This research describes a methodology for measuring built form patterns using spatial data and GIS that is amenable to the study of large geographical areas. This methodology was used to investigate the capability of municipal planning to influence residential development. In the early 1990s, the Town of Markham, Ontario, Canada adopted a residential development philosophy inspired by New Urbanism. An adjacent municipality, the City of Vaughan, has employed a conventional development approach. By calculating several built form measures derived from the design prescriptions associated with New Urbanism, this study seeks to discern if Markham's adoption of an unconventional development philosophy has resulted in a residential built form distinct from that in Vaughan. <br /><br /> Built form measures are calculated for both municipalities for two eras. Development from 1981 to 1995 represents the "before" or baseline configuration, while development from 1996 to 2003 is used to characterize built form created when Markham's New Urbanist-inspired approach was in force. Period over period comparisons are carried out for each municipality, as are within-period comparisons between municipalities. <br /><br /> Findings indicate that development patterns are distinct in the two study periods. From the early period to the more recent, street networks take on a more grid-like organization while building lots and blocks become smaller. These changes are accompanied by an overall decline in accessibility to amenities. However, development patterns were found to be quite similar in both municipalities in the recent study period, exhibiting differences in degree, not in kind. The findings appear to indicate that planning's influence over residential built form is limited to moderately accelerating positive trends, and moderately retarding negative trends.

This research describes a methodology for measuring built form patterns using spatial data and GIS that is amenable to the study of large geographical areas. This methodology was used to investigate the capability of municipal planning to influence residential development. In the early 1990s, the Town of Markham, Ontario, Canada adopted a residential development philosophy inspired by New Urbanism. An adjacent municipality, the City of Vaughan, has employed a conventional development approach. By calculating several built form measures derived from the design prescriptions associated with New Urbanism, this study seeks to discern if Markham's adoption of an unconventional development philosophy has resulted in a residential built form distinct from that in Vaughan. <br /><br /> Built form measures are calculated for both municipalities for two eras. Development from 1981 to 1995 represents the "before" or baseline configuration, while development from 1996 to 2003 is used to characterize built form created when Markham's New Urbanist-inspired approach was in force. Period over period comparisons are carried out for each municipality, as are within-period comparisons between municipalities. <br /><br /> Findings indicate that development patterns are distinct in the two study periods. From the early period to the more recent, street networks take on a more grid-like organization while building lots and blocks become smaller. These changes are accompanied by an overall decline in accessibility to amenities. However, development patterns were found to be quite similar in both municipalities in the recent study period, exhibiting differences in degree, not in kind. The findings appear to indicate that planning's influence over residential built form is limited to moderately accelerating positive trends, and moderately retarding negative trends.

The current model of suburban development in Canadian cities has serious consequences for the natural environment. The ubiquitous landscape of sprawl consumes excessive amounts of greenfield land and natural resources, while maintaining an artificial relationship with nature that is more concerned with the aesthetics of lawns and trees than with natural ecosystems. This thesis proposes a new planning paradigm that is derived from the ideals of the Garden City, but is steeped in the notion of green infrastructure as the foundation for ecological health. It makes use of greenbelts and greenways as circulation systems for people, plants, wildlife, water, and natural processes. The towns of Newmarket and Aurora, which are situated within a pocket of developable land amid the Greater Toronto Area Greenbelt, are selected as a case study area. An in-depth analysis of the cultural and natural ecosystems that function at various scales across the region provides the framework upon which the design is structure. The design is twofold. First, it is primarily a planning thesis with an ecological approach to design. It provides a working methodology for green infrastructure at the regional scale, and illustrates a schematic plan for a sustainable metropolitan village, “Leslie Village”, that is tied to Newmarket and Aurora’s existing suburban fabric. Secondly, it illustrates the schematic design response to the planning thesis, by providing nominal visualizations of key areas where the proposed greenway intersects public space. Leslie Village challenges the traditional model of development and provides a new planning system whose methods and principles can be transferred to other communities in the GTA, and across the country.

This dissertation investigates the impact of metropolitan growth patterns and policies on both intra-regional spatial differentiation and the decline of inner-ring suburbs by identifying a multi-ring metropolitan structure in four metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Portland, using longitudinal Census data from 1970 to 2000. The findings of this research confirmed that intra-regional spatial differentiation increased over time and showed that the inner-ring suburbs in the four metropolitan areas were increasingly vulnerable to socioeconomic decline regardless of their growth patterns and policies. In contrast, the downtowns and some parts of the inner city showed gradual recovery from the deterioration patterns of the last several decades. The outer-ring suburbs continued to thrive, drawing most of the new population and housing development. This dissertation also explored the association between metropolitan growth patterns and policies and the extent of spatial differentiation and socioeconomic disparity in the subareas. Analyses found that strong decentralization trends are associated with increases in intra-regional spatial differentiation and socioeconomic disparity, while urban containment policies are associated with their reduction. However, despite its strong urban containment policies, the Portland region exhibited a clear pattern of inner-ring suburban decline, which suggests that the inner-ring suburbs require local initiatives directed toward revitalization. In conclusion, this research has shown that excessive development at the urban fringe is associated with the abandonment of the blighted inner city and more importantly, in the decline of the inner-ring suburbs. The inner-ring suburbs, with their existing valuable assets, should be fertile grounds for smart growth strategies. Moreover, the central city and outer-ring suburbs have a vital mission to save and invigorate the inner-ring suburbs, as they represent the primary link and conduit to all the surrounding areas of a metropolitan region. Only by recognizing the interdependence of all the areas and by applying sound, holistic policies can the decision-making entities of the government ensure the survival and future stability of the metropolitan areas.

Office is a necessary workplace for corporate business operation in current commercial market, the maturity of office market development reflects the economy and commercial development status in different markets. The application of transacted office rental and vacancy rate as a primary data is relatively rare in pervious domestic literatures due to the difficultly of primary data collection. Therefore, the study of the correlation between office rental and vacancy rate by using primary data analysis is one of the research focus. Moreover, the lack of land supply for office development in Taipei CBD led to a rapid growth for suburban technology parks in the past decade. Corporate occupiers may relocate from the CBD to suburban technology parks due to competitive rental, improved public transportation network and information technology infrastructure. Therefore, the study of the correlation between suburban technology parks¡¦ office new supply and CBD Grade A office vacancy rate is another research focus in this thesis. The scope of study covers the Taipei CBD office submarkets and Neihu Technology Park and Nankang Software Park within suburban of Taipei City. The research method includes a literature review, market overview of CBD and suburban technology parks and empirical analysis of research data. By using correlation coefficient and ordinary least squares methods to analyze the factors, there are two finding revealed in the empirical results. Firstly, the empirical results revealed that the relationship between Taipei CBD Grade A office rental and vacancy rate is negative. Rental drop while vacancy increasing and oppositely rental increase while vacancy rate decline. The grade A rental may drop NT$27.16 per ping per month when Grade A vacancy rate increase 1%. Secondly, the empirical results revealed that the relationship between suburban technology parks¡¦ office new supply and CBD Grade A office vacancy rate is positive. The Grade A office vacancy rate may increase 1.53% when suburban technology parks increase 10,000 pings office new supply. NT$27.16 per ping per month when grade A vacancy rate increase 1%. It would be helpful for making business decisions on office leasing, real estate development and property investment if corporate occupiers, real estate developer and investor have more knowledge on office market vacancy rate and new supply information.

Value pricing strategies are beginning to be considered for future improvements in suburban areas that currently do not experience significant congestion but are expected to become congested in the future. This is a significant departure from implementing these strategies in congested urban areas as is commonly done now. Therefore, traveler reaction in these suburban areas is unknown. To plan and design value pricing projects most effectively, it will be necessary to gain an understanding of suburban travelers' potential reaction to value pricing. Responses to a survey of travelers using the eastern and western segments of Interstate 10 (I-10) outside of San Antonio were used to study differences in response to value pricing by suburban population groups. These surveys collected information on travelers' socioeconomic and trip characteristics as well as their attitudes towards value pricing in the form of potential Express Toll Lanes (ETLS). Stated preference scenarios presented to survey respondents were used to develop mode choice models. These models were used to determine characteristics that may impact the decision to choose to travel on the general purpose lanes (GPLs) or the ETLs. This research suggests that the implementation of value pricing strategies on suburban corridors may pose a challenge from a policy standpoint. The populations using these corridors appear to be more varied in their responses toward value pricing than populations using congested urban corridors. Overall, it was found that the majority of travelers on I-10E and I-10W are not favorable to the implementation of value pricing for the future expansion of these corridors. However, I-10W travelers seem to be more willing to pay for travel time savings. This is likely due to the fact that travelers on I-10W earn higher average incomes, are more likely to use I-10W on a regular basis for commute purposes, and are more often exposed to some traffic congestion. Conversely, travelers on I-10E are more likely to use I-10E less frequently for non-commute trips, travel longer distances, and probably do not have an intuitive sense of the value they would place on travel time savings since they do not regularly experience congestion.

Moving to Florida to retire has become commonplace among American elders, though we have seldom addressed how lesbians and gay men navigate sexual identity in retirement. I undertake ethnography of three suburban, retirement-aged residential communities in Florida in which lesbians and gay men make community in order to understand how identities are produced by and within communities, the significance of suburban gay communities in the post-gay community era, and how residents from each community engage dominant discourse. Sanctuary Cove 1 is a ―gay and lesbian‖ retirement community; Bayside Park is a ―women‘s-only‖ (lesbian) community; and Heritage Estates is a heteronormative retirement community with a growing lesbian ―network.‖ Drawing from conversations with thirty lesbians and four gay men, I compare community practices to support my argument that these are respective settings for accrediting, contesting, and privileging identities. By exploring how participants collectively construct and present sexual selves in disparate communities, I attempt to uncover the co-constitutive interaction between community and identity; while attention to the ruling relations of sexuality, sex, gender, race, and class engages the politics of privilege and stigma.

Have steady increases in socioeconomic status (SES) and occupational prestige along with changes in residential context and subsequently social networks necessitated a shift in our understanding of Black political participation and group identity? Specifically, how does the unique political environment facing African-American residents in majority Anglo suburbs attach unique utilities to participation, different from their neighbors or even their own co-ethnics that reside in the central city? I argue that African Americans in majority Anglo areas who expend political resources in the most proximate races will derive a negligible benefit. Further, these citizens’ most proximate residential and social network contexts heighten feelings of minority status. Consequently, I contend this class of Black voters are pushed away from the traditional forms of participation (i.e. voting for the congressman or local school board representative) and towards non-traditional, and more resource costly, forms of group directed participation which also come at much higher utilities. / text

This study described how suburban public elementary school principals and teachers perceived the principals' social justice leadership as shifting demographic diversity increased in racial and ethnic minority students, decreased in white students, increased in child poverty, and threatened schools academic achievement status. The two Arizona high performance suburban public elementary schools (SPES) were located in two different suburban districts on opposite sides of a metropolitan city. A multiple embedded replication case study involved principals and six K-5 grade teachers at each school and included participant semi-structured interviews, school observations, and document analysis. The data showed how principals' leadership was perceived and practiced in educating students with social and educational inequalities while simultaneously trying to maintain high performance schools. Findings revealed that principals' different and similar practices were not motivated from a social justice disposition. Nevertheless, I discovered that principals' leadership practices imperceptibly included tenets of social justice. The teachers perceived that principals made concerted efforts beyond contemporary leadership practices that addressed children's inequalities owing to poverty and lack of academic preparation. The principals and teachers cared for the students and pushed for additional resources. The educators expressed being underprepared professionally for the tensions brought about by students' shifting demographics. An unexpected finding was that child poverty trumped the children's race and ethnicity as the foremost issue challenging the principals and teachers. As a result of the findings, part of my proposition supported the premise that principals would perceive the educational inequalities experienced by students. Conversely, part of the premise stating that principals' perceptions of students' educational inequalities would influence them to use social justice leadership was weakly supported because principals did not perceive or attribute their practices with teachers as driven by a belief in social justice. Two themes emerged from the analysis of patterns across cases: (1) Principals did not have a social justice consciousness driving their leadership practices, and (2) Principals' contemporary leadership practices imperceptibly combined social justice leadership tenets to influence teachers and promote equality of educational opportunity for all students.

The current model of suburban development in Canadian cities has serious consequences for the natural environment. The ubiquitous landscape of sprawl consumes excessive amounts of greenfield land and natural resources, while maintaining an artificial relationship with nature that is more concerned with the aesthetics of lawns and trees than with natural ecosystems. This thesis proposes a new planning paradigm that is derived from the ideals of the Garden City, but is steeped in the notion of green infrastructure as the foundation for ecological health. It makes use of greenbelts and greenways as circulation systems for people, plants, wildlife, water, and natural processes. The towns of Newmarket and Aurora, which are situated within a pocket of developable land amid the Greater Toronto Area Greenbelt, are selected as a case study area. An in-depth analysis of the cultural and natural ecosystems that function at various scales across the region provides the framework upon which the design is structure. The design is twofold. First, it is primarily a planning thesis with an ecological approach to design. It provides a working methodology for green infrastructure at the regional scale, and illustrates a schematic plan for a sustainable metropolitan village, “Leslie Village”, that is tied to Newmarket and Aurora’s existing suburban fabric. Secondly, it illustrates the schematic design response to the planning thesis, by providing nominal visualizations of key areas where the proposed greenway intersects public space. Leslie Village challenges the traditional model of development and provides a new planning system whose methods and principles can be transferred to other communities in the GTA, and across the country.