Seminar on Urban Politics
Government 284
Public Policy and Administration 284

Spring 2000
Dr. Michael Semler

How different is urban life in America at the start of the 21^st Century than it was at the start of the Twentieth? This seminar explores the major themes facing the urban community and the political consequences which their interactions produce. We will focus on major themes confronting urban and suburban life, and pay particular attention to the new American city, Los Angeles, in contrast to the ultimate 20^th Century city, New York. Indeed, will Los Angeles be the model of the new urban community? Or is it the urbanized suburb?

Obviously, we have a great many images of cities and city life: as a system, as a tree, the engine or locale of economic development, a place of conflict, its people, or as a spreading, uncontrollable morass. Quite often these images produce a view of the city as an inhospitable place or something with problems – a place to retreat from. Others view the city as a liberating place, a center of culture and civilization.

Scholars studying urban life and the city have examined their subject(s) from two distinct perspectives: viewing the City and what occurs within it as one independent variable helping to explain variations in political, social and economic life, or, conversely, as the dependent variable by explaining how cities vary as a result of a dynamic interaction among those same political, social and economic conditions. Like many dichotomies, this division may appear superficial, and we know that the relationships are not linear. Politics and the political decision making process reflects the tensions which take place in the city. My objective in this class is to explore the issues facing American cities to understand how politics becomes part of the mix.

Banfield, Edward C., The Unheavenly City revisited, Waveland Press, 1990

Clarke, Susan and Gary Gaile, The Work of Cities, University of Minnesota Press, 1998

Jacobs, Jane, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Vintage, 1961

LeGates, Richard and Frederic Stout, eds., The City Reader, 2^nd ed., Routledge, 2000 (Referred to as Reader)

Scott, Allen and Edward Soja, eds., The City; Los Angeles and Urban Theory at the End of the Twentieth Century, University of California Press, 1996 (Referred to as The City)

Additional materials will be distributed during class.

1. This is a seminar. As you know, this presumes that you will read the assigned materials prior to the class meeting and be prepared to discuss the materials in a relevant manner. Because a substantial number of your colleagues are employed on a full time basis, I respect the demands for balancing various expectations. But I have difficulty with students believing that they can talk freely, i.e. without basis or relevancy, about the subject(s) under discussion. In short, be prepared as best you can. Fifteen (15) percent of your class grade is dependent upon careful, reasonable and "enthusiastic" participation in the seminar. All of us benefit if you contribute.

2. Each week I would like you to prepare a 2 to 3 page critique of one or more of the articles or materials assigned for reading. This critique or discussion can focus on a particular theme common to the readings, it may concentrate on one issue, or it may analyze a specific problem which the reading has stimulated. While I want you to be "creative and imaginative", it is best if you base your discussion/argument on specific issues and present real data. This is not a speculative piece on urban life or some aspects of it. Forty percent of your grade is dependent on these essays.

3. By the end of the 12^th session, I want you to have written a detailed, research paper using empirical data analyzing one or more aspects of urban/suburban life. This is a research paper, not a theory piece. It needs to make an argument or test a hypothesis. I want you to analyze an issue which deals with urban life; this is a broad definition. The empirical data you use can be broadly defined to include historical research. In one month, by the first week of March, you need to give me a one or two paragraph statement about your proposed paper: the subject and the type of data you will seek to substantiate your points. Forty five percent of your grade will be the result of this effort.

I will distribute a copy of "Tale of Three Cities," National Geographic Magazine, August 1999 for discussion during class. What is your view of the city? What do you believe are the policy implications represented by this view? Is a suburban part of the city or America’s urban life?

from The City Reader: Davis, p.3, Mumford, p.92, and Sitte, p. 466

from The City, articles by Soja and Scott (1) and Dear (4)

"Los Angeles Past Imperfect" Urban Affairs Quarterly, September 1993, to be distributed

"Atrium Cities, Pollution Free" by Sidney Schaer, reprint to be distributed

from The City Reader, Part 1

from The City, article by Mike Davis (6)

Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Introduction and Parts 1 and 2

Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Parts 3 and 4

from The Reader, Part 2

from The City, article by Richard Weinstein (2)

from The Reader, Part 3 and Part 7

from The City, articles by Charles Jencks (3), Fitzimmons and Gottlieb (7), and Molotch (8)

Edward Banfield, The Unheavenly City Revisited, entire book.

from The City, articles by Ong(10), Anderson (11), Rocco (12), and Wolch (13)

Clarke and Gaile, read The Introduction, Chapters 1, 2, and 3, and Appendices A and B

Clarke and Gaile, read Chapters 4 - 8

from The City, article by Scott (9)

from The Reader, Part 5 and Part 6

from The City, article by Wachs (5)

from The Reader, Part 4

William Schneider, "The Suburban Century Begins", The Atlantic, July 1992, to be distributed

from The Reader, Part 8

from The City, article by Soja (14)

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