Meagan M Ehlenz
Biographic Data
| ID | 4100379 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Meagan M Ehlenz |
| GIVEN NAMES | Meagan M |
| FAMILY NAME | Ehlenz |
| SIGNATURE | EHLENZ M M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Arizona State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7357-9485 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 76 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
From social distancing to creative social engagement: Neighbourhood factors associated with creative expression in the public realm during the Covid-19 pandemic
Creative social engagement (CSE) – creative expression in the public realm for community engagement purposes – is one form of neighbourhood activity that surged during the pandemic, when many US residents relied on their neighbourhoods for daily activities. Using regression analysis, this study examines how the neighbourhood built and social environment affected Phoenix residents’ use of streets, sidewalks, and driveways for CSE. The results show…
The Complexities of Student Housing
Student housing is a crucial contributor to urban revitalization and neighborhood change. This paper offers a framework for conceptualizing student housing, engaging the complexity of the sector, including universities, students, and local governments, and placing it within the context of urban housing markets. Amidst university budget shortfalls and enrollment expansion, a dedicated student housing industry has emerged to fill housing shortfalls…
The Urban Context of Rental Housing Development near Major U.S. Universities
Residential developers have found footholds in university-adjacent neighborhoods, though the extent of this trend is unclear. We examine rental construction near 168 major U.S. universities with neighborhood data covering 2000 to 2018. We find that more rental units were built near larger universities with growing enrollments and limited dormitory capacity. University-adjacent rental development varied widely across urban contexts, and was most c…
Coping and Connecting through Creativity in the Neighborhood Realm during Covid-19
This research addresses how the COVID-19 pandemic affected neighborhood engagement by exploring the use of streets, sidewalks, and driveways as sociable spaces for informal and uncoordinated creative expression. We assessed practices occurring in three diverse City of Phoenix neighborhoods before and during the pandemic through visual analysis. We show that residents used these spaces in novel and more intensive ways during the pandemic, includin…
Higher Education Centers and College Towns: A Typology of the US Metropolitan Geography of Higher Education
Colleges and universities are vital institutions at the heart of many US cities. Yet existing research offers only partial insights into the US metropolitan geography of HEIs. We use institutional and metro-level data to offer a novel perspective on the geography of single- and multi-HEI metropolitan compositions. Using Latent Profile Analysis, we develop a typology of Higher Education Metros (HEMs), identifying two main classes: Higher Education…
“Can You Imagine What’s Happened in Durham?”: Duke University and a New University–Community Engagement Model
Problem, research strategy, and findings As Durham’s (NC) economy collapsed in the mid-1990s, Duke established a plan to intervene. Its actions aligned with anchor institution models at many universities; its approach, however, was unique. In a city where Duke was a fixture, university leadership understood a top-down approach was not viable. Instead, administrators launched a community-led model intended to change the “story [from] ‘Look at what…
Professional sports venues as catalysts for revitalization? Perspectives from industry experts
Throughout North America, professional sports venues (PSV) have become a prominent urban redevelopment strategy. Much of the previous research related to PSV has focused on economic impacts and the use of public money to help fund construction. Conversely, there is less research exploring the relationship between PSV and the urban environment. To better understand this relationship, we disseminated a web-based survey to planning and development p…
Do Neighborhood Walkability, Transit, and Parks Relate to Residents’ Life Satisfaction: Insights From Phoenix
Problem, research strategy, and findings: Planners lack clarity about how they can promote the subjective wellbeing (SWB) of the communities they serve. In this research we use descriptive and econometric methods to explore the interconnections between three aspects of the objective and perceived neighborhood built environment (NBE)—walkability, transit, and parks—and one aspect of SWB—life satisfaction—drawing on a survey of 496 people in the Ph…
Examining responses to informality in the Global South: A framework for community land trusts and informal settlements
Downtown revitalization in the era of millennials: How developer perceptions of millennial market demands are shaping urban landscapes
Downtown Phoenix and Houston are changing. They are not dense, historic downtowns; instead, they reflect contemporary downtown growth in sprawling cities. Both cities have reimagined their downtowns, leveraging vacant land, new construction, and infill projects. Through this process, developers are shaping downtown in response to market demand. This research explores how developers in two Sun Belt cities are thinking about Millennials and cementi…
The university and its neighborhood: A study of place-making and change
Universities are looking beyond their campuses, reconceiving of neighborhoods as assets rather than liabilities. But what does this mean for the neighborhood? This study evaluates place-based change in 22 university neighborhoods with revitalization investments. Using census housing value and rent data, the study employs a multidimensional typology to analyze changes by city markets and university strategy. The cases demonstrate how university re…
Claiming neighborhood: New ways of understanding urban change, by John J. Betancur and Janet L. Smith
Making Home More Affordable: Community Land Trusts Adopting Cooperative Ownership Models to Expand Affordable Housing
Many question conventional homeownership, particularly for low-income households. Shared equity models offer an alternative, including community land trusts (CLTs) and limited equity cooperatives (LECs); yet, they too have limitations. CLTs offer ongoing support, but require bankable households. LECs can provide autonomy and security, but often require organizational reinforcement to succeed. This article explores an adaptation of these models. I…
Gown, Town, and Neighborhood Change: An Examination of Urban Neighborhoods with University Revitalization Efforts
Universities are expanding their missions to encompass neighborhoods and revitalization strategies, yet there is an inadequate understanding of how targeted neighborhoods have changed. This study combines institutional survey data with 1990 and 2010 Census metrics to examine twenty-two neighborhoods with university revitalization initiatives. It explores market and socioeconomic change for target tracts relative to their regions, finding signific…
Upscaling downtown: From Bowery saloons to cocktail bars in New York City , by Richard E. Ocejo
Neighborhood Revitalization and the Anchor Institution: Assessing the Impact of the University of Pennsylvania’s West Philadelphia Initiatives on University City
Universities are increasingly faced with central city decline; anchored by their assets—primarily real estate—and, sometimes, institutional missions, many have felt threatened by neighborhood deterioration. In response, several universities have intervened in neighborhood decline over the last two decades, initiating revitalization and physical improvement strategies. Since 1996, the University of Pennsylvania has been a leader in this work, inve…
New Deal Ruins: Race, Economic Justice, and Public Housing Policy
When the City of St. Louis demolished Pruitt Igoe in 1972, it sounded the death knell for public housing. In the public eye, the high-density, modernist towers no longer fulfilled the affordable ho
Neighborhood Revitalization and the Anchor Institution: Assessing the Impact of the University of Pennsylvania’s West Philadelphia Initiatives on University City
Universities are increasingly faced with central city decline; anchored by their assets—primarily real estate—and, sometimes, institutional missions, many have felt threatened by neighborhood deterioration. In response, several universities have intervened in neighborhood decline over the last two decades, initiating revitalization and physical improvement strategies. Since 1996, the University of Pennsylvania has been a leader in this work, inve…
Making Home More Affordable: Community Land Trusts Adopting Cooperative Ownership Models to Expand Affordable Housing
Many question conventional homeownership, particularly for low-income households. Shared equity models offer an alternative, including community land trusts (CLTs) and limited equity cooperatives (LECs); yet, they too have limitations. CLTs offer ongoing support, but require bankable households. LECs can provide autonomy and security, but often require organizational reinforcement to succeed. This article explores an adaptation of these models. I…
Gown, Town, and Neighborhood Change: An Examination of Urban Neighborhoods with University Revitalization Efforts
Universities are expanding their missions to encompass neighborhoods and revitalization strategies, yet there is an inadequate understanding of how targeted neighborhoods have changed. This study combines institutional survey data with 1990 and 2010 Census metrics to examine twenty-two neighborhoods with university revitalization initiatives. It explores market and socioeconomic change for target tracts relative to their regions, finding signific…
Downtown revitalization in the era of millennials: How developer perceptions of millennial market demands are shaping urban landscapes
Downtown Phoenix and Houston are changing. They are not dense, historic downtowns; instead, they reflect contemporary downtown growth in sprawling cities. Both cities have reimagined their downtowns, leveraging vacant land, new construction, and infill projects. Through this process, developers are shaping downtown in response to market demand. This research explores how developers in two Sun Belt cities are thinking about Millennials and cementi…
The university and its neighborhood: A study of place-making and change
Universities are looking beyond their campuses, reconceiving of neighborhoods as assets rather than liabilities. But what does this mean for the neighborhood? This study evaluates place-based change in 22 university neighborhoods with revitalization investments. Using census housing value and rent data, the study employs a multidimensional typology to analyze changes by city markets and university strategy. The cases demonstrate how university re…
Higher Education Centers and College Towns: A Typology of the US Metropolitan Geography of Higher Education
Colleges and universities are vital institutions at the heart of many US cities. Yet existing research offers only partial insights into the US metropolitan geography of HEIs. We use institutional and metro-level data to offer a novel perspective on the geography of single- and multi-HEI metropolitan compositions. Using Latent Profile Analysis, we develop a typology of Higher Education Metros (HEMs), identifying two main classes: Higher Education…
Examining responses to informality in the Global South: A framework for community land trusts and informal settlements
Coping and Connecting through Creativity in the Neighborhood Realm during Covid-19
This research addresses how the COVID-19 pandemic affected neighborhood engagement by exploring the use of streets, sidewalks, and driveways as sociable spaces for informal and uncoordinated creative expression. We assessed practices occurring in three diverse City of Phoenix neighborhoods before and during the pandemic through visual analysis. We show that residents used these spaces in novel and more intensive ways during the pandemic, includin…
Professional sports venues as catalysts for revitalization? Perspectives from industry experts
Throughout North America, professional sports venues (PSV) have become a prominent urban redevelopment strategy. Much of the previous research related to PSV has focused on economic impacts and the use of public money to help fund construction. Conversely, there is less research exploring the relationship between PSV and the urban environment. To better understand this relationship, we disseminated a web-based survey to planning and development p…
New Deal Ruins: Race, Economic Justice, and Public Housing Policy
When the City of St. Louis demolished Pruitt Igoe in 1972, it sounded the death knell for public housing. In the public eye, the high-density, modernist towers no longer fulfilled the affordable ho
Upscaling downtown: From Bowery saloons to cocktail bars in New York City , by Richard E. Ocejo
Neighborhood Revitalization and the Anchor Institution: Assessing the Impact of the University of Pennsylvania’s West Philadelphia Initiatives on University City
Universities are increasingly faced with central city decline; anchored by their assets—primarily real estate—and, sometimes, institutional missions, many have felt threatened by neighborhood deterioration. In response, several universities have intervened in neighborhood decline over the last two decades, initiating revitalization and physical improvement strategies. Since 1996, the University of Pennsylvania has been a leader in this work, inve…
Gown, Town, and Neighborhood Change: An Examination of Urban Neighborhoods with University Revitalization Efforts
Universities are expanding their missions to encompass neighborhoods and revitalization strategies, yet there is an inadequate understanding of how targeted neighborhoods have changed. This study combines institutional survey data with 1990 and 2010 Census metrics to examine twenty-two neighborhoods with university revitalization initiatives. It explores market and socioeconomic change for target tracts relative to their regions, finding signific…
The university and its neighborhood: A study of place-making and change
Universities are looking beyond their campuses, reconceiving of neighborhoods as assets rather than liabilities. But what does this mean for the neighborhood? This study evaluates place-based change in 22 university neighborhoods with revitalization investments. Using census housing value and rent data, the study employs a multidimensional typology to analyze changes by city markets and university strategy. The cases demonstrate how university re…
Claiming neighborhood: New ways of understanding urban change, by John J. Betancur and Janet L. Smith
Making Home More Affordable: Community Land Trusts Adopting Cooperative Ownership Models to Expand Affordable Housing
Many question conventional homeownership, particularly for low-income households. Shared equity models offer an alternative, including community land trusts (CLTs) and limited equity cooperatives (LECs); yet, they too have limitations. CLTs offer ongoing support, but require bankable households. LECs can provide autonomy and security, but often require organizational reinforcement to succeed. This article explores an adaptation of these models. I…
Downtown revitalization in the era of millennials: How developer perceptions of millennial market demands are shaping urban landscapes
Downtown Phoenix and Houston are changing. They are not dense, historic downtowns; instead, they reflect contemporary downtown growth in sprawling cities. Both cities have reimagined their downtowns, leveraging vacant land, new construction, and infill projects. Through this process, developers are shaping downtown in response to market demand. This research explores how developers in two Sun Belt cities are thinking about Millennials and cementi…
Do Neighborhood Walkability, Transit, and Parks Relate to Residents’ Life Satisfaction: Insights From Phoenix
Problem, research strategy, and findings: Planners lack clarity about how they can promote the subjective wellbeing (SWB) of the communities they serve. In this research we use descriptive and econometric methods to explore the interconnections between three aspects of the objective and perceived neighborhood built environment (NBE)—walkability, transit, and parks—and one aspect of SWB—life satisfaction—drawing on a survey of 496 people in the Ph…
Examining responses to informality in the Global South: A framework for community land trusts and informal settlements
“Can You Imagine What’s Happened in Durham?”: Duke University and a New University–Community Engagement Model
Problem, research strategy, and findings As Durham’s (NC) economy collapsed in the mid-1990s, Duke established a plan to intervene. Its actions aligned with anchor institution models at many universities; its approach, however, was unique. In a city where Duke was a fixture, university leadership understood a top-down approach was not viable. Instead, administrators launched a community-led model intended to change the “story [from] ‘Look at what…
Professional sports venues as catalysts for revitalization? Perspectives from industry experts
Throughout North America, professional sports venues (PSV) have become a prominent urban redevelopment strategy. Much of the previous research related to PSV has focused on economic impacts and the use of public money to help fund construction. Conversely, there is less research exploring the relationship between PSV and the urban environment. To better understand this relationship, we disseminated a web-based survey to planning and development p…
Coping and Connecting through Creativity in the Neighborhood Realm during Covid-19
This research addresses how the COVID-19 pandemic affected neighborhood engagement by exploring the use of streets, sidewalks, and driveways as sociable spaces for informal and uncoordinated creative expression. We assessed practices occurring in three diverse City of Phoenix neighborhoods before and during the pandemic through visual analysis. We show that residents used these spaces in novel and more intensive ways during the pandemic, includin…
Higher Education Centers and College Towns: A Typology of the US Metropolitan Geography of Higher Education
Colleges and universities are vital institutions at the heart of many US cities. Yet existing research offers only partial insights into the US metropolitan geography of HEIs. We use institutional and metro-level data to offer a novel perspective on the geography of single- and multi-HEI metropolitan compositions. Using Latent Profile Analysis, we develop a typology of Higher Education Metros (HEMs), identifying two main classes: Higher Education…
The Complexities of Student Housing
Student housing is a crucial contributor to urban revitalization and neighborhood change. This paper offers a framework for conceptualizing student housing, engaging the complexity of the sector, including universities, students, and local governments, and placing it within the context of urban housing markets. Amidst university budget shortfalls and enrollment expansion, a dedicated student housing industry has emerged to fill housing shortfalls…
The Urban Context of Rental Housing Development near Major U.S. Universities
Residential developers have found footholds in university-adjacent neighborhoods, though the extent of this trend is unclear. We examine rental construction near 168 major U.S. universities with neighborhood data covering 2000 to 2018. We find that more rental units were built near larger universities with growing enrollments and limited dormitory capacity. University-adjacent rental development varied widely across urban contexts, and was most c…
From social distancing to creative social engagement: Neighbourhood factors associated with creative expression in the public realm during the Covid-19 pandemic
Creative social engagement (CSE) – creative expression in the public realm for community engagement purposes – is one form of neighbourhood activity that surged during the pandemic, when many US residents relied on their neighbourhoods for daily activities. Using regression analysis, this study examines how the neighbourhood built and social environment affected Phoenix residents’ use of streets, sidewalks, and driveways for CSE. The results show…
Political science (12 works) · Economic growth (11 works) · Economics (10 works) · Geography (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Business (7 works) · Place Attachment and Urban Studies (7 works) · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies (7 works) · Engineering (5 works) · Psychology (5 works)