http://faculty.bemidjistate.edu/mlawrence/plannings15.pdf
Updated 24 March (Exam #3 rescheduled- see below).
GEOG 2400 (01): Introduction to Planning
Course ID# 155707
Spring 2015, T&H 12:00-13:15, Hagg-Sauer 245
Mark Lawrence, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Box 23, 239 Hagg-Sauer Hall
Office hours: M/W/F 10:30 – 11:30, T&H 09:00 – 11:30
Progress may have been all right once, but it went on too long.
-- Ogden Nash.
Description and Rationale: Designed for the Liberal Education Program (categories 5 and 9) and those
pursuing a professional degree in Geography, this course introduces students to the background and
fundamentals of the community planning process. We will try this semester to investigate some of the more
significant implications and consequences of planning in several American cities, including but not limited to
concerns about the “disabling city”, life – stage issues in the city, new urban semiotics, and changing
applications of eminent domain law. Attention will also be paid to variation in planning cultures overseas, and
to the crucial themes of managing “emergent urbanism” in the so-called developing world.
By concluding these investigations satisfactorily, students completing this course should be able to…
1. …obtain a basic knowledge of the history and context of public planning in the United States.
2. …understand the nature and scope of various substantive areas of planning.
3. …learn the components of the comprehensive planning process.
4. …develop a basic understanding of data collection and database assembly.
5. …develop a basic understanding of data analysis and plan formulation.
6. …understand the role of government in planning.
7. …understand the differences between urban planning, regional planning, and national planning.
8. …appreciate the salient features of contemporary debates over planning theory.
Students with an interest in the Geography B.S. degree specializing in Planning should be aware that this is the
first course of a sequence of five which are central to the major. Some areas of particular attention are
indicated below:
GEOG2400:
GEOG3550/5550:
Introduction
to Planning
Site and Resource
Analysis in Planning
GEOG3560/5560: GEOG3570/5570:
Metropolitan Land
Use Planning
Public Lands
Planning
GEOG3580/5580:
Regional
Development
Planning
Eminent
domain
Environmental
regulation
Metropolitan
planning
Public Lands law
Climate change
International
planning
Urban
planning
Utilities management
Land use controls
National planning
Emergent urbanism
Energy planning
Smart growth
Rural planning
Social
planning
Construction ecology
Transportation
planning
Water rights
Urban biodiversity
Nongovernmental
organizations
Economic planning
The grading scale for this course is as follows:
A = 90% or greater
B = 80 – 89%
C = 70 – 79%
D = 60 – 69%
F = 59% or less
§
4 exams (10% each, 40% total)
§
5 assignments (60% total)
100% total, or 117% with extra credit
Be advised that absolutely NO late work will be accepted.
Each exam (each 10% of the course grade) will be comprised of matching (20 pts), true-false (20 pts), and
multiple-choice (60 pts) items. Exams will cover lectures, assigned chapters of the Levy textbook, and any
videos shown, with special emphasis placed on any case studies relevant for each exam. The exams are not
deliberately comprehensive, though some overlap and scaffolding of concepts is unavoidable.
Five assignments will give you a glimpse at some of the major issues confronting planners. These assignments
may be worked on in teams (indeed, Assignment #5 must be worked on in teams), with one finished product
turned in for the team.
“A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.” (Aristotle)
Assignment #1 (8%): Density
“Los Angeles is 72 suburbs in search of a city.” (Dorothy Parker)
Assignment #2 (10%): Zoning
“In Rome you long for the country; in the country oh inconstant! you praise the distant city to the stars.”
(Horace)
Assignment #3 (12%): Design
“We must stop talking about the American Dream and start listening to the dreams of Americans.”
(Reubin Askew)
Assignment #4 (16%): Semiotics
“Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.” (Doug Larson)
Assignment #5 (14%): Takings
Extra credit is available at least six times during the semester. Twice during the semester, you can earn extra
credit by completing a survey about community planning interests. Each of these surveys is worth an
additional 2.5% of your final course grade and is due at specific times during the course. Four times during the
semester, you can earn extra credit by reading at least one current-events article pertaining to planning or
urban affairs. These articles must come from a recent (i.e., no more than a month old) edition of one of the
following newspapers: Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall
Street Journal, Washington Post, or Minneapolis Star Tribune. A response to the article(s) at a minimum must
include the following {a} a copy of the article itself, {b} a summary in no more than 1 page of the background of
the article (which will likely require some research on your part), and {c} a summary in no more than one page
of your reaction to the article. Each of these extra-credit responses will be worth up to 3% addition to your
final course grade.
TEXTS:
Campo, D. (2013) Accidental playground: Brooklyn waterfront narratives of the undesigned and
unplanned, Bronx, NY: Fordham University Press, ISBN-10: 0823251861; ISBN-13: 978-0823251865.
Levy, John M. (2012) Contemporary urban planning, 10th edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Prentice-Hall, ISBN-13: 9780205851737.
FIRST NOTE: While we will read almost all of the Levy book, we will not read it in its entirety. Also, we will not read either
book in order. Texts are available for purchase at the BSU bookstore.
SECOND NOTE: Students with an interest in the Geography B.S. degree specializing in Planning should retain the Levy book
for future use, as every other course in the core sequence assumes familiarity with it. Chapters 12, 13, and 15 in particular
are covered in more depth in subsequent courses in the degree sequence.
Course Schedule
(Subject to change)
I. Foundations of Planning
(13 – 29 January)
A. Arguments for and
against planning.
A:
Campo, prologue and chapter 1.
Case study: Providence, RI.
B. The urbanization of
America.
Case studies: Detroit, MI
and Chicago, IL.
A&B:
Levy, chapters 2, 3, 4, & 17.
“A common mistake people make when trying to design something foolproof
is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”
-- Douglas Adams
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”
-- Edward Abbey
Thursday, 15 January: Extra-credit planning survey part 1 due
Tuesday, 27 January: Assignment #1 due
Thursday, 29 January: Extra-credit news response #1 due
Thursday, 29 January: EXAM #1
II. Implementing Planning
(3 – 24 February)
A. Local possibilities and
constraints.
Case study: 2014 Greater
Bemidji Area Zoning and
Subdivision Ordinance
(don’t download- it’s 250
pages long!)
Zoning map here.
A:
Campo, chapter 2
A&B:
Levy, chapters 9 & 16.
“One generation plants the tree; another gets the shade.”
-- Chinese proverb
B. Metropolitan and
regional possibilities and
constraints.
No case study.
“Bureaucracy gives birth to itself and then expects maternity benefits.”
-- Dale Dauten
Video:
A Crack in the Pavement (27 minutes)
[CHANGED DATE:] Tuesday, 24 February: Assignment #2 due
Tuesday, 24 February: Extra-credit news response #2 due
[CHANGED DATE:] Thursday, 26 February: EXAM #2
III. Contexts of Planning
(26 February – 7 April)
A. Urban design and
semiotics.
A:
Campo, chapters 3, 4, & 5
No case study.
Levy, chapters 8 & 10.
B. Managing growth and
social issues in planning.
“I would never belong to a group that would accept someone like me as a
member.”
No case study.
-- Groucho Marx
B:
Campo, chapters 6 & 7
Levy, chapters 7, 11, & 14.
“Nobody goes there anymore- it’s too crowded.”
-- Yogi Berra
Video:
Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (58 minutes)
Tuesday 10 and Thursday 12 March: NO CLASSES (Spring Break)
Thursday, 19 March: Assignment #3 due
Tuesday, 31 March: Extra-credit news response #3 due
[CHANGED DATE:] Tuesday, 7 April: EXAM #3
IV.Challenges to Planning
(9 – 23 April)
A. Public control of
private property.
A:
Campo, chapters 8 & 9
Levy, chapters 5 & 6.
Case studies from
Assignment #5.
B. Planning cultures and
emergent urbanism.
“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a
dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
-- George Washington
“Slums may well be the breeding grounds of crime, but middle class suburbs
are incubators of apathy and delirium.”
-- Cyril Connolly
Video:
The Garden (80 minutes)
Thursday, 9 April: Assignment #4 due
Thursday, 23 April: Assignment #5 due
Thursday, 23 April: Extra-credit planning survey part 2 due
Thursday, 23 April: Extra-credit news response #4 due
Tuesday, 28 April: No DAY classes
13:00-15:00 Thursday, 7 May: EXAM #4