School of Planning, Public Policy and Management Faculty Works

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https://hdl.handle.net/1794/117

The Department of Planning, Public Policy & Management is home to a diverse array of faculty research, participatory learning, and community assistance programs.

For more information on the department and its programs, consult the PPPM web site.

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Open Access
Micromobility, Macro Goals: Aligning scooter parking policy with broader city objectives
(Elsevier, 2021-12-03) Brown, Anne
Dockless electric scooters challenge cities seeking to regulate them amidst broader goals such as universal access. Cities are particularly concerned with improper scooter parking, which can impede access by other travelers. Despite an important role that scooter parking plays in both regulations and public discourse, no comprehensive view of current scooter parking regulations exists, nor is it clear how regulations align with broader city objectives. This research asks: how have U.S. cities regulated scooter parking to date and what issues do parking regulations aim to address? Data from 37 U.S. cities show that while areas of widespread agreement exist— nearly all (95%) cities allow scooters to park in the furniture zone—a wide range in scooter parking requirements exists. About three quarters of cities allow scooters to park at bike racks (78%) and against buildings (70%), while fewer than two-thirds allow scooters to park either on landscaping (62%) or against signs (60%). Even among cities with similar regulations, however, considerable nuance exists. Interviews with staff from six U.S. cities and existing research highlight motivations for scooter parking regulations. The regulations employed—and the high degree of variability across cities—yield implications for scooter parking policies, as well as scooters’ role in advancing broader city objectives. Scooter parking regulations play an important role in access, but cities should approach regulations as just one piece within a broader agenda of reclaiming streets for people and promoting mobility, sustainability, and access for all.
Open Access
Analysis of the Textiles Sector and Market Potential in Lane County
(Community Planning Workshop: A Program of the Community Service Center,csc.uoregon.edu/cpw, 2015-09) Meinert, Tess; Parker, Robert
Lane County Economic Development is reviewing the existing fiber and textile industry in the region to better understand the potential of the sector. This report presents research on the natural fiber and textile industry, the existing Lane County supply chain, and the attractiveness of this industry for further exploration and economic development. This report also includes information from interviews and research regarding the fiber and textile industry in Lane County, the State of Oregon, and across the nation. This report is not intended to be an exhaustive study of Lane County’s fiber and textile industry potential but an exploratory first look. Overview Interest in a more developed fiber and textiles economy is present and growing in Lane County. The county is home to many alpaca and sheep farmers, as well as several cut and sew contractors and a number of natural clothing brands. Fiber processing and textile manufacturing options are missing. Demand for locally produced textiles may not be substantial enough to warrant significant investment in manufacturing capabilities. However, a fiber processing mill could be successful in and of itself or as a component of a larger tourism and education system.
Open Access
Deschutes County Natural Hazards Code and Program Review
(Community Planning Workshop: A Program of the Community Service Center,csc.uoregon.edu/cpw, 2015-06) Parker, Robert; Howard, Michael; Pfefferle, Drew; DeHart, Michael; Horan, Erin; Jackson, Maureen; Setterfield, Brett
Floods and wildfires are two natural hazards that impact Deschutes County. The Deschutes County Development Code has several provisions that specifically aim to mitigate the effects of these hazards; reduce risk to property, environmental quality, and human safety; and improve recovery time. The code chapters with hazard-specific elements are Title 17: Subdivisions, Title 18: County Zoning, and Title 19: Bend Urban Growth Boundary Zoning Ordinance. This report includes analysis of the Deschutes County Development Code and the county’s comprehensive plan, how they are interpreted and applied to development, and the implications for natural hazard preparedness. Case studies and model ordinances providing examples of wildfire and flood best management practices are used to support the report’s recommendations.
Open Access
Crawford Crossing: A Park Concept Plan
(Community Planning Workshop: A Program of the Community Service Center, http://csc.uoregon.edu, 2017-08) Bruce, Josh; Oldson, Greg; Stapleton, Ellee; Drlik-Muehleck, Aniko; Knox, Megan
Turner, Oregon is growing. A new residential development will soon increase the city’s housing stock by about a third, presenting new opportunities for community and economic development in Turner. Among these opportunities is the chance to develop 40 acres around Crawford Lake into a beautiful lakeside park with access to fishing, boating, hiking, picnicking, and outdoor enjoyment. This document outlines a vision and concept for this new park, based on extensive input from Turner area residents both young and old. The City of Turner and interested community groups can use the park design concept and resources presented here as a guide for building out the park over the coming years. About the Concept Plan Crawford Lake, located in northern Turner, began its life as a quarry excavated by Riverbend Sand and Gravel. The quarry was retired in 2008 and has gradually filled with water to form what is now the 70- acre Crawford Lake. After almost a decade, the land around the lake is being developed, adding 203 new single family homes and 131 apartment units to the Turner residential community. The “Crawford Crossing” development offers more than the promise of residential growth: as part of the project, the City of Turner is receiving 40 acres of donated land on the southern end of Crawford Lake to develop as a public park. As Turner grows, the new Crawford Crossing Park will enhance residents’ quality of life by offering access to the lake’s recreational amenities and increasing the availability of natural areas and open spaces for public use.
Open Access
Policy Interventions for Managing the Risk of Wildfire Smoke for Vulnerable Populations
(2019-02) Clark, Benjamin; Ngo, Nicole
If recent years are any indication, the presence and risks of wildfire smoke will become more common in Lane County in future years, not less. The effects of climate change will continue to exacerbate the risk of these fires’ size and intensity. This memo sets out to outline the range of known policy interventions that might be taken by Lane County and other governments to protect vulnerable populations when wildfire and their smoke affect our area.
Open Access
How Slogans Curate Public Opinion: Hard Lessons from Lakoff and the Linguists
(Public Integrity, 2018) Irvin, Renee A.
Many a policy scholar has viewed election results with bewilderment: How can so many people persistently vote against their self-interest? In an attempt to at least partially address this conundrum, this article introduces persuasion techniques that can render good research and evidence largely irrelevant in the court of public opinion. By using U.S. debates about taxation and economic inequality as the linguistic setting of interest, the study illustrates the mechanics of curating public opinion at both ends of the political spectrum. Solutions to economic inequality are complex, yet public opinion can turn toward or away from a proposed policy reform when a few reductive key words distill complexity down to a convincing message: the micronarrative. Critically examining the broad narrative arc of the policy process is not enough; one must also examine the social construction occurring when word choice is used as persuasive weaponry in the selling of policy reform. The study finishes with a research agenda and a provocation for researchers regarding their role in policy reform. Should academicians remain behind the research curtain, or should they actively critique or even guide the narrative selling of their research?
Open Access
Collaboration vs. Competition in the Third Sector
(2008-12-24) Irvin, Renee A.
This article delineates a framework for judging the usefulness of collaborative strategy in the nonprofit/nongovernmental sector. Popular among academicians as well as grant makers, collaboration among nonprofit organizations is often proposed as the dominant strategy for curing many of the sector's resource problems. However, competition is also prevalent in the nonprofit sector, as free entry encourages the nonprofit entrepreneur to form a new nonprofit to meet a perceived community need. Ignoring the influence of competitive forces while promoting preferred collaborative strategies can lead to recommendations for the third sector that are ambitious and wellintentioned, yet impractical. Primarily theoretical in scope, this article is intended to inform grant makers and those at the policy making level how to determine the best situations to encourage collaboration in the sector, and when, surprisingly, to favor single-organization grant making.
Open Access
The Oregon Guide to Private Fund Raising for Local Governments
(2004-06) Irvin, Renee A.; Carr, Patrick Joseph, 1978-
Nonprofit organizations thrive on the altruism of citizens, and actively court donors for major gifts. Yet individual gifts to government agencies are often unexpected, sporadic, and initiated by the donor. This article introduces the phenomenon of private giving to local governments and tests hypotheses regarding the expected forms of giving to public agencies. Results indicate that philanthropy is and will likely remain a minor and highly variable source of revenue, making it an ill‐suited replacement for broad‐based tax revenue. However, deliberate government efforts to provide a suitable environment for private donations appear to succeed in attracting more gifts per capita.
Open Access
Definition and Management of Endowment
(2010) Irvin, Renee A.
Endowment, in the vernacular, can refer to any asset of substance that allows a person, organization or country to excel in their pursuits of business or leisure. For example, economists specializing in international trade describe a country as having an “endowment” of abundant land for agricultural crops. A man or woman can be described as “well-endowed”, but this implies a topic more risque than a generous trust fund or accumulated retirement savings. Nonprofit sector “endowment” is analogous to a savings account. Organizations may have endowments of other types of assets (a beautiful campus, historic facilities, etc.), but their financial endowment is our primary focus.
Open Access
Taxes, Government Expenditures, and State Economic Growth: The Role of Nonlinearities
(University of Oregon, Dept of Economics, 2006-06) Bania, Neil; Gray, Jo Anna
Barro’s (1990) model of endogenous growth implies that economic growth will initially rise with an increase in taxes directed toward “productive” expenditures (e.g., education, highways, and streets), but will subsequently decline. Previous tests of the model, including Barro (1989, 1990) and recently Bleaney et al (2001), focus on whether the linear incremental effect of taxes is positive, negative, or zero, with substantial evidence for all three conclusions. In this study, we test for nonlinearity directly by incorporating nonlinear effects for taxes, and based on U.S. states find that the incremental effect of taxes directed toward productive government expenditures is initially positive, but eventually declines. U.S. states on average appear to under invest in expenditures on productive government activities.
Open Access
Childbearing, marriage and human capital investment
(University of Oregon, Dept of Economics, 2006-02) Gray, Jo Anna; Stone, Joe A.; Stockard, Jean
This paper proposes and tests a simple joint explanation for i) increases in marital and nonmarital birth rates in the United States over recent decades, ii) the dramatic rise in the share of nonmarital births, and iii) the pronounced racial differences in the timing of childbearing. The explanation arises from differences across time and race in the attractiveness of marriage and opportunities for investment in human capital. For given preferences, a decline in the marriage rate necessarily causes both the marital and nonmarital birth rates to increase, with no change in the total birth rate. This model exhibits exceptional power in replicating salient features of childbearing behavior. Our results suggest that changes in marital and nonmarital birth rates, as well as in the share of nonmarital births, arose primarily from changes in marriage behavior, not from changes in fertility; and that racial differences in the timing of childbearing reflect early differences in human capital investment.
Open Access
The economic and community effects of Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board investments in watershed restoration
(Ecosystem Workforce Program, Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon, 2002-07-15) Bonner, Kristin; Hibbard, Michael
Cooperative, community-level approaches to environmental management are emerging in a variety of contexts, in Oregon and elsewhere. The rise of these approaches has led to a new appreciation of the possibility of watershed restoration projects that also foster good jobs and strong local businesses. With millions of dollars to spend on its mission, the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) plays a significant role in supporting local economies through grants to watershed councils, Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs), and other local restoration activities. The aim of this study is to document the level of that support. The specific question addressed by the study is: Did OWEB's 1997-99 grants improve socio-economic conditions in local communities in Oregon? To answer this question, the Ecosystem Workforce Program reviewed a sample of 1997-99 OWEB grants and also conducted telephone interviews with selected grantees. The purpose of the interviews was to help us understand the patterns of expenditure we found while reviewing the files. In conclusion, this study finds that OWEB grants and program expenditures improve or maintain economic stability in Oregon communities.
Open Access
Issues in monitoring the socio-economic effects of the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board grant program
(Ecosystem Workforce Program, Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon, 2002) Bonner, Kristin; Hibbard, Michael
This report examines some of the issues involved in setting up a system for monitoring the socio-economic effects of Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (O-WEB) grants on an on-going basis. We conducted telephone interviews with 20 individuals from watershed councils, Soil and Water Conservation Districts and state agencies, to learn their attitudes toward monitoring the socio-economic impacts of their projects as well as to gain an understanding of any potential barriers to monitoring. The majority of respondents recognize the socio-economic impact of watershed enhancement projects and are willing to implement a clearly defined and simple monitoring system to measure these impacts. However, many stated the need for a clear definition of “local,” both geographically and in terms of business ownership. This is a complex issue that needs to be fully explored before implementing any system. In addition, there was some reluctance on the part of some respondents to monitor these impacts because of the heavy administrative burden. A couple of respondents thought that evaluative questions in the final report could be as effective as tracking individual expenditures.
Open Access
Ecosystem restoration as socio-economic development? An assessment of the possibilities
(Ecosystem Workforce Program, Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon, 2001) Hibbard, Michael; Karle, Kristen M., 1975-
This paper is an assessment of a three year demonstration project to test the possibilities of community forestry for community development. The demonstration actively promotes community forestry in four rural Oregon communities. The research question is: To what extent does the community forestry approach to environmental management contribute to enhancing community problem solving capacity? The assessment uses a quasi-experimental design, comparing the four demonstration (“experimental”) communities with two control communities. Baseline socio-economic data were collected on all six communities in 1998, and follow-up data in Summer, 2001. Data sources include existing demographic, social, and economic statistics; household surveys; and indepth interviews. We begin by describing the situation of our study communities and, by extension, that of agricultural and resource-based communities in general. We then briefly discuss some of the theoretical underpinnings of collaborative stewardship and community forestry in the context of community development. Next we present the results of the demonstration project. And finally, we draw conclusions.
Open Access
Healthy communities and healthy ecosystems: the community development potential of ecosystem restoration work
(Ecosystem Workforce Program, Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon, 2001) Hibbard, Michael
The Ecosystem Workforce Program (EWP) at the University of Oregon is conducting a three year demonstration project to test the possibilities of collaborative stewardship for community development. Key to this is a monitoring and evaluation component that tries to assess the community impact of collaborative stewardship – to try to measure community changes. Such assessments are very difficult to do. The effects of community change efforts generally take a long time to manifest themselves, and it is difficult to show that whatever changes have occurred are the product of the change effort. We are in the second year of the project. This paper is an interim report focusing on our attempt to monitor community impacts. I begin by summarizing the background situation and introducing the demonstration project. I then describe the theoretical rationale for collaborative stewardship as community development. Finally, I present aspects of the project methodology, based on the experience thus far.
Open Access
The Scope and Future Prospects : Oregon's Ecosystem Management Industry
(Ecosystem Workforce Program, Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon, 2001) Beltram, James; Evans, Rock; Hibbard, Michael; Luzzi, James
Reports the findings of a joint study by the Organization for Economic Initiatives, Inc. (OEI) and the Ecosystem Workforce Program (EWP) at the University of Oregon (UO). OEI is an Oregon 501(c) 3 non-profit corporation that administers several economic development and business assistance programs throughout the State, including those related to the development of the ecosystem management industry. EWP is located at the UO Institute for a Sustainable Environment. EWP provides technical assistance, research, and facilitation for watershed councils, public land management agencies, local economic development staff, contractors and workers in promoting stable business and workforce capacity for the emerging ecosystem management industry. EWP receives funding support from the Ford Foundation, USDA Forest Service Rural Community Assistance and Old Growth Diversification funds administered by the State of Oregon Economic and Community Development Department.
Open Access
Con Dao National Park Ecotourism Management and Environmental Education Proposal
(World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature-Indochina Programme & Viet Nam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, 1999-11) Ringer, Greg; Robinson, Alan
This management proposal is intended to establish guidelines for the design, development, management, and marketing of ecotourism and environmental education activities, attractions, and facilities in Con Dao National Park and Con Dao District, in southern Viet Nam. As such, it provides specific recommendations and policies for developing and managing ecotourism and environmental education as tools for sustainable biodiversity conservation in the marine and terrestrial areas of CDNP, and for sustainable community development for the people of Con Dao island and by extension, the Greater Mekong Subregion. The major objective of this Ecotourism and Environmental Education Management Proposal is to create a flexible framework in which ecotourism and environmental education are viewed as part of a comprehensive planning and management process for Con Dao District and the National Park.
Open Access
Montenegro sustainable tourism assessment
(Institute for Strategic Studies and Prognoses & Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, 2004-10) Ringer, Greg
This report briefly outlines the concerns and recommendations of a rapid assessment project undertaken in April 2004, with the support of the Montenegro Business Alliance and the U.S. Consulate in Podgorica. While admittedly limited in scope, due to both time and financial constraints, the ideas presented are intended to reflect the current and potential status of tourism development and marketing in Montenegro.
Open Access
Sustainable communities & ecotourism in Uganda: the Katonga Wetlands Conservation Project
(1998-06) Ringer, Greg
Perhaps more than any other region of the world, Africa’s dependence on natural resources makes it especially vulnerable to environmental change. To confront the growing social and natural problems, many sub-Saharan countries are now turning to ecotourism, with governments and residents alike attracted by suggestions that ecotourism can simultaneously sustain communities and the natural environments which surround them. Indeed, the success of nature-based tourism in Uganda — now the fastest growing sector in the country — makes clear its potential for economic development. Such windfalls do not come without social costs, however, and the manner in which ecotourism develops directly affects the sustainability of local areas. Yet, tourism proponents throughout East Africa continue to stress upscale facilities and the desires of affluent international visitors over the quality of choice afforded indigenous people in conserving their natural heritage and traditional practices. The challenges and opportunities of such an approach are highlighted in this examination of sustainable tourism and wildlife protection in Uganda's newest protected area and former game preserve, Katonga.
Open Access
Geographies of tourism and place in Micronesia: the 'sleeping lady' awakes
(University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji, 2004-04) Ringer, Greg
Tourism has grown to become the dominant service industry in the world in the 21st Century and a common prescription for funding sustainable community development throughout the East Asia-Pacific region. Certainly, there can be no denial of tourism’s potential to provide meaningful economic alternatives for indigenous residents. However, the marketing of rural communities and island nations as tourist attractions may also transfigure the dynamic historically and socially-constructed landscapes of the destination through the reformation of local identities and cultural patterns of behaviour. To encourage a proactive approach to tourism, planning must therefore be sensitive to the social morphology of the destination community and the intersect with tourist activities. To encourage such a process, this paper adopts a geographic perspective to examine the qualitative effects of ecotourism on the Micronesian island of Kosrae as it moves from a subsistence-based, conservative, patriarchal society to a tourism destination in the global economy. In this manner, the cognitive perceptions and practised lifestyles of residents and visitors and the recreational space of the destination are distinguished from the inhabited place of local people, and the social structure, meaning, and cohesion of Kosraean culture more meaningfully clarified.