Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

The Tourist Destination From Hell: An Exploration Of The Multi-Jurisdictional Set-Up Of Vista Point Parking Lot, Genna Gores

Scripps Senior Theses

The Golden Gate Bridge, and the surrounding national parks, are one of the most iconic tourist destinations in the world. Although this area is idyllic in many ways, its underlying governmental set-up creates traffic problems on the US-101 highway that angers tourists and commuters alike. One piece of land that exacerbates the increasing congestion on this section of US-101 is the Vista Point parking lot that is just North of the Golden Gate Bridge. This parking lot’s entrance is just off of the Northbound side of US-101, and during summer and holiday weekends cars will queue onto the freeway completely …

Community-Based Initiatives For Neighborhood And Community Rehabilitation: A Case Study Of The Mission District, San Francisco, California, Francesca Monique Gallardo

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Through the case study of San Francisco, CA’s Mission District, this research project addresses how community-based affordable housing development is operationalized to rehabilitate communities and neighborhoods experiencing effects of gentrification, mass displacement, and cultural dilution. My goals were to identify how the processes of building a sense of community, trust, and cohesion- rehabilitating and critical to affordable housing development efforts in the Mission District? And, how are nonprofit community development organizations engaging with these processes in collaboration with citizen and community partners? The final objective is to provide evidence-based strategies to assist other at-risk minority communities and neighborhoods in the …

Bicycle-Friendly Policies, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

A review of Copenhagenize by Mikael Colville-Andersen

Portland Fire And Rescue: Blueprint For Success, Sean Edging, Mike Kimble, Thea Kinschuh, B. Danielle Schulte, Tristan Sewell

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

In order to maintain response times alongside a growing population while continuing to improve quality of service to the City of Portland, Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) is working toward developing strategies to prevent emergencies from happening rather than solely responding to proactive strategies to reduce fire and medical risks before they become worst-case scenarios where a 9-1-1 call must be made. To this end, the City of Portland launched the Vision Zero Campaign for zero fire or traffic fatalities in the service area. The Blueprint for Success strategy, in turn, was created to act as the means of achieving …

A Qualitative Analysis On The Feasibility Of Implementing Elements Of The Main Street Approach For The City Of Mason, Ohio, Mykaelah Mercer

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The City of Mason is a thriving community of roughly 30,000 residents to the Northeast of Cincinnati, Ohio. Mason is projected to see continued and significant growth, in terms of both population and development, over the years to come. In 2010, the City of Mason released a Comprehensive Plan that detailed input from a variety of stakeholders and a list of priorities and goals to implement over the course of the plan’s projected 15-to 20-year lifetime. The priorities and goals proposed in the plan have varying timelines projected for completion and differ in nature for each different department within the …

Imagining Social Justice And The False Promise Of Urban Park Design, Scott Larson

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Elevating People: Planning For Equitable Travel To Marquam Hill, Reed Broderson, Jennifer Davidson, Madison Levy, Stephanie Lonsdale, Maria Sipin, Rob Zoeller

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Plan581, a team of urban planning graduate students at Portland State University, presents the Elevating People plan and its Transportation Equity Lens to help guide OHSU’s future transportation investments. Together, the plan and lens are aimed at improving travel to Marquam Hill by identifying Priority Communities and advancing transportation equity through internal and regional efforts.

Queets Village Relocation Vision: A Community Vision For A Safe Future Queets, Sachi Arakawa, Ayano Healy, Steve Rosen, Thomas Scharff, Victor Tran, Nate White

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

This document constitutes the Queets Village Relocation Vision. It is a community-informed vision plan for the relocation of the Lower Village of Queets, WA, a part of the Quinault Indian Nation. The Lower Village is to be relocated out of the tsunami inundation zone. The vision plan addresses the adaptations and changes needed for the safe and culturally appropriate development of housing, infrastructure, and community buildings outside of the tsunami inundation zone.

Cowlitz County Heritage Plan: Final Heritage Plan, Mary Benedetto, Dan Dias, Donette Miranda, Margaret Raimann, Tracy Schreiber

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

WHP2 is a group of five graduate students from Portland State University (PSU) pursuing Master of Urban and Regional Planning degrees. PSU’s program is unique in that it features a client-centered workshop project in place of a final thesis. For our workshop, we spent January through May of 2018 working with our client—the Cowlitz County Historic Preservation Program—to develop a Heritage Plan (Plan). As a relatively new Certified Local Government, they have chosen to be at the forefront of community-led and community-focused historic preservation. This choice brings its own challenges and opportunities and we have explored how they can best …

North Pdx Connected: Final Report, Taylor Campi, Mohammed N. Hotak, Hector Rodrigues Ruiz, Leeor Schweitzer, Mike Serritella

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

North PDX Connected is an active transportation improvement plan for North Portland focusing on the N Willamette Blvd corridor. Based in community input, the plan seeks to improve safety and comfort for people walking, biking, and taking transit along the corridor and to ensure equitable engagement and distribution of impacts. The enhanced corridor will help connect neighborhoods in North Portland to each other and to the rest of the city.

Volunteer Environmental Stewardship And Affective Labour In Philadelphia, Alec Foster

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Recent research has critically evaluated the rapid growth of volunteer urban environmental stewardship. Framings of this phenomenon have largely focused upon environmentality and/or neoliberal environments, unfortunately often presenting a totalising picture of the state and/or market utilising power from above to create environmental subjects with limited agency available to local citizens. Based upon qualitative research with volunteer urban environmental stewards in Philadelphia, affective labour is proposed as an alternative explanation for participation. Stewards volunteered their time and labour due to the intense emotional attachments they formed with their neighbourhoods, neighbours, and nonhuman others in relationships of affective labour. Volunteer urban …

The Fourth District Police Station Plan, Zhaokai Liu

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The purpose of this plan is to identify potential police station sites and create design guidelines for the new police station for the Prince William County Police Department.

Implementation Plan For The Maggie Walker Community Land Trust To Operate As A Land Bank, Matthew J. Becker

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The purpose of this plan is to provide an implementation framework for The Maggie Walker Community Land Trust (MWCLT) to utilize as it establishes its land banking operations. Through land banking, the MWCLT has an opportunity to address three interconnected issues in Richmond; a lack of affordable housing, a concentration of disadvantaged neighborhoods, and extensive tax delinquency. Currently 44% of all households in Richmond are cost burdened, and the majority of these cost burdened households, 92% of them, are low income households. The vast majority of these cost burdened, low-income households are located within Richmond’s disadvantaged neighborhoods. Richmond suffers from …

Analyzing The Life-Cycle Of Unstable Slopes Using Applied Remote Sensing Within An Asset Management Framework, El Hachemi Y. Bouali

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

An asset management framework provides a methodology for monitoring and maintaining assets, which include anthropogenic infrastructure (e.g., dams, embankments, and retaining structures) and natural geological features (e.g., soil and rock slopes). It is imperative that these assets operate efficiently, effectively, safely, and at a high standard since many assets are located along transportation corridors (highways, railways, and waterways) and can cause severe damage if compromised. Assets built on or around regions prone to natural hazards are at an increased risk of deterioration and failure. The objective of this study is to utilize remote sensing techniques such as InSAR, LiDAR, and …

An Assessment Of The Sharing Economy And Its Policy Solutions Through The Lens Of Sustainability, Chloe An

Pomona Senior Theses

This senior thesis in environmental analysis explores the promise of sustainability of the sharing economy, its shortcomings from this positive potential, and possible policy solutions to help it reach its fullest, positive potential. At its core, the sharing economy enables shared access to goods and services that would otherwise sit in idle or underutilized capacity – popular platforms such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and craigslist all fall within the sharing economy. By enabling affordable and convenient access to goods that would otherwise sit idle, the sharing economy encourages maximal use of a good that already exists rather than seeking out …

Virginia Commonwealth University Stormwater Management Plan, Jesse Harris

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Every year millions of gallons of polluted stormwater and untreated sanitary waste are discharged directly into the James River during combined sewer overflow events. This is a problem considering stormwater is one of the most significant sources of pollution to the nation’s surface waters.

The purpose of the VCU Stormwater Management Plan (VCU SWMP) is to reduce the impact of stormwater pollution using green infrastructure and low impact development best management practices like rain gardens, green roofs, and infiltration trenches. These stormwater control strategies present opportunities for VCU to reduce runoff and to preserve and restore green spaces on an …

Creating Safer Routes To School For Fairfield Court Elementary Students, Lara Handwerker

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The purpose of this plan is to conduct a Walkabout study for Fairfield Court Elementary School in Richmond, Virginia through the guidelines of the Safe Routes to School program. The plan seeks to address infrastructural and non-infrastructural issues relating to traffic, safety, and travel routes for students who walk and bike to the school. The plan first identifies these issues and then details recommendations for the school through goals, objectives, and action items. An implementation plan for the school and its community partners is also detailed.

The Scott's Addition Complete Streets Plan, Cassandra Patterson

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Scott’s Addition was once an industrial neighborhood. In recent years, however, the neighborhood has experienced a rapid transition of uses. It has become a growing residential and commercial neighborhood that features numerous breweries as its most popular attractions. Regrettably, the streets and sidewalks of the neighborhood have not seen a transition and still reflect the industrial uses of the past. The neighborhood is virtually devoid of bicycle infrastructure. The pedestrian infrastructure is incomplete and unsafe. The neighborhood is car-centric with little effort to provide for other modes of transportation. As new apartment buildings enter the neighborhood, the transportation issues facing …

Expanding Housing Opportunities And Preserving Character In Historic Neighborhoods, Jessica R. Russo

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The City of Richmond has been experiencing population growth and rising housing costs in recent years, leading to spatially uneven revitalization and growing affordability concerns. The historic neighborhoods in the city are part of what makes Richmond unique and a desired city to live in. Many historic neighborhoods are seeing rapid revitalization contributing to rising housing costs and displacement concerns, while others have persistent high vacancy rates and deteriorating historic buildings. Overall, residents across the city struggle with affordability, as 45% of city residents are cost-burdened. With these conditions, it highlights the need and opportunity to put strategies in place …

Increasing Access To The James River Park System: A Community Roadmap With The Blackwell, Oak Grove, And Bellemeade Neighborhoods, Max A. Ewart

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Natural Parks like the James River Park System offer a host of benefits. They improve our mental health, make us better environmental stewards, Improve socialization, and make a healthier population by lowering the rates of asthma, obesity and hypertension. These public health outcomes disproportionately impacts minority communities in the City of Richmond, a population that visits the James River Park System at a lower rate than white communities do. This plan identifies the barriers preventing access for minority communities and gives recommendations to improve access in the City of Richmond.