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Jane Jacobs's Critique of the traditional “economistic” version of city planning
He argued that prioritizing financial returns and large-scale developments ignored the diverse needs of a community.
Criticized top-down planning because they were disconnected from the actual experiences in the city
Standard designs and zoning regulations stifled creativity and diversity
Argued planners should embrace the unpredictability of urban life
Four components of safe cities and side walks according to Jane Jacobs
Eyes on the street
Diversity of people
Diversity of uses
Temporal heterogeneity
How modernist planners attacked the street design of older cities and how postmodern planners used their ideas cynically
Utopian image: wanted to do away with the decay, disease and grim of the industrial street
Transforms city into a single homogenous public domain connecting discrete universal functions like schooling, employment, recreation, transport
Old Order: streets became distinct and buildings became indistinct
Now: streets became indistinct and buildings became distinct
“poverty is as poverty is measured”
There is no universal truth about poverty only arguments.
you can not describe poverty as one condition rather there are many ways you can describe what poverty is and it will not be the same for each country or city
Word origins of Utopia and its double meaning
Eu = the good
Topos = place
Ou = not so it can also mean nowhere
Double meaning where the antithesis is enclosed within the world, pointing out an irony about utopias.
It is ironic because utopian visons strive for harmony but often fail to account for the complexities and contradictions of human nature and society.
The garden city, its origins and principles
Ebenezer Howard - presented it to capture the primary benefits of the countryside and the city while avoiding the disadvantages presented by both.
Self contained communities, so residents have access to employment, housing, recreation, nature, - all in a compact, walkable layout.
Limited size, mixed land use, limited government intervention, affordable housing
Jane Jacob’s critique of the Garden City
Garden City and City Beautiful movements are anti-urban
urban density and mixed uses create a rich neighborhood life but also create heterogeneity. Not only is diversity important but innovation, growth, jobs, new ideas of politics, leisure, integration, etc.
jacobs argued that we don’t need new cities for the upper middle class. The need to invest in the ones we already have
towards a vision is a feudal one. it separates members of the city by class and status. Howard wanted everyone to know their place and to accept their prescribed roles. Not how reality works
Utopian Planning Solutions to Urban Problems
Tend to be focused on establishing a sense of physical order or aesthetic beauty over social and political solutions
open space movement, garden city movement, broadacre city
Ebenezer Howards three magnets : Town, Country, Town-Country
Sir Charles Booth’s survey/map
mapped out distribution of wealth and poverty across London
color coded, darker colors were higher levels of poverty
extreme pockets of poverty were alongside rich parts
Jacob Rii’s contribution to urban studies
“how the other half lives: studies among the tenements of New York”
photographed living conditions of urban poor in NYC
Exposed urban poverty
advocated social reforms for improved housing, sanitations, and public health in urban areas
Settlement House movement : Jane Addams
Goal was to bring the rich and poor together in physical proximity and social connection
created settlement houses where workers could live and share culture and learn from the upper classes
was based on charity and upper middle class ideals not citizenships or activism
many of the ideas for example are here today in mixed income housing
Believed that there is a culture of poverty
addressing poverty means that people need to break the culture of poverty by learning new values and culture
settlement houses were places where upper classes could mingle and reform this culture of poor
How early urban planning used arguments about a culture of poverty and why it debunked
Believed that there is a culture of poverty
addressing poverty means that people need to break the culture of poverty by learning new values and culture
settlement houses were places where upper classes could mingle and reform this culture of poor
It was debunked since poverty was not that simple and it did not contribute to the many factors that apply to the idea of poverty
1879 tenement housing law
one of the earliest attempts in NYC to address deplorable living conditions
minimum standard for construction of tenement buildings
room size and occupancy, limit number of people, minimum room dimensions
The dumbbell apartment tenement design and what led to its development
a specific tenement design that had room in-between rooms to let light and ventilation.
reasons: population growth, utilizing all the space available, building codes and regulations, economic considerations, using the maximum of the space while maintaining all of the codes
Urban physical determinism
The physical environment is a determining factor in promoting social evils like poverty, disease, and congestion. The assumption was that if you eradicate the physical determinants, you eradicate the social problems
saying that physical principles in cities have a deterministic influence on the social side of the city
WEB Dubois and how he used the concept of heterogeneity
prominent figure in the early civil rights movement. First African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard. NAACP
Heterogeneity challenged prevailing notions of racial essentialism and emphasized the diversity and complexity of African American communities
a heterogeneous group of monolithic groups between three categories: class religion and politics
Dubois’ categories of 7th ward diversity
class, religion, politics, education
How heterogeneity challenges arguments about a culture of poverty
recognition of diverse circumstances. some people are in poverty because their background, health, or circumstances while other is due to systematic barriers like discrimination and lack of opportunities
Heterogeneity challenges that poverty is not solely the result of a personal failing
Fordist economic model of production
Fordism - inventing the assembly line
Shift in industrial production from complete manufacture by each worker or group of workers to assembly line manufacture
Fordism was not only about reorganizing the workplace it was also a national growth system.
workers got paid a middle-class wage
they could buy the things they made
the industrial workforce was also the customers who would create demand for goods
based on a compromise between capital and labor
Vertically oriented: produce everything you need to make a product. A manufacturer who makes a part of something. Every aspect of your product is oriented in a vertical hierarchy. Was told was inefficient and changed to flexible specialization
The great migration
Mass movement of African Americans from rural South to urban areas in the North and West of US.
Push Factors: segregation laws, racial violence, economic exploitation, limited opportunities for education and economic advancement
Pull Factors: perceived opportunities, political participation, social mobility
Impact: growth of African American communities and emergence of new cultural expressions and institutions
Contributed to the growth of civil rights organizations
Feminization / racialization of labor
women make up an increasingly large portion of the global workforce. Also due to WW2
women’s work is falsely considered to be supplemental income to the household
biological differences used to justify social inequalities
The logic of social construction of value extends to immigrant men and men of color
the social construction of skill
skills that are valued and rewarded in one society or time may differ from those valued in another
Example: in the past, farming and animals may have been highly valued, now it’s technology and managerial skills.
Often shaped by social hierarchies and power dynamics. Like male-dominated fields (engineering or finance) being regarded higher than traditionally female-dominated professions (nursing, teaching)
Vertical Orientation
When everything that a business does is produced in a house.
Related to Fordism, based off the ideas that workers were also consumers of the products they made, therefore they produced the demand for the products they made
Workers are on both sides of the economic equation, they are both producing and consuming
The compromise between labor and capital
negotiated agreement or understanding between labor unions and employers
wage bargaining
Job Security and Stability
Workplace Regulations
It may also involve social welfare programs (unemployment insurance) and political accommodation (both agree to support certain legislative or policy initiatives)
The entire US economy is based on a less secure and lower-paying population which makes household debt an all-time high. Debt economy. To have a middle-class life they need to go into debt. Education has become more expensive and privatized.
Flexible specialization
departure from traditional mass production models
ability of firms to adapt and respond quickly to changes in market demand, technological advancements, and competitive pressures
diverse product lines - specialize in many products instead of one
modular production processes - can easy reconfigure or adapt to other products
customization and variety
decentralization and capital mobility
part of the deindustrialization has to do what economists always argued but they also take out massive parts of the story especially the power of organizing and the role of racism and sexism in deindustrialization
Government investment in postwar transportation infrastructure and technological advancements in transportation made decentralization possible.
The location became less of a factor
Land in major cities was becoming more expensive
Labor markets in the South were still significantly cheaper than in the North. Companies like GM and Ford saw opportunities to move production there. This would eventually set the stage for moving offshore
The industrial workplace was far too dangerous when it was run purely on human labor. Automation of key parts of the job made it safer but at the same time reduced the number of employees at firms.
The story of capital mobility - a fancy term for capitalists who suddenly found ways to reduce their costs by decentralizing their industry away from cities into suburban cores and rural south and new cities.
What the economists got wrong: Decentralization and deindustrialization was also a story about
Social relations changed by changes in production
The inscription of gender and race into our systems of flexible work
Changes to the American Dream and evisceration of the middle class
Fundamentally changed the spital makeup of our cities and suburbs
Created a racialized inner-city poverty
capital immobility and capital mobility
Capital immobility: When a firm's location is limited or determined by either input ( raw materials ) or outputs the market or transportation costs, or a combination of any of the three
Capital mobility: When a firm is not bound or limited to locate near either inputs or outputs or is limited by transportation costs
impact of automation on union work
Job displacement
Changes in skill requirements - usually increase in technical, digital, and problem-solving
Spatial consequences of deindustrialization
Massive unemployment
Suburbanization and white flight ( white people moving out of urban areas into suburban areas)
Racial banishment and inner-city decline
Loss of tax baes for cities many go bankrupt and have a fiscal crisis
No infrastructure improvements - lead to manmade disasters and increased inequality
A new insecure workforce based on a service economy
Public housings origins in the US
New Deal. addressing the country’s housing and infrastrucutre needs
New deal housing programs: PWA, GI bill
PWA: Public Works administration: established in 1933 as a way to reduce unemployment and increase purchasing power through the construction of highways and public buildings
The GI Bill denied rights to housing and other critical entitlements to over one million African Americans. his bill was created during the Roosevelt administration as a way to provide WW2 veterans with funds for a college education, unemployment insurance, and housing.
Two tiered system of public housing
two tiered system → dominant private market and a growing public housing system reserved for only the very poorest
Equal opportunity in housing act and its effects
law prohibits people or entities that provide housing from discrimination against or harassing tenants
segregation in public housing
The HOLC used to rank neighborhoods on a scale from low risk to high risk, drawing red lines around nonwhite neighborhoods (redlining)
Redlining: A discriminatory practice of denying loans or services within a specific geographic area due to the race or ethnicity of its residents
racially restrictive covenants
Suburban housing builders used massive federal subsidies (public taxpayer dollars) to build suburban homes with built in rules in the deeds, this forbade sale to any nonwhite buyers
White flight
white people moving out of urban areas into suburban areas.
some feared the presence of minority populations in their neighborhood
racially segregated housing patterns pushed the minorities in a certain area which then the whites feared
some white families did not want the integrated schooling which mixed white and black
saw the postwar boom and wanted to live in big houses in the suburban area since it was cheaper
transportation made it easy to go to the urban cities from suburban areas
suburbanization and postwar suburban housing boom
basically what I said in White flight
Redlining
A discriminatory practice of denying loans or services within a specific geographic area due to the race or ethnicity of its residents
The federal home owners loan corporation or HOLC would rank neighborhoods on a scale of low risk to high risk and would draw red lines around nonwhite neighborhoods, making it impossible for nonwhites and especially African Americans, to secure a home ownership loan, even if they made more money than their white counterparts
Racially restrictive covenants
builders of suburban housing used massive federal subsidies to build suburban homes that had rules built into their deeds, forbidding sale to any nonwhite buyers
Design and planning problems with Pruitt Igoe and public housing
the tall tower design although attractive failed to consider the social and psychological implications for the low-income residents. it became isolated and socially disconnected
Lack of community spaces
poor maintenance and management
social segregation: they are it was built in segregated and further isolated
displacement of existing communities: demolition of the old existing neighborhood displaced African Americans and disrupted their established social networks and support systems
Lack of tenant involvement
Inadequate transportation and infrastructure
Suburban block design
Design Flaws in public housing
super block design: disconnected from the broader community
disconnected from employment centers
deindustrialization in full swing unemployment was on the rise
maintenance was based on rents an not factored into the original investment. Led to decay and poor upkeep
The Myth of Pruitt Igoe, according to Katharine Bristol
She stated that it is a myth that the Pruitt Igoe’s demise was only its architectural design but actually had more factors like social, economic, and political context.
She argues that racial and economic inequalities played a significant role in the challenges faced by residents of Pruitt-Igoe.
Homeownership mortgage tax deduction
a subsidy (a sum of money granted by the government ) to homeowners who can deduct the amount they spend on interest payments on their home loans
Combined with redlining, it underwrote white flight from the city and suburbanization on the periphery
This is the biggest form of welfare ever given in the history of the US
Problems with the federal housing voucher program
Federal housing voucher program: coupon that low-income people could spend only on rent. Idea was the poor could use the private market to find their own housing with a little help.
Problem with the voucher program: Burden of affordable housing was then shifted to landlords who had no interest in providing affordable housing (also made it harder to refute housing discrimination).
Choice and Poverty
Poverty is not a choice. Anytime you hear the word choice appear in a policy having to do with access to resources it should trigger alarm bells
Revanchist urbanism / revanchist city
Revanchist city: When the inner city becomes an object of desire for both capital and for those who fled the city in the era of deindustrialization
Revanchism: a policy seeking to retaliate especially to recover lost territory.
Eviction’s tolls on low income families
when housing prices increase it incentivizes property owners and landlords to evict tenants who utilized the affordable housing and housing vouchers
many of these new rates are too high for the voucher program to match
“Care not cash” and its hidden problems
San Francisco ballot measure sponsored by Gavin Newsom designed to cut the money given in the general assistance programs to homeless people in exchange for shelters and other forms of service
I’m guessing the problem was that its not permanent so it does not solve homelessness at all
Physical determinism and homelessness
urban design can be a visible stigma to the homeless people
homeless communities may be spatially segregated and pushed into areas that are concentrated with these communities
the perception of homelessness and its stigma may change the plan of design. Such as security measures
physical determinism can also affect the access to service for the homeless such as transportation or providers
housing policies in the area can affect the homeless communities. they may overlook homelessness as a whole . For example gentrification and urban renewal projects may push these people away without fixing and addressing the root causes of homelessness and providing aid.
These are ideas from the class slides and not 100% accurate
Gentrification
Is not an organic process
gentrification is made by government investment
gentrification is made possible by legislating and enforcing certain laws
gentrification happens through homeless policy
Indicators of gentrification
Physical transformation. Aesthetic dispositions of middle-class people
Increasing housing prices and home sales and physical upgrades and infrastructure.
Amenities and infrastructure
Tenure transformation from renting to ownership
Social transformation
Three key propositions on consumption driven gentrification
Structure changes to the economy and its drivers
cultural consumption
demographics
David Ley
Structural changes to the economy and its drivers
Structures of the economy changed
Tech and high-income professional
Young professionals delaying marriage and children
Young professional class has extra money to spend on amenities
Creates a high demand for upper-class consumption goods,
This group follows cultural producers in the city
A lot of influence on school performances by the middle class
Comprised of young professionals without having to spend it on child and consumption goods
Liminality
studies that examine grey areas
liminal studies are concerned with spaces, people, and things that exist and negotiate in the in-between
Liminality as a concept: When people places or things are caught in the contradictory spaces between at least two different organizing logic
Attractive space vs unattractive space
Dangerous vs safe
Disordered vs ocean and sanitized
Poverty vs rich
Homeless vs household
Rent Gap Theory
Gap between actual value of property and potential value of property
Investors can buy low in order to sell high
Affordability crises and housing precarity
Affordability Crises: Affordability crises occur when a significant portion of a population struggles to afford adequate housing. Several factors contribute to affordability crises
Housing Precarity: Housing precarity refers to the precarious or unstable living conditions experienced by individuals and families who are housing insecure
This is chat GPT i had 0 notes and there was no slide for them
Housing precarity and homelessness
Housing precarity is a risk factor of homelessness
a cycle of homelessness: creating a pathway to homelessness can make housing precarity worse and lead to more homelessness
both of these things attack vulnerable populations such as, low income families, people with disabilities, youth, and individuals experiencing mental health disorders. May have barriers accessing stable housing therefore risking homelessness
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