Search

Providing equitable access to greenspace requires innovative strategies in urban areas where land is scarce and expensive. One potential solution is to make golf courses, which are often exclusive and require daily or annual membership fees, more accessible to the general public. The impact of urban golf courses on greenspace access has yet to be investigated systematically, however. Here we quantify (1) the number and area of golf courses within all major urban areas in the conterminous United States, and (2) the number and demographics of people that would benefit from better access to them. We identify 6,962 urban golf courses that cover 3,102 km2 urban land, equivalent to ∼29 percent of all urban greenspace. We find that 3.4 percent of the U.S. urban population (equivalent to nearly 6 million people) live less than 1 km from a golf course but more than 1 km from public greenspace. Policies that make golf courses more available to the general public would substantially improve greenspace access, and associated health benefits, for millions of Americans. In most cities, however, it is wealthy, White neighborhoods that would benefit most from better access to golf courses, not the lower socioeconomic, ethno-racial minority communities that are most lacking in greenspace access. Making golf courses more accessible to the general public should therefore be considered just one component of a more diverse set of strategies to improve access to greenspace in U.S. cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect are increasing extreme heat risk in cities across the world, and have already made extreme heat the top weather-related cause of death in the United States. Despite this, understanding of viable strategies to address extreme heat is still limited, for both decision-makers and the public. Using a design-based research methodology, we developed an interactive educational game, Chill City, which teaches players about possible heat planning strategies and their tradeoffs. We surveyed adult, non-expert players to understand the game's reception and impacts. Players expressed that they enjoyed the game and that it helped them better understand heat planning strategies and the environmental, social, and economic tradeoffs associated with them. We argue that environmental games offer educational potential for adult learners on issues of extreme heat and climate change that should be further explored to inform effective approaches and designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme heat is the deadliest climate hazard in the United States. Climate change and the urban heat island effect are increasing the number of dangerously hot days in cities worldwide and the need for communities to plan for extreme heat. Existing literature on heat planning focuses on heat island mapping and modeling, whereas few studies delve into heat planning and governance processes. We surveyed planning professionals from diverse cities across the United States to establish critical baseline information for a growing area of planning practice and scholarship that future research can build on. Survey results show that planners are concerned with extreme heat risks, particularly environmental and public health impacts from climate change. Planners already report impacts from extreme heat, particularly to energy and water use, vegetation and wildlife, public health, and quality of life. Especially in affected communities, planners claim they address heat in plans and implement heat mitigation and management strategies such as urban forestry, emergency response, and weatherization, but perceive many barriers related to human and financial resources and political will. Planners are concerned about extreme heat, especially in the face of climate change. They are beginning to address heat through different strategies and plan types, but we see opportunities to better connect planners to existing heat information sources and leverage existing planning tools, including vegetation, land use regulations, and building codes, to mitigate risks. Although barriers to heat planning persist, including human and capital resources, planners are uniquely qualified to coordinate communities' efforts to address the rising threat of extreme heat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arts-based community development practices have received newfound prominence over the past decade under the auspices of "creative placemaking." In 2010, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) published a white paper titled "Creative Placemaking" and launched a new granting program focused on this practice called Our Town. Today, creative placemaking is burgeoning yet its precise definition remains fuzzy. This article uses content analysis to systematically analyze the 569 Our Town grants awarded by the NEA since the program's inception to inductively define creative placemaking based on the values embedded into project proposals, comparing these values with the NEA's stated Our Town goals. I find that creative placemaking, at least as funded in the U.S. through Our Town, can be defined as public or community-based art that includes values of place-specificity, collaboration, and participation, and which results in three forms of community development outcomes: economic development, bolstering social capital and participation, and improved cultural infrastructure. As creative placemaking evolves, equity is increasingly a concern, shifting focus toward the latter two outcomes as more measurable and desirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are increasingly referenced as goals in general or master plans, yet we know little about how these concepts shape topical arts and cultural plans, which have become an important facet of economic development strategies. Through a detailed content analysis of 64 municipal arts and cultural plans in the United States, this project sought to find out how and when such plans integrate concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We found that these values are only occasionally guiding principles and that most plans are written from the perspective of the majority (usually White) with very little information about demographic or socioeconomic context. Many talk about being inclusive or diverse without ever identifying the marginalized or low-resourced groups in the community. The plans we evaluated span a 20-year time period; those from 2016 to 2019 demonstrate a much stronger equity focus in the planning process and strategy content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-temporal and spatially explicit population data are vital in many fields, such as demography, urban planning, disaster prevention,economics, and environmental modeling. Population data used in these studies are typically aggregated at census enumeration units, which are too coarse for many applications. Accurate population downscaling methods are needed to obtain population data at finer spatial resolutions. We use a novel settlement-related database, Built-Up Property Records (BUPR) from the Historical Settlement Data Compilation for the United States (HISDAC-US) to downscale population from census tracts to block groups. The BUPR dataset provides the number of built-up property records for each 250-m grid at 5-year temporal resolution from 1810 to 2015 for most contiguous United States (CONUS). The ability of BUPR to downscale population from census tracts to block groups for four states, representing a range of population densities, is evaluated here by comparing against other commonly-used ancillary datasets. The BUPR-based method outperforms all other methods in all but one state with highly-incomplete BUPR. A more detailed accuracy assessment is performed by dividing each state into low, medium, and high population density categories. The BUPR method produces more accurate downscaled population estimates for low and medium categories, though its performance deteriorates in the high density category due to its relatively coarse spatial resolution. BUPR-based dasymetric mapping is subsequently applied to the CONUS and found to generalize well beyond the four comparison states with high downscaling accuracy. The long-term record of the HISDAC-US dataset enables the potential construction of fine-grained population data back to 1810. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of local political fragmentation on population, employment, and per capita money income growth in 314 U.S. metropolitan areas. The results are mixed. Smaller central cities and more special district overlap are important for population growth. The findings do not generalize in regard to employment or per capita money income growth. These findings mask important regional variation: political fragmentation is largely unrelated to economic growth in midwestern and western metropolitan areas. These results partially support the hypothesis that governmental fragmentation can enhance local economic growth; however, the overall impact appears muted relative to a metropolitan area's economic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars conducting empirical research on U.S. suburbs must develop their own definition of suburbia. In this paper, we operationalize three suburban definitions commonly used in the literature. Conducting census data analysis, we compare these definitions across several key characteristics and geography. We find, under all three definitions, residents in the suburbs have higher incomes, are whiter, and are more likely to be married couples with children than residents in urban areas. Yet, there are some important caveats to these suburban stereotypes. First, regardless of definition, most suburban households do not have children, and there are many poor people, renters and higher proportions of different racial and ethnic groups in suburbs. Second, there is strong evidence of variation within the suburbs themselves. For instance, inner suburbs are more like urban areas than they are like outer suburbs; and there is great variation along the urban/suburban spectrum. We suggest the U.S. Bureau of the Census develop a standard suburban definition to aid with the growing interest in the study of suburban dynamics and change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examines the associations between demolition and crime in Los Angeles blocks. Also, the current study examines how different types of demolitions (residential and commercial) can have different effects on crime in place. We utilized a weekly dataset of demolitions and crime in the city of Los Angeles, California from 2013 to 2016. We estimated longitudinal logistic regression models including measures of completed and permitted demolitions, while accounting for other structural characteristic measures. We found that completed demolitions in the focal block are not associated with most types of crime, while demolition permits have a crime-reducing effect on burglary, but crime-enhancing effect on larceny. We also found that the notice of a residential demolition permit reduces burglary one week later, but not for a commercial demolition permit. The current study contributes to the extant literature by revealing the nuances surrounding the demolition and crime process in blocks, in terms of demolition stages (permitted and completed), demolition type (residential and commercial), and crime types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How did New York City's climate politics change after Hurricane Sandy, and why? Prevailing accounts of extreme weather's impact on climate politics draw on survey data and characterize climate policy in vague terms. However, weather does not do the work of politics; the specifics of climate policy matter. I develop a relational sociological approach focused on mobilized actors, political economy, and event theory. Drawing on interviews and document analysis, I show how senior disaster officials, New York's Mayor Bloomberg and his Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, community groups and Occupy Sandy activists responded to Hurricane Sandy. Actors maintained outlooks and practices consistent with their position in the city's power relations. This selective continuity shifted New York's climate policy from decarbonization-focused tentative cosmopolitanism to adaptation-focused defensive parochialism. I term this convergent prioritization of adaptation a 'fortress of solitude' social logic. Only subsequent events explain New York's 2019 low-carbon legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are rapidly emerging in United States cities, leaving urban and regional planning institutions unsure how to plan and develop policies. This paper analyzes how regional transportation plans (RTPs) developed by metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) are approaching the risks and opportunities presented by AVs. Among 52 MPOs, a majority only mention key issues and emphasize high levels of uncertainty. Twelve MPOs develop policies on infrastructure, safety, partnerships, data-sharing, and multimodal transportation. Despite a positive trend, many recently adopted RTPs do not incorporate AVs. To plan for uncertain mobility futures, MPOs must develop more flexible approaches to long-term infrastructure investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grassroots refugee community organizations (RCOs)—run by and for resettled refugees—are often small, informal, and financially unstable, and thus commonly forgotten in urban governance networks. Nevertheless, RCOs facilitate the integration of refugee communities in urban settings. We interviewed 42 leaders of 35 RCOs in 35 U.S. cities and conducted four focus groups with community leaders of Bhutanese RCOs. Findings suggest that federally contracted NGOs and local governments have frequently denied RCOs' requests to participate in governance. Notably, only one RCO reported successful insertion in an urban governance network. Phase two of the study identified and conceptualized the inclusive practices that a Midwestern city adopted, such as hiring a cultural planner and building a consortium to support refugees in urban governance. This article provides a roadmap toward the successful integration of RCOs in urban governance. Even small and midsize cities can develop strategies for the inclusion of RCOs in the urban planning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, resettled refugees arrive in designated resettlement cities where they can in theory start a new life with support systems in place. Although refugee resettlement agencies are the main point of contact upon arrival, agencies are mandated to work with refugees for 90 days. Traditionally, local governments have not had purposeful contact with resettled refugee populations, yet the policies they enact and built environments they shape impact the lives and health of resettled refugees in myriad ways. As resettled refugees adjust to new ways of life, local governments can support plans and policies that reinforce healthy lifestyles. Multiple studies show that, among resettled refugee populations, acculturation of diet leads to increased risk of chronic disease. Furthermore, resettled refugee populations may be especially susceptible to experiencing cultural and economic inequities that ultimately contribute to food disparities, possibly leading to detrimental health outcomes. We explore the extent to which local governments in major U.S. resettlement cities consider the needs of resettled refugee populations in planning, particularly in regard to how planning influences food security, nutrition, and food-related and health concerns. Using a mixed-methods approach, we first conduct a review of the comprehensive plans of 10 cities that resettled the most refugees between 2012 and 2016 to determine if and how local governments are planning for resettled refugee populations. With an in-depth case study of the city of Buffalo, we explore the nuances of the findings from the review of comprehensive plans. For this deep-dive case study, interviews and a focus group were conducted with refugees from Burma to gain an understanding of how local governments and civil society groups plan for new American populations, particularly in terms of their food and health. Results carry implications as to how local governments can better serve resettled refugee populations through comprehensive planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main policy initiative of the Obama administration's first-term urban policy agenda was the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, which issued Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grants (SCRPGs) to regions across the country. As participant activist scholars in the SCRPG planning process in Baltimore, Maryland, we present our analysis of 4 aspects of regional equity planning: community engagement, regional collaboration, regional housing policy, and the use of opportunity and equity-related data. We find that the process enabled adoption of a unique outreach strategy, engaged regional stakeholders in equity-focused conversations, and enabled comprehensive analysis of equity data in a plan focused on improving regional equity. However, despite some progress on regional housing issues, plan implementation has largely not occurred due to a lack of commitment to and coordination around implementation. The Baltimore experience suggests that in the absence of such commitments at the regional level or further federal requirements and funding for implementation, large federal grants have only limited success in pushing regional equity planning forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Small towns and cities outside of national parks, scenic public lands, and other natural amenities throughout the western United States are becoming increasingly popular places to live and visit. As a result, many of these gateway communities appear to be experiencing a range of pressures and challenges. In this study we draw on the results of in-depth interviews with 33 public officials and a survey of more than 300 public officials to shed light on the planning and development concerns across western gateway communities. Our results indicate that gateway communities throughout the western United States are experiencing a range of planning and development challenges, many of which seem atypical for small rural communities, such as challenges associated with housing affordability, cost of living, and congestion. These challenges seem to be more related to population growth than increasing tourism and stand out in stark contrast against the fact that these communities strongly value and identify with their small-town character. Our findings suggest gateway communities are doing a variety of things, some quite innovative, to address their planning and development challenges but often feel overwhelmed, behind the curve, and in need of additional capacity and planning support. Takeaway for practice: Our study highlights the importance of effective and proactive planning in gateway communities. It also suggests that to do forward-looking planning and to respond to the challenges they face, many gateway communities will need additional planning support and tools. We highlight gateway communities here to provide a platform for future efforts aimed at assisting these small, rural communities in protecting the qualities that make them such special places to live and visit amid the planning and development pressures and challenges they face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how stories of everyday experiences in urban settings from around the world foster and sustain a community that seemingly transcends national borders. Given that both urban and online experiences are increasingly prevalent in modern life, surprisingly little attention is paid to how these experiences might foster a sense of community in an online setting. We use Facebook's Humans of New York (HONY) site, analyzing over 130,000 text comments, to explore this question. We apply content analysis and text mining techniques, using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software and multidimensional scaling (MDS) to visualize their latent patterns. Integrating Chayko's theoretical model of "portable communities," we find evidence suggesting the existence of a shared social context, of positive interaction, empathy, and support, irrespective of national boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intergovernmental relations among local government officials in U.S. metropolitan areas have been depicted as the foundation for metropolitan governance. Institutions, including councils of government and metropolitan planning organizations, help broker contacts across large metropolitan regions, yet little attention has been given to the actual patterns of intergovernmental communication and advice seeking by elected officials. Using original survey data from the San Francisco Bay Area, this research investigates the structure of local elected officials' advice networks at the city level. Though both theory and government reform efforts predict an interconnected metropolitan region, elected officials' advice-seeking patterns are highly constrained by county lines and correlate with partisanship and select demographic variables. If advice networks are a measure of metropolitan governance, then the San Francisco Bay Area may be characterized by polycentric intergovernmental relations rather than dense metropolitan civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Placemaking is a form of public engagement that impacts community development by building social capital, motivating public policy, and shaping real estate development. Popular across public-focused industries, placemaking permeates strategies for community development. This project seeks to elucidate the extent to which community development-centered institutions engage in placemaking and for what reasons. The institutions of focus in this study are community development corporations (CDCs). Employing a survey of CDC associates, the data reveal that placemaking is, in fact, a well-known and oft-practiced strategy among CDCs for myriad reasons – among them an alignment and reliance on local assets – all with the ultimate end of developing communities across the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Despite an estimated 10.7 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States in 2016, little research in urban planning focuses on immigrant legal status. The failure to account for immigrant legal status as an explanatory factor in travel behavior research is problematic because undocumented immigrants face structural disincentives for driving compared with immigrants legally residing in the United States and may make different travel mode choices as a result. We use the 2008 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation and a methodology that identifies likely undocumented immigrants in the data to answer two research questions: Given their inability to possess a valid driver's license in most states, do undocumented immigrants drive less than their counterparts who reside in the United States legally? More generally, what is the relationship between immigrant legal status and commuting mode choice? We find that two-thirds of Hispanic undocumented immigrants who commute to work drive, but that undocumented status has a suppressive effect on driving compared with native-born Hispanics or Hispanic immigrants legally residing in the United States. Our analysis does not assess the relationship between travel behavior and immigrant legal status for non-Hispanic immigrants and does not control for built environment factors. Takeaway for practice: Unlicensed driving by undocumented immigrants may reduce public safety. To reduce unlicensed driving by undocumented immigrants, planners should encourage alternative commute modes with a particular focus on carpooling and support the passage of new legislation that allows undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses in states that currently do not give undocumented immigrants this right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increasing popularity of the bicycle as a mode of urban transport in the United States, compared to much of the industrialized West, the US cycling scene continues to struggle with a high fatality and severe injury rate, and comparatively low levels of cycling. In contrast to the most bicycle-friendly countries, which have achieved high rates of safe cycling not through widespread adoption of bicycle safety helmets, but through bicycle-friendly infrastructure and policy, the US appears to have maintained a greater fixation on, and a higher rate of use of, bicycle helmets. In this paper, I seek to examine whether there is evidence of a helmet fixation, to sketch out the broad strokes of such a fixation as a discourse, and to offer an explanation of the effects of this discourse. Using a qualitative analysis of the official online presence of 25 US city planning departments relating to bicycling and bicycle safety, I first provide evidence that the helmet does in fact take a central place in the US urban bike safety discourse, and I characterize four rhetorical strategies used to encourage helmet use. I then argue that this helmet fixation is ultimately tied to the (re)production of unfettered automobility, and that it arguably hampers efforts to actually improve bicycle safety. I subsequently suggest implications for research, practice, and advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and the rise of a grassroots–legislative political–environmental movement in the United States should change how urban planners think and act on spatial change and social justice. After the 2018 U.S. elections, organizing movements and progressive legislators endorsed the Green New Deal. In this Viewpoint I look at the Green New Deal's potential implications for urban planning. I analyze it in reference to the 1930s' New Deal inspirations and current climate and urban challenges, and illustrate the contradictions between large-scale spatial change and community-scale social justice. I explain how the imperatives of the Green New Deal, in conjunction with the shifting sites, scales, and politics of planning for climate change, should encourage planners to reframe their spaces and politics of practice toward a reconceptualized urban regional scale and a new politics of more public participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, shrinking cities have begun to gentrify, leading to optimistic narratives about their recovery. Redevelopment policies, however, can exacerbate social and spatial inequities if explicit efforts do not promote social justice. Drawing on evidence from Cincinnati and New Orleans, we explore 3 components of just revitalization: avoiding displacement, connecting longtime residents to new opportunities, and reducing decline in neighborhoods that are not revitalizing. The article then examines 3 reasons these objectives have been difficult to achieve: the timing of anti-displacement policies, the mechanisms used to connect long-term residents to economic opportunities, and how cities address conditions in neighborhoods that are not growing. The analysis shows that the cities are adopting mechanisms to spread the benefits of revitalization, but without explicit policies targeting low- and moderate-income residents, neighborhoods in shrinking cities can become unaffordable and gentrification will increase inequity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike virtually all other old immigrant enclaves in North American cities, the historic downtown Chinatowns of big cities in the United States and Canada largely survive, though not for lack of plans to destroy them. City Beautiful era plans, development projects, and other public and private interventions displaced or sought to eradicate Chinatowns, from Los Angeles to Victoria to Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia. Urban renewal era projects destroyed large portions of many Chinatowns, and some entirely. This article traces these broad patterns and trends of planned and realized destruction and preservation across 15 of the major cities in twentieth-century Canada and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of a federal strategy in the United States for climate change adaptation leaves state and city governments with broad discretion to undertake appropriate measures. Yet, cities may be unable to adapt to climate change without external assistance. Fragmentation of authority in a federalist system has largely resulted in small jurisdictions that may be incapable of efficiently delivering public services. Collaboration allows cities to pool resources and work across boundaries to ameliorate problems, such as climate change. However, little is known about why and how collaborative governance may lead to better outputs and outcomes. Using the case of climate change adaptation in U.S. cities, this study seeks to understand collaborative governance better and its effects on sea level rise preparedness. Findings suggest that level of collaborative activity is positively associated with higher policy outputs and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advocates argue that urban manufacturing holds potential to promote locally distinctive enterprises, quality employment and more socially-inclusive forms of urban development. However, little is known how urban policy actually supports manufacturing. This paper documents the policy response to urban manufacturing in the U.S. and Australia. We determine how policy documents conceptualise manufacturing and define goals and strategy around land use, business development and workforce development. The analysis demonstrates that manufacturing policy is situated between entrenched visions of deindustrialisation and emerging notions of a renewed, advanced manufacturing sector and that most cities struggle to address the inherent challenges of this condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine whether any cultural difference exists on the influence of residents' place-based perceptions on perceived tourism impacts and support for tourism. A survey was distributed to urban residents in China and the United States. Structural equation modeling results show that self-esteem and self-efficacy were two important factors that influence residents' attitude to tourism impacts in both contexts. Distinctiveness was only observed as influential in the China study, while continuity was not evident in either culture. Results imply the need for destination marketers to use various strategies to reach the target market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 600,000 people leave prison and become residents of neighborhoods across the United States annually. Using a longitudinal survey of people returning to Greater Boston, this study examines disparities in neighborhood attainment after prison. Accounting for levels of pre-prison neighborhood disadvantage, Black and Hispanic respondents moved into significantly more disadvantaged areas than Whites. Neighborhood residence was not attained by all: One-quarter of respondents left prison and entered formal institutional settings or lived in extreme social marginality throughout Boston. Neighborhood attachment was patterned by criminal justice involvement and experiences of material hardship in the year after prison. Findings indicate that housing insecurity, re-incarceration, and profound racial disparities in neighborhood context explain the ecological structure of social inequality in urban neighborhoods in an era of mass incarceration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What kinds of places have high entrepreneurial activities? There has been an emerging body of studies about so-called entrepreneurship ecosystems, but virtually all of the past studies have examined this question from a perspective of which metropolitan areas have higher entrepreneurial activities. In this article, we examine the intrametropolitan scale at the Census tract level. By analyzing thirty metropolitan areas to extend external validity, we demonstrate the concentration of high-growth firms in specific employment nodes in both urban and suburban parts of each metropolitan area. Significant correlations exist between place-based vibrancy indicators and high-growth firm concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of neoliberalism in the United States is often linked to the economic crises of the 1970s. Within this narrative, stagflation, the OPEC oil embargo and the first major postwar threats to American economic hegemony challenged the ideational supremacy of Keynesianism. With major corporate organizational help, the ideas of once obscure economists were then elevated to policy by sympathetic politicians. This narrative is important but fails to capture other elements of support for neoliberal policies. In the United States, reaction to the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) and black political progress is an under-appreciated dimension of support for neoliberal ideas. This article explores the methods that conservatives have used to stitch together a coalition to capture resentment of the CRM, while appearing to be neutral on issues of race. These forms of conservative bonding capital have been crucial to the rise of neoliberal policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

David R. Godschalk, professor emeritus in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, passed away in early 2018. In this essay we reflect on Dave's planning scholarship and practice. We discuss his main contributions in 4 prominent areas. First is the importance of public participation and collaboration for the planning and governance of communities. He argued for democratizing and recasting public participation, with planners working alongside community members coproducing plans and incorporating uncertainty, new information, and different viewpoints. Second is Dave's focus on the tenets of the comprehensive plan and its core element, the land use plan. In the plan, central principles of livable urban forms and model planning processes can be integrated and translated to practice. With academic collaborators and practitioners he pioneered theoretical and empirical research on what constitutes a high-quality plan, a fundamental question at the heart of planning. Third is his research demonstrating how spatial planning can be used for hazard mitigation and urban resilience. This work forged a new generation of planning academics and practitioners who focused on hazard plans for predisaster mitigation and postdisaster recovery at multiple governmental levels. Finally, fourth is his personal involvement in planning-related institutions that he helped create, lead, or steer. In his various roles as scholar, teacher, mentor, collaborator, supervisor, planning director, and elected official, Dave touched the lives of many who now build on his contributions in creating better communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing up in a shifting urban environment during the major socioeconomic transition in the Bronx (NY) in the 1950s and 1960s, my interests in neighborhood change peaked with the changes in housing, the impact of urban renewal, the need for more open-space recreation, the arrival of the interstate highways, and the new faces of the population. These childhood observations led me to pursue an urban planning career. I have had experiences in a variety of functional areas across the tri-state metropolitan area of Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. In striving to be a more complete planner, I added depth to my career as an adjunct academician, leader in APA/AICP, and community volunteer practicing what I preached. I learned that these various roles and experiences related to one another and advanced my understanding of urban planning in a synergistic way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the directive of U.S. president Harry S. Truman aimed to disperse industrial plants. The author points out the inadequacy of any plan which scatters industrial plants without providing for the collateral development of social facilities. Considering the significance of the dispersal, one must take account of the impending dangers of atomic warfare. The author identifies the practicable program to accomplish dispersal or decentralization. Parts of the feasible immediate programs are the following: (1) Making the big city less vulnerable; (2)Dispersal or decentralization should take in two ways; and, (3) the creation of new towns. Finally, the author examines the advantages and disadvantages of the dispersal.

Planning is a divided profession. Perspectives diverge on fundamental themes as to which theories, methodologies, and goals for the future should be embraced. Even though this plurality of views is a sign of intellectual resourcefulness within the field, it is disconcerting the extent to which planning finds it difficult to articulate itself to effectively address persistent problems such as environmental degradation and social inequality. This paper proposes that the Wilberian philosophy can offer a valuable contribution in this regard, and particularly when integrated with the legacy of Niraj Verma. Examples from transport planning are used to illustrate the argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on an integrated modeling exercise, conducted on behalf of the US Federal Highway Administration, on the potential for frequent automated transit shuttles (‘community transit’), in conjunction with improvements to the walking and cycling environment, to overcome the last-mile problem of regional rail transit and thereby divert travelers away from car use. A set of interlocking investigations was undertaken, including development of urban visualizations, distribution of a home-based survey supporting a stated-preference model of mode choice, development of an agent-based model, and alignment of the mode-choice and agent-based models. The investigations were designed to produce best-case estimates of the impact of community transit and ancillary improvements in reducing car use. The models in combination suggested significant potential to divert drivers, especially in areas that were relatively transit-poor to begin with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community benefits agreements (CBAs) allow coalitions of labor and grassroots organizations to negotiate for concessions in the development process. One goal of a CBA is to more broadly distribute the benefits of new development to distressed communities and historically disenfranchised groups. Since their emergence in the 1990s, CBAs have not been well institutionalized. To date, there have been roughly 30 CBAs adopted across the United States. A relatively new development in the CBA movement has been the push to adopt model CBAs and community benefits ordinances, that outline all of the linkages that local government expects a developer to include in a project and require developers to negotiate linked development agreements as part of the project approval process. Although the emergence of model CBAs and CBA ordinances is promising for local groups interested in promoting equitable development, little research has been done on them. This article examines three critical cases in the United States (Portland, OR; Cleveland, OH; Detroit, MI) and evaluates the degree to which they serve as tools to institutionalize equitable development in the urban planning process. This analysis is based on content analysis and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing algorithms for retrieval of Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) were generally developed for deep ocean waters while practical applications of SSS are commonly involved in coastal (particularly nearshore) waters. To fill the gap, this paper presents a new SSS algorithm, called Nearshore SSS Algorithm, developed using the Artificial Neural Networks toolbox in the MATLAB Program and 7 years of cloud-free Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Aqua data as well as in situ data collected from United States Geological Survey (USGS) stations along the Northern Gulf of Mexico coast. The independent input variables involved in the new algorithm include the water-leaving reflectance at 412 nm, 443 nm, 488 nm, 555 nm, 678 nm, and 645 nm of MODIS Aqua sensor. Results of sensitivity analysis indicate that SSS in nearshore waters is most sensitive to reflectance at 412 nm and 488 nm, followed by the reflectance at 555 nm and 645 nm. While reflectance at 678 nm is also important, reflectance at 443 nm is the least important to SSS in nearshore waters, providing new insights into SSS in coastal waters. MODIS data collected from January 2012 to September 2014 were used for validation of the nearshore SSS algorithm. The linear correlation coefficient of this algorithm for Louisiana coast was 0.7256 and 0.6985 for the development and validation, respectively. A unique feature of this paper is that while the new algorithm is particularly useful to the retrieval of SSS in nearshore waters, it is also expanded to further offshore waters, providing reliable SSS data for various applications of coastal environment and resources management particularly along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying and mapping tropical trees at the species level from space can support an improved assessment of forest composition, forest carbon uptake, tree species distribution and preferred habitat as well as a better understanding of the response of forests to climate change. In this study, the development of a validated data and image-processing schema demonstrated the capability of current metre-scale satellite technology (WorldView-3) to identify specific tree species within an unmanaged tropical forest. The experimental site, La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica, provided access for field validation and spectral data acquisition of individual tree canopies from established canopy towers. It is also a representative biome of diverse lowland Atlantic tropical forests in Central America. The process defined in this paper calibrated and corrected field-acquired ASD field spectra for ten tree species and corrected WorldView-3 image data for viewing and illumination geometry. In addition, assessments of three current atmospheric compensation methods for correcting recent WorldView-3 satellite imagery established the most accurate compensation process for a tropical forest setting. Corrected reflectance in the satellite data matched the spectrometer data to ±0.25% for visible bands and ±0.5% for near-infrared bands. This study shows that spectral data from the satellite and field spectrometer data are nearly equivalent when applying the appropriate atmospheric compensation, band response emulation, and viewing correction processes established in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing image classification is a common application of remote sensing images. In order to improve the performance of Remote sensing image classification, multiple classifier combinations are used to classify the Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (Landsat-8 OLI) images. Some techniques and classifier combination algorithms are investigated. The classifier ensemble consisting of five member classifiers is constructed. The results of every member classifier are evaluated. The voting strategy is experimented to combine the classification results of the member classifier. The results show that all the classifiers have different performances and the multiple classifier combination provides better performance than a single classifier, and achieves higher overall accuracy of classification. The experiment shows that the multiple classifier combination using producer’s accuracy as voting-weight (MCCmod2 and MCCmod3) present higher classification accuracy than the algorithm using overall accuracy as voting-weight (MCCmod1).And the multiple classifier combinations using different voting-weights affected the classification result in different land-cover types. The multiple classifier combination algorithm presented in this article using voting-weight based on the accuracy of multiple classifier may have stability problems, which need to be addressed in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report 5 (IPCC AR5, 2013) discussed bulk atmospheric temperatures as indicators of climate variability and change. We examine four satellite datasets producing bulk tropospheric temperatures, based on microwave sounding units (MSUs), all updated since IPCC AR5. All datasets produce high correlations of anomalies versus independent observations from radiosondes (balloons), but differ somewhat in the metric of most interest, the linear trend beginning in 1979. The trend is an indicator of the response of the climate system to rising greenhouse gas concentrations and other forcings, and so is critical to understanding the climate. The satellite results indicate a range of near-global (+0.07 to +0.13°C decade−1) and tropical (+0.08 to +0.17°C decade−1) trends (1979-2016), and suggestions are presented to account for these differences. We show evidence that MSUs on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s satellites (NOAA-12 and −14, 1990-2001+) contain spurious warming, especially noticeable in three of the four satellite datasets. Comparisons with radiosonde datasets independently adjusted for inhomogeneities and Reanalyses suggest the actual tropical (20°S-20°N) trend is +0.10 ± 0.03°C decade−1. This tropical result is over a factor of two less than the trend projected from the average of the IPCC climate model simulations for this same period (+0.27°C decade−1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an in-depth study of a grid-like American city using traditional and recent space syntax analytical methods. The case study is Lubbock, located in west Texas, and is characterized by its ‘almost’ ideal grid layout ‒ one that is perhaps prototypical of American conditions west of the Mississippi River. After extensively describing the city, it is examined by using topological, angular and metric radii of space syntax analysis. From these, comments are made on factors influencing its layout and functional distribution, their relationships to syntactic understandings and some recent development trends. Through this process, the paper addresses the debate regarding the appropriateness of space syntax in investigating grid conditions, and responds to an emerging syntax theorem: local structure is metric and global structure is topo-geometric. In addition, the historical development of grid-like cities in the US is described, an implicit comparison of three syntax methods is provided, and a renewed case of syntax applicability to grid-like cities is made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research question addressed in this paper is as follows: how can planners create municipal-scale urban design plans? The authors analyze the San Francisco Urban Design Plan, the first comprehensive urban design plan for a major American city, as a case study to answer this question. Adopted in 1971, the plan focused on design objectives for the city and the social roles of urban design in people’s lives. It was a policy document, and included implementation techniques, but no guidance on architectural design. It was a departure from urban design planning practice at the time, which focused more on guidance for architecture and large-scale master plan models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Atlanta BeltLine (BeltLine) is a large urban redevelopment project that is transforming 22 miles of historical railroad corridors into parks, trails, pedestrian-friendly transit, and affordable housing in the center of Atlanta, Georgia. This study examines how proximity to the BeltLine and other factors relate to public support for it, with data from a general public survey conducted in the summer of 2009. The result shows that support significantly declines as distance to the BeltLine increases. However, after controlling for expected use of the BeltLine parks and transit, the role of distance fades. Further, the results show that being a parent within the city limits is associated with the support for the BeltLine, which implies that the concern over tax increment financing (TIF) affecting future school quality hampers the support of the project. The findings point to individual tastes and family circumstances as driving support for the redevelopment project, rather than strictly property-specific attributes (as the homevoter hypothesis would predict). Another contribution of this study is to address the technical problem of missing precise spatial location values. Several imputation techniques are used to demonstrate the risks and remedies to missing spatial data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article Varady reviews his 46 years of teaching, scholarship, and service in housing policy and community development. His New York City (NY) upbringing led to interests in cities and public policy, which led to degrees in city planning and eventually to receiving his university"s highest award for academic excellence. Varady"s pragmatism offers realistic solutions, questions long-held attitudes, and seeks objectivity in research. Although he takes ideology seriously, he is not an ideologue. Here he explains how his pragmatic perspective affected his research on neighborhood racial change, public housing, housing vouchers, and middleincome housing programs. His career is best measured by the success of his many students who have had the benefits of his years of experience in the field of housing research in both America and Europe . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings : Local jurisdictions in 36 states have implemented transfer of development rights (TDR) programs to provide a market-based approach to preserving farmlands and open space while redirecting future development to targeted areas. Participation in TDR programs involves transaction costs over and above paying for TDR credits. Planners know little about the magnitude of transaction costs; who, if anyone, incurs a disproportionate share of these costs; or how transaction costs affect TDR participation. In this study we estimate the magnitude and distribution of transaction costs incurred by participants in 4 countywide TDR programs in Maryland, a TDR pioneer, by interviewing multiple participants in these programs. We find that total transaction costs were high and borne largely by private sector participants, although we exclude the initial public sector costs of establishing the programs. Total transaction costs range from 13% to 21% of total TDR costs per transaction. Our findings are based on data reported by participants and may not be scalable; transaction costs, however, might deter landowners from participating in TDR programs, thus thwarting the land use goals of planners. Takeaway for practice : Planners should work to reduce transaction costs by better constructing TDR programs and providing greater information on TDR sale prices and potential buyers and sellers. Lowering and more fairly distributing transaction costs will make the TDR program a more successful approach to achieving land use goals and Estimates of Transaction Costs in Transfer of Development Rights Programs Sina Shahab , J. Peter Clinch , and Eoin O'Neill 61 addressing the externalities arising from land use markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban planners have long recognized that collaborative planning processes can lead to more equitable development outcomes. Despite this recognition, calls for greater inclusion, community self-determination, and equitable decision making appear louder than ever before. This study combines narrative and dialogic analysis to examine the transformative impacts and limits of the Planning Free School of Chattanooga, an experimental collaborative planning initiative launched in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to engage historically underrepresented and marginalized residents in local planning conversations and decision making. The Planning Free School model was rooted in anarchistic principles of horizontal, learner-driven engagement, critical self-reflection, capacity building, and antiracist praxis. Over 5 months, 52 workshops, organized as issue-based discussion groups, critical conversations, transformative place-making sessions, and skill shares, were conducted as part of the initiative. The study contends that the planning free school model may hold promise as a collaborative planning model for 4 reasons: (a) its independent, horizontal structure may attract participants who distrusted city staff; (b) the creative, nontraditional format of workshops can help participants reckon with local legacies of violence, exclusion, and uneven development; (c) it can support capacity building through a learner-driven, do-it-yourself curriculum; and (d) its flexibility and radical openness can allow participants to improvise and adapt to evolving political situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings : The maker movement is placing small-scale manufacturing development on mayoral agendas across the United States and promises to reinvigorate production economies in central cities. To make effective policy, planners need more knowledge about the entrepreneurs at the center of this phenomenon. Here we present a qualitative investigation of urban maker economies. We draw on semistructured interviews with firms and supportive organizations in Chicago (IL), New York City (NY), and Portland (OR). A limitation of our approach stems from the unavailability of population parameters; we cannot confirm that our sample refl ects the universe of maker enterprises. We find that makers draw on ecosystems comprising mainly for-profit firms. The public and nonprofit sectors are important in areas where markets do not provide the resources that fledgling makers require. We find 3 distinct types of maker enterprise: micromakers, global innovators, and emerging place-based manufacturers. Each makes a different contribution to local and regional economic development. Takeaway for practice : Planners can maximize the potential of the maker movement by distinguishing among the 3 types of maker firms. Practitioners focused on employment creation should prioritize emerging place-based manufacturers, helping them build supply chain connections and ensuring that they have affordable space into which to expand. Artisanal micromakers also generate economic benefits, as do global innovators focused on product design and prototyping. But emerging place-based manufacturers have the highest potential for employment creation, both directly and via the business growth they stimulate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Municipalities across the United States are gradually recognizing urban agriculture as an integral part of planning, land use, and zoning ordinances. We review the literature on the regulation of urban agriculture at a moment when policy and regulatory vacuums exist and the acceptance and integration of urban agriculture is uneven. We review the current regulatory practices of 40 metropolitan and 40 micropolitan municipalities in the 4 U.S. Census regions. We find that municipalities are filling policy vacuums by adopting enabling ordinances (zoning ordinances, land use designations, resolutions), regulations on urban agriculture production (backyard animals, built structures, practitioner responsibility), and fiscal policy instruments (restrictions on sales of agricultural products, tax abatement, urban agriculture fees). Our findings support local planning practitioners in filling regulatory gaps, practitioners of urban agriculture in seeking how it's done elsewhere, and researchers in discerning new applied and basic research projects. We identify 3 principal knowledge gaps: Planners need a complete typology of regulatory possibilities; a better understanding of how local, state, and federal legislations constrain or enable urban agriculture; and empirical evidence of the economic, social, and environmental impacts of urban agriculture. Takeaway for practice: Planners should assess existing urban agricultural practices and consider which regulatory frameworks best support multiple local goals, incorporating a concern with urban agriculture into ongoing activities, deploying existing or innovative land use tools, facilitating institutional cooperation, and promoting inclusive decision making and community engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with many developing cities, urban travel choices are rather restricted in the United States, prompting most people to drive. Recently retired from the urban planning faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, Cervero draws from both personal experiences and 3-plus decades of research in making a case for opening America's mobility marketplace to free-market forces, all the more important in this age of information technology and smart apps. It is argued that a rich mix of mobility options would take form as a result, ranging from smart jitneys to station cars and automated shuttles, that would better serve America's increasingly diverse traveling public. The emergence of a host of microtransit services in recent years, like shared ride hailing and upmarket private minibuses, bears this out. More transportation choices and new mobility niches, experiences show, can give rise to less wasted and more judicious travel. Traditional urban carriers like public buses and metered taxis can also benefit from a more open, technology-informed mobility marketplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes a careful look at the recent state of sprawl among America’s 178 largest metropolitan areas through the lens of four sets of questions: (a) Measured at the metropolitan level, is sprawl really declining? Is it declining everywhere, or just in selected metropolitan areas? (b) If sprawl is indeed declining, are more compact growth forms on the rise? (c) If sprawl is indeed declining, is it the result of antisprawl land use and development policies? (d) Which metropolitan-level land market, demographic, and economic factors are most associated with changes in sprawl? It concludes that sprawl is indeed declining when measured by average population densities, but that the decline has been much less widespread if measured in terms of population growth in core-area neighborhoods, changing density gradient intercept and slope estimates, and increased employment clustering. In terms of policy, it finds no evidence that local regulatory regimes or growth management programs have had any effect on sprawl, but finds that the consistent administration of local regulatory programs in ways that incentivize infill development and send consistent signals to developers does contribute to reduced sprawl. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an overview of the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program in the United States and examines its early implementation from its start in 2013 through April 6, 2016. RAD was devised to address the physical deterioration of public housing and secure a more stable funding stream. It requires public housing authorities to shift properties out of the public housing program into a different subsidy program (project-based Section 8) which enables them to obtain mortgages on more favorable terms and to secure tax-credit investment. The program is currently limited to 185,000 housing units. As of April 6th, the program was fully subscribed, and had generated more than $2 billion in new investment. Extrapolating from the early results, RAD has the potential to yield more than $15 billion for fund the redevelopment and renovation of public housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]