Faculty & Staff Publications

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1773/53089

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Ruin Tours: Performing and Consuming Decay in Detroit
(Urban Geography, 2019-07-04) Slager, Emma Jean
In the face of economic, demographic, and infrastructural decline, Detroit, Michigan, has become a destination for those interested in viewing the city’s iconic ruins. Paradoxically, such tours represent a form of economic development that takes urban decay as its object. Using data collected through participant observation, interviews, and document analysis, this study examines how such tours operate in relation to broader practices of urban redevelopment. It argues that tours are not only a way of turning the city into a site of consumption, but also a more complicated response to failures of industrial capitalism in which tour operators suggest different political modes of responding to the city’s decline. This is demonstrated by tracing the development of ruin tour programs and examining three representative cases of ruin tours. Examining how local actors respond to urban decline in this way strengthens urban geographic understandings of the post-industrial city and its recapitalization..
The Use of Social Media for Citizen Engagement: the Case of SAPAS in La Paz, Mexico
(Proceedings of the 15th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, 2014-06-14) Basolo, Victoria; Yerena, Anaid
In this paper, we explore a local government water department's adoption of social media to engage with citizens. Specifically, we describe the use of a Facebook page, created by the Organismo Operador Municipal del Sistema de Agua Potable, Alcantarillado, y Saneamiento (SAPAS) in La Paz, B.C. Mexico, during its initial eighteen months of operation. Based on an analysis of the page posts, we note an increase in total posts over the study period. The dominant type of post (SAPAS and citizens combined) was announcement and this type of post was unevenly distributed with peaks at the beginning and end of the study period. We also observed a notable increase in the number of complaints submitted by citizens towards the end of the study period with the highest number of complaints falling in August and October 2012. We conclude with some observations about our initial results and an update on the current status of SAPAS Facebook page.
UWT Experiences in the Townships of South Africa, Bridging Borders, Breaking Bread
(2018-07-01) Tiger, Fern; Knaus, Christopher; Thiel, Maija; Olson, Anneka; Diaz, Autumn
In late August, 2017, twelve students representing all academic levels (undergraduate, masters, and doctorate) from all three University of Washington campuses (Tacoma, Bothell, Seattle) journeyed to Cape Town, South Africa, where they participated in a three-week UWT study abroad course. Students examined a range of community development activities and gained an understanding of pressing “township” development issues, including a range of conflicts between business interests and community needs. Students also learned how schools and non-governmental organizations have sought to empower and transform communities. This paper synthesizes key reflections of this remarkable urban experience from Professor Fern Tiger, Christopher Knaus and three of her students: Maija Thiel, EdD candidate, Education Autumn Diaz, Senior, IAS, Psychology, and Anneka Olson, MA candidate, Community Planning.
The Impact of Advocacy Organizations on Low-Income Housing Policy in U.S. Cities
(Urban Affairs Review, 2015-03-17) Yerena, Anaid
Financial support for affordable housing competes with many other municipal priorities. This work seeks to explain the variation in support for affordable housing among U.S. cities with populations of 100,000 or more. Using multivariate statistical analysis, this research investigates political explanations for the level of city expenditures on housing and community with a particular interest in the influence of housing advocacy organizations (AOs). Data for the model were gathered from secondary sources, including the U.S. Census and the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Among other results, the analysis indicates that, on average, the political maturity of AOs has a statistically significant, positive effect on local housing and community development expenditures.
Residential Mobility of Low-Income, Subsidized Households: A Synthesis of Explanatory Frameworks
(Housing Studies, 2017-08-18) Basolo, Victoria; Yerena, Anaid
Mobility, residential quality, and life outcomes are linked in the literature and these relationships have influenced low-income housing policy. This research investigates the determinants of mobility for households with a federal housing subsidy. Combining unique data from a survey of Housing Choice Voucher households, client program files, and secondary data, this study uses logistic regression to test several explanations for mobility, including the life cycle, housing market perceptions, and perceived and actual neighborhood conditions. The results indicate that a synthesis of explanations produce the best model to predict residential mobility. Neighborhood quality, perceived and actual, variables most strongly influence mobility, but life cycle factors and perception of the local housing market also impact moving choices. At the same time, the results suggest a gap in our understanding of the relationship among individuals’ environmental perceptions, formation of feelings of neighborhood satisfaction, and actual neighborhood conditions. The article concludes with a discussion of the research and policy implications from this study.
Tacoma's Japanese Language School: An Alternative Path to Citizenship and Belonging in Pre-WWII Urban America
(2014-10-01) Hoffman, Lisa
Strategic Action for Affordable Housing: How Advocacy Organizations Accomplish Policy Change
(Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2019-11-15) Yerena, Anaid
State retrenchment, public input requirements, and local budgetary constraints make advocacy organization’s (AO) work vital to the adoption and implementation of local plans. Yet, the strategies AOs use to influence policies have gone understudied in planning literature. The current study fills this gap through a case study of how AOs exert influence in planning for affordable housing in four cities in Los Angeles County. Data were collected through interviews (AO leaders and city officials), document review (AO materials), and content analysis of Housing Elements. The study found that the range of tactics depends on the political context and organizational resources.
Enhancing Big Ideas Through Regional Planning: Cross-Jurisdictional 'Value Added' in Washington State
(2014-10-01) Dierwechter, Yonn; Hale, Brittany; Woodmark, Robert; Wyatt, Cody; Moss, Wendy; Hall, Matthew; Hays, Whitney; Schubert, Shanna; Wang, Cheng; Lundgaard, Seth; Rawson, Caleb
This paper argues that enhancing multi-jurisdictional planning - i.e. regionalism in various forms -- should be at the center of how we ameliorate most of our major developmental challenges. Put another way, efforts to improve the planning profession’s contribution to concerns like “climate action,” “economic development,” “social equity,” “local government capacity,” and so on, all require more attention to stronger regional planning processes. The paper is divided into three sections. In the first section, we develop the over-arching theme that experiments in regionalism longer refer to significant institutional-structural reforms - in particular, to consolidation or centralization of planning authority -- but instead to far less threatening, more politically viable, and also less ambitious efforts to build incremental, horizontal collaborations that frequently lack much formal authority because they rely heavily on voluntary reciprocity. We then turn to a lengthy discussion of five different regional planning experiences in Washington State: (1) efforts by the Yakima Council of Governments to making homelessness a “cross-cutting” regional issue; (2)Walla Walla’s efforts to strengthen regional watershed planning; (3) a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the Columbia River Gorge Commission; (4) a critical reflection on the importance of tribes in regional planning and possible future dynamics in the Whatcom-La Connor-Swinomish area; and (5) a discussion of recent efforts in the Olympia-Thurston County to coordinate local climate action through enhanced regional collaborations. The final section of the paper recapitulates the main ideas and offers preliminary suggestions as we move forward.
Locating Art Worlds
(2018-07-01) Harrington Jr., James W.
This paper uses a varied literature to define “art” as literary, musical, or visual creations, and theatrical, dance, or musical performances that: are not motivated by utility; play some role in interpreting a culture or place; and are recognized as art by some number of audiences, vendors, producers, and critics. Thus, art benefits cultures and places through its interpretive value. The production and dissemination of artistic creations requires a constellation of materials, standards, techniques, producers, and vendors that is called an “art world” relevant to that type of art. Though the impulse to create art is universal, art worlds are manifested unevenly across cities within a country and across districts within a metropolitan area. These distributions differ for different types of arts and artists, but have some dependence on the division of labor and on economies of scale. Therefore it is not surprising that New York and Los Angeles dominate (different types of) art worlds and art creation in North America. However, some much smaller metropolitan areas exhibit proportional concentration in specific art fields. In addition, large metropolitan areas contain quite-separate districts of art production and dissemination. This paper concludes with a brief case study of visual-arts districts in New Orleans.
Feeling Like an “Odd Duck”
(Journal of the American Planning Association, 2021-02-02) Garcia, Ivis; Jackson, April; Greenlee, Andrew; Yerena, Anaid; Chrisinger, Benjamin; Lee, Aujean
Problem, research strategy, and findings African American/Black and Hispanic/Latin/o/a/x practitioners are underrepresented in the planning profession. In this study we examine these practitioners’ experience with the climate for diversity in their workplaces. Drawing from a survey of 3,005 APA members, we show that African American/Black and Hispanic/Latin/o/a/x practitioners experience significantly higher rates of bias and discrimination than other groups. Interviews with 24 African American/Black and Hispanic/Latin/o/a/x planners across the United States reinforce the narrative that these racial and ethnic groups working in the planning field continue to face racism, discrimination, and microaggressions in the workplace, which affects the impact of their work in planning practice. Takeaway for practice Given the potential negative consequences of the lack of diversity and inclusion at work along with the presence of discrimination/microaggressions, our study shows that it is necessary not only to increase diversity in the workplace but also to create inclusive work environments. Practicing planners concluded that cross-cultural communication and antiracist training can help planners to plan with ethnically and racially diverse communities and practice inclusivity, both in the workplace among their colleagues and in communities of difference. But trainings will not be enough; for substantial change to occur, major shifts are needed in the profession as a whole, including in APA and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP).
Dear Prudence: Power, Campus-Community Collaborations, and the Elusive Space Between Constructive Disruption and Neoliberal Subcontract
(2018-10-01) Taufen, Anne
The democratic ideal of inclusive, communicative, practical reason associated with collaborative urban partnerships is increasingly criticized as being poorly empowered in the midst of urban development dynamics favoring established regime elites. Do public universities unwittingly abet such disparities? The tension between critical and/or marginalized voices, and more dominant modes of urban development is demonstrated in three forms of campus-community engagement at a public, urban-serving university. In each case, the university serves as a source of capacity for urban political actors and governance leaders, providing a venue to 1) elevate visibility of their agendas; 2) enlist faculty, student, and campus-based research resources; and 3) match private philanthropic capital with donors’ favored initiatives. However, the relative ability of urban scholars to unsettle and broaden presumed purposes of urban development, or to empower different voices in its political processes, can be quite constrained. Can urban theoretical models respond to this challenge, in ways that are useful for campus-community partnerships? Public universities have entered a phase of unprecedented disinvestment by state governments. Graduating students face limited entry-level job prospects, and local agencies can be severely under- staffed – the need to ‘partner’ has arguably never been stronger. Nevertheless, if public universities are to engage in the governance networks of urban and regional development, it must be as more than respondents to private sector imperatives, researchers seeking new data, training grounds for student-interns, sources of an academic imprimatur, below-mar- ket consultants, or fundraisers. A conceptual model of the university’s potential role in collaborative urban governance is presented, emphasizing the unique and privileged position of urban scholars with a constructively critical perspective.
Not a Matter of Choice: Eliminating Single-Family Zoning
(Journal of the American Planning Association, 2020-01-02) Yerena, Anaid
Public Housing Authorities in the Private Market
(Housing Policy Debate, 2019-04-29) Kleit, Rachel Garshick; Airgood-Obrycki, Whitney; Yerena, Anaid
Decreasing federal resources since the 1980s, policy devolution to the local level, and expansion of market-based approaches for affordable housing delivery have resulted in public housing authorities (PHAs) evolving from public organizations to hybrid organizations that encompass public and private characteristics. Although federal rules guide their implementation of U.S. Department of Housing and Development (HUD) programs, PHAs are created locally under state authorizing legislation. Under what conditions do PHAs create new affordable housing using their ability to employ both public and private means of service delivery? Although PHAs have the ability to create new units outside the traditional assisted stock, no clear estimate of the number of units created using these newer means exists, or even a count of how many PHAs are engaging in such activities. Descriptive analysis allows for estimates of this basic information. A multivariate analysis using data from a national survey of PHAs, content analysis of state enabling legislation, and publicly available data sets suggests that whereas the local market context partially predicts affordable housing ownership outside of the public housing program, state enabling legislation and local institutional relationships also facilitate housing production. We estimate that in 2013, PHAs owned more than 150,000 units outside of the traditional HUD-assisted housing stock.
Evaluating the Policy–Practice Gap in a Transitional Housing Program An Innovation in Process Evaluation
(American Journal of Evaluation, 2016-01-19) Perez, Jessica; Yerena, Anaid
In the United States, in 2013, 610,042 people were estimated homeless in one night. Improving the effectiveness of homeless assistance programs, particularly aligning programs’ practices with their goals, is critical to serving this population. Using a theory that predicts homeless exits, this study presents an innovative, low-cost evaluation tool that can be used by a wide range of human service providers to conduct more frequent “in-house” process evaluations. The Gap Assessment of Policy and Practice (GAPP) tool streamlines process evaluations thus improving social programs. To test this tool’s effectiveness, we compared the results of a traditional process evaluation and a GAPP tool evaluation of a homeless assistance program. Both evaluations revealed a consistent disparity between program activities and expressed goals. The GAPP tool is less time intensive and provides a useful road map for structuring a process evaluation for program providers, thus increasing program impact by encouraging more frequent and efficient self-assessments.
Lesson for Puget Sound? The City-Region and the Politics of Scale in Cape Town
(2014-10-01) Dierwechter, Yonn
Re-mapping Tacoma's Pre-War Japantown: Living on the Tideflats
(2018-07-01) Hoffman, Lisa; Hanneman, Mary; Pyle, Sarah
This article, drawing on oral histories with Nisei, addresses the dearth of publications about pre-WWII Japanese life in the urban U.S. and provides evidence of Japanese immigrants’ active presence in the lumber industry and on Tacoma’s tideflats. This is important not only for Tacoma’s history and a fuller accounting of the major industries that shaped the south Puget Sound region, but also because Japanese contributions to early industrial development are often overlooked. The oral history narratives also stretch the boundaries of what has been depicted as a densely-connected and lively Japanese community in the downtown core. Also, stories of moving from and between sawmills and the ethnic economy highlight the fluidity of employment from the lumber industry to self-employment. This article thus argues for a remapping and expansion of existing visualizations of the Japanese community and for recognition of Japanese presence in the tideflats and sawmill spaces.
Post-New Orleans Reflections
(2018-07-01) Tatro, Alyssa; Cho, Sarah; Duncan, Wesley; Cameron, Miles; Le, Clara; Alderman, Alex; Knight, Margo; Regen, Rafael; Casebeer, Emily
CIVITAS, a student organization in the Urban Studies program at the University of Washington Tacoma, visited New Orleans for their annual Urban Excursion in March 2018. The trip provided students the opportunity to perform hands on research and experience urban settings outside of Tacoma. CIVITAS’ past trips include travel- ing to diverse urban areas, such as San Francisco, Detroit, and Vancouver B.C., which have allowed students to witness cities with long, complex, and distinct histories of urban development. This year they visited New Orleans with the intention of studying resilient cities with the hopes that this 300 year old city would provide lessons appli- cable to Tacoma. This year’s trip was the group’s largest and furthest trip that this organization has undertaken. This occasional paper entry shares the students’ reflections of the trip.
Report on “Roma: Logiche Di Sviluppo Degli Esercizi Alberghieri. Un’analisi Dei Rioni Del Centro Storico Dopo Le Olimpiadi Del 1960” [Rome: Logic of Development in the Hotel Industry. Analysis of Central Districts After the Rome Olimpics of 1960]”
(Università Degli Studi Di Roma La Sapienza, 1999-01-01) Mudu, Pierpaolo
Dies-Non: Refusal of Work in the 21st Century
(Gender, Place and Culture, 2019-01-01) Mudu, Pierpaolo
My comments aim to cast light on a specific political proposal that can arise from a discussion of the topic of the ‘refusal of work’ and its implications for a social radical change. Autonomist, anarchist and feminist activism, have been and are the main sources of a long-term conceptual and empirical work on the refusal of work. Refusal of work is a very complex concept that has traversed history and is reduced for uncritical dominant common sense to unemployment, laziness, idleness, indolence but it is in reality one of the basic foundational qualification to think any radical change. Among many important intuitions, the added value of Silvia Federici’s work is to have offered a different perspective on the refusal of work discussion and how it can be expressed to develop different forms of communing. Her work provides the backbone for this brief excursion on the issue of the refusal of work. Emerging and consolidated social movements, for example in Southern Europe, have, consciously or not, taken position, often contradictorily, regarding what refusal of work means. In the context of current neoliberal capitalism, an increasing structural unemployment and precarious jobs are one of the trademarks of austerity policies to ‘revive’ economies. Drawing on Federici’s insights on the women exclusion as a useful way of thinking about the spatial dimension of these issues in feminist theory, this article looks at examples of prefigurative politics that define their strategies of refusal of work building significant spatial patterns. © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Advocacy in Action: Understanding the Influence of Advocacy Organizations on Local Affordable Housing Policy in the U.S.
(2015-05-01) Yerena, Anaid
This research examined the factors affecting city support for affordable housing. Specifically, it sought to better understand the influence of advocacy organizations on city affordable housing spending decisions (using HCD expenditures as the dependent variable).

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