Urban 2002 Fall - Distinguishing the Planner's Identity

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY URBAN PLANNING PROGRAM MAGAZINE

vOL.6 + nO.1 + fALL 2002

Distinguishing the Planner’s Identity

FELLOW PLANNERS,

Table of Contents

2

A Closer Look at the “Public Interest” [aBBE vERNICK]

5

Planning Efforts in India [cHERISHMA sHAH]

9

Housing in Peace [kOVID sAXENA]

10

An Examination of the E.F. Schumacher Society and Its Enterprises in Land Reform [cHRISTINE gRIMANDO]

13

What’s Left for the Planner? [gRACE hAN]

15

Boutiques in the Barrio [jOEL fERREE]

17

Bullet Proof [jOSÉ rOBERTO vENTURA]

19

Bridging the Gap in GSAPP [sUSAN gLADSTONE]

20

The High Line Reborn [gARY rOTH]

We’ve enjoyed being the editors and being on the staff of URBAN for the past two years, and we thank everyone for their patience, contributions, and support.

21

My Evolution into a First-Year Planning Student [dAVID rECHT]

bRENDA + gRACE

23

KINNE Report: Dominical, Costa Rica [cUZ pOTTER]

24

KINNE Report: Amsterdam/Rotterdam [sUSAN gLADSTONE]

25

KINNE Report: Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica [lISA fISHER]

26

Trading Places [mOSTA bANGUIYABO]

27

Urban Planning Students

We would also like to welcome our new Assistant Director Nancy Degnan, a PhD graduate of the program. She has been involved with the School of International and Public Affairs for many years, and now her help and guidance extends to Urban Planning. We greatly appreciate her proactive attitude and support of our needs and concerns.

Finally, we are excited to welcome Dr. Susan Fainstein as a full-time professor.

The second-years had the pleasure of being her Planning Theory students in Spring 2002, and now this fall for Redevelopment Policy. We profiled her in the previous issue, so please look in the past URBAN to read her in-depth interview.

This issue of URBAN focuses on distinguishing the planner’s identity, both as students and as professionals. This is especially timely for us because of Columbia’s current reaccreditation process. The first three articles address the ethics of planning, planning in India, and the E.F. Schumacher Society’s advancements in land reform, each describing different scenarios planners face and how they can be confronted and resolved in a conscientious way. We also have op-ed pieces on planning Lower Manhattan, the High Line in Chelsea, and the changing nature of the Lower East Side and São Paulo, Brazil. There are also personal planning reflections based on trips to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and a student’s journey from being a highway engineer to becoming a highway planner. Finally, we end with Kinne Reports illustrating three different journeys, two trips to Costa Rica and one to Amsterdam. Our challenge as planning students is to prepare for the continually changing nature of physical and social landscapes, and of the planning profession as a whole.

URBAN STAFF bRENDA cHO + gRACE hAN [eDITORS] lISA fISHER [aRT dIRECTOR] jENNIFER dICKSON jOEL fERREE cYNTHIA gOLEMBESKI jENNIFER mOST gARY rOTH

2

It’s another school year here at Columbia University, where the facilities and program are continually improving. First, we’d like to welcome the new MSUP class of 2004, a bright and diverse group. We’ve all enjoyed chatting about planning and the program, and further exploring the city together. Once again, there is a biography section at the end, to provide background on some of our fellow students, where they’ve been and where they want to go.

A Closer Look at the “Public Interest” aBBE vERNICK In 1981, the American Planning Association (APA) adopted the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

The Code’s standards of behavior provides a basis for adjudging any charge that a member has acted unethically. The Code does not set a minimum threshold of enforceable acceptability but rather it sets aspirational standards that require conscious action (APA, 1981: 1). The first principle of the Code is that a planner’s primary obligation is to serve the public interest.

The Code states, “While the definition of the public interest is formulated through continuous debate, a planner owes allegiance to a conscientiously attained concept of the public interest” (APA, 1981:1). William H. Lucy argues that the APA’s statement about serving the public interest is insignificant. According to Lucy, this principle is a naive and overly simplistic ideal. He claims that the term “the public interest” needs to be elaborated because, “some will conclude from the simplicity of its expression that nothing remains to be discussed” (Lucy, 1988: 479).

While I agree with Lucy that the APA uses the term “the public interest” with minimalism, I do not think the simplicity prohibits discussion. Rather I argue that “the public interest” guides the discourse of planners and planning theorists. Fainstein and Campbell imply that reconsidering the public interest is the task of planning theory (Campbell, 1996: 11). Moreover, the Code itself states, “Systematic discussion of the application of these principles among planners and with the public is itself essential to bring the Code into use” (APA, 1981: 1).

>

“The public interest” is a term like “the econom y ” o r “ f a m i l y v a l u e s , ” terms for which there are no clear definitions, but rather d i s c o u r s e and debate concerning their meaning... . Moreover, I a r g u e t h a t universally accepted definitions of terms like “the economy , ” “ f a m i l y v a l u e s , ” and “the public interest” endanger not only the fields o f e c o n o m i c s , family psychology, and planning, but business, e d u c a t i o n , p o l i t i c a l science, and various others. < So, is there a universally accepted definition for “the public interest?” “The public interest” is a term like “the economy” or “family values,” terms for which there are no clear definitions, but rather discourse and debate concerning their meaning.

Many professional fields and academic disciplines are invested in the discourse of the aforementioned terms. Moreover, I argue that universally accepted definitions of terms like “the economy,” “family values,” and “the public interest” endanger not only the fields of economics, family psychology, and planning, but business, education, political science, and various others.

2

There have always been, and will always be infinite intricacies to “the public interest” and how planners serve it. I argue that at no single time will there be a universal definition for “the public interest.” In his argument, Lucy seems to question how planning survived and continues to survive without having a clearly defined purpose.

In my opinion, “the public interest” is the foundation for a set of values that planners hold dear: equal protection and equal opportunity, public space, and a sense of civic community and social responsibility (Campbell, 1996: 10).

A Closer Look at the “Public Interest” [ continued ]

Planning theorists have approached this phantom concept of the public interest from different viewpoints. The incremental planners argue that the excessive complexity of the comprehensive public interest prevents the planner from directly serving it. The advocate planners claim that what was portrayed as the public interest in fact represents merely the interests of the privileged. The post-modernists challenge universal master narratives, such as the master plan, that give voice to a single public interest. Rather, the post-modernists see a heterogeneous population with many voices and interests.

In addition, the persistence of fundamental thinking and community identity based on religious rather than secular, municipal values, undermines the ability to find a consensual public interest.

and Andres Duany define their goals. Unlike communicative planners, who I believe spread their power too thin by trying to please all interested parties, Moses, Tobin, and Duany stay to their course.

Duany is the power behind the New Urbanism movement in planning theory and practice. New Urbanism refers to a design-oriented approach to planned urban development. Duany and his followers promise a better quality of life. They claim that their urban form stimulates neighborliness, community involvement, subjective feelings of integration with one’s environment, and aesthetic satisfaction. New Urbanists stress the substance of plans rather than the method of achieving them.

>

I concede that the complexities of the various public interest g r o u p s m a y c a u s e a s t a l e mate in the planning process. However, some planners have devel o p e d a m e t h o d t o control, and perhaps unify, some of the various interests. While t h e y s t i l l c a n n o t g r a s p “ t h e public interest” they are able to create “a public interest.” < Recently, proponents of communicative planning emphasize the planner as mediator. The planner accepts the multiplicity of interests, combined with an enduring common interest in finding viable, politically legitimate solutions (Campbell, 1996: 10).

In this paper, I examine how planners use the notion of “the public interest” to practice their craft. I am going to explore the different ways in which planners have shaped the term “the public interest” into a manageable form. Planners aspire to fulfill “the public interest” by satisfying “a public interest.” I propose that planners erect models to fulfill the first principle of the APA Code. The first model I discuss I call the “Polemical Model.” The second model, based on David Harvey’s critique of the term “social justice,” I call the “Positionality Model.”

THE POLEMICAL MODEL

A common misconception is that “the public interest” is the role of the majority. Though this may seem true in certain situations, a closer look reveals that “the public interest” depends on the population, the stakeholders, and the time period. People are flexible. Public interest is changing all the time. In today’s society, a new social movement is born every day, shifting the discourse of “the public interest.”

I concede that the complexities of the various public interest groups may cause a stalemate in the planning process. However, some planners have developed a method to control, and perhaps unify, some of the various interests. While they still cannot grasp “the public interest” they are able to create “a public interest.”

3

Campbell and Fainstein write, “The most powerful planners are those who can marshal the resources to effect change and get projects built. They bend the role of the planner and alter the traditional separation between the public and private sector” (Campbell, 1996: 8). Planners, such as Robert Moses, Austin Tobin,

Critics of New Urbanism argue that you can’t buy community and that community is not something that can be packaged and sold as a product. Community evolves over time through social heterogeneity and spontaneity, two elements that New Urbanist communities lack. Additionally, New Urbanists must rely on private developers to build and finance their visions; consequently they are producing exclusive suburbs (Fainstein, 2002: 466).

Despite constant criticism, New Urbanist communities are sprouting up in Florida, Virginia, and other states along the East Coast. There are even waiting lists for homes in some towns. New Urbanism is a planning success story. The theory is accepted by the public and recognized by academia. While there are a number of reasons why New Urbanism is successful, I believe that the primary reason is the efforts of Duany. He is a persuasive salesperson for a particular point of view. Simply, Duany is polemical. His firm stance provokes unity. He provides two options for the public: yes or no. Duany said, Now, although it is important to be flexible, open to new ideas, it’s also important, when you confront the world, to maintain principles that are inviolate-one thing you can learn from Le Corbusier is that to influence and persuade you must be polemical. You can’t convince people by equivocating, by saying, ‘Well, on the one hand this, on the other hand that.’ You’ll bore them, and they’ll chew you up. As a polemicist, you have to clarify matters… and you have to attack (Duany, 1997: 364).

I believe that Duany is able to satisfy “a public interest” by his controversial approach. He integrates different interests into a strong coalition for New Urbanism. I conclude that rather than trying to serve “the public interest,” he chooses to serve “a public interest.”

aBBE vERNICK THE POSITIONALITY MODEL

Planners work for private and public interests. “A planner’s loyalty is torn between serving employers, fellow planners, and the public. In this contested terrain of loyalties, what remains of the once accepted cornerstone of planning, serving “the public interest?” (Campbell, 1996: 7). I believe that the cornerstone still exists, that planners want to practice ethical planning. I acknowledge that planners do increasingly work in the private or quasi-private sector. But, this does not mean that planners serve “the private interest.” Rather, it means planners have shaped their notion of “the public interest” into a form that allows them to practice according to the Code.

For example, in the Spring 2002 semester, I was an intern at the New York City Transit Authority in the Operations and Planning Department. I was assigned to a project where New York City Transit was proposing a re-routing of a bus route in the Bronx. The new route, while more efficient traffic wise, would contain stops located in front of residents’ homes. Unlike some parts of the Bronx, this is a low-density section. The homes are single-family units with large front and backyard space. The streets are relatively quiet during the day and lack sidewalks for pedestrians.

Suspecting that problems will arise from the proposed bus stop locations, my boss and I decided to meet with the respective Community Board’s District Manager. The District Manager suggested that we ride the new route with him, explain to him the stop loca-

There is no universally accepted definition of “the public interest” to which planners’ appeal; rather there are numerous rationalities that depend upon social and material circumstances, group identities, and social objectives.

Harvey argues that the question of positionality is fundamental to all debates about how to create infrastructure and urban environments for living and working in the 21st Century. Harvey rejects the post-modernist viewpoint that any effort at universalism is illegitimate. “The public interest” takes on different meanings across space, time, and persons. Yet, the existence of everyday meanings can provide a stimulus for some agreement. In the bus stop debate, the final result was that the District Manager pledged his support of the bus route on the condition that my boss would agree to move a bus stop located on a different route. They were able to reach this happy medium conclusion because they both could claim that they had served “a public interest.”

CONCLUSION

The models of deciphering “the public interest” presented in this paper are not exhaustive. Planning, as a profession and as a field of theoretical discussion, continuously debates the notion of “the public interest.” In order to practice their craft, planners must determine how they intend to serve “the public interest.” I believe that the Polemical and Positionality Models recognize that there is no single public interest, but rather multiple public interests.

Moreover, I acknowledge that the aforementioned models are impermanent. The models may prove T h e r e is no universally accepted definition of “the p u b l i c i n terest” to which planners’ appeal; rather there effective under certain economic, political, and social conditions, but not in others. As Campbell a re numerous rationalities that depend upon social and Fainstein write, “The restructured urban econa n d m a t erial circumstances, group identities, and omy, the shifting boundaries between the public and private sectors, and the changing tools and available s o c i al objectives. resources constantly force planners to rethink the public interest” (Campbell, 1996: 11). As planners tions, and discuss alternatives, if any. Upon completion of our ride, continue to practice their craft, inevitably they will pursue new forthe District Manager stated that the locations of the bus stops were mations of “the public interest.” In my opinion, if planners cease not in the community’s best interest. To this my boss responded this pursuit, the planning field is in great danger. that the community needs the bus, and thus it is in their interest.

The District Manager noted that the lack of sidewalks requires riders to wait either on the street or on the homeowners’ lawns, REFERENCES and that a bus stop in front of a home would decline the property American Planning Association. 1981. AICP: Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. value, which in the long run affects the entire community. My boss Washington DC: American Planning Association. countered with the argument that the new route avoids traffic con- Campbell, Scott and Susan Fainstein. 1996. “Introduction.” Readings in Planning Theory.

Eds. Scott Campbell and Susan Fainstein. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. gestion, which lessens air pollution.

>

<

This type of tit-for-tat banter continued for about twenty minutes.

The term “the public interest” was thrown about throughout the discourse. From their respective positions, each promotes “the public interest.” Similar to Harvey’s discussion of the term “social justice,” each party was affected differently due to their positionality.

Duany, Andres. 1997.“Urban or Suburban?” Readings in Planning Theory. Eds. Scott Campbell and Susan Fainstein. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Harvey, David. 2002. “Social Justice, Postmodernism, and the City.” Readings in Urban Theory. Eds. Scott Campbell and Susan Fainstein. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Lucy, William. 1996. “APA’s Ethical Principles Include Simplistic Planning Theories.” Readings in Planning Theory. Eds. Scott Campbell and Susan Fainstein. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Planning Efforts in India AN ANALYSIS OF CHANDIGARH AND NEW BOMBAY India is known for its multicultural heritage, with more than a hundred different languages, cultures and traditions, and its caste system that dates back thousands of years. With the growth of the Capital economy, people from rural areas around the country are flocking into cities for employment opportunities, and a hope for a better lifestyle. Continuous migration has led to the growth of diverse, multi-ethnic cities with people coming in from all over the country, bringing their cultures and traditions along with them. As cities were shaped by market forces, and to a certain extent by the ruling class, the socio-economic class divide has become even more glaring within the confines of the city. It is the resulting tension between these class that may ‘make any great city into a stimulating and exciting maelstrom of cultural conflict and exchange’ (Harvey, 1993: 387).

Historically, planning efforts in India were designed to channel and guide the growth of its cities. Most of the attempts, however, have not succeeded in achieving the anticipated results for two main reasons. First, some Third World cities utilized the planning models of developed nations without considering the vast socioeconomic divergences between the nations. Second, since much of the working class population is unaware of the public participation process and government policies, the planning decisions only reflect the needs of the social elite. I have studied two planned cities as case studies, each representing different drawbacks of Indian urban planning efforts to date.

Both these case studies illustrate the problems faced by planners in developing countries similar to India where, to a large extent, the planner’s role is not identified, and a majority of the planning is carried out by the welfare state. Often, in these situations, the planner’s role is denigrated only to give validity and credibility to others’ proposals.

CHANDIGARH [Conceptualization]

Chandigarh was intended to represent the aspirations of an independent India. Almost purely progressive and visionary, planners did not utilize traditional methods. Le Corbusier, the lead visionary, and his team were invited to prepare a master plan for the new city. Corbusier started working on the master plan far before his first

The first case study, Chandigarh, is a well-known city planned by Le Corbusier and his team, based on his modernist planning ideologies. He wanted the new city to symbolize the rise of India out of colonialism, but he ignored the voices of a people who were already unheard for centuries under the British administration. Le Corbusier’s theories and design were based on the socio-economic striations of Europe, rather than the conditions of Indian cities and its inhabitants.

5

The second case study, New Bombay (or Navi Mumbai as it is called today), was created to control the growth of Bombay by creating a twin city to act as a counter magnet, pulling new migrants and some of the existing population away from Bombay. The business community of Bombay spearheaded this planning effort, while the state government implemented it. Thus, it reflected the business elite needs and the ruling government’s concessions without accounting for the needs of the existing city of Bombay or its people.

visit to India, leaving just the physical detailing for on-site analysis. Thus, European socio-economic planning was imposed on the Chandigarh master plan with a complete disregard for the vastly different socio-economic conditions in India. Instead of a plan addressing the needs of the future Chandigarh inhabitants, Le Corbusier expected the people to live according to his plan.

The city was divided along the grid iron plan into sectors of single land uses and further broken down into plots. Commercial and institutional corridors were marked, industrial pockets were

cHERISHMA sHAH allocated, and the remaining land was marked residential. The residential sectors were divided on the basis of the economic class of the residents, which also determined the individual plot size.

Restrictions were mandated for all dimensions and aesthetics in all the sectors.

CHANDIGARH [Development of the Plan]

Since Chandigarh was a completely new city, many laborers migrated to the new site. They set up temporary shelters, which were eventually relocated as the construction expanded. The shelters were ill equipped, which led to unsanitary conditions, and the narrow elitist scope of the plan restricted tenement housing. Moreover, the laborers could not afford even the smallest plot

The Chandigarh Master Plan (left) and Section 22 Credit: Albert Myer.

of land, since there were strict sector regulations, thus forcing the state planning authority to open certain land sectors for tenement housing. Even then, there was insufficient land, and here, the informal residential sector emerged.

As density in public housing and the informal sector increased, there was a growing imbalance in the distribution of services and amenities.

This, coupled with high prices encouraged the development of a complementary informal commercial sector. Former construction workers became vendors vying for greater class mobility.

They generally sold their wares on hand pushed carts, or settled on the sidewalks near the public

housing and their customers. A planning survey carried out in 1975 indicated that 48.8% of the total commercial enterprises were from the informal sector (Sarin, 1982: 207). Planning authorities finally eradicated this sector during the Government Emergency from June 1975 to March 1977 (Sarin, 1982: 246). The unauthorized development, however, returned once the emergency was over. They could not be eradicated successfully because the Chandigarh plan did not provide goods and services for the low purchasing power of a large section of the society.

Eventually, Chandigarh developed on both the dual formal and informal systems, both in its residential and commercial sectors. The informal sector was completely unplanned and spontaneous,

and considerably altered the plan envisioned by Corbusier. This was not the modern, progressive city the leaders of the country had planned.

CHANDIGARH [Analysis]

Most of the urban planning in Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s post independence disregarded the people outside of the capitalistic process, but within the informal sector. In all cities in the developing world, it is this economic sector which is closely related to slums and illegal settlements. The plan did not account for this sector since it was not a part of the then modern planning theory and related dialogues in capitalized, developed economies.

According to the ILO Kenya study completed in 1972 (Sarin, 1982: 183), dependence on the

Housing in Section 17 Credit: Boesiger, Last Works, p. 89

Planning Efforts in India [ continued ]

informal sector or the ‘bazaar economy’ plays a positive role in employment generation and economic growth within Third World countries.

This informal sector generally serves the lower income working class and is a focal point in attracting settlers.

The Chandigarh plan lacked the foresight to provide amenities for all classes, by failing to determine who the average migrant might be.

Inevitably, with an underserved market, the much more affordable informal sector or ‘hawkers’ came in. They could afford to sell their wares at a lower price, since they had a minimum investment in terms of establishment costs. Furthermore, the government misjudged the investment from the private sector, and was forced to further increase land values, which polarized the city even more.

In developing countries, single land use planning does not work well and for varying reasons. Single land use planning is based on a clear separation of use on the basis of their function in a capitalistic society. This cannot work in a third world country like India, where the socio-economic class system is not based only on that division, but also includes religious and social reasons Overall, a more humanistic approach to third world planning is needed. The planners, native or foreign, need to recognize the differences between the developed countries and the Third World, which has complex class social systems. In order for them to be effective, planning theories must incorporate these differences.

NEW BOMBAY [Conceptualization]

7

Bombay, the commercial capital of India, contains a cross section of all cultures within the country. By the early 1960s, the city was exploding at its seams, with an already strained infrastructure; the city could not sustain or accommodate its growth. There were two possible solutions for containing this explosion: the setting up of satellite towns around the city where businesses could disperse, or developing a twin city to act as a counter-magnet, drawing the pressure away from Bombay.

The powerful business community of Bombay completely opposed the idea of satellite towns, since it required their businesses to disperse. It was on their initiative that three architects and planners Charles Correa, Pravina Mehta, and Shirish Patel drafted a blueprint for the twin city of New Bombay. This concept was published in the MARG magazine in 1967 (Verma, 1985: 36). Due to the constant lobbying efforts of the business class, the idea of a twin city was finally accepted by the government based on this single article. The planners touted the twin city model as ‘(being) more beneficial, since satellite towns—centers at suburban locations will only add pressure to Greater Bombay’ (Dwivedi, Mehrotra, 1995: 272).

The proposal of New Bombay hinged on the presupposition that the state government would shift its base into New Bombay. If the governing structures shifted their base to the twin city, the move would be followed by businesses reliant on state infrastructure. This would form the new Central Business District (CBD), and the nodal developments would surface along the Mass Rapid Transportation Line. There were twenty such nodes to be developed, within a planned twenty-year perspective frame. Such a mass transit oriented design would work well for the average migrant and would reduce traffic congestion into and out of the city resulting in a better living environment.

NEW BOMBAY [Development]

In planning New Bombay, the planners did not consider the displacement of the existing residents on the New Bombay site. Increasing

Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh Palace of Justice

cHERISHMA sHAH development, coupled with rising property values, forced the existing residents out. Mainly peasants and fishermen, they were already displaced when Bombay shifted them from a fisherman’s village to a Central Business District. In addition, some of the new site, which was privately owned, required compensation for relocation, adding an unexpected cost to the budget.

of urban projects, and seek non-military forms of constraining social violence. These resolutions reflect most of the criteria needed while planning for a third world city, but with varying degrees.

The oppressed in third world countries need much more than encouragement, they need representation through planners. Suppression of

The twin city floundered when the state government offices did not relocate to the new city.

On the contrary, the state offices encouraged land reclamation in the already congested downtown business district of Bombay, rather than moving to New Bombay. This not only defeated the whole concept of the twin city, but also exacerbated Bombay’s downtown congestion.

Eventually, New Bombay developed with industrial growth but with a still greater dependence on the tertiary services within Greater Bombay.

New Bombay did not develop in the way that it was conceptualized. Apart from the few state offices staying in Bombay, the land uses proposed

by CIDCO, the planning authority, were not strictly followed. Instead, the business interests, sheltered by the government, shaped the city.

CIDCO was powerless to oppose this development since it was a government subsidiary, and it served as a research group with minimal decision making power.

CONCLUSION

The Experiences of Chandigarh and New Bombay demonstrate some of the deeper issues in third world cities, where foreign architects, planners, and Indian authorities have largely failed. The structure of the traditional socio-economic caste system is as yet only partially replaced by the Capitalist class structure. These stronger inequalities need to be addressed by the planning profession.

Young, in her ‘Justice and Politics of Difference’ (Harvey, 1993: 400) defines justice through five modes of oppression which planning as a profession should resolve. These resolutions should minimize exploitation at the workplace, minimize marginalization through non-paternalistic modes, empower the oppressed to encourage self expression, eliminate imperialistic attitude in designing

the lower classes or castes for centuries has led to frequent spurts in social violence. The income differences are further compounded by differences in religion and culture that need to be addressed as part of the effort to curb social violence. Planners, sociologists and other experts need to be involved further into the decision making process to incorporate these differences.

Furthermore, the role of the planner needs to be strengthened beyond that of their present ivory tower position. Their expertise should be used to promote interests of the oppressed class and give direction towards a ‘just city’. Susan Fainstein quotes Marx and Engels: “only smashing the structure of class domination could create the conditions for achieving a just society,” (Fainstein, 2000: 466). This process will however take a much longer period of time, since class distinctions are deeply rooted in societies like India for thousands of years. Planners need to deal with each situation accordingly, and provide for cities where these differences are critical.

Squatters in New Bombay Credit: Cantacuzino, Charles Correa, p. 54

REFERENCES Dwivedi, Sharda. Mehrotra, Rahul. 1995.

Bombay, the Cities Within. India: India Book House Pvt. Ltd. Fainstein, Susan. 2000. “New Directions in Planning Theory.” Urban Affairs Review, Volume 35. Sage Publications.

Harvey, David. 1993. “Social Justice, Postmodernism and the City.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.

Oxford UK: Blackwell Publishers.

Sarin, Madhu. 1982. Urban Planning in the Third World: The Chandigarh Experience.

Oxford UK: Alexandrine Press.

Verma, H.S. 1985. Bombay, New Bombay and the Metropolitan Region. India: Concept Publishing Co.

Housing in Peace kOVID sAXENA Planning students were recently exposed to the conditions of New York City’s tenements at the beginning of the 20th century. We visited the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in our “Introduction to Housing” class and further studied the conditions in our “Planning History and the Physical Structure of Cities” class. Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, around half of the urban population of Third-World countries continues to survive in such conditions. However there is one difference—problems created by tenements in New York and Chicago were experienced and then overcome by most industrial countries, which even then, were the richest countries in the world. Today’s Third-World cities do not have similar resources available to them.

I joined my classmate Barbara Prevatt in wondering whether it is possible to improve the standard of living for these populations in poverty.

The first thing that comes to my mind is the world’s advanced economies. Nonetheless, we inexorable urge for survival in urban slums of have seen in recent cases that this energy is somethe Third World. It seems as if poverty and times applied negatively. For example, at times, depravation are the source of immense energy situations occur where the youth and their parthat one can see in these populations in poverty. ents become convinced that no matter how much I remember watching this on TV in Bombay a they struggle, they will never be able to rise above few months back. There was a local program in their present deprived state. They believe that which a “struggling” actor was being interviewed there is no medium available through which they can put their energy to productive use—they have > It does not matter that one such story in a no hope. They are burning from within, and in million may be a success. That one story has their delirium, they use fuel to put out their fire.

the potential of driving many more millions . < (Bombay is also the film capital of India). This man must have been in his late 20s. He had been struggling to become a “star” for the past 5 years.

Perhaps still, until this day, he does small roles in movies or in TV series to make ends meet. He probably shares a room in a chawl (Bombay’s version of a tenement). Even worse, he probably rents a 6’ by 4’ “room” in a slum to keep his belongings, and sleeps on streets when it’s not raining. But this does not lessen his ambition to become the next Tom Cruise or Aamir Khan. I guess this drive comes from the fact that someone with a similar background succeeded. It does not matter that one such story in a million may be a success. That one story has the potential of driving many more millions.

From slums to middle class income homes, many urban Indians are investing a major portion of their incomes into the future of their daughters and sons, particularly in their education. This is a huge gamble as these parents will have almost no savings by the time they retire. However, they do their best to make sure that their children are at least one step higher on the social ladder than they were.

9

I believe such spirit, cumulatively, is a great asset.

I think that the wealth of populations in poverty cannot be measured by the standards of the

I am still convinced that societies struggling with poverty can provide a dignified standard of living for their destitute populations. To do this, they would have to create and strengthen channels through which their populations can productively utilize their energy (read: assets). These channels are democracy, education, freedom of expression, and an equal opportunity to work and create wealth. I do not think that it goes beyond the means of any impoverished government to establish these channels. Many countries in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe are in different stages of success in implementing such measures. Often, the degree of their success is influenced by their geo-political location. This hindrance can also be overcome once there is a realization that all of us share this world and, irrespective of our sensitivities, we share its burden.

Photo Credit: Jacob Riis. “Mullins Alley, Cherry Hill.” 1888-1889.

89.

The E.F. Schumacher Society cHRISTINE gRIMANDO AN EXAMINATION OF ITS ENTERPRISES IN LAND REFORM In Western Massachusetts, in Berkshire County, retired New York professionals and many weekend residents create a high cost of living for full-time residents, which exceeds the economic opportunities available there, even for the gainfully employed locals. One reason for this dichotomy is that there is an influx of money from areas like New York City and Boston, which average higher salaries then western Massachusetts. As the metropolitan development and sprawl increases, the threatened bucolic desirability of the area grows, and travel time becomes more elastic in terms of peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s willingness to travel there on leisure time. Real estate costs have been increasing in recent years, as the drive up from New York City has become more cluttered with unplanned development that encroaches on an area without an anchoring urban center. It is not hard to see how this area is shaped within this urban region and is culturally and economically shaped by the nearby metropolises.

The E.F. Schumacher Society is based in Egremont, MA, in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts.

It is a nationwide non-profit organization that works to promote grass-roots initiatives to develop more self-reliant regional economies and smallscale enterprises. The society operates community land trusts and a yearly lecture series with the likes of Jane Jacobs, Winona LaDuke, Amory Lovins, David Orr, and Wendell Berry, among others. The land trust component of the organization takes several incarnations. Community land trusts differ from conservation land trusts; the latter accounts for most of the land trusts in the United States. A community land trust does not hold the land in question apart from all development, rather, it holds the land in trust with environmental and development standards built into the terms of ownership.

One exemplary community land trust, the E.F. Schumacher Society, is involved in maintaining Indian Line Farm, an organic farm and community supported agriculture business (CSA) in South Egremont, MA. The farm is 22 acres but is immediately adjacent to 82 acres of

preserved wetlands, a vital part of the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s watershed. The farm contains several buildings, including a house and a barn, both of which were badly rundown when the property went up for sale. The total acquisition price for Indian Lane Farm was $155,000. Of this amount, the owners purchased the dilapidated buildings for $55,000, with the understanding that they would need to put intensive repairs and improvements into the dilapidated physical structures on the property. The Nature Conservancy and the Community Land Trust formed the Indian Line Farm Land Fund to raise the remaining $100,000 to purchase the land and conservation restrictions.

The money to buy the property was from four sources, resulting in different responsibilities for the different shareholders.

The Nature Conservancy holds an easement on the property to permanently limit future development and the protection of the nearby wetlands. The Community Land Trust holds title to the land and leases it to the owners on a 99-year basis. The lease is automatically renewable for another 99 years. 100 years would qualify the tenants for ownership, thereby taking the land out of trust.

Community members make up the difference left over from what the buyers could pay and what the Schumacher Society and the Nature Conservancy were able to pay. The farmers own the house, barn, other out-buildings, and farm value increases, enabling them to build equity as a direct result of their work. In June 1999, the CLT purchased Indian Line

The E.F. Schumacher Library

Farm, simultaneously selling the buildings to the farmers and conservation restrictions to the Nature Conservancy. The Land Trustâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s policy is to retain an option to purchase the buildings and improvements at no more than their current replacement cost and to sell them at the same price to the farmer.

This provision of the lease ensures that the value of the land, purchased with community donations, is not included in any sale price. In this way, the farm remains affordable

The E.F. Schumacher Society [ continued ]

AN EXAMINATION OF ITS ENTERPRISES IN LAND REFORM

for future farmers. Because the local community, The Community Land Trust, and The Nature Conservancy assumed responsibility for financing the land, the owners are not burdened with land debt. They can continue managing the farm business without forcing crop production to pay for a mortgage on the land itself.

Under such an arrangement, the farm remains an economically viable entity, and the land is removed from the market.

Indian Line Farm Photo Credit: E.F. Schumacher Web site

Originally the Community Land Trust owned two properties with 23 leaseholds. Buildings included the E.F. Schumacher library, four residences, and an apple orchard. The basic achievement of the Community Land Trust is to separate the value of land from the value of buildings and other improvements on the land such as fencing, soil fertility, and perennial stock. Hence, the value created from the labor applied to land (buildings, agricultural crops) is the private equity of the person creating the value and is exchangeable in the marketplace.

11

The other land trust project that the Society has sponsored is the Forest Row Community Land Trust. It is a land trust with the purpose of promoting affordable housing in the area, by balancing land use planning with a variety of needs for different uses of space. The property has different zones

meant to incorporate recreation space, wilderness area, and housing, which are all designed for minimal ecological impact.

Parking is off the roads leading to the developed zone, not in front of the houses. The housing consists of single family homes, duplexes, and quadraplexes. There are 18 units on 21 acres. This is a very low density development, yet the housing is clustered together into five of the 21 acres. Similarly, the buildings on the original community land trust property, including four residences and the library, are zoned low-density, but also in clusters, thus keeping much of the land undeveloped, while complying with local zoning requirements. The land for the housing development was purchased by the Community Land Trust and leased to residents, who can purchase their homes for the price of the building, without the price of the land included. This advantage makes the purchase of a home much more affordable than if the price of the land was included in the sale.

The projects of the E.F. Schumacher Society are ecologically and aesthetically better than allowing unchecked development to otherwise arise. From a planning perspective, these projects are excellent examples of successful local initiatives and of the effectiveness of collaboration between different interests, i.e. The Nature Conservancy, prospective homeowners, The E.F. Schumacher Society, and other local land trust initiatives. They

purposefully work independent of local or national government on the premise that both the market and the state have managed land irresponsibly and destructively.

The housing development taken on by the Community Land Trust shows both the strengths and weaknesses of this local and autonomous approach, such as time donated by local architects for innovative and careful design of the housing and landscape. But, because the organization is working independently of local regulations, it is also working without any prospects for change at the greater state level or the countiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; own land-use and zoning regulations. Hence, any developments they undertake must be low density, in compliance with the zoning regulation for minimum lot frontage of 150 feet and two acres of land minimum per house. These lot requirements exemplify a confused county identity, one with a strong agriculture base, yet is home to many vacationers, small-town New England tourism, and second homeowners escaping large, nearby urban areas. Two acre lot sizes are perfect for bisecting farmland.

It is also a perfect size for a quasi-country home that allows the area to maintain its lowdensity rural appearance and atmosphere. With no master plan and no apparent precautions in place for the increase in growth, it is an area that does not perceive itself as urban, yet is on the route to incohesive urban development. The housing development sponsored by

cHRISTINE gRIMANDO the E.F. Schumacher Society has responded thoughtfully by grouping their housing together, while acknowledging the social advantages of close residential proximity. Since the organization is the legal authority and decision maker, this position grants them flexibility.

For example, when a young, single, female doctor, whose income exceeded the income cap, wanted to move into one of the units, the organization considered the proportion of

Forest Row Community Land Trust is built without provisions for public transportation or commercial activity within walking distance (though downtown Great Barrington is conceivably within walking distance, but not at a practical or safe level for children or the unfit). This is not because the organization is unaware of transportation issues, but because they simply lack the economic and political resources to provide such infrastructure. Although the residents

The E.F. Schumacher Society is based on ideals that have been put into action and successfully tested. It has admirably taken a proactive stance on land ethics, setting an example that can be built upon. The Society sells model legal documents to others, so that the process of forming a community land trust is accessible and transparent. Through their library, lecture series, and Web site <www.smallisbeautiful.org>, they establish a forum for the dissemination of ideas as well as for the discussion and expan> With no master plan and no apparent precautions in place for the increase in growth, it is an area that sion of them. They continue to engage and challenge their local does not perceive itself as urban, yet is on the route community. Their weakness to incohesive urban development. < is nowhere indicated by their successes, but rather that her medical school debt to her of the county have shown their the organization’s strategy is income, as well as the potential willingness to support a diverse embedded in state and local land assets she would bring to the mix of socioeconomic groups use and growth policy which community, and waived the with a broad vision for com- runs counter to their vision. income cap in her case. munity, their support has not The E.F. Schumacher Society altered the economic struc- fosters development of the local The projects receive strong ture or the land use policy of economy and environmental support from the residents western Massachusetts. Because protection, but meanwhile they who want to preserve the rural this is a small organization exist within a regional economy character of their chosen home with limited reach, they can set that throws its net in ever and who find farms and CSA’s excellent examples for a practi- wider circles. both aesthetically pleasing and a cal application of a radically good contribution to their local different land ethic than what environment. The wealth of the prevails in most of the United REFERENCES area is a resource, but a resource States. They cannot, however, Jacobs, Jane. 1983. “The Economy of that is unequally distributed affect development around the Regions.” Third Annual E.F. Schumacher through the local population. specific parameters of their Lecture.

Jay and Susan Witt. 1990. “A New The influx of income made projects. They cannot guaran- Rossier, Lease on Farmland: Assuring a Future for elsewhere does not proportion- tee that sprawl and economic Farming in the Northeast.” E.F. Schumately stimulate the area’s own decline, paired with an influx of acher Society Publication.

Bob and Susan Witt. 1995. “Land: economy, but drives up property greater wealth and rising hous- Swann, The Challenge and the Opportunity.“ costs that many local residents ing costs, will not be shoved E.F. Schumacher Society Publication. can not afford, thereby creating over to the next less self-aware Witt, Susan. 2000.“Effort Saves Nation’s First a greater need for affordable and less fortunate county. This CSA Farm.” In Business. housing. The Community Land is not to imply that this is their Trust addresses the need. The failing, but that it is the limit of their context.

What’s Left for the Planner?

Since September 11, the responsibilities and the role of the planner became increasingly vague. Manhattan moms, European tourists, and even elementary school children all have an opinion on what should become of Ground Zero, making the job of a planner even more complex. Building on Ground Zero spawned a major public dialogue, involving public (and private) design charettes, forums, and dialogues both in the New York City metropolitan region, but also across the nation. It is here, in these dialogues and forums, where a planner can demonstrate both expertise and discretion by moderating between the public, policy makers, and ultimately the architects and physical designers of the site. In July 2002, I participated in an online dialogue as a follow-up to the greater “Listening to the City” forum. In this dialogue, groups of seven to ten people posted emails on the proposed topic, and then the emails were circulated. People posted ideas and concerns about Lower Manhattan and what should be built on the former World Trade Center site. By participating in this online dialogue, I realized both the significance and quandary of a planner’s role in such a unique redevelopment project.

THE COMMUNITY’S INPUT

In my ten-member discussion group, the early online posts focused narrowly on the specific details of a potential structure, reminiscent more of an architectural discussion than a dialogue addressing the physical, economic, and social development of New York City. Suggestions as 85-story spires, reflective lakes, and steel construction dominated the discussions. From a planner’s perspective, one of my first questions was how can a planner synthesize and translate these suggestions into useful planning tools. What is the role of the planner in this open and transparent process?

With more and more comments on physically representing the power of America, and our military might, I began to question when it was appropriate to incorporate the input, and also how to incorporate these types of suggestions. I realized the extent of humility and patience involved in listening to the community.

In the online dialogue, members of my group continually strayed from the suggested topics of housing, transportation, or economic revitalization. Instead, they returned back to the volatile issues of America, the “axis of evil,” and building size specifications. I was compelled to refocus the participants by asking more direct questions on affordable housing needs or transportation by ferry. To this, one member responded by saying: “We don’t need housing down there. Who wants to live on other people’s graves?” I found this to be especially interesting since in planning circles, housing was always a main and top priority for the site. I had finally learned something useful to me in these dialogues.

13

The Century 21 building in Lower Manhattan

gRACE hAN ARCHITECTS AND PLANNERS

Ultimately, we must question how planners can fit into a complex network of city and state officials, the public, and the multitude of other civic alliances and voices.

With such a specific, massive task at hand, many people want to give full authority to creativity, allowing artists and architects free reign to express the hurt and the hope for a new future. How can planners program for the long-term without stifling creativity, and still keeping in mind the greater social issues?

Planners must work with the community, surveying, researching, and determining their needs and wants. Many planners believe their role is to create a public realm framework from which architects can build and create based on this data.

By setting up the programmatic details, and creating specific parcels to build on, the planner sets the stage for the architect.

This mentality, however, can be particularly worrisome because many of the most powerful buildings, both architecturally and spatially cannot be bound to a single lot or â&#x20AC;&#x153;parcel.â&#x20AC;? Planners must be attune and open to creativity in design, while keeping in mind the programmatic concerns and issues. We must be knowledgeable in the architectural process to be effective planners. Planning is becoming much more policy oriented, but it is still based in an understanding of place and location. The knowledge planners have in demographics and social research are invaluable for understanding spatial mappings and physical landscape formation.

In the same way we cannot isolate the community from planning, we cannot isolate the relationship between the architect and the planner. Increasingly, architects are envisioning buildings without considering the social context, while planners are becoming concerned with social, urban policy forgetting how spatial designs often perpetuate the issues. We should be taking comments about 85-story spires and cataloguing them and eventually transforming them into loose guidelines for the buildings on the site, intensifying the architectural and planning process.

With the growing strength of star architects, I worry about the all encompassing master plans that ignore the research and data on and input of the community, including the efforts of the aforementioned online discussions. On the other hand, planners also need to be open to creative designs and new ways of envisioning cities.

An aerial view of Lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge Photo Credit: Bamberger Gift

Boutiques in the Barrio THE LES: DIVERSITY IN THE FACE OF GENTRIFICATION “First, we must understand that self-destruction of diversity is caused by success, not by failure.”

–Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Over the past 180 years, the Lower East Side has experienced a whirlwind of cataclysmic change. Fires, pestilence, economic depressions, riots, and slum clearance threatened the area’s vitality but, in their wake, left behind a rich texture of scars. The area has been home to a chaotic plethora of ethnic groups, from Anglos to Irish, German to Eastern European, or Puerto Rican to Chinese. Side by side, Catholics, Protestants and Jews live in a not-so-perfect harmony. Many of the neighborhood’s places of congregation, whether they be bier halls, churches, cafes, or synagogues, were threatened by intolerance but nonetheless persevered. As a result, dynamic ideas were born and traditions are still being preserved. Businesses, ranging from tailors to rag pickers, cafeterias to hot corn girls, banks to brothels,

values, and cheaper rent, many of the visitors have actually moved in. “The 1980s have supplied a word for this curious phenomenon: gentrification,” explains Luc Sante in his book Low Life: “It is an admirable word that conveys quite efficiently the fact that middle-class newcomers to the slums are apt to change their surroundings, usually to the detriment of those who preceded them there out of necessity, in spite of their professed desire to submit themselves to a way of life foreign to their backgrounds” (Sante, 1991: 296-297).

In comparison to the wholesale slum clearances of the past, gentrification poses little threat to the physical fabric of the neighborhood. The majority of the Lower East Side’s buildings, pre-law and old-law tenements,

> Craving an authentic working class experience, a departure from middle class values, and cheaper rent, many of the visitors have actually moved in. < have swelled out of Lower East Side storefronts and jammed its streets. The area’s layered cultural landscape reminds one of the actions of Andrew Carnegie, Leon Trotsky, and Jacob Riis without lifting a foot.

15

Today the neighborhood faces a new threat unlike any of the aforementioned phenomena.

Celebrated and marketed as a working class immigrant community of rich cultural diversity, the old neighborhood draws sightseers and tourists by the bus loads. Craving an authentic working class experience, a departure from middle class

still serve their original purpose, with commercial space on the ground floor and multiple family dwelling space on the floors above. Other structures have outlived their intended uses but are being cleverly readapted.

For example, an old federal style row house is now home to a pizzeria. Old banks house internet cafes and funeral parlors.

Yet, while the shell of the old neighborhood persists (with the commendable efforts of preservationists), it risks losing the authentic culture which makes it unique. It has instead become a banal, controlled environment existing as a parody of

itself. In his walking tour, The Revanchist City, sociologist Neil Smith visits a chic Lower East Side bistro called “Barrio” and writes, “This site is just a representative of a large group of restaurants and amenities catering to a white, well-to-do, hip crowd on the new ‘frontier’ of gentrification in the Lower East Side.

Many of these institutions bear titles that ambiguously pay tribute to, mock, mystify, or obscure the working class and Latino cultures that have resided here in recent history” (Smith, 2001: 3).

For some local structures, reuse has achieved a new level of irony. At the moment, the Jewish Daily Forward building, a twelve story beaux arts structure once home to a popular Yiddish newspaper with a strong socialist and labor editorial stance, is being converted to market value condominiums going for $500 a square foot. (The building’s facade is decorated with medallions of La Salle, Marx and Engels, who are all undoubtedly rolling in their graves).

Beneath the risk of draining the historical and cultural meaning out of the neighborhood’s physical fabric lurks the greater and more imminent threat of loss of demographic diversity, which instill the neighborhood with culture, history, and charm.

From a real estate developer perspective, the area has been a wild success. The demand for commercial and residential

jOEL fERREE space began to climb in the 1980s (Sante, 2001: xvi) and skyrocketed in the mid-1990s.

Presently, a hastily renovated 325 square foot apartment advertised as an “artist’s studio” could easily rent for $1,500. But as Jane Jacobs makes clear in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, such competitive rents have their drawbacks since space is “taken up in what amounts to the economic equivalent of a fad.” She writes, “The winners in the competition for space will represent only a narrow segment of the many uses that together created success. Whichever one or few uses have emerged as the most profitable in the locality will be repeated and repeated, crowding out and overwhelming less profitable forms of use. If tremendous numbers of people, attracted by convenience and interest, or charmed by vigor and excitement, choose to live or work in the area, again the winners of the competition will form a narrow segment of population of users” (Jacobs, 1961: 243).

The result, Jacobs explains, is ennui — a psycho-geographical monotony that springs from the area’s lack of varied uses (Jacobs, 1961: 243). The recently designated Lower East Side historic district is poised to become a stagnant combination of a Ye Olde Neighborhood museum village and a New Bohemia amusement park. It is a lifestyle marketplace where middle class

residents and tourists cannot be differentiated, a place where culture is reduced to the purchase of a T-shirt, living a consumerist fantasy, and digesting a bite-sized bit of trivia while sipping a Cosmopolitan at a trendy bar.

narrow interpretations of culture and, with no further reason to pay their inflated rents, migrate to more exciting and diverse neighborhoods, perpetuating the process of gentrification elsewhere. Will the neighborhood share a similar fate as Greenwich

> Left in the hands of speculators, devel o p e r s , a n d proponents of Ye Olde Neighborhood planning, t h e n e i g h b o r h o o d awaits a fate worse than death: Boredom. <

Aesthetically, defining the neighborhood as both a historical district and nightlife mecca stunts the area’s potential to develop its architectural diversity.

“Contextualism” in architecture and design regulations forces new apartment buildings to adopt the physical design of tenements in order to blend in with their existing surroundings.

According to architectural critic Herbert Muschamp, contextualism can “present a homogenous façade that has nothing to do with any neighborhood.

Rather, they restrain the city’s diversity behind uniform walls” (Muschamp, 2001: 35).

As the diverse body of Lower East Side occupants seek more affordable housing, it is possible that the area could eventually lose its dynamic character completely. Such hemorrhaging continues as the new bourgeois bohemians also lose their superficial interest in the neighborhood’s shallow and

Village and have its streets lined with garish bars, dime-a-dozen bistros, bland t-shirt shops, and superfluous souvenir stands?

Will it continue to grow and change as a vibrant immigrant community or be singularly marketed to tourists as the “Barrio?” In order to reach a compromise, all parties involved in shaping the community must first acknowledge and attempt to understand both the shortterm and long-term effects of gentrification and its complex nature. Too often, as we have learned through the disastrous LaGuardia and Moses-era plans of slum clearance and urban renewal, planning acts without thinking and glosses over small but very important details. The same holds true for the future of the Lower East Side. Left in the hands of speculators, developers, and proponents of Ye Olde Neighborhood planning, the neighborhood awaits a fate worse than death: Boredom.

Photo Credits: Seth Myers

REFERENCES Jacobs, Jane. 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books.

Lower East Side Tenement Museum.

Neighborhood Heritage Walking Tour.

2001. New York.

Muschamp, Herbert. October 7, 2001. “For Now, Restricted Access. But What of the Future?” The New York Times. Section 2, 3.

Sante, Luc. 1991. Low Life. New York: Vintage Books.

Smith, Neil. 2001. The Revanchist City.

Center for Urban Pedagogy.

Bullet Proof SOCIAL SEGREGATION IN SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL During the last decades, São Paulo, the Brazilian mega city, has seen a great deterioration in many aspects of its urban life quality. From a lack of basic infrastructure, to air and water pollution, unemployment, violence, social segregation, and more, the city has not been able to answer the needs of its population. As a result, the higher segments of the society are seeking isolation and detachment from the urban chaos.

The protective walls outside of a gated community

The city of São Paulo has become the largest and most important industrial and financial center in Latin America. It is the city that drives the Brazilian economy and attracts people from the poorest regions of the country, who seek a better life. The problems endured by this city are becoming common to other large Brazilian

become the world’s largest market for bulletproof cars, and the market is growing by about 15% annually. The new trend among the really wealthy is helicopters; the number of these flying machines in São Paulo’s sky comes in second after New York City. Although apartment blocks with 24-hour security have been a common thing

cities and, unfortunately, are expanding to mid size cities and villages as well. These problems are generated by deficiencies in the social structure and appear to be unsolvable, as long as the current exclusionary economic policies favoring the elite persist. Violence, being the force that most affects public opinion, is driving behavior and setting new lifestyles for those who can afford it.

in Brazil for many years, lately there have been increasing numbers of upper-income people seeking a life in gated communities.

17

The fear of robbery, kidnapping, and all other forms of violence is changing the face of São Paulo. A reflection of this was seen in the dramatic increase in annual expenditure on private security.

Brazilians spend almost ten billion dollars annually on private security, compared to less than eight billion dollars spent by the government. There are more private security guards than police officers. One other solution commonly used among the elite, and now making its way down into the middle classes, is bullet-proof cars. Brazil has

The proliferation of gated communities is, in a sense, a sign of increasing social segregation.

It is the upper and middle classes seeking refuge.

As Teresa Caldeira, professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Irvine, alerts: “São Paulo is the city of walls. Gated communities, business complexes, and shopping centers, surrounded by bars and under surveillance, promote a rupture type of relation with the rest of the city.” As other researchers state, it’s the segregation of the elite. The major concern falls on future generations; educated under these circumstances, they are likely to become an even more individualistic type of society. Gated communities are not diverse neighborhoods; residents belong to the same social group, with the same socio-economic profile, tastes, and habits.

A secure entrance to an Alphaville development

jOSÉ rOBERTO vENTURA Eni Orlandi, coordinator of the Urban Studies laboratory of the University of Campinas, has analyzed the subdivision of spaces in the city and concludes that gated communities not only incarcerate the people inside, but also increase the suspicion of those left outside, potentially increasing the type and nature of violence.

One of the most traditional gated community agglomerations is Alphaville, located at the edge of São Paulo. This is a complex system of 15 gated communities with large houses, private

São Paulo’s central city

security, protective walls, and other security measures required by the market. Many communities like Alphaville are rapidly developing all over the city. At a more galloping pace, the informal type of settlements, reserved for the urban poor, are

justice requires the rupture of two historical tendencies: the excessive dependency on foreign capital and the deeply unequal wealth distribution that generates a strong social exclusion.

As a thought on gated communities, they are merely an instantaneous solution to violence; an immediate, individualistic, and anti-social approach to the problem. As Eni Orlandi comments, “it’s as if violence is generated by the fact we live too close to each other; it’s the contrary, we are living too far apart, socially speaking.”

Squatter developments threatened by erosion Photo Credits: José Roberto Ventura

> There is a center-periphery juxtaposition phenomenon occurring where it no longer matters where you live, but how safely y o u l i v e . < also in expansion. The interesting shift is the fact that, unlike a decade ago, the periphery is no longer reserved for the poor, nor the center for the rich. There is a center-periphery juxtaposition phenomenon occurring where it no longer matters where you live, but how safely you live.

These are times of great change, with Brazilians having just elected the Workers Party candidate for President. According to the Government Program of the candidate, developing with social

Bridging the Gap in GSAPP sUSAN gLADSTONE AN OP-ED ON AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CURRICULUM

Interdisciplinary scholarship is becoming a crucial feature of a well-developed curriculum in studies of the built environment. The field of urban planning is especially motivated by interdisciplinary concerns, being a comprehensive field that bridges many fields of inquiry. Unfortunately, the mechanics of a university often promote a policy of departmental isolationism, where students in one department are rarely informed about, much less involved in, the research being performed by students in other departments. A solution > By focusing on themes and projects to this crisis can be found in that involve students in all the development of an interdisciplinary curriculum for the departments equally, entire school. In GSAPP, a a well-rounded interdisciplinary framework could be developed perspective can be achieved . < for interdisciplinary courses that engage students in all departments of the school in topics of common interest, with a meta-department responsible for overseeing the creation and maintenance of this curriculum. These courses should be fully integrated into the graduate course requirements of all the individual programs, encouraging students from architecture, urban design, historic preservation, real estate development, and urban planning to engage in joint research.

Projects resulting from these courses could be supervised under the auspices of a new interdisciplinary faculty, whose work focuses on teaching courses that bridge the diverse fields of the school.

Research at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam provides a good example of the ways in which researchers in the fields of architecture, urban planning, and landscape architecture are able to work together on projects of common interest. One major theme is presented to the Institute annually for investigation. Last year, the issue of population expansion in the Netherlands was presented and investigated as a theme entitled â&#x20AC;&#x153;Double Dutch.â&#x20AC;? By focusing on themes and projects that involve students in all departments equally, a well-rounded interdisciplinary perspective can be achieved.

> Unfortunately, the mechanics of a university often p r o m o t e a p o l i c y of departmental isolationism, where students in one depar t m e n t are rarely informed about, much less involved in, t h e r e s e a r c h being performed by students in other departments. <

19

Inquiry into the future of the WTC site would have been a superb opportunity to engage students and faculty from across the school in a project that everyone could get excited about and contribute to. Having missed that opportunity, there should be no question as to whether a curriculum in GSAPP that promotes interdisciplinary work is important. By creating a continuing tradition in the school of addressing common themes of interest to all the students in the school, we can prevent departmental isolation and create a more cohesive, and productive, institution.

The High Line Reborn gARY rOTH AN OP-ED ON THE HIGH LINE AS A PROMENADE

West Chelsea is experiencing an urban renaissance as art galleries, restaurants and apartment buildings push out the various light manufacturing industries.

West Chelsea, specifically the area between the Hudson River and 10th Avenue, and along 14th Street to 30th Street, was formerly a major shipping and freight hub, but today, it is a cultural hub ripe for development.

The High Line is an elevated rail viaduct extending from west of 10th Avenue between Gansevoort Street and 13th Street to 34th Street. When it opened in 1934, it was meant to alleviate congestion problems of “Death Avenue” or today’s, 10th Avenue. The rail line is owned by CSX, a major rail and shipping corporation, but has been abandoned since 1980, when the last train rolled down its tracks. To some, the High Line is nothing but an eyesore, to others it is an elevated garden.

One of the major planning decisions for Manhattan is determining what will become of the High Line. The debate centers around razing it or reusing it. Questions to consider are: How would the building heights and the density of the neighborhood change without the High Line? How can West Chelsea and New York City benefit from the High Line? Does it contribute to West Chelsea’s identity? Does the area need the extra land, or open space that the reuse of the High Line could potentially provide?

From a planning and preservation perspective, the High Line is a unique dilemma. It is 1.5 miles long, and depending on where one stands, it can be between 30 and 88 feet wide.

It extends 22 blocks without a single interruption, contains

The northern terminus of the High Line is the 30th Street Rail Yards, which is proposed to become a multi-use sports and exhibition facility. This will serve as the northern anchor, potentially attracting tens of thousands of people daily.

significant value to the area.

Once the High Line is open to pedestrians, property owners will develop properties to cater to the growing foot traffic.

I wonder what Frank Lowy of Westfield Holdings would do.

High Line

N over 275,000 square feet of space, and its 29-foot elevation accounts for an additional 20 feet of air development rights.

From another perspective, the High Line could be an ideal shopping esplanade, promenade, or mall.

Instead of focusing on destruction, we should focus on creation. We need to determine the economic worth of the High Line, and how it can be used as a commercial core.

If an additional 2nd floor of retail space was built adjacent to the High Line, how does that equate in tax revenue dollars?

The High Line can provide a safe corridor for pedestrians above congested streets.

The High Line can become a major transportation corridor, carrying people from Midtown West to the growing art galleries and restaurants in Chelsea.

Imagine Manhattan without Central Park, Park Avenue without its green median, and likewise Chelsea without its defining High Line. Preservation of the High Line will bring

From Left to Right: EAST, looking over the 30th Street Rail Yards, a future development site.

NORTH, towards the Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center, which is looking to expand. WEST, the Hudson River, with its growing ferry traffic.

Photo Credits: Gary Roth

My Evolution into a First-Year Planning Student “So, why grad school?”

I got that question a lot this summer. It’s certainly a fair question. For me, it was a really difficult question, also.“Uh… I think I might want to teach sometime down the road.” I would sometimes respond, somewhat lamely. Or: “I’m tired, tired, TIRED of the 8 to 5 grind!” was my reply over happy-hour drinks after a tough day at the rat race.

By far the worst question was, “Well, what are you going to do when you FI-NAL-LY graduate?” (my inquisitors always emphasized the word finally).

I started thinking to myself, “What about the audacity of these people, asking me questions of such an intimate personal nature!”

Eventually, enough was enough. I decided that I really needed some time for inner reflection. I quit my job (maybe not solely based on my need for inner reflection, but more based on my need to more evenly distribute my time between sitting on the couch and going to the pool). Nonetheless, I devoted a fraction of my time, a fraction, to figuring out my line of bullshit when people asked me those all-too-intrusive questions over Tex-Mex and margaritas.

Last summer, as with most summers, I did a lot of my thinking while at the pool. The pool, however, was an easy place to get distracted.

There was an older fellow who would go to the pool to swim laps, a crusty old Massachusetts liberal named Tony who had moved to Dallas to escape the Northern winters. Tony would not only distract me from my thinking (being an only

I got to thinking about that. Tony was right.

Absolutely, one hundred percent correct. I hadn’t even begun to realize much of anything, one way or the other.

Days passed… weeks passed… I continued to struggle. I had always read about scientists having that one moment of sudden mental clarity (serendipity was the fancy word for it, when that ever-so-elusive mental clarity happened due to chance, the proverbial fruit mold growing in the petri dish that was accidentally left out overnight, if you will, which happened to be an antibiotic by the name of penicillin, which would revolutionize the course of medical history). My moment of clarity needn’t be so momentous. I decided not to wait on serendipity. I decided to make it happen myself. I drove from Irving (where my condo is located) across the Trinity River into Dallas (where all the liquor stores, strip joints, and other dens of iniquity are located, due to Irving landuse laws). I bought what turned out to be a good bottle of Merlot (THIS was due to serendipity, as I knew nothing about wine, and only bought wine based on the attractiveness of the bottle).

I headed back to Irving. I poured a glass, and entered into a deep, meditative state.

I decided to start from the top. I would consider where I had come from, both educationally and professionally, and I would just keep the train of thought going until I got to some vague point in the future, a point just far enough ahead that nobody would bother asking about it.

Photo Credit: David Recht

child, I like to think ALONE), but he would also distract me from talking to the pretty girls who would go to the pool to lie in the sun, the latter distraction being far more upsetting to me.

21

“So, you’re going to Columbia,” Tony would say.

“You haven’t even begun to realize what a good thing you are doing for your life and career.”

The past was somewhat simple. In the summer of 1993, I enrolled at Texas A&M University, in College Station, Texas. Why Texas A&M? It wasn’t too hard a decision for me—my father and grandfather had attended Texas A&M, and I had simply neither known or considered any other school. I enrolled in the Corps of Cadets, had my head shaved, and was thrown into a rigorous, seven-day ROTC program. I enrolled in engineering. Why engineering? Was it because Texas A&M has a legendary engineering program, with

dAVID rECHT over 100 years of history of training both civilian and military engineers? No—I joined engineering because I liked math (and, again, because my dad and granddad where engineers, and I had never known anything different). I enrolled in Electrical Engineering. Why electrical? I didn’t know any better, and it sounded kind of sophisticated—I pictured electrical sparks and hard-to-understand concepts of physics. I got kicked out of Electrical Engineering. I enrolled in Mechanical Engineering. Why? Because the electrical guys no longer wanted me. I got kicked out of Mechanical Engineering. I enrolled in Civil Engineering. Why? Because neither the electrical nor the mechanical guys wanted me anymore.

I had another glass of wine. After graduating, I hustled up an engineering job in Dallas. Why Dallas? Because my parents weren’t there (they were in Houston), for one, and there was a cute girl with raven-black hair that I knew in Dallas named Caryn (who would end up getting married to some banker the following summer, but what did I know? It was springtime, and I was infatuated).

I started building Wal-Marts. And Lowe’s Home Improvement warehouses. And McDonald’s restaurants. After building 30 McDonald’s franchises, I realized that I wouldn’t learn that much building my 31st McDonald’s franchise.

It was time for a new job. I found one—jobs were easy to come by in the summer of 2000 in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. I found a job as a municipal consultant. We did work for the City of Denton, the City of Lewisville, Denton County, the Texas Department of Transportation… any municipality we could get to throw us a bone.

Water lines, sewer lines, drainage channels, storm drains, new roads, rehabilitating old roads—the list went on and on. I never worked on the same type of project twice. I only needed two more years of experience before I could apply to the Texas Board of Professional Engineers for an engineering license, who in turn would give me a stamp that read “David H. Recht, Professional Engineer.” At that point, I would be free to consult on my own, affixing my stamp to anything I could get my hands on, crashing and burning as I went. Two years came and went, bringing

me to the magical, four-year date, when the boys in Austin would begin to assume that I had magically turned into an engineer. Knowing that I had fulfilled my requirements to the state, I quit my job a couple weeks later, despite my boss’ appeal to the engineering board that I wasn’t ready to be awarded a license (that’s the last time I get HIM to write me a recommendation letter!).

I felt sure that the board would overlook the vote of no confidence (Editor’s note: as of 9/18, the verdict is still out in Austin, Texas on that issue).

I had another glass of wine. There I was, on the eve of grad school at Columbia University in the City of New York. I kept the thought flow moving, which was easier going into that last glass of red in the bottle.

> My moment of clarity needn’t b e s o m o m e n t o u s .

I decided not to wait on serendipity .

I decided to make it happen m y s e l f . < I was going to grad school to change up the routine. I believed (firmly) in the merits of, from time to time, drastically changing things around in life, if for no other reason than purely for the hell of it. I wanted to consider things from a different region of the country. I wanted to re-enroll in academia, where, at the not-so-tender age of twenty-seven, I would take my studies ever so much more seriously. I wanted to progress through that same academic system, leaving my opportunities open to teach if I wanted to, or to testify as an expert witness if I wanted to, or to do pretty much anything that I wanted to, professional or otherwise, for that matter. I wanted to take the individual capital improvement projects that I had worked on and consider them on a larger scale, that of the entire city. Finally, I wanted to go to grad school in New York City.

Dad has told me repeatedly that I haven’t really thought this whole grad school idea through, from start to finish. At times, to be honest, I see his point. Nonetheless, I at least feel that I now have an answer to the ominous question, “So, why grad school, Dave?”

I still haven’t figured out what to do after graduation, but that’s OK. Life needs at least a small dose of chaos at all times!

KINNE Report: Dominical, Costa Rica Surf Mecca: Globalization of Low-Budget Tourism

cUZ pOTTER CHRISTINE GRIMANDO, MING-YUAN PENG, AND CUZ POTTER

This view is for sale, Baru River reaches the Pacific in Dominical

Internet upstairs, banana pancakes downstairs

PLANNING

Rainforest fog on the InterAmericana “Hwy”

Back of “Tortilla Flats” guest house

23

Don’t want to hand-wash the salt water out of your bathing suit?

During our brief visit to this country renowned in development circles for its equitable land reform and stable democracy, we experienced a healthy dose of Bob Marley, banana pancakes, and surf heaven. The globalization of low-budget tourism became evident to this tourist when he heard the same music, saw the same menu, and met the same backpackers that he had met throughout the Asian backpack circuit in Dominical, a small village on the southwest coast. It’s clear that the low-budget traveller represents a distinct and relatively stable demographic and is contented with a basic package of “tropicality”: reggae, fruit, and beaches.

This is not to deny that the forces of localization are not also at play. Costa Rica boasted its own twist on the rice and bean lunch with meat or fish, called “casados.” And, in fact, the music was not all Bob Marley, but included the more contemporary rock that the surfers play in the 4x4s they drive in Malibu and in Dominical as they prowl for the day’s killer surf. So, the forces of globalization and localization are active not only in mainstream tourism but also in the low-budget realm.

MY FAVORITE MEMORY

Walking out of the surf late one morning, where I had been avoiding Christine’s attempts to surf, and seeing Ming sitting on a piece of driftwood with a beer in one hand and a cigar in the other.

Photo Credits: Cuz Potter

KINNE Report: Amsterdam + Rotterdam

Going Dutch: August Interviews with the Dutch Planning Community sUSAN gLADSTONE SUSAN GLADSTONE AND VERONICA MURPHY

“God created the world, but the Netherlands was created by the Dutch.” One can find many variations of this sentiment throughout planning and architecture documents. No sentiment is truer. The Dutch have time and again reclaimed their land from water, from the classic canal engineering to the Delta Plan fight against the North Sea. The current crisis is the over-population of the Netherlands. Housing is the major concern of the planning community as the population is outgrowing the country’s current limits.

Harry van Veenedaal, of the Physical Planning Department of the city of Amsterdam, spoke of the limited physical space in Amsterdam, giving rise to the department’s motto “Optimum use of land.” As a result of the limited space, city planning has a major role in shaping the city. Developers and architects have learned to follow development and building guidelines.

The department also emphasizes infill and refurbishing within the city, properly utilizing space and ensuring the quality of the structures. Once a particular use is no longer viable, new uses are quickly identified. An excellent example of this is the redevelopment of the Eastern Docklands of Amsterdam into housing developments, including the Borneo-Sporenburg islands designed by West 8, a landscape architecture and urban design firm based in Rotterdam. Henk Hartzema, partner and senior designer at West 8, presented a collection of West 8’s key projects including the landscape design of Schipol airport, the Oosterschelde project for the Delta Plan, Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam, and the housing development on Borneo-Sporenburg islands in the Eastern Docklands of Amsterdam. The Borneo-Sporenburg housing development includes single-family homes, low-rise multiple dwellings, and high-rise apartment buildings. Peter Trummer, studio coordinator for the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, commented that in spite of the low-rise high-density character of Amsterdam, the population craves the single family home. This partly explains why the single family homes on the BorneoSporenburg islands sold so readily. Of course, true to Dutch principles, a large percentage of units on the islands were dedicated as social housing. In a site visit to Borneo-Sporenburg islands, Hartzema pointed out the variation of designs within uniform guidelines creating both steady rhythms and syncopation along the streetwall. The high-rise structures were designed as landmark buildings and, together with dedicated open space, create a dynamic and intriguing living environment.

West 8’s Borneo-Sporenburg housing development in Amsterdam.

West 8’s Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam Photo Credits: West 8

The Netherlands

M3H, an architecture firm based in Amsterdam, designed one of the building types on the Borneo-Sporenburg docklands. Machiel Spaan, founding architect at M3H, was faced with the task of creating four units on two lots of the housing development. Spaan’s final design achieved five dwellings on one lot, without limiting dwelling space. His buildings were praised for their keen use of space including staggering unit bedrooms for added privacy and the use of horizontal wooden slats, placed as siding, which block the view from the upper floors of the private ground-floor gardens of the bottom units. The upper units were given roof gardens. Spaan stressed that there is always room for creativity in design even with the strictest of limitations.

For More Information on These Projects Amsterdam Department of Physical Planning <www.dro.amsterdam.nl> West 8 <www.west8.nl> The Berlage Institute <www.berlage-institute.nl> M3H Architects <www.m3h.nl>

M3H design for Borneo-Sporenburg, built for privacy, with creativity.

Photo Credits: Susan Gladstone and West 8

KINNE Report: Costa Rica

Eco-Tourism? San Jose, Quepos, and Manuel Antonio National Park lISA fISHER BRENDA CHO, LISA FISHER, GRACE HAN, AND JOSÉ ROBERTO VENTURA

All four of us agreed that the perfect KINNE trip locale would combine an exposure to a unique set of planning issues along with an opportunity for sun, beach, and a few monkeys. Costa Rica has it all. Situated towards the southern end of Central America, it hosts almost 4 million inhabitants and over 1 million visitors each year, in a land area smaller than West Virginia. Within its 51,100 sq km, Costa Rica boasts 1,290 km of Caribbean and Pacific coastline, elevations from 0 to 3800 m, 2 active volcanoes, and the reassurance of a relatively peaceful political climate. The biggest draw by far is the incredible biodiversity found in its rain forests, waters, and mountains, especially because of the recent push to accommodate the growing market of adventure- and eco-tourism. Costa Rica now gains 24% of its annual GNP from folks such as us.

Twenty-five percent of Costa Rica’s land is declared “protected” but, only 12% of that is controlled by a national government agency, with the rest managed and owned through private enterprise. It is a valid concern that these reserves are increasingly under threat of development and overuse, perhaps as a result of Costa Rica’s focused investment and reliance on tourism. Much of the unprotected 75% is suffering from continuous land use changes such as deforestation for cattle ranching and agriculture, not to mention the serious environmental concerns of solid waste management, coastal marine protection, and air and water pollution. This being said, we were not able to discern whether flippant terms, such as “eco-tourism,” adhere to any sort of regulated conservation standards or guidelines. Thus, the constant barrage of advertising and announcements we encountered hourly, toting “eco-lodge” this, “sustainable development” that, and the “we have more monkeys than people” slogans, were more disturbing than comforting.

A busy bus depot and the journey’s end in Quepos

Scenes from San Jose: Americanization in the main plaza, the “green-season” rains, and a congested streetscape.

Our itinerary began with two days in the nation’s capital, San Jose.

Jose and I met with members of Dirección Urbanismo, the city’s department of urban planning, while Brenda and Grace visited nearby Alajuela for comparison. We were amazed by the amount of pollution, congestion, and diesel exhaust and the lack of walkable sidewalks, open space, and sewage treatment facilities. We soon fled, cramped and sweaty, aboard the over-mountain, no-AC bus to the ex-banana port of Quepos, a somewhat seedy town over-run with tourists, tourist-prices, and pamphlets for canopy tours. We quickly moved the 7km down the coast towards Manuel Antonio National Park, settled into a great hotel with an amazing view of the Pacific, and spent our days in the sun, on the beach, and in the jungle with some monkeys, and a sloth!

Eight days is indeed not enough time to construct a complete assessment, but from the information we gathered and the observations we made, it is clear that urgent planning issues exist. Costa Rica faces ever-increasing tensions between economic production (tourism, agriculture, and cattle) and the protection of their amazing natural resources that define their unique contribution to the world.

25

Travel necessities

Living right: Our balcony view of Manuel Antonio National Park Photo Credits: Brenda Cho, Lisa Fisher, and Grace Han

Trading Places mOSTA bANGUIYABO Trading Places could have started in any other place, with any other name, with any other students. The Trading Places network was born at Columbia University three years ago, based on the same model of the European urban planning students network, PlaNet. Trading Places relies

We invited speakers to Columbia University, and hosted a conference on urban disasters, which included a simultaneous party retransmitted via web cameras in New York and Tokyo. We also visited urban planning programs in other schools (Harvard, MIT, Cornell, Pratt, etc.) We are currently developing an online urban image database, for which the Fannie Mae Foundation gave us a grant.

Urban nomads in Tokyo

on the principle that experience and play are natural paths to knowledge and creation. We have no hierarchy, no fixed structure, and no obligations. The network now expands to four continents: Europe, America, Asia, and Africa, and is part of other networks such as PlaNet, ASAP, and Naked Communication.

We meet online or in our respective schools and let our imagination go wild. When an idea gener-

> Trading Places is based on the principle that experience and p l a y are natural p aths to knowledge and creation. < ates a critical mass of enthusiasm in the group, we start working on it. Usually it gets realized, if it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t, we go on to other projects So far we have organized traveling conferences to Europe, North America, Asia, and South Africa, and published two book relating our experiences.

The next projects are up to you.

Please visit our Web site and contact us: <http://www.tradingplacesnetwork.org> <tradingplaces@columbia.edu>

Playground in Hong Kong Photo Credits: Mosta Banguiyabo

Who’s That Person at the Next Computer? [ Urban Planning Students ]

FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS

[aLEJANDRO bAQUERO] I’m Alejandro Baquero, first-year MSUP student. I was born in Bogota, Colombia 29 long years ago. I’m a lawyer (nobody’s perfect!) and my work experience has focused in the field of infrastructure development, especially at the urban level (i.e. public transportation, waste-water treatment, aqueduct and toll-road projects). My quirks & foibles: playing percussion instruments (drums, flamenco Cajun), good food, good coffee, good music, good books.

[cYNTHIA gOLEMBESKI] I grew up on the east coast and then did my undergraduate work in the California Bay Area. I have been living in the Lower East Side for the last few years. I am interested in the relationship between socio-cultural identity and urban spatial experience, along with how participatory planning strategies can assist in developing and sustaining more socially just cities. I appreciate the value of good coffee, cheap art, public libraries, and farmers’ markets.

[rICHARD bERGER] I was born and raised in the wonderful town of Salem, Oregon. My undergraduate degree is in geography, from Oregon State University. My interest in planning is Oregon-focused since I plan on returning when I am done with my studies. I came to New York to get a different perspective and so far that’s what I’ve gotten. I like watching football and playing handball.

[eLDAD gOTHELF] Social justice through urban planning. That is my goal. That, and to be able to dunk in basketball. I’m not sure which is more attainable but I’m confident the journey to each will bring me great joy.

[jULIETTE dELLECKER] I grew up in Paris (not Maine, not Texas), and came to the U.S. for college. After four years in Princeton, New Jersey, I lived in Boston for three years working at a public interest advocacy organization, MASSPIRG. I’ve enjoyed my first couple months in New York—learning how to tell uptown from downtown, figuring out the crazy subway system, and exploring cool neighborhoods all around. [rYAN dEVLIN] I came here to Columbia and New York to get as far away as possible from Southwest Virginia, where I did my first year of Masters work at Virginia Tech. Now that I’m out of the boondocks, I’m focusing on inner city community development.

After graduation I hope to go back home to Washington, DC to do community development work in my hometown. [jENNIFER dICKSON] I’m originally from New Jersey but made the strenuous trip across the Hudson four years ago. For the past year I’ve been working at the transportation division of NYC’s Department of City Planning. I am currently attempting to come up with ways to convince the city’s population to abandon their obsession with traveling by car. Maybe after I get my masters I’ll have more luck. [aARON dONOVAN] 26, grew up in Westport, Conn., and majored in government at Georgetown. He was a reporter for The New York Times for the past three years, where he wrote largely about urban poverty.

27

[jOEL fERREE] is from Indianapolis, Indiana. The author Kurt Vonnegut is also from Indianapolis, Indiana. He described the town as “just another someplace where automobiles lived, with a symphony orchestra and all. And a race track.” This is quite correct. Seeking a life without NASCAR, Joel moved to the Big Apple. His first four years in the City were spent walking around downtown under the false auspices of writing the next great American novel. The second four were spent giving tours of the Lower East Side, writing freelance, and swimming at Rockaway Beach. Joel likes his coffee with chocolate and his films by Wong Kar-Wai.

[jESSICA gUILFOY] I grew up halfway between Boston and the Cape. I first came to New York to go to school at Fordham, where I double majored in Sociology and Urban Studies with a concentration in community development. I then moved to Washington, DC to work with federal and non-profit clients on housing and community development issues at a consulting firm. [cHYI-yUN hUANG] Hello, I’m Chyi-Yun, a Taiwanese but have spent the last 10 years or so studying in Singapore. New York has been a big impact on me, with the wide sidewalks, completely different architecture, and people from all walks of life. Hope the next two years will bring new friends and exciting experiences!! [kATHRYN hOPPER] A native of Chicago, I have been in New York for almost six years. I completed my undergraduate work at Mount Holyoke College and Northwestern University. I have been out of school for a few years and in that time have worked within the fields of advertising and marketing, and have had my own marketing consultant business since 1996. Two years ago, I decided to make a career change and discovered urban planning. I interned with New York’s Department of City Planning last year. If urban planning does not work out, I am going to turn my hobby, welding, into a full-time endeavor. [eMILY kARPEL] Hi... I grew up in Columbia, MD, moved to New York straight from undergrad in Waltham, MA, worked for IBM for 3 years, and decided to go back to school to pursue a career change.

I am very excited to be back in school. I love the Food Network, Mr. Softie cherry dipped vanilla cones, and the south of France. [sAILAJA kURELLA] Hello! I just moved here from San Francisco where I’ve been a software consultant for the past 4 years. Well, actually three years, because this past year I was on a *paid* leave from my job (really!!). I took the opportunity to travel throughout India for 5 months. I’m happy to be in New York, but I just hope the camping and snowboarding will be as good here as in California! [mORIAH mCsHARRY mCgRATH] I spent the summer accompanying thirty hormone-crazed middle schoolers on field trips to amusement parks, water slides, IMAX movies, and exactly one museum.

Looking to further my pretend life as a teenager, I started working in Barnard College’s residential life office in August. In between trips to Tom’s Diner with the girls, I sneak uptown to the health sciences campus, where I’m also working on a Masters in public health. [zINEB mORABET] I have been living in New York for the past two years, working for a foundation that funds research in public health.

At this point, I am excited to learn more about this city and other cities from the urban planning perspective, particularly since this is a new field for me. [jEN mOST] I’m originally from the New York area, born in Manhattan, raised in Queens and Long Island. I attended college at MIT, where I graduated in 2000 with a degree in architecture. Feeling disillusioned with the profession and burnt out from endless nights in studio, I opted to join the dot-com wave. Well, we all know how that turned out... In 2001, I finally left Boston to pursue preservation-related interests in DC, where I worked documenting historic buildings around the country for the Historic American Buildings Survey. The job was great, but I always knew I’d come back to New York one day. After September 11th, I knew the time was now. At Columbia, I hope to combine my interests in social issues and urban planning, with my love for architecture and historic preservation, as I pursue a joint Masters in these two fields. [sETH mYERS] I came to Columbia following five months backpacking across Central America, learning Spanish, and testing my digestive system. Before that I was a TV news producer in Chicago. I’m excited to learn about cities, which have fascinated me as long as I can remember. I’d like to focus on international development, and find a job where I can globe trot and make the world a better place.

When I’m not studying I enjoy reading, talk radio, cruising around the Web, and grabbing a beer with friends. [gURI nADLER] I grew up in Israel where I studied psychology and statistics. I then worked as a researcher for the Israeli Education Administration. This Fall I moved to New York with Shiri, who is attending Parson’s School of Design. After completing my MSUP, I hope to return to Tel Aviv. [mELISSA nEUMAN] I grew up in Western Michigan and studied the history of international relations at Harvard. I graduated in 1999.

After graduating, I served as an AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer in Boston, MA. I also worked at a think tank in Washington, DC, focusing on women’s economic issues and in the Gender and Women’s Health department of the World Health Organization in Geneva.

My academic interests include (unsurprisingly) international planning, public health, and gender. My non-academic interests include hiking, cross-country skiing, travelling, and photography. [sIOBAHN o’kANE] I’m Siobhan O’Kane, first name pronounced shuv-on. Originally from Connecticut, I have spent the last few years roaming the eastern seaboard, spending three years at the Uni-

versity of Delaware, a few months in Washington, DC, and the last year in Boston. I’m interested in environmental and international planning issues. Aside from scholarly endeavors, I have worked as a travel agent, enjoy running road races, and am currently attempting to teach myself how to fiddle. [jEFF oTTO] Originally from Nebraska, it is my goal to replace every cow in Nebraska with a building. It makes sense then that Nebraska will need a few urban planners in the future! Tschuss. [aNGELA pACE-mOODY] I blew in to NYC from the windy city (Chicago, IL). After working two years at a small non-profit, I am very interested in the community development aspect of planning. I love to travel and cook so let’s plan a potluck social one of these days. [eLOISE pAUL] I am originally from Atlanta, GA, and studied art history as an undergraduate at Emory University. For the last two years I worked here in New York for an internet start up company called Cityfeet.com, working with commercial real estate professionals to market their available space through the internet. [bARBARA pREVATT] Hi there! I’m Barbara and I’ve been happily living in the East Village for over 10 years. I’ve been working mainly in the non-profit criminal justice sector but wanted to satisfy my interest in land use policy. I’m originally from Trinidad and my passions include classic Hollywood film, urban hiking, and the City of London. [mOLLY pRICE] I’m a New Englander who never thought I’d love New York as much as I do. Since college, I’ve worked for the city in affordable housing, on a campaign for parks, and for a parks non-profit doing policy analysis. I also spent a summer working in eastern Germany. I plan to stay in NYC until I find a job that pays me to travel or a political campaign that energizes me enough to want to work for it. I love tennis, Tom Wolfe books, The West Wing, and flip flops. [dAVE rECHT] I’m a civil engineer from Dallas, Texas. I’m soooo excited to be in New York City—I’m overwhelmed by all the great restaurants here!!! If you ever want to grab a bite and chew the fat, give me a shout... [jUAN rIVERO] A sucker for burnt caramel, Faulknerian run-ons, and minor sixths, I wake up every day to the score of Rudy, and make the long journey to school in the hopes of one day planning the world, based on the founding principle that extra hamness doesn’t always improve a ham sandwich, into a form as efficient and aesthetically pleasing as my record collection. [sHANNON rOBERTS] I recently moved here from Arlington, VA, where I spent the last 4+ years working at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Working in an art museum only deepened my interest in art; I also love shopping for antiques.

Who’s That Person at the Next Computer? [ Urban Planning Students ]

FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS [continued]

SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS [continued]

[gARY rOTH] I was born on the Island of Long in the Town of Plainview in Central General Hospital. From this linguistically challenged beginning, I grew up a product of car and TV culture. It was not until I moved to NYC and read “The Power Broker” did I realize that the suburbs were not an accident. My short term goal is to work for NYC2012 and assist in the planning of the Olympic games. My long term goal is to reduce Manhattan’s dependence on automobile use and encourage bicycles, skating and other forms of non-polluting transportation.

[bRENDA cHO] My life and interests in urban infrastructure spawned in New Orleans. After studying architecture in St. Louis and living briefly in Chicago, I find myself in NYC attempting to somehow interview my adored indie rock bands for my yet-to-be determined thesis on physical planning and the dynamic urban spaces that occur with and without the planner’s intervention.

[rOXANNE rYCE-pAUL] I am from Trinidad and Tobago. I have lived also in the US and Europe. I am in the joint program (Preservation and Planning) and this is my second year at Columbia. I have a B.Arch from the Cooper Union and hope to eventually return to practice architecture in the Caribbean using facets of the three disciplines to augment my architecture. [mAYA sARKAR] I’m a native New Yorker, but moved out to San Francisco 3 years ago to ride the internet bandwagon. Going to Columbia is a “coming home” of sorts for me. I have a Civil Engineering bachelors from Cooper Union located in the LES. (I never used my CE skills!) My interest in UP comes from my volunteer activity with the American Red Cross. I’m interested in disaster mitigation work. There are two things in life I can’t live without—sushi and the [warm] ocean. [kOVID sAXENA] I am from Bombay, India. I am an architect and have worked for architectural and planning firms for the last three years, since I graduated from the University of Bombay. The last project that I worked on was for a town planning scheme to redevelop a medieval town in Western India that was devastated by an earthquake in January 1991. It was with this experience that I got a glimpse of the potential of Urban Planning in transforming cities with all their diversity in income, race and religion.

Next stop-GSAP. [jULIE tOUBER] I grew up in Africa and in France. I studied French Literacy, History and Geography in Classes Preparatoires (Hypokhagne and Khagne) and then I went to La Sorbonne to study Urban Planning. I worked 3 months for the World Heritage Center of UNESCO in Paris, and 2 months at the Heritage House of Luang Prabang (Laos). My dream... sailing around the world. Interest: natural curiosity, Favorite eat : roumasaf (Moriah knows, I’m sure), Favorite drink: gin tonic, Favorite place: on a sailing boat in the Raz de Sein during sunset or sunrise, Favorite film: Jules et Jim, Favorite sport (to watch): rugby SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS

29

[aUGUSTA bROWN] My interest in planning was first sparked growing up in Louisville, KY. I went to the University of Virginia as an undergraduate where I studied Sociology. I am particularly interested in environmental planning and am writing my thesis on the role policy has played in the development of farm land into sprawl.

[bRIAN dICKSON] My first interest in urban planning was building cities in my sandbox. I am a late starter in the field; I worked in Green Bay, WI for 12 years before finally starting my undergraduate degree in Environmental Planning at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. I wanted a graduate degree before I was 40 and because I spent all my life in small-town Wisconsin, I knew if I was going to make a change, I might as well do it big. Now, after a year in NYC, I will never regret my choice. I spent this past summer working at UTAP and visiting all over the New York area with my car to see the spots that do not yet have easy access to public transportation. [lISA fISHER] After 5 great years in San Francisco, with graphic design funding much snowboarding and mountain biking, I decided what I’d rather be doing is working on cities instead of just in them.

Planning rules because you can create form and function in big cities and simultaneously save wilderness from sprawling nastiness. I spent most of my summer in Central America, observing frictions between habitat preservation, production/tourism, and poverty.

But, that seems a distant memory, as my the-sass stares me in the face: using planning to formulate and argue for strong “reduction” policy as the most effective way to reduce waste, above and beyond saving and improving NYC’s defunct recycling program. [sUSAN gLADSTONE] I am a New Yorker. At Columbia, I studied Cognitive Science, managed the radio station WBAR AM/FM, then worked for two years at the Visual Cognition Lab. Craving something more practical, I switched to Urban Planning. I like making movies with 3D Studio Max and talking about urban design.

My favorite project is Schouwbergplein in Rotterdam by West 8.

Last summer I worked for an interdisciplinary group headed by architects Kenneth Frampton and Ken Kaplan. I spend a lot of my time teaching statistics, which I enjoy very much. I should be spending more time writing my thesis which explores the theory of urban acupuncture as proposed by Manuel de Sola-Morales. [gRACE hAN] I’m originally from Monterey Park, California famous for its Chinese supermarkets and delectable delights. I had a deep love with Japan in the early 1990s, and after having a falling out, I shifted my loyalties and lived in Hong Kong for a bit. My vices include sushi indulgences much too often, and an obsession with my iBook. [vERONICA mURPHY] Transplanted Jamaican living here over a decade now. While I still refer to Jamaica as home I feel very much at home in Queens where I live. I earned my Bachelors Degree in Environmental Studies at St. John’s University in Queens. I was more or less directed towards Urban Planning at Columbia by chance and am

PhD STUDENTS [continued]

still happy with that choice. I work part-time at the Department of Environmental Conservation (Region 2 NYC). The most interesting thing I am working on right now is the Region’s Environmental Benefits Program. This summer I had the awesome pleasure of visiting the city of Amsterdam with Susan, for KINNE. I am looking forward to a very exciting planning career. I am concerned about adequate housing, and hurricane and earthquake disaster preparedness in Jamaica, and hope I can provide solutions. [cUZ pOTTER] From East Coast preppie to West Coast hipster. I grew up in a small Connecticut coastal sailing town (Mystic) during the era of penny loafers, Izods, and Duran Duran. After finishing university in Boston, I moved to San Francisco to save the world through art and bicycles. Failing that, I left for Seoul, Korea, where I lived for five years and translated and edited for the Korean Ministries of Environment and Labor. [mALENA vEGA] I was born in Colombia, moved to NY when I was 15, and moved to Dallas TX 6 years later where I got an Interior Design degree and started my career in space planning and architecture. Because of the economy I moved back to NY in the early 90’s, and soon realized that I needed a bachelor’s degree. I was accepted to Pratt Institute for the computer graphics program. I chose a computer field because I was computer illiterate and had the feeling that without that knowledge, I was not going anywhere.

After I graduated (with honors), I went back to my former career and while working for a consulting firm, I was given a temporary job at Columbia. I started working in 1998 as a CAD drafter, and within a month I was offered a job as space planner. When I found out that one of the fringe benefits was tuition (if I was accepted) I decided to apply for my Masters. I love my current job but I am also very interested in physical and international planning. [jOSÉ rOBERTO vENTURA] I was born in Angola and spent my childhood and puberty years moving from one place to another with my family. I moved to New York last August, coming from Brazil where I had lived for 7 years and completed my undergraduate studies in architecture. My main academic interests are physical planning and low-income housing (design, not policy). I try to spend my free time cave diving, taking photographs, and playing squash. [bILL wALSH] B.A. in Geography from University of Connecticut with an emphasis on urban economics. Interested in urban redevelopment and design issues, and how they can spur reinvestment in central cities and reduce sprawl. I enjoy traveling, hiking, biking, skiing, politics, and buffalo chicken wings. See ya round!

PhD STUDENTS

[sHANE tAYLOR]

[pADMINI bISWAS] Back in the day, I graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in English literature. After a brief stint in children’s publishing, I entertained the idea of working on historic preservation projects as an engineer, and to that end obtained a B.S. in civil engineering from the Cooper Union. I then worked for Gilsanz,

Murray, & Steficek, LLP, the structural engineering firm which is currently producing blast-proof designs and retrofits for buildings such as the new Reuters headquarters, and the Metrotech Center.

I never got to work on anything nearly that interesting, though, ever. I also realized that I would rather work on the policy issues of urban systems rather than the physical design. So I flew off to the London School of Economics for an MS in Urban Planning, and am currently following that up with a PhD here at Columbia. On the side, I am the founding editor of Salt, a South Asian American literary journal funded by the New York State Council on the Arts, and I am trying to learn to crochet. Sort of. [gABRIELLA cAROLINI] After finishing my undergraduate degree in international relations at Columbia, I worked as a financial management consultant in New York for three years, specializing in both domestic and international fixed income markets. This time coincided with the financial crisis that travelled the globe from Thailand to Brazil, thus I learned quickly how communities both near and far from Wall Street were sharply vulnerable to volatile markets. What remained a question, however, was how the same powers of the financial sector could be harnessed to positively impact economic development in middle- and low-income countries. As such, I left New York for Oxford, where I studied for the M.Phil in Development Studies, focusing on the potential use of financial instruments in development projects in South America. More specifically, while at Oxford I found that my interests largely revolved around the problems developing urban cities face in financing public services, and have thus landed back at Columbia for my PhD in urban planning.

It’s good to be home and far away from UK-style mushy peas. [eLIZABETH cURRID] Originally the plan was to run in league with Ezra Pound and the gang, so I majored in creative writing as an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA (which, as a city, is an urban planner’s nightmare). As senior year approached and I became increasingly concerned at the lack of job prospects for poets (waitressing seemed the most optimistic of all the options she weighed), I followed my other passion, public policy, and went to Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, where I concentrated in environmental and urban policy. Along the way, however, on my search for the perfect graduate school, I spoke with Richard Florida (a Columbia UP alum) who teaches at the Heinz School. Florida asked me to help him write a book, which after a summer of writing and researching became “The Rise of the Creative Class.” In the process of working with Florida on the book and various other research projects, I discovered the world of urban planning and policy and decided I would truly be happiest studying this subject in greater detail and thus decided to apply to Columbia University’s Urban Planning program—which was clearly the most interesting, progressive and dynamic program out there. Lucky for me, I got in. Thus far, I am having a grand time inside and outside of the classroom. And I just can’t get over the size of pizza slices in this city.

Contact Us URBAN MAGAZINE Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation Urban Planning Program 413 Avery Hall, GSAP 1172 Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY 10027

[email] urban@columbia.edu [web] http://www.urban.columbia.edu To learn more about the graduate program in Urban Planning at Columbia, visit our Web site or call 212.854.3513.