Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Op-Ed: It’S Time To Renew The Fight Against Housing Voucher Discrimination, Nicole Roberts

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

The Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP), known as Section 8, is the most recognizable public housing program in the U.S. Through empowering households to use their voucher to rent units in high-opportunity neighborhoods, this program can liberate and transform the outcomes of families experiencing poverty. However, in many Cleveland neighborhoods landlords still exclude Section 8 tenants by simply refusing to accept housing choice vouchers as payment. This explicit refusal leaves low-income households with limited options and traps participants into high-poverty neighborhoods.

10 Minute City -Reinventing Ways To Move Around The City Via Scooter, Emily Melchor

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Urban sprawl is an issue that many major cities in the United States are experiencing. The population rise in cities has contributed to their rapid growth, increased traffic, pollution, and the reliability on cars. These issues can slowly be tackled by addressing them in areas that are on their way to reaching the height of urban sprawl. An example of such an area is Gwinnett County located northeast of Atlanta. Gwinnett County is on its way to becoming one of Georgia’s most populated counties, according to MARTA Transit System. MARTA did such studies on Gwinnett because in 2018, MARTA along …

Pursuing Antiracist Public Policy Education: An Example Connecting The Racist History Of Housing Policy To Contemporary Inequity, Craig W. Carpenter, Tyler Augst, Harmony Fierke-Gmazel, Bradley Neumann, Richard Wooten

Journal of Extension

We review the antiracism concept and contextualize it in Extension public policy education and the Extension system itself. Despite public policy education having a long history in Extension on a wide variety of issues, missing from this programming is the pursuit of antiracism. As a programmatic example, we review some historical causes of present-day housing inequities and an associated example approach for pursuing antiracism in housing policy education. Finally, we conclude by noting additional opportunities to pursue antiracism in Extension public policy education. In doing so, we emphasize that public policy education cannot be “nonracist” if it is not antiracist.

Explore Regional Variation In The Effects Of Built Environment On Driving With High Resolution U.S. Nationwide Data, Liming Wang

PSU Transportation Seminars

There have been numerous studies on the relationship between travel behavior and built environment over the last few decades. Prior studies have mostly focused on producing point estimates of model coefficients and ended up with a wide range of estimates for the built environment elasticity of travel behavior, including household Vehicle Miles Traveled. With few exceptions, previous studies use data from a single region or a small number of regions, and thus are not able to sufficiently investigate the regional variation in built environment elasticity.

On the other hand, a few papers have addressed the heterogeneity of elasticity among different …

Still Got The Blues - No Time But Here, No Place But Now: Geographies Of Art & Activism In The Work Of Clyde Woods., Jake Mace

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The fight against displacement and dispossession in the increasingly inequitable process of reterritorialization is arguably the most pressing struggle of the modern city – and it is articulated through cultural production as much as through political debate and economic development. Yet research that is at the nexus of critical, urban, and cultural studies and which explores the resistant potential of countercultural production rather than the hegemonic impact of mainstream cultural production is underdeveloped. Clyde Woods’s blues epistemology offers a guide to reading cultural production of marginalized groups as maps of meaning that offer alternative visions of the past, the present, …

Land Tenure And The Urban Institutional Politics Of Sustainability: How Sustainability "Lands" In The Relationships Between Global North And South Contexts., Lindsey Connors

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sustainability is not simply a moral concept but is essential for human survival, and the tensions inherent in sustainable development bear repercussions that are increasingly placed onto the poor and powerless (Redclift 1987). While sustainability has become a relevant concept for urban knowledge and research especially in the global South, much of our urban sustainability knowledge is shaped by research and typologies from the global North (Nagendra et al. 2018; Parnell & Robinson 2017; Roy 2005). This dissertation considers the spatial transferability of sustainability knowledge from a relational perspective (Massey 2002). Sustainable development can be understood from this perspective as …

Springdale Arkansas' Form-Based Code: Analyzing Urban Dispositions, Nate Cole

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Springdale, Arkansas, has witnessed population growth, public and private development, and interest from stakeholders throughout the Northwest Arkansas region in the past six years. The impetus for this case study is the rapid urbanization of Springdale, catalyzed by the adoption of a downtown Form-Based Code in 2017. The study analyzes four projects representing a range of typologies and uses, selected from many new and upcoming projects in the FBC area. Utilizing multiple techniques to present each project's spatial and social characteristics, the study presents these nuances and provokes further discussions. A literature review covering complexity and complex adaptive systems supports …

Spatialising Degrowth In Southern Cities: Everyday Park-Making For (Un)Commoning, Manisha Anantharaman, Marlyne Sahakian, Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu

Sociology & Anthropology Department Faculty Publications

Answering the call in this special issue to spatialise degrowth studies beyond the Global North, this paper examines practices of ‘park-making’ in Chennai and Metro Manila as a potential degrowth pathway. Parks in the coastal mega cities of Metro Manila and Chennai can be seen as relics of a colonial era, and spaces coherent with capitalist, growth-oriented and consumerist logics. At the same time, however, they become spaces that prefigure alternative ways of organising social life in the city based upon values of conviviality, care and sharing. Using qualitative methods of analysis, this paper examines what practices people engage with …

Emerging Transformations In Material Use And Waste Practices In The Global South: Plastic-Free And Zerowaste In India, Katie Conlon

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study uses a qualitative approach to address limitations and blockages to current plastics reduction via semi-structured interviews with zero waste business practitioners in India. Although they are nascent, India is home to a budding zero waste community that is grappling with how to reduce plastics—via trial and error—and these stakeholders hold insights from lived experience on how plastic reduction can actualize in the Indian subcontinent. This research involved interviewing zero waste businesses and consultants and makers of plastic alternatives in India to understand their experiences with plastic reduction strategies. The key stakeholder interviews reveal key insights for moving forward …

And The Program Goes On, But Should It?, Angela Kroese Visser

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Assessing a program involves asking why a program operates in a certain way. Learn how to evaluate your city's programs and use the information to improve them.

Pengaruh Operasi Tangkap Tangan (Ott) Terhadap Pelaporan Dugaan Tindak Pidana Korupsi Oleh Masyarakat (Studi Kasus Kpk), Wardhana Ardy Syahputra, Muhammad Halley Yudhistira

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

The Hand Arrest Operation (OTT) is an activity by the KPK in the field of cracking down on corruption that is well-known among the Indonesian people. The activity was also marked by a press conference which outlines the profile of the suspect and the chronology of the arrests. In carrying out its duties, the KPK cannot work alone. The active participation of the community is certainly very helpful for the KPK in carrying out its duties more effectively and efficiently, one form of which is by reporting suspected corruption crimes. The study was conducted to see how the OTT activities …

Historic Downtown Streetscape Plan Price City, Utah, Patricia Beckert

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The idea of a small-town Main Street has profound meaning within the American culture that has prevailed for the past two centuries. Historically, Main Street serves as the beating heart of a community, a place where economic, social, cultural, and civic activities are centered (Francaviglia, 1996; Main Street America, n.d.). Since the beginning of the 19th century, many factors have led to the decline of Main Streets, and despite a variety of efforts from different stakeholders, that decline has only intensified in recent decades (Isenberg, 2008; Orvell, 2014 Howard, 2015). In 1980, after a three-year project conducted by the National …

A Healthier Community For Generations To Come: Creating Resilient And Equitable Development On Lower 9th Ward Corridors, Sarah Bechdel, Dov Block, Bailey Bullock, Ellis Combes, Laura Harris, Samuel Mercier, Maya Struhar

Planning and Urban Studies Reports and Presentations

The Healthier Community for Generations to Come report provides Sankofa Community Development Corporation with programmatic recommendations to assist in the revitalization of the Lower Ninth Ward (LNW). This report draws on extensive research in urban planning best practices to propose strategies that promote economic revitalization, housing sustainability, community health, and environmental resilience. The research was guided by an Urban Land Institute (ULI) Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) which engaged the LNW community to inform recommendations. Sustainability analysis, equity planning, resilience planning, market analysis, and GIS analysis methodologies were employed to create the report. The final report recommendations included a site SWOT, …

Socioeconomic Vulnerability: Qualitative Findings From Climate Change Data In California, Evan Martinez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Climate Change has existed as an important focus in the science community for decades, however relevant literature often focuses on environmental viewpoints more so than those of a socioeconomic perspective. In 2023, an increase in severe weather and unexpected weather events across the United States shed light onto the shortcomings of our preparedness and mitigation techniques. Particularly in California, flooding, sea level rise, and drought conditions have led to high rates of population displacement, economic inequality, and health/safety risks. These events pose the questions as to how climate change and its related natural disasters can potentially affect the average California …

Gentrification And Crime In The Twin Cities: Insights And Challenges Through A Statistical Lens, Erin G. Franke

Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Honors Projects

Gentrification is a complex process of urban redevelopment that typically involves an in-migration of educated people to neighborhoods experiencing a period of disinvestment. While gentrification is widely regarded for its potential to displace long-time businesses and residents of the neighborhood, its impact on crime is highly controversial. There is not a consensus on the relationship between gentrification and crime across criminological theory and past statistical studies have also shown contradictory results. Measuring gentrification on the tract level with census data, we seek to understand gentrification’s relationship with violent crime and theft in the Twin Cities. Using a Poisson model with …

A Holistic Blueprint For Sustainability Publication Outlet, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Instead of compartmentalising decisions about infrastructure or resource allocation, universities need a whole-system approach to sustainability that shifts attitudes and behaviour, writes Lily Kong

Contrasting Public And Private Approaches To Private Land Conservation In The United States: Local Government, Land Trust, And Landowner Viewpoints, Anna Overby

All Dissertations

In the United States (US), low-density, non-contiguous development, termed sprawl, has long been of widespread concern. Since the 1970s, rural residential sprawl, or exurban sprawl, has grown faster than any other development pattern. Exurban sprawl is development beyond the urban/suburban fringe with ties to the urban environment, such as employment and consumption, rather than to rural economies. Exurban sprawl is highly consumptive of land and has implications for conservation, natural resource management, agriculture, and communities. This study explores two main avenues of exurban sprawl prevention in the US: voluntary conservation easements and local government growth management regulations. The use of …

Perceived Safety And Equitable Access: An Investigation Of The Northwest Arkansas Regional Greenway, Jessica Shearman

Landscape Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

In today’s world, designers, planners, and policymakers are grappling with conflicts of climate change, habitat loss, and increasing diversity all during a migratory trend towards urban areas and higher densities of living. Creating public spaces that are both resilient ecologically and environmentally, while also creating a sense of place is essential for providing a higher quality of life equitably for all citizens. Through case studies and literature review, the public’s safety perceptions when accessing public spaces is key to equitable access. Specifically, differing perceptions of safety based on gender, race, and backgrounds. Perceived safety can be defined as an awareness …

Smart Transportation In Small- And Medium-Sized Cities In Central California, Hongwei Dong

Mineta Transportation Institute

The research on smart transportation in the United States has centered on large metropolitan areas. The adoption of smart transportation technologies in small-and medium-sized cities outside of large metropolitan areas is less studied and understood. This study examined the adoption of smart transportation technologies in small-and medium-sized cities in Central California. The analysis was based on the online survey responses from 29 transportation officials and professionals who worked for 18 municipal government departments and six metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) in Central California as well as in depth semi-structured interviews with seven of them. The study showed that smart transportation in …

A Spatial Analysis Of Food Access Within Saint Louis City By Walking, Public Transit, And Personal Vehicles., Nicole Eanes

Undergraduate Research Symposium

According to The United States Department of Agriculture, 44 million Americans, including 13 million children, are food insecure as of 2022. Many factors contribute to inadequate food access and food insecurity, including poverty, unemployment, low wages, historical redlining, and structural racism.

As a city with minimal thoroughfares that are safe to walk along and an often unreliable or time-consuming public transit system, I wanted to visualize how the mode of transportation impacts a resident’s access to food in Saint Louis City.

Based on my findings, the Saint Louis Metro Bus System provides the most access to residents in Saint Louis …