Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Wayfinding In Architecture, Jason Brandon Abrams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In many of today’s modern educational institutions, architects have designed spaces that are disconnected and difficult for users to navigate. The underdevelopment of directional guides more accurately describes common issues of wayfinding. Wayfinding is a term used to describe user experience and orientation within an environmental context. When accomplished successfully, wayfinding contains order and simplicity achieved through five hierarchical components including; point of reference, location of information, determining a path to take, maintaining that path, and access or denial of the path chosen.

Currently, the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, a design institution of higher learning, lacks the components necessary to …

Measuring Spillover Effects Of Residential Amenity Improvement Using Spatial Hedonic Approach, Shruti Tandon

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

Spillover externalities can be explained as influences of the prices of neighboring properties on the price of a given one. Suppose there is a price change or changes in the amenity levels in a neighborhood. The effect of this change would be experienced by properties in a close proximity and the prices of the properties in close proximity might help explain the price of the property of interest. In the context of welfare valuation, this feature of spatial price interdependence or spillover effects has only recently received attention. Spatial lag models are one of the many spatial econometric methods used …

Associations Between Street Connectivity And Active Transportation, David Berrigan, Linda Williams Pickle, Jennifer Dill

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Past studies of associations between measures of the built environment, particularly street connectivity, and active transportation (AT) or leisure walking/bicycling have largely failed to account for spatial autocorrelation of connectivity variables and have seldom examined both the propensity for AT and its duration in a coherent fashion. Such efforts could improve our understanding of the spatial and behavioral aspects of AT. We analyzed spatially identified data from Los Angeles and San Diego Counties collected as part of the 2001 California Health Interview Survey. Results: Principal components analysis indicated that ~85% of the variance in nine measures of street connectivity …

How To Help Your Community Recover From Disaster: A Manual For Planning And Action, Judah J. Viola,, Society For Community Research & Action Task Force For Disaster, Community Readiness, And Recovery

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Simplicity And The City: Understanding The Voluntary Simplicity Movement In Melbourne, Gershwin Penn

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this study was to understand the lifestyle of members of the voluntary simplicity movement in an urban setting. I sought to understand how they practiced simplicity in their day to day lives, how simplicity effected their emotional life, how simplicity influenced their values, how simplicity influenced their interaction with the city, and what their general ethos was. This study was conducted to understand how it is possible for individuals to live ecologically and socially responsible lives in settings that, by in large, reject their values. I conducted fifteen face to face in-depth interviews in Melbourne in April …

Case Studies In Community Vitality And Downtown Revitalization: A Focus On Maine’S Employment And Service Hubs, Matthew Klebes, Elizabeth Mclean, Kathy Lynn Tombarelli

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to consider the efforts made by municipalities to revitalize their downtowns and improve community livability. Our primary focus will be on Maine municipalities, but we will include two case studies outside of Maine to provide a comparison.
We are also including communities in both northern and southern Maine, as well as both coastal and inland communities. By using this approach, we can identify common indicators of success, independent of geographic location.

Distribution Of Rain Gardens In Lincoln Nebraska: Are Rain Gardens More Likely To Be Built Near Bodies Of Water, Eric Voecks

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Abstract Rain gardens are an important tool in reducing the amount of stormwater runoff and accompanying pollutants from entering the city’s streams and lakes, and reducing their water quality. This thesis project analyzed the number of rain gardens installed through the City of Lincoln Nebraska Watershed Management’s Rain Garden Water Quality Project in distance intervals of one-eighth mile from streams and lakes. This data shows the distribution of these rain gardens in relation to streams and lakes and attempts to determine if proximity to streams and lakes is a factor in homeowners installing rain gardens. ArcGIS was used to create …

Jumpstart Inc. Economic Impact And Contributions To Northeast Ohio, 2009, Ziona Austrian, Afia Yamoah

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

Creating A Livable Future In The New Orleans Upper Central Business District, Department Of Planning And Urban Studies, University Of New Orleans

Planning and Urban Studies Reports and Presentations

The purpose of this report is to create scenarios for walkable, transit-friendly, mixed-use development that incorporates the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal (NOUPT) into surrounding neighborhoods.

A Greenway Runs Through It: The Midtown Greenway And The Social Landscape Of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Aaron M. Brown

Geography Honors Projects

Minneapolis’ Midtown Greenway is a 5.5 mile bicycle and pedestrian corridor that replaced a grade-separated railroad line in 2000 and expanded to its current length in 2007. In an era of reinvestment in American inner cities and a heightened political awareness of both urban transportation alternatives and public spaces, the academic field of geography has much to contribute to the discussion about the viability, effectiveness, and success of projects such as this adaptive reuse of reclaimed, deindustrialized space. My research investigates results from a survey of 223 Greenway users, exploring participants’ demographics, residential proximity to the trail, and purposes for …

Economic Impact Of Jumpstart Inc. On Northeast Ohio, 2009, Ziona Austrian

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

Relating Bike Racks And Bike Ridership, John Sens

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Abstract The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the relationship between bicycle ridership and bike racks in a given area. The goal was to discern whether or not the density of bike racks determines the number of riders in the area. I predicted that there would be higher ridership in the areas with a denser bike rack concentration. To investigate this point, I set up five different areas of varying sizes with a similar number of bike racks, and then observed them over a period of 5 business days. By using a simple tally of the bikes found on …

Moving Forward: A Better Way To Govern Regional Transportation, City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Bend-La Pine School District: Population And Enrollment Forecasts 2010-11 To 2030-31, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Charles Rynerson, Vivian Siu, Richard Lycan, David West

School District Enrollment Forecast Reports

The Bend-La Pine School District (BLPSD) enrolled 15,898 students in Fall 2009, an increase of 61 students from Fall 2008. This followed a loss of 13 students between Fall 2007 and Fall 2008. These two most recent years are in sharp contrast with the previous 19 years of uninterrupted gains of more than 200 students each year. K-12 enrollment growth averaged about 350 students per year from 1990 to 2000, and about 400 students per year from 2000 to 2007. The enrollment trends align closely with the housing and employment trends described in this report. Housing growth began to slow …

Foreclosure Activity In The Portland-Vancouver Msa, Webb Sprague, Emily Picha, Nicole Iroz-Elardo, Tom Heinicke

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Foreclosure activity is an important indicator of community and neighborhood health and the economic viability of households. In the Portland region, foreclosure activity is comparable to many areas of the United States, with significant segments of the population struggling to make their mortgage payments.

The foreclosure crisis continues to unfold in the United States. In 2009, RealtyTrac reported 3.9 million foreclosure filings on 2.8 million properties in the U.S., up 21 percent from the previous year. Foreclosure filings include default notices, scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank reversions. About two percent of all U.S. housing units received at least one foreclosure …

Where The Ends Don’T Meet: Measuring Poverty And Self-Sufficiency Among Oregon’S Families, Melissa Rowe, Sheila A. Martin, Danan Gu, Webb Sprague

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

This report uses the Self-Sufficiency Standard developed by Dr. Diana Pearce at the University of Washington to analyze the extent to which Oregon households earn enough money to meet their basic needs without a public subsidy. This standard, a vast improvement on the federal poverty level, accounts for differences in the cost of living based on family structure, age of children, and county of residence. Dr. Pearce has defined the income required to meet basic needs for every county in Oregon and a number of household types. A large number of Oregon households not considered poor by the federal poverty …

2009 Oregon Population Report, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Risa Proehl, Julia Crain

Oregon Population Estimates and Reports

This report contains the annual population estimates for Oregon, and its counties, incorporated cities, and unincorporated areas for July 1, 2009. Included in ten tables are the estimates summarized by unincorporated and incorporated areas at the state level, as well as metropolitan areas and non-metropolitan areas. Some tables include historical estimates and Census populations.

Affordable Homeownership Policy: Implications For Housing Markets, Sock Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Affordable homeownership is a policy that is often accorded a great deal of policy attention by governments of many countries. This paper aims to examine the market implications of setting a housing price to income ratio target for a market segment by the government. The policy requires active intervention by the government with regard to the targeted sector. The paper uses a simple model of the housing market with a homeownership affordability target to derive the market implications of such targets. In the presence of uncertainty and resource constraints, the objective of homeownership affordability is achieved for the targeted group …

Collaboration Between The Public And Private Sectors For Urban Development, Sock-Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

In market economies, the government acts in many ways. In traditional public finance literature, the government taxes and provides public and merit goods. In addition, it regulates the behaviour of firms and individuals. In the context of market failures such as natural monopoly, high risk situations or long life projects, the government may choose to act as producer. In the past two decades, however, public sector collaboration with the private sector to achieve socio-economic objectives has become widely utilised as a method for the provision of the myriad of services that has come to be expected of governments.

Exploring Homeowner Opposition To Public Housing Developments, Joanna Duke

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper examines the beliefs and attitudes of homeowners in two receiving communities of public housing units. Opposition to housing mobility programs is generally attributed to fear offalling property values and increased crime rates. Given the spatial and redistributive nature of the programs, this paper proposes and explores space and liberty-based ideologies as causes ofdormant opposition persisting beyond relocation. Survey data were collected from two neighborhoods where developments containing public housing were located. Results indicate that ideologies about space and liberty are important to understanding receiving community opposition as well as the extent to which members of the receiving community …