2019-2020 Thesis/Dissertation Abstracts

DEPARTMENT OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING

THESIS/DISSERTATION DUSP GRADUATES 2019/2020

Bachelor of Science in Planning Avital Baral Adriana Jacobsen Jackie Lin Noah McDaniel

Bachelor of Science in Urban Science and Planning with Computer Science Meital Hoffman Hadrian Merced Hernandez

Master of Science in Transportation Mark Perelmuter Maud Sindzingre

Master of Science in Transportation & Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Baichuan Mo

Master of Science in Transportation & Master in City Planning Anne Hudson Jonathan Leape Jintai Li

Master in City Planning & Master of Science in Electical Engineering and Computer Science Jialu Tan Yao Zhao

Master in City Planning & Real Estate Development Jeff Jamawat Sean Robinson

Master in City Planning & Master of Science in Architecture Studies Yair Titelboim

Master in City Planning Zachary Avre Neha Bazaj Abigail Bliss Braxton Bridgers Tessa Mae Buono Anne Calef Diego Castillo Peredo Agustin Cepeda Jenny Chen Julia Curbera Peter Damrosch Sarah Edgar Stephen Erdman Yichun Fan Zhuangyuan Fan Julia Field Mario Goetz Dylan Halpern Carl Hedman Shail Joshi Kevin Li Kendrick Manymules ZoĂŤ McAlear Emmett McKinney Kenyatta McLean Hannah Hunt Moeller Ian Ollis Stephanie Pena Daniel Powers Marisa Prasse David Robinson Radhika Singh Mary Smith Wonyoung So Tanaya Srinivasakrishnan Tianyu Su Fiona Tanuwidjaja Vanessa Toro Barragan Natalia Vidigal Coachman Carolyn Wang Yang

Doctor of Philosophy Jesus Alvarez Felix Andrea Karin Beck Lilian Bui Matthew Claudel Laura Delgado Elise Harrington Suzanne Harris-Brandts Daniel Gallagher Jessica Gordon Haegi Kwon Mohammad Omar Masud Prassanna Raman Karthik Rao Cavale Jeffrey Rosenblum Faizan Jawed Siddiqi Louis Thomas Shenhao Wang Yasmin Zaerpoor

Zachary Avre Karilyn Crockett

“The Backbone of Chicago’s Economy”: The Chicago Microlending Institute and the Road to Financial Inclusion for Entrepreneurs of Color Amidst persistent and widening racial wealth divides in their communities, local and state governments across the United States have deployed non-traditional tools to support underserved entrepreneurs of color and build wealth in communities of color. While few funding efforts have yielded systemic change to-date, programs like the Chicago Microlending Institute (CMI), an effort led by the City of Chicago and Accion Chicago to meet the capital demands of the city’s small businesses by building a scale-advantaged network of microlenders, suggest new pathways for municipalities to challenge the legacy and persistence of racialized economic segregation in their communities.

This thesis serves to document CMI as a case study of a municipal access to capital program by exploring its origins, program structure, outcomes for borrowers and lenders, and insights from insiders involved in designing and implementing the program. Situating the program within the context of Chicago’s racialized lending landscape and historical attempts to build wealth within a segregated economy, this thesis draws on semi-structured interviews with participating lenders, analysis of lending data, and internal program documents to answer the following questions: to what extent did microloans and related services offered through CMI reach entrepreneurs of color and neighborhoods least served by traditional financial institutions in Chicago? What aspects of the program did lenders consider most effective, and where did they experience pain points? The study concludes with policy and programmatic recommendations for the City of Chicago to build upon the precedent of CMI and for other municipalities exploring policy interventions to extend access to capital to underserved borrowers to learn from the program’s successes and shortcomings.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 1

Ricardo Akvarez Felix Dennis Frenchman

Sensing Lights: Transforming Street lights into a Networked Urban Knowledge Platform

arrangements and stakeholder’s networks. Seeking to maximize social benefits I conclude by proposing a series of recommendations aimed at hybridizing functions of public lighting and real-time sensing of the built environment in cities, for the creation of a range of new urban experiences and civic benefits across a variety of use cases for cities.

This work is subdivided into three academic papers that together form a coherent exploration of the phenomena of intelligent street lights and their potential applications as a new type of digital urban infrastructure. In the first paper, I review existing cases of cities that are digitizing their public lighting infrastructure. I analyze their various approaches to smart lighting and then propose a framework by which we can maximize their potential uses. For the second paper, I perform an urban demonstration that pairs street lights with a prototype intelligent, networked digital imaging and deep-learning, computer vision platform, in order to monitor the utilization of curbside space, currently utilized for parking in cities, which serves as an example of how to develop interoperability between different urban infrastructure systems. For the third paper, I investigate the policy dimensions of implementing such a system, including the concerns raised by industry leaders and city officials, as street lights become multi-functional sources of urban data, and the dilemma this may pose for existing institutional

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 2

Neha Bazaj Karilyn Crockett

Daylighting Pathways to Good Jobs in California’s Solar Industry This paper identifies the opportunities for, and challenges to, creating good quality jobs for socioeconomically disadvantaged workers through mid-size solar photovoltaic projects in California.

Recent policy proposals in the United States suggest that clean energy investments can address both climate change and economic inequality, but existing research calls those claims into question.

My analysis suggests that union organizing, project labor agreements and prevailing wage laws are likely to play a smaller role in mid-size projects than they have in utility-scale projects, and thus additional tools are necessary to ensure that mid-size solar photovoltaic projects create good quality jobs for those that need them the most. Policymakers should consider how to attach workforce investment requirements and labor standards to any regulatory incentives for mid-size projects.

Photo Credit: Luis Sinco, Los Angeles Times

This paper elaborates on the history of union organizing, project labor agreements and prevailing wage law in the solar photovoltaic industry in California, providing some insight into the opportunities for using these tools to shape job quality in the mid-size solar photovoltaic sector. In combination with key informant interviews, this will enable us to address the question: under what conditions might mid-size solar photovoltaic projects enable good jobs?

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 3

Andrea Beck Lawrence Susskind

factors that would cause water operators to engage in WOPs on a not-for-profit basis.

Water Operator Partnerships: Utility Reform and the Struggle for Alternatives to Privatization

My findings indicate that WOPs are driven by a number of interests that call into question their portrayal as solidarity-based partnerships, including staff development and the furthering of opportunities for aid, trade, and investment. I then follow the Dutch and Ugandan companies out of their headquarters and into the field, to the water utility serving Malawi’s capital Lilongwe. Taken together, this dissertation points to a need to refocus the debate on WOPs, beyond the private sector and towards public water and sanitation operators. I argue that two trends in particular deserve critical attention: professionalization and corporatization.

Both are somewhat more concealed and less visible than the outright inclusion of the private sector in WOPs, but they could, in the end, pose a more serious challenge to the WOP model and its postneoliberal potential.

The water privatizations that swept across the global South in the 1990s and early 2000s failed to meet expectations. Rather than bringing about increased efficiency and investment, a suite of public-private partnerships ended prematurely and caused social unrest.

In response, scholars and activists embarked on a search for “alternatives to privatization.” Informed by the work of the Municipal Services Project and postneoliberal scholarship, this dissertation examines Water Operator Partnerships (WOPs) as a potential alternative to private-sector engagement in water and sanitation. I trace the WOP concept to its origins in the UN system and highlight its defining characteristics as a partnership type. I further discuss the struggles behind the concept’s emergence, focusing on the contested role of the private sector and the strategies applied by activists trying to safeguard a public orientation of WOPs. Based on two case studies of water companies in the Netherlands and Uganda, I examine the motivating

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 4

Abigail Bliss Karilyn Crockett

Fault Lines: The Legacy of Urban Renewal in Hudson, NY

and patterns of investment in Hudson today. This examination of the enduring impact of urban renewal’s alternate site clearance and historic rehabilitation activities ultimately underscores the power of narrative in shaping the city landscape and suggests opportunities for expanding the application of historic preservation locally.

Hudson, New York has been carved by a series of historical forces that continue to shape presentday physical and narrative representations of the city. Today, the local landscape reflects two distinct communities contained within a compact street grid, with its core commercial artery of Warren Street serving as the dividing line between them. Dominant contemporary narratives about Hudson obscure this pattern, using the recent revitalization of Warren Street as a synecdoche for the identity of the city as a whole.

This thesis explores the potential to recover historical and contemporary perspectives that illustrate the confined disparity marking Hudson today -- both for what they reveal about the present state of the city and for the potential avenues they suggest for re-visioning its future. Through close readings of the city landscape, archival documents, and oral history interviews, this thesis accordingly assembles an account of a formative, if undertold chapter in Hudson’s history, the city’s first urban renewal project, and traces the project’s long-term unfolding and resonance in resident attitudes

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 5

Tessa Mae Buono Ceasar McDowell

Equitable Visitation of National Parks: Shedding Light on Community Partner Perspectives to Improve Park Planning for All

planning recommendations to make national park units more equitably visited and enjoyed by all.

Before diving into the case study at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, an overview of current literature explains why promoting diversity outdoors is important and why it can sometimes be a challenging task.

This research provides a deep dive into the lives of community organization leaders and National Park Service staff who work to promote diversity outdoors through hiking programs, the arts, advocacy, and more. The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (outside of Los Angeles California) is used as a case study to research the successes and challenges for more equitably distributing park’s positive impacts on health and well-being to its adjacent communities.

This research inquires questions around sense of belonging, feeling welcome, and other factors that might impact one’s experience outdoors. Qualitative interviews with community organizations and NPS staff shed light on successes and challenges to reaching their goals of bringing more diverse groups to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SAMO). This research culminates with park

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 6

Anne Calef Devin Bunten

Provisioning Public Education: Infrastructural Violence, School Districting, and Spatialized Inequity in the San Francisco Bay Area

distribution of opportunity, and abjection of Black and Latinx students. Under such a framework, school closures emerge as more than the mere consequence of administrative failure, but as the product of a socially constructed and maintained distributional regime.

With an alarming budget deficit and mounting fiscal pressures, Oakland Unified School District made a contentious and familiar decision in 2019- to close and consolidate schools. The ensuing conflict exposed a deeper structural faultline with roots in the racialized plunder that has fueled American prosperity and poverty from its founding.

Situating the legal and political history of public education within an infrastructural violence framework, this thesis examines how the United States’ system for provisioning schooling has created conditions in which school closures are structurally inevitable in low-income, urban communities of color. I look closely at the boundary between two vastly different but adjacent school districts in the San Francisco Bay Area to argue that the infrastructure of public education enacts violence through its segregation of resources, inequitable

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 7

Diego Castillo Peredo Gabriella Carolini

Development inequity: Advancing Distributive Justice

by Localizing SDG Indicators for Municipalities in Chile By examining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at a municipal scale in Chile, this thesis demonstrates that the localization of the development agenda is required to advance distributive justice. Given the contraductions of the development narrative, the SDGs might be insufficient for revealing inequities, compromising their own goal of “leaving no one behind.” Three conditions suggest distributional concerns: heterogenic conditions among municipalities, a unitary and centralized government, and high dependence on economic factors for local capacities.

by the country to report its official statistics. Using a resource-based and capabilities approach on distributive justice, the results reveal to what extent localization can advance spatial equity.

The results show that aggregates can be deceiving, concealing significant local variation and masking important deficiencies, and that lowest-performing municipalities are generally biased toward rural, satellite, less-accessible, and resource-scarce areas.

These findings support the need for localizing to subnational scales as a way of promoting distributive justice. However, advancing justice also requires increasing the resources and agency of municipalities to take action upon their own development. This analysis underscores the limitations of the SDG framework in exposing the underperforming areas and their shortcomings in advocating for an appropriate narrative of development. As their adoption and influence increase, this research contributes to expanding knowledge on how to operationalize them to advance sustainable development with equity.

However, localizing the 2030 Agenda presents an opportunity to elevate local conditions and better balance national and local capacities. Through the disaggregation of eleven SDG indicators, the municipalities’ scores are analyzed based on their internal dispersion, spatial distribution, and correlation with socioeconomic characteristics. Data is obtained from publicly accessible sources used

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 8

Jenny Chen Devin Bunten

Integrating Neighborhoods, Segregating Power Since the 1990’s, tenant-based vouchers have exceeded the number of conventional public housing units in the United States. Policies to expand housing choice with mobile vouchers have grown in popularity despite program evaluations that have demonstrated modest financial and educational gains for young children and adverse experiences of social isolation and racial hostility for Black families.

In conversations with local public housing stakeholders, I find that racial hostility and a lack of resources can cause tenants to socially isolate and withdraw from political processes in their new communities. These dynamics diminish the ability of Black households with vouchers to organize for collective priorities. Addressing this will require raceconscious approaches to political representation, resource provision, and community development.

While existing research has focused on material and social outcomes for households who move from high-poverty to low-poverty “opportunity” neighborhoods, I investigate the effects on the political power of Black families who utilize vouchers to move from predominantly-Black neighborhoods in Boston to predominantly-white suburban towns. I draw on critical race theory and theories of collective efficacy to argue that current housing integration policies reproduce racial power dynamics despite operating on seemingly race-neutral terms.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 9

Daniela Chong Lugon Lawrence Vale

Dispossessing the Public: Privatization of Open Public Spaces in Lima, Peru The Metropolitan Area of Lima has on average 3.6m2 of green area per person, for a total of 10 million inhabitants. Although this is not the most accurate metric, it is the most available proxy to measure open public spaces in the city. In addition, it is not equitably distributed: districts with higher socioeconomic levels and larger municipal budgets have greater area and higher quality public spaces.

In this context, one of the biggest threats that public spaces face is their privatization, a process in which they are dispossessed from the public and transformed for a private or restricted use.

In recent years, streets, parks, plazas, beaches, coastal “”lomas”” and other public spaces have become shopping centers, private clubs, formal and informal housing, amusement parks, synthetic grass courts, and other infrastructure that has altered its openness, ownership, accessibility, and function.

This shift from public to private spaces ultimately reduces the opportunity of all citizens to have available open public spaces, increases social fragmentation, and ultimately deepens issues of spatial injustice.

In such a scenario, this thesis examines the conditions under which open public spaces are privatized and identifies the mechanisms. Through different case studies and interviews, I create three types — Concession for Development, Appropriation for Livelihood, and Enclosure for Control — that attempt to explain the different forms in which privatization develops to expose the motivations behind it, the processes and actors involved, and its manifestations in the built environment. I analyze and expose the structural governance conditions and flaws in current planning processes that lead to privatization in order to help create awareness about how and why this invisible phenomenon takes place and who is most affected by it. Finally, this thesis proposes recommendations that can help Lima and other Peruvian cities promote the protection and preservation of public spaces and also encourage a more equitable distribution.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 10

Matthew Claudel Dennis Frenchman

How Cities Learn: Urban Experimentation for Creating and Governing Technology Urban experimentation is an increasingly common technique to create and govern new technology in cities. The goal of this dissertation is twofold: to understand how urban experimentation enables the design, diffusion, deliberation and regulation of new technology, and under what conditions it contributes to social, economic and political adaptation over time. This is an investigation of how cities learn.

I present empirical research – 12 urban experiments in three different cities – and evaluate them through the lens of civic value. The first level of analysis shows trends in urban domains (real property and transportation) that inform a typology of experiment structures.

term outcomes in terms of designing technology or advancing regulation. However, there are critical conceptual faults related to uncertainty, power, and normalization. To some extent these faults are resolved in a third – emergent – position, in which actors explore alternative (non-market, non-state) ways to create and govern technologies.

While emergent experiments are promising, their outcomes are inevitably constrained to the narrow spectrum of conventional organization forms that exist in the market-state framework – even if those forms are ill-fit to sustain the civic value that emerged during the experiment.

I propose the civic corporation to fill that gap: a legal framework for new organization forms that have a duty to steward, and perpetually rediscover, emergent civic value. I argue that emergent urban experimentation can become a technique for creating and governing technology in cities, if there exist stable but dynamic forms of distributed accountability, and a structural capacity for adaptation.

On a deeper level, it is clear that actors have three different ways of thinking about how an experiment creates civic value. The first two positions – performative and stochastic – are prevalent, and they align with today’s orthodox policy models. I find evidence that both can yield practical, short-

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 11

Daniela Cocco Beltrame Gabriella Carolini

Subaltern City-Making: A Portrait of Urban Border Thinking from Harare, Zimbabwe Conventional narratives of the urban poor are often problematic, portraying them in stereotyped or reductionist ways. This often hinders their efforts to put forward their own ways of knowing and doing.

However prevalent mainstream perspectives may be, urban poor communities still display agency to question hegemonic narratives through their scholarly production and daily practice.

Following women members’ everyday experiences of the organization’s practices, this work creates a narrative that sits in direct contrast with the way urban poor communities have been portrayed by mainstream perspectives by presenting three moments of agency and consciousness-raising that stem from the SDI model. Finally, building on this model, it offers a reflection on the locus of agency in the planning field to fundamentally transform itself by: 1) unlearning colonial approaches to planning by treating the majority world as the center of planning theory and practice, starting form a fundamental change in planning curriculums across the globe; 2) redefining planning interactions to foster transcalar and transectoral organizing and institutional arrangements; 3) contesting the way city development is conceptualized, measured and evaluated.

Building on the concepts of border thinking (Walter Mignolo) understood as epistemology from a subaltern perspective, and conflicting rationalities (Vanessa Watson) as a framework to better understand difference and inform practice, this thesis aims at creating space for alternative forms of city-making. Through the method of portraiture (Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot), it explores the model developed by Slum Dwellers International (SDI), and concentrates on the experience of its affiliates in Harare, Zimbabwe.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 12

Julia Curbera and Agustín Cepeda Karilyn Crockett, Aviva Chomsky

The Punto Urban Art Museum in Salem, MA: A Case for Shared Authority How can art and creative placemaking practice towards social justice?

Based in the Point neighborhood of Salem, Massachusetts, North Shore Community Development Coalition’s (North Shore CDC) Punto Urban Art Museum (PUAM) is a “social justice art program” that aims to break down socio-economic divides between the Point, a historically immigrant neighborhood, and the rest of Salem, by beautifying the public realm with over 100 murals painted on or adjacent to affordable housing.

Responding to a practical problem of low resident engagement in PUAM, this thesis proposes shared authority to operationalize two dimensions of social justice: material distribution and cultural recognition. Shared authority involves elevating diverse knowledges, perspectives, cultures, and lived experiences into the programs, interventions and narratives that create public culture.

As engaged scholars with North Shore CDC, we ask: How have PUAM programs shared authority with Point residents?

We defend shared authority as social justice practice by tracing theory on social justice, art and placemaking, cultural tourism, museum education, and CDCs. Through interviews with program staff and stakeholders, historical research, and a review of public media, we find evidence of the presence and absence of shared authority in PUAM’s history. We discuss how shared authority may contest cultural misrecognition and practice towards social justice by allowing positive self-definitions of difference.

We explain how a focus on outside recognition may have precluded a shared authority approach, leading to low engagement and undermining the pursuit of recognitional justice. In a moment of PUAM’s future planning, and as cities leverage creative placemaking for economic growth and social change, understanding these promises and pitfalls of creative placemaking is useful knowledge for orienting this practice towards social justice. We conclude with questions and proposals for how PUAM or any creative placemaking program can share authority.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 13

Laura Humm Delgado Phillip Clay

Branching Out into Immigrant Neighborhoods: How Public Libraries Distribute Community Resources to Meet Immigrant Needs Local organizations play a critical role in providing access to resources and opportunities for those who are low-income, socially isolated, or marginalized.

This is especially true for immigrants in the United States, where support with integration falls almost entirely on local organizations. Immigrants are more likely to live in poverty; yet, they are accessing the social safety net less for fear of discrimination and deportation. This research asks how one type of local organization, the neighborhood library branch, distributes resources to immigrants across urban neighborhoods and how neighborhoods shape organizational resources.

language learning and political, economic, and social integration. I address how immigrant services align with neighborhood needs and how immigrants access resources. I find that institutional resources are well targeted to immigrant neighborhoods, but community resources are more effective at reaching immigrants and provide intangible benefits that are tailored to neighborhoods. A reliance on community resources, however, can exacerbate inequalities across neighborhoods. The second part of this research addresses how neighborhoods shape library resources through 1) expressed community needs, 2) level of volunteerism, 3) cultural sharing practices, and 4) organizational partnerships.

The findings from this research have implications for how scholars and planners conceptualize and identify organizational resources at the neighborhood level. Additionally, this research offers lessons for what practices local organizations and government agencies can adopt to reach immigrant communities at a time when immigrants are becoming increasingly fearful of accessing government institutions, public benefits, and public spaces.

I approach this research through a mixed-method study of the Boston Public Library and its twentyfive neighborhood branches. The first part uses an immigrant integration framework to examine how neighborhood library branches contribute to English

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 14

Sarah H. Edgar Amy Glasmeier

Does the Siting of Neighborhood Incarceral Facilities Influence Local Police Behavior?

This research studies NYPD Stop and Frisk data from before and after the reopening of the Brooklyn Detention Complex in 2012 to determine whether the introduction of carceral facilities to a neighborhood changes policing habits in the area.

This research hopes to aid in wider discussions of devolution as a means for decarceration by answering an important question about the impacts of neighborhood siting. Though the research was inspired by the policy decision to close Riker’s Island facilities in New York, the question of devolution is not limited to one city. Ultimately the research aims to help U.S. organizations and political officials interested in carceral devolution to better understand possible ramifications of neighborhood facilities.

hosts datasets for its “Stop, Question, and Frisk” program from 2003-2018 on the nyc.gov website.

Within that timeframe, the Brooklyn Detention Complex reopened after years of inactivity. Methods focus on time disparity and difference in difference comparisons. The time from disparity and distance from facility are used as independent variables to form a gradient approach to analysis. Dependent and grouping variables describe characteristics of police behavior, including the number of stops, frequency of use of force, and race of persons stopped.

I hypothesize that police behavior will become more aggressive near carceral facilities immediately after opening, in the form of a greater number of stops and arrests and a higher propensity toward using force. I also hypothesize an increase in the racial bias of these behaviors. Ultimately, I find few changes in police behavior apart from a consistent increase in officer use of force localized to the precinct home to the facility.

The main methodology for this research is quantitative analysis of pre-existing data applied to the natural experiment of the reopening of a neighborhood carceral facility. The NYPD publically

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 15

Stephen Erdman Devin Bunten

Resilience Special Assessments for Housing Security: A Model for Mitigating Climate and Environmental Gentrification in New York City Government spending will need to exceed billions of dollars in the coming years to protect New York City’s shores from climate-related storm surges and sea level rise. Calls for these resources to advance social justice alongside climate resilience have grown in recent policy dialogues as climate change threatens to worsen racial and economic exclusion in a city that is already severely stratified. Yet investing in adaptation in expensive neighborhoods with transit access, job opportunities, and high-performing schools may further exclude low income people and people of color by preserving or exacerbating high housing rents. Likewise, similar investments in currently affordable neighborhoods risk triggering environmental gentrification and displacement.

Given these constraints of a market-based property regime, how can cities protect communities from climate risk while ensuring that all people have access to high opportunity, resilient neighborhoods?

This paper argues that special assessments, a value capture tool, could extract resources from private property owners benefiting from public investments in climate adaptation to pay for an expanded supply of permanently affordable housing that will facilitate low income residents’ long-term occupancy of climate-fortified areas. The paper provides a legal justification for this approach and a framework for how such special assessments in New York could be administered and calculated.

Preliminary estimates based on these calculations suggest that special assessments could generate substantial new resources for the mass production of affordable housing. Such a prospect is reason for policymakers to explore using special assessments as leverage when seeking to affirmatively further fair housing in communities historically resistant to such efforts. Likewise, this framework could amplify the movement for property tax reform in New York City, or otherwise support efforts to garner the resources and political will needed for bold climate and housing justice action.

Source: Bluestone Organization

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 16

Yichun Fan Siqi Zheng

Air Pollution, Avoidance Behaviors, and Neglected social cost: Evidence from Outdoor Leisure and Commuting Behaviors The social cost of air pollution depends on both its biophysical impacts on health and productivity and the dynamic avoidance behaviors citizens proactively adopt. The literature has almost exclusively focused on the direct impacts, and the limited research looking into the avoidance behaviors has only considered monetary defensive expenditure.

Building upon a theoretical framework incorporating the broader pollution costs into existing economic models, I derive empirical evidence of the hidden opportunity cost and social cost of pollution avoidance behaviors. For opportunity cost, I focus on the foregone outdoor leisure activities and the related welfare loss due to pollution avoidance, relying on billions of cell phone location inquiries from 10,499 parks all over China.

Using the pollution blown from upwind cities as the instrumental variable for local pollution, I show that heavy PM2.5 pollution reduces park visitation by 10% in northern Chinese cities. If the number of heavily-polluted days reduces by 25% in northern China, the welfare gain from leisure activity is about 83.5 million USD. For social cost, I show that pollution awareness affects commuting behaviors, by conducting a survey for 2,258 non-vehicle commuters in Zhengzhou, China. If fully aware of exposure risk, up to 14.8% of non-vehicle travelers intend to switch to motor vehicle commuting (private car/ taxi) on polluted days, 13.9% fewer people are willing to choose active commuting even if they can receive a subsidy, and soft policies like Green Nudge completely lose effect.

This avoidance behavior generates more emissions for the society and creates a “mitigation-avoidance dilemma” for transportation policies. The thesis calls for more attention to quantifying the broader social impacts of pollution by including the nonmarket value of avoidance behaviors; these impacts create substantial welfare loss and social challenges awaiting more balanced policy decision-making to consider these trade-offs.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 17

Zhuangyuan (Yuan) Fan Sarah Williams

“Connect the Last Mile”Understanding Internet Service Providers Typologies to Connect the Underserved America The Internet can bestow significant benefits upon those who use it. The digital divide in the US is widely acknowledged, and a large number of nonprofit organizations, cooperations, local businesses, and companies have devoted their efforts to bridge the gap through their strategies.

Given the geographical, financial, and market challenges, many of these entities struggle to balance the two: a mission to bring high-quality Internet to the currently underserved areas and a healthy and sustainable growing organization.

Here, by applying a pre-trained Text Entailment Natural Language Processing algorithm, I infer the identity, vision, and goals of more than 1,000 local Internet Service Providers using a large number of self-description texts from each ISP’s website. Then, combined with socioeconomic data from these ISPs’ service areas and technical specifications from each ISP’s submitted Form 477, I conducted an Internet Service Provider Typology study. This typology study deviates from the traditional bifurcating definition of the “for-profits” and the “nonprofits”.

Instead, it identifies four types of ISPs that highly differentiate in their current primary service market, identities, and long term visions. The clustering of these typologies illustrates a clear geographical, social, and service quality level division of the current Internet services in the US. Planners and policymakers could use this typology study to design specific funding programs accordingly and thus effectively address inequality and accelerate the pace to bridge the digital divide.

Current federal funding programs such as Rural Development Opportunity Fund (RDOF) and Connect American Fund (CAF) do not yet have enough data to identify those Internet Service Providers (ISP) with a strong social vision or match the quality of service with local demand.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 18

Julia Field Mariana Arcaya, Eran Ben-Joseph

Urban Tree Canopy Governance and Redlined Neighborhoods: an Analysis of Five Cities Trees provide many environmental, social, and economic benefits. Urban neighborhoods do not have equal access to trees, however. Recent scholarship shows that historically redlined neighborhoods, as demarcated by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) maps, have lower tree canopy coverage compared to other HOLCgraded neighborhoods.

This thesis investigates five cities that experienced the largest percent increase in tree canopy coverage in redlined neighborhoods between 2001-2011.

These cities are Lynchburg, VA; Haverhill, MA; Birmingham, AL; Charlotte, NC, and Durham, NC. I also update the geospatial analysis to include the most recent 2016 tree canopy data to measure change.

I hypothesized that the tree canopy increase was the result of a concerted effort to focus on redlined neighborhoods and that the canopy would continue to increase between 2011 to 2016. Through semistructured interviews with key government and nonprofit actors, the case studies explore the role of governance in tree planting programs and the implementation of tree ordinances. The results indicate that the canopy increase in these five cities was largely unplanned and not a part of a formal policy agenda. Between 2011-2016, the tree canopy declined by less than one percent in most redlined neighborhoods.

Overall, tree canopy increase in redlined areas was due to several factors: individual actors that prioritized planting trees in redlined neighborhoods, city-wide landscaping or tree preservation ordinances, and planting programs done in collaboration with tree nonprofits. Common challenges to increasing canopy coverage stemmed from limitations of the built environment, residents declining tree plantings, a lack of tree advocacy groups, a lack of engagement with neighborhood groups, and issues with municipal funding. These positive case studies demonstrate ways cities can prioritize planting trees in an equitable way and suggest mechanisms to incentivize preserving existing trees.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 19

Daniel Gallagher Gabriella Carolini

Enduring or Escaping Legacies?

Politics, Inherited Institutions, and Rebellion in the Struggle Over Qater Futures in Chile Following a wave of insurgent political action in 2011, the market fundamentalist hegemony that governs life in Chile appears to be increasingly threatened. One area of struggle has emerged around water law. On one side of the struggle, water utilities, agro-export firms and entrenched political actors seek to retain the laws inherited from the nation’s 1973-1990 dictatorship. On the other, socio-political movements and recently elected political actors are challenging what they see as the political content of those laws that prioritize private economic gains.

Why does politicization take the form it does in Chile? To what extent, if at all, is politicization of water law reconfiguring the institutions of urban governance?

I draw on ethnographic fieldwork, process tracing, and historical analysis to present a narrative of the multi-scalar struggle over water laws that explains the effects of the new wave of political action. First, I argue that a confluence of factors has politicized water laws. Those factors include (i) the failure of a private water firm to depoliticize disruptions in water supply to the nation’s capital (ii) the inequality in water access across the national territory produced by legally-sanctioned processes of accumulation by dispossession and (iii) a loss of fear of political conflict in a new generation of politically-active youth, which translated to the formal political arena. Second, I demonstrate how politicization has widened the parameters of political debate and the collective imagination of different political trajectories. Third, I argue that despite a pursuit of congressional reforms to national water laws, institutional reform is foreclosed due to material and discursive forces acting across geographical scales. I posit that Chile’s institutional inertia can be explained by an incomplete generational shift following the fall of dictatorship, wider political instability in the Latin American region, and the nation’s deep articulation with global economic forces.

Image credit: Associated Press / Esteban Felix

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 20

Mario Jezierski Goetz Bishwapriya Sanyal

Marginal Mobility: Public Transit Infrastructure for Precarious Settlements in Metropolitan Buenos Aires The human right to mobility is a primary, yet underdeveloped factor in the literature and practice surrounding urban infrastructure development, especially for those living and working outside of formalized legal, political, and economic arrangements. As harbingers of historical modes of production and the strain imposed by globalized, stratified urban environments, not only those living and working on the margins of urban communities, but the very institutional structures tasked with securing their livelihoods, continue to suffer from fragmentation and isolation.

material from scholars and practitioners, this thesis reveals how the mode of life in these settlements, as well as the structures of transit service provision upon which they depend, represent the precarity of urban development in Buenos Aires. The responses of Metrobús and OPISU benefitted from renewed governmental efforts to integrate disparate geographies, jurisdictions, and funding structures, but struggled to overcome the barriers imposed by siloed foci. Invigorated by internal professionalism, knowledge-bases, and relationship building which facilitated impressive accomplishments, the failure to recognize common goals, and the insufficient separated mechanisms to evaluate the social terrain, resulted in restricted channels of essential knowledge-sharing. To create truly inter-relative institutions capable of building a platform for a stable, equitable, and sustainable urban landscape, governments should strive toward integrated Communities of Practice in development projects, oriented toward the right to mobility as foundational for full citizenship.

This work examines two case studies as lenses into the particular ramifications of these powerful historical currents: the Metrobús BRT initiative, and the OPISU informal settlement upgrading project, both of which converged from 2017 to 2020 by the CC8 settlements. Through semi-structured interviews with officials, experiential knowledge gained through site visits, and examination of source

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 21

Dylan Halpern Eric Robsky Huntley

Community Remedies for Civic Disorientation, De-mobilization, and Malinformation Mis- and disinformation pose serious challenges to civic engagement and democratic processes. Recent developments in our understanding of “network propaganda” in media ecosystems suggest the need for novel community-based techniques with which to resist the negative impacts of mis- and disinformation. Civic engagement and civic life have long been central concerns of urban planning as a community of practice. The ability of broad publics to participate and engage is currently challenged by disorientation (confusion through overwhelming or contradictory messages), de-mobilization (persuasion to abstain from civic action), and malinformation (mis- or disinformation).

relationships to news media. Informed by feminist epistemology, I identify opportunities for individuals and communities to remain grounded, oriented, and resilient in the context of a troubled media ecosystem. The workshop templates operate at three scales: individual/perception, community/ small-scale network, and citizenry/society. Together, they create a suite of engagement strategies towards a framework of “network citizenship,” or a more resolutely situated participation in social networks, both online and off.

This thesis confronts these urgent challenges in partnership with MassVote, a Boston-based nonprofit that conducts civic engagement and education efforts. Through engaging high school interns participating in MassVote’s Young Civic Leaders program, I developed a workshop framework to equip youth to build online and create healthier

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 22

Elise Harrington David Hsu

Intermediaries and Electrification: Dimensions of Trust and Consumer Education in Kenya’s Off-Grid Solar Market Countries still working towards universal energy access are beginning to utilize a range of renewable energy technologies and services to meet rural electrification goals. Stemming from mobile money innovations in Kenya, “pay-as-you-go” off-grid solar increases the short-term affordability of small-scale solar solutions for rural households.

Consumer experiences with off-grid solar vary across distribution models based on the local actors responsible for engaging with end-users. I call these on-the-ground actors frontline solar intermediaries and they link consumers and providers through in person interactions and have the ability to perform different acts of intermediation in designed solar distribution models. Frontline solar intermediaries are not only important for making off-grid solar sales, but for implementing consumer safeguards.

Based on fieldwork in Kenya, I identify four types of frontline solar intermediaries: community influencers, networking solar agents, embedded entrepreneurs, and group leaders. I use a conjoint

survey experiment to test the influence of social capital and reputation on an intermediary’s trustworthiness. I find that trust stems from more than just initial social capital and may be enhanced by strategic partnerships or collaborations between NGOs, government, and private solar providers.

Using a second original survey, I examine the effect of intermediary type on consumer knowledge. I find that relying on solar agents for help with solar issues is associated with an 11% higher expected knowledge count and a 23% increase in seeking help to solve problems. Solar agents are the most common frontline solar intermediary in Kenya and remain a key source of information and assistance for after-sales services. The incentives, interpersonal relationships, and training programs that influence frontline solar intermediary behavior suggest that these local actors are critical to building off-grid solar as a lasting complement (or alternative) to the centralized grid.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 23

Suzanne Harris-Brandts Lawrence Vale

Constructing the Capital City: The Politics of Urban Development and Image Making in Eurasia’s Hybrid Regimes The 20th century saw significant geopolitical shifts as empires disintegrated and socialist unions collapsed.

The result was not only a rise in independent states but the emergence of a distinct form of governance known as the “hybrid regime.” In Eurasia, twelve such regimes surfaced. Having undergone dramatic politico-economic change, many turned toward capital city building. This dissertation investigates the utility of capital construction to such regimes, synthesizing theory from architecture, urban planning, and political science. It asks: How do hybrid regimes retain power through urban development and image-making? What effects are there on the built environment and long-term trajectories of these countries?

Macedonia. Both underwent dramatic state and nation-building after socialism. They represent the widest array of tactics used to increase party authority through urban development and are therefore useful case studies. In Tbilisi, I foreground initiatives by the UNM government (2004-2013).

In Skopje, the emphasis is on the Skopje 2014 campaign instigated by the VMRO-DPMNE government (2006-2016).

Using qualitative mixed-methods, the findings show that urban development and its correlated image-making are often extensively manipulated to entrench incumbent party authority. Although these campaigns promised national pride, economic growth, and improved living conditions, they resulted in geopolitical tensions, subnational discord, corruption, and legal manipulations. The built environment impacts were equally concerning, resulting in dysfunctional cityscapes over-saturated with monuments and poorly constructed buildings.

The research findings thus underscore the highly politicized processes of constructing capitals in hybrid regimes, offering insight into how civil society and international donors might work to hold these regimes accountable.

To answer these questions, I conducted an analysis of two Eurasian capitals heavily mired in hybrid regime politics: Tbilisi, Georgia, and Skopje, North

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 24

Carl Hedman Justin Steil

New Prescriptions? Nonprofit Hospital and Health System Charitable Spending on Housing as a Social Determinant of Health There is an emerging consensus that socioeconomic, environmental, and structural factors—known as the social determinants of health (SDOH)—are stronger drivers of health outcomes than genetics or clinical care. In particular, health researchers have elevated housing stability, quality, and affordability as critical SDOH. As focus in public health shifts towards addressing SDOH, attention has turned to the role of hospitals—particularly those with nonprofit status—in improving local housing conditions. To maintain federal tax exemption, nonprofit hospitals and health systems must annually report charitable practices, known as “community benefits,” to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Recent changes in IRS reporting requirements, coinciding with federal and state healthcare overhauls, encourage hospitals to make local charitable investments to address SDOH, including housing.

Following the regulatory changes and increased recognition of the SDOH, this thesis has two primary aims. First, utilizing processed IRS Form 990 Schedule H annual hospital filings from 20102017, I conduct a descriptive analysis to assess geographic and temporal variations in charitable practices across the United States. Second, relying on demographic data summarized at the ZIP Code level, I employ regression techniques to analyze whether the socioeconomic characteristics of an institution’s immediate vicinity explain variations in charitable spending on housing and other SDOH activities. I do not find evidence of widespread shifts in community benefit practices to address SDOH. These expenses were minimal and declined relative to other charitable practices from 2010-2017.

Results indicate that local characteristics do explain differences in charitable spending: institutions located in communities with higher poverty and less affordable housing options are more likely to report spending on housing and other SDOH activities.

However, stronger unobserved factors are likely driving variations in this spending. These findings suggest limitations of the current community benefits standard for increasing charitable expenditures on housing and other SDOH activities.

Image credit: Columbus Dispatch photo by Doral Chenoweth III

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 25

Meital Hoffman Justin Steil

Network Analysis of Police Misconduct in Columbus, OH This thesis analyzes networks of police misconduct in Columbus, OH through civilian complaint data for the Columbus Police Department (CPD) from 2001-2014. Officers who receive complaints are designated as nodes. Using demographic data regarding CPD personnel, I undertake individual factor analysis to determine the impact of gender, race, age, and tenure on yearly complaint rates of officers. I also calculate descriptive statistics and centrality measures of precinct level co-complaint networks to characterize the networks, identify outliers, and determine the most influential officers within and across networks. I find that male officers are more likely to receive complaints than their female counterparts, while increased tenure and age decrease the chance of receiving complaints. In the entire co-complaint network, there are 2,600 unique officers who were the subject of a complaint (nodes) and 10,089 co-complaints (edges). On average, 58% of officers in each precinct level network are connected to at least one other officer who was named in a complaint with them. Precinct level networks are generally sparse, with density values ranging from .001 to .012. Large average clustering

coefficients and modularity values, however, indicate that there are sub-networks with distinct clusters of officers who are subject of complaints together.

I rank officers according to their weighted degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and eigenvector centrality for each precinct level network to identify those who are directly and indirectly influential on the co-complaint networks. This analysis identifies officers who may not have the most complaints, but who are associated with multiple complaints across different networks. Despite structural and data limitations, these findings can help activists, the City of Columbus, and the CPD to identify precincts, clusters, and officers that contribute to and perpetuate a culture that encourages misconduct.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 26

Anne W. Hudson Joseph Coughlin, Jinhua Zhao

Where to Next? Analyzing Livability and Accessibility in the Later Stages of Life The global population is aging; and municipalities across the globe are striving to better understand the needs and desires of older adults in order to better serve this growing population. Yet existing transportation analysis relies on methods and measures often better suited to addressing the needs of younger populations, creating a need to refine them in order to better target the older adult population. In pursuit of that goal, this research examines the spatial manifestation of relocation decisions among older adults in Boston to serve as an entrée into better understanding their desired target destinations and to subsequently explore the accessibility of the older adult population as a whole.

considered by older adults when choosing where to resettle, offering a comparison across different generations. It subsequently measures walking accessibility to target destinations based on the spatial priorities previously established. We find that space-time factors, such as walkability and access to transportation emerge as clear priorities among older adults who have relocated to urban areas— and that older adults who have moved in the past five years boast clear improvements to walkability to their most frequent destinations. Yet the older urban adult population as a whole in the city of Boston still live on average in less walkable areas as compared to their younger counterparts. This research thus concludes with a number of design and policy recommendations to improve the walkability of the older adult population as a whole, including proposals to thicken the transportation network and to revise zoning policies.

Filling a gap in understanding of the neighborhoodlevel spatial factors influencing decision-making among older adults who are relocating in retirement, this research first explores the reasons behind later-in-life relocation decisions, offering a model of decision-making based on the behavioral Stages of Change model. It then explores the spatial factors

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 27

Jeff Jamawat Brent Ryan

Redesign, Redeploy, and Reenvision Urban Corporate Headquarters: Amazon’s Seattle Campus Case Study

Downtown Seattle. Local and regional planning agencies could potentially use this research as a framework for future economic resilience planning initiatives and dialogues.

Corporate headquarters have tremendous impacts on cities and the built environment. As companies expand, downsize, and adapt through the business cycles and industry transformations, the size of corporate workforce and real estate holdings are in constant flux, resulting in a dynamic urban system that continues to shape and reshape physical planning and urban morphologies of cities.

This thesis focuses on corporate headquarters in an urban environment where the main campus is physically located in the downtown core or near the central business district. Using Amazon campus in Seattle as a case study, the research investigates past experiences in adaptive reuse of signature corporate headquarters in the US, explores Amazon growth and its impacts on urbanism, and develops a custom-built app that visualizes Amazon-occupied office space in the city to inform re-tenant and real estate disposition strategies in a futuristic scenario where Amazon shifts the activity center away from

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 28

Jonathan Hoagland Leape Christopher Zegras

Winning the Housing Lottery in Rio de Janeiro: Curse or Cure?

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the Brazilian federal government launched My House, My Life (PMCMV), an ambitious program to build subsidized housing for over five million low-income families.

While the program has been praised for its scale, early evidence suggests that its beneficiaries may be struggling. Complaints of high utility bills, militia exploitation and intolerable commutes have surfaced alongside studies showing that beneficiaries may be unable to hold a formal job upon moving.

In Rio de Janeiro, many housing units are awarded via random lottery, creating a rare opportunity to infer the causal impacts of the program. In this thesis, I track the employment activity and earnings of over 28,000 participants, half of whom were awarded 90%-subsidized units, between 2011 and 2017. Contradicting most theory and evidence, I find that moving to a PMCMV unit increased earnings by 13% and the likelihood of employment by 2% after four years. Since beneficiaries generally sacrifice both safety and access to jobs in moving, other factors, such as residential stability or the need to cover higher living costs, may explain the increase in labor market activity.

Outcomes vary significantly among types of participants and project locations, revealing opportunities for the government to target followup assistance and improve project locations. The types of lottery winners most likely to move differ from those who are most likely to see their formal incomes increase. These findings indicate that lottery winners are either misinformed about how moving might impact their potential earnings or make their decision to move based on other factors.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 29

David Kambo Sarah Williams

Coalitions of Access: Internet Innovations for a Healthy Internet Ecology As the world becomes increasingly digital, there is widespread recognition of the opportunities and potential benefits of expanding access to the Internet in developing countries. However, the current state of the internet access landscape in Kenya, is dominated by market-driven models, which, despite increased availability are still restrictive to informal communities, remote locations and areas with low population densities.

As a result, a growing set of non-traditional service providers are testing new business models and technologies to reach consumers who otherwise might reside beyond the market frontier.

within the low income area of Kibera, this thesis builds up on the analysis of the pool of innovations geared to tackling the internet access challenge, by examining if they are able to overcome typical barriers to adoption such as internet literacy and cost. An analysis of the success and challenges of their business models can help determine ways in which internet services can be improved for informal communities. Planners, internet entrepreneurs and governments can all benefit from understanding the differences in how these organizations operate, revealing the state of the internet landscape in Kibera and the potential changes that need to be made to provide access to the under served.

This study seeks to understand, how different are they from the incumbent’s models, whether they are justified in their optimism as equitable business models, and if they offer complementary advantages that provide meaningful access across under served communities, creating a healthy internet ecology. Through using qualitative methods that analyse the five typologies of access innovations

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 30

Zoë McAlear Lawrence Susskind

Building Community Resilience to Climate Change with Facilitated, Collaborative Dialogue: Evaluating the VCAPS Process As communities around the world experience greater impacts from climate change, collaborative adaptation planning efforts are crucial to preparing for the future. This research examines one of these efforts, a pilot of the Vulnerability, Consequences, and Adaptation Planning Scenarios (VCAPS) technique by Western Water Assessment (WWA) at the University of Colorado Boulder across six communities in Colorado and Utah. The VCAPS process facilitates conversations amongst local decision-makers using collaboratively-built causal diagrams to understand how a hazard leads to specific outcomes and consequences, which correspond to potential points of intervention or actions.

Using a survey and two series of interviews with participants, as well as documentation from the workshops, this research assists in the evaluation of WWA’s six pilots. The questions guiding this research ask to what extent the VCAPS process better prepared the pilot communities to face their identified climate hazard(s), in terms of increased motivation, ability to overcome challenges or barriers to adaptation, and actions generated or influenced by the workshop. I find that these six pilot workshops demonstrate the potential of the VCAPS process to inform participants’ understanding of their region’s climate change risks and generate climate adaptation-related actions in their communities. At the same time, feedback and reflections from participants suggest various ways in which the process might be adapted for future iterations in order to respond to current challenges or limitations. I propose recommendations to address these, often relying on examples of other collaborative climate adaptation processes.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 31

Emmett Z. McKinney Lawrence Susskind

Code Shift: Data, Governance, and Equity in Los Angeles’s Shared Mobility Pilots Transportation planners suggest that smart mobility systems – cars, bikes and scooters connected to the internet -- can advance social equity. While smart mobility systems can help address transport poverty, new technologies may also reproduce power asymmetries between communities, government, and mobility service providers.

Through case studies of several of Los Angeles’s shared mobility pilots, I argue that mobility equity requires the fair distribution of power (i.e. the right to co-design new systems and a role in adapting their operations), not only of resources. Designing mobility systems that are both equitable and ‘smart,’ therefore, requires transportation planners to better integrate the lived experiences of residents, especially the poor and the disadvantaged, into datadriven planning efforts. Open data frameworks such as MDS (i.e. Mobility Data Specification) enhance the possibility for co-design and increased mobility equity.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 32

Kenyatta McLean Karilyn Crockett

Reclaiming Time and Space: Bringing Historical Preservation into the Future Historic preservation has disproportionately focused on buildings and sites that support the social construction of the white American citizen identity.

This is why only 8% of the United States National Register of Historic Places and 3% of the United States National Landmarks represent people of color, women or members of the LGBT community. The discriminatory exclusivity of historic preservation projects is fueled by criteria steeped in colonial values, only recognizing relationships to space and concepts of progress traditionally held by white people. Diversity in historic preservation projects requires methods that are grounded in the values and work of practitioners outside of traditional preservationist networks. Ground-up and sidein approaches to preservation make visible new values for use in identifying and supporting projects that will bring historic preservation into a more inclusive present and future. This project begins with the history of historic preservation exploring how the elitist values of its original practitioners normalized the viewing of history through the white

gaze. Within the second section, I explain some Black communities’ relationships to space and how historic preservation criteria render them as outside the “criteria of preservation.” In the paper’s third section, I discuss how concepts of progress held by many Black communities are often non-teleological resulting in them being underserved by traditional preservation tied to linear experiences of time.

The last section demonstrates what diversity can look like when projects are identified through a new lens influenced by more inclusive values and identities. This was done with the analysis of four restorative project case studies using the manifesto of BlackSpace, an urbanist collective I cofounded. Historic preservation can be antiracist and restorative to Black people if it is willing to expand its identity and change its values.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 33

Hannah-Hunt Moeller Lawrence Susskind

National Forests are (not) Parks: Managing Amenity Migration to America’s National Forests U.S. National Forests are natural amenities that create a pull factor for in-migration in adjacent counties. People are drawn to the scenic beauty, clean air, open space, and recreational access.

Since the 1970s, researchers have described the phenomenon of amenity migration – the movement of people based on the draw of natural amenities – in counties adjacent to public lands. Simultaneously, recreational uses of U.S. National Forests (USNF) are increasing and expanding. Both amenity migrants and recreational users generate value to local and state economies as home and business owners, tax payers, and consumers of the outdoor recreation industry. They also present population pressures on USNF that increase risks of wildfire, ecosystem degradation, habitat destruction, and infrastructure damage.

This thesis investigates (1) how amenity migration impacts USNF land managers and (2) what strategies can capture the values of USNF to support forest management. I answer these questions through a case study of Colorado’s White River National Forest (WRNF) using mixed methods: stakeholder interviews, survey of land managers, ACS 5-Year demographic and economic industry data. As the most visited USNF in the county, the WRNF presents a valuable example of what other forests may experience in the future. From this case study, I extrapolate my findings for USNF across the Western Unites States. I categorize the findings of the study by challenges with regard to revenue, governance, and capacity. My results contend that USNF must incorporate both use values (recreational) and non-use values (lifestyle benefits) into its planning procedures. This thesis calls for decentralized land management to empower forest-level planning.

Ultimately, I argue that USNF are common pool resources that rely on a network of partners to align environmental and economic benefits.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 34

Ian M. Ollis James Aloisi

Alleviating Carmageddon with a Research-Driven Rapid Transit Approach: Surveying and Modelling Mode-Shift Factors to Inform Urban Transportation Policymaking A growing number of cities and metropolitan areas in the United States are experiencing historically high rates of congestion on roads and highways. Many of the same places have extensive, although not always well maintained or efficiently operated, transit and Commuter Rail systems. Ridership has plateaued or declined on many of these systems, highlighting their currently limited attractiveness as a modal choice.

Metropolitan Boston serves as a case study into what measures would be effective in inducing a meaningful level of mode shift from automobiles to rapid transit (rail) options. Motorists continue to drive on what have been measured as highly congested roads while a developed Commuter Rail, subway and bus transit system exist across the region.

This thesis uses a standardized online questionnaire distributed to motorists across Massachusetts and Rhode Island to understand individual attitudes toward mode shift, and specifically using Rapid Transit instead of driving for their regular daily commute. It targets motorists on the 10 most congested corridors in Massachusetts.

402 completed questionnaires were received from ZIP Codes across Massachusetts and Rhode Island revealing individuals’ attitudes towards shifting to transit for their commute. Specific demographic considerations, other than geographical spread and origin and destination data, were not considered.

Findings indicate that the high level of free or subsidized parking provided across the study area draws Metro Boston commuters away from transit and that 63.7% of respondents would consider shifting to Rapid Transit if the cost of driving went up substantially (50% higher cost). Respondents further indicated that access & network limitations of the MBTA rail transit system, travel time by transit combination (including all legs of the trip), the transit system reliability, frequency of trains on a number of Commuter Rail routes and relatively high fare prices are considered factors preventing significant mode shift to transit.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 35

Stephanie Peña Ceasar McDowell, Devin Bunten

(Re)Centering Place in Detroit’s Black Gentrification

The following thesis aims to analyze the limitations of Detroit’s revitalization efforts that overlook the importance of place when implementing antidisplacement and equitable development initiatives.

Detroit’s 1940s industrial boom began to falter in the middle of the twentieth century as foreign competition and automation spurred deindustrialization. Employment scarcity and a growing black population ignited white flight that cut Detroit’s population dramatically and cemented the region’s persistent segregation. In efforts to augment the local tax base, cycles of mayors at the turn of the century initiated revitalization efforts to attract and retain talent to Detroit’s shrinking city.

Declining infrastructure and federal funding pushed Detroit leaders to seek private funding to support city improvement projects that ultimately exhibit exclusionary practices towards the broader lowerincome populations of Detroit. As residents see persistent reinvestment outside of their central-city neighborhoods primarily benefiting newcomers, frustration grows. These emotions create what urban geographers Mark Davidson and Loretta Lees refer to as “emotional geographies,” that ultimately construct a sense of displacement without residents being physically displaced.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 36

Dan Powers Karilyn Crockett

Can Local Basic Income Policies Support Equity?

Interest in basic income has been rising as more and more cities and places undertake basic income pilots. The onset of COVID-19 in March 2020 has accelerated interest, as the seams in existing supports become apparent, racial and classbased disparities widen, and direct, unconditional payments are recognized as a tool to cope with economic devastation. Yet the justifications offered for basic income programs are diffuse and sometimes in tension. Questions remain about the purpose of pilots, and whether pilots will ever make the jump to permanent policies.

designing basic-income policies, and the tradeoffs involved in each. Ultimately, basic income policies can support equity by providing a direct, flexible benefit to the poor and avoiding administrative burdens built into many benefit programs. However, whether a policy actually supports equity goals depends on the specific decisions involved in its design, including its financing, eligibility criteria, and whether other services are sacrificed to implement it. Serious questions remain unanswered by existing pilots about how a permanent policy would be financed and implemented. Uncritical calls for a basic income risk neglecting details that determine whether policies will support or undermine equity.

City and state governments could still benefit from incorporating features of basic income into their equitable development strategies, and pilots and advocates could work more to answer unknowns about the transition to policies.

This thesis sets out to answer whether basic income policies at the city or state level can support equity. In doing so, it reviews the existing literature; examines failed basic income programs; investigates existing federal benefits systems and policies, and how they could constrain a basic income; and compares a city-level basic income pilot (Stockton’s Economic Empowerment Demonstration) with a state-level basic income program (Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend). Assessing this evidence demonstrates the breadth of decisions involved in

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 37

Marisa Prasse Justin Steil

On Shaky Ground: How Environmental Hazards Impact Affordable Housing Development in San Francisco

By utilizing a mixed methods approach involving semi-structured interviews, coding key terms found in city requests for proposals (RFPs) to develop affordable housing on publicly-owned land, and geospatial analysis of planned new subsidized affordable housing units in relation environmental hazards, this thesis asks the questions: if, when, and how do environmental hazard risks shape the affordable housing development process in San Francisco.

Recent academic literature shows that disaster events disproportionately impact low-income minority populations and renters, that these events further exacerbate income inequality, and that most high housing cost states like California do not include disaster-related mitigation measures in their State affordable housing funding application programs.

In the absence of State direction in the siting and design of new subsidized affordable housing units in relation to environmental hazards such as earthquakes and flooding, how do city staff and developers consider the potential environmental hazard risks during the development of new subsidized affordable housing in a high-housing cost city like San Francisco?

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 38

Prassanna Raman Gabriella Carolini

The Politics of Visibility in Urban Sanitation: Bureaucratic Coordination and the Swachh Bharat Mission in Tamil Nadu, India Often linked with class and caste, sanitation has a reputation problem in India. The introduction of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) aims to address these challenges at both the individual and organizational levels. SBM banks on the use of reputational devices, such as social media campaigns and city rankings, to incentivize the sub-national implementation of reforms. While literatures on sanitation implementation highlight coordination between agencies and between agencies and NGOs as key to service improvements, few if any, explore how organizational reputation may affect that coordination. Given the importance afforded to SBM within India’s approach to sanitation reforms, this scholarly lacuna is surprising.

sector coordination under SBM. Second, I examine whether SBM’s reputational devices have any effects on coordination. Within Tamil Nadu, I focus on two major streams of work within the SBM portfolio— toilet construction and solid waste management—in the cities of Chennai, Coimbatore, and Trichy. To conduct my study, I use semi-structured interviews with bureaucrats and NGOs, document and social media analysis of SBM materials, and participant observation of behavioral change campaigns run by public agencies and NGO partners.

I found that SBM’s reputational devices were no match for entrenched institutional weaknesses, like administrative incoherence, to incentivize coordination across the three cities. Instead, SBM’s emphasis on social media and city rankings has exacerbated the burden of documentation and the “tick-box” culture within agencies. However, I also found that SBM’s reputational devices have empowered a few existing sanitation NGOs by increasing demand for their services. I conclude that SBM’s emphasis on visibility rather than deep institutional reform obfuscates the kind of work needed to improve outcomes in the urban sanitation sector.

My dissertation explores this knowledge gap through a study of the SBM roll-out in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. First, I ask what impacts public

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 39

David Robinson Justin Steil

The Stability Gap: Evictions and the Legacy of Housing Segregation in Boston’s Communities of Color If you go to Boston Housing Court on a Thursday morning, when most eviction cases are scheduled, you will find that a disproportionate amount of the hundreds of people waiting to defend against an eviction are people of color—even though roughly half of Boston’s population is white. In Boston, like many other cities in the country, the fear, stigma, trauma, and economic hardship of being forced from your home is an experience disproportionately felt by people of color. Yet without clear data, these disparities are often hidden to people who aren’t directly affected.

from the U.S. Census Bureau and property assessment data from the Boston Assessing Department, this research reveals patterns in the neighborhoods and properties most affected by evictions.

The research finds that above and beyond indicators of poverty, eviction filings are more likely in neighborhoods with a higher share of Black renters, and lower educational attainment. Within neighborhoods, eviction filings are also more likely in non-owner-occupied properties, and properties that have been more recently constructed or renovated and have a higher assessed value per square foot. These disparities are arguably a legacy of decades of housing segregation in Boston that has systematically disadvantaged renters of color. I recommend significantly stronger tenant protections at the state and municipal level to mitigate the chronic housing insecurity faced by many of Boston’s communities of color, particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic further threatens the housing stability of these communities.

Over the past year and half, I have been partnering with City Life/Vida Urbana, a grassroots tenants’ organization, to provide rigorous data and research that organizers, advocates, and policymakers can use to support movement-building and tenant protections advocacy. Using eviction records from Boston Housing Court between 2014 and 2016 merged with data on census tract characteristics

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 40

Sean Robinson Amy Glasmeier

A Regional Assessment of Transit-Oriented Office Development Opportunities in Boston’s Suburbs Despite having one of the most extensive Commuter Rail networks in the United States, the Boston metropolitan area also has some of the worst automobile congestion in the country. While numerous factors contribute to this phenomenon, this study focuses on the disconnect between the MBTA Commuter Rail network and the spatial distribution of suburban office employment, as well as the inefficient land use patterns around select suburban rail stations.

The MBTA Commuter Rail provides a valuable service, transporting suburban residents to and from their workplaces in the urban core.

However, a quantitative analysis of Commuter Rail ridership and the spatial distribution of Eastern Massachusetts office employment indicates that only a small share of morning peak riders use the train for suburb-to-suburb commutes or reverse city-to-suburb commutes, and that less than 1% of Eastern Massachusetts suburban office jobs

are directly accessed via Commuter Rail. Given that the suburbs account for a significant share of Eastern Massachusetts office employment, I raise the question of whether the land areas surrounding strategically located suburban rail stations are maximizing their potential utility as transit-oriented employment destinations.

Through the application of regional planning and smart growth principles, I use GIS mapping tools and quantitative analysis methods to identify the suburban Commuter Rail station areas that are most suitable for office employment, based on specified locational and land use characteristics.

For the identified station areas, I analyze existing patterns of land use and building density, and apply a range of hypothetical floor area ratios to estimate potential office space capacity under higher density scenarios. Finally, for station areas that both meet the locational criteria and have the physical capacity to accommodate large-scale office subcenters with agglomeration benefits, I estimate the range of additional office employment that could be accommodated at these transit-oriented sites.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 41

Maud Sindzingre Nigel Wilson, Haris Koutsopoulos, Jinhua Zhao

Detecting and Quantifying Bus Operation Impedance: the Balance between Reliability and Speed This thesis explores the phenomenon of bus impedance, defined as a slowing down of bus operations for customers. Impedance can stem from an overemphasis on reliability to the detriment of speed in bus operations. Public transport agencies aim at achieving the best balance between speed and reliability in their bus operations because such a balance benefits their customers who want to arrive at their destinations quickly and reliably, and potentially reduces the cost of operations.

Impedance manifests itself through held and/or slow buses aimed at regulating the service but slowing it down as a consequence. A data-driven approach investigates the manifestations and the detection of impedance using the London bus network as a case study. Analyses include the assessment of the impact of changes in contract specification, the comparison between bus and Google API traffic speeds, and the use of holding announcements on the bus network.

Taking the trip as the unit of analysis, the dwell,

travel, and movement times of trips, among others, contribute to understanding the route behavior and detecting times with possible impedance. Models of the total dwell time per trip using the number of passengers and stops made per trip as explanatory variables are proposed, which can be used to estimate the dwell time theoretically needed based on the passenger activity.

Building on these analyses, this thesis proposes two indicators to detect impedance at the trip-level in the form of holding. A decision-support tool intended for the bus operations management teams comprises (1) the correlation between the dwell time and the dwell time allowance and (2) the proportion of trips with a high value of the ratio of the actual dwell time to the theoretically needed dwell time for the trip. This tool is designed to extract information about route performance and could be used to supplement the expertise of the bus management teams in making scheduling and operational decisions.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 42

Mary Hannah Smith Justin Steil

Creating a Market for Retreat: Transfer of Development Rights as a Climae Adaptation Tool in Coastal Massachusetts

set of recommendations for state leaders who may consider promoting the use of TDR as an adaptation approach for other municipalities in Massachusetts.

Transfer of development rights (TDR) is a zoning tool that many planning experts have suggested as a potential climate adaptation tool, though it has never been implemented for that purpose. This thesis explores how a TDR program applied as a climate adaptation tool could facilitate a managed retreat program by creating a hypothetical program for the town of Westport, Massachusetts. While the advantage of using TDR for adaptation is that it provides a funding mechanism for managed retreat, its success depends on the program’s ability to generate development rights transfers.

The Westport implementation is projected to have only partial success at achieving reductions in vulnerability to coastal flooding through buy-outs because of the limited expected demand for TDR credits. However, the Westport implementation has both advantages and disadvantages as an adaptation approach despite its limited success at achieving the primary program goal. These considerations are discussed in detail and are used to generate a

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 43

Wonyoung So Catherine D’Ignazio

Wesurvived.nyc: Participatory Mapping as a Political Act Participatory GIS (PGIS) and crowdsourced mapping have allowed communities to envision ways in which marginalized populations can hold governments accountable and demand urban change. Yet, those participatory practices have been criticized that the participatory methods are used to legitimize the desires of a strong governmental entity and they are veneered to be used as a rhetorical device for democratic outputs. The question here is to figure out how a participatory map refuses to compromise with the current government structure and can work as a counter-hegemonic entity.

Using the datasets already present in Google Street View and OpenStreetMap Point of Interests (POIs), this platform aims to be a place where those who live and/or work in New York City can document and share stories about beloved neighborhood spaces that have closed or are on the edge of closing. The Wesurvived.nyc mapping tool demonstrates ways in which the voices of marginalized populations can co-exist with quantitative information through workshops organized with community-based institutions and grassroots activist groups, as well as one-on-one remote conferencing sessions.

To address such problems, this thesis shows the development process of Wesurvived.nyc, an online participatory mapping platform that documents neighborhood change in New York City through the memories and stories uploaded by residents. The platform provides an opportunity for responding to neighborhood change while simultaneously documenting small businesses and community spaces, many of which are struggling with rising rents and shifting demographics.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 44

Tanaya Srini Jason Jackson

Calculating Governance: City Benchmarking & Its Discontents City benchmarks—in the form of rankings, ratings, and other comparisons and commendations represented in different formats and (ostensibly) objectively derived—have rapidly proliferated, such that the concepts they measure have grown in complexity, but not necessarily in sophistication.

What began as genuine efforts to capture the essences (and essential differences) of places to inform those at a distance has evolved into an abstract endeavor to understand what makes a quality urban life.

This thesis aims to problematize the practice of city benchmarking, understand their persistence despite evident flaws, and identify what is at stake given their widespread and continued use, especially by and for city government actors. By tracing the evolution of city benchmarks through the lens of different institutional purveyors, I identify who values benchmarks and how they are valued, before locating their measurement flaws in the literature.

Such flaws include that benchmarks are too reliant on technocratic expertise, valorize transparency as an unmitigated good, and ultimately deliver a

flattened and decontextualized partial perspective to audiences. And yet, city actors continue to rely on them to inform various decision-making processes, as confirmed by a series of interviews I conduct with a set of urban actors primarily working in mid-tier American cities. I use these interviews, informed by the Foucauldian analytics of governmentality and discipline, to theorize about the effects and consequences of city benchmarks as governing agents.

As governing agents, city benchmarks rationalize the practice of governance as one that is highly technical, specify spheres of concern for cities, transform city identities based on the statuses they bestow, and neutrally promote utopian ideals without declaring any normative commitments.

I argue that the power of city benchmarks is disciplinary in nature, which is a cause for concern as city actors internalize their logics through both seductive and resistant forces.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 45

Kristopher Steele Siqi Zheng

New York City Local Law 97: An Analysis of Institutional Response & Decision Making Towards Groundbreaking Carbon Emissions Legislation In May 2019, New York City (under Mayor Bill De Blasio) enacted its own version of the Green New Deal called the Climate Mobilization Act, a local law to amend its charter and administrative code to achieve certain reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The Act comprises of a series of ten bills passed by the New York City Council including a tax on paper bags, a green roof mandate, and a process to close oil and gas plants around the city, amongst others. One major portion of this Act is a bill to limit greenhouse gas emissions, caps, on tens of thousands of buildings in the City. This mandate, called Local Law 97, is the first of its kind in any large city in the world.

estate product types such as, commercial office spaces, healthcare facilities, residential co-ops, condos and rental apartments buildings, amongst others. The thesis will examine the characteristics, implications, and impacts of the law on local public and private real estate developers, as well as the city. It will attempt to diagnose how developers are responding to the law and where improvements can be made as this model becomes replicated globally.

Since its approval in the Spring of 2019, a number of cities have expressed interest in promulgating similar regulations, though little research analysis has been undertaken to fully evaluate the implications of Local Law 97, whether or not the policy falls short of our goals, or if it’s even achievable.

Image Credit: NYC Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, Energy & Water Performance Map, 2020

The thesis I propose in this document focuses specifically on Local Law 97, which limits carbon emissions on private buildings over 25,000 square feet and places energy emissions thresholds on real

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 46

Tianyu Su Jinhua Zhao, Elena Renda

Identifying Commuting Behavior Segments for TDM Program Design: University Case Study Cities and larger employers provide transportation services to diverse users with widely different commuting behavior patterns. Although it may introduce complexities in policy design and implementation to treat different users in various ways, the knowledge of the heterogeneity among them offers us new potentials in optimizing service design and improving user experience.

In this research, the case of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been utilized as an example to explore the potentials of identifying commuting behavior segments and offering actionable policy recommendations. In order to understand the conditions of MIT transportation services, the mid-term impacts of the Access MIT program are evaluated using the MIT Commuting Surveys conducted in 2014, 2016, and 2018.

Then, this research investigates the discrepancy between self-reported commuting diaries and actual commuting behavior to determine the more suitable

dataset for commuting behavior segmentation.

Finally, this thesis proposes a novel methodology to segment commuting behavior clusters using a longitudinal representation of multi-year passive mobility data and applies the proposed methodology to a sample of MIT employees.

This research reveals three key findings: 1) the Access MIT program launched by MIT in 2016 had a positive mid-term impact on nudging employees’ commuting mode choices and improving their satisfaction rates; 2) the discrepancy between self-reported and actual commuting behavior is not substantial when examining all MIT employees in the aggregate, but it varies largely among different groups of employees; 3) the application of the proposed clustering methodology manages to identify 9 distinct commuting behavior clusters. Moreover, to offer actionable policy recommendations for next-stage transportation demand management (TDM) at MIT, this thesis supplements the empirical analysis with a comprehensive profiling process using both active and passive mobility data and socio-demographic characteristics.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 47

Suresh Subramanian Ceasar McDowell, Mariana Arcaya

Does Living in a Slum Matter for HIV Medication Adherence?

Examining Adolescent Behavior in Matero, Zambia Three decades into the HIV/AIDS epidemic, annual infection and mortality figures have been dropping rapidly, and there is a sense of an existential crisis averted. While the AIDS epidemic is coming under control among the broader population, it is growing among vulnerable populations, including the young.

Deaths due to HIV have increased by 50% among adolescents and HIV continues to be the number one cause of death among this cohort group in sub-Saharan Africa. Poor adherence to antiretroviral medication is to blame in large part for this situation.

Paradoxically, this is happening in a public health environment where antiretroviral medication availability and distribution are increasingly unfettered, and guidelines for HIV testing and treatment are robust and comprehensive. What causes these youngsters, who understand the importance of being adherent, to missing their lifesaving medication?

the developing world, and over half of Africa’s population now lives in cities. Almost all of this growth has been in slums. Slums in sub-Saharan Africa have a younger population, a higher HIV prevalence, and spatially present the most critical target for any efforts to address medication adherence among youth. Where previous studies on medication adherence among adolescents have focused on the patient, the caregivers, and medication-related barriers, this study examines if living in a slum neighborhood creates impediments to antiretroviral adherence. Through 42 semi-structured interviews conducted in a slum neighborhood in Lusaka, Zambia, this study uncovers ways in which the physical, environmental, social, and resource dimensions of the Matero compound may be impacting adolescent HIV medication adherence.

The health of slum residents is one of the primary urban challenges for the coming decades. Successful health interventions may require a deeper understanding of life in slums and adopting both a slum-centered and a disease-centered approach.

Rapid urbanization is transforming most parts of

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 48

Jialu Tan Sarah Williams

Using Machine Learning to Identify Populations at High Risk for Eviction as an Indicator of Homelessness Homelessness in the U.S. emerged as a social problem from the beginning of the last century and has persisted until today. Even though multiple projects like the McKinney Act have created channels of funding for homelessness and homeless services have been improved greatly, the homeless population continues to grow. Eviction, which has been proved by research to have a strong correlation with homelessness, is getting more attention in recent years. The U.S. government has also shifted strategies from providing emergency care to the homeless population to implementing preventive strategies for eviction like providing rent subsidies and affordable housing units.

In order to help the preventative programs to better allocate resources and to target the most urgent regions in San Francisco, this thesis applies statistical models (regression and machine learning) to predict eviction and identify highly correlated predictors for eviction. It compares the performance of Random Forest and Recurrent Neural Networks to the linear regression model. Using these findings, this thesis discusses proactive actions that can be implemented in San Francisco, including reaching out to the populations at high risk and planning government budgets based on predicted evictions.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 49

Fiona Tanuwidjaja Erica James

A Guide to Palm Oil in Indonesia: Institutions and Their Effects on Independent Smallholder Farmers Palm oil, Indonesia’s second-to-largest export (accounting for $18.2 billion annually or 2% of Indonesia’s GDP) has taken the world by storm.

While palm oil has historically remained a staple food crop in Africa and Southeast Asia for hundreds of years, its worldwide commercial success is relatively recent, driven in part by a global shift towards biodiesels. Palm oil can now be found in over half of all American and European packaged products, and its demand has been increasing rapidly, making it one of the most quickly expanding crops throughout the humid tropics.

(including public institutions such as the European Union) creating policies discouraging the product’s use and availability.

Amid the topic’s popularity, this thesis aims to act as a guide to the industry by summarizing the various institutions (public and private) at play and examining their goals, ethics, and perception to other stakeholders, with a focus on indigenous groups and independent smallholder farmers.

This thesis hopes to fill a niche in existing popular media where only one side of the palm oil industry– typically a negative side–is explored.

Despite its economic success, palm oil breeds many long-lasting issues with its production, particularly: (1) loss of habitat for endangered species; (2) pollution and carbon emissions; (3) land grabbing and abuses to indigenous populations; and (4) abuses to workers, children, and local communities.

In recent years, the palm oil industry has become a topic in public discourse, with large institutions

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 50

Louis Thomas Brent Ryan

High-Density Parenting: Design, Policy, and Family-Oriented Urbanism Much recent writing declares a North American urban renaissance, portraying new urbanites as the childless. Luxury buildings of studio and onebedroom units appear downtown, targeting young professionals and empty nesters. Missing from this discussion are parents choosing the city.

Vancouver stands as a critical case. In 1989 the city adopted explicit policies targeting parents in dense central areas through building and neighborhood amenities. This single-case study aims to understand how these policies came to be, and the experiences of parents who choose these neighborhoods. Two primary questions emerge: 1) How and why did Vancouver come to promote high-density family-oriented neighborhoods in and around downtown? And 2) How do parents perceive these areas as serving their needs? In other words, what are Vancouver’s most important lessons for North American family-oriented urbanism at high densities?

I answer these questions through environmental and participant observation, archive and document analysis, along with semi-structured interviews of Vancouver parents, policymakers, and other urban actors. This research contributes to the field in two primary ways. First, it reveals a highdensity childrearing ideal from the experiences of professional-class parents. Parents identify socioeconomic diversity and densely mixed-use neighborhoods as beneficial to childrearing. This can support progressive policy as it reframes infill density—including affordable housing—as advantageous to families. Second, this research identifies two constructs of urban parents: committed and ‘won over’. Committed urbanist parents self-identify as urban and anti-suburban.

In contrast, ‘won over’ urbanist parents moved downtown as childless young professionals and assumed a move out as they started families. Yet they stayed, in large part due to the amenities provided by policy. This suggests policy can influence parents’ locational choices. Planners must consider the needs of diverse parents to avoid a class and age segregated city.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 51

Vanessa Toro Barragán Dayna Cunningham

“¡El Pueblo no se rinde, Carajo!”

(The People Will Never Give Up, Dammit!): A Case Study of the Buenaventura Civic Movement’s Contributions to Insurgent Planning In Buenaventura, Colombia, a port city that is part of the constitutionally recognized Afro-Colombian and Indigenous ethnic-territory of the Colombian Pacific, 67% of the population cannot meet its basic needs for housing, water, sanitation, food, healthcare and/or education. This high rate of unmet basic needs sits in stark contradiction to the wealth flowing through its port economy, which brought in 1.7 billion USD in national custom revenues in 2016 and manages 30% of the nation’s exports. In 2017, the Buenaventura Civic Movement to Live with Dignity and Peace in the Territory emerged as a multisectoral coalition to address structural inequality and violence. The movement successfully organized a 22-day civic strike to close the commercial activity of nation’s third-largest port. An estimated 25% of the population participated either by blockading, marching or negotiating with the

government. In an agreement to end the strike, the movement created an autonomous fund to finance a 10-year comprehensive development plan and secured 500 million USD of initial financing.

Through interviews with movement leaders, social media, historical context, and analysis of the legal agreements, I describe three mechanisms of civic governance that the movement offers for an insurgent planning practice. The first is multisector solidarity that is built by a process of collective learning. The second mechanism looks at the committee structure of the Movimiento Cívico, in which thematic committees are established to manage the priorities of the city. The third, is the legal framework that creates a mixed-management board of directors, with Movimiento Cívico representatives and the State, for the autonomous fund and the 10-year comprehensive development plan.

These mechanisms, formas propias de gobernanza (our own ways of governance), contest the relationship with the State and aim to restore a cosmovision (worldview) that reflects the ethnicterritory.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 52

Natalia Vidigal Coachman Ceasar McDowell

Planning Child-Friendly, Educating, and Learning Cities: An Urban Framework for Sao Paulo By 2030, if socioeconomic inequalities are not tackled soon, worldwide, almost 70 million children under age five will die, and 60 million children of primary school age will not be attending school (UNICEF The State of the World’s Children 2016).

In cities, socioeconomic inequality between urban regions, and huge disparities in educational access prevents excluded children from developing their full potential, thus perpetuating intergenerational cycles of inequity.

This thesis argues that cities and city planners have a crucial role in the collective responsibility of guaranteeing children’s and educational rights. I use three city concepts promoted internationally

by UNICEF, UNESCO, and IAEC to guarantee children’s rights, lifelong learning, and educational rights to propose a new urban plan. I use a multimethod approach including historical analysis, semi-structured interviews, spatial analysis, and participation in public meetings to analyze six

Brazilian multi-sector projects, propose a framework and apply the framework to the city of Sao Paulo.

The framework is an integrated urban and education strategy to create a Child-Friendly, Educating, and Learning City, or what I call a CEL City.

This research makes diverse contributions to the existing literature on city planning, education, and children’s rights. First, the new framework allows cities to put both children and education at the center of the urban planning agenda. Second, my work fosters a strategic urban plan that builds multi-sector, intergenerational, and interdisciplinary cooperation for a more inclusive and effective process for urban and educational development.

Third, I create a CEL City Master Plan formed by a Network of CEL Territories – place-based community systems, which include a Democratic Forum, a SocioEducational Network, and Integral Education Schools – that foster the intellectual, social, cultural and educational development of children and youth and make them agents in the development of their city.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 53

Carolyn Weng Yang Karilyn Crockett

Governing the Urban Innovation Economy: Trade-offs Between Equity and Growth The corporate expansion of technology companies offers cities attractive promises of innovation-driven economic growth and job creation. These promises land in the built environment as plans for mixed-use, real estate projects that provide job opportunities and living accommodations close to transportation hubs. This thesis examines two master plans: Cambridge Crossing, a biotechnology innovation destination in Cambridge, and Downtown West, Google’s transit village in San Jose.

organizations bring to light the equity concerns around housing affordability, job access, public space, and access to transportation. Tensions between perspectives supporting and opposing these master plans bring to light what is at stake with plan implementation. Finally, community resistance and advocacy efforts provide an initial blueprint for how collaboration between corporations, city governments, and communitycentered coalitions can bring back a right to the city that enables more inclusive economic growth.

Each case study begins with a comparison between the city’s master plan language and the proposed development’s master plan language to examine how real estate and technology companies cater to a city’s hopes for economic growth. Findings from these case studies reveal potential tradeoffs between equity and growth experienced by surrounding neighborhoods and communities.

Corporate and real estate interests give insight into the unprecedented growth of innovation and employment districts, while community

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 54

Yasmin Zaerpoor Lawrence Susskind

Pursuing the Common Good: Overcoming Barriers to Collective Action through Transboundary Water Negotiation along the Blue Nile River We are headed towards a global water crisis. While technological advancements may help reduce this gap, achieving global water security will also require establishing self-enforcing agreements negotiated among countries that share transboundary rivers.

At its core, transboundary water governance is a type of collective action problem (Olson 1965), in which sovereign actors must cooperate to achieve a collective interest. In this research, I compare efforts by three countries – Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan – to pursue collective action in two separate, but related, face-to-face negotiations related to water use: the basin-wide negotiations on the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement (1997 – 2010) and the ongoing project-specific negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam which started in 2011.

The conventional approach to treaty-making is through negotiations among state actors. While many barriers related to the number of actors and degree of heterogeneity among them (as defined by differences in their capacity, access to information, preferences, beliefs, and identities) can be addressed through procedural interventions, I argue that non-procedural interventions by both state- and non-state actors are necessary to reduce these barriers at different scales in the short-, medium-, and long-term. Furthermore, I argue that multi-track water diplomacy is increasingly necessary in the Nile Basin due to several context-specific factors: the ‘securitization’ of water, frequent political transitions, and lack of public trust. Based on this research, I offer a list of procedural- and nonprocedural interventions that can be employed by state- and non-state actors to reduce different types of barriers. Although reducing these barriers will not guarantee collective action, these interventions can create a more enabling environment in which collective action can occur.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 55

Yao Zhao David Geltner

Deep Learning for Sentiment and Event-driven REIT Price Dynamics This research aims to figure out how textual information in the real estate news can be applied to predicting the price dynamics of REIT (real estate investment trust). Due to the information gap in the market and the sentiment-induced irrational trading behaviors, the market often witnesses the departure of REIT price from its fundamental NAV (net asset value). Traditional REIT pricing models fail to incorporate these behavioral factors and the real time market information. With the development of deep learning and natural language processing (NLP) techniques, we are curious about how to properly extract textual information in the real estate news, in a way that allows us to capture the up-to-date market events and irrational sentiment, and incorporate them in REIT pricing.

triplet E = (Object1, P redicate, Object2), and use an unsupervised NTN (neural tensor network) model to obtain the event embeddings.

I also follow a supervised model to represent the event in the form of E = (trigger, argument1, argument2, ...), and fine-tune a BERT model on the event extraction task. In the second stage, I compare several models for REIT price prediction. The bestperforming NTN+CNN model greatly outperforms the traditional ARIMA model, in that it decreases the MSE loss by around two thirds, and increases the classification accuracy of price movement by around 8%. The VAR analysis indicates that positive market sentiment granger-causes the REIT price change between 2011 and 2018, while the negative sentiment has no significant effect on the market.

In the first stage, I focus on two NLP tasks. On the end of sentiment analysis, I train and obtain the sentiment-specific word embeddings on a humanlabeled financial news corpus. In terms of event extraction, I first represent an event as a structured

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 56

Meesh Zucker Karilyn Crockett

Map Between the Lines: A Historic Spatial Narrative and Social Analysis of the 20th Century ‘City Wilderness’ The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line W.E.B. Du Bois The transition of Boston’s South End from a small colonial neighborhood to a bustling metropolis with the growth of new industries and transportation in the late 19th century had wealthy residents fleeing to the suburbs. Their aging single-family homes, now left behind, were quickly converted to tenements and lodging houses in response to the recent influx of poor immigrants and working-class Bostonians seeking steady employment and affordable accommodation. As racial and ethnic diversity of the district steadily increased, social conditions and existing infrastructure rapidly deteriorated, forming inhospitable divisions in the landscape; a spatial pattern later illustrated in Robert A. Wood’s 1898 landmark settlement survey, “The City Wilderness”.

Unfortunately, the social survey’s ill-fated attempt to voice the needs of the struggling South End

community was highly reflective of narrow, oftenbiased political and social views held by sociologists at the time and as a result, had dire consequences on the future city and statewide planning efforts still felt in the neighborhood today. My explorative thesis approach will consist of two key components: [Part 1] will collect and analyze seemingly disparate social narratives produced by South End residents and planning experts throughout the 20th Century in an attempt to trace historic patterns of segregation in the built environment resulting from the highly influential “City Wilderness” study.

[Part 2] will generate a digital spatial history in the form of an interactive map with findings from Part 1 by overlaying empirical data, key resident narratives, archival material, city plans, and planning efforts.

This radical new approach to data visualization is an honest attempt to counteract dominant settler narratives, colonial mapping techniques, and biased social surveys that often overlook the history of predominantly oppressed communities and their spaces in the city.

DUSP Graduates ‘19-’20 / 57