Neighborhood Microgrids
Replicability and Revitalization

Postindustrial cities share with other areas the challenge of the transformation to a post-carbon age. This includes the incorporation of clean energy and the dismantling/vacating of fossil-fuel infrastructure, profound impacts on the physical landscape and public acceptance at many scales. During 2015-2016, I led a study of opportunities for replicability of neighborhood microgrids (power systems) across New York state, and the potential for such microgrids to support economic revitalization efforts.

"Neighborhood Microgrids: Replicability and Revitalization" was sponsored by Syracuse Center of Excellence as a separate but related investigation to the NY Prize award assessing the feasibility of a community microgrid for Syracuse's Near Westside. The report below presents the findings of this study, including a process for identifying likely neighborhoods for replication of a model neighborhood's microgrid for revitalization, and results of this process as applied to the Near Westside. A brief executive summary precedes the full report; please click on the button to view both summary and report. A series of related articles for professional audiences is forthcoming.

Immigrant Pastoral
Midwestern Landscapes and Mexican-American Neighborhoods

Immigrant Pastoral examines the growth of new Mexican heritage communities in the Midwest through the physical form of their cities and neighborhoods.

The landscapes of these New Communities contrast with nearby small cities that are home to longstanding Mexican-American communities, where different landscapes reveal a history of inequality of opportunity. Together these two landscape types illustrate how inequality can persist or abate through comprehensive descriptions of the three main types of Midwestern Mexican-American landscapes: Established Communities, New Communities, and Mixed Communities. Each is described in spatial and non-spatial terms, with a focus on one example city.

Specific directives about design and planning work in each landscape type follow these descriptions, presented in case studies of hypothetical landscape architectural projects. Subsequent chapters discuss less common Midwestern Mexican-American landscape types and their opportunities for design and planning, and implications for other immigrant communities in other places.

This story of places shaped by immigrants new and old, and the reactions of other residents to their arrival is critical to the future of all cities, towns, and neighborhoods striving to weather the economic transformations and demographic shifts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The challenges facing these cities demand the recognition and appreciation of their multicultural assets, in order to craft a bright and inclusive future.
Immigrant Pastoral: 
Midwestern Landscapes and Mexican-American Neighborhoods
Paperback edition now available!
Also available in library hardcover edition and e-book
A full-length monograph from the Routledge Research in Landscape and Environmental Design series.

Available from Routledge and Amazon.
​Published papers

Hazer, Meghan*, Margaret K. Formica, Susan Dieterlen and Christopher P. Morley (2017). "The Relationship between Self-Reported Exposure to Greenspace and Human Stress in Baltimore, MD." Landscape and Urban Planning 169: 47-56.
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​Holtan, Meghan *, Susan Dieterlen and William C. Sullivan. (2014)  “Social life under cover: Tree canopy coverage and neighborhood social capital in Baltimore, MD.” Environment and Behavior DOI:  10.1177/0013916513518064.
Published papers
Dieterlen, Susan. (2012). "The Workers' Camp versus Main Street: Then and Now in the Mexican-American Neighborhoods of the Non-Metro Midwest." Journal of Urbanism 5(2/3): 171-191.
(Note: Content in both full text versions below is the same. Formatting varies between the open access (post-print) version and the journal's final published version.)
Dieterlen, Susan. (2014). “Hidden in Plain Sight: Latina/o Landscape Types in the Midwest.” Journal of Urbanism, DOI:10.1080/17549175.2013.875055 (print version forthcoming in 2014).
(Note: Content in both full text versions below is the same. Formatting varies between the open access (post-print) version and the journal's final published version.)