Abstract Greenway design and planning have become a multi-functional, multi-objective approach to address social, cultural and ecological concerns. Traditional greenway design and planning have focused more on ecological, historic and recreational values. However, the current focus of greenway planning is also shifting to community health, which includes both physical health and emotional health. This thesis focuses on physical health. This concern arises out of observations on obesity and physical inactivity as two of the most serious health problems in the United States which greatly threaten the quality of life in the country. Greenways can help address the issues of obesity and poor quality of life in communities by increasing the level of physical activity, preventing obesity, and providing a venue for outdoor recreation and alternative transportation routes. Research has shown that greenway location relative to one’s home influences how a greenway was used, who used it, and how often it was used. Spatial proximity of greenways and communities will increase greenway use. Greenways have been shown to be a popular location of physical activity. The positive relationship between physical activity and health has also been verified by various studies. Based on this, this thesis proposes to improve the connections between greenways and communities, for the purpose of increasing the level of physical activity, and ultimately improving community health. Tennessee, as well as Knoxville, has a very high level of obesity and physical inactivity. The 2008 Knox County Physical Activity Survey found that walking trails are the most popular locations for physical activity. However, Knoxville has a deficiency in parklands and greenways, and many communities do not have greenways within walking distance. There is an urgent need to increase the number of greenways and their accessibility to communities. This thesis (a) reviews the history of greenway planning and various benefits associated with greenways; (b) studies health conditions in Knoxville city; (c) proposes connections between greenways and communities building on Knoxville’s greenway plan and making critiques and recommendations; and (d) explores design solutions for a greenway in a selected focus - the Lonsdale neighborhood - with an emphasis on community health.

The United States government has taken steps to assure underprivileged citizens housing in the form of public housing through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as various humanitarian programs in the form of homeless shelters. Yet, all housing is not equal. Our freedom to choose where we live and what type of house we live in is one revered aspect of life as a United States citizen. We can express our individuality, creativity, and personality through the architectural style of our homes. In this sense it is hard to ask for equal housing. I am suggesting that equality comes from adequate access to social participation, social integration, and power, in other words social inclusion. (Room, 7) Investigating and correcting the causes of social exclusion in order to create social inclusion is necessary in order to ascertain equality of housing in America. Sir Winston Churchill once said, “We shape our buildings and afterward our buildings shape us.” (Gieryn, 35) But what happens when you do not have power over the shaping of your own building? Is your building still a reflection of yourself? And if we allow building to include the environment in which your home is located, what if previous use of the land left it degraded? Will the degradation shape you? My thesis considers the question: does the environmental quality and architectural style of public housing in the United States facilitate the social exclusion of these communities? If so, what best practices can we take away from models that have been successful at combatting social exclusion? By answering these questions I strive to develop a proposal to right this currently unjust situation.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the city of Berlin was faced with the challenge to reunify in both political and cultural realms. Berlin is noted throughout history as a metropolis that is characterized by flux; the Post-Wende [Post-Wall] era is another remarkable transitional phase in Berlin’s history. During this era, the city was extremely porous and susceptible to cultural forces that could easily define the city’s malleable future. This essay discusses such forces and events that were planned by the city government, as well as an organic grassroots force that was especially significant in the cultural reunification. This force is the squatting culture that was spurred by the excess of unused and unclaimed buildings in the center of Berlin. Many of the squatters are coalitions of artists who embody the renitente Kultur [unruly culture] that characterizes Berlin. Analyzed in this essay is a group of squatting artists, known as “Gruppe Tacheles das Kunsthaus” who inhabited the ruins of a historical building in the Mitte neighborhood located in the center of Berlin. The creators of Tacheles breathed life back into the ruins by establishing ateliers, a restaurant, a club, a movie theatre, a sculpture garden, and a bar in the building that became an artists’ haven with international fame. Artists, both residential and visiting, have treated the crumbling building like a makeshift giant canvas and it is now covered in layers of graffiti and stands as the Gesamtkunstwerk [total and universal ideal work of art] of the reunifying Berlin that has become an international hub for artists. Due to escalation in property value, an effective owner of the property on which Tacheles stands has stepped forward and taken actions to evict the artists and demolish the building in order to build luxury offices. Most of the artists have left the site, leaving it as a ghostly shell of the bustling community it once was. Near twenty artists remain and protest the actions to destroy their work of art that had come to live symbiotically with the city. At this point, there is one appropriate event to occur next in the lifeline of the site: the building must be demolished in a ceremonious explosion to mark the passing of its vitality, so that its legacy can live on untainted in the future phases of Berlin’s culture.

San Francisco's South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood and the Mission District are facing new forms of redevelopment. The deindustrialization of SoMa has posed an opportunity for a 'new model' of gentrification to create a mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhood from an area previously occupied by abandoned warehouses and vacant lots. In the Mission, awareness of the threats of gentrification and increased community participation are fighting to preserve the neighborhood and eliminate displacement. The innovative approaches to urban revitalization in these two neighborhoods demonstrate how redevelopment may occur without gentrification.

The Gold Line Foothill Extension represents an unprecedented light rail expansion into the San Gabriel Valley from downtown Los Angeles. In examining its potential for success, transit-oriented development (TOD) appears to be an integral factor and a major opportunity to redraw growth patterns along the corridor. TOD opportunities and challenges are investigated throughout the Foothill Extension, and three towns in particular, Claremont, Monrovia, and Irwindale, are examined on the basis of their varying levels of TOD planning. The corridor features many infill sites with potential for high density development near new Gold Line stations, but implementation of some TOD sites should be delayed until improvements in the economy can create appropriate short-term demand for office and retail space.

This paper is about my experience walking through Los Angeles County. My principal motivations were to explore what it means to be a pedestrian in an urban landscape that generally does not recognize walkers and to give value to often overlooked spaces. The paper includes a brief history of the Los Angeles region, methodology, an analysis of some other art projects that have been done about walking, and a vignette of the experience.

Food insecurity is defined as “a household‐level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food” (USDA Economic Research Service 2009). Low‐income households tend to be food insecure for many reasons. The first and most obvious would be the access to monetary resources. If a household does not have a sufficient income, it is difficult to keep an adequate amount of food for all household members at all times. Another reason would be that many low‐income households cannot afford a car and/or do not have easy access to public transportation or reliable private transportation.

This thesis examines the bicycle cultures found in the United States and the Netherlands. The cities of Claremont, California, San Luis Obispo, California, and Groeningen, Netherlands are used as case studies to compare bicycle policies and infrastructure. Bicycle-friendly cities require bicycle master plans that address accessibility, education and promotion, safe infrastructure, and parking. A successful bicycle culture improves a city’s environmental sustainability, health, equity, and access. Most importantly, a safe and convenient bicycle environment builds community interaction.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [382]-413).

Par l’acte I et l’acte II de la décentralisation, les pouvoirs publics ont fait le choix de transférer des compétences aux collectivités territoriales et par conséquent de prendre en compte le potentiel local offert par les territoires. L’organisation territoriale de la France est aujourd’hui très critiquée. L’évolution législative constante dans ce domaine n’a pas su construire un système efficace. En effet, la répartition des compétences entre l’Etat et les collectivités territoriales et entre les communes et leurs EPCI est devenue synonyme de complexité. Si la volonté du législateur était au départ d’instaurer une décentralisation par blocs de compétences, et de transférer à chaque échelon un bloc de compétences bien défini, la réalité fut toute autre. Aujourd’hui le but de l’intercommunalité est d’instituer une véritable collaboration fondée sur un projet commun de développement au sein de périmètres pertinents. Cependant la mutualisation des services reste difficile et trop peu appliquée. La nécessaire rationalisation dans la répartition des compétences a pour conséquences une réorientation de l’intercommunalité, qui se dirige aujourd’hui vers une coopération intercommunale à deux vitesses qui oppose les territoires ruraux et urbains. Le législateur par la loi de modernisation de l’action publique territoriale et d’affirmation des métropoles du 28 janvier 2014 et la loi du 7 août 2015 portant nouvelle organisation territoriale de la République, a privilégié l’expansion des métropoles, qui apparaissent comme une solution à l’empilement des structures intercommunales / By Act I and Act II of the Decentralization, the public authorities have made the choice to transfer competences to the territorial collectivities, and consequently to take into account the local potential of territories. The territorial organization of France is today very criticized. The constant legislative evolution in this field, did not know how to build an effective system. Indeed, the division of powers between the State and local authorities and between municipalities and their EPCI has become synonymous with complexity. If the will of the legislator was initially to introduce a decentralization by blocks of competences, and to transfer at each level a well-defined block of competences, the reality was quite different. Today, the goal of intercommunality is to establish a real collaboration based on a common project of development within relevant perimeters. However the pooling of services remains difficult and too little applied. The necessary rationalization in the division of powers has led to a reorientation of intercommunality, which is now moving towards a two-tier intermunicipal co-operation between rural and urban areas. The legislator by the law of modernization of the territorial public action and affirmation of the metropolises of January 28, 2014 and the law of August 7, 2015 on the new territorial organization of the Republic, favored the expansion of the metropolises, which appear as a as a solution to the stacking of intercommunal structure