For the past several decades, urban planners have been promoting transit-oriented development (TOD) as a paradigm for building sustainable communities. TOD involves building compact, mixed-use, and walkable development around transit stops. This type of development ostensibly provides a place where one can live without a car while maintaining easy access to goods and services. In…
Category: urban and regional planning
Research Spotlight: Carving out Lesbian Spaces in Turkey
LGBTQ communities exist, and, it is our duty as urban planners to recognize and provide literal “space” for the creation of more inclusive cities.
COSSPP Faculty Impact on Scholarship: Influence at a Glance
As the spring semester comes to an end, we want to take a moment to celebrate the accomplishments and influence of faculty in the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy. This series of graphs produced by Dr. Jim Elsner offers a glimpse of the amazing work taking place in the College of Social Science…
Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Kerry Fang’s Research in China
I recently received the Lincoln Institute China Program International Fellowship to conduct the project “Land Tenure and the Health of Children: Evidence from Rural China.” The project will use the 2003 “Ban of Land Adjustment” in China as a natural experiment to investigate whether secured land tenure improves children’s health outcomes. Unpacking the relationship between land tenure…
Policy Pub: Beyond Redevelopment – Urban Planning for Racial Equity
On any given day, you can drive around Tallahassee and see new construction everywhere. Development is often an indication of a city’s success and growth. But who gets left behind in this progress, and how can urban planners work toward social and economic justice for every citizen? Continuing Policy Pub’s focus on how national, even…
Is The Gender STEM Gap Smaller in Less Developed Countries Than in Highly Developed Ones? What Role Does Urbanization Play? Evidence From Cambodia
Women earn bachelor’s degrees at higher rates than men in most economically developed countries. Within these countries however, women continue to lag in postsecondary majors and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This has considerable implications for women’s earnings. While the relationship between economic development and urbanization and gender equity in educational…
The Damaging Impacts of Gentrification on Urban Communities. Is Enough Being Done to Address this Issue?
As cities across the U.S. recovered from the Economic Recession, numerous families and households in urban communities were faced with increasing rent for their homes and local businesses. This was the result of gentrification, which involves increased capital investment in – and the development of – disenfranchised communities. When this investment occurs, the market value…
Graduate Student Summer Experience: The City of Minneapolis and Vision Zero
Over the past six years, both as an undergraduate and graduate student at Florida State University, summer experiences have become a pivotal component of my academics. Leaving the classroom and immersing myself in a variety of projects showcase the importance of hands-on learning, and I could not stress how important it is to leave one’s…
Are E-Scooter Services Good for Cities?
In short, we don’t have enough information to make a judgement on whether e-scooters make a net positive contribution to the Tallahassee community (or other similar places). Hopefully, the city of Tallahassee can use their current pilot program to carefully evaluate the safety and management issues and develop an understanding of who is using the scooter services and whether it is leading to a reduction in auto use.
Spinning, Rotating Queer Planetary Systems
My research on the Midtown neighborhood in Atlanta argues that when planning and urban development efforts fail to recognize the fragility of queer spaces, there can be serious consequences for the viability of LGBTQ spaces. In Atlanta plans for high-end redevelopment along the Peachtree corridor took precedence over longstanding LGBTQ bars on the street and explicitly excluded the adjacent Midtown gayborhood from influencing the redevelopment process. As interest in redevelopment in the Midtown area heated up, Midtown lost many gay and other queer residents who moved south and east in search of more affordable spaces further away from the Midtown “sun.”
