Presentations: You will briefly
present an urban policy issue, You are encouraged but not
required to find intersections between course themes and your research
interests. Your presentation should include a brief summary of major themes,
engage the themes critically, and connect the readings to other content from
the course and from the discussions we have along the way.
This class investigates urban politics
in the United States-– especially by looking at political economy, which is the
study of how politics (who gets what, when and how, quoting Harold Laswell)
affect the economy (colloquially, how scarce resources– especially get
allocated, or capital $$ accumulated), and how the economy in turn shapes
politics. It gives an overview of key trends and forces in the development of
cities in the US, institutional relations of cities and suburbs with other
jurisdictions of government, and major tensions and challenges facing cities,
such as those regarding public education, affordable housing and
gentrification, and community safety. Along the way, we consider how contested
theories and policies like “racial hygiene,” redlining, high modernism, and
broken windows shape the built environments around us, and it examines key
dimensions and tensions in contemporary city governance. We will cover both
historical and theoretical perspectives of politics in urban areas.
Throughout, we pay particular attention
to issues of segregation and (in)equity in cities– What helps to explain how
and why cities and metropolitan areas look the way they do? Who is this city
built for? Who benefits from this arrangement? And how might we work towards
more just cities?
Class readings
1. Coalition
to Finally End Mayoral Control: check out website & executive summary
2. LeGates & Stout, The City Reader, Jane Jacobs, “The
uses of a sidewalk,” beginning on page 149
3. Robert
Moses! Jane Jacobs! Robert Moses! Jane Jacobs! | Online Only | n+1 | Samuel
Stein
4. Judd
& Hinze, City Politics, Chapter 1-7
5. LeGates
& Stout, The City Reader, WEB DuBois, excerpts
on Philadelphia, beginning on page 124
Main Source:
“Homes Are Vanishing From NYC’s Wealthiest Neighborhoods, And It’s Worse Than We Thought”
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/homes-are-vanishing-from-nycs-wealthiest-neighborhoods-unit-combinations#:~:text=Kathy%20Hochul%20and%20Mayor%20Eric,of%20which%20have%20gone%20unreported.