place concerns include mobility, social activities, safety, accessibility, and long term supports and services in one’s neighborhood and society. In order to facilitate aging in place, organizations in Salt Lake County, Utah and the City of Portland, Oregon, provided home modifications to income-qualified older adults that intended to enable aging in place. Such modifications alter individuals’ life-space mobility – a concept recently used by gerontologists and that we introduced to planners – from within one’s home to the broader community. A unique methodological …

The Future Is Now: Akron’S Dynamic And Inclusive Economy, Iryna Lendel, Iryna Demko, Merissa Piazza, Matthew Ellerbrock

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

• The economic trends in Northeast Ohio (NEO) over the last 20 years are typical of the Midwest region, with a positive increase in output outpaced by the state of Ohio, and the United States
  
  
• The double recessions of 2001 and 2007-2009 show a deeper output decline in NEO than in comparable Midwest regions and the United States
  
  
• Traditionally, industries with high regional specialization that have a competitive advantage and drive regional economies are called economic base industries
  
  
• Groups of Regional Industry Drivers (GRIDs) are part of the economic base of a region 2