Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional & Community Planning / Hyung Jin Kim / Planning researchers and professionals have recently noted the social, economic, and cultural benefits food truck activity can provide within a community. As a result, the proliferation of food truck activity has challenged planners to reconsider the role of streets and urban spaces. Food trucks have the potential to enliven the urban landscape and enrich the quality of public life by serving as revitalization catalysts in urban spaces. While food trucks have become an increasingly visible aspect of street life, few jurisdictions have determined an effective manner to regulate and promote food truck activity. The study recommends how cities can improve current food truck policies in order to enable the revitalization of urban spaces through food truck activity. Using Kansas City, Missouri as a study area, the primary question was explored through three secondary inquires and their related methods. First, a GIS-based spatial analysis identified the spatio-temporal characteristics of food truck locations via social media data mining processes. Second, a survey of food truck vendors and interviews with city staff highlighted stakeholder conflicts that pose barriers to food truck activity. Third, a policy review in key cities and the development of a policy framework helped determine appropriate policy guidelines that allow food trucks to operate effectively in a city. The cumulative findings of the study informed food truck policy guidelines for Kansas City, Missouri. The policy framework also provides a structure for cities to utilize in order to analyze their own regulations. Sixteen significant policy areas are included in the framework, with the policy areas falling into one of three categories: permitting and enforcement, streets and spaces, or public health and safety. Appropriate policies that balance the needs of stakeholders allow food trucks to operate effectively, thus allowing cities to capitalize on the urban revitalization effects and other benefits that food truck activity provides within urban spaces.

LULU (Locally Unwanted Land Use) and NIMBY (Never In My Back Yard) are often cited as two major hurdles to overcome for successful siting of a noxious facility. Among various types of waste in Korea, food waste has been posing a serious problem for its high rate of moisture and salt component (MOE 2001). This has necessitated siting of large scale composting facilities around the country. Although there has been an increasing number of studies on NIMBY towards siting of noxious facilities, one can hardly find a study on NIMBY attitudes toward a composting facility from an economic perspective. To analyze NIMBY attitude of residents in Cheju City, Korea toward hosting a composting facility, we base our theoretical analysis on the expected utility theory and subsequently use a MNLM (muitinomial logit model) for empirical analysis. This study consists of four major parts: theoretical analysis, data management, MNLM estimations, and interpretation. A theoretical model is constructed by maximizing expected utility: first, a two-choice model, then extending it to a three-choice model to incorporate residents' uncertain attitudes toward a composting facility, providing a theoretical basis for using MNLM model. Our empirical results show with statistical significance that the higher the income, the stronger the NIMBY attitude towards siting a composting facility. Further, it shows that the negative effect of economic benefits on NIMBY attitude is (marginally) stronger than the positive effect of environmental concern, which contrast with what is usually observed in US where the effect of environmental concern dominates over that of economic benefits. Socio-demographic variables included to have the economic variables controlled for are mostly insignificant. Further, from our empirical results is deduced that the residents gave uncertain responses are tilted towards accepting the composting facility.

abstract: This dissertation examines the way in which social capital, or productive networks, can be used to support downtown renewal. This case study examines the way in which Phoenix Community Alliance (PCA) and Downtown Phoenix Partnership (DPP)--two, critical downtown-focused organizations ostensibly founded for civic improvement--use social capital to advance downtown urban development initiatives. This case study also explores how and the extent to which new social capital is generated by PCA and DPP through the processes of planning, designing, and implementing downtown development projects and the kinds of initiatives this social capital enables, whether and how the focus of downtown Phoenix development has shifted over time, the challenges facing contemporary downtown development and role PCA and DPP might play in addressing these issues, and recommended strategies for advancing future downtown development through social capital that evolves as downtown needs change. This dissertation contributes to the general understanding of how pivotal groups responsible for impacting downtown development and quality of life can become more effective in their roles by examining how they create networks pivotal to advancing urban downtown renewal. Research findings illuminate how community development groups can more effectively use networks to inspire downtown improvement. Findings emphasize the need to engage a broader downtown community, including both emerging and established organizations and those who desire to contribute to a diverse and exciting heart or city core. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Public Administration 2011

xiv, 165 p. ： ill. (some col.) / Our current focus on the city core includes reintroducing the mixed-use building. This typology is not without challenges, and arguably none is more pressing than full retail occupancy. This analysis investigates the potential for start-up companies to supplement traditional retail on an interim basis. By documenting the needs and expectations of the start-up and development communities (from multiple perspectives), this study assesses the potential connection between mixed-use and the start-up company. Using a methodology informed by literature and augmented by personal accounts, this analysis reveals that the inclusion of start-up companies in mixed-use projects can present both short- and long-term benefits to ongoing retail difficulties: mixed-use buildings can be an ideal location for start-up firms, including start-up tenants can be economically feasible if certain measures are in place, and a new development model is not needed to connect an emerging business with an existing project. / Committee in charge: Howard Davis， Chairperson； John Rowell， Member； Gerardo Sandoval， Member

abstract: The rapid rate of urbanization coupled with continued population growth and anthropogenic activities has resulted in a myriad of urban climate related impacts across different cities around the world. Hot-arid cities are more vulnerable to induced urban heat effects due to the intense solar radiation during most of the year, leading to increased ambient air temperature and outdoor/indoor discomfort in Phoenix, Arizona. With the fast growth of the capital city of Arizona, the automobile-dependent planning of the city contributed negatively to the outdoor thermal comfort and to the people's daily social lives. One of the biggest challenges for hot-arid cities is to mitigate against the induced urban heat increase and improve the outdoor thermal. The objective of this study is to propose a pragmatic and useful framework that would improve the outdoor thermal comfort, by being able to evaluate and select minimally invasive urban heat mitigation strategies that could be applied to the existing urban settings in the hot-arid area of Phoenix. The study started with an evaluation of existing microclimate conditions by means of multiple field observations cross a North-South oriented urban block of buildings within Arizona State University’s Downtown campus in Phoenix. The collected data was evaluated and analyzed for a better understanding of the different local climates within the study area, then used to evaluate and partially validate a computational fluid dynamics model, ENVI-Met. Furthermore, three mitigation strategies were analyzed to the Urban Canopy Layer (UCL) level, an increase in the fraction of permeable materials in the ground surface, adding different configurations of high/low Leaf Area Density (LAD) trees, and replacing the trees configurations with fabric shading. All the strategies were compared and analyzed to determine the most impactful and effective mitigation strategies. The evaluated strategies have shown a substantial cooling effect from the High LAD trees scenarios. Also, the fabric shading strategies have shown a higher cooling effect than the Low LAD trees. Integrating the trees scenarios with the fabric shading had close cooling effect results in the High LAD trees scenarios. Finally, how to integrate these successful strategies into practical situations was addressed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Architecture 2020

Recently federal policy aimed at halting decline in urban neighborhoods has included a major focus on housing rehabilitation efforts. In the case of Portland, Oregon, federally funded improvement loans for owner-occupied housing units resulted in the rehabilitation of almost four thousand homes from 1975 until 1978, over twice the number of homes rehabilitated in any other city in the nation. The purpose of the present study was to examine and analyze the city's rehabilitation loan program in two ways. First, the loan process itself was examined to ascertain whether there were any deficiencies in the loan program which should be corrected. The second, and primary, focal point was the specific neighborhoods where rehabilitation loans have been funneled. The impact of the loan programs on the neighborhoods as communicated by their residents determined how successful Portland has been in dealing with urban decline through its loan programs. Prior to gathering primary data on the neighborhoods, several secondary sources of information were used. The Portland Development Commission's in-house evaluations of the loan process demonstrated strong recipient support for the program. A survey of loan recipient files showed loans going to low income families with few assets. Although half of the loans went to married couples, a substantial number of loans went to divorced women and widows. The majority of rehabilitated homes were over fifty years old, and their median assessed value was $16,500. Secondary data was also used to look at outside perceptions of changes taking place in loan neighborhoods. Real estate trends and mortgage and home improvement loan activities suggested that the impact of the government loan programs has not yet been substantial enough to trigger changes in private policies related to the neighborhoods. Primary data for the study came from a random sample survey of four hundred persons in four Portland neighborhoods. Two neighborhoods, one in the north section of the city and one in southeast, where loans have been given, were paired with two control neighborhoods where loans were not available. The survey instrument used contained 72 variables chosen as capable of determining what the impact of the loan program has been on loan recipients, their neighbors, and their neighborhoods. Four outcomes could have stemmed from the loan programs. The first possibility was that people living in the neighborhoods where Housing and Community Development loans have been granted should feel more positive about their neighborhood than those not living in HCD neighborhoods. A second consequence could have been that HCD neighborhoods are upgrading socio-economically. Third, HCD neighborhood residents simply may not have perceived improvements in their neighborhoods, or fourth, even if they perceive improvements, they do not show significantly higher levels of satisfaction with their neighborhoods than holds true for respondents living in the control neighborhoods. The data indicated that although residents in HCD neighborhoods do perceive improvements taking place in their neighborhoods, their levels of satisfaction with their neighborhoods are not significantly higher than satisfaction levels in non-loan neighborhoods. Socio-economic changes may be taking place in the Southeast HCD neighborhood. As for the loan process, the program was rated highly by the recipients of the loans, both in in-house evaluations done for the Portland Development Commission and as reported in the neighborhood survey. The study concludes that the city's efforts provided a solid first step in developing a strong commitment to strengthening inner city neighborhoods, but it is only a first step. A stronger commitment, particularly on the part of private industry, is needed to end urban neighborhood decline.

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