Search Content

Matching Items (3)

Filtering by

All Subjects: Urban renewal
Creators: Vandermeer, Philip
Resource Type: Text
Status: Published

History and historic preservation in San Diego since 1945: civic identity in America's finest city

Description

Civic identity in San Diego emerged first from a complex set of Native, Spanish and Mexican traditions. However, after 1850 Americans from the East coast and Midwest arrived and brought with them to San Diego a strong sense of how to both build and manage towns. These regional influences from other parts of the country carried over into the early twentieth century, and began to reshape civic identity and the first historic preservation movements in San Diego. This dissertation establishes San Diego's place in the scholarly literature of the urban West and historic preservation. After a brief background of San Diego history, this study begins with an explanation of the dual efforts at work in San Diego after 1945 to build for the future while preserving the past. Next, this study examines the partnerships formed and conflicts between promoters for development and advocates of preservation. The progression of historic preservation efforts in San Diego since WWII includes missed opportunities, lapses in historic authenticity, and divisions about what buildings or stories to preserve. This study describes how conflicts were resolved and explains the impact of those outcomes on historic preservation and authenticity. San Diego's history has much in common with many cities in the American West, but the historic narrative of San Diego also differs from other Western cities in several compelling ways. First, San Diego bears distinction as the oldest city in California and one of the oldest cities in the West. Second, historic preservation in San Diego has yet to be fully explored by scholars. Third, some of preservation conflicts explored in this study reveal distinct differences from preservation debates in other urban areas. Using government, organizational, and archival records, secondary sources, interviews, and personal observation, this dissertation explains how historic preservation in San Diego became an integral part of city planning, an expectation of residents and visitors, and a key feature of the city`s civic identity. This study contributes to Western scholarship by bringing San Diego into the literature of historic preservation and the urban West.

ContributorsComer-Schultz, Judith (Author) / Vandermeer, Philip (Thesis advisor) / Iverson, Peter (Committee member) / Whitaker, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2011

How Will the COVID-19 Pandemic Affect the Future of Urban Life? : Early Evidence from Highly-Educated Respondents in the United States

Description

Attitudes and habits are extremely resistant to change, but a disruption of the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to bring long-term, massive societal changes. During the pandemic, people are being compelled to experience new ways of interacting, working, learning, shopping, traveling, and eating meals. Going forward, a critical question is whether these experiences will result in changed behaviors and preferences in the long term. This paper presents initial findings on the likelihood of long-term changes in telework, daily travel, restaurant patronage, and air travel based on survey data collected from adults in the United States in Spring 2020. These data suggest that a sizable fraction of the increase in telework and decreases in both business air travel and restaurant patronage are likely here to stay. As for daily travel modes, public transit may not fully recover its pre-pandemic ridership levels, but many of our respondents are planning to bike and walk more than they used to. These data reflect the responses of a sample that is higher income and more highly educated than the US population. The response of these particular groups to the COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps especially important to understand, however, because their consumption patterns give them a large influence on many sectors of the economy.

ContributorsConway, Matthew Wigginton (Author) / Salon, Deborah (Author) / da Silva, Denise Capasso (Author) / Mirtich, Laura Christine (Author)

Created2020-09-03

Continuity, change, and coming of age: redevelopment and revitalization in downtown Tempe, Arizona, 1960-2012

Description

Tempe political and business leaders implemented a series of strategies, composed of interconnected economic, political, and cultural factors that contributed to the city's growth over time. Influenced by a new economic opportunities and challenges, changing ideas about redevelopment and the role of suburbs, and Tempe's own growth issues after 1960, Tempe leaders and citizens formed a distinct vision for downtown redevelopment. Modified over time, the redevelopment strategy depended on effective planning and financing, public-private collaboration, citizen participation, and a revised perception of growth. After 1980, the strategy gained momentum enabling leaders to expand their ambitions for downtown. Redevelopment manifested through riverfront redevelopment, art and culture, and historic preservation redirecting the city's growth, creating economic development, and revitalizing downtown as Tempe began flourishing as a mature supersuburb. The strategy showed considerable economic success by 2012 and the completion of the Rio Salado Project, the Tempe Center for the Arts, and the preservation of the Hayden Flour Mill made downtown an attractive and diverse urban destination.

ContributorsGerszewski, Alyssa Danielle (Author) / Vandermeer, Philip (Thesis advisor) / Dallett, Nancy (Committee member) / Thompson, Victoria (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2014