MidTerm Review: Key Terms/Concepts• Public policy definition• Urban public policy definition• Federalism• Central argument Metro Revolution• New localism• Storyline of US urban development

1950-2000• Storyline of US urban development

2000 to present• Placemaking• Changing definition of streets• 3 key components of city form• Walkable urbanism• Drivable suburbanism• Futurama• 4 characteristics of US suburbs• Transportation drives development• 3 eras of US transportation policy• 3 key aspects of the favored quarter

• HOLC residential security maps• Redlining• Impact of FHA loans• Urban renewal• Legal authority for planning:

health, safety, & welfare• Key issues with single family

zoning• Complete streets

What is Urban Management and Policy?

Jan 25

“Public policy is simply what an agency or an entire network of public, private, and nonprofit organizations decides to do or not do” Denhardtand Denhardt p. 35.

Public Policy Definition

• Urban policy definition: what an agency or an entire network of public, private, and nonprofit organizations explicitly or implicitly does that “effects …patterns of social development within cities” (Florida and Jonas 1991)

• Key structures of definition: local, state, and federal government and private and non-profits

• This lets you talk about government and complex web of public/private interactions that impact “patterns of social development” and land use

Urban Policy

Metropolitan Revolution

• Federalism: term used to designate t he “system of government in which power is divided between the national government and the states”

• Background: Traditional hierarchical federalism model of cities

• “In traditional political science textbooks, the United States is portrayed neatly as a hierarchical structure—the federal government and the states on top, the cities and metropolitan areas at the bottom. The feds and the states are the adults in the system, setting direction; the cities and metropolitan areas are the children, waiting for their allowance” p. 2.

Metropolitan Revolution

Central argument:“The tectonic plates of power and responsibility are shifting. Across the nation, cities and metros are taking control of their own destinies, becoming deliberate about their economic growth. Power is devolving to the places and people who are closest to the ground and oriented toward collaborative action. This shift is changing the nature of our leadership—who our leaders are, what they do, and how they govern. The metropolitan revolution has only one logical conclusion: the inversion of the hierarchy of power in the United States.” p. 5

Discussion:Katz and Bradley argue that, “The federal and state governments are organized as a collection of hardened silos, fragmented executive agencies overseen by separate legislative committees. These agencies look down at challenges, conforming and confining the reach of solutions to the powers and resources at hand” p. 7Why does this matter? Isn’t this just the way government works?

Silos and Problems: A Mismatch

Metropolitan Policy:Key Issues

Jan 27

New Localism

• In the US, localism has grown because fed/state have mostly been absent

• Katz and Nowak (p. 21):

New Localism

• Storyline of urban development in US 1950-2000: center city decline/growth of suburbs, demographic/social/economic split of region (p. 21)

New Localism

• From about 2000 forward, however, city development pattern in US has shifted

• 2000 to present pattern:a. Center cities with access to amenities have economically reboundedb. Housing displacement in rebounding neighborhoods has become larger problemc. Some older suburban areas have seen rise in concentrated povertyd. Most suburban areas, however, still maintain favored economic status

New Localism: Placemaking

• Placemaking definition:“Placemaking is the process of creating quality places that people want to live, work, play, and learn in.” Steuteville2014 Congress for New Urbanism https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/four-types-placemaking

• Process component of placemaking vital to equity: can be exclusionary or inclusive depending on engagement

• Katz and Nowak (p. 29):

14

• Streets key city land use category representing about 30% of urban space (UN Habitat 2013)

• In the last 75 years, streets have been predominantly planned and managed to facilitate high-speed movement of cars

• This view of streets so widespread that it has been incorporated into popular definitions

Defining Streets

Feb. 1 Field Project

15

• Broader definition of streets emerging

• Focus on streets as intervening spaces that link communities together (NACTO 2017)

• Global Designing Streets Initiative defines streets as: “the basic unit of urban space through which people experience a city”

• Synthesized definition of streets: public spaces between private property that provide access for movement, public infrastructure, commerce, and public life

(RE)DEFINING STREETS

Utrecht: Croeselaan

Learning to Read the City: Key Components of City Form

Feb. 3

What Gets Built Where Matters

• City form= physical design of city; includes where buildings are placed, size of lots, and street system

• Physical design of city impacts cost of city services, environmental quality, energy use and other key dimensions of quality of life

• Defining “good” city form: form that is efficient, promotes a strong economy and environment, high quality of life, & equitable city

Reading the City: Building a Design Vocabulary

• What we just did was help you build a vocabulary to understand city form to read the city

• Key building blocks: arrangement of buildings, lots, and streets

• These form 2 overarching patterns of everyday US landscapes: walkable urbanism/drivable suburbanism

Drivable Suburban Pattern

• Highway transportation: “However, a large-scale social experiment- the result of an unofficial domestic policy at the federal, state, and local levels-fundamentally transformed the country during the late twentieth century” Leinberger p. 2.

• Def drivable suburbanism: “means that we get in our car for nearly every trip we take because the buildings are arranged in a very low density” Leinberger p. 4.

Walkable Urbanism• Def walkable urbanism: “means

that you could satisfy most everyday needs, such as school, shopping, parks, friends and even employment, within walking distance or transit from one’s home” p. 3 Leinberger.

Logan Circle DC

The World of Tomorrow

•New York City 1939 World’ Fair Exhibit Futurama sponsored by GM•“a magic Aladin-like flight through time and space…of the many wonders that may develop in the not too distant future…the wonderful world of 1960!” (Leinberger p. 16 citing exhibit)•Incredibly influential: drew 27 million visitors and has extensively covered by the press

•NEW VISION: “Futurama inspired a vision of postwar America that became the unchallenged assumption of how to construct the built environment” Leinberger p. 18

•KEY FEATURES: “The image effectively planted by Futurama…was an image of a new American Dream of one’s family living in a detached house on one’s own plot of land with increased privacy, a car to drive there, andsuperhighways to commute to work” Leineberger p. 21.

New American Dream: Drivable Suburbia

The Rise of Suburbia: Housing and Urban Administration

Feb 8

4 Unique Characteristics of U.S. Suburbs:1.Low-density2.High homeownership3.Social differentiation between suburbs

and city: suburbs wealthy/city poorer4.Long length of commute

Overview of U.S. Suburbs

Managing the Modern City

Feb 10

Transportation Drives Development

“Throughout urban history, transportation has driven development. The transportation system in which the society chooses to invest its money, either direct government dollars or government-regulated private dollars, is the primary dictator of where and how we construct the built environment” Christopher Leinberger p. 32

3 Eras of Transportation Policy

1. Interstate Era (1950s to 1991): 45,074 miles of highways constructed and codification of highway engineering practices; Conflict over urban interstates

3 Eras of Transportation Policy

2. ISTEA Era (1991 to 2005): shift from highway expansion to a more multi-modal focus. More local vision with new actors.

3 Eras of Transportation Policy

3. Complete Streets Era? (2005 to ?): Growth of new constituencies built around NMTPP & Safe Routes to School

Total Fed. Transportation Spending 1956-2010: 5.26 TrillionAT Spending 1956-2010: $.0053 Trillion AT as % of Overall Fed Transp. Funding 1956-2010: .0003%

Rise of the Favored Quarter

Favored Quarter and Racial Politics

• Race and Poverty Key Factors in Creating favored quarter•Leinberger argues that 3 factors key to “placing” the favored quarter:1. Location of high-income concentrations (generally

whites)2. Location of concentrations of poverty (generally

minorities)3. Location of Interstates

Urban Administration and Federal Policy: Housing Policy

Feb 24

What is “Federal Urban Policy”?

• Fed urban policy doesn’t exist as a unified whole• Instead, policy made up of multiple, disparate

programs• Two most important areas : transportation and

housing• Today: housing• 1rst: HOLC and FHA (Jackson chapter)• 2nd: Urban renewal

Home Ownership Loan Corporation (HOLC)

• Two other initiatives, HOLC and FHA, had “more lasting impact on the suburbanization of the United States” p. 230

• HOLC important because showed feasibility of “self-amortizing mortgage with uniform payments spread over the whole life of the debt” p. 231.

• Result was the creation of a new finance system for housing that created stability and broader option of home ownership

HOLC and Appraisal System

• HOLC also “systematized appraisal methods across the nation” p. 232

• Why is a systematic appraisal system a significant policy issue?

p. 232 and 233

Grade B-D

HOLC and Appraisal System

• “Redlining” is, thus, the practice of not granting loans to these D graded “red” areas

p. 240“Quite simply, it became cheaper to own than to rent” p. 240

Federal Housing Administration (FHA)

• Impact of FHA program significant: Increased home ownership options, restarted housing market to help end Depression with impacts mushrooming after WWII

The Politics of Slum Clearance

• In addition to HOLC and FHA programs, fed housing policy added “urban renewal” to city administration toolkit

• Urban renewal started in Housing Act of 1949

• Key legislation designed to “rebuild cities, eliminate slums and blight, and provide decent housing for the nation’s citizens” (Judd and Swanstrom p. 180).

The Politics of Slum Clearance

• Housing Act of 1949 created “urban renewal”• Urban renewal= “a federally subsidized

program of slum clearance and urban redevelopment established through the Housing Acts of 1949 and 1954” Gotham p. 269

Your Turn

• What is the significance of the FHA loan program?

• What is urban renewal?• How did they shape American

cities?• What urban administration lessons

can we draw from the impacts of these programs?

Urban Planning 101

Mar. 3

Planning Background

Legal authority of planning; 1920s rulings regarding need to manage “public health, safety, and welfare”

https://www.citylab.com/design/2019/08/zoning-ordinance-definition-history-explained-city-laws/594913/

Federal Transportation Policy History

For slide 3: http://www.texasfreeway.com/austin/historic/photos/austin_historic_photos.shtml

March 8

National Background: 3 Eras of Transportation Policy

• Downey (2007) identifies 3 eras of transportation policy over the last 50 years (era of good roads prior to 1950)

• Focuses on structures and actors associated with the succession of transportation bills

Complete Street Era?

Option 2: Complete streetsDefinition: Complete streets are roads designed for all users of all abilities

MidTerm Review: Key Terms/Concepts• Public policy definition• Urban public policy definition• Federalism• Central argument Metro Revolution• New localism• Storyline of US urban development

1950-2000• Storyline of US urban development

2000 to present• Placemaking• Changing definition of streets• 3 key components of city form• Walkable urbanism• Drivable suburbanism• Futurama• 4 characteristics of US suburbs• Transportation drives development• 3 eras of US transportation policy• 3 key aspects of the favored quarter

• HOLC residential security maps• Redlining• Impact of FHA loans• Urban renewal• Legal authority for planning:

health, safety, & welfare• Key issues with single family

zoning• Complete streets