Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Relationships among neighbors contribute to the well-being and outcomes of all who live within a neighborhood. Existing literature provides us with a wealth of information on individual seniors’ isolation but does not seem to consider how neighborhood factors add to the attachment of seniors. Given the increasing number of seniors in our society who have the ability to remain living in their neighborhoods as they age, this study focuses on understanding neighborhood attachment to seniors living in the community. Furthermore, emphasis was placed on the potential impact that senior attachment could have on youth as one subset life stage who reside in a neighborhood. This thesis describes the characteristics of neighborhoods that foster low, normal, and high levels of senior attachment in urban areas and explores the relationship this attachment has to neighborhood youth outcomes. This research opens the door for other scholars to begin to place greater emphasis on the understanding of neighborhood dynamics, intergenerational ties to seniors, and the well being of residents across the life course.

In this dissertation, I wrestle with how literature has helped frame how modern cities have been understood, and how neighborhood change within them has been interpreted, since the dawn of the modern city in the early twentieth century U.S. Moving from Chicago at the time of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition to 1920s Harlem, to postwar Chicago, then back again to 1960s-era Harlem before focusing on the first “brownstoning” era in Brooklyn, I analyze how literature has shaped and contested the terms through which urban neighborhood change was and still is understood—terms like “community,” “integration,” “segregation,” and, on a more housing-specific note, “tenements” and “slums.” Its aim is to demonstrate the necessity of applying close reading to cities in order to understand and address urban problems appropriately in light of their context(s). It also seeks to illustrate how literature can be and has been used as a tool for imagining more equal and more just forms of cities, forms occasionally reached for but never fully attained.

No description available.

Let X be the affine flag manifold of Lie type A_n-1⁽¹⁾ where n ≥ 3 and let W_aff be the associated affine Weyl group. The moment graph for X encodes the torus fixed points (which are elements of the affine Weyl group W_aff and the torus stable curves in X. Given a fixed point u ∈ W_aff and a degree d = (d₀, d₁, ..., d_n−1) ∈ ℤ_≥0ⁿ, the combinatorial curve neighborhood is the set of maximal elements in the moment graph of X which can be reached from u′ ≤ u by a chain of curves of total degree ≤ d. In this thesis we give combinatorial formulas and algorithms for calculating these elements. / Doctor of Philosophy / The study of curves on flag manifolds is motivated by questions in enumerative geometry and physics. To a space of curves and incidence conditions one can associate a combinatorial object called the ‘combinatorial curve neighborhood’. For a fixed degree d and a (Schubert) cycle, the curve neighborhood consists of the set of all elements in the Weyl group which can be reached from the given cycle by a path of fixed degree in the moment graph of the flag manifold, and are also Bruhat maximal with respect to this property. For finite dimensional flag manifolds, a description of the curve neighborhoods helped answer questions related to the quantum cohomology and quantum K theory rings, and ultimately about enumerative geometry of the flag manifolds. In this thesis we study the situation of the affine flag manifolds, which are infinite dimensional. We obtain explicit combinatorial formulas and recursions which characterize the curve neighborhoods for flag manifolds of affine Lie type A. Among the conclusions, we mention that, unlike in the finite dimensional case, the curve neighborhoods have more than one component, although all components have the same length. In general, calculations reflect a close connection between the curve neighborhoods and the Lie combinatorics of the affine root system, especially the imaginary roots.

This thesis compares the experiences of citizens who regularly participate in the planning and zoning processes of their respective local governments. Atlanta has had a highly structured system of neighborhood government in place for over 35 years, called Neighborhood Planning Units. Enacted by Atlanta’s first African-American Mayor, NPUs were meant to facilitate the civic engagement of all neighborhoods, regardless of socioeconomic status. The role and boundaries of NPUs are codified in the City Charter. Unincorporated Cobb County, Georgia is a large, urbanizing-but-still-suburban county north of the city. Cobb does not officially recognize community boundaries nor is there a codified neighborhood government structure in place. By comparing the two systems of governance, this thesis will examine which best facilitates participation and whether respondents feel efficacious as they engage with their local government. The findings matter because citizen participation is generally deemed a desirable and even necessary element of modern, representative democracy.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / Sidewalk fragmentation in Tucson is the result of City Code Ordinance 25-12 that places the responsibility of sidewalk installation and maintenance on property owner. However, with an average household income 27% below the national average and 25% of Tucson residents living below poverty level sidewalk fragmentation has become a pedestrian safety concern. By using Google Earth to measure the percentage of paved, unpaved and not present sidewalks in four historic communities in central Tucson; this study found a directly proportional relationship between the length of time the neighborhood has been listed as a historic community and the percentage of paved sidewalks within the neighborhood.

The third place of the corner café has historically served as a community living room, providing an essential setting for social interaction and flânerie within the built environment. With modern technology and communication methods, however, interaction that once required physical proximity can now occur virtually. So where does this leave the corner café in today’s society? Have our third places moved online into fourth places such as Facebook and Twitter? A gallery exhibition entitled #Community is discussed as a visual representation of this written thesis. Methods and frequency of interaction – with others in the physical space as well with those not present – are discussed, providing information which may inform design and provide insight into the relevancy of the built environment in the face of evolving technology.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning