In addition to teaching, our faculty are engaged in scholarship addressing a wide range of issues: gentrification and displacement, urban heat islands, bicycling, urban agriculture, food justice, homelessness, the maker movement, tiny homes (aka accessory dwelling units), carbon taxes, equity planning, autonomous vehicles, disaster recovery, food trucks and carts, and collaborative planning processes.
Like many cities, Portland has experienced gentrification, displacing people of color to neighborhoods further from the core, with reduced amenities, access to transit and other services. Dr. Lisa K. Bates worked with the City of Portland to assess the vulnerability of different neighborhoods to increased gentrification pressure. This work has shaped the City’s new 2035 Comprehensive Plan. Her study of “naturally occurring affordable housing” along the Southwest corridor in Portland was used by the City to commit to purchasing housing in the corridor before a planned light rail, to help mitigate gentrification. She worked with the City to design its housing policy to bring families who were displaced back to Northeast Portland, and helps provide oversight to new plans to mitigate gentrification in the urban renewal district.
Dr. Jennifer Dill has worked with cities across the country to evaluate the effects of bicycle infrastructure, including the first study in the U.S. to comprehensively evaluate bike boxes (with civil engineering professor Dr. Christopher Monsere). The evidence from their study was used to support federal approval of this simple design that can improve safety. A recent project examined the barriers to bike share for under-served communities, using data from Philadelphia, Chicago, and Brooklyn. The results are informing bike share programs throughout the country.
Dr. Vivek Shandas has developed techniques to map the local impacts of climate change by engaging communities in the mapping of urban heat islands. He is actively working with city leaders in the US, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East to identify mitigation options for reducing heat stress among potentially vulnerable populations.
Additional example.
Some quick facts and links
Our faculty currently administer about $2.6 million dollars in externally funded research grants.
Find more of our faculty’s work here.
Next: We’re in a place where planning matters, but we also connect with the world.
7 Reasons to Study Planning at Portland State 