Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Ralph Bunche Agape Neighborhood Vision Plan, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

The Ralphe Bunche Neighborhood Vision Plan provides a general design framework to spur reinvestment in this 100-year old historic African-American neighborhood in Benton, AR. The plan aggregates attainable housing (under $100,000/unit) around two neighborhood parks―one existing, and one proposed. Since the city cannot afford comprehensive street and drainage improvements to accommodate redevelopment, the proposal retrofits streets and open space with Low Impact Development (LID) landscapes to remediate urban stormwater runoff. Housing unit types between 1,000 and 1,750 square feet are amassed around these LID landscapes and amenitized with screened rooms, balconies, terraces, and multiple-height living spaces.

Social Innovation & The City: What Is The Connection Between Social Innovation And Urban Innovation ... And Why Does It Matter?, Martin Stewart-Weeks

Social Space

How we build and live in cities will come to shape the discourse on sustainability and ecologically-sound thinking for the future. Martin Stewart-Weeks examines why urban innovation holds the key to this debate.

Towards An Understanding Of International City Break Travel, Gerard Dunne, Sheila Flanagan, Joan Buckley

Articles

This paper explores city break tourism and in particular the distinctive characteristics of this form of travel. The city break is examined and compared to other types of trips. The research follows a sequential mixed methods approach involving both a visitor survey and in-depth interviews. The findings show the international city break trip to have a number of distinctive characteristics. These are summarised into five main areas (5 Ds) – duration, distance, date flexibility, discretionary nature, and destination travel party. These distinguishing features provide a useful insight into one of the most important yet least examined travel segments in tourism …

"Eco-Cities" And "Sustainable Cities" - Whither?, Kheng Lian Koh, Asanga Gunawansa, Lovleen Bhullar

Social Space

The concept of sustainable cities was first discussed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2003, with the idea of eco-cities entering the picture in 2007. Are the two mutually exclusive, or do they overlap? The authors consider the implications of cities as engines of growth and examine case studies that reveal what lies ahead for sustainable cities and eco-cities.

Roads: Leading Indicators Show Ramp-Up In Activity, Shishir Mathur, Kunal Katara

Faculty Publications, Urban and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Sustainability Initiatives In East Bayside Neighborhood Portland, Maine, Garvan Donegan, Henry Heyburn, Caitlyn Horose, Matt Klebes, Jennifer Riley, Damon Yakovleff, New England Environmental Finance Center

Planning

This is a bundle containing research on sustainability initiatives that could be implemented in the East Bayside neighborhood of Portland, ME. These six essays were prepared by the Spring, 2010 Sustainable Communities Class known as CPD 602 at the University of Southern Maine. The class is part of the core curriculum of the Community Planning and Development program of the Muskie School of Public Service at the university. The instructor for the class was Samuel Merrill, Ph. D. who is also director of the New England Environmental Finance Center at the University. These papers were prepared in conjunction with Alan …

Making Livable Places: Transportation, Preservation, And The Limits Of Growth, Todd Shallat, David Eberle, Larry Burke

Faculty & Staff Authored Books

Making Livable Places presents ten research essays on political and historical issues that shape metropolitan growth. Sponsored by Boise State University, the anthology was written and produced by graduate and undergraduate student researchers in the 2009 "Investigate Boise" field school on urban affairs.

"Social Science is civic engagement. Making Livable Places showcases a university's commitment to the pragmatic concerns of municipal government." Dean Melissa Lavitt, Boise State University College of Social Sciences and Public Affairs.

No. 01: The Invisible Crisis: Urban Food Security In Southern Africa, Jonathan Crush, Bruce Frayne

African Food Security Urban Network

Over 1 billion people in the world are now undernourished. The current international food security agenda focuses almost exclusively on the food insecurity of rural populations and ways to increase smallholder production. The plight of the urban poor is marginalised in this agenda leading to neglect of the ‘invisible crisis’ of urban food insecurity. This paper argues that the future of Southern Africa is an urban one and that urban food insecurity is therefore a large and growing challenge. The causes, determinants and solutions for food insecurity are not the same in rural and urban settings. This paper suggests that …

No. 03: Pathways To Insecurity: Food Supply And Access In Southern African Cities, Jonathan Crush, Bruce Frayne

African Food Security Urban Network

As in many parts of the world, supermarket expansion and control of food supply chains is having a major impact on the quality, quantity and price of food available to urban residents. Growing numbers of poor households in Southern African cities now obtain their food, directly or indirectly, from supermarkets. In most cities, these same households spend over 40 percent of household income on food. Supermarket expansion is also having a major impact on the informal sector. This paper reviews the changing nature of the urban food supply in Southern African cities, the role of supermarkets and the informal sector …

No. 04: Urban Food Production And Household Food Security In Southern African Cities, Jonathan Crush, Alice Hovorka, Daniel Tevara

African Food Security Urban Network

Optimism about the role of household food production (urban agriculture) in improving the food security of the urban poor has given way to pessimism and even scepticism. This paper critically examines the views of advocates of urban agriculture and suggests that it cannot be isolated from a broader consideration of the changing nature of urban food supply systems in Southern African cities. Urban food production by poor households is currently very limited across the region and even fewer produce for market. While food production is a useful livelihood supplement in some cities and a source of income to some wealthier …

"The Urban Praetor's Tribunal" In Spaces Of Justice In The Roman World, Eric Kondratieff

History Faculty Publications

"Book abstract: Despite the crucial role played by both law and architecture in Roman culture, the Romans never developed a type of building that was specifically and exclusively reserved for the administration of justice: courthouses did not exist in Roman antiquity. The present volume addresses this paradox by investigating the spatial settings of Roman judicial practices from a variety of perspectives. Scholars of law, topography, architecture, political history, and literature concur in putting Roman judicature back into its concrete physical context, exploring how the exercise of law interacted with the environment in which it took place, and how the spaces …

Ua3/3/4 President's Office-Thompson Construction File, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Construction file regarding construction of new buildings, renovation of existing buildings and bond issues during Kelly Thompson's tenure as WKU President.

No. 02: The State Of Urban Food Insecurity In Southern Africa, Bruce Frayne, Wade Pendleton, Jonathan Crush, Ben Acquah, Jane Battersby-Lennard, Eugenio Bras, Asiyati Chiweza, Tebogo Dlamini, Robert Fincham, Florian Kroll, Clement Leduka, Aloysius Mosha, Chileshe Mulenga, Peter Mvula, Akiser Pomuti, Ines Raimundo, Michael Rudolph, Shaun Ruysenaa, Nomcebo Simelane, Daniel Tevara, Maxton Tsoka, Godfrey Tawodzera, Lazarus Zanamwe

African Food Security Urban Network

The number of people living in urban areas is rising rapidly in Southern Africa. By mid-century, the region is expected to be 60% urban. Rapid urbanization is leading to growing food insecurity in the region’s towns and cities. This paper presents the results of the first ever regional study of the prevalence of food insecurity in Southern Africa. The AFSUN food security household survey was conducted simultaneously in 2008-9 in 11 cities in 8 SADC countries. The results confirm high levels of food insecurity amongst the urban poor in terms of food availability, accessibility, reliability and dietary diversity. The survey …

Periodic Atlas Of The Metroscape: Health And Home: Neighborhood Stability And Hiv Outcomes In The Metroscape, Moriah Mcsharry Mcgrath, Gretchen Luhr

Metroscape

The miasma theory of disease went out of style in the 1850s. The discovery that bacteria, rather than vapors emanating from the soil at night, caused illness launched the modern public health profession. In the intervening 150 years, public health practitioners have focused on controlling disease through sanitary infrastructure and educational campaigns.

Despite these great strides, the geography of HIV illuminates the inconvenient truth that relationships between health and place persist. New York and New Jersey, which together are home to 9.3% of U.S. residents, were the site of 22.3% of AIDS cases recorded by the CDC through 2007. Not …

Connecting Students And The Community, Lynn Weigand

TREC Project Briefs

Nationwide, few university courses focus specifically on planning and design for pedestrian and bicycle facilities. Before this project, Portland State University had only one three-credit course on the subject, which did not provide adequate time to cover all aspects of bicycle and pedestrian transportation planning, policy, design and practice. Although the course provided a useful introduction to the topic and received excellent student reviews, faculty members saw a need to expand the curriculum to provide an opportunity for practical application of the theory and practice and increase the course’s academic rigor.

This project broadened the course offerings on bicycle and …

Ua3/3/1 President's Office-Thompson Subject/Correspondence File, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Correspondence to and from WKU President Kelly Thompson regarding university administration and other issues, arranged alphabetically by subject and correspondent.

Housing Choice Voucher Program;Patterns And Factors Of Spatial Concentration In Cleveland, Miseon Park

ETD Archive

Housing Choice Voucher Program is the single largest housing subsidy program in the USA with the goal of poverty deconcentration and race desegregation. This study aims to identify the presence and locations of voucher holders' spatial concentration, and to investigate the factors associated with the location outcomes of voucher recipients in Cleveland from 2005 to 2009. Analyzing voucher recipients' information from Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, this dissertation found meaningful results for the voucher program performances. Hotspot analysis indicated that location patterns of voucher recipients do not show even distribution over the study area. Additionally, voucher holders have clustered together and …

To Reframe A Constitution: Public Service In A Consumptive State, Steven T. Salmi

ETD Archive

This normative analysis builds upon Ulrich Beck's world risk society theory to argue that the United States is making a shift of revolutionary proportions from an administrative state to a consumptive state. Public administration theory is assessed for its ability to address a consumptive state's unprecedented dynamics, e.g., accelerating technoscientific development and mega-hazards such as global warming. Qualitative evidence suggests that the field's adaptability has been limited by a continued, if generally unacknowledged, embrace of obsolete normative commitments such as to a politics-technoscience dichotomy, contempocentrism, and overconsumption. The sustainability movement, a discourse coalition with roots largely outside public administration, is …

Fundamentally Linked: Neighborhood Revitalization And School Quality In The City Of Cleveland, Angie Schmitt

ETD Archive

This paper examines the effect of poor school quality on neighborhood revitalization efforts in four Cleveland neighborhoods: Ohio City, Detroit Shoreway, Tremont and Downtown. The report employs survey research and real estate data analysis to examine the extent to which failing public schools encourage residents to leave the city for the suburbs, undermining efforts at revitalization. The research was particularly concerned with examining the effect on middle-class residents, or "residents of choice," who chose to live in Cleveland although other options are available to them financially. Original research bore out common assumptions about the impact of poorly performing local schools …

The Neopragmatist's Hammer: Forging Administrative Authority, David Oliver Kasdan

ETD Archive

Public Administration Is Challenged to Provide a Coherent Model of Authority in Modern Democratic Society. Authority Is Necessary for Governance, yet It Runs Against the Liberal State. Reconciling Administrative Authority with the American Polity Requires an Approach That Situates Governance as the Outcome of Communal Solidarity. This Reconciliation Includes Deflating the Metanarrative of Authority That Has Been Constructed on Traditions of Administrative Representation, Expertise, and Practice. These Traditions of Authority Must Be Redescribed in Current Contexts and Shaped by the Discourse Between Public Administration and the Polity as Equal Members of an Epistemic Community. Neopragmatism, the Postmodern Upgrade to Classical …