Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Addressing Emergency Situations Among The Unhoused In Paterson, Nj, Fanny Lauby

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Earlier this year, the Paterson City Council proposed an ordinance to criminalize homelessness. Many residents were unhappy with the proposed ordinance, feeling that it was unjust to treat the homeless in Paterson that way, and that it wouldn’t effectively address the root causes. The ordinance was withdrawn, but homelessness in Paterson still needs to be addressed. This paper proposes alternate solutions to homelessness; through increasing shelter capacity, affordable housing, modifying the ordinance, increasing in voluntary commitment, measures, and alternatives to involuntary commitment.

Bridging The Gap: Exploring The Intersection Of Formal Mental Health Services And Informal Social Supports In Bipoc Communities, Patrice D. Patton-Campbell

Dissertations

Despite growing awareness of mental health disparities, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities continue to face significant barriers in accessing culturally responsive mental health care. This dissertation explores the intersection between formal mental health services and informal social supports such as family, religious institutions, and community networks to understand which systems are more trusted, accessible, and effective for BIPOC individuals. Grounded in Urban Liberation Psychology and guided by decolonial and culturally responsive care frameworks, this qualitative study draws from focus groups and interviews with 33 participants, including both community members and service providers from the Chicagoland area and …

Building Urban Resilience, Winston T. L. Chow

Asian Management Insights

Cities can lead on services, resources, and partnerships.

East Portland Grid: Supporting Clean Industry And Residents, Allison Kirkpatrick, Andrew Azar, Diego Joao Murphy-Mendez, Evan Howington, Kate Carroll, Maura Paxton

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Supporting clean industry and residents in ways that are mutually beneficial requires a diversity of efforts. The Columbia Salmonry Group, working for the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, finds that designating the Sumner-Parkrose-Argay Terrace neighborhoods as a Green Resilient Industrial District (GRID) can, with the following recommendations, build on the work of community and city partners to sustain and grow clean industry in Portland. This area is well suited to be a GRID due to the close proximity of industry and residents, a history of over-planning and under-delivering of investment, and the engaged community. Focusing on the needs of …

Building Adaptive Capacity Through Community Visioning, Silas Carr, Isaiah Jackman, Brandon Huezo, Lara Opeifa

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

East Portland represents one of Oregon’s most diverse communities. This rich cultural tapestry reflects the strength and resilience of communities who have built vibrant neighborhoods despite facing systemic exclusion and displacement. This project focuses on community engagement efforts undertaken in collaboration with the Rosewood Initiative, a community-based organization operating in East Portland. However, the legacy of discriminatory policies and practices has created concentrated challenges in East Portland, which have relegated many residents to areas with inadequate infrastructure, limited access to services, and heightened exposure to environmental hazards. Climate change intensifies these challenges, with East Portland experiencing more severe urban heat …

Infrastructure From Below: Mediasi Dan Politik Pembangunan Infrastruktur Air Di Kota Balikpapan, Muhammad Althaf Nandiati Yusfid

Antropologi Indonesia

The city of Balikpapan is experiencing a water crisis. The discrepancy between the city's water supply and Balikpapan's demography put pressure towards the city's capability of supporting its own citizens. This issue is exacerbated by the development of Indonesia's New Capital (IKN) which is located just outside Balikpapan. Therefore, the development of water infrastructure is imperative for the city. Yet, there's no recent visible development of water infrastructure in the city. However, I argue that water infrastructure development actually exists, though in a subtle form. The informal water suppliers that are prevalent in the city is tied with how the …

Assessing Equity In Heat Mitigation Ecosystem Services Of Urban Green Space In Singapore, Ronghua Xu, Perrine Hamel, Youu Ming, Aikeen Lim, Tingting He

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Urban green space provides ecosystem services such as heat mitigation, which are associated with improved resident health and welfare. While estimating the disparity in ecosystem services is essential to improve equity, little guidance is available as to which indices and indicators should be used. Here, we assess the distributional equity in heat mitigation benefits as measured by two indicators – land surface temperature reduction and wet-bulb temperature reduction – in the city-state of Singapore, and compare three inequality indices: Gini coefficient (GC), Atkinson index (AI), and Theil entropy index (TE). We include scenarios with and without migrant construction workers to …

Ecological Responsibility In The City: The Surfaces And Volumes Of Urban Mosquito Management, Orlando Woods, Sayd Randle

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper explores how ecological responsibility becomes distributed across the surfaces and volumes of the city. Our focus is urban mosquito management – specifically, the management of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the vector by which dengue and several other diseases are transmitted to humans – and the governance strategies deployed in Singapore to manage breeding sites and mosquito outbreaks. Whilst the governance of nature in Singapore is usually undertaken by the state, the effective management of mosquitoes requires responsibility for ecological management to become distributed throughout the city. Residents are expected to assume responsibility for surficial cleanliness and the removal …

Infrastructural Splintering Along The Bri: Catholic Political Ecologies And The Fractious Futures Of Sri Lanka’S Littoral Spaces, Orlando Woods

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article considers the ways in which the material infrastructures of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) intersect with other infrastructural formations, and how the resulting overlaps can trigger processes of what I call “infrastructural splintering”. These processes cause infrastructure to be experienced in differentiating ways, creating divisive politics where there might once have been unity. Embracing these politics as an analytical starting point undermines the techno-material stability of the BRI, and reveals its more-than-material affects. I illustrate these ideas by developing a case study of the effects of the China-backed Colombo Port City project on Catholic fishing communities that …

Post Soviet Russia: Challenges To Transition And Modernization, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked the beginning of a complex, often turbulent, period of transition and modernization for Russia. Unlike the anticipated linear path toward Western-style democracy and market economics, Russia’s post-Soviet experience has been defined by profound contradictions, reversals, and ongoing contestations over its political, economic, and social order (Minakov, 2016). The initial wave of reforms, particularly in the 1990s, brought about radical economic restructuring, privatization, and an attempted shift to a free-market system. Yet, these rapid changes led to significant economic dislocation, social inequality, and the rise of oligarchic power structures, which ultimately undermined …

Terrashift, Mill Jignesh Shah, Mill Shah

Masters Theses

Keywords: Adaptive Reuse, Vernacular Craftsmanship, Food Security, Urban Agriculture, Community Revitalization, Heritage Preservation, Regenerative Design

In India’s rapidly urbanizing landscape, Tier-I cities continue to dominate as aspirational centers, leaving smaller towns to face depopulation, economic drift, and cultural amnesia. Terrashift challenges this imbalance by proposing a regenerative model that reclaims the vitality of Tier-II and Tier-III towns through the layered strategies of adaptive reuse, vernacular craftsmanship, and integrated food systems.

Centered in Sidhpur, Gujarat—a town rich with Bohra Muslim architectural heritage and centuries of Hindu-Muslim cultural synthesis—this project envisions the transformation of abandoned havelis into vibrant community anchors. These spaces, …

The Industrial Hemp Supply Chain Solution, Honovi C. Trudell Sir

Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Realistically solving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals utilizing an Industrial Hemp supply chain with economy to scale to replace petroleum based plastics and permanently offset carbon emissions produced from other continuously produced hazardous waste.

The Management Of The Bus Rapid Transit (Brt) System And Its Impact On Mobility In Lagos State, Nigeria, Olukayode Lasisi, Mayowa Paul Obembe, Leke Kayode Onabanjo, Tolulope Oluwatosin Bamiro, Oluwatobee Omowumi Iyiola

BISNIS & BIROKRASI: Jurnal Ilmu Administrasi dan Organisasi

Lagos is famous for its high traffic congestion and insufficient road infrastructure. This study examined the effect of BRT management and its influence on mobility in Lagos State. The study adopted a cross-sectional design involving data gathering through the primary data collection method using a closed-ended questionnaire purposively administered to 100 commuters of BRT buses in Lagos. The findings revealed a high positive relationship between managing the BRT system and mobility in Lagos State. Additionally, the findings indicate a robust and positive causal relationship between Lagos State’s BRT system and transportation development. The BRT system contributes to improving transportation infrastructure …

Home Values Vs. Homelessness In Mountain West Metros, 2023, Maryam Raja, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet presents data from Home Values vs. Homelessness in the U.S.: A Concerning Connection (2023 Data), a report by Home Bay. The data includes information on both home values and homelessness rates while also providing national rankings for rent price and homeless rate, which are used here to compare the following Mountain West metros: Las Vegas, NV; Denver, CO; Salt Lake City, UT; and Phoenix, AZ.

No. 41: Crisis, Pandemic Precarity And Food Insecurity Among Migrant Households During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Quito, Ecuador, Mercedes Eguiguren, Taymi Milán, Cheryl Martens

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

This study examines the food insecurity experiences of Venezuelan migrants in Quito, Ecuador, within the broader context of the Venezuelan crisis, regional migration responses, and the structural precarity migrants face. Moving beyond the dominant “migration crisis” narrative, this paper adopts a crisis-living framework to analyze how protracted instability and pandemic precarity shape migrants’ experiences. Based on a 2023 survey of migrants and refugees who lived in Quito throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings reveal that food insecurity is a persistent challenge, disproportionately affecting female-led and extended households. Key factors influencing food insecurity include job instability and deteriorating employment conditions, limited …

Integrating A Stakeholder-Centric Approach Into Dynamic Adaptation Policy Pathways For Equitable Coastal Flood Risk Management In East Boston, Shailee M. Desai

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This research aims to illustrate a methodology incorporating diverse stakeholder values in adaptation planning to promote equitable outcomes using a hypothetical case study of the Lower Border Street area in East Boston, using the Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways (DAPP) framework for managing coastal flood risk. It offers three significant contributions to the field of adaptation planning: (i) It demonstrates how to integrate a stakeholder-specific assessment within the DAPP framework and illustrates individual impacts to a variety of stakeholders, including high- and low-income residents, commercial actors, government actors, and coastal landowners hoping that the planning process remains transparent and motivates local …

New York City Misses The Exit To Traffic Safety, Joseph Caffrey

Capstones

New York City Misses the Exit to Traffic Safety investigates New York City’s mounting traffic violence crisis through the lens of a devastating crash that killed a Brooklyn mother and her two daughters. It examines the city’s inconsistent enforcement of reckless driving and the failure of the Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program (DVAP), which aimed to reform recidivist speeders. The piece investigates the imperfections of Vision Zero, public backlash to automated enforcement, and the broader failure to prevent recidivist speeding. It also explores policy alternatives like Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), highlighting legislative efforts to revive accountability and save lives, while advocating …

Becoming A Beloved Community: A Restorative Reckoning For A Radical Conversion To Transform Discourse In Higher Education, Latasha Tomay Varlack-Butler

Dissertations

This dissertation critically examines the misappropriation of Restorative Justice Discourse (RJD) within three predominantly white institutions (PWIs), analyzing 59 institutional documents through Critical Discourse Analysis, Relational Critical Discourse Analysis, and Rhetorical Criticism (Fairclough, 1995; Vaandering, 2021; van Dijk, 2008). Tribal Colleges and Universities and South African institutions have emerged as exemplars of authentic RJD, countering co-optation within PWIs. The findings demonstrate that RJD as applied in PWIs is framed in ways that attenuate its transformative potential, perpetuating color-evasiveness (Bonilla-Silva, 2017) and obscuring the intersectional experiences of Black, Indigenous, and disabled communities (Crenshaw, 1991; Million, 2009).

Grounded in decolonial praxis (Smith, …

A Tale Of Two Chinatowns: Development Projects And Their Effects On Diasporic Communities, Gemma Oshiro

Senior Theses

Urban change as initiated by a municipality has ramifications on the communities and neighborhoods found in the urban area. Development plans greatly affect vulnerable migrant populations who rely on their neighbors for economic and social support. These development plans in urban areas are widely discussed in academic literature because of pervasive processes such as gentrification. While most people agree that processes such as gentrification are harmful to communities, I am interested in exploring urban development plans on a larger scale and who these projects most benefit in order to better understand why they are commissioned. In this thesis I perform …

Exploring Extension Agents' Understandings Of Local And Resilient Food Systems, Hannah Dankbar, Brooke Matusko

Journal of Extension

Currently, there is a focus on bolstering local food systems to support overall food system resilience. Local and resilient food systems, though related, are distinct concepts. Their use in food system development is complicated by varying interpretations. Data from a survey of North Carolina Extension agents, a group of food system practitioners, identified a range of definitions of these terms. The results underscore the complex landscape of local food system development and identify a need to build on conceptual understandings within the Extension community and establish shared understandings within food system development efforts.