Ahmad Bonakdar

• PhD in Urban Planning and Public Policy
• Senior Director of Research, Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Demonstration Projects at York University

Through a critical reading of city branding theories and practices, this article identifies a nexus between city branding and urban planning related to master planning and placemaking. It brings attention to the challenges facing city branding including asymmetrical political processes, social inequity, tokenism, and gentrification. While city bran...

The long-standing presence of structural-level factors that contribute to homelessness, such as poverty, unemployment, widening income disparities, colonialism, discrimination, and a shortage of affordable housing, has significantly perpetuated cycles of inequity for individuals experiencing homelessness. Recognizing homelessness as a manifestation...

Youth homelessness presents a complex and persistent challenge worldwide, particularly affecting young adults between 16 and 24 years of age in the US and Canada. This population faces elevated risks of exploitation, victimization, and various health issues upon detachment from familial support structures. Understanding the multi-faceted nature of...

Background Emerging evidence at the international level suggests that the Housing First approach could improve the housing stability of young people experiencing homelessness. However, there is a dearth of literature in Canada on whether the Housing First intervention for young people experiencing homelessness can improve outcomes including housing...

Following the established body of evidence-based research on the Housing First approach, also known as the Pathways model, many studies in Canada have focused on evaluating its effectiveness, particularly among adults experiencing homelessness

One cross-sector approach to addressing youth homelessness that has gained traction in recent years across Canada is Upstream Canada. As an example of social innovation in action, Upstream Canada is an early preventive approach that offers support to youth aged 12 to 16 years who might be at risk of homelessness and school disengagement. Using a un...

This discussion paper focuses on “reflective practice” as conceptualized by Donald Schön with its particular application in homelessness research and practice. Reflective practices are slowly gaining ground among scholars and practitioners engaged in the homelessness sector since the onset of the pandemic where increasing reliance on tele-mediated...

Increasing investment in attracting creative clusters has become a quintessentially common practice at the municipal level, particularly in progressive cities, which have long been concerned with economic development. While rationales behind such investments are highly contingent on the potential economic outcomes of creative clusters, a thorough u...

Drawing on notions of the symbolic economy and urban imaginary as an inherent dimension of the neoliberal public sphere, this paper examines historicized city plans and their visions, and develops a framework for understanding the role of city plans in shaping urban imaginaries and branded spaces. The paper claims that future city visions, fundamen...

This study examines how the voluntary nature of local membership in transportation agencies can impact resource allocation, drawing on details from a major US transit agency in a state that lets cities opt in or out of transit agency membership. This study finds significant correlation between local opt-outs and transit service using national data....

Urban design qualities have the potential to contribute to the sense of safety, comfort, engagement, and overall neighborhood satisfaction perceived by residents, thus can be related to higher property values. Yet, many of these urban design qualities are highly conceptual, require extensive data collection and are subject to various interpretation...

A central feature of the digital age and the network society is the emergence of social media as a game-changer in the landscapes of networked power of mass-self communication (Castells, 2013) and crowd cultures (Holt 2016). Social media has become a powerful wheel of social change, shaping the urban experience (Zukin, 2009) and augmenting or level...

Innovation has become a key driver of economic growth, benefitting from knowledge production and technological advancements. Existing literature on the geography of innovation examines agglomeration economies, density, and the diversity of knowledge intensive firms, yet often overlooks the role of urban form. Generally, compact urban form, as oppos...

Creative industries have gained increasing attention in light of the cultural economy as viable magnets for local and regional economic development. Policy makers thus would benefit from attracting creative industries as potential economic boosters. However, it is hard to target such catalyst industries without better knowledge of the urban form co...

Urban design qualities offer many benefits such as enhancing the visual aesthetics of streets and creating a memorable civic image of shared urban spaces. Urban design qualities also affect the level of pedestrian activity and the overall accessibility to urban amenities, thus could potentially be associated with property values. While these qualit...

This paper explores the connection between local autonomy and inequitable transit service distribution. The authors use a mixed methods approach, first analyzing fine grained data in the Dallas region to compare levels of accessibility across space. The authors then examine the policy decisions that led to inequitable distribution of financial reso...

Creative industries have gained increasing attention in light of creative economy as viable magnets for economic development in cities and communities. The value of creative industries’ production in the U.S in 2014 was 4.2% of the national gross domestic product, which contributed more to the national economy than did construction, mining, utiliti...

City branding has recently gained much attention in the planning literature, as a competitive strategy for local governments to project a positive image of their jurisdictions, hoping to attract business investment and promote economic growth (Ashworth & Kavaratzis, 2009). Anchored in neoliberal policies, the growth paradigm (Logan & Molotch, 1987)...

City branding has received widespread attention in academic literature, underscoring its significance for cities in gaining a competitive edge in the global, neoliberal economy. Local governments increasingly apply branding strategies to their jurisdictions in the hope of attracting business investments and promoting local economic growth. Despite...

This study examines five metro areas in the US that have developed regional transportation systems using funding from multi-jurisdictional ballot referendums. This study focuses on the role of advocacy groups in contributing to the proposal given to the electorate, and in supporting or opposing it at the polls. This study examines how best practice...