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Urban Planning 523: Regional Planning
Winter Semester, 2008
Fridays 1:30 - 4:30 PM
2222 Art & Arch Bldg.

Prof. Scott Campbell (home page) • College of Architecture and Urban Planning • University Of Michigan  • sdcamp@umich.edu  • office:  2225C A&AB  • (734) 763-2077  • office hours signup page  • class listserv

last modified: Thursday, January 10, 2008

links:
course overview
assignments

Links on this page (by module):
1. History and Politics of Regionalism
2. Chicago
3. New York
4. Los Angeles
5. Ecoregions
6. Megaregions
7. Global Regions

Jan 4:   Introduction

Jan 11 - 18:    The History and Politics of Regional Planning (MODULE 1)

Katz, Bruce, ed. 2000. Reflections on Regionalism. Washington, DC: Brookings.

Chapter 1: Henry R. Richmond, "Metropolitan Land-Use Reform: The Promise and Challenge of Majority Consensus" pdf

Chapter 2: Robert Yaro, "Growing and Governing Smart: A Case Study of the New York Region" pdf

Chapter 3: David Rusk, "Growth Management: The Core Regional Issue" pdf

Chapter 4: Robert Fishman , "The Death and Life of American Regional Planning" pdf

Chapter 5: Margaret Weir , "Coalition Building for Regionalism" pdf

Chapter 6: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, "Business Coalitions as a Force for Regionalism" pdf

Katz, Bruce, ed. 2000. Reflections on Regionalism. Washington, DC: Brookings.

Chapter 7: Kenneth T. Jackson, "Gentleman's Agreement: Discrimination in Metropolitan America"

Chapter 8: john a. powell , "Addressing Regional Dilemmas for Minority Communities"

Chapter 9: Paul Dimond, "Empowering Families to Vote with Their Feet"

Jan 18:  
Response Paper 1 due. Question: Various authors in this module's readings have observed a historic shift in regional planning from the early postwar period to the present. Discuss the (a) characteristics and (b) causes of this shift. Does this transformation in regional planning simply represent the pursuit of the same regional goals by different means, or instead the pursuit of dramatically different goals? If you argue for the latter, how have goals changed? (In other words: Imagine a Rip Van Winkle scenario: a regional planner falls asleep in the A&AB in 1970 and wakes up in 2008. How would you concisely explain how and why the field has changed since the 1960s?)

Jan 25 - Feb 1:  Case Study: Chicago -- Regional Network Formation and the City as Catalyst for Regional Development (MODULE 2)

Feb 1:    CHI GROUP PRESENTATION: Chicago and Regional Networks
Response Paper 2 due. Question: Chicago built and exploited new infrastructures (canals, rail, telegraph, etc.) to place itself at the center (or at least as the gateway) of a massive new economic network. However, Chicago would later lose this advantage of centrality in various economic sectors. In your essay, use Cronon's text to examine Chicago's eventual loss of various economic functions that it had once dominated. Discuss both the timing and the causes of this decline. Differentiate between various sectors (e.g., lumber, grain, pork, beef, rail, commodity trading, manufacturing, etc.). Would other cities rise to take Chicago's place, or were these functions simply decentralized (or demoted in importance)?

Feb 8 - 15:  Case study:  New York -- Regionalism as the Complex Overlapping of Jurisdictions and Institutions (MODULE 3)

Feb 15: NYC GROUP PRESENTATION: New York
Response Paper 3 due. Answer EITHER Question

(A) A leitmotif of this course is the advantages of regional coordination and planning to overcome myopic localism, fragmentation and inequality. Yet an apparent subcurrent of Benjamin and Nathan's analysis is the downside of regionalism, and the loss of important local activities when the scale of government gets too large (even when a city itself, such as New York, gets too large). In your essay, articulate and then critique the authors' view of regionalism vs. localism. How does regional governance in the New York region either respect and/or undermine positive local government and governance?

(B) Benjamin and Nathan (2001) note that "equity arguments to promote collaboration -- urging fairness between races and classes -- rarely work" [p. 30]. They go on to argue that "social equity is best advanced as a by-product of regional reform, not as its social focus" [p. 32]. In your essay, examine how the authors use the various case studies in the New York region to support this argument. Do you agree or disagree with their conclusion? Explain why. Finally, briefly discuss whether their conclusion replicates or contradicts other writings in the course so far (e.g., Katz et al.).

Feb 22 - March 7:  Case study: Los Angeles -- the Suburban Metropolis (MODULE 4)        (Note: no class Feb 29 Mid-Semester Break)

March 7:   LA GROUP PRESENTATION: Los Angeles
Response Paper 4 due. Answer EITHER Question

(A)  In the New York case study, Benjamin and Nathan emphasized the central role of the Port Authority, the various transportation agencies, the three state governments, the RPA, etc., in regional governance.   What are the critical agencies and institutions that influence regional governance in the greater Los Angeles area?   Does the region have a distinctively different structure of regional governance than found elsewhere (e.g., Chicago or New York or Detroit)?   If so, what might explain the LA region's distinctiveness (geography, its recent history, water, California government structures, the role of the automobile, the nature of LA's growth machine, etc.)?  

(B)  "The dynamics driving growth were regional, but opposition to growth was local.  People might vote against development in their neighborhood or in their small municipality, but they probably won't vote against sweeping restrictions all across the region …"   (Fulton 2001, 62). In your essay, examine why Fulton makes this argument. What examples does he use (in this chapter and throughout the book) to support this claim?  Is this an accurate assessment of the gap between local and regional politics?  Finally, do you think this is a dynamic distinctive to Los Angeles, or a more universal dynamic found in most major American regions? 

March 14 - March 21: Ecoregions: regional planning as a tool of environmental planning, habitat preservation and sustainability (MODULE 5)

March 21:   ECO GROUP PRESENTATION: Ecoregions
Response Paper 5 due. Answer EITHER Question

(a) One typically thinks of regional planning as the activity of regional economists, resource managers, infrastructure planners;  by contrast, design is often viewed as an activity that can best (or only) be done at a small scale (e.g., the neighborhood).  However, Calthorpe and Fulton argue that creating the "regional city" should be an act of design.   In your essay, examine why the authors assert the importance of design (over, for example, "engineering", p. 43).  How does a design approach/mentality lead to a different type of regional planning than a typical policy/planning approach?  What are the advantages and drawbacks of the design approach to regionalism? 

(b) Benjamin and Nathan (2001) had argued that equity arguments for regional planning rarely work.   Can the same be said about environmental protection arguments?  Consider the range of examples from this module's readings:  to what extent have environmental concerns been effective in promoting regional planning and building powerful regional coalitions?  And are all regional environmental arguments equally effective (or ineffective), or is there variation (e.g., habitat preservation vs. watershed protection vs. public health concerns vs. open space as amenity, etc.).

Mar 28 :    Megaregions (MODULE 6)

Mar 28 :   MEGA GROUP PRESENTATION: Megaregions
no response paper due this week.

April 4: Global-regions; International Cases of Regional Planning (MODULE 7)

April 11: Course Synthesis & Potluck Lunch Discussion

TASK: Each student is to come to class with a one-page sheet (with enough copies for the class) of 5-7 lessons / principles about regional planning and development. (Format: a numbered list; each lesson / principle should be one or several sentences long.) If useful, you might also include a map, diagram, or illustration.