San Jos� State University - URBP 200

Introduction to Urban and Regional Planning

Asha Weinstein - Fall 2004

Course objectives

The purpose of this class is to introduce students to the history of city planning and the basic theoretical ideas that underlie city planning practice. Although practicing planners are not always directly aware of it, their everyday work is heavily influenced by theories of how and why planners plan, as well as professional institutions and conventions that have developed over time. Thus, the readings, assignments, and lectures are all designed to encourage students to reflect on the ways that planning theory and history apply to the work of contemporary professional planners.

The first few sessions of the course cover the origins and history of American city planning. We also look at the history of the city of San Jose in detail. Later sessions introduce the historical evolution of theories about why and how we plan, the role of citizen participation, and the ethics of planning. These sessions also provide an overview of the evolution of planning practice throughout the 20th century. The remaining sessions present an overview of some of the major sub-fields of planning: planning for housing, local government finance, transportation, environmental sustainability, public spaces, redevelopment, and growth management.

The readings have been selected to provide an overview of the issues being studied, as well as to expose students to such classic writers in the field as Lewis Mumford, Jane Jacobs, Paul Davidoff, and Kenneth T. Jackson.

Class meetings

Mondays, 4:00 � 6:45 p.m., in Sweeney Hall 411.

Instructor contact information

Email: asha.weinstein@sjsu.edu
Phone: (408) 924-5853
Office: Room 218C in Washington Square Hall

Websites:
- Course website: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/weinstein/urbp200.htm
- Instructor website: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/weinstein/

Office hours: Mondays and Tuesdays, 9:30 a.m. � 12:00 p.m.

Readings

Required

The required course reader is available at Unique Printing for $15.00. Unique Printing is located at 109 Santa Clara Street, between 3rd and 4th Streets (phone 408-297-6698). I will also hand out a small number of additional articles in class, and at times I may ask you to read material available on the web. If you miss a class, check the course website for any changes to the readings assigned for the following week.

Recommended

I recommend subscribing to two very good email lists:

• PLANetizen culls interesting planning articles from around the country and sends out a list of them a couple of times a week. You can subscribe by visiting the PLANetizen website at http://www.planetizen.com/forms/enewsletter.php.
  
• The Bay Area Transportation News (BATN) list provides newspaper articles and other information about transportation issues in the Bay Area. Although the primary focus is transportation, many of the articles have to do with other planning issues such as land use and the environment. Occasionally the moderator adds a little bit of private information not found elsewhere. The digest-version emails are sent 3-5 times a week. To subscribe, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/ and follow the instructions to �Join this group.�

Course assignments and expectations

Your grade for the course will be based primarily on an individual writing assignment (broken into two parts), weekly memos, and a group project:

Class participation

I do not give formal credit for class participation, but students should plan to attend all classes and participate fully in discussions and class exercises. In rare cases where a student misses significant numbers of lectures, this will impact the final course grade.

Weekly memos 

For 11 of the class sessions there is an associated memo assignment. The memos will help you to think about the readings in advance of each class, so as to stimulate your thinking, as well as prepare you for productive in-class discussions. Students should choose at least 8 to turn in. (I recommend that you do them all, but only 8 are required).

Due dates and grading policies are as follows:

• Quality: I will not assign the memos a letter grade, but I will read them and record whether or not you turn them in and their general quality (check+, check, or check-). If you hand in all your memos and receive an average grade of a check, you will receive an �A� for your memo grade.
  
• Due dates: These memos, which are designed to prepare you for the class, must be turned in at the beginning of the session for which they are due. If you know you will miss a class, you may email the memo to me and I will give you full credit as long as I receive it before the class session begins. So as to treat all students equally and fairly, I follow a policy of not accepting late memos for any reason whatsoever, including malfunctioning computers, or hungry dogs, goats, or rabbits.
  
• Missed memos. For every memo you miss, your total memo grade will drop 1/3 of a grade. (Please note that I allow you to skip three memos so that you have leeway in case you become ill, busy with work or other classes, or have a family emergency. Because I allow this flexibility, I normally do not allow students to miss any additional memos without a grade penalty.)

Turning in graded assignments (the personal reflections assignment and group project)

• Late assignments will be penalized one-third of a grade for each week late.
  
• If life begins to overtake you such that you expect you will not be able to complete an assignment on time and you let me know well before the due date, it may be possible for us to make alternative arrangements that will reduce the grade penalty for lateness.
  
• Any student who fails to turn in all graded assignments will automatically FAIL THE COURSE.

Rewrite policy

You have the option of rewriting both pieces of the personal reflections assignment. However, if you do so, please be advised of the following:

• I expect a genuine rewrite�you must do more than just fix the specific issues I have pointed out in my comments to you.
  
• Your final grade for the paper will be the average of the original submission and the rewrite. Note that rewritten papers will not automatically receive a higher grade.
  
• All rewritten papers must be turned in no later than two weeks after I return the graded papers to the class.
  

Citing sources properly (and avoiding plagiarism)

Plagiarism is the use of someone else�s language, images, data, or ideas without proper attribution. It is a very serious offense both in the university and in your professional work. In essence, plagiarism is both theft and lying: you have stolen someone else�s ideas, and then lied by implying that they are your own.

Learning when to cite a source and when not to is an art, not a science. However, here are some examples of plagiarism that you should be careful to avoid:

• If you use a sentence (or even a part of a sentence) that someone else wrote and don�t reference the source, you have committed plagiarism.
  
• If you paraphrase somebody else�s theory or idea and don�t reference the source, you have committed plagiarism.
  
• If you use a picture or table from a web page or book and don�t reference the source, you have committed plagiarism.
  
• If your paper incorporates data someone else has collected and you don�t reference the source, you have committed plagiarism.

The University of Indiana has developed a very helpful website with concrete examples about proper paraphrasing and quotation. See in particular:

• http://www.indiana.edu/~istd/overview.html
  
• http://www.indiana.edu/~istd/examples.html
  
• http://education.indiana.edu/~frick/plagiarism/item1.html

On the last page listed, you will find a quiz to test how well you understand proper paraphrasing. 

If you still have questions after reading these pages, feel free to talk to the instructor personally. There is nothing wrong with asking for help, whereas even unintentional plagiarism is a serious offense.

If you have questions about the official SJSU policy on plagiarism, please read the �Policy on Academic Dishonesty� at http://www2.sjsu.edu/senate/S04-12.htm. In addition, the �Academic Dishonesty Procedures� are available in any SJSU Schedule of Classes.

Course citation style

When you cite another author�s work in any written assignments, use footnotes and a bibliography following the �Turabian� style:

• For print sources, follow the directions in Kate Turabian�s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (University of Chicago Press, 1996). Copies are available in the SJSU King library and in the main office of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning (WSH 216). Additionally, the book is relatively inexpensive, and you may wish to purchase a copy (there are often cheap, used copies available through on-line book sellers).
  
• For electronic sources, follow the directions at Maurice Crouse�s page �Citing Electronic Information in History Papers� available at http://cas.memphis.edu/~mcrouse/elcite.html. The page begins with a discussion of the theory behind good citation style, and then provides detailed examples of how to cite all sorts of sources. Be sure to follow the guidelines for Turabian-style citations.

Please note that Turabian�s book describes two systems for referencing materials: (1) footnotes or endnotes, plus a corresponding bibliography, and (2) in-text parenthetical references, plus a corresponding reference list. Be sure to use the first system (footnotes and a bibliography) for all work you turn in to me during the semester.

Disabilities

If you have a disability and need special accommodations, please see me at the beginning of the semester so that we can work out a plan for your successful completion of the course.

Course schedule as of 8/24/04 (subject to change)

Week 1: August 30

Topics: Introductions; Course description; What is planning?

Reading: None

(No class on September 6: Labor Day)

Week 2: September 13

Topics: Planning history I - early American city planning; on-line research (in WSH #208)

Reading:

• Levy, John M. �The History of Planning: Part I.� In Contemporary Urban Planning, 6th ed, 24-48. Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall, 2003.
• Collection of pieces titled �Ebenezer Howard and the Garden City.� Journal of the American Planning Institute 64, no. 2 (1998): 125-132.

In-class handouts

• Lecture outline (.doc)
• On-line research (.doc)  Note: Passwords have been removed from this on-line version.

Week 3: September 20

Topics: Planning history II - zoning, general plans, planning commissions; group meetings (30 minutes)

Reading:

• Neuman, Michael. 1998. �Does planning need the plan?� Journal of the American Planning Institute 64, no. 2 (1998): 208-220.
• Fischler, Rafael. 1998. �The Metropolitan Dimension of Early Zoning: Revisiting the 1916 New York City Ordinance.� Journal of the American Planning Association 64, no. 2 (1998): 170-188.

Week 4: September 27

Topics: San Jose history I � guest Terry Christensen, SJSU; planning theory I - how and when to plan

Reading:

• Trounstine, Philip J. and Terry Christensen. �Flashback: A Short Political History of San Jose.� In Movers and Shakers: The Study of Community Power. New York, St. Martin�s Press, 1982.
• Levy, John M. �Planning Theory.� In Contemporary Urban Planning, 6th ed, 344-362. Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall, 2003.

Week 5: October 4

Topic: San Jose history II � Downtown tour with guest: Beth Wyman

Reading: Handout from Beth Wyman

Due: City History I

Week 6: October 11

Topic: Planning theory II - planning ethics; group meetings (20 minutes)

Reading:

• Barrett, Carol D. �Introduction� and �Appendix.� In Everyday Ethics for Practicing Planners. Washington, D.C., APA Planners Press, 2002.
• Krumholz, Norman. and John Forester. �The Downtown People Mover.� In Making Equity Planning Work. Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1990.

Week 7: October 18

Topic: Planning theory III - citizen participation

Reading:

• Arnstein, Sherry. A Ladder of Citizen Participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners 35, no. 4 (1969): 216-224.
• Davidoff, Paul. Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning. Journal of the American Institute of Planners 31, no. 4 (1965): 331-338.

Due: Planning ethics analysis

Week 8: October 25

Topics: Housing; race in planning; planning public spaces (introduction)

Reading:

• Jackson, Kenneth T. Chapters 11 & 12. In Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York, Oxford University Press, 1985.

Due: City history II

Week 9: November 1

Topic: Planning public spaces, cont.; group meetings (30 minutes)

Reading:

• Jacobs, Jane. �The Uses of Neighborhood Parks.� In The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York : Random House, 1961. Reprint, New York, The Modern Library, 1993.

Week 10: November 8

Topic: Local government finance

Reading:

• Chapman, Jeffrey I. Proposition 13: Some Unintended Consequences. San Francisco, Public Policy Institute of California, 1998.

Due: Planning commission meeting analysis

Week 11: November 15

Topic: Redevelopment, with guests: Jim Hines and Ruth Shikada, San Jose Redevelopment Agency

Reading:

• California Redevelopment Association. The Community Guide to Redevelopment. Sacramento, California Redevelopment Association, 2002.

Week 12: November 22

Topics: Transportation planning; environmental planning

Reading:

• Mumford, Lewis. �The Highway and the City.� In The Highway and the City. New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1963.
• Caro, Robert A. [Excerpts.] In The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, 1st ed. New York, Knopf, 1974.

Due: City history III

Week 13: November 29

Topic: Growth management with guest Don Weden, former Comprehensive Planning Manager, Santa Clara County

Reading:

• Burchell, Robert W., et al. �Defining Sprawl.� In The Costs of Sprawl�Revisited. Washington, D.C., Transportation Research Board, 1998.

Week 14: December 6

Topics: Giving presentations; group meetings (1.5 hours)

Reading: None

Exam period: December 13 (5:15 � 7:30 p.m., or TBD)

Due: City history presentations and final papers

Page last updated 4 October 2004