Essays on Urban Disinvestment & Neighborhood Displacement

This dissertation seeks to expand the scholarly conversation on neighborhood change and neighborhood displacement to include how the processes of disinvestment and decline are associated with neighborhood displacement. This three-essay dissertation intends to add necessary nuance to the neighborhood change discussion by further conceptualizing “disinvestment-induced-displacement” (DID), determining the specific processes that lead to DID, and mapping the extent to which DID occurred during the housing market\u27s recovery from the subprime mortgage crisis. In the first essay, I conduct a critical systematic review of recent neighborhood displacement research to better quantify the trajectory of what we know about how and why households leave neighborhoods. More specifically, I ground the analysis through the lens of disinvestment and abandonment to discern the extent to which processes of abandonment- or disinvestment-induced displacement are present in the existing literature. This research lays the foundation for a more nuanced discussion of the complex ways neighborhoods can change. Hopefully, this piece can assist in framing a meaningful policy discussion around ways to plan for the intentional and equitable redevelopment of systemically disinvested communities. In recent years much has been written about displacement, but almost exclusively in the context of expected or potential gentrification. The second essay is an exploratory national study that seeks to further the problematization of “gentrification-centric” displacement. The study does this by quantitatively identifying specific disinvestment factors associated with a household’s decision to leave a neighborhood. The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) dataset will be used to construct the dependent variable in the multi-variate analysis. Neighborhood displacement will be measured by a household’s decision to leave the neighborhood (census tract) during the recovery period from the global subprime mortgage crisis (2013 – 2017). A linear probability model will be used in this essay in hopes of understanding whether factors like school closures, hypervacancy, and the like are associated with household exits. me The third and final essay will take the specific disinvestment variables at various geographic levels (household, neighborhood, metro region) that were significantly associated with household exits in Essay 2 and use these variables to create a Disinvestment-Induced-Displacement (DID) index based on a methodology adapted from the Townsend Deprivation Index (Townsend, 1987). Additionally, the essay will build a working conceptualization of DID, building on previous uses of the term, situating it within the broader spectrum of neighborhood change (Seymour & Akers, 2022). The new conceptualization and measure will help frame a spatial analysis of DID, mapping the multi-variate measure results to the neighborhood level. The spatial analysis will look at the extent of DID in the Top 200 metros in the U.S. and zoom into both large and mid-sized metros to see where DID is spatially concentrated within the metro area. This essay begins by estimating the extent to which DID impacted urban areas during the housing market recovery, and then ties together regional economic dynamics and their neighborhood change implications. There is very little known about how disinvestment as a process interacts with or contributes to other neighborhood change processes such as displacement. This dissertation is a start, but much more research is needed on the topic

Munere Mortis: The Agon Between Elegiac Duty and Postmodern Technique in Anne Carson's Nox

Nox by Canadian author Anne Carson represents a development in poetic composition and associated philosophical thought grounded in postmodern techniques yet which moves towards what some have called a metamodern or post-postmodern structure. The work is an assemblage that compares the difficulties Carson faced while investigating the life of her deceased brother to those she encountered while translating a similarly-themed elegy by Catullus. The approaches to history and language that result are informed by postmodernism, but complex elements of the text, such as its theological component, suggest a classification distinct from postmodernism as often understood. The relationships of Nox and others of Carson’s works to the writings of major postmodernist Jacques Derrida and those of Idealist G.W.F. Hegel reveal Carson’s awareness of the significance of Nox’s dilemmas not only the personal level, but to the history of culture and writing in the Western context. Carson’s Nox stands as a profound and deeply moving example of a metamodern poetic artifact

Growth and Immunocomptence in Parasitized Domestic Turkeys( Meleagris gallapavo): Is There a Trade-off?

Parasitic infection can prove to be detrimental to the condition, reproductive fitness, and survival of the host organism. During infection, an organism experiences trade-offs between functions such as growth, reproduction, and immunological activity as a result of limited resources. When challenged by infection, wild turkeys, adapted for survival, should fight the infection rather than invest in growth. Because domestic turkeys have been artificially selected to grow rapidly, I hypothesized that they would invest in growth rather than immunocompetence. To test this hypothesis, I infected domestic turkeys with coccidia and measured components of growth and immunocompetence. Turkeys were infected with the protozoan parasite Eimeria. Blood samples were collected prior to inoculation and both one and two weeks following inoculation. The weight and tarsus length of each turkey were also measured at the time of blood collection. Levels of plasma immunoglobulins were measured using agarose gel electrophoresis and digital densitometry. Domestic turkeys infected with coccidia experienced a trade-off between growth and immunoglobulin production, although not all individuals invested in growth. Studies such as this provide insight into how natural selection has molded the trade-off between growth and immunocompetence during infection

DIVING INTO ONE’S PAINFUL PAST AND DARKEST INTERNAL FEARS: THE DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS OF THE THREAD THAT SNAPPED

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OFAustin Harrison, for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre, presented on April 10, 2020, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: DIVING INTO ONE’S PAINFUL PAST AND DARKEST INTERNAL FEARS: THE DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS OF THE THREAD THAT SNAPPEDMAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Jacob Juntunen This thesis details the development of my full-length play The Thread That Snapped from its early conception in 2019 to full production at Southern Illinois University Department of Theatre’s Christian H. Moe Theatre’s space in March 2020. In writing The Thread That Snapped, I was inspired by traumatic chapters within my life that shaped me as a human. This play, therefore, examines the unpredictable ways in which an individual is driven to insanity and the delicate thread that separates sanity and insanity. From this play comes a study into the human condition and how society and relationships shape who we become n life. Chapter One includes a statement of the project, the origin, and development of the script, initial structure and plot considerations for the script, research that impacted the creation of the script, character development, and tools for self-evaluation. Chapter Two covers the pre-writing process, feedback from my writing partner, notes from my advisor, Jacob Juntunen, and the director, Susan Patrick Benson, about the script’s development and an overall description of the play’s progression through drafts. Chapter Three describes the design meetings held in preparation for the production of The Thread That Snapped. Chapter Four details the audition and casting process as well as rehearsals for the piece. Chapter Five evaluates The Thread That Snapped’s production, describes ideas for future productions of the piece as well as possible revisions. Chapter Six concludes the thesis by tracking my progression in the playwriting program over the past three years. It includes my writing growth in terms of structure and developing my artistic voice. It also discusses my professional development over the time in the program, as well as the evolution of my teaching practice. I have also included in the thesis the production script of The Thread That Snapped

Housing Vacancy and Hypervacant Neighborhoods: Uneven Recovery after the U.S. Foreclosure Crisis

We examine neighborhood housing vacancy patterns in the largest 200 metropolitan areas from 2012 to 2019, focusing especially on Sunbelt and Rustbelt metros, both hit hard by the 2007–2011 foreclosure crisis. We pay special attention to neighborhood “hypervacancy,” where large amounts of long-term vacant housing are most likely to impose negative impacts. We find that, in the Sunbelt, hypervacant tracts declined over the 2012 to 2019 period, while they remained constant in Rustbelt metros. Despite this, the results show that hypervacant neighborhoods do exist in the Sunbelt, especially in slower-growth metros. We find that hypervacancy is heavily racialized; hypervacant tracts tend to have relatively large Black and Latinx populations. Regressions show that hypervacancy is shaped by preexisting urban disparities as well as metropolitan housing market strength. After controlling for metropolitan growth and economic factors, whether a city is located in the Sunbelt or the Rustbelt is not found to have an independent effect on the persistence of hypervacancy. There are, in fact, weak-growth metros in both the Sunbelt and the Rustbelt, and they tend to have high levels of vacancy and hypervacancy. We discuss the implications of these findings for policy and practice in cities struggling with hypervacancy

The Battle of the Belts: Comparing Housing Vacancy in Larger Metros in the Sun Belt and the Rust Belt Since the Mortgage Crisis, 2012 to 2019

As a result of the 2007-2011 mortgage crisis, cities across the US experienced an unprecedented increase in housing vacancy. Since 2012, the broad national housing market has generally experienced a recovery, but it has been a highly uneven recovery. This paper focuses on changes in neighborhood-level, long-term vacancy rates from 2012 to 2019 in two critical regions of the US, the Sunbelt and the Rustbelt. We examine medium-sized and large metro areas in both regions. We focus particularly on the extent to which very high rates of neighborhood-level housing vacancy persisted during the recovery. Perhaps unsurprisingly, long-term, very high levels of neighborhood housing vacancy appear to have persisted more in Rustbelt than in Sunbelt metros from 2012 to 2019. Sunbelt metros tended to see more population and housing price growth and greater declines in vacancy, especially in the number of very high and extreme vacancy neighborhoods. However, neighborhoods with high vacancy rates are not solely a feature of the Rustbelt. There are a substantial number of weak-growth metros in the Sunbelt, especially outside of California and Florida, in which very high levels of vacancy have remained a problem even in the face of a broader national recovery. In the Sunbelt and, in particular, the Rustbelt, neighborhoods with very high and, especially, extreme vacancy rates tend to have large Black populations and high poverty rates. Thus, the problem of hypervacancy appears strongly associated with the problem of racial and economic segregation. Given the new uncertainties in the housing market created by COVID-19, it is important to recognize that economic shock and the challenges families are facing in paying rent and mortgages, may spur a new round of vacancy challenges. It is also critical to recognize that very high levels of vacancy tend to be concentrated in higher-poverty communities of color, especially in Black neighborhoods, and thus those seeking to address housing justice, community development, and the racial wealth gap need to pay attention to the problem of hypervacancy. Understanding the trends in, and characteristics of, housing vacancy will aid policymakers and practitioners in their efforts to address this important issue

Housing Stability, Evictions, and Subsidized Rental Properties: Evidence from Metro Atlanta

Evictions cause substantial harm to lower-income families. The effects range from homelessness to job loss, school turnover, and deteriorating health. Previously evicted tenants can be pushed down-market and forced to accept substandard housing. Housing subsidy might be expected to reduce eviction rates and provide greater stability. However, little systematic research has examined the eviction rates of subsidized, affordable rental properties and compared them to nonsubsidized, market-rate properties. We examine eviction filings for multifamily rental buildings in five-county metropolitan Atlanta, using a data set of eviction filings, property characteristics, and ownership information. We identify the subset of buildings that are subsidized and distinguish between senior and nonsenior properties. We find that senior, subsidized multifamily properties have substantially lower eviction rates than market-rate properties. A senior-subsidized multifamily rental building is expected to have an annual eviction rate that is 10.7 percentage points below a nonsenior, market-rate property; this result is significant p \u3c 0.01, and compares to a mean eviction filing rate of 16.3 percent (16.3 evictions per 100 rental units). On the other hand, a nonsenior-subsidized building is expected to have an eviction rate that is 1.4 percentage points lower than a nonsenior, market-rate building; this result is not statistically significant. It is important to note that we do not have data on the economic characteristics of tenants, and that may account for some of the relatively high eviction rates of the nonsenior-affordable properties. We discuss implications of these findings for further research and housing policy and practice

Across the Indian Ocean: a remarkable example of trans-oceanic dispersal in an austral mygalomorph spider

The Migidae are a family of austral trapdoor spiders known to show a highly restricted and disjunct distribution pattern. Here, we aim to investigate the phylogeny and historical biogeography of the group, which was previously thought to be vicariant in origin, and examine the biogeographic origins of the genus Moggridgea using a dated multi-gene phylogeny. Moggridgea specimens were sampled from southern Australia and Africa, and Bertmainus was sampled from Western Australia. Sanger sequencing methods were used to generate a robust six marker molecular dataset consisting of the nuclear genes 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, ITS rRNA, XPNPEP3 and H3 and the mitochondrial gene COI. Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood methods were used to analyse the dataset, and the key dispersal nodes were dated using BEAST. Based on our data, we demonstrate that Moggridgea rainbowi from Kangaroo Island, Australia is a valid member of the otherwise African genus Moggridgea. Molecular clock dating analyses show that the inter-specific divergence of M. rainbowi from African congeners is between 2.27-16.02 million years ago (Mya). This divergence date significantly post-dates the separation of Africa from Gondwana (95 Mya) and therefore does not support a vicariant origin for Australian Moggridgea. It also pre-dates human colonisation of Kangaroo Island, a result which is further supported by the intra-specific divergence date of 1.10-6.39 Mya between separate populations on Kangaroo Island. These analyses provide strong support for the hypothesis that Moggridgea colonised Australia via long-distance trans-Indian Ocean dispersal, representing the first such documented case in a mygalomorph spider.Sophie E. Harrison, Mark S. Harvey, Steve J. B. Cooper, Andrew D. Austin, Michael G. Ri

Quantifying the factors influencing people’s car type choices in Europe: Results of a stated preference survey

This study aims at tracking the evolution of the attitude of car drivers towards electro-mobility. The results of a new survey conducted in six European countries are shown. The purchase price continues to represent the major hurdle to widespread adoption of zero tailpipe emission cars.JRC.C.4-Sustainable Transpor