Markets, Design, and the City Course Syllabus URPL-GP 2619 001 Markets, Design and the City. Alain Bertaud with Adam Gleicher Spring 2018, Wednesday: 6:45PM 9:35 PM Marron Institute, 60 Fifth Avenue, 2 nd Floor Content Cities today drive the world economy: they contain just over half of the world's population but generate over 80% of the world's GDP. Cities create this value by being dynamic environments where people and ideas can come together and mix in unplanned, spontaneous ways. Despite the critical role for city leaders in supporting this dynamism, those leaders too often do not understand the role of the market in urban areas. Instead, urban planning often remains one of the last vestiges of the of 20th century Soviet-style central planning, imposing untold costs on cities and their residents. Planners too often try to micromanage land use while neglecting the design and development of infrastructure, which markets alone cannot provide. This class, based on Alain Bertaud's forthcoming book, Order Without Design, will examine the critical role of the market in cities, show how the popular urban planning and policy approach usually ignores the market, harming cities, and explore how a proper understanding of the market can be incorporated into city planning, management, and policy to improve the success of cities. Subject areas will include urban labor markets, urban spatial structures, land prices, population densities, mobility and transport, and housing affordability. The course is open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates from all disciplines. Requirements This is a seminar-style, discussion heavy course. Your participation and substantial contribution to class discussion is a critical component of your learning as well as that of your fellow students (and instructors!). You will need to come to class having completed the reading and ready to discuss it in depth. There will also be short writing assignments due before the start of each class. The quality, not the quantity, of your participation will contribute to your participation and professionalism score. Listening intently and not attempting to dominate discussions are important components of this quality score. Electronics should not be used during class, unless otherwise noted. This includes computers, tablets, and phones. Students will also be required to write a course paper on a topic of their own choosing. This will be due at the end of the semester. Additionally, status assignments (such as topic ideas, a list of references, or an outline) will be due throughout the course.
Grading Course grades will be determined according to the elements below. Some standards for grading are indicated, though others may also apply (e.g., assignments must be turned in on time). 10%: Class Participation and Professionalism Do you come to class attentive and engaged? Do you ask questions that indicate that you have carefully read assigned texts? 25%: Weekly Reading Assignments These assignments will mostly open-ended discussion questions. They will be due before the class each week so that they can be reviewed prior to class. The 25% grade portion will be equally divided among the 12 reading assignments. Do your responses indicate that you are thinking deeply about the assigned texts? 25%: Assignments Contributing to Final Course Paper 3 ideas for a course paper: ideas should be applications of course concepts to a realworld planning issue that can be successfully analyzed in the available time. The topics should be sufficiently novel that their successful completion would increase societal knowledge, not be a rote repetition of existing knowledge. References for the course paper: references should convince that enough information already exists on your chosen topic such that the project can be successfully completed Outline for the course paper: should present an organized and compelling approach to presenting your course paper Alain will provide feedback after assignments, including some meeting sessions, to comment on progress and suggest direction and next steps for the paper. The 25% grade portion will be equally divided among the 3 assignments. Do your contributing assignments (topic proposals, sources for one proposal, and paper outline) indicate that you are able to apply course concepts to a new problem? Do your assignments mark steady progress toward a successful course paper? 40%: Final Course Paper Final paper will be reviewed and suggestions for revisions will be given. 10% of the final paper grade will be for the first draft, 30% will be for the post-revision draft. Excellent first drafts that do not require revisions will account for the full 40% of the course paper grade. How well have you analyzed your chosen topic? Do you correctly and completely apply course concepts? Does your paper explore its subject with depth and detail? Do you present a fully developed and supported conclusion to the subject?
Schedule Class 1 (1/24): Understanding and Managing Cities: 1- Economists Vs. Urban Planners 1. Le Corbusier, City of tomorrow and its planning, 1929 (dover edition 1987) Part III: A concrete case, The Centre of Paris 2. The Athens Charter, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/athens_charter 3. Friedrich A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty, Chapter 22 Housing and Town Planning 4. Edward Glaeser, Economic Growth and Urban Density: A Review Essay, Working papers in Economics E-94-7, Hoover Institution, 1994 Class 2 (01/31): Cities as Labor Markets 1. Jan K. Brueckner, 2011, Lectures on Urban Economics, Chapter 1, Why cities Exist 2. Rémy Prud homme & Chang-Woon Lee -- Size, Sprawl, Speed And The Efficiency Of Cities, 1998, OEIL Observatoire de l'économie et des Institutions Locales IUP Université de Paris XII, http://www.rprudhomme.com/resources/prud$27homme+$26+lee+1999.pdf Class 3 (2/07): The Formation of Urban Spatial Structures: 1 Markets vs. Design 1. Alain Bertaud and Stephen Malpezzi, -- Measuring the Costs and Benefits of Urban Land Use Regulation: A Simple Model with an Application to Malaysia, Journal of Housing Economics 10, 393 418 (2001) Class 4 (2/14): The Formation of Urban Spatial Structures: 2 A Simple Model Linking Markets and Design Indicators 1. Jan K. Brueckner, The Economics of urban sprawl: Theory and Evidence on the Spatial Sizes of Cities, The review of Economics and Statistics, Volume 65, Issue 3 (Aug, 1983) 479-482 2. Daniel T. McGrath, More evidence on the spatial scale of cities, Journal of Urban Economics 58 (2005) 1 10 Class 5 (2/21): The Spatial Distribution of Land Prices and Densities: Part 1 The Models Developed By Economists 1. Allan W. Evans, 2004, Economics and Land Use Planning, Chapter 7, Planning and the land market. Class 6 (2/28): The Spatial Distribution of Land Prices and Densities: Part 2 A Concrete Application of the Standard Urban Model: Hanoi s Master Plan 1. http://alainbertaud.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ab_chapter-10_transport-hanoi- _graph_aug_28_2013_final_kkb.pdf 2. Hanoi Master Plan: http://www.perkinseastman.com/project_3407114_hanoi_capital_construction_master_pla n_to_2030_and_vision_to_2050 3. Mumbai master plan 2010 : http://www.surbana.com/mumbai-metropolitan-regionconcept-plan/# download plan itself from https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26171541/mmr%20concept%20plan%20sept2011.pd f
Class 7 (3/07): Mobility Part I: Mobility and labor markets 1. http://alainbertaud.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/ab_clearing_the_air_in- Atlanta_1.pdf Class 8 (3/28): Mobility Part II: Transport Systems: comparative performance, speed, capacity, pollution and GHG emissions. 1. Don Pickrell, Transportation and land use Chapter 12, in Essays in Transportation Economics and Policy, edited by Jose Gomez-Ibanez, William Tye and Clifford Winston Class 9 (4/4): Affordability Part I: Households Income, Regulations, And Land Supply 1. Jan K. Brueckner, 2011, Lectures on Urban Economics, Chapter 7 Housing Policy 2. Steve Malpezzi Rutgers blog Stocks, flows and the impact of housing prices on CPI and inflation August 17, 2017, http://www.rutgersrealestate.com/blog-re/housing-prices-the-insand-outs/ Class 10 (4/11): Affordability Part 2: Households Income, Regulations, And Land Supply 1. Stephen Malpezzi Rutgers blog Will inclusionary zoning (IZ) help solve our affordability problems? May 11, 2017 http://www.rutgersrealestate.com/blog-re/a-higher-level-lookat-iz/ 2. Solly Angel, Housing Policy Matters, Chapter III section 17, page 232-249, House Price, Rent, and Affordability, 2000, Oxford University Press Class 11 (4/18): Should Planners Try To Change The Shape Of Cities?: 1 - Design Through Regulations and Utopian cities 1. Dona J. Stewart, Cities in the Desert: The Egyptian New-Town Program, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 86(3), 1996, pp. 459-480 (compare this 1996 proposal to Google Earth Imagery of the same area in 2015) 2. Alain Bertaud, The cost of Utopia http://alainbertaud.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/06/ab_the-costs-of-utopia_bjm4b.pdf 3. Alain Bertaud, Brasilia Spatial Structure: http://alainbertaud.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/06/ab_brasilia_2010_20_august_1.pdf 4. Yan Song and Gerrit-Jan Knaap, New urbanism and housing values: a disaggregate assessment, Journal of Urban Economics 54 (2003) 218 238 Class 12 (4/25): The Role Of Urban Planners Is Important But They Are Not Playing It Yet 1. Mark Delucchi and Ken Kurani, How to Have Sustainable Transportation without Making People Drive Less or Give Up Suburban Living, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, UCD-ITS-RR-02-08, October 2010
2. Peter Gordon, Sustainability Planning: First, Do No Harm, University of Southern California, Property Management, Vol. 24 No. 2, 2006, pp. 132-143, Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0263-7472 3. Peter Gordon, Thinking About Economic Growth: Cities, Networks, Creativity And Supply Chains For Ideas -- Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, http://lusk.usc.edu/sites/default/files/working_papers/thinking_about_growth_w P.pdf Term Paper Deadlines February 22 (Class 5): Paper Ideas Due March 8 (Class 7): Paper Sources Due March 22 (Class 8): Paper Outline April 12 (Class 11): Final Paper Due April 26 (Class 13): Final Paper Revisions Due Other Information Electronic Devices Students are not allowed to use electronic devices in the classroom. The only exception will be for the accommodation of a disability. Late Arrival We ll start each class with informal discussion from 6:00 to 6:10 pm. Students are expected to arrive on time for the start of class at 6:10 pm. The class will take an approximately 15 minute break around 7:30, at which point late students may join the class. Honor Code Students are expected to follow the NYU honor code, a copy of which may be found here: http://cas.nyu.edu/page/honorcode Students with Disabilities Students with disabilities should register with NYU s Henry and Lucy Moses Center for Students with Disabilities. The center can make arrangements for appropriate accommodations. http://www.nyu.edu/life/safety-health-wellness/students-with-disabilities.html