Below are links and information about events and information that are relevant to our class and potentially your semester projects. If you are interested you can also speak to Scott about ways to earn extra credit by attending.
Check back often as this list will grow.
FURTHER READING
For additional readings on topics discussed in class go here
EXHIBITIONS:
Reviewing Renewal
Queens Museum
http://www.queensmuseum.org/exhibitions/2015/01/05/reviewing-renewal/
Jan. 11- Feb. 8
Uneven Development: Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities
Museum of Modern Art
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1438
through May 10
EVENTS:
The Politics of Gentrification
Investment, Displacement and the Fight for the Future of Chinatown and Greenpoint
March 31, 4:30-6:30
Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, 47-49 E. 65th St., 2nd Floor conference Room
Deconstructing the High Line
The New School, Wollman Hall, 66 W. 11th St., Fifth Floor
http://acgs.uva.nl/shared-content/events/events/2015/3/deconstructing-the-high-line-symposium.html
March 5, 5-8 pm
Providing a much-needed critical perspective, this interdisciplinary symposium will interrogate the High Line’s relation to public space, creative practice, neoliberal urban renewal, urban political ecology and policy-led gentrification. The event brings together scholars from urban studies, geography, cultural analysis, art, and architecture.
FILMS:
Right to the City Film Series
Center for Place, Culture and Politics, Graduate Center, CUNY
02/17/2015 My Brooklyn
My Brooklyn is a documentary about Director Kelly Anderson’s personal journey, as a Brooklyn “gentrifier,” to understand the forces reshaping her neighborhood along lines of race and class. The story begins when Anderson moves to Brooklyn in 1988, lured by cheap rents and bohemian culture. By Michael Bloomberg’s election as mayor in 2001, a massive speculative real estate boom is rapidly altering the neighborhoods she has come to call home. She watches as an explosion of luxury housing and chain store development spurs bitter conflict over who has a right to live in the city and to determine its future. While some people view these development patterns as ultimately revitalizing the city, to others, they are erasing the eclectic urban fabric, economic and racial diversity, creative alternative culture, and unique local economies that drew them to Brooklyn in the first place. It seems that no less than the city’s soul is at stake.
03/05/2015 Rezoning Harlem (HOPEFULLY, WE WILL SEE THIS ONE IN CLASS)
Rezoning Harlem follows longtime members of the Harlem community as they fight a 2008 rezoning that threatens to erase the history and culture of their legendary neighborhood and replace it with luxury housing, offices, and big-box retail. A shocking expose of how a group of ordinary citizens, who are passionate about the future of one of the city’s most treasured neighborhoods, are systematically shut out of the city’s decision-making process, revealing New York City’s broken public review system and provoking discussion on what we can do about it.
03/26/2015 The Rink
Branch Brook Park Roller Rink, located in Newark, NJ, is one of the few remaining urban rinks of its kind. This concrete structure is nestled in a public park bordered by public housing and a highway. Upon first glance, the exterior resembles a fallout shelter; however, the streamers and lights of the interior are reminiscent of 1970s roller discos. This 55 minute documentary depicts a space cherished by skaters and a city struggling to move beyond its past and forge a new narrative amidst contemporary social issues.
Panel discussants: Sarah Friedland, Ryan Joseph, and CalvinJohn Smiley. Moderator: Brenden Beck.
04/16/2017 Ecumenopolis: City Without Limits
Ekümenopolis tells the story of Istanbul on a neo-liberal course to destruction. It follows the story of a migrant family from the demolition of their neighborhood to their on-going struggle for housing rights. The film takes a look at the city on a macro level and through the eyes of experts, going from the tops of mushrooming skyscrapers to the depths of the railway tunnel under the Bosphorous strait; from the historic neighborhoods in the south to the forests in the north. It’s an Istanbul going from 15 million to 30 million. It’s an Istanbul going from 2 million cars to 8 million. It’s the Istanbul of the future that will soon engulf the entire region. It’s an Istanbul you have never seen before.
05/07/2015 Rerooting the Motor City: Notes on a City in Transformation:
From food deserts, to the plans to “rightsize” the city, how are Detroiters responding to the localized failures of post-industrial global capitalism? How are they re-mediating the frontier mythologies perpetuated by the mainstream media that complement “creative class” policy promotion? With a critical lens on race and class dynamics, this documentary weaves together segments on Detroit’s labor history, the budding urban agriculture movement, a critical look at philanthro-capitalism and its relationship to redevelopment as well as media (mis)representations of a city in transformation.
