Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Urban Foraging Social Meetups In Philadelphia, Pa, Kristin G. Mcgillis

Environment and Sustainability Summer Fellows

Urban foraging is the practice in which city residents gather plants and plant parts from green spaces—such as parks, sidewalks, or yards—to use for a variety of reasons. Research on the practice is in its early stages, with key questions in need of further research, including who participates, why they participate, and how they initially engage the practice. Existing research suggests most foragers consume what they gather for food, however, many also use materials for medicinal or craft-related purposes. Foraging meet-up tours appear to be a popular way for urban dwellers to learn about and engage in this practice. This …

Cuyahoga County 3.0 The Third Century: Time For Renewal, Thomas Bier

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

2015-07-04; Pamphlet; Pilgrim Baptist Church Daily Vocational Bible School, Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church

Pamphlets

No abstract provided.

Columbia Corridor Drainage Districts Governance Study, Thomas Potiowsky, Jenny Liu, Mike Paruszkiewicz, Jeff Renfro, Marisol Cáceres, Peter Hulseman

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

This study focused on major questions related to drainage district consolidation in the Columbia Corridor, arising from the geographic and economic diversity that characterizes the four entities. The magnitude and type of economic activity within the districts varies considerably, and results in a broad range of operational resources and levee system requirements.

The Morrison Mercantile, Khalid Alballaa, Kevin Clark, Barbara Fryer, Carly Harrison, A. Synkai Harrison, Liz Hutchinson, Scott Kueny, Erik Pattison, Nate Raynor, Clancy Terry, Joel Thomas

Real Estate Development Workshop Projects

Students in the PSU Real Estate Development Workshop produce a development plan for 12 properties located on the Central Eastside Industrial District (CEID). These properties are owned by the Pelett Family. Their task was to produce an original development plan, including the development concept, the market analysis, the conceptual design, economic analysis, capital and operations budget, and management plan.

A Critical Physical Geography Of Urban Soil Contamination, Nathan Mcclintock

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Anthropogenic lead (Pb) is widespread in urban soils given its widespread deposition over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries via a range of point- and non-point sources, including industrial waste and pollution, leaded paint, and automobile exhaust. While soil scientists and urban ecologists have documented soil Pb contamination in cities around the world, such analyses rarely move beyond proximal mechanisms to focus on more distal factors, notably the social processes mediating Pb accumulation in particular places. In this paper, I articulate a critical physical geography of urban soil Pb contamination that considers the dialectical coproduction of soil and …

Pedestrian Exposure To Near-Roadway Pm2.5 In Mixed-Use Urban Corridors: A Case Study Of Omaha, Nebraska, Bradley Bereitschaft

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

Compact, mixed-use, and pedestrian-oriented urban developments may offer numerous environmental and health benefits, yet they may also facilitate pedestrian exposure to air pollution within the near-roadway environment. This research examines ambient concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) across six sites situated within central Omaha, Nebraska, a mid-sized metropolitan area located in the Midwest US. The sites ranged from a low-density, strip-mall development to moderate-density entertainment, commercial, and retail districts with varying degrees of horizontal and vertical mixed-use. Tracing approximately two kilometer routes along the sidewalk, factors affecting average and peak PM_2.5 concentrations at each site were identified …

People-Centric Approach Needed For Effective Urban Planning, Says Expert, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

SMU Behavioural Sciences Institute Director Professor David Chan delivered the keynote address at the third Urban Sustainability R&D Congress. Held at Suntec, the two-day event was attended by representatives from public agencies, research institutes and private sector organisations. During the keynote address, Prof Chan cited the upcoming Singapore-Kuala Lumpur (KL) High Speed Rail terminal and its implications from a larger transient commuter population in the Jurong area. He said that urban planners must take a people-centric approach and understand how the same built environment can impact different groups of people differently, or impact different people differently over time. Prof Chan …

Energy For Development: The Concept, Holmes J., Terry Van Gevelt

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Worldwide, 1.3 billion people remain without access to electricity and 2.7 billion are still cooking on harmful and inefficient stoves1 . Many live in remote rural village communities, and until they have access to energy services, little progress can be made to develop and improve their lives2 . As United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stated, “energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, increased social equity, and an environment that allows the planet to thrive”3 . Improving the lives of rural communities by developing smart villages is a concept analogous to the more familiar smart cities. The vision …

A New Hope? A Critical Assessment Of Gentrification And Hope In Memphis, Tennessee, Daniel Russell Gadeke

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Gentrification is the manifestation of the Social change within urban residential neighborhoods as a result of uneven development in cities. These gentrification processes are a contextually dependent phenomenon, which vary both spatially and temporally when compared betwixt cities. Since the 1990s, local and state governments have developed more creative discourses for the promotion of gentrification which have overshadowed the positive outcomes of gentrification. The adoption of neoliberal policies has attacked many forms of the Keynesian welfare-state, most notably federal public housing. The United States’ Department of Urban Housing and Development’s (HUD) initiative Homeownership Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE VI) emerged …

Who Votes For Mayor? A Psu Pilot Research Report, Jason R. Jurjevich, Phil Keisling, Kevin Christopher Rancik, Carson Gorecki

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

Phil Keisling is director of the Center for Public Service at Portland State University in Oregon, which recently conducted research on who votes in mayoral elections with Knight Foundation support.

The last 10 to 20 years have been times of revitalization and progress for many of America’s big cities. While there are certainly exceptions, many major city downtowns have been revitalized, often with the money and energy of younger entrepreneurs. Committed and often well-educated “young creatives” have helped turn many urban cores into desirable places to live, work, and raise families.

But as much as younger residents have often played …

The Nasa Glenn Research Center: An Economic Impact Study Fiscal Year 2014, Iryna Lendel, Bryan Townley

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report presents an analysis of the economic impact of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s John H. Glenn Research Center (NASA Glenn) during its FY 2014. It uses an input-output model, which reflects the buy-sell relationships among industries, the household sector, and the government sector in a region, to estimate the effect of NASA Glenn’s spending on the economies of both Northeast Ohio and the state of Ohio. This model assesses economic impact in terms of growth in total output (sales); value added (output less intermediary goods); household earnings, number of new jobs, and taxes.

The report also provides …

Slavic Village Neighborhood Retail Market Study, Kirby Date

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Slavic Village is a revitalizing urban neighborhood in the southeast area of the City of Cleveland. A historic neighborhood that was once home to 75,000 immigrants of Polish and Slavic descent, it has seen steady decline since the 1960’s, along with other Cleveland neighborhoods, and was especially hard hit during the housing and foreclosure crisis of 2007-2010. However, in the present day, it has many assets and opportunities that make it poised to become one of the vibrant Cleveland neighborhoods of the future.

This study was done as part of a student project to look at the potential to re-invigorate …

Economic Profile: Village Of Middlefield, Ohio, Kirby Date

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

A small town of 2700 residents in rural eastern Geauga County, the Village of Middlefield has nonetheless taken an aggressive approach to attracting business, resulting in sizable local employment that is disproportionate to its small population. As of 2012, 5900 people were employed in the Village and its immediate vicinity, with the potential for an additional 2000 in non-employment and family-based businesses. Businesses have been particularly attracted by the stable, skilled workforce, the small town lifestyle, and the Village’s support for business retention and expansion.

A large proportion of the Village’s employment, in 2012 over 60%, is based in manufacturing, …

Terrorism And Global Domestic Insurgency Nexus: A Case Of Boko Haram Insurgency In Nigeria, Augustine N. Eneanya

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

The paper examines the link between Non-state armed Islamist groups’ terrorism and global domestic insurgency, using Nigeria as a case study. It adopts a combination of deprivation – frustration – aggression theory, social learning and social identity theories as its framework of analysis. The primary focus of inquiry is on secondary data, purposively sampled from books, journals articles, and reports of periodicals, internet and existing statistics. Qualitative research and secondary data analysis method were adopted. Using discourse, descriptive and explanatory techniques, the paper attempts to establish the relationship between Non-state armed Islamist groups’ support and Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. …

Towards Policy Advocacy — Activism, Advocacy And Political Empowerment: An Exploratory Study On Hispanic Environmental Justice Nonprofits, Jo Marie Rios

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

Environmental justice groups have incorporated as nonprofit organizations that tend to limit the ability to access the political and policy processes due to the restrictive IRS lobbying codes. Policy advocacy begins to address the roles and tactics that could be utilized by these nonprofits to influence public policy making and includes activities and tactics such as media campaigns, research, educational outreach, activism and political empowerment with the ultimate goal of influencing the initial stages of the policy process. This research uses a multiple streams approach to operationalize the advocacy variables and tactics used by these Hispanic environmental justice nonprofits and …

Extractive Sector Policymaking And Governance In Ghana: A Study Of The Role, Knowledge And Capacity Challenges Of Civil Society Organizations, Emmanuel K. Sakyi, Emmanuel O. Oritsejafor

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

This study describes and examines data on perceptions of role, capacity and knowledge challenges confronting civil society organizations (CSOs) in their attempt to influence extractive industry policymaking and governance in Ghana. Qualitative technique was employed in collecting data for the study. In all, twenty one CSOs were purposively selected and interviewed using issue-driven semi-structured interview technique. The findings of the study reveal that CSOs have good knowledge concerning policymaking and management issues in the extractive sector. It further indicates that Ghanaian CSOs had formed coalitions which gave them a better ‘bargaining power’ to be able to advocate for the ordinary …

Measuring Public Manager Cultural Competence: The Influence Of Public Service Values, Thomas Longoria, Nandhini Rangarajan

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

This study develops a public manager cultural competence instrument. The proposed instrument includes items from existing cultural competence instruments from professional fields (e.g., Nursing, Social Work, and Medicine) and new items developed specifically for measuring public manager cultural competence. We find that self-reported bilingual respondents have higher cross-cultural competence scores on three dimensions (attitudes, skills, knowledge). Minority respondents have higher cross-cultural competence scores on two dimensions (skills, and behavior). Gender and international travel experience do not result in statistically significant differences. Implications for the promotion of cultural competencies in graduate education settings and in public sector organizations are considered and …

Examination Of Organizational Structural Capacity For Change In The Context Of Litigated Reform, Ariel Alvarez, Gautam Nayer

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

Increasingly child advocates have become involved with persistent litigation in order to improve the performance of publicly administered state child welfare agencies. However, strategic plans for change are often implemented without sufficient attention given to assessing the level of and strengthening organizational structural capacity to support system-wide change. Using the conceptual foundation of organizational structural capacity by Hall et al. (2003), a two agency case study was conducted examining the structural capacity factors of relationships and networks, infrastructure and process, and planning and development in the context of litigated reform of the Washington State and New Jersey child welfare agencies. …

Editor's Introduction, Andrew I.E. Ewoh

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

Towards Policy Advocacy—Activism, Advocacy and Political Empowerment