Category Archives: Announcements

Takeaway (and next steps!): Research Methods

Announcements, Research Methods

gordon22

Today we discussed Research Methods.  First, with help from special guest, Aaron Kendall, who showed us how Social Explorer can be used for secondary data analysis and data visualization.  Please take some time to play around with this and the other secondary data sources listed on our website!

Then we turned to the question of what research methods each group is planning to use in your projects, and how exactly you will use them.  Given your group’s research goals and questions, available literature and secondary data, and the media sources listed on each of your project pages, you were asked to work as a group to answer the following questions:

  1. How can you document or better understand the issue? Do you need “hard” numbers (quantitative data) and/or stories of personal experience (qualitative data) or both?
  2. How are you going to give legs to your research? What action strategies could you employ to make the research and report as impactful as possible?
  3. Who are the stakeholders in the issue? Who has interest? Who is affected?
  4. Who needs to have their voice be heard?
  5. Who are you trying to influence? Who has power over the issue?
  6. Who is your target audience (community members, elected officials, media)?
  7. Who will collect your data?
  8. Where can you find the people you need to talk to get your data?
  9. Where can you find existing information that is relevant to your research?
  10. Where can you go for support and assistance (non-profits, universities, government agencies)?

methods cartoon

Based on your answers to the above, you were asked to consider which among the following research methods your group should use:

  • Media Review- Is a systematic review of a certain number of news articles or clips from a variety of sources about a specific topic to uncover the most common words or themes that emerge.  This can be used as background research to help inform your research design and can also be used on its own to give you data about how a specific issue is being presented or framed in the media.
  • Literature Review- Is a review of existing articles, academic studies or reports in order to find out what information already exists about the topic you are exploring.  This can be part of your secondary research; can help inform your research questions and can help you identify gaps in research and information on a given issue.
  • Secondary data analysis- Is data that comes from someone else’s research.  This is distinct from “primary data” which is original data that you collect through your own research in the field.  Secondary data is helpful for getting background information that will complement the ground-level information that comes from people’s experiences (primary data). It can also be helpful to do a bit of secondary data collection before you begin your primary data collection in order to focus your research questions and help you to develop your research instruments (such as surveys and interview guides). Secondary data can come from a variety of public and private sources, such as the U.S. Census Bureau, city and state agencies, research organizations and academic institutions.
  • Participant Observation is in some ways both the most natural and the most challenging of qualitative data collection methods. It connects the researcher to the most basic of human experiences, discovering through immersion and participation the hows and whys of human behavior in a particular context. Such discovery is natural in that all of us have done this repeatedly throughout our lives, learning what it means to be members of our own families, our ethnic and national cultures, our work groups, and our personal circles and associations. The challenge of harnessing this innate capability for participant observation is that when we are participant observers in a more formal sense, we must, at least a little, systematize and organize an inherently fluid process.  This means not only being a player in a particular social milieu but also fulfilling the role of researcher—taking notes; recording voices, sounds, and images; and asking questions that are designed to uncover the meaning behind the behaviors. Additionally, in many cases, we are trying to discover and analyze aspects of social scenes that use rules and norms that the participants may experience without explicitly talking about, that operate on automatic or subconscious levels, or are even officially off limits for discussion or taboo. The result of this discovery and systemization is that we not only make ourselves into acceptable participants in some venue but also generate data that can meaningfully add to our collective understanding of human experience.
  • Surveys- Ask specific questions and tend to include short answer, multiple-choice, and scaled-answer questions. Surveys can be done online, through the mail, and can be written and filled out in person.  The most effective way to conduct surveys in support of organizing is in an in person “interview style” so that the surveyor can make personal connections with the respondent. Surveys are helpful for getting information or data from a wider group of people and are better for getting quantitative information like numbers, than they are for getting qualitative information, like people’s stories. Surveys can be helpful when making policy demands because elected officials, policymakers and the media tend to respond to hard numbers.
  • Interviews- Are guided conversations about a specific topic, are often done one-on-one, and tend to use open-ended questions in order to get in-depth explanations.  Interviews are useful when you want to get more specific, detailed information than you would get from a survey and you want to get deeper into people’s experiences and personal stories. Interviews are appropriate when dealing with sensitive or personal information that people may not be comfortable writing on a survey or sharing in a group setting (such as a focus group). Interviews can also assist the organizing outreach process because they facilitate one-to-one interaction, but they can be more time intensive then surveys.
  • Focus Groups- Are small group sessions (7-12 people) that are led by a facilitator in order to obtain opinions based on the research question.  Like interviews, focus groups are good for getting qualitative data, and are an effective way to get people’s personal stories, testimonies, and experiences from a group setting. They can also be useful for delving deeper into a specific issue or research question not fully addressed by another method.  Focus groups can be useful in allowing participants to bounce ideas and stories off of each other.  Due to the group setting, they can also be more challenging than interviews for discussing sensitive topics.
  • Community Mapping/Canvassing- Is a process of documenting and visually presenting trends or patterns in a given community.  Community maps and canvassing can be used to document many physical, spatial dynamics of a neighborhood from new construction sites, to new luxury condos, to green spaces, to new businesses, to vacant lots, etc. This is an effective tool for tracking physical changes in a neighborhood, and specifically as a way to document the impact of gentrification on a neighborhood.

Please work in your groups to incorporate a more detailed description of your chosen methodology/methodologies into your project briefs, as well as my feedback, and post your updated project briefs no later than Wednesday at 2pm.

Takeaway: Contemporary Planning in NYC

Announcements, Contemporary Planning in NYC

what is zoning

For today’s class we read: “Planning and the Narrative of Threat” and “The Armature for Development” from Scott Larson’s (2013) Building like Moses with Jacobs in Mind, which concludes our historical overview of shapes and shapers of NYC past.

We began by reviewing the concept of neoliberalism, which is a political, economic, and cultural ideology that came to prominence in the U.S. and the U.K. in late 1970s/early 1980s in relation to the globalization of industrial production, the demand for more flexible [capital] accumulation strategies, and the restructuring of the welfare state.  During the 80s and 90s the ideology became institutionalized at every level of government, which involved mass deregulation, privatization, market-driven development, decentralization, and the downloading of [federal and state] government functions to weak local governments, nonprofit organizations, and civil society.  As a result, there is extreme pressure for city governments to divest themselves of all but a minimal public infrastructure and social responsibility, and to use their powers (i.e. land use and zoning regulation) primarily to encourage private real estate development.

Then we backed up and asked:  What exactly is zoning?  Most simply, ZONING is…

  • a map divided into districts
  • a set of rules about how land can be used in each district (residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, etc.)
  • specific regulations on things like lot size, building height, and required yard and setback provisions
  • procedures for administering and applying the zoning rules.

For a more visual and comprehensive explanation, see this article by Urban Omnibus from February, 2014.

… and discussed how zoning has developed historically in the U.S. and NYC.  Here are some highlights:

  • Zoning falls under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which is the basis of land use authority. This amendment authorizes the government to regulate behavior and enforce order within its territory for the betterment of the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of their inhabitants; also known as police power.  
  • Early/notable uses of zoning include: 1860s- a state statute prohibited commercial uses on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn; 1916- NYC’s first zoning ordinance was passed in re. to a building in lower Manhattan blocking too much sunlight; In the western U.S., the first uses of zoning were by KKK members to dictate who could be in certain areas; the city of Houston, Texas is the only in the U.S. to have NO zoning.
  • Zoning had its first big wave in the 1940s and 50s,  a time of functionalist/modernist thinking about cities and “Rational Comprehensive Planning.”  It was integral to the transformation of NYC via “urban renewal”and was all about separation of uses thought to be incompatible (recall Robert Moses superblocks).
  • This approach to zoning was widely criticized, most notably by Jane Jacobs, for being too top-down/heavy handed and for disrupting the life of the city that stems from a diversity of uses in closer proximity.  In 1961 NYC zoning law was revised to make more flexible… and to incentivize development.
  • In 1975 further zoning-related changes were made to the City Charter in response to the grassroots organizing and community planning efforts of the 1960s and 70s, namely the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).  Around this time William Whyte and others were very critical of the transformation of zoning as a tool, which was designed to limit/control, not incentivize/unleash development.

Then we discussed why zoning is so central to contemporary (aka neoliberal) planning and politics in NYC, drawing mostly from Larson…

  • Enter Mayor Bloomberg (2002), a product and promoter of Wall Street.  Bloomberg claimed NYC was a “city at risk” of losing its place of prominence as a global city; and due to its lack of sustainability given its growing population and aging infrastructure.  He insisted that we must build big like Moses (and as part of regional economic growth plans) but with Jacobs’ “authenticity” in mind.  Bloomberg used zoning as “an armature for development” (Larson) along with tax incentives and public subsidies, to create optimal conditions for the growth machine.
  • Bloomberg rezoned over a third of the city during his tenure (2002-2013): Downzoning “authentic” (white, upper class) areas like Cobble Hill in Brooklyn and “upzoning” areas like 125th St. in Harlem.  The other major zoning actions related to the waterfront- almost entirely rezoned from industrial manufacturing to commercial and residential, based on the notion that manufacturing had left NYC, which wasn’t really true.  These rezonings were all about increasing land value in order to promote development- by “unlocking value.”  Greenpoint/Williamsburg is the prime example here.
  • In terms of push-back, Bloomberg’s first wave of rezonings was during the housing boom (pre-2008) and had little resistance from the city council who has to approve, or from community boards, borough presidents, or the city planning commission.  Later cases like Hudson Yards were different, as communities came to understand the implications of rezoning and increasingly fought against it, though never won.
  • For a broader reflection on Larson’s text I highly recommend your own reading responses, which are great!

And for an update on the zoning situation, which has only gotten more contentious…

  • Mayor de Blasio took office in 2014 and kept the zoning party going, though in a different guise.  “Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning” is the primary tool for his housing and economic development plan, which requires developers who are going to benefit from upzoning to include a certain percentage of “affordable” units.  He has promoted his plan as visionary, ambitious, and in line with his progressive agenda- he talks about it as a way to address the housing crisis and inequality, by building low and middle income housing, and by promoting “mixed-income” neighborhoods.  His plan is citywide but targets 6 “struggling” neighborhoods, including: East NY (Brooklyn), Flushing West (Queens), Stapleton (north shore SI), Jerome Ave (Bronx), Long Island City, and East Harlem.
  • Meanwhile, community boards across the city have overwhelmingly voted no to the plans and there has been widespread resistance from grassroots groups.  The main problems, they contend, are that the plan falls way short in terms of the # affordable units; the promised units will not be affordable enough; and overall the plan will drive up land values, which will lead to lots of displacement.  Coalitions of community groups have formed all across the city and many have developed their own community-driven plans.  Most recently, the Real Affordability for All (RAFA) Coalition (which represents many of these groups and plans) canceled its scheduled civil disobedience demonstration “citing progress”negotiations with the Mayor’s Office. But not everyone is happy with this deal and some have organized a last ditch resistance effort:  It’s not over! Rally and Press Conference: Tuesday at 9am, City Hall. 
  • City Council is scheduled to vote on de Blasio’s plan TOMORROW, Tuesday, March 22nd.  
  • For more analysis see:  NYC has the power to do better than de Blasio’s housing plan by the super smart Sam Stein, and this video by Movement for Justice in El Barrio.
  • And to see what others are demanding, check out: Who’s city? Our city! Press conference and community speak-out for elected community boards, Wednesday, noon-2pm, Brooklyn Borough Hall…Join the Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network (B.A.N.) to demand elected community boards! Community boards are currently appointed by each Borough President and therefore are not truly accountable or beholden to the community. We want to empower community boards to be more than just advisory and to have veto power. We demand and will work to change the New York City Charter so that Community Boards will be elected.


 

Crafting a Historical Narrative

Announcements, Crafting a Historical Narrative

An important part of the research process is investigating how and why your research problem has developed.  Please work with your groups today to craft a historical narrative of your research problem and to identify gaps in your understanding.   And remember to cite your sources! 

Things to consider:

  • Key players and events
  • Key Federal, State, and City Policies
  • Important geographic factors/particulars
  • Influential cultural/ideological trends and shifts
  • Public/private dynamics and shifts
  • Related technological innovations
  • Demographic changes/Immigration patterns
  • Political Economic trends and shifts (investment, disinvestment, speculation)
  • Politics/power relations
  • Role of community organizing (survival, resistance, planning, etc.)

Resources to Consider:

  • Your group’s response to “What’s the Problem?”
  • The Takeaways from class readings and discussions
  • References/News posted on your project pages
  • Your community contact(s)!

Please post your historical narrative on your project page, noting any gaps, and continue to develop/revise it as you learn more!

 

General Feedback on Project Briefs

Announcements

Great job everyone!  I was so pleased with your project briefs and presentations.  I’ve posted feedback for each group on your project pages.  We’ll discuss them further in class, but please consider the following as you continue with your projects:

  • Please attend to the politics shaping your issue, meaning who/what forces have shaped it and what kind of strategies could be used to shape it differently.  Related to this, please make sure that your projects, and most immediately historical narratives, are related to past and current struggles, not just policies and innovations.
  • In light of Eric’s visit and what we learned about the AIDS crisis and ACT UP, please give careful consideration to why community knowledge is so important, what it means for your group’s issue and how your group can engage with and help to develop/strengthen it.
  • Think about how your “case study” is going to inform immediate, community/public action around its focus issue and how it will help “us”- more broadly- to understand what’s shaping the future of NYC- in academia the latter is referred to as “broader” or “conceptual significance.”

 

Takeaway: ACT UP!

Announcements

Luis Lopez-Detres and Eric Sawyer; Photo by Bill Bytsura, New York Magazine

“Sawyer (pictured with Luis Lopez-Detres, left, who has been involved with AIDS issues for the last two decades), a founding member, was symptomatic since 1980. His main concern was to steer the organization toward engaging with the housing crisis that was pushing poor people with AIDS into the streets. He co-founded the housing committee, which later became Housing Works. Today he works on AIDS issues at the U.N. “This treatment is not a cure,” he says. “And for 97 percent of people living with AIDS in the world, they have no access to the drugs at all. For them nothing has changed.”- David

Today we had a very special guest, Eric Sawyer, talk to us about out the 80s and 90s in NYC through the lens of the AIDS crisis and movement (Here’s the video of our talk!).  Eric was a founding member of ACT UP, and its Housing Committee, which later became Housing Works.  Here’s his oral history of the crisis/movement.  Eric also restored my house in Harlem during this time, when so many of the buildings in the neighborhood were abandoned.  He currently lives near CCNY, works for UNAIDS, and is one of the longest-living survivors of HIV/AIDS.  To prepare for his visit I asked you to review documentary materials about this issue/time, and most of you watched “How to Survive a Plague,” and a few watched “United in Anger: A History of Act Up,” or reviewed the ACT UP Oral History Project.  Your responses highlighted several important themes that Eric also addressed, including:

  • “The fatal neglect that the U.S. government at all levels exercised in response to the AIDS epidemic of the eighties and nineties (Sam)… From New York City Mayor Ed Koch to President Ronald Reagan (along with his successor, George Bush Sr.), politicians were notoriously silent about AIDS, with the latter waiting six years and until nearly 30 thousand people had died to make a public statement about the disease. Which goes to show the devastating truth behind ACT UP’s motto, “Silence = Death.” Another fun fact, which another classmate has already touched on: filmmaker Scott Calonico produced a documentary short entitled When AIDS Was Funny in 2015, featuring audio footage of Reagan’s press secretary, Larry Speakes, laughing off the deadly “gay plague” that he claimed to know nothing about.”
  • The role and significance of ACT UP: “A lot died from AIDS, but many more would have died if not for the actions of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power. They were a group dedicated to fighting for better treatment of AIDS as it pertained to homosexuals and all people in general. The main takeaway from ACT UP’s actions would have to be the lengths they took to see the change they wanted to happen take place. More than just performing marches and protests, they became science literate in regards to the issue. They observed how the issue was being handled in other countries and what drugs were available in order to come to the understanding that the US government wasn’t doing their own best in regards to the issue. ACT UP went as far as to draft their own version of a national research agenda that spurred the FDA’s work on some treatments (Amir)”
  • ACT UP’s key strategies, including:
    • “Becoming Expert” (Eric)… “ACT UP was very effective in its time. This was due to them not just demanding change, but enacting change. They immersed themselves in the scientific literature to fully understand the topic before taking real action to accomplish things such as procuring drugs not legalized in the US and drafting an agenda for the federal government to review” (Amir)….“Through historical and community knowledge, as in our community projects, ACT UP was able to strategize their activist plans….From ACT UP and TAG, we learn the valuable lesson that community change can occur even when there is little hope or motivation for these individuals. We see the strong influence of community planning and how it can be successful with the right strategies, determination, and dedication” (Minhal).
    • “Identifying the Problem” (Eric) and Educating Others… “Their production of HIV/AIDS glossaries and their educating of people about the disease, including how to prevent it and slow its spread, was arguably their most effective contribution to stemming the crisis” (Jeffrey)…. “I think the dispersal of information may have been the greatest contribution ACT UP made. No longer were people so unaware of what was happening. Distributions of pamphlets and AIDS “glossaries” helped people understand HIV and AIDS and how they could stop it” (Patrick).  Eric also spoke to the particular importance of ACT UP’s media strategy and catchy imaging.
    • “Demanding Solutions” (Eric)… “Pushing for Change… It is important to realize the significance of this organization. Even though people faced death in the eyes, they still found the energy to protest against the many injustices they were subject to” (Brian)….”If this majority finally acts up and demands a change, change will occur. Evidence can be seen by the ACT UP organization that were successful in making the city pay more attention to the AIDS crisis starting in the late 1980s… I am curious to know what would happen if another housing crisis that is worse than that in 2006 occurs. What if it gets so bad that millions of people living in the city cannot afford to pay their rent. Will they use the tactics of ACT UP to fight with authority? Will they be successful because they “have no other choice”? Can people really challenge the largest growth machine in the world and be successful? I hope no such crisis occurs, but we do not have to wait for a crisis to occur to demand change” (Mohamed).
  • Connections with current struggles: “In the past, we’ve read about the building New York City as well as current efforts of rezoning; in each we see the exclusion of and a failure of outreach by the government to the communities directly impacted. Similarly, this film showed ACT UP demonstrating against secret meetings by the N.I.H. as well as the lack of the voice of the AIDS community in deciding drug regulations…“Dr. Anthony Fauci is deciding the research priorities for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. We’re down here ’cause we think we should be deciding the research priorities, because these are the people who know what’s going on ’cause they’re dealing with it every day” (~50 minutes into the film)- (Kashaf)… “Act Up’s efforts against the government and private institutions are an example of a way to counteract or stop the negative effects of top-down city planning. If enough passionate people can organize to push for an approved AIDS treatment then certainly enough passionate people can organize to help fix the housing crisis in New York City… Discussion Questions: Can we again organize to fight against displacement and other adverse effects of city planning? What would it take? How would such a fight be different from that of the AIDS epidemic?” (Erica)
  • The value of documentary films and oral histories: “How To Survive a Plague, a documentary directed by David France, provided an informative medium to display the passionate fight against AIDS. By utilizing interviews, past footage, and the in depth stories of Peter Staley and Bob Rafsky, the struggles that ACT UP and TAG were depicted perfectly” (Tony)… “It is fortunate that such films as the Oscar-nominated 2012 documentary How to Survive a Plague exist, because any queer person who has had to do their own research on the AIDS crisis knows the extent to which their community’s history has been suppressed and swept under the rug” (Sam).

Photo of an ACT UP protest at Occupy Wall Street in 2012 using similar direct action/street theater tactics that Eric and the Housing Committee used during the 1980s to demand that HPD provide medically appropriate housing for people living with HIV/AIDS… “Eric Sawyer, a founding member of the group that now includes chapters worldwide, said he and others returned for good reason…. When it comes to AIDS treatment and other services, he said, “big business is not funding anything, but they got the bailout.”- article by Verena Dobnik.

 

CUNY Struggle(s)

Announcements

As I’m sure most of you know, CUNY is facing yet another round of major budget cuts, tuition hikes, and other “austerity” measures- and so there’s quite a bit of organizing going on- some led by student organizations, some by the Professional Staff Congress (PSC, CUNY’s union), some by groups like NYPIRG, and some by unaffiliated/new/emerging groups.  If you aren’t familiar with what’s going on, and even if you are, here’s a recent article explaining the faculty’s potential strike another on Cuomo vs. CUNY, and a short video worth checking out.  Also, here are a few upcoming events:

To learn more about the CUNY struggle(s) there are lots of different websites and facebook groups that you can follow/join, including a new one called cunystruggle.org that I would recommend.  According to its organizers:

It’s intended to be an independent outlet for CUNY organizing that will present analysis of present struggles, first person worker testimonials, CUNY history, and tactical debates. The inaugural piece “Toward a Renewed CUNY Movement” summarizes the thinking behind the website and other groupings that have arisen recently in response to the crisis at CUNY. To participate or join the email list, contact cunystruggleinfo@gmail.com.

In the spirit of this text, we are calling for a CUNY wide popular assembly on March 12th. The purpose of this assembly is to arrive at a potential set of demands that could serve as the base line for a renewed CUNY movement, capable of uniting disparate factions, and deciding on a common plan of action for moving forward. The idea is not so much to collect and innumerate the countless grievances swirling around the CUNY system, but to arrive a basic set of invariant demands (adjunct pay parity being a great example) that could serve as a basis for building real power across divisions. The balance between universal and particular is of course a delicate dance in instances like this but it is our wager that with the right level of participation it is possible to put forward universal demands that do not silence particularities. To this effect there will be a series of campus assemblies in February and early March to discuss the demands questions and pave the way for as vibrant and democratic a popular assembly as possible. These will be announced soon. If you’d like to help organize one at a campus where you teach, please get in touch!
Most recently, Bernie Sanders weighed in on the conflict.
And Robin Kelley on Black Lives Matter and recent student organizing nationwide: Black Study, Black Struggle.

 

Takeaway: The Capital of Capital

Announcements, The Capital of Capital

  • Angotti, T. (2008) “The Real Estate Capital of the World” from New York for Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, p. 37-79.

Our last reading/discussion was about the burning of the Bronx, which was part of a larger wave of abandonment of low-income neighborhoods of color in NYC during the years following the Civil Rights Movement and surrounding the 1975 fiscal crisis.  Since that time things have clearly changed.  The same neighborhoods that were burned and abandoned in the 1970s are now being targeted for reinvestment, and the communities who have held their ground all these years are being threatened by displacement.  In the chapter we read for today, Tom Angotti explains the nature of these changes through a brief history of urban planning in the context of NYC Real Estate development.  In short, he explains why the real estate industry is so powerful in NYC and how the “growth machine” works.  Overall, the outlook is pretty grim, as many of you noted in your reading responses.  The real estate industry, as a central aspect of our urban and global economy, is characterized by greed (Mohamed), deception (Minhal), institutional racism (Fanny, Brianna, Sam, Erica), and the exploitation of labor (Wilian), for the primary benefit of the wealthy (Edwin) and at the expense of everyone else, not to mention democracy.  Several of you drew connections between this reading and your group projects.  Patrick’s response is particularly illuminating:

Reading this article, I noticed many parallels between the real estate industry and the BQX, the proposed streetcar that is to connect Brooklyn and Queens. First off is the idea that real estate can bring money into neighborhoods. Developers felt that the building of large retail and grocery chains in poorer neighborhoods would provide the residents of said neighborhoods with jobs. These jobs, though, were often low paying and had high turnover rates. One of the advertised benefits of the BQX is that it provides a means for people in underserved neighborhoods to reach jobs that they wouldn’t be able to reach easily otherwise. What is not brought up, though, is that many of the available jobs in these neighborhoods around the proposed BQX route are specialized jobs, mostly in the tech industry. In both cases, money isn’t really being brought in; rather, opportunities are being opened for a select few….Another large parallel is seen when looking at what the Real Estate Board of New York and the BQX hope to bring to the Brooklyn Waterfront. REBNY hopes to rezone industrial sites for manufacturing from the waterfront so that residential and commercial buildings can be developed. The BQX is supposed to provide transportation for many of the residents living in the public housing units along the waterfront while also raising property values along its route. Both can be seen as the beginnings of gentrification along the waterfront, which may only serve to benefit wealthy residents or investors in the area…The final, and what I believe to be the most important parallel, is private funding and intervention in projects that are supposed to benefit the public…To compare this to the BQX, one only has to look at who is currently going to front much of the streetcar’s bill. Private investors who are the driving force behind the organizing and financing of the BQX have other business ventures in neighborhoods along the BQX route that can greatly benefit from a reliable transportation source. To me, this seems like a huge conflict of interest.  

Importantly, Angotti also illustrates how the power and CONTRADICTIONS of the city’s Real Estate market have (paradoxically) created cause and opportunities for community-driven change, as seen in the work of South Bronx Unite, Transportation Alternatives, Minkwon, and ACT UP.  They are organizing and mobilizing around these issues and often develop their strategies by doing historical and situational analyses similar to what Angotti proposes.  Along these lines, Angotti suggests exploring the following questions, which you should keep in mind as you continue planning your projects: 

  1. When/how should community organizers and planners oppose vs. ally with FIRE (finance, insurance, real estate) sector?
  2. How can contradictions within FIRE become strategic assets?
  3. How can we understand the current terrain of struggle as both local (concrete, particular, etc.) and global (abstract, general, huge!)?

Key Terms and Main Ideas from this chapter:

  1. (NYC’s) Growth Machine: a block of economic and institutional interests that favor new construction and public works, led by the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) and the NYC Partnership, a group of corporate executives mostly from the financial sector founded by David Rockefeller.  According to Angotti it works like this:“Real Estate drives the growth machine [with the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) at the wheel], government oils and repairs it, the building trades make the parts, and global and local capital deliver the fuel. The machine works to create growth and sustain growth (i.e. through rising property values and keeping taxes low)…Growth is always presumed to be good, even in a Manhattan that is already densely packed with buildings and has little breathing room” (p. 39).  The whole thing depends on rising property values and the myth that growth is always good because it brings money to neighborhoods and always possible.  When in fact, it often extracts more than it invests (i.e. low paying/short-term jobs, lost jobs, gentrification, etc.) and space is quite limited.  This gives rise to.. Contradiction #1: Constant growth undermines quality of life which then suppresses growth.
  2. The 3 Rules of Real Estate: Dislocation, Dislocation, Dislocation: Location is important for land values but also implies dislocation of those who can’t afford the rising costs, aka gentrification: a product of the normal operation of the real estate market as it pushes out poor people and people of color and brings in people who can pay higher rents.  According to Angotti, “The more New York’s economy follows the dictates of real estate, the more it experiences the agonies of dislocation.  With the landing of the first Europeans in America, a perpetual cycle of displacement, settlement, and displacement began. This is a country of chronically displaced people- indigenous Indians, English pilgrims, African slaves, European immigrants, and now immigrants from every country in the world” (p. 43).
  3. Flexible Accumulation: nimble, adaptive, expansive process of capital accumulation that overcomes local constraints and regulations by taking advantage of mobile capital and labor (i.e. African slaves, northern investments in the south, etc.)  As such, another paradox emerged in re. to de-industrialization, globalization, etc.: NYC became “more like tornado than a mushroom, a whirlwind of explosive activity” (p. 41).  Yet at the same time, this chaos relies on central, concrete places, which reinforces the importance of cities like NYC (Contradiction #2), which suggest the 3 rules of Real Estate (see above) are likely to stay in effect. 
  4. Chasing Disasters (as a strategy for capital accumulation)- namely, the Great Depression, Post WWII federal urban renewal program, and vast neighborhood abandonment of the 60s and 70s (also post 9/11 redevelopment and securitization)
  5. Landscape of Inequality- NYC is one of the most segregated and unequal places in the world, thanks to Real Estate which divides the city in many ways: by concentrating wealth in elite enclaves (i.e Upper East Side); by perpetuating the myths that high end development will trickle down and create homes for lower income people, that the market’s invisible hand (supply and demand) will sort it out, and that rent regulations zoning restrictions etc. restrict the development of much needed housing; and through Institutional Racism in the form of:
    • Racial Steering: when real estate agents “turn people of color away from white neighborhoods, and white home seekers steer themselves away from historically integrated and black neighborhoods.”
    • Blockbusting: when “Realtors exploit racial stereotypes and spread the word that people of color are moving in, which will lead property values to go down. White homeowners sell at below-market rates and realtors turn around and sell to people of color at above-market rates.”
    • And as Jose pointed out: “Segregation and discrimination in housing are also consequences that have taken a strong foothold.”
  6. The Post-Industrial City: global trends of de-industrialization and flexible production accelerated during the decades post WWII and local real estate helped move manufacturing out (p. 50)- i.e. by pushing for the rezoning of industrial areas to residential/commercial, which would be more profitable to the real estate industry
  7. Globalizing Cultures and the Branding of New York:  “As capital’s system of industrial production becomes increasingly globalized, NYC, always a major center of culture and consumption, is now producing culture for export.  All services, art, music, culture, and ideas-indeed, everything both tangible and ethereal- are commodified and transformed into investment capital that can be traded in financial markets” (p. 51)
  8. REITS: Global Finance Unites with Local Real Estate: “REITs represent the global takeover of local real estate by publicly traded investment firms- a globally oriented finance capital” (p. 52).
  9. Low-Income Housing for Profit: “One of the more perverse contradictions in today’s real estate market is the use of public subsidies for low-income housing to back real estate speculation” (p. 53).  In short, profits from low-income housing provide a steady stream of cash for mega developers like Related (p. 54).
  10. The Diverse Ways of Globalized Real Estate: Companies like Related have figured out how to navigate NYC’s global/local dynamics better than Wal-Mart- the result is more or less the same (displacement).
  11. NY Real Estate’s Global Roots: i.e. Peter Stuyvesant, first political leader of the city, was director of the Dutch West India Co.
  12. The Global/New York Empire: “publicly financed fixed infrastructure helped to mobilize capital and in the long run was a boon to the most mobile of capital” (p. 61).
  13. Land Use Planning and Zoning for Real Estate Development: It started early!  With the 1811 Grid and 1916 Zoning Resolution. Later came the 1961 Zoning Resolution and the 1969 Master Plan, and led to Zoning Instead of Planning, what the “neoliberal” city does today.
  14. Urban Reforms Against the Working Class (and people of color) in “Central Cities”: Early 20th century- Post WWII, Robert Moses, “urban renewal,” etc. vs. the mass investment in suburban sprawl for (white) middle and upper classes.
  15. Corporate Vision of the Region: The Regional Plan Association: founded in 1920 and produced 3 plans for the metro region: 1929, 1968, 1996, which for the most part supported the status quo.
  16. The Permanent Fiscal Crisis and Deregulation: mass disinvestment/national conservative shift, “planned shrinkage” that started in 1975 and led to Capital and Communities on the Move/the Abandonment of Neighborhoods (in the 1970s), but has never really stopped.

As it happens, many of these themes appeared in a NY Times article the same day as our discussion: De Blasio’s New York Feels Effects of Recovery to Relief of Business Leaders (March 7, 2016).

Project Brief Guidelines

Announcements, Project Brief Guidelines

Project Briefs are due on Wednesday March 9th.  Please use the following outline as a guide when drafting your project brief (beginning during class on March 2nd). The brief will serve as a proposal and working outline for your project, which means that it may need to be adapted as you go along, especially with input from your community contact and me.  Note: As your work on your project briefs it might be helpful to check out the projects that students did last year.  

  1. Project Title:
  2. Project Goals: This project aims to…
  3. Project Design/Strategy: Our group will achieve these goals by…
    1. Historical research on key policies and planning practices (including what we cover in class), with a focus on….
    2. Direct engagement with community contacts, which for us will involve…
  4. Key Activities: Our specific activities will include…
  5. Proposed project deliverables: We anticipate that our project design and key activities will allow us to produce…
    1. A white paper that…
    2. A public engagement/popular education product that…
  6. Work plan/Time Line/Responsibilities of each team member:
    1. Our group’s work plan and timeline…
    2. Our group’s division of labor…

Preparing for tomorrow’s class

Announcements

Before class tomorrow please do the following to prepare:

1. Read this (very brief!) Introduction to Participatory Action Research (and feel free to explore any of the hyperlinks and references that seem interesting or relevant to your projects!)

2. Make sure that your group has posted a COMPLETE response to the prompt: “What’s the Problem?” drawing on the course readings and those that pertain to your specific projects.   (Reviewing the Takeaway from each class could be helpful here).

3.  If you haven’t already done so, please be in touch with your community contact to get their input on your project focus and to arrange a first meeting.

Thanks and see you soon!

 

 

Takeaway: A Plague on Your Houses

A Plague on Houses, Announcements
  • Wallace, R. and Wallace, D. (1998) “Benign Neglect and Planned Shrinkage” and “A Plague on Houses” from A Plague on Houses: How New York was burned down and national public health crumbled, p. 21-77.

Today we talked about what happened in NYC after 1968 (what Angotti called a “pinnacle year of revolt and reform”) as the federal government and capital abandoned cities in favor of suburban sprawl, and poor communities of color (in the Bronx, Harlem, Lower East Side, etc.) were displaced yet again or left to stick it, carry on…

and even to play through…

The Bronx Is Burning

It was a Decade of Fire, resulting from the deliberate (“benign”) neglect and actions (“planned shrinkage”) of government officials towards poor communities of color.  It as based on “pseudo-science” from the Rand Institute and its implications were far reaching (i.e. the authors demonstrate links to the AIDS crisis and Tuberculosis).

In class we talked about how hard it is to believe that this happened, and that so many people were complicit.  But we also discussed the lack of justice that has come to these communities and the similarities between this situation and more recent policy trends (i.e. broken windows policing).  Let this be a lesson for us at the very least.