SUP-601: Urban Politics, Planning, and Development

Semester: Fall

Credit: 1.0

Faculty: Quinton Mayne

Schedule

Day Time Location
First Day 9/6
Meet Day M/W 11:40 AM - 1:00 PM LAND
Review F 8:40 AM - 10:00 AM T301

Description

Examines the politics of urban planning, land use and 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 in global context and with attention to international comparisons. Policy topics include land use planning; zoning; infrastructure investment; downtown revitalization; public-private partnerships; 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 capitalism, planning, and democracy.

Also offered by the Graduate School of Design as GSD 5201.