Planning, Public Policy and Management

After Alexis Biddle finished his first year of law school he wasn’t sure he wanted to be a lawyer, so he decided to take time off to find direction. He accomplished that literally by working as a taxi driver.

A blueprint to preserve, rehabilitate, and promote historic theaters in Oregon has earned national honors in applied research for a team of University of Oregon graduate students who analyzed the physical and fiscal conditions of more than fifty historic theaters statewide. But they didn’t stop there: Their findings spurred them to also recommend a five-year plan to help both the aging buildings and the often-underfunded organizations that operate them.

To clear up Israeli streets now clogged with automobiles, UO Professor Marc Schlossberg has a straightforward prescription: More room for bicycles and buses and less emphasis on private cars.

The standard model for urban design and city growth, some A&AA professors argue, neglects a sizeable number of its residents.

Gentrification and makeovers within distressed neighborhoods can push out low-income communities by increasing property values; disabled, elderly, and handicapped populations are marginalized; and others, including children, are consistently sidelined, all in the name of progress that affects developing cities.

Assistant Professor Dyana Mason is quoted extensively in a WalletHub story listing the “2015 Most and Least Charitable States.” Mason, of the Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management, was a handful of experts consulted for their opinions on regulations to reduce fraud, tax de

The UO Sustainable Cities Initiative (SCI) has launched a two-year research initiative called "Framing Livability.” The project is partnering with the City of Portland, Portland Metro, Transportation for America, and the Natural Resources Defense Council on two grants from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities.  The project seeks to answer how sustainability-focused community development efforts can best be communicated to gain public support.

On Halloween night, two University of Oregon students went door-to-door in the Friendly Neighborhood to engage neighbors and gather design ideas for a class initiative that would renovate a nearby intersection.

A lecture Professor Marc Schlossberg gave during his Fulbright year at Technion Israel Institute of Technology was highlighted on the school’s home page recently. Schlossberg spoke about the Sustainable City Year Program (SCYP), which he and UO colleague Associate Professor Nico Larco founded at UO and which Technion has adopted under the name The Urban Laboratory.  It’s the first such project at an Israeli university.

“Multi-way boulevard” may sound like a free-for-all, but for students in Rob Ribe’s Land Planning and Design studio this fall, it’s an extraordinary opportunity to fix an accelerating problem.

A problem involving too many cars and trucks in a four-mile section of US Highway 97 through Redmond, Oregon. A problem of maintaining access to businesses and reducing accidents.

Cascade Business News features the Sustainable Cities Year Program in Redmond in its current issue, noting that students are already preparing their midterm presentations. “Eight classes [of students are] working on six projects during the fall term. Then we will have a similar amount of projects for the winter term and for the spring term,” Heather Richards, Redmond’s director of community development, told Cascade Business News writer David Clewett in the November 3 story.