Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional & Community Planning / Katie Kingery-Page / Many cities in the United States have developed into auto-dominated places with decreased accessibility for pedestrians and bleak cityscapes of wide, barrier-like streets. While many studies exist on the correlation between street width and vehicular safety, and vehicular speed and pedestrian safety, little information is available on the correlation between street width and pedestrian safety. This project began while the researcher interned with the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) Pedestrian Projects Group (PPG). The researcher was asked to begin a study of New York City (NYC) streets, specifically analyzing the relationship between street width and pedestrian safety using NYC safety data. The street types studied represent a variety of conditions found in many cities. The exploratory correlation study, completed after returning to Kansas State University, found that narrow streets trend towards higher safety. The correlation study between street width and pedestrian safety provides justification to narrow Bluemont Avenue in Manhattan, Kansas and increase pedestrian safety. Bluemont Avenue is a primary vehicular connection between the east and west sides of Manhattan. The city’s future construction plans propose widening the street to accommodate a center turning lane along the entire length of Bluemont Avenue. The research presented in this report supports the hypothesis that narrower streets are safer for pedestrians. By utilizing the results of the study, a designer can strengthen their argument to narrow wide, auto-dominated streets. In addition, the use of a two-stage design process can create a safer environment for pedestrians on Bluemont Avenue. By utilizing a temporary design followed by a permanent installation, the City of Manhattan can decrease the priority of Bluemont Avenue within the vehicle hierarchy and increase pedestrian safety. The intent of this report is to begin a conversation with the City of Manhattan to begin looking at streets not as mere vehicular paths, but paths for all modes of transit.

Thesis advisor: Scott Fulford / Can smart metering program and time-of-use (TOU) prices help reduce energy consumption in New York City? Being able to track electricity consumption levels and to modify consumer usage patterns are important for policy makers to efficiently manage the energy markets. Unfortunately, no reliable and up-to-date data have been brought to bear on this question. I study the effects of time-of-use (TOU) prices and smart metering for the residents of Shanghai and I investigate further what can policy makers do in order to adapt and transfer this successful DSM experience from Shanghai to the residential sector in New York City. The primary objective of my study is to characterize the realistic short-term and long-term potential for the smart metering program in New York City given my empirical findings that the smart metering program has had brought great benefits to the residents of Shanghai. People respond to incentives; if electricity is charged at different prices throughout a day, consumers are likely to shift their usage to when it is cheaper. My findings suggest that policy makers should think harder about designing a pricing scheme that can optimize the social plus. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Economics Honors Program. / Discipline: Economics.

Thesis advisor: David Deese / Given the current political environment in the US, there is great doubt about the future of American policy on climate change. Still, the optimistic future of American climate policy relies on the new group of leaders that have emerged from municipal government. Although local government is traditionally ignored in favor of the publicity of international negotiations between countries, cities have established a role at the forefront of climate policy over the past ten years. These local governments serve half of the world’s population and often are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, making their contributions more important than ever. Although they face a unique set of difficulties, cities are able to take a range of actions impossible at higher levels of government, reaching communities in unprecedented ways and innovating new policies. This project aims to analyze how local governments fit into the global political regime on climate change, testing the theoretical framework of multilevel governance against reallife examples in Boston and New York City. Further, this paper finds that cities compensate for their relatively small size and limited jurisdiction through a unique set of actions and collaborative relationships, enabling these local actors to become international leaders on this complex global issue.. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: . / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Environmental Studies.

This thesis looks at the missiological implications of church planting in global cities. Chapter 1 introduces the main argument for this thesis: that all evangelism strategies should hold church planting as the end goal and that the most strategic places to implement these strategies are our global cities as evidenced by what has happened in New York City. The chapter will begin with a look at the significant movement that has happened in Manhattan over a twenty year period (1990- 2010) with the evangelical population of the city growing from less than one percent evangelical to now more than three percent. An introduction to the definition of global cities will segue into a look at the imperative for church planting initiatives in these cities. Chapter 2 will offer a deeper study of the characteristics of a global city and the missiological significance of such cities. It will explore world urbanization in light of the fact that over 50 percent of the world now lives in cities. The strategic nature of the cities will be analyzed given the influence that global cities have on the culture of the rest of the world. Finally, New York City will be shown as a global city and its significance on the missiological landscape will be highlighted. Chapter 3 provides a history of some of the major New York City church planting initiatives. Specifically, it will review the church planting history of Concerts of Prayer and the Church Multiplication Alliance, Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church and Jim Cymbala and The Brooklyn Tabernacle. Lastly this chapter will reveal methodologies used by other prominent ministries to reach the city context. Chapter 4 will look at implications learned from New York City on how a global city church planting strategy could impact the Southern Baptist Convention. A look at the history of SBC church planting in New York City will be looked at with special attention being paid to the effectiveness of these strategies. Chapter 5 will conclude this thesis with a look at the lessons learned during this research process. It will also look at three areas of further study that are needed. This work contends that the priority of all missions strategies should be a focused approach on global city church planting. This will prove to be an effective use of people and financial resources that ultimately has an impact on the whole world.

After decades of cuts to federal funding, cities were left with few resources for public services, particularly parks and open spaces. Current trends of massive gentrification in New York City are changing the housing market and other components of the private sector. In addition to altering socio-spatial dynamics in the housing and consumer markets, gentrification can alter public spaces as well. By comparing three New York City neighborhoods at different stages of gentrification, I analyzed socio-spatial dynamics, public and private funding, event programming, and ethnographically observed changes in the physical and social landscape of the park, and neighborhood, over time.

Eudora Welty is well-known for her many works of fiction and non-fiction, but not known for her works for the theater. In the summer of 1948 Welty moved to New York and wrote, in collaboration with another writer, a musical revue entitled What Year Is This? Only one of the sketches, “Bye-Bye Brevoort,” was ever produced. This and other sketches in the unpublished manuscript deserve to be studied alongside Welty’s other work. These writings provide a window into her love of New York, her vast knowledge of the fine arts, and the evolution of her writing styles. In January of 2010, a reading was staged at the Balzer Theater at Herren’s, Atlanta, Georgia. Audience reaction indicates that these pieces, both songs and skits, deserve more attention.

The world is urbanizing rapidly with more than half of the global population now living in cities. Improving urban environments for the well-being of the increasing number of urban citizens is becoming one of the most important challenges of the 21st century. Even though it is common that city planners have visions of a ’good urban milieu’, those visions are concerning visual aesthetics or practical matters. The qualitative perspective of sound, such as sonic diversity and acoustic ecology are neglected aspects in architectural design. Urban planners and politicians are therefore largely unaware of the importance of sounds for the intrinsic quality of a place. Whenever environmental acoustics is on the agenda, the topic is noise abatement or noise legislation – a quantitative attenuation of sounds. Some architects may involve acoustical aspects in their work but sound design or acoustic design has yet to develop to a distinct discipline and be incorporated in urban planning.My aim was to investigate to what extent the urban soundscape is likely to improve if modern architectural techniques merge with principles of acoustics. This is an important, yet unexplored, research area. My study explores and analyses the acoustical aspects in urban development and includes interviews with practitioners in the field of urban acoustics, situated in New York City. My conclusion is that to achieve a better understanding of the human living conditions in mega-cities, there is a need to include sonic components into the holistic sense of urban development.

Work trips are considered one of public transportation's biggest markets. It is important to understand this market as fully as possible because of the potential for congestion mitigation or air quality improvements, among other things. While much effort has been invested in researching travel on public transit, very little effort has been concentrated in understanding the work travel market. This document attempts to be a comprehensive resource which can provide current information on the persons and trips being taken on public transit for travel to/from work. This research looks at the 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) to examine the difference between work and non-work transit trips and riders, choice and captive work trips and riders, and New York City (NYC) and non-NYC work trips and riders. In addition, transit mode share for work trips across an array of socio-demographic factors is examined. As a supplement, historical trend data utilizing past NHTS/Nationwide Personal Transportation Surveys (NPTS), the American Community Survey, and American Public Transportation Association data is used. The data analysis is primarily descriptive in nature and is performed in SPSS (a statistical analysis software) and then graphed in Microsoft Excel. Interpretation of the results is based upon a comprehensive literature review and the author's knowledge and familiarity in the field of public transit. There were several interesting and noteworthy findings uncovered during this research. In the historical trend analysis, it was discovered that the proportion of transit trips being for travel to/from work has declined since 1983. Further analysis appears to indicate that the decline is being caused by new riders who are making new non-work trips. This comes as the existing work riders and trip numbers appear to be holding steady. More research is needed to confirm this finding and to probe for more specific reasons on why this is occurring. In terms of work transit trips, it was discovered that they tend to be taken on faster modes (such as commuter rail and elevated/subway) resulting in slightly higher in-vehicle speeds than non-work transit trips (11.8 MPH versus 11.2 MPH). The analysis also showed that those commuting via non-transit modes were 20 percent more likely to make a stop on their commute than those that took transit. Of those commuting on transit, riders were more likely to make a stop on their way home from work rather than to work. An analysis of choice and captive riders found that in the 16-24 year old age group, 85 percent of riders were choice riders. This finding could perhaps signify that more young adults are choosing to ride transit. However, this result should be interpreted with caution because of the small sample size and potential data issues with the 2009 NHTS dataset. More research should be carried out in the future to verify these results.

Between 1790 and 1821, New York City underwent a dramatic transformation as slavery slowly died. Throughout the 1790s, a massive influx of runaways from the hinterland and black refugees from the Caribbean led to the rapid expansion of the city’s free black population. At the same time, white agitation for abolition reached a fever pitch. The legislature’s decision in 1799 to enact a program of gradual emancipation set off a wave of arranged manumissions that filled city streets with black bodies at all stages of transition from slavery to freedom. As blacks began to organize politically and develop a distinct social, economic and cultural life, they both conformed to and defied white expectations of republican citizenship. Over time, the emerging climate of social indistinction proved too much for white elites, who turned to new ideologies of race to enact the massive disfranchisement of black voters. / text

The New York Public Library's Central Building, constructed just over a century ago, is in the midst of a major renovation. The Library's trustees have asked the architects at Foster + Partners to imagine the space currently occupied by the research collections' closed book stacks as a new, publicly accessible, circulating library. The administration's public relations strategy glosses over the meaning of this architectural reinterpretation, selling the renovation plan with only carefully selected historical facts and opinions that show support for the project. However, this narrative is deceiving; it oversimplifies the issues at stake. Both the broader New York Public Library system and Central Library in particular have an incredibly complex history. The influences that shaped the decision to build the 42nd Street building, its design and construction, and subsequent adaptations over the past century demonstrate an important relationship between the objectives of the institution and the Central Library's architectural form. Therefore, beneath the rhetoric of the renovation, beyond the positive inclusion of a main circulating branch in the central building, lies the decision to remove a large portion of the circulating collection from the center of the stronghold built to house it. This decision undermines the unique structure of the New York Public Library as one of the world's premier research institutions, removing the heart of the building.