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This paper contributes to research on neighborhood effects and knowledge about the conditions associated with community-level patterns of police behavior by examining whether levels of violence, racial and ethnic composition, and socioeconomic disadvantage are associated with officer-involved shootings in Houston, TX. In addition, drawing from the ecological theory of policing, this study explores whether spatial heterogeneity exists in the observed relationships. Poisson regression models reveal that community violence and neighborhood racial and ethnic context are meaningful indicators of on-duty officer-involved shootings. Socioeconomic disadvantage did not emerge as a significant variable in the models estimated. Results from Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression (GWPR) models indicate statistically significant spatial variation in the effects for all the key community factors. The findings highlight the importance of local context for developing a greater understanding of police violence across the urban landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Pedestrian crash counts are modeled. • Disparities between majority Black and non-majority Black neighborhoods are examined. • Pedestrian crashes are strongly affected by the density of transit stops. • Black pedestrians are more likely to be involved in crashes in non-majority Black neighborhoods. • Policy and equity implications are identified. In this paper, we unpack the magnitude effects of the determinants of pedestrian crashes using a multivariate analysis approach. We consider four sets of exogenous factors that characterize residential neighborhoods as well as potentially affect pedestrian crashes and the racial composition of such crashes: (1) crash risk exposure (CE) attributes, (2) cultural variables, (3) built environment (BE) features, and (4) sociodemographic (SD) factors. Our investigation uses pedestrian crash and related data from the City of Houston, Texas, which we analyze at the spatial Census Block Group (CBG) level. Our results indicate that social resistance considerations (that is, minorities resisting norms as they are perceived as being set by the majority group), density of transit stops, and road design considerations (in particular in and around areas with high land-use diversity) are the three strongest determinants of pedestrian crashes, particularly in CBGs with a majority of the resident population being Black. The findings of this study can enable policymakers and planners to develop more effective countermeasures and interventions to contain the growing number of pedestrian crashes in recent years, as well as racial disparities in pedestrian crashes. Importantly, transportation safety engineers need to work with social scientists and engage with community leaders to build trust before leaping into implementing planning countermeasures and interventions. Issues of social resistance, in particular, need to be kept in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface drainage at the neighborhood and street scales plays an important role in conveying stormwater and mitigating urban flooding. Surface drainage at the local scale is often ignored due to the lack of up-to-date fine-scale topographical information. This paper addresses this issue by providing a novel method for evaluating surface drainage at the neighborhood and street scales based on mobile lidar (light detection and ranging) measurements. The developed method derives topographical properties and runoff accumulation by applying a semantic segmentation (SS) model (a computer vision technique) and a flow direction model (a hydrology technique) to lidar data. Fifty lidar images representing 50 street blocks were used to train, validate, and test the SS model. Based on the test dataset, the SS model has 80.3% IoU and 88.5% accuracy. The results suggest that the proposed method can effectively evaluate surface drainage conditions at both the neighborhood and street scales and identify problematic low points that could be susceptible to water ponding. Municipalities and property owners can use this information to take targeted corrective maintenance actions. • The study developed a method that integrates computer vision and flow direction model to assess surface drainage condition. • This study applied the developed method to 50 street blocks in a neighborhood in Houston, Texas. • The developed model can identify key drainage and land features within a street block with an accuracy of 88.5%. • The results can show problematic areas susceptible to water ponding and inform drainage maintenance decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the diversity of gentrification, which involves various types of agents and processes in driving Houston's urban renaissance. The research advances a technique that enables a broader analysis of gentrification, consistent with the approaches of Damaris Rose, Robert Beauregard, and Eric Clark to studying this process. A principal components analysis and a K-means cluster analysis revealed a grouping of fifty-four tracts in Houston, consisting of some 75 km2 just within the 610 loop (Houston's urban core), experiencing similar levels of upgrading. A qualitative analysis was developed around three case-study neighborhoods, captured from this one cluster, identifying similar scales of gentrification, but showing the internal diversity of the process: the 'chaos' and the 'complexity' of gentrification. The authors explore different mechanisms of redevelopment, used in different combinations throughout the city by different types of agents, in driving reinvestment and displacement throughout Houston's urban core and surrounding neighborhoods. The research suggests that no one income group in Houston is secure in maintaining its socio-economic neighborhood composition, including the rich. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the interplay between historic preservation, archaeology, mass media, and competing historical narratives, focusing on one urban community in Texas. After its founding by emancipated African Americans, Freedmen's Town became the "Mother Ward" for Houston's growing black professional class. By the late 20th century, due to demographic shifts, a lack of zoning, and weak historic preservation ordinances, it had become one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city (despite being listed on the National Register of Historic Places). The remaining historical structures are now being drowned in a gentrification-driven sea of townhomes and lofts. Some new residents embrace the neighborhood's history, but others use media and politics to reject it actively, as they enact traditional stereotypes about race, poverty, and class. Within this context, those of us involved with the Community Archaeology Research Institute, Inc., have been attempting to do community-based (not "placed") archaeology and encourage local-history and public-policy communities to avoid "writing oft" the neighborhood as "lost." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents data on the siting of solid waste facilities in one of the nation's fastest growing cities, Houston, Texas. The findings reveal that solid waste sites were not randomly scattered over the Houston landscape but were likely to be found in predominantly black neighborhoods and near black schools. Institutionalized discrimination in the housing market, lack of zoning, and decisions by public officials over the past fifty years are major factors that have contributed to Houston's black neighborhoods becoming the ‘dumping ground’ for the area's solid waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]