MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

The West End in Cincinnati is a neighborhood with rich history. Trough decades, it has undergone transformation from a colorful, diverse neighborhood into a troubled, under-populated one. Displacements have disrupted the previous clearly-defined urban structure. The following project puts forth proposal for a redevelopment of the Northeast quadrant of the West End, part of the neighborhood that relatively remain intact over time. Its history of displacement serves as the basic theme. The proposal addresses the issue in the neighborhood from morphological standpoint. In putting together the plan, it employs several urban design approaches, which are the figure/ground analysis, imageability, serial vision, and defensible space. However, the proposal also acknowledges that the West End needs a broader approach, involving social, economic, political effort beside physical one.

Committee: Mahyar Arefi (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

Telecommunications infrastructure has largely been ignored by city officials as it lies invisible as part of the city. Recent phenomena have demonstrated that by devising telecommunications infrastructure as a part of the tools to revitalize downtown, a city could develop several layers to attract people and businesses to return. The purpose of this study is to: identify the problem and magnitude of downtown revitalization, identify the trends and forces affecting the relationships between telecommunications infrastructure and the city, formulate effective strategies based on the trends and forces to revitalize downtown and develop guidelines for the implementation of these strategies in the case of Gary, Indiana.

Committee: David J. Edelman (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

This study is concerned with the revitalization efforts in an inner-city neighborhood. Pendleton is a low-income dominated neighborhood located next to downtown Cincinnati. The current state of Pendleton is a mix of problems and promise. The problem includes a large amount of vacant and dilapidated buildings combined with dire social conditions. Within the past years, the City of Cincinnati has invested substantial amounts of its own and federal money in this area mainly in the form of the low-income housing, however, these efforts have produced mixed results. The purpose of this study is to find a strategy for Pendleton's revitalization. Based on the analysis of its unique situation, such as history, demographic trends, housing, and land use, and on the review of the revitalization efforts in the U.S., this study reaches the conclusion that a mixed-income strategy can be an appropriate approach for the revitalization of Pendleton. The application of this strategy will include three aspects. The rehabilitation of the existing dilapidated buildings, the construction of new market-rate housing on the vacant lots, and the transformation of other use buildings into residential ones. Among these three approaches, the study illustrates mainly the possibility of new constructions of market-rate housing in Pendleton through the analysis of the Pendleton Homeownership Project, as there have been no new constructions in this neighborhood for decades. Finally, this study also discusses the importance of a comprehensive approach, which addresses the operation simultaneously on several issues, such as environmental, parking, and social problems.

Committee: John Kleymeyer (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

This project applies the concepts of computer-based decision support system (DSS) to a planning project, Interstate 71 Corridor Study in Metropolitan Cincinnati Area. The final product will be a planning decision support system for two major issues in transportation planning: congestion control and emission-concentration estimation. This DSS will consist a geographic information system (GIS) of study area and a set of Graphic User Interface (GUI). It will allow planners and other decision-makers to select planning alternatives for specific areas and compare results. Four methodologies will be used: 1) geographic information system applications, 2) virtual reality technology, 3) quantitative analysis with mathematical models, and 4) object-oriented programming.

Committee: Dr. Xinhao Wang (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

Downtown revitalization has been a popular term in the field of urban planning in America in the past 40-year. However, most of the researches only focused on cities or towns with populations of more than 5,000 people. In fact, Main Streets in American small towns are declining drastically during the past decades. These towns are in need of an effective way to strengthen their economic bases and keep a sense of place in the community. The objective of this research is to study the Main Streets in two small river towns, Ripley and Manchester, Ohio and provide the Village of Manchester with Main Street revitalization design strategies based on the result of the comparative analysis. The criteria of case studies include the three elements of making a sense of place: physical attributes, social activities and economic factors. Ripley is superior to Manchester on all of the aspects. Especially in the economic analysis by using the Zip Code Business Pattern data, Ripley has significant growths in number of retail establishments, business establishments and employees, as well as annual payroll. Based on the findings of the case studies and the overview of the National Main Street Approach, four major proposed strategies given to the Village of Manchester are: New Business/Development Recruitment, Tourism Promotion, A Mixture of Uses in the Main Street and Physical Appearance Improvements. Ten priority actions of Main Street revitalization are also recommended to Manchester, which include the following issues:1. Forming Downtown Revitalization Committee, 2. Seeking outside assistances, 3. Establishing Downtown Revitalization Plan, 4, Appearance improvements, 5. Adopting adaptive reuse on vancant building renovation, 6. Regulation of mobile homes, 7. Flooding protection, 8. Riverfront development, 9. Promoting light industry and service sector, 10. Regional coordination

Committee: Dr. Mahyar Arefi (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

This study explores environmental discourses and rhetoric. The first part provides a review of postmodern approaches to discourse analysis, a description of methodologies used to identify environmental discourses and creates a combination of these methodologies using narrative and graphic resources. A second part employs the combined methodology to explore the debate about the northern expansion of Santafe de Bogota, Colombia, (1999-2001) using a selection of public documents that include legal resolutions, academic papers, maps and newspaper articles. In the debate of Bogota, the institutions involved (District Planning Department DAPD, Regional Environmental Authority CAR and the Colombian Ministry of the Environment MMA) didn't reached a final agreement over whether the city must develop over lands of high ecological value or how it must be done. The debate represents the universal conflict of preservation vs. development and the common conflict that arises when cities encroach vulnerable ecosystems. The exploration is made in three levels. The first is a narrative description of the city, the Territorial Plan and a timeline summarizing main events in the debate. The second level presents a discourse and rhetoric analysis of the institutions, academics and community leaders. This section provides tables that summarize arguments and discourse characteristics and a graphic model illustrating the discourse position of each actor. It emphasizes on exploring the mixture of elements from discourses that are different in their assumptions. The third level presents the predominant discourses, common assumptions, discourse tensions and discourse strategies. The study explores the inconsistencies of the institutional discourses of sustainability, democratic pragmatism and administrative rationalism and the technical and rhetorical presentation of issues such as community participation, biodiversity and urban growth. The rhetoric of the law is explored also as one of the po (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Charles Ellison (Advisor); D. Johanna Looye (Other); Dr. Carla Chifos (Other) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

The last two decades have seen rapid advancements in the development of information and communication technologies, known as Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Many transportation agencies have been employing some of these technologies to improve offered services. Information is an essential element of public transportation services. The attractiveness of public transportation usage is shaped by the way in which information is managed and presented. This research focuses on transit trip planning systems defined as systems providing information to assist current and potential travelers with all aspects of their journey, before the journey is made. The thesis introduces a case study of the automated transit trip planning system in Southern California (TranStar) and the possibility of implementing a similar system in the Greater Cincinnati area.

Committee: John Kleymeyer (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

The theme of this research was a case study of the Cincinnati Center for Developmental Disorders. CCDD as it is commonly called is one of 61 University Affiliated Programs located in the United States. CCDD in it's 57 years history has never turned away a child that did not have medical insurance. This theses examined what CCDD does, and how it operates as an organization. Developmental Disabilities are complex by definitions alone, and any research that offers insight into the problem of assisting children that do not have health insurance is a study that this thesis cannot resolve in and of itself. This thesis does offer some insight how one organization has done its part in helping to resolve a national problem. This thesis does not produce solutions to the health care problems of uninsured men, women, and children in America. This thesis is a case study of the Cincinnati Center for Developmental Disorders and the role it has performed in helping individuals, and families with developmental disabilities. This thesis does offer recommendations that can resolve some of the health care, and insurance problems in America. Developmental Disabilities is a complex disease, this thesis offers insight into an organization whose sole purpose is to assist individuals, and families with developmental disabilities, learn to live independent lives without any state of federal assistance.

Committee: Andrew James Jacobs (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

This thesis analyzes several components of SMART Step Savings, an individual development account pilot program that allows families to accumulate funds for the purposes of purchasing a home, financing education or job training, or starting a small business. The analysis includes recruitment of participants, retention, and the social development, or community involvement, features of the SMART Step Savings. Throughout the duration of the program, SmartMoney has had difficulties recruiting participants. Forty-six participants have exited before taking a matched withdrawal. Lastly, the social development component is a unique feature to this IDA program, which was put in place to encourage participants to become involved in their neighborhood associations, along with other civic activities. The method of study was to conduct interviews with eight program participants, the program manager of SMART Step Savings, and the executive director of the Better Housing League. Questions were asked regarding the issues that have plagued SMART Step Savings since its implementation, the recruitment and retention of participants. Why was it difficult to find participants for the program? What caused the high exit rate for the program? The social development component is also discussed to find out whether it was unrealistic for the program participants to become actively involved in their communities? Would this cause them to exit the program before achieving their saving's goal. The study also includes the author's observation of one of the economic education meetings. The thesis recommends that agencies with IDA programs develop a strong marketing strategy to inform the community about the program, as well as to gain resident's trust. SmartMoney could have also requested more assistance from one of their program partners, Hamilton County Department of Human Services, to recruit more participants. Regarding the retention issue, it is recommended that SMART Step Savings and other agen (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. David Edelman (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

Hamilton, Ohio, located in Butler County approximately 25 miles north of Cincinnati, was for 37 years the only city of a population greater than 50,000 people lacking direct access to an Interstate Highway system. Yet this situation was not intentional; the 1958 Major Road Plan for Butler County prioritized the upgrading of an existing road to serve as a connector to what would eventually become Interstate Highway 75. The project existed in the minds of City leaders throughout the 1960's and came to the public's consciousness again in the 1970's after then-Governor James A. Rhodes visited Hamilton during an election year. The Governor stated that the road was long-overdue and that the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI), the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the area, would grant the project highest priority status. No ground was broken for the project through the 1980's although there was grass-roots support for its completion. Hamilton, Innovative legislation in the 1990's paved the way for the creation of the Butler County Transportation Improvement District (BCTID). BCTID began construction of the road in 1996 and completed it in December 1999. The aim of this research project is threefold. The first goal of this study was to gain an understanding of the causes for delay in highway construction as they specifically apply to the Michael A. Fox Regional Highway, as well as the causes that conspired to allow for its eventual completion. The second goal of research was to examine the political factors that allowed for the highway's completion. The third project goal was to gain understanding of the complex process of intergovernmental coordination as it applies to the process of highway planning, funding, and implementation. The research completed to satisfy the first and second goals of the project provides a framework of effective practices that can be applied in other planning situations.

Committee: Andrew Jacobs (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

Ohio like other states across the nation has adopted a voluntary cleanup program to encourage the remediation of brownfields. In September of 1994, the State of Ohio adopted Senate Bill 221, the Voluntary Action Program (VAP), a risk management approach to environmental protection, to increase brownfield redevelopment by teh private sector and property owners. The risk management approach is a reation against the traditional regulatory approach. It provides flexible and innovative guidelines measuring contamination in order to decrease remediation cost, remediation time and oversight by the Ohio EPA. Ohio's VAP land-use cleanup criteria and less stringent groundwater cleanup criteria in Urban Setting Designation areas are examples of the risk management approach to environmental protection. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Ohio EPA administers the VAP program. The program focuses on the cleanup of sites that are less contaminated than Superfund sites, but sites that still pose a threat to human health and the environment if remediation is not enacted. The Voluntary Action Program addresses contamination that exists in soil, sediment, groundwater and surface water. Key provisions include a privatized mechanism that minimizes direct agency oversight of the program to after the fact oversight; the use of generic cleanup standards and land-use based criteria to determine the degree of remediation that is required on a site; the implementation of a less stringent groundwater classification, urban setting designation (USD), in urban areas where groundwater is not used and will not be used in the future; providing financial assistance to participants who successfully remediate sites; and full liability exemption provided to participants who cleanup sites in compliance with cleanup standards. The case study method is used to conduct the qualitative program evaluation of Ohio's cleanup program. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to determine if Ohio's voluntary c (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Charles E. Ellison (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MS, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Architecture

In the Modern period, the problem of architecture seems to have been cast as one of function and commodity towards form. As such, space is understood as the functional void which is defined by the boundaries of the commodity/building. All other considerations have been relegated to ornament or "mere" aesthetics. Is inhabitation of these voids, then, a purposeless act carried out by unthinking, uninvolved human beings? Is culture really a fixed structure such that it a) is nakedly borne by members of society? b) can be read by researchers and predicted by architects? Since the beginning of this century, theorists, such as Henri Lefebvre, have been skeptical of these presumptions and have shown space as an active, participatory structure which carries culture with it, bound up in its "spatiality". Two settings will be analyzed in this respect. First, in the example of New Orleans Mardi Gras, an event that merges practice and criticism of social structure and roles, we see the human at play-a play defined not as leisure, but a participatory act. This ludic activity gives rise to speculation regarding our Modern assumptions about architecture. Space is no longer defined by any formalism. The event and the environment depend on one another for definition and the urban space of this festival seems to be one of convenience and irregularity. Inversion and transgression provide the mechanisms for exploration of the representational, architectural and symbolic mode of being. Second, In the early postwar era in France the Situationists formulated a revolutionary stance against the advance of capitalism which by their definition appeared as a spectacle of alienated life. Through art and criticism they explored the relationship between the commodity-form and the alienation that mechanisms of production and consumption create in society. Searching for a way of supplanting that "alienated experience" with "directly lived experience," the Situationists moved from Surrealism's desir (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Hancock (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

The present research is devoted to small business financing programs in the United States with a view to formulating appropriate recommendations for Ukraine. Small businesses benefit the economy by employing a disproportionate number of people, if compared to larger companies. They also offer economic opportunities for women and the economically and socially disadvantaged. In addition, small companies act as a barometer of economic performance and shock absorbers in periods of economic recession. However, both in the United States and in Ukraine, the small business sector faces many challenges, particularly financial ones. Since Ukraine is moving toward a market economy, the development of the small business sector is one of its top priorities. However, the existing macroeconomic, market, administrative and legislative conditions are not conducive to business start-up and development. Furthermore, small business financing programs in Ukraine have not been fully developed and tested. As a result of this research, it has been proved that the financial framework of economic policy plays a crucial role in entrepreneurial and small business formation and growth. To overcome the small business problem of gaining access to traditional sources of financing, and thus, to assist them in meeting their financial needs at various stages, a variety of private and public sources, or a combination of the two has been created in the US. While traditional sources of financing have proved least effective and hard to obtain, such alternative sources as venture capital, mezzanine, and angel financing, as well as several government-sponsored federal, state, and local programs, have been found to be fairly effective. The 7(a) Loan Guarantee Program and the 504 Loan Program were accessed to be the most important lending programs in the US with the potential for being replicated in Ukraine.

Committee: DAVID EDELMAN (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

The study highlights the importance for planners to understand the methodologies and concepts applied by real estate developers and economic geographers in determining market potential for land use projects that often involve public funds and shape the current and future welfare of communities. The study discusses the delineation of markets into primary, secondary and tertiary trade areas, as defined in economic geography. The trade area delineation derives the Urban Land Institute and International Council of Shopping Centers guidelines and definitions for trade area sizes and as they pertain to different classifications of shopping centers. Trade area demographic attributes including population growth and age distribution, household income growth and employment are assessed in addition to consumer expenditure patterns economic health of the region as a whole. A combination of these market attributes or characteristics leads to a conclusion that demand exist for the Flags retail development project. The Flags project entails 600,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space located across the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Flags project would have a trade area of 20 miles. This trade area is estimated to have a population of 1,569,081 million with an average age of 42 years. The trade area has a stable population growth. More than 272,000 households in the trade area are estimated to have annual incomes greater than $40,000. The average income is estimated to increase by approximately 19.3 per cent between 1996 and 2001 while median income increases by 19.4 per cent. The aggregate income for the trade area is estimated at more than 32 billion in 2001, increasing by 17.2 per cent from 1996. Households in the market are estimated to have spent more than $26 billion on retail items. The study successfully applied real estate principles and methodologies coupled with economic geography concepts to determine a significant potential for demand of (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Thomas Wagner (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

This thesis identifies alternative urban design strategies for commercial development along the Milford Parkway in Milford, Ohio. Characteristics of suburban sprawl are defined in specific attributes of the development designed along the Milford Parkway. Urban design principles based upon ecological and social considerations are established from current literature and applied to the Milford Parkway property to illustrate an alternative design process. This alternative process allows the Milford Parkway to become developed by commercial uses while maintaining qualities unique to the property and surrounding community. This enables the property to serve the regional users as well as the local community in a fashion more ecologically and socially responsible than sprawl. This thesis ultimately discusses necessary modifications to the current Milford Zoning Ordinance needed to achieve this alternative design approach.

Committee: Kiril Stanilov (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Allied Health Sciences : Communication Sciences and Disorders

Purpose: Meniere's disease is a progressive inner ear disorder in which there is no gold standard for diagnosis, treatment, or cure. This disorder has been diagnosed based upon classic Meniere's disease symptoms and Electrocochleography results. Classic Meniere's disease symptoms include fluctuating hearing loss, roaring tinnitus, and aural pressure. The most common diagnosis for Meniere's disease with regards to Electrocochleography is an abnormal summating potential (SP) to action potential (AP) ratio (SP/AP ratio) due to an enlarged SP. However, Ferraro and Tibbils (1999) discovered that the sensitivity of the SP/AP lacked a strong clinical significance in that it only diagnosed 60% of existing Meniere's disease patients. The purpose of this study is to investigate the area under the SP/AP complex in relation to the final otologic diagnosis of Meniere's disease. Methodology: Each subject was administered the Electrocochleography test. The waveforms from each ear were measured from baseline to 2ms post-baseline. The area under the SP/AP complex was then calculated. Subjects: 16 subjects were evaluated in this study. 8 of these subjects were suspected of having Meniere's disease. The remaining 8 subjects were normal hearing individuals with a negative history of otologic disease. Interventions: Otoscopy, tympanometry, and Electrocochleography were administered for each ear of each subject. Main outcome measures: The waveforms were measured from baseline to 2ms post-baseline. Coordinates were recorded every .04 ms. The coordinates were entered into an integrated function to determine the area under the SP/AP complex. Results: There was no significant interaural difference between areas within the research group. There was no significant difference between the areas of the research and control groups. Conclusion: Due to the complexity and fluctuating nature of Meniere's disorder, it is hard to evaluate the disorder if symptoms are not active at the time of testing. F (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Robert W. Keith (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

Brownfields occur in older communities where former industrial or commercial operations pose environmental issues, such as liability and expensive cleanup costs, that have made reuse of the contaminated land problematic. Brownfields redevelopment plays an important role in urban revitalization and offers alternatives to greenfield developments. Due to the issues of liability, brownfields are not being redeveloped at a desirable rate. A new tool, Environmental Insurance (EI), is available for local governments that may help to promote the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields by limiting liability associated with the discovery and cleanup of contamination on brownfield properties. This thesis examined the impacts of liability on the brownfield development process and identified EI policies that apply to brownfield redevelopment and assist in reducing the risks of liability. This was accomplished through a comparative case study of two brownfield redevelopment sites, the Former Carthage Mills site in the neighborhood of Carthage in the City of Cincinnati and the Former Jefferson Smurfit site in the Village of Lockland. The decision to use EI relies heavily upon the past and future uses, the type and amount of contamination, and prior knowledge of EI. The case studies have shown there needs to be cooperation between different agencies involved for EI to be successful in redeveloping more brownfields in Cincinnati.

Committee: Carla Chifos (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

This thesis is an evaluation of the effectiveness of the curriculum for the City of Covington's "Yes, You Can Own A Home" program and the Covington Community Center's "Homeownership Preparedness Class" to determine if the curriculum helps meet the programs' goal to provide quality homebuyer education. Literature reviewed for this study indicated that an effective quality education program must reflect the full spectrum of homebuyer needs-from initial outreach and information for first-time homebuyers to mortgage default prevention and other miscellaneous homeowner needs. The pre-purchase education and information offered in these two programs addressed only part of the full spectrum of needs that makes homebuyer education and counseling an effective tool. Thus, neither program was expected to accomplish providing quality homebuyer education across the full spectrum. The two programs, however, did offer the type of information a pre-purchase education class should have-information on the process of selecting and employing real estate professionals, attorneys, and other agents; information on selecting and obtaining a mortgage loan; and, information on the full costs and responsibilities of maintaining a home. The analysis in the study indicates that for both programs the majority of participants felt well prepared to buy a home after taking the course. In fact, 90% of the participants in the Homeownership Preparedness Course stated that they have the needed skills to become an informed homebuyer; and, in the "Yes, You Can Own A Home" Program, 83% rated the overall quality of the course as outstanding. Thus, the curriculum can be viewed as effective, helping the programs meet their goal of providing quality homebuyer education. Though the curricula for both programs was found to be effective, the case for making improvements could still be made. Four strategies have been recommended for both programs, which may help them increase their effectiveness to the Covington, (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David P. Varady (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

This thesis is a case study of the first seven months of the Over-the-Rhine Neighborhood Planning Process, initiated September 2000. Planning process meetings were attended and interviews with principal players were conducted in order to examine citizen participation techniques in practice, and to determine how this process was faring. A literature review establishes the positive and negative aspects of citizen participation techniques, and looks at citizen participation in other neighborhood planning processes. Also, the history of planning for the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood is briefly outlined. The main themes of the process are discussed. The question is asked: “How community driven was this process?” and the answer is found by exploring the roles of the actors involved: citizen participants, the Cincinnati City Planning Department, and consultants. Two other arising themes are discussed: (1) a request by involved residents for a training program and (2) the more proactive role taken by citizen participants as they settled into the process near the end of the study's observation period. Three major problems plagued the process: (1) The participants were not a unified group capable of coming to a consensus, (2) there was a lack of trust between the residents and the “outsider” Cincinnati City Planning Department staff and consultants, and (3) the process was moving too slowly, making participant burn-out a very real possibility. It is concluded that in the Over-the-Rhine Neighborhood Planning Process, citizens were involved to an ambitious degree. It is furthermore concluded that such a highly participatory process is probably not feasible given the diverse nature of the citizens involved. A push for consensus is too idealistic considering that the participating residents and businesspeople of Over-the-Rhine desire very different things for their neighborhood. In addition, it is doubtful that citizen participants alone would show enough concern for what their nei (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Varady (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Community Planning

The Main Street Approach is increasingly used to meet conventional economic development goals, as urban neighborhoods in several cities have gained Main Street programs. Bringing Main Street and conventional economic development programs in closer contact makes it necessary to evaluate the fundamental relationships between the two approaches. A new model, a Main Street program operating as a part of an urban Community Development Corporation (CDC), may serve as an object lesson. A program theory evaluation, which is a necessary first stage in a comprehensive evaluation, is an examination of the beliefs and expectations of a program and their logical relationship to the program's methods. Without a program theory assessment, it is impossible to determine conclusively whether any impacts noted result from the methods' meeting the objectives of the program theory or from other circumstances. In this thesis, the program theories of the Main Street Approach and conventional economic development are assessed and compared, as are the Main Street Approach and urban CDCs. These comparisons illuminate internal tensions within an individual program theory. They also demonstrates areas of synergy, where the two approaches can benefit each other, as well as points of potential tension, where the two approaches may find themselves in conflict. Based on the program theory evaluation, Main Street and conventional economic development programs, particularly CDCs, are likely to find several opportunities to complement each other, as well as some issues on which they will need to negotiate deep differences. Each program has the potential to benefit the other on points that range from administrative duties to offsetting internal tensions in their program theories, but program proponents will also find that their respective understanding of the problem and purpose differ significantly. This thesis recommends that proponents of both approaches improve their understanding of the others' p (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Johanna Looye (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning