Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Geography

This research conducts an analysis of urban change in Toledo, Ohio. While not explicitly stated in planning, “rightsizing” strategies that are emerging in legacy cities across America's Rust Belt as a response to decline are being implemented in Toledo. Targeted investments, particularly in the form of downtown revitalization, and targeted demolition alike are rightsizing strategies being implemented in Toledo. These strategies are being carried out through various forms of intergovernmental collaboration and public-private partnerships. They are being justified in the name of urban beautification, neighborhood revitalization, productivity, and public safety.

Committee: Yeong Kim (Advisor) Subjects: Geography; Political Science; Urban Planning

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2022, Educational Leadership

This dissertation in practice examines the absence of an advocacy framework for Black placemakers in southwest Springfield neighborhoods seeking to transform vacant spaces into vibrant pocket parks, green spaces, and community gardens. This critical community-based participatory research addresses inadequate public policies, resources, and technical assistance to create and sustain neighborhood sites for endurance, belonging, and resistance. Thematic findings indicated that systemic issues, street-level organizing, and sustainability are primary barriers and opportunities. An action intervention and change process was developed to establish the Springfield Park and Green Space Ecosystem (SPGE). The action plan focuses on a community coalition of power building, a community benefits agreement, zoning revisions, and public-private partnerships with results-based accountability.

Committee: James Olive (Committee Chair); Castel Sweet (Committee Member); Pamela Cross Young (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; Agricultural Education; Area Planning and Development; Behaviorial Sciences; Climate Change; Conservation; Cultural Anthropology; Environmental Education; Environmental Health; Environmental Justice; Land Use Planning; Landscape Architecture; Landscaping; Public Administration; Public Health; Public Health Education; Public Policy; Sustainability; Urban Forestry; Urban Planning

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2021, Spatially Integrated Social Science

Expanding on the “Right to the City” philosophy of Henri Lefebvre, Black food geographies focus on the ways in which African-Americans navigated oppressive food and built environments, historically and presently, while simultaneously trying to build a version of community food security (CFS) unique to that neighborhood. This “Right to the City” is challenged by settler colonialism and racial capitalism, two political and social structures that control spatial behaviors, including a neighborhood's access to quality food. One way to counteract that is ownership of the land and community-based food production via urban agricultural (UA) enterprises. The following study applies a mixed-methods approach to two Ohio cities—Toledo and Dayton—as case studies to understand the socioeconomic and demographic implications of concentrated municipal-owned vacant parcels, exacerbated by Land Bank and City demolitions, within majority African-American neighborhoods. It justifies how UA is used as a remedy for not only strengthening the local food system and repurposing vacant land, but also, as an empowerment mechanism for said communities, leading to self-sufficiency using Collective Action and Community Resilience (CACR) as a guide. Additionally, it revealed the ways in which Land Banks, and indirectly the city, can be a community-based asset to the growth of UA in the formation of an equitable CFS model that acknowledges the African-American's version of the “Right to the City.” Using municipal-owned vacant land transfers between 2010 and 2018, and the 2014 & 2018 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) Census, results indicated higher rates of land vacancies are mostly found in majority African-American neighborhoods, with higher household poverty, increased food assistance recipients, greater household unemployment, and low private vehicle ownership. These relationships were statistically significant out of the initial ten variables. Three additional statistically significant (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sujata Shetty (Committee Chair); Neil Reid (Committee Co-Chair); Beth Schlemper (Committee Member); Daniel Hammel (Committee Member); Jeanette Eckert (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; Agriculture; Black Studies; Demographics; Geographic Information Science; Geography; Land Use Planning; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Sociology; Urban Planning

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies and Public Affairs, Cleveland State University, 2016, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs

Legacy cities – also known as shrinking, rust belt, and post-industrial cities – are places facing persistent population decline, disinvestment, and structural economic challenges. Scholars and practitioners argue that historic buildings are among the key assets for neighborhood stabilization and revitalization, yet demolition of existing buildings is a dominant public policy approach in legacy cities. Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods, this three-essay dissertation (1) develops a typology of legacy city neighborhoods across five cities (Baltimore, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Richmond, & St. Louis) and five census decades (1970-2010), (2) identifies patterns of federal historic rehabilitation tax credit (RTC) activity and evaluates the effects of RTC investments on racial, socioeconomic, and housing characteristics across legacy city neighborhood types from 2000 to 2010, and (3) examines how and why RTCs are deployed as a preservation tool in different neighborhood contexts. Hierarchical cluster analysis and discriminant analysis are employed in the first essay, identifying eight distinct neighborhood types (Established & Stable Homeowners; Highly Bifurcated; Competitive, Educated, & Struggling; Educated Newcomers; White Immigrants; Declining & Black; Black, Stressed, & Disadvantaged; Collapsed Urban Core) and supporting the coherency of legacy cities as a meaningful analytic grouping. In the second essay, descriptive statistics show the distribution of RTC activity across all legacy city neighborhood types, and a difference-in-differences regression model counters arguments in the existing literature that RTCs contribute to revitalization or gentrification in legacy cities. Using key person interviews and a comparative case study approach of two St. Louis neighborhoods, the final essay uncovers key lessons as to how and why the RTC functions as a preservation and reinvestment tool across different types of neighborhoods in a declining citywide c (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stephanie Ryberg-Webster Ph.D. (Committee Chair); George Galster Ph.D. (Committee Member); Brian Mikelbank Ph.D. (Committee Member); Rosie Tighe Ph.D. (Committee Member); Nicholas Zingale Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Public Policy; Urban Planning