Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. Thesis. 1969. Ph.D. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 425-444. / Ph.D.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture; and, (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, June 2005. / Leaf no. 104 repeated twice. Leaf 113 [i.e. 114] blank. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-104). / A compact city form is one that espouses high intensity development within a restrictive geographic area. Its perceived benefits include (a) saving agricultural land (b) inducing shorter commute trips, thus less consumption of fuel and lower emission of harmful gases (c) bringing about a better quality of life through greater social interaction and (d) causing economic benefits through economies of agglomeration. In this thesis I analyze these claims based on literature review, economic models, statistical tools, and by generating hypothetical transport scenarios. Based on this analysis, I conclude that high-density development by itself has little significant association with the benefits claimed above. Further growth control mechanisms have negative externalities such as increasing land rents and causing an immense strain on congestible amenities. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first section is treated as an introduction to the concept of a "compact city". In the second section I analyze whether a compact city can deliver the benefits that its proponents claim. I look at issues such as, (i) the effect of density on urban travel behavior factors like commute distances and public transit usage; (ii) the economics at the urban edge; (iii) the claim that sprawl is inevitable, (iv) effect of growth restrictions on land rent and (v) the relevance of compaction in developing countries (most of which are already highly dense). The third section analyzes the growth management regulations and policies being implemented in Delhi. I use the conclusions drawn from the second part to comment on the appropriateness of these policies, and suggest ways in which the city could better enforce these regulations. / (cont.) I chose Delhi as the case study, in part due to my familiarity with the city, but also because it offers a unique urban laboratory. Delhi's urban form could be described as the antithesis of the compact city form. Unlike most other cities, Delhi displays a positive (upward sloping) density gradient. The city is characterized by low- density development in the center and high-rise high-density at the periphery. The city owes this as much to its past as it does to its present political circumstances and planning policies. The city faces massive strains on its infrastructure due to the high in-migration rates. To accommodate the growing population, the city in the past five decades has quadrupled in area. I evaluate the urban growth management tools such as taxation policy land use policy, development of satellite towns and physical restrictions, used by the city to deal with its problem. / by Amit Oberoi. / M.C.P. / S.M.

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 63-67). / In recent years, there has been substantial interest in understanding urban systems at the national and global scales: what are the economic and social ties that link cities together, and what is the network structure formed by such ties? At the same time, human capital accumulation is increasingly seen as a, primary driver of regional economic growth. Domestic migration patterns have the potential to illuminate the social and economic connections among cities, while also highlighting economically significant flows of human capital. In this thesis I examine the US city system through the lens of gross migration flows, taking advantage of unusually complete data on county-to-county migration compiled annually by the IRS. I compare the observed flows to those predicted by the radiation model. Finding most notably that there are far more long-distance migrants than would be predicted based on the spatial distribution of population alone. I then use reciprocal migration patterns to construct a migration network connecting metro areas in the United States. I utilize current-flow centrality measures to identify the most prominent nodes in this weighted network. Additionally, I use repeated applications of the Louvain community detection algorithm to identify reasonably robust communities within the migration network. These exhibit a striking degree of spatial contiguity. / by Robert Allen Manduca. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-87). / by John C. Powers, Jr. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 112-117). / Although small towns, rural areas, state organizations, and federal programs are all pursuing the redevelopment of the Route 66 corridor, this paper focuses on how four urban communities currently are engaging with this cultural resource: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Rancho Cucamonga, California; and Flagstaff, Arizona. More specifically, the paper answers two central questions; have urban places along the Route 66 corridor engaged in the preservation, development, and interpretation of the route, and if so, how and why have those forms of engagement differed from one another. Four case study chapters describe how engagement has taken different forms in different cities depending upon the city's overall economic and political context, the city's other redevelopment efforts, and the degree to which the city's built fabric has survived the last twenty to thirty years of the corridor's economic decline. Each chapter concludes with site-specific recommendations for each city. After examining several local contexts for corridor redevelopment, the paper analyzes Route 66 as a national cultural resource and recommends strategies for local and interstate development and interpretation. / (cont.) Currently, Route 66 preservationists, advocates, and planners view states and cities as the route's primary "units of preservation", since these are the units in which preservation activity most often occurs. An alternative approach encourages Route 66 advocates to focus on regional and cultural themes as units for corridor redevelopment. This approach would emphasize the corridor's connectivity by treating Route 66 as an interconnected network of places that interpret a common history. For the Route 66 corridor to reach its fullest potential both on the local and national level, it must be developed as a continuous place, in which each of its components contributes to the overall corridor's success. / by Anne Clayton Dodge. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38-40). / This thesis explores how organizations competent at harnessing the collective power of low-income immigrants might successfully combine their strategies to advance the well-being of their mutual constituencies. Based in Durham, North Carolina, the LCCU is a successful community development credit union that delivers financial products and financial education programs to a fast growing low-income Latino community. Based in New York City, New York, 1199SEIU is a successful local labor union that organizes low-income workers to negotiate fair wages and benefits. The LCCU and 1199SEIU represent two dissimilar models of harnessing collective power in different geographic areas in the U.S. Yet, an in-depth analysis at the history of these organizations finds certain elements of common ground upon which they could base a potential partnership. The LCCU and 1199SEIU serve a mutual constituency of low-income immigrants and share the mutual goal of improving their lives. Furthermore, an analysis of their unique competences exposes complementary sets of skills and resources. Given the existence of common ground and a subsequent interest from each organization in exploring a potential partnership, this thesis attempts to answer the following question: Can the LCCU and 1199SEIU be partners? This thesis argues that the LCCU and 1199SEIU can generate synergistic possibilities of collaboration by combining their unique competences to pursue mutual interests. However, this synergy also exposes challenges to the implementation of such possibilities. This thesis concludes by recommending a series of next steps for the LCCU and 1199SEIU to follow in order to overcome these challenges and make their potential partnership a reality. / by Carlos J. Espinoza-Toro. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Page 159 blank. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-158). / Across North America, downtowns are experiencing revitalization and population growth, as "urban pioneers" are making their homes in city centers. While downtowns are typically thought of as places for empty nesters and young, single professionals, some North American cities are experiencing recent growth in families moving downtown, despite its tradeoffs, and others are working to attract families with children to their downtowns. With an increasing number of families living in central city neighborhoods, cities are presented with unique opportunities and challenges. Initiatives to make cities more family-friendly for residents of all backgrounds and income levels will help attract and retain families downtown, as well as contribute to healthy, thriving cities overall. Using Vancouver, BC as a case study, this thesis explores urban livability in general and with specific reference to Vancouver's family-oriented downtown as one component of livability. Vancouver is consistently ranked as one of the world's most livable cities and has been a pioneer city in embracing family-friendly urban living, beginning its efforts several decades ago, while many other cities have only recently begun to address issues of livability. This thesis investigates how Vancouver has accommodated families living downtown and what elements have contributed to its world-renowned status as a model city. However, the story of this perceived "urban utopia" is not complete without consideration of the dilemmas that have come hand-in-hand with Vancouver's success, such as increasing housing prices that are unaffordable to many. These challenges reveal potential implications for other cities hoping to emulate the "Vancouver Model." / (cont.) Lessons learned consider under what circumstances the elements attributable to Vancouver's "success" are applicable and realizable in other cities in North America, with a focus on Seattle, WA and Portland, OR. Recommendations are offered for both how Vancouver can improve and other cities can create more family-friendly urban environments, while avoiding the pitfalls that have come with Vancouver's success. As the case of Vancouver has demonstrated, downtown living is a complex issue and perceived successes can create powerful externalities that may diminish the city's achievements in the long-term if challenges are not properly addressed. / by Sabra Elysia Loewus. / M.C.P.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture; and, (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2006. / Leaf 102 blank. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-101). / The key premise of the Russian revolutionary movement was the overthrow of the old government and establishment of the new political order under the one party leadership of the Bolsheviks. The political platform of the new government extended well beyond the promise of simple reforms. Its foundation was a vision of an entirely new society governed by a set of new economic mechanisms and social relations. The foundation of the new system rested on the complete socialization of all economic resources and means of production and the creation of the centralized planning system independent of the volatile dynamics of the free market. In this thesis I argue that in their role as the new government of Russia, Bolsheviks simultaneously acted as town planners and as social planners, envisioning the new society and its institutions in every detail and creating a new urban form-the socialist city, and the new citizen-the socialist man. To create this city the Bolsheviks designed a unique tool-they merged their legal right to make policy with their ability to use rhetoric in the form of widespread persuasion, propaganda, indoctrination and force. I define the socialist city as an urban settlement in which the primary from of human existence is the collective life. / (cont.) This city is designed in such a way as to make every space accessible to government control, by making it transparent to the collective which has assumed the censoring and policing functions of the government The space of the city is permeated by a network of institutions and agents making it an environment in which a person is constantly exposed to the mechanisms of control. During the first decade after the revolution the Bolsheviks created the forms of housing and the auxiliary institutions, such as the social club, the communal canteen etc, that became the building blocks of the socialist city. In this thesis I examine the social institutions created by the Bolsheviks between 1917 and 1932 with the goal of understanding of how their design defined the future development of the socialist city. / by Nadya Nilina. / M.C.P. / S.M.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2010. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 71). / This thesis sets out to examine the case of commercial street revitalization in Fuzhou, China. In modern China the focus of revitalization models has evolved from poverty and environmental quality in 1980s to economic revival and social policy in 2000's. Due to the lack of empowerment of local community, the prevailing models-Clearance, Xiantiandi and Fake historical-all take a large-scale approach that is favored and undertaken by either government or developer. Compared with a small-scale approach, the large-scale approach usually faces problems such as financial uncertainty, preservation degradation, and loss of diversity and scale continuity. Fuzhou Nanhou Street revitalization project is a government oriented large-scale project that attempts to tackle conservation and economic revitalization issues. With respect to the challenges faced by large-scale approach, an assessment index is developed to include conservation, diversity, connectivity, economy and equity. In general, the Nanhou street revitalization plan was well prepared in and implemented in 2009. It has employed effective design strategies in managing physical conservation, upgrading and promoting urban vitality. However, there was insufficient concern over real estate management and social equity issues, which became an obstacle to a sustainable revitalization. For example, the uniform rent and over-scale store design prevent some century-old stores from re-opening after revitalization. In this thesis, I argue revitalization should put equal emphasis on the software as on the hardware. The lack of knowledge in marketing and management can undermine a sustainable revitalization in China in spite of a sensible physical conservation. Three recommendations are made to inform future practices: 1) coordinate with tourism and creative industry development; 2) introduce retail business management; 3) incorporate public participation into the planning process. / by Yang Liu. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-84XX). / by Marc Stephen Coleman. / M.S.