I am happy to issue the Spring 2021 newsletter of the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning (TSUSP). It’s been a strange year: our 150+ course offerings were entirely delivered remotely, we have three new faculty members that most of our students and some faculty have never met in person, and nearly all of the school’s faculty and staff have not regularly worked in the office since March 13, 2020. Bizarre. Still, we kept on teaching and learning, and there’s news from our students and faculty I wish to share here with you. With over 20 faculty and 300 students spread over five degree programs and five graduate certificates, it is impossible to include everything here. I will highlight some of the biggest news and web links will allow you to explore further. A list of recent research projects and reports can be found below my signature.
Last June, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, I used our newsletter to reflect on how our school, and indeed the larger fields of urban studies and planning, play a role in maintaining and even exacerbating racial injustice and hierarchies. Many of us in TSUSP are searching for ways to do better, and a group of more than 130 MURP students and alumni challenged us to implement a set of reforms to address racial disparities in the school and position the school as a force for anti-racist action in our field and community. Our reconfigured Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, renamed the Belonging, Justice, and Dignity committee, led by Dr. Megan Horst, spearheaded a year of action encouraged by those demands. Read about those ongoing efforts here. One particular effort was the Spring Community of Practice (facilitated by Dr. Kacy McKinney and MURP student Natalie Chavez) which brought together seven TSUSP faculty and 27 students from across our programs for collaborative work on anti-racist and inclusive pedagogy in our courses. They will share results with the rest of school in Fall 2021.
Later last summer we were saddened by the passing of Tony Lamb, 2015 Community Development (CD) and 2018 Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) graduate. Tony was a leader not only in our school, but in the wider Portland community, where he fought passionately for racial justice, and was inspired to use planning as a weapon in that fight. To commemorate and continue his fight, we launched the Tony Lamb Racial Justice Fellowship, which funds a MURP student to work with a Black- or Indigenous-led organization through the Portland Planning Diversity Award program. Thanks to the generosity of dozens of alumni, faculty, friends and colleagues of Tony, we reached our fundraising goal for 2021/22, and will be placing our first Lamb Fellow with Unite Oregon this coming year. We welcome your contributions here to help us endow this fellowship - and carry forward Tony's fight - for years to come.
We were excited to expand our faculty team with three new colleagues this year: Dr. Julius McGee, an environmental sociologist whose work and teaching focuses on racial justice, climate change, energy, incarceration, and urbanization; Dr. C.N.E Corbin, who works in the area of urban political ecology, focusing on race, class, and how they shape access to green space and placemaking; and Dr. Ozcan "Ozzy" Tunalilar who is jointly appointed between the Institute on Aging and TSUSP and focuses on families, resident well-being, health inequalities, and measurement issues in community-based care and nursing homes.
The Institute for Portland Metropolitan Studies (IMS) recently moved into TSUSP from its former place as a CUPA-level research unit and, under the leadership of Dr. Matthew Gebhardt, has been connecting the resources and expertise of TSUSP and CUPA to organizations, communities, and decision makers throughout the Portland Metro area and beyond. As part of this effort, last summer IMS initiated the "Community Recovery Fellows" program to provide assistance to organizations working to assist historically underserved and marginalized communities address the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The program placed 17 MURP and CD students with 11 different community organizations and local governments throughout the Portland Metro area and Willamette Valley. IMS will run the program again this summer. Over the next year, IMS also plans to support several other community-based research projects and is excited to connect with the larger TSUSP community - please reach out to the IMS team via email at ims@pdx.edu if you want to connect.
Our faculty had a strong year for recognition. TSUSP faculty won two of the six university-wide annual research awards this year! Dr. Jennifer Dill was honored with the 2021 PSU Presidential Career Research Award where she is recognized for her work “researching the relationships between transportation, land use, health and the environment, focusing on active transportation.” Dr. Julius McGee won the university-wide award for top junior scholar, the 2021 Early Career Research Award. He is recognized for his work on the relationship between social inequality and climate change and for his efforts to translate his work for a broader audience. Dr. Kacy McKinney was awarded the annual College of Urban and Public Affairs teaching award for our school. Emeritus faculty Dr. Karen Gibson was recognized by the Urban Affairs Association for her Distinguished Service. Dr. Matthew Gebhardt was among a group of PSU faculty selected for the global Stevens Initiative Connected Classrooms Project to provide PSU students the opportunity to form international friendships and gain meaningful international experience.
Our students were also recognized this year with various awards and opportunities. MURP students received 3rd place for the 2021 Student Project Award from the American Planning Association for the workshop project, Clackamas Community College Shuttle Service and Access Plan. Congratulations to Shiori Azumaya, Ryan McKinnon, Christina Winberry, Daisy Quinonez, Baxter Shandobil, and Andre Lightsey-Walker, as well as faculty advisors Dr. Marisa Zapata and Deborah Stein. Another PSU student team full of MURPs won Second Place in the 30th Annual Bank of America Low-Income Housing Challenge, competing against teams from across the country. Congratulations to students Mac Cunningham, Matthew Hurd, Nichole Wetle, Natalie Reeder, Stacie Sanders, Amanda Leigh Evans, Jamie Shalvey and the faculty advisor to the team, Jilian Saurage-Felton. PhD student Kelly Rodgers was chosen by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities for a Dissertation Fellow to support her dissertation, "The use and influence of health indicators in transportation decision-making." Natalie Chavez, a 2nd year MURP student, was awarded the Gail Achterman Leadership Scholarship from the local Portland chapter of Women’s Transportation Seminar. Isaiah Jackman was awarded the 2021 Glasper West Leadership Award for Community Development students. Paul Runge was awarded outstanding graduating MURP student as part of the national American Planning Association (APA) Outstanding Student award program. PhD alum (2014) Arlie Atkins, now Associate Professor and Program Chair in Urban Planning at the University of Arizona, was elected the representative for the Western Region of The Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. PhD alum (2019) Jamaal Greene will start a tenure-track position at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall. PhD alum (2002) Julie Schablitsky, now Maryland Department of Transportation chief archaeologist, led a team which discovered Harriet Tubman's father's home in eastern Maryland.
Thanks so much for your interest and support of the TSUSP community. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if ever want to connect about anything TSUSP related. I wish everyone a great summer!
Aaron Golub
Director and Associate Professor
Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning
Portland State University
Faculty and Student Projects and Publications 2020-21
Faculty and students are involved in a wide variety of research projects. Just a sampling of recent work is presented below in a list of recent projects and publications. Research in TSUSP is organized through several research centers such as the Center of Urban Studies, the Institute for Sustainable Solutions, the Population Research Center, the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC), the Northwest Economic Research Center, and the Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative.
Bates. Stability, Equity, and Dignity: Reporting and Reflecting on Oregon Tenant Experiences During the Covid-19 Pandemic. Portland State University Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative.
Bates, Zapata, Greene & Knowlton. Cost of Oregon Evictions Report. Portland State University Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative.
Monkkonen, Carlton & Macfarlane. Zoning Reform in California Needs Better Analysis: Estimating Market Potential for New Homes with Fourplex Zoning. UCLA Lewis Center.
Conlon, K. Adaptive injustice: Responsibility to act in the plastics economy. Resources, Conservation and Recycling
Conlon. Plastic Roads: Not all they’re paved up to be. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology.
Conlon. A social systems approach to sustainable waste management: leverage points for plastic reduction in Colombo, Sri Lanka. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology.
Corbin. Parks and Equity: The Promise of Oakland’s Parks 2020, A Survey of Oakland's Parks Experiences and Perspectives. Oakland Parks Foundation.
Denham, D., M. Rozance, M. Malone, E. Goodling. Sustaining Future Environmental Educators: Building Critical Interdisciplinary Teaching Capacity Among Graduate Students. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences.
Rozance, MA, D. Denham, S, Kidd. Contesting neoliberal knowledge politics in restoration governance: the restorationist’s dilemma Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning
Dill & McNeil. Are Shared Vehicles Shared by All? A Review of Equity and Vehicle Sharing. Journal of Planning Literature.
McNeil & Dill. Revisiting TODs: How Subsequent Development Affects the Travel Behavior of Residents in Existing Transit-Oriented Developments. Portland State University Transportation Research and Education Center.
Fang, Liu & Chen. Housing Inequality in Urban China: Theoretical Debates, Empirical Evidences, and Future Directions. Journal of Planning Literature.
Zhou, Liu, Wei & Golub. Bi-Objective Optimization for Battery Electric Bus Deployment Considering Cost and Environmental Equity. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
Ho, York & Hystad. Public Health Chapter in Dalton & Fleishman, editors. Fifth Oregon Climate Assessment. Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, Oregon State University.
Horst, team member on project titled: Incentivizing Land Access For Small, Beginning And Socially Disadvantaged Farmers And Ranchers: Research, Extension And Community Of Practice
Schrock, Horst, & Ock. Incorporating an Equity Lens into Climate Action Planning in Portland, Oregon. forthcoming in Justice in Climate Action Planning, Peterson & Ducros, eds.
Horst, McClintock, Baysse-Lainé, et al. Translating land justice through comparison: a US–French dialogue and research agenda. Agric Human Values.
Lee, Smart & Golub. Difference in travel behavior between immigrants in the US and US born residents: the immigrant effect for car-sharing, ride-sharing, and bike-sharing services. Transportation research interdisciplinary perspectives.
Bershaw, Burns, Cladouhos, Horst, Houten, Hulseman, Kane, Liu, Perkins, Scanlon, Streig, Svadlenak, Uddenberg, Wells & Williams. An Integrated Feasibility Study of Reservoir Thermal Energy Storage in Portland, Oregon, USA. Proceedings, 45th Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering Stanford University.
Liu et al. Understanding Economic and Business Impacts of Street Improvements for Bicycle and Pedestrian Mobility - A Multi-City Multi-Approach Exploration. NITC Project Report.
Macht. Building Value in Infill Lot-Philadelphia. Urban Land.
Macht. Solution File: A City Center at the Fringe. Urban Land.
Macht. Drones for Development. Urban Land.
Marotta, S. Old Detroit, New Detroit: “Makers” and the impasse of place change. Cultural Geographies.
Ergas, Greiner, McGee, & Clement. Does Gender Climate Influence Climate Change? The Multidimensionality of Gender Equality and Its Countervailing Effects on the Carbon Intensity of Well-Being. Sustainability.
McGee & Greiner. How Long Can Neoliberalism Withstand Climate Crisis? Monthly Review.
McGee, Greiner & Appleton. Locked into Emissions: How Mass Incarceration Contributes to Climate Change. Social Currents.
McKinney, Hardy, Ruffu & Handley-Merk. Changing the Narrative Around Homelessness Through Collaborative Comics Research.
Quested, Palmer, Moreno, McDermott, & Schumacher. Comparing diaries and waste compositional analysis for measuring food waste in the home. Journal of Cleaner Production
Kim, Malizia, Nelson, Wolf-Powers, Ganning, & Schrock. Real Estate Development and Economic Development Planning Education: Pragmatic Turn or Trojan Horse? Journal of Planning Education and Research.
Shmueli, Ozawa & Kaufman. Collaborative Planning for Disaster Preparedness and Response. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.
Sullivan. The Paradox of Change in the American West: Global Climate Destruction and the Reallocation of Urban Space and Priorities. (with Professor A. Dan Tarlock), University of Oregon Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation (Forthcoming)
Sullivan. The Natural Resource Protection Conundrum. (with Caleb J. Huegel) Willamette University Law Review, (Forthcoming)
Sullivan. Parks and Recreation – and Dude Ranches, and Speedways, and Destination Resorts: Land Use Planning and Regulation of Leisure Activities. Zoning and Planning Law Report No. 3
Sullivan. Will States Take Back Control of Housing from Local Governments? Zoning and Planning Law Report No.
Hoffman, Shandas & Pendleton, N. The Effects of Historical Housing Policies on Resident Exposure to Intra-Urban Heat: A Study of 108 US Urban Areas. Climate.
Chang, Granek, Ervin, Yeakley, Dujon & Shandas. A community-engaged approach to transdisciplinary doctoral training in urban ecosystem services. Sustainability Science.
Hellman & Shandas. Community Resilience to Climate Change: Theory, Research and Practice.
Howell, Tan, Brown, Schlossberg, Karlin-Resnick, Lewis, Anderson, Larco, Tierney, Carlton, Kim & Steckler. Multilevel Impacts of Emerging Technologies on City Form and Development. University of Oregon.
Tunalilar & Carder. Oregon Department of Human Services grant to conduct a 20-month study on administrator turnover and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in assisted living facilities.
Tunalilar, Carder, Dys, & Elliott. Considerations for Survey Research in Assisted Living. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.
Dys, Tunalilar & Carder.. Cognition-Enhancing, Antipsychotic, and Opioid Medication Use Among Assisted Living and Residential Care Residents in Oregon. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.
He, Tao, Cheung, Puczkowsky & Lin. Transit-oriented development, perceived neighbourhood gentrification and sense of community: A case study of Hong Kong. Case Studies on Transport Policy.
Puczkowskyj, Kim, MacArthur & Dill. The Perspectives on E-scooters Use: A Longitudinal Approach to Understanding E-scooter Travel Behavior in Portland, Oregon (No. TRBAM-21-02645)
Sussman. Making Enemies: the Mainstream Media Spectacle and US Foreign Policy. Perspectives on Global Development and Technology.
Sussman. Propaganda and the Cold War. Journalism & Communication Monographs.
Tan, McNeil, MacArthur & Rodgers. Evaluation of a Transportation Incentive Program for Affordable Housing Residents. Evaluation of a Transportation Incentive Program for Affordable Housing Residents. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.
Gehrke & Wang. Operationalizing the neighborhood effects of the built environment on travel behavior. Journal of Transport Geography.
Aghababaei, Koliou, Watson & Xiao. Quantifying Post-Disaster Business Recovery through Bayesian Methods. Structure and Infrastructure Engineering Maintenance, Management, Life-Cycle Design and Performance.
Zapata & MacArthur. Awarded grant from National Academies of Science (NAS): TCRP J-11/Task 40: Homelessness: A Guide for Public Transportation.