Please note that the readings listed below each class are to be completed for that class.
Part I: Shaping Contemporary Cities
Class 1 (1/27/14) – Introductions; course mechanics and overview
Reading:
- None (first class)
Class 2 (1/29/14) – Urbanism
Film in class: The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (excerpt)
Reading:
- Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Chapter 2, “The uses of sidewalks: safety,” 29-54.*
- E.B. White, Here is New York, 25-37 and 54-56.*
Class 3 (2/3/14) – Gentrification research project
Submit your neighborhood choice to me at the beginning of class
Reading:
- Research project assignment (on Blackboard)
- Kate L. Turabian, Student’s Guide to Writing College Papers, 4th Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), Chapter 1, “What Researchers Do and How They Think about It,” 11-25.*
- “A Quick Guide to Punctuation” at http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/turabian/student/student_punctuation.pdf
Class 4 (2/5/14) – American Cities Today
Reading:
- Michael B. Katz, “What is an American City?” Dissent, Summer 2009, 19-26.*
- Thomas J. Sugrue, “The Rise and Fall of Detroit’s Middle Class,” The New Yorker, July 22, 2013: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/07/the-rise-and-fall-of-detroits-middle-class.html
Class 5 (2/10/14) – The Great Migrations
The first 20-30 minutes of the class will focus on collecting data as part of a neighborhood observation (for your assignment due 2/26)
Reading:
- Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (New York: Vintage Books, 2010), “The Great Migration, 1915-1970,” 8-15, and excerpts following Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, pp. 19-35, 95-106, 183-184, 189-192, 242-246, 267-275, 285-292, 315-319, 332-340, 371-378, 385-389, 394-398, 506-511.*
No class 2/12 or 2/17 – College is closed
Class 6 (2/19/14) – Federal Housing Policies and the New Deal
Reading:
- Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), “Federal Subsidy and the Suburban Dream: How Washington Changed the American Housing Market,” 190-218.*
Class 7 (2/24/14) – Robert Moses and Urban Renewal
Reading:
- Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (New York: Vintage, 1974), Introduction, “Wait Until the Evening,” 1-21.*
- Hilary Ballon and Kenneth T. Jackson, eds., Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New York (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2007), Hilary Ballon, “Robert Moses and Urban Renewal: The Title I Program,” 94-115.*
Class 8 (2/26/14) – Presentations on neighborhood observations (papers due)
Class 9 (3/3/14) – Research 101
Reading:
- Colin Robson, Real World Research, 3rd Edition (West Sussex, UK: Wiley, 2011), Chapter 2, “Approaches to Social Research,” 13-41.*
- Kate L. Turabian, Student’s Guide to Writing College Papers, 4th Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), Chapter 11, “Presenting Evidence in Tables and Figures,” 104-114.*
- “Turabian Quick Guide” on citations: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/turabian/turabian_citationguide.html
Class 10 (3/5/14) – Public Housing
Film in class: The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Reading:
- Lawrence J. Vale, Purging the Poorest: Public Housing and the Design Politics of Twice-Cleared Communities (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2013), Chapter 1, “Public Housing, Design Politics, and Twice-Cleared Communities,” 1-38.*
- Michael Kimmelman, “Towers of Dreams: One Ended in Nightmare, New York Times, January 26, 2012, C1: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/arts/design/penn–south–and–pruitt–igoe–starkly–different–housing–plans.html
Class 11 (3/10/14) – Community-based Housing Development in NYC
Reading:
- Frank P. Braconi, “In Re In Rem: Innovation and Expediency in New York’s Housing Policy,” in Housing and Community Development in New York City: Facing the Future, Michael H. Schill, ed. (Albany: SUNY Press, 1999), 93-118.*
- Michael Powell, “Government Can’t Help? Tell That to the South Bronx,” New York Times, July 25, 2011, A17: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/nyregion/government–cant–help–tell–it–to–the–south–bronx.html
Class 12 (3/12/14) – Homeownership and the fiscal crisis
Reading:
- Dan Immergluck, Foreclosed: High-Risk Lending, Deregulation, and the Undermining of America’s Mortgage Market (Ithaca: Cornell University, 2009), Chapter 5, “The Economic and Social Costs of High-Risk Mortgage Lending,” 133-166.*
- Watch PBS NewsHour, “Raze the Roof: Cleveland Levels Vacant Homes to Revive Neighborhoods,” July 5, 2011: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july–dec11/makingsense_07-05.html
- Catherine Dunn, “Foreclosure Crisis Fades to Black and Brown,” City Limits, August 2011: http://www.citylimits.org/news/articles/4363/foreclosure-crisis-fades-to-black-and-brown
Class 13 (3/17/14) – Presentations on Community Board observations (papers due)
Class 14 (3/19/14) – Presentation Skills and Demographic Research –
Guest Speaker: Frank Donnelly, Geospatial Data Librarian, Newman Library, Baruch College, CUNY
Reading:
- Explore www.census.gov and http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/neigh_info/nhmap.shtml and http://guides.newman.baruch.cuny.edu/nyc_data
Part II: Topical Issues in Contemporary New York City
Class 15 (3/24/14) – Homelessness
Reading:
- Ian Frazier, “Hidden City,” The New Yorker, October 28, 2013: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/10/28/131028fa_fact_frazier?currentPage=all.
- Andrea Elliott, “Invisible Child,” New York Times, December 2013 (there are 5 parts to this series; please read them all): http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/invisible-child/#/?chapt=1
Class 16 (3/26/14) – Megaprojects: Atlantic Yards
Film in Class: Battle for Brooklyn
Reading:
- Atlantic Yards Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.atlanticyards.com/faq
- Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement: http://www.atlanticyards.com/community–benefits–agreement
Class 17 (3/31/14) – Market-based Approaches to Social Services
Reading:
- David W. Chen, “Goldman to Invest in City Jail Program, Profiting if Recidivism Falls Sharply,” New York Times, August 2, 2012: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/nyregion/goldman-to-invest-in-new-york-city-jail-program.html
- MDRC, Performance-Based Scholarships: What Have We Learned? (August 2013).*
Class 18 (4/2/14) – Gentrification and Neighborhood Change
Film in Class: My Brooklyn
Reading:
- Loretta Lees, Tom Slater, and Elvin Wyly, Gentrification (New York: Routledge, 2008), Chapter 1: “The Birth of Gentrification,” pp. 3-36.*
Class 19 (4/7/14) – Group presentations on neighborhood histories, key institutions, and demographic data (papers due)
Class 20 (4/9/14) – Debrief and workshop papers and presentations
No class 4/14, 4/16, or 4/21 – Spring Recess
Part III: Gentrification in New York City
Class 21 (4/23/14) – Early Gentrification: “Brownstoners”
Reading:
- Suleiman Osman, The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn: Gentrification and the Search for Authenticity in Postwar New York (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), Chapter 6: “Inventing Brownstone Brooklyn,” 189-232.*
Class 22 (4/28/14) – The Consumption Approach
Reading:
- Lance Freeman, There Goes the ‘Hood: Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up (Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 2006), Chapter 5, “Neighborhood Effects in a Changing ‘Hood,” 125-156.*
Class 23 (4/30/14) – – The Production Approach
Reading:
- Loretta Lees, Tom Slater, and Elvin Wyly, Gentrification (New York: Routledge, 2008), Chapter 2: “Producing Gentrification,” pp. 39-85.*
Class 24 (5/5/14) — Class dry-run presentations and discussion
Class 25 (5/7/14) – – Class dry-run presentations and discussion
May 10 and 11: Seminar 4 Conference
