Chester Rapkin Award for the Best Paper in JPER

The Chester Rapkin Award for the Best Paper in the Journal of Planning Education and Research has been awarded annually since 1998. This award carries a cash grant total of $1000 provided to the author(s) of the article.

The award was founded for JPER of ACSP by the co-editors, Lew Hopkins and Gill-Chin Lim, in honor of Professor Rapkin at his retirement.

Winners will be introduced at the ACSP Annual Conference Awards Ceremony. Profiles and media announcements of winners and their accomplishments will follow the conference.

Nomination

All papers published in JPER are automatically considered. There is no application or nomination process.

Committee
Members of the award committee are appointed by the editors of the journal.

Chair: Francis Owusu, Iowa State University, fowusu@iastate.edu
Susan Handy, UC Davis, slhandy@ucdavis.edu
John Gaber, Clemson University; jgaber@clemson.edu

Contributions toward the Endowment

This award carries a cash grant total of $1000 shared between authors and supported by an endowment at the University of Illinois Foundation in Urbana. Persons wishing to contribute to this endowment may send checks, noting contribution to the Chester Rapkin Fund, payable to the University of Illinois Foundation. Send contributions directly to:

Prof. Lewis Hopkins
Department of Urban and Regional Planning
University of Illinois
111 Buell Hall MC619
Champaign, IL 61820

Biography of Chester Rapkin (1918-2001) 

As a distinguished educator, Chester Rapkin mentored 70 doctoral and numerous master students at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia and Princeton. As a pioneering researcher, he authored 15 books and monographs and more than 100 professional articles, plans and reports. Dr. Rapkin was the Executive Director of the White House task force that proposed the Model Cities Program under President Lyndon B. Johnson. From 1969 to 1977 he served on the New York City Planning Commission under Mayors John Lindsay and Abraham Beame.

Past Award Winners

• 2024 Megan E. Heim LaFrombois, Auburn University; Yunmi Park, Seoul National University; and Daniel Yurcaba, Auburn University, How U.S. Shrinking Cities Plan for Change: Comparing Population Projections and Planning Strategies in Depopulating U.S. Cities (JPER Volume 43, Issue 1)
  
• 2023 Dan Milz, University of Hawaii at Manoa, The Hidden Benefits of Facilitated Dialogue (JPER Volume 42, Issue 1).
• 2022 Robert Beauregard, Columbia University, "The Entanglements of Uncertainty" (JPER Vol 41, No 2)
• 2021 Dalbyul Lee, Dong-eui University, "The Impact of Natural Disasters on Neighborhood Poverty Rate: A Neighborhood Change"  (JPER Volume 40 (4)
• 2020 Menghan Li and Jinhua Zhao, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Gaining Acceptance by Informing the People? Public Knowledge, Attitudes, and Acceptance of Transportation Policies" (JPER Volume 39(2) pages 166-183)
• 2019 Lei Zhang, Renmin University of China; Michael Hibbard, University of Oregon; Rachel Tochen, formerly of Renmin University of China; Zhenghong Tang, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, "The Role of Local Leaders in Environmental Concerns in Master Plans: An Empirical Study of China's Eighty Large Municipalities." (JPER  Volume 38, Issue 3)
• 2018 Eric Morris, Clemson University, and Deirdre Pfeifer, Arizona State University, "Who Really Bowls Alone? Cities, Suburbs, and Social Time in the United States (JPER Volume 37, Issue 2, June 2017)
• 2017 Genevieve Giuliano and Sandip Chakrabarti, University of Southern California, Mohja Rhoads, South Bay Cities Council of Governments, Using Regional Archived Multimodal Transportation System Data for Policy Analysis: A Case Study of the LA Metro Line. JPER Volume 36, Issue 2, Pages 195-209 
• 2016 Carolina Sarmiento and J. Revel Sims, University of Wisconsin-Madison, "Facades of Equitable Development: Santa Ana and the Affordable Housing Complex." JPER v35, #3
  
• 2015 Tridib Banerjee, University of Southern California; Jung A. Uhm, Southern California Association of Governments; and Deepak Bahl, University of Southern California for "Walking to School: The Experience of Children in Inner City Los Angeles and Implications for Policy" JPER v34
• 2014 Gerardo Francisco Sandoval, University of Oregon, "Shadow Transnationalism: Cross-Border Networks and Planning Challenges of Transnational Unauthorized Immigrant Communities" JPER v.33
• 2013 Bill Lester, University of North Carolina, "Labor Standards and Local Economic Development: Do Living Wage Provisions Harm Economic Growth?" JPER v.32
• 2012 Hilary Schaffer Boudet, Oregon State University and Leonard Ortolano, Stanford University, "A Tale of Two Sitings: Contentious Politics in Liquefied Naturl Gas Facility Siting in California" JPER v.30; and Kathryn S. Quick, University of Minnesota and Martha S. Feldman, University of California, Irvine, "Distinguishing Participation and Inclusion" JPER v.31
• 2011 No winner
• 2010 Joe Grengs, University of Michigan; Jonathan Levine, University of Michigan; Qing Shen, University of Washington; Qingyun Shen, University of Michigan, "Intermetropolitan Comparison of Transportation Accessibility: Sorting Out Mobility and Proximity in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., JPER v29
• 2009 Donald Shoup, University of California Los Angeles, "Graduated Density Zoning" JPER v28
• 2008 Emily Talen, School of Geographical Sciences and School of Planning, Arizona State University, “New Urbanism, Social Equity, and the Challenge of Post-Katrina Rebuilding in Mississippi,” JPER v.27; Honorable Mention - Sukumar Ganapati, School of Public Administration, University of South Florida; Honorable Mention - Vikas Mehta, School of Architecture and Community Design, University of South Florida; Honorable Mention - Stephen M. Wheeler, Landscape Architecture Program, University of California at Davis
• 2007 Matti Siemiatycki, University of British Columbia, “Implications of Private-Public Partnerships on the Development of Urban Public Transit Infrastructure: The Case of Vancouver, Canada”
• 2006 Andrejs Skaburskis, Queen’s University, “New Urbanism and Sprawl-A Toronto Case Study”
• 2005 Robert H. Thompson, University of Rhode Island, “Overcoming Barriers to Ecologically-Sensitive Land Management: Green Developments and the Development of a Land Ethic”
• 2004 Jeffrey Brown, Florida State University; Daniel Baldwin Hess, University of Buffalo; and Donald Shoup, University of California, Los Angeles, “Fare-Free Public Transit at Universities: An Evaluation”
• 2003 Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, University of Southern California; Robin Liggett, University of California, Los Angeles; and Hiroyuki Iseki, University of California, Los Angeles
• 2002 Karen Umemoto, University of Hawai at Manoa
• 2001 Robyne S. Turner and Margaret S. Murray, Florida Atlantic University
• 2000 Patsy Healey, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
• 1999 Subhrajit Guhathakurta, Arizona State University
• 1998 Jack Byers, University of Minnesota
• 1997 Lawrence Vale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 1996 Kenneth Temkin and William Rohe, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 1995 Insung Lee, Sang- Myung University, Korea; and Lewis D. Hopkins, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• 1994 Howell S. Baum, University of Maryland at College Park; Honorable Mention: Eric J. Heikkila, University of Southern California, and Mark Griffin, University of San Francisco
• 1993 Karen S. Christensen, University of California, Berkeley
• 1992 Catherine Hill, Rutgers University, Sabina Dietrick, University of Pittsburgh, and Ann Markusen, Rutgers University
• 1991 Gerrit Knaap, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Honorable Mention: Thomas L. Harper and Stanley M. Stein, University of Calgary
• 1990 John M. Bryson, Philip Bromley, University of Minnesota, and Yoon Soo Jung, University of Pennsylvania; Honorable Mention: Linda C. Dalton, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
• 1989 Bish Sanyal, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 1988 Ann R. Markusen, Northwestern University
• 1987 Janice Perlman, New York Academy of Sciences