BIO

Cameron Mullin is a first-year student at Florida State University. He is studying Finance, and hopes to one day work in private equity. He is a member of the Presidential Scholars Program at FSU, which participates in ongoing service projects relating to food insecurity on college campuses, as well as K-12 education and homelessness. Aside from finance, Cameron's academic interests include psychology and computer science. During the 2021-2022 school year, Cameron participated in research exploring the sustainability of the development of CollegeTown, located right down the street in Tallahassee. His research focused on the level of equity that was preserved or promoted throughout the development of CollegeTown from. Moving forward, Cameron would like to focus on the economic effects that the College Town/Gaines Street development has had on the local Tallahassee community. Outside of school, Cameron enjoys reading, golfing, fishing, playing the guitar, and spending time with his family and dog, Duke.

The Sustainable Development of CollegeTown

Abstract

Cities are looking towards sustainable development practices to minimize environmental externalities associated with growth. Due to increased public awareness of environmental issues, researchers have assessed the potential impacts of projects through the three E’s of sustainable development: Environment, Economy, and Equity. These metrics are vital to the sustainability of projects, scholars suggest that a balance may not be achievable as tradeoffs inherently exist between the three E’s. This research focuses on a 2012 urban revitalization project; CollegeTown in Tallahassee, Florida located between two major universities. This research asks: How sustainable is the recent CollegeTown development based on the three E’s? The researchers used Geographic Information Systems to analyze a decade of parcel level data in combination with Environmental metrics from Google's Project Solar, real estate information from the property appraiser’s office, and Equity data on demographic characteristics and income distributions from the U.S. Census. Research suggests implementing solar energy in CollegeTown would reduce carbon emissions by 7.3 metric tons, enhancing air quality and decreasing CollegeTown’s greenhouse gasses. Total property values have nearly doubled, from $489 million in 2006 to $861 million in 2019. In terms of equity, only 7% of households in CollegeTown experienced income levels greater than $35,000 per household and a median of $8,319 in 2010. By 2019, this figure had grown to 20.5%, median household incomes growing to $11,511. Future development strategies should aim to increase the level of equity in the CollegeTown area.

Keywords: Sustainability, Development, Demographics