Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Peer-To-Peer Carsharing: Short-Term Effects On Travel Behavior In Portland, Or, Jennifer Dill, Nathan Mcneil, Steven Howland

TREC Final Reports

Peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing is a relatively new concept in the U.S. Enabled by recent internet and mobile technology development, P2P carsharing generally involves a facilitating company connecting private vehicle owners to people who are interested in renting a vehicle. P2P carsharing has many things in common with business-to-consumer (B2C) carsharing services. Consumers join the service to rent vehicles on a short-term basis from locations dispersed throughout a certain area. Both services may allow households to reduce their private car ownership. However, P2P carsharing differs substantially from other models in that there are two distinct sets of consumers: those who rent …

Narratives Of Marginalized Cyclists: Understanding Obstacles To Utilitarian Cycling Among Women And Minorities In Portland, Or, Amy Lubitow

TREC Final Reports

Research has demonstrated that everyday or utilitarian forms of cycling are most likely to generate positive population-level health impacts (Garrard et al., 2012), yet significant deterrents to routine cycling remain, particularly for women and minorities. The primary aim of this project was to conduct a qualitative interview study that generated rich, narrative data regarding obstacles to routine or utilitarian cycling for women and minorities who already see biking as a viable form of transit, but who make relatively few bike trips. A secondary aim of the project was to develop a set of specific interventions that have the potential to …

Breaking Barriers To Bike Share: Insights On Equity From A Survey Of Bike Share System Owners And Operators, Steven Howland, Nathan Mcneil, Joseph Broach, Kenneth Rankins, John Macarthur, Jennifer Dill

TREC Final Reports

The number of public bike share systems has been increasing rapidly across the United States over the past five to 10 years. To date, most academic research around bike share in the U.S. has focused on the logistics of planning and operationalizing successful systems. Investigations of system users and impacts on the local community are less common, and studies focused on efforts to engage underserved communities in bike share are rarer still. This report uses a survey of representatives from 56 U.S. bike share systems to better understand and document current approaches toward serving low-income and minority populations. The survey …

Malaysian Shophouses: Creating Cities Of Character, Ashley Wagner

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

As a developing country, the urban landscape of Malaysia faces the same trends as many other cities worldwide: modernization at a rapid and unchecked pace. Due to the demand for new infrastructure and buildings, many vernacular building types are rapidly disappearing from the urban fabric, among them the Malaysian Shophouse. The shophouse was a common building style for over a century from 1840-1960s and is perhaps a typology of a previous era. Yet it offers many lessons on creating a city that embodies the character of the culture, the antithesis of the anonymous modern city. At its most basic program …

Bike-Ped Portal: Development Of An Online Nonmotorized Traffic Count Archive, Krista Nordback, Kristin A. Tufte, Nathan Mcneil, Morgan Harvey, Michelle Watkins

TREC Final Reports

Robust bicycle and pedestrian data on a national scale would serve numerous purposes. Access to a centralized nonmotorized traffic count archive can open the door for innovation through research, design and planning; provide safety researchers with a measure of exposure; provide fundamental performance metrics for planning and funding decisions; and allow policymakers and transportation professionals to better support the public’s desire for livable communities. Numerous jurisdictions have initiated nonmotorized traffic count programs. However, many agencies and policymakers, who need data to support investment decisions, are in locations without a centralized count program. This lack of access to count data may …

Ticket To The Past: A Political History Of The Mexico City Metro, 1958-1969, Maxwell E.P. Ulin

Grand Valley Journal of History

This essay outlines the historic political battle between Mexico's longest serving mayor, Ernesto Uruchurtu, and the nation's president, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, over the construction of what would become the second largest subway system in the Western Hemisphere, The Mexico City Metro. The conflict, which eventually resulted in Uruchurtu's resignation, was characterized by latent political tensions between the PRI and Mexican middle class that would erupt in 1968 and lead to the ultimate decline of PRI hegemony. I thus argue that the new Metro project did not reflect Mexico's democratic modernization--as its supporters meant it to do--but rather the vestiges of …

Shale Investment Dashboard In Ohio, Andrew R. Thomas, Jeffery C. Dick, Peter Scully

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report presents findings from an investigation into shale-related investment in Ohio from researchers at Cleveland State and Youngstown State Universities. The investment estimates are cumulative from 2011 through the summer of 2016. Subsequent reports will estimate additional investment since the date of this report.

The investigation was made into upstream, midstream and downstream investments. The downturn in oil and gas prices in late 2014 that continued through 2016 has constrained upstream investment in Ohio, as drilling slowed. However low hydrocarbon prices have increased a nationwide appetite for natural gas and natural gas liquids. This has led to a continuation …

Preparing For Growth: An Emerging Neighborhood Market Analysis Commissioned By Mayor Frank G. Jackson For The City Of Cleveland, Richey Piiparinen, Kyle Fee, Charlie Post, Jim Russell, Mark J. Salling Phd, Gisp, Thomas Bier

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

In anticipation of the development of a Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, in 2016, Mayor Frank G. Jackson commissioned Cleveland State University’s Center for Population Dynamics to analyze the City of Cleveland housing market. The resulting study, “Preparing for Growth,” provides a foundation for the Mayor’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative acknowledging neighborhoods where private investment is strong but, and most significantly, identifying emerging neighborhood markets where focused planning and the leverage of public dollars will attract private investment to the benefit of existing residents and businesses in these neighborhoods.

Illegitimate Bodies In Legitimate Times: Life, Liberty And The Pursuit Of Movement, Brian Culp

Faculty Articles

Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concepts of state racism and biopower, the author of the 26th Delphine Hanna Lecture presents several claims: (a) that the idea of the illegitimate outsider in Western world governments like the United States has largely been influenced by ancient Greek ideals, (b) that a host of policies and intentional actions by power brokers create derision and hierarchies between “old” and “new” immigrant groups, and (c) neoliberal ideology couched in actions that aim “to protect the state” is nothing more than a recoding of traditional racist rhetoric that expands systemic racism. The author identifies the capabilities approach, …

Governing The Urban Water Commons : Essays On Collaborative Policy Networks In A Polycentric Ecology Of Urban Water Policy Games., Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Governing social-ecological systems, such as the urban water commons, is a multi-scale and multi-sector (polycentric) human-environment process. This dissertation interrogates this process by situating itself within the Ecology of Games Framework by Norton Long (and updated by Mark Lubell) and the literature on polycentric governance by the Bloomington School of Political Economy. The dissertation’s three essays 1) offer both theoretical and methodological means to enact polycentric public economies within the ecology of games framework, and 2) explicate the conditions under which interoganizational collaboration is fostered within a polycentric ecology of policy games in governing the Middle Rio Grande urban watershed. …

Rehabilitation And Blight Remediation: An Analysis Of Affordable Housing Policy And Development In New Orleans, E. Michelle Butcher

Senior Honors Theses

The City of New Orleans (CNO) Office of Community Development approved funding to rehabilitate 81 properties (73 of which were actually used in the project) that were moved from the site of the VA/LSU Medical complex to scattered sites city-wide. These homes, which were located in a proposed historic district, were chosen to be part of a blight remediation initiative monitored by the CNO Office of Performance and Accountability “BlightSTAT” meeting. This research examines the impact of this U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sponsored affordable housing program on the New Orleans blight remediation plan. The case study on the …

“A Theoretical Model For Critical Geographies Of Gentrification: A Comparative Analysis Of Globalization In Two Gay Villages”, Spencer Nelson

Geography Honors Projects

Abstract: The role of gay villages in gentrification has long been contemplated yet their relationship to the global circulation of capital is understudied. This thesis sheds light on this phenomenon through an urban political ecology of gentrification and provides a new model of critical geographies of gentrification. The model is illustrated through ethnographic research in the two gay villages of De Waterkant in Cape Town, South Africa, and Loring Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The relationship between gentrification and globalization is analyzed through the four lenses that bring flows of financial capital, culture, technology, and ideology into focus and offers a …

Greater University Circle Initiative: Year 6 Evaluation Report, Kathryn W. Hexter, Candi Clouse, Nick Downer, Liam Robinson

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The Greater University Circle Economic Inclusion Initiative is a unique multi-anchor, place-based effort to revitalize the seven neighborhoods that comprise Greater University Circle (GUC) in Cleveland, Ohio. Convened in 2005 by the Cleveland Foundation, it involves three anchor institutions: The Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Health System, along with the city of Cleveland and many other partners. This sixth evaluation report highlights the group’s major accomplishments and challenges, and looks to the future of this unique initiative. The report also tracks progress toward meeting the goals set forth at the outset: Buy Local, Hire Local, Live …

2016 Economic Impact Of Companies Funded And/Or Assisted By The Northeast Ohio Entrepreneurial Service Provider Program, Candi Clouse

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report measures the economic impact of early-stage companies that were supported in the past by JumpStart Inc. and its partners in the Northeast Ohio Entrepreneurial Service Provider Program (ESP) in 2016. The ESP is a collaborative entrepreneurial support network funded in part by Ohio Third Frontier that includes accelerators, incubators, angel funds, and other organizations dedicated to commercializing technologies and fostering promising entrepreneurial ventures in Northeast Ohio. The companies included in this report have received significant technical assistance and/or direct investment funding from entrepreneurial support organizations in the ESP.

Mitigating An Energy Utility Death Spiral In The United States: Applying Lessons From Germany, Eric W. Hopf, Will O'Brien, Timothy Downs, Alistair Pim

Sustainability and Social Justice

The purpose of this paper is to present evidence that the United States is entering a "Utility Death Spiral" - a dramatic shift away from the utility based model of electricity supply to consumers. It also explores how U.S utilities can reposition themselves to best mitigate the economic losses associated with a Death Spiral. A Utility Death Spiral is currently taking place in Germany called the "Energiewende" and it is having immediate impacts on its energy landscape. The case study of the Energiewende is presented, its impacts, and the response taken by the country’s “big four” utility companies. After analyzing …

Addressing Conundrums For Urban Environmental Planning Under Climate Change In Mexico City, Mexico And Rosario, Argentina, Eric Pasay

Sustainability and Social Justice

Urban centers in Latin America are experiencing rapid growth and a host of intertwined environment and development problems related to climate change. In response, cities have started implementing sustainability initiatives and climate action plans. These plans generally target key sectors, ranging from transportation to water and sanitation, and focus on infrastructure improvements. Often, the objectives of sustainability plans are not met and tend to be mitigation-centric, despite explicit calls to address urban poverty. This paper analyses two case studies in Mexico City, Mexico and Rosario, Argentina to illustrate three risk conundrums that limit the success of sustainability initiatives in cities. …

Capturing The Resilience Dividend: Post Hurricane Sandy Insights From Brooklyn's Sea Gate Community, Alexander M. Rezk

Sustainability and Social Justice

This research project presents a resilience, governance, and vulnerability analysis of populations traditionally considered as non-vulnerable to natural disasters and climate related events. The paper examines how homeowners in Sea Gate, a neighborhood located on Coney Island, in Brooklyn, New York, experienced systemic disruption following Hurricane Sandy. This research sets out to answer the following questions: How does the lived experience of homeowners in a coastal community reflect the creation of newly vulnerable populations in regard to natural disasters in New York City? How is the current municipal resilience strategy being perceived as managing these shifts? And finally, what avenues …

Seeing Community Through The Trees: Characterizing Resident Response To Urban-Tree Planting Initiatives, Eli Goldman

Sustainability and Social Justice

Urban tree planting initiatives have become common across cities in the United States. In order to advocate for sustainable urban forests, managers of urban planting initiatives must adopt a strong community framework, which includes community values in reforestation efforts. Clark University researchers conducted interviews and surveys with residents in six central Massachusetts cities and towns to assess why residents value urban trees and to characterize public response to reforestation efforts. Results indicate residents had positive experiences with tree planting programs, are most likely to value urban trees for aesthetic reasons, and commonly associate change in neighborhood character with Asian Longhorned …

Sweden’S Floating Refugee Camp: A New Form Of Spatial Segregation?, Miranda L. Weinstein

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper looks at the structure of discrimination and marginalization of refugees and asylum-seekers. The paper investigates a new form of housing –– floatels –– which was seen in Sweden in 2016. This paper explores the relevant literature on identity, biopower, and spatial segregation, to make the case that floatels are contemporary forms of encampment. Floatels are clear examples of the State’s use of biopower to spatially segregate certain undesirable populations. By providing a case study of the situation in Sweden, the overall goal of the paper is to highlight the issues and complexity involved in refugee housing. In particular, …

Gis Specialist 2016 Internship With Cdm Smith In Boston, Massachusetts, Suzanne L. Meek

Sustainability and Social Justice

This report provides a detailed experience of my internship with CDM Smith during the summer of 2016. This was a formal 12-week internship that was extended an additional two weeks due to my success in the first few weeks. My title was listed as a GIS Specialist Intern. My responsibilities included applying GIS technologies to construction, water, and energy projects, digitizing various locations for cities and private clients, FEMA projects, and street light audits in two different towns in New England.