My research provides a more in depth examination of our nation's low rent vacancy rates, and as a result suggests a different interpretation of the nation's relationship between the vacancy and homeless trends. (More)

This project explores the process of neighborhood change/stability. I am interested in how dramatic changes in the neighborhood environment are perceived and reacted to by local residents. (More)

Community schools are public, primary or secondary schools that expand their educational mission to include an explicit focus on community development. (More)

When a borrower defaults on his or her home mortgage, the lender may attempt to recoup the losses by repossessing and selling the house. This process, called a foreclosure, is governed by state laws. (More)

This study show that a city's adjustment to external shocks is significantly affected by the export prices of cities with similar industrial complexes and cities in close proximity. (More)

Inequalities in the United States are often rooted in place. Researchers have convincingly demonstrated that persistent racial and economic segregation constrains social mobility, access to opportunities, and efforts to achieve a higher quality of life. Many advocate increased residential integration as a policy goal. However, the long-held view of heterogeneous communities as unsteady and conflict-ridden suggests that such communities are vulnerable to resegregation. Integration, the conventional wisdom goes, is desirable but not sustainable. Yet demographic trends (globalization, immigration, decreased segregation) are contributing to increases in the number and stability of diverse neighborhoods. Because these increases are relatively recent, the processes contributing to the durability of neighborhood heterogeneity have received little scholarly attention. (More)

This study introduces, tests and demonstrates the efficiency of a methodology for improving post-census population and housing units estimates for Census Block Groups—neighborhood-sized geographical units of roughly 1,000 persons. (More)

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the ways in which the public realm of neighborhoods encourage or inhibit daily travel behaviors, social behaviors, lifestyles, and community sentiments of neighborhood residents. (More)

This study examines the experiences of families participating a housing relocation program in Los Angeles, California. (More)

The intersection between community technology programs seeking to close the “digital divide,” and community building efforts aimed as alleviating poverty, holds tremendous possibilities, as both domains seek to empower individuals and families, and improve their overall community. Ironically, approaches that combine these areas have received very little attention in theory and practice. (More)

This dissertation examines the shift currently taking place among community development corporations (CDCs) from a focus on the economic and physical revitalization of low income urban communities to more comprehensive approaches to community development. (More)

This disseration builds on theories of policy innovation and diffusion by analyzing social networks as a contributing explanation for the diffusion of "targeted-investment zones" (such as enterprise zones, empowerment zones, and enterprise communities). (More)

The broad objective of this research is to gauge the importance of relaxing the full information assumption in revealed preference models when decisions are made in complex, public information environments. This thesis focuses on housing markets. An information acquisition process is outlined that describes why homebuyers are often less informed than sellers for some housing attributes when they face more stringent information search and processing constraints. (More)

This dissertation examines the economic and policy relationships between center cities and their suburbs. It makes several contributions to the existing urban literature. (More)

This dissertation investigates the social, political, and economic consequences of downtown loft conversions, focusing on the case of Los Angeles's Skid Row. Through loft conversions, aging industrial and commercial buildings are transformed into residential apartments or condominiums. Lofts are seen as a promising mode of urban revitalization for city governments faced with tightening budgets, stiff intercity competition for capital investment, and problems with homelessness and decaying infrastructure. While such developments may make economic sense from cities' perspectives, the juxtaposition of housing and services for marginalized groups and relatively wealthy loft dwellers poses challenges. The needs and priorities of long-time residents of distressed neighborhoods are often very different from those of their loft resident neighbors. City-sponsored loft conversions raise concerns of exclusion and social injustice, as well as questions about for whom and for what interests city policies and plans function. (More)

This is an ethnographic study of intergroup relations in a neighborhood of approximately 1,000 residents adjacent to a public university (2010 student enrollment of 5,470) situated in an Appalachian city (2010 population of 9,002). The study’s purpose is to describe the culture of a neighborhood where diverse residents must negotiate norms in spite of the fact that they share neither a common sense of community (McMillan & Chavis, 1986) nor the same degree of attachment to place (Low & Altman, 1992). (More)

A significant proportion of people age 60 or older are living, and aging in place, in age-integrated multifamily housing developments. Multifamily housing is a major but largely unacknowledged and unexplored retirement housing choice of older people. (More)