Participatory Action Mapping (PAM) as a methodology strives to fill the gaps created by participatory and critical mapping methodologies. Public participatory GIS (PPGIS), which often fails to elicit a bottom up approach to mapping, and community mapping, which typically produces critical mappings that often fail to be taken seriously by decision makers both fall short in offering members of the public meaningful opportunities to make claims about particular places. Through the implementation of a critical mapping methodology that utilizes professional cartography techniques, PAM offers community organizations the ability to assert their claims through maps. Using a critical cartography lens, this case study focuses on PAM with a community-based organization in west Atlanta and reveals how this methodology can be successful in engaging professional mapping practices to communicate the truths of, and subsequently inspire action among, community members.

Black women formed the first welfare rights organization in Atlanta composed of recipients and continued anti-poverty organizing for decades. Their strategy adapted to the political climate, including the ebb and flow of social movements. This thesis explores how and why that strategy changed as well as how the experiences of the women involved altered ideas of activism and movements.

Substance abuse among gays and lesbians may be considered a "neglected area" of drug use research in criminology and criminal justice. In the current study, we seek to address the lack of scientific inquiry on substance use among lesbians, gays, and bisexuals by drawing from an availability sample of 179 lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults to examine substance use patterns as well as the relationship of self-esteem with problems associated with using alcohol and drugs. Results showed consistency in the frequency of tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine use in the past year; however, more gay and bisexual men than gay and bisexual women reported problems stemming from substance use.

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This dissertation focuses on the role of tradition and ritual in historically Black education, particularly combating the legacy of antiblackness in school discipline. The study argues for the use of prophetic disruptive rituals that are grounded in meaning, hope, and love. Using Morehouse College as a philosophical case study, the project draws on digital archival research to answer the central question: How can education empower students to resist the nihilism and despair resulting from continued racial oppression and instead look to the future with hope and imagination? The dissertation acknowledges the significant role of student agency and campus traditions in institutional life and aims to move beyond the deficit-laden approach to historically Black education. Ultimately, the study provides a framework for creating ensouling experiences that breathe life into dry bones.

This dissertation explores the racial and religious history of black Catholics in the United States through a focus on the critical intersection of the Civil Rights Movement and the Second Vatican Council as it was experienced at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, uniquely situated in the heart of Atlanta, a city that was a cradle for the Civil Rights Movement and the home of influential churches like Ebenezer Baptist. Tracing the early history of the parish, I outline the role of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (SBS) in establishing the Our Lady of Lourdes School and Parish. The SBS were a missionary women’s religious order that was founded by St. Katherine Drexel in 1891 with the charism to evangelize “the Indian and the colored” through the Catholic education. The willingness of Atlanta’s black Protestants to support the work of the SBS attached to Our Lady of Lourdes, despite their general misgivings towards what they perceived to be a “white church,” is a testament to the order’s unusually progressive commitment to interracial action. During its existence from 1912 to 2001, the Our Lady of Lourdes School was regarded as a cost-effective alternative to segregated public schools for blacks regardless of religious affiliation. Like many Catholic schools in minority areas Our Lady of Lourdes faced many challenges during its existence, including persistent financial problems, the withdrawal of the SBS in 1974, and the proliferation of new educational opportunities for blacks after desegregation. The ability of the Our Lady of Lourdes community to keep the school operational until 2001 illustrates the importance of inner city Catholic schools to minority populations. The convergence of the Civil Rights Movement and Vatican II in the 1960s affected how the parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes defined themselves as blacks and Catholics within a segregated society. School desegregation and white flight fundamentally changed the place of the parish in the urban Catholic landscape. Nevertheless, these religious and racial reevaluations enabled the Our Lady of Lourdes community to revitalize itself through liturgical inculturation and the embrace of its heritage as an Auburn Avenue religious institution. / 2027-07-31T00:00:00Z

This study focuses on how spatial circumstances affect property owners’ preference toward sustainable urban development, in the form of three-essays. In the first essay, property owners’ preference toward the concept of compact development is identified. Compact development is an increasingly popular concept that includes multiple aspects, such as mixed land use, high density, and pedestrian/transit-friendly options. Previous hedonic literature on the comprehensive effect of compact development is limited. Also, spatial dependence in the data, something likely endemic to compact development, has not yet been thoroughly addressed. This study uses a spatial fixed-effect model, a spatial-autoregressive model with auto-regressive disturbances (SARAR), and a spatial fixed-effect SARAR model to determine the price effect of “compactness” in a major U.S. metropolitan area. By analyzing of 47,000 sales records in Fulton County over a decade, this study indicates that home buyers prefer to have smaller, more diffuse greenspace nearby, rather than a large, concentrated greenspace at a longer walking distance. High parcel density and diverse land use is consistently disvalued, and the premium on accessing public transportation is not identified among all models. No specific trend over time has been observed, despite the recession starting in 2008. Finally, a comprehensive index of compactness shows relatively high willingness-to-pay for compact development. The second essay tests the spatial spillover of signaling within the pursuit of LEED certification. The benefit of pursuing green building certification mainly comes from two aspects: the cost-effectiveness from energy efficiency and the signaling consideration, including the premium on property values, benefits from a better reputation, morality values, or purely pride. By analyzing all new constructions that received LEED certification from 2000 to 2012 (LEED-NC v2.0 to v2.2) in the U.S., this study tries to identify the size of the signaling effects, and spillover of signaling, as building owners pursue LEED certification. The results show that the signaling effect affects decision making in pursuing LEED certification, especially at scores around thresholds. The size of signaling effects differs among different owner types and different certificate levels. For the Gold level or below, government and non-profit-organization owners value signaling more than do profit-seeking firms. At the Platinum level, there is no significant difference among owner types. This study also finds that the signaling effect clusters spatially for government and profit-seeking firms. Finally, the results show that the cluster of signaling is independent from the cluster of LEED buildings, indicating that mechanisms behind the cluster of signaling are different from those of LEED constructions. The third essay tests the distance effect on the support for Atlanta BeltLine. Atlanta BeltLine, a large urban redevelopment project currently underway in the center of Atlanta, transforms 22 miles of historical railroad corridors into parks, trails, pedestrian-friendly transit areas, and affordable housing. This study aims to determine the distance effect on the support of Atlanta BeltLine and whether the implement of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) affects the support. The contributions of this exercise are twofold. First, it demonstrates the risks and remedies to missing spatial data by solving the technical problem of missing precise spatial location values. Second, it tests underlying reasons why distance can help explain the level of support that Atlanta BeltLine has received, with striking implications for theories like the Homevoter hypothesis. Survey data used in this study was conducted in summer 2009, about three years after the declaration of the project. The support by both homeowners and renters significantly declines as distance from the BeltLine increases. However, when residents’ tendency to use BeltLine parks and transits is entered as a variable, the distance effect disappears. By indicating that the distance effect comes from homeowners’ and renters’ the accessibility to BeltLine amenities, the result rejects the homevoter hypothesis, which holds that property value increment is the main mechanism behind support. The results also show that whether or not a homeowner or renter is a parent in City of Atlanta affects a person’s support of the BeltLine. These results lead to the conclusion that the concern of TIF affecting future school quality hampers the support of the project.

Emissions from light-duty passenger vehicles represent a significant portion of total criteria pollutant emissions in the United States. Since the 1970s, emissions testing of these vehicles has been required in many major metropolitan areas, including Atlanta, GA, that were designated to be in non-attainment for one or more of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. While emissions inspections have successfully reduced emissions by identifying and repairing high emitting vehicles, they have been increasingly inefficient as emissions control systems have become more durable and fewer vehicles are in need of repair. Currently, only about 9% of Atlanta area vehicles fail emissions inspection, but every vehicle is inspected annually. This research addresses explores ways to create a more efficient emissions testing program while continuing to use existing testing infrastructure. To achieve this objective, on road vehicle emissions data were collected as a part of the Continuous Atlanta Fleet Evaluation program sponsored the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. These remote sensing data were combined with in-program vehicle inspection data from the Atlanta Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance (I/M) program to establish the degree to which on road vehicle remote sensing could be used to enhance program efficiency. Based on this analysis, a multi-parameter model was developed to predict the probability of a particular vehicle failing an emissions inspection. The parameters found to influence the probability of failure include: vehicle characteristics, ownership history, vehicle usage, previous emission test results, and remote sensing emissions readings. This model was the foundation for a proposed emissions testing program that would create variable timing for vehicle retesting with high and low failure probability vehicles being more and less frequently, respectively, than the current annual cycle. Implementation of this program is estimated to reduce fleet emissions of 17% for carbon monoxide, 11% for hydrocarbons, and 5% for nitrogen oxides in Atlanta. These reductions would be achieved very cost-effectively at an estimated marginal cost of $149, $7,576 and $2,436 per-ton-per-year for carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides emissions reductions respectfully.

This thesis addresses two questions to understand the current situation of technology in Atlanta: Is Atlanta an ideal location for a technology cluster to form? Does a true technology cluster exist in Atlanta? According to cluster literature, there are seven characteristics required for emerging clusters: a high-quality, powerful research university; a skilled labor pool; funding (R&D, venture capital, etc.); favorable policies; linkages; certain city characteristics; and luck. There also are several somewhat-vague characteristics that show success in a cluster. Among these are agglomeration, innovation (where funding and employment are two measures of innovation), and growth. In order to provide a comprehensive assessment of the answers to the two questions, a mixture of summary statistics, shallow case studies, previous analysis, and comparisons of Atlanta with other clusters are blended together to assess Atlanta's performance on each of the characteristics outlined in theory. Where possible, more than one of these measures are used. Of the seven necessary characteristics of cluster creation set out by theory, Atlanta seems to have achieved a passing grade regarding research university, labor pool, and city characteristics, but has a failing grade on policy and linkages. One interesting finding is that Atlanta receives a strong amount of venture capital investment in start-ups but is lacking in later stage companies. Atlanta's success as a cluster is dubious. It has proven somewhat successful in start-ups and in the so-called "Level II" technology companies that have lower levels of technology-oriented jobs and that tend to be more manufacturing focused. It is also possible that a technology cluster is forming in Atlanta, but that it is still in its infancy. With regard to policy, it is recommended that Atlanta gain certain policies that will allow for the characteristics of cluster formation (particularly investment and linkages--since those are the areas where Atlanta is or possibly is lacking) and replace policies that will hinder the growth of technology and investment in the technology industries.

This paper examines the issues of equity, as applicable to the HOV-to-HOT conversion project planned for the I-85 North corridor in the Metropolitan Atlanta Region. A review of literature is undertaken to describe the typology of transportation equity issues within the wider context of environmental justice, and to highlight socio-economic factors and local and national transportation funding factors that influence people's travel choices and their mobility and accessibility options. Demographic data on the I-85 corridor peak period commuters in Metropolitan Atlanta is analyzed, in addition to results of focus groups polling current Metropolitan Atlanta interstate commuters on the topic of managed lanes during 2008. The thesis makes a conclusion that a final decision about the equity impact of the I-85 HOV-to-HOT conversion is likely not possible without undertaking a Metropolitan area-wide analysis. Some of the equity findings that emerge indicate that there are no significant income differences between the the HOV lane users and general purpose lane I-85 commuters; that there are differences between median incomes of block groups represented by current I-85 commuters (both HOV lane users and general purpose lane users) and median incomes of block groups typical for the base geography; and that investing in Xpress bus service improvements would primarily serve those households with more vehicles than drivers, unless improvements to reverse commute options and feeder bus networks are made. The focus group findings suggest that current interstate highway users in Metropolitan Atlanta, originating in the suburbs, are generally accepting of the HOT concept and recognize the value of travel time savings.