HUT-201 A: Urban Politics, Planning, and Development

Semester: Fall

Credit: 1.0

Syllabus: Click here for syllabus

Faculty: Alan Altshuler

Schedule

Day Time Location
First Day 9/15
Meet Day M/W 11:40 AM - 1:00 PM L130
Review F 11:40 AM - 1:00 PM T301

Description

Examines the politics of urban planning, land use, environmental regulation, and economic development.  Principal aim is to help students think strategically about the role of governance – and the group conflicts that swirl around it – in shaping the physical, social, and economic character of urban places.  Focuses mainly on U.S. experience, but with some attention to international comparisons.  Policy topics include land use planning; zoning; infrastructure investment; downtown revitalization; public-private partnerships for economic development; and efforts to move from urban sprawl to “smart growth.”  Cross-cutting topics include: comparisons of U.S. patterns of urban planning and development with those in selected other countries; the causes and consequences of sprawl and racial-class segregation in U.S. metropolitan areas; business-government relations; and contending theories about the balance of forces in U.S. urban politics. 

Emphasis placed throughout on the special roles of business and of grass-roots democracy in U.S. urban governance, and on tensions between the values of economic development, citizen participation, and equity.

Also offered by the Graduate School of Design as GSD-5201A & B.