Readings, Topics, Assignments

Class Mode Legend

IP = In Person OL = Online

Introduction to Open Educational Resource

All CUNY members have free access to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

For the NY Times: Anyone who initiates an account will have an active subscription for one year from the date she/he creates the account. If you already have an annual subscription to the NYTimes, you can cancel it and will receive a refund. However, if you only have a monthly subscription, the New York Times will not issue a refund for that month.


Reading #1:

Policy Issues in New York City

Reading #2:

How Los Angeles Works (or does not)

NYC Government – “Official Website of the City of New York”

Reading #3:

Assignments Due:

  1. Questionnaire
  2. Where Am I?
  3. Journal #1 – posted on Blackboard

Borough Government

  1. Reading #1: NYCMap360: https://nycmap360.com/nyc-boroughs-map
  2. Reading #2: Office of the Brooklyn Borough President https://www.brooklynbp.nyc.gov/
  3. Reading #3: Manhattan Borough President https://www.manhattanbp.nyc.gov/
  4. Reading #4: What does our office do? Scroll down on https://www.manhattanbp.nyc.gov/about-mbpo/
  5. Reading #5: How do the boroughs, and borough presidents fit it? https://www.nyc.gov/nyc-resources/about-the-city-of-new-york.page

Borough Government cont.

Reading #1:

Reading #2:

  • Office of Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, in partnership with the Regional Plan Association, the New York Academy of Medicine, and Hester Street. (October 2023) The Comprehensive Plan for Brooklyn https://www.brooklynbp.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Comprehensive_Plan.pdf

New York City Council

  1. Reading #1: NYC Council https://council.nyc.gov/
  2. Reading #2: What We Do: https://council.nyc.gov/about/
  3. Reading #3:Planning and Land Use Guidelines & Application Toolkithttps://council.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Speaker-Land_Use_Guidelines_Report-121522.pdf

NYC Public Advocate

NYC Comptroller

Community Boards

  1. Reading #1: Find your Community Board & read the website: https://www.nyc.gov/site/communityboards/index.page
  2. Reading #2: The Future of New York City’s Community Boards https://www.nyc.gov/assets/communityboards/downloads/FINAL-Future-of-CBs-Report.pdf

Policy Issue: Land Use, I

  1. Reading #1: Department of City Planning: https://www.nyc.gov/site/planning/about/department.page
  2. Reading #2: City of Yes: https://www.nyc.gov/site/planning/plans/city-of-yes/city-of-yes-overview.page

Policy Issue: Land Use, II

  1. Reading #1: ULURP: https://www.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/applicants/applicant-portal/lur.pdf
  2. Reading #2: Community Board #14 (the C.B. that includes Brooklyn College) works and interacts with the following city agencies. Choose two of the following to review and be prepared to report on your findings:

“Urban” Reconsidered

Reading #1:

  • Davidson, M., & Deborah, M. (2014). Thinking critically about urban politics. In M. Davidson, D. Martin (Eds.) Thinking critically about urban politics (pp. 1-13). SAGE Publications, Ltd, [off-campus login]

Theorizing “Urban” Politics

Reading #1:

New Urbanism

Reading #1:

Davidson, M., & Martin, D. (2014). Is Class Relevant to Urban Politics? In Urban Politics: Critical Approaches (pp. 189–205). SAGE Publications, Ltd. [off-campus login]

Reading #2:

Grant, J. (2006). New Urbanism is Born: The American Experience In Planning the Good Community : New Urbanism in Theory and Practice (pp. 107–130) Taylor & Francis Group, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, [off-campus login]

Neo-Liberal City, 1

Reading #1:

Judd, D. R., McKenzie, E., & Alexander, A. (Eds.). (2021). Introduction: Shadow Governments and the Remaking of the American Local State In Private metropolis : the eclipse of local democratic governance (First edition.). University of Minnesota Press. ProQuest Ebook Central, [off-campus login]

Neo-Liberal City, 2

  1. Reading 1: James Smith, “City-building capacity and special-purpose authorities : institutions, interests, and the local state” In Private metropolis : the eclipse of local democratic governance (First edition.). University of Minnesota Press. ProQuest Ebook Central, [off-campus login]
  2. Reading 2: Steven P. Erie, Scott MacKenzie, and Jameson W. Doig, “Transportation empires in the New York and Los Angeles regions : from the old to the new politics of governance and development” In Private metropolis : the eclipse of local democratic governance (First edition.). University of Minnesota Press. ProQuest Ebook Central, [off-campus login]
  3. Reading 3: Hackworth, J. (2002). Local autonomy, bond-rating agencies and neoliberal urbanism in the United States. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 26(4), 707–725. [off-campus login]

Municipal Socialism

  1. Reading #1: Booth, D. E. (1985). Municipal Socialism and City Government Reform: The Milwaukee Experience, 1910-1940. Journal of Urban History, 12(1), 51–74. [off-campus login]
  2. Reading #2: Vassallo, Justin H., The World That Municipal Socialists Built, Dissent Magazine, Fall 2023, [free access]

New Municipalism

Urban Regime

Urban Growth Machine

  • Reading #1: Molotch, Harvey . “Urban Growth Machine”. In obo in Sociology. 6 [no full-text access]

Readings:

  1. Preface,
  2. Chapter 1, “Whither Urban Studies?”
  3. Chapter 2: “Old Urban Questions Revisited (and Reconstituted”
  4. Chapter 3: “Cities Under Tension”

In Merrifield, Andy. The New Urban Question, Pluto Press, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, [off-campus login]

Readings:

  1. Foreword: So What’s Community Planning?,
  2. Preface
  3. Chapter 1: “Community Planning without Displacement: Strategies for Progressive Planning”

In Angotti, Tom. New York for Sale : Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, MIT Press, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, [off-campus login]

Readings:

  1. Chapter 7, “Community Planning for the Few”
  2. Chapter 8, “Progressive Directions for Community Planners”

In Angotti, Tom. New York for Sale : Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, MIT Press, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, [off-campus login]

Reading 1:

Right to the City: https://www.right2city.org/the-right-to-the-city/

Reading 2:

Chapter 6, The Right to the City and the Production of Differential Space,” in Butler, Chris. Henri Lefebvre : Spatial Politics, Everyday Life and the Right to the City, Taylor & Francis Group, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, [off-campus login]

Readings:

  1. Preface: Henri Lefebvre’s Vision
  2. Chapter 1, “The Right to the City”

In Harvey, David. Intro. In Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. E-book, London: Verso, 2013 [off-campus login]

Readings:

  1. Chapter 2, “The Urban Roots of Capitalist Crises”
  2. Chapter 3, “The Creation of the Urban Commons,”
  3. Chapter 4, “The Art of Rent”

In Harvey, David. Intro. In Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. E-book, London: Verso, 2013 [off-campus login]

Readings:

  1. Chapter 5, “Reclaiming the City for Anti-Capitalist Struggle,”

In Harvey, David. Intro. In Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. E-book, London: Verso, 2013 [off-campus login]

Readings:

  1. Chapter 6, “London 2011: Feral Capitalism Hits the Streets”
  2. Chapter 7, “#OWS: The Party of Wall Street Meets Its Nemesis”

In Harvey, David. Intro. In Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. E-book, London: Verso, 2013 [off-campus login]

Readings:

  1. Introduction

In Darling, J., & Bauder, H. (Eds.). (2019). Sanctuary cities and urban struggles : Rescaling migration, citizenship, and rights. Manchester University Press. ProQuest Ebook Central,