Geography
Urban Geography: Metro Problems Spring 2003

Spring Semester 2003                 MW 3:30 - 4:45 PM  LA4-102            Instructor: Dr. Dmitrii Sidorov
http://www.csulb.edu/~dsidorov/geog467.html   
Office: LA4-206c, MW 1:45–3:15, or by app.    E-mail:dsidorov@csulb.edu (pref.)  phone: 51861 (don’t use)

DATE	TOPIC	FILM	READINGS
27 Jan, M	Introduction,  Student Questionnaire
29 Jan, W	Planning in History	Roman City [10382], first 5 min; Western Tradition v.6, 22, Cities and Cathedral  in the Middle Ages [10620]	*Rosenau. The Ideal City, any edition, Ch. I, II, 19-47
03 Feb, M	Ideal City in History		*Rosenau. The Ideal City, any edition, Ch. III, IV, 48-87
05 Feb, W	Reading the World Fair	Assignment Questions	web-site: columbus.gl.iit.edu
10 Feb, M	Origins of Modern Planning		Hall, Ch. 1-3, 2-12,31-49,53-66
12 Feb, W	Visions of the Future	Metropolis 107 min [6037]/ Things to Come, 92 min [5767]	Assignment Questions
17 Feb, M	Garden City Concept		Hall, Ch. 4,   [49]
19 Feb, W	Regional City		Hall, Ch. 5    [38]
24 Feb, M	Monumental Tradition of City Planning		Hall, Ch. 6    [28]
26 Feb, W	Ideal Socialist City		Assignment
03 Mar, M	Le Corbusier		Hall, Ch. 7    [37]
05 Mar, W	Anarchist City	The Shock of the New [5723], v. 4, Trouble in Utopia, 52 min	Hall, Ch. 8    [31]
10 Mar, M	The City on the Highway		Hall, Ch. 9     [45]
12 Mar, W	The City of Enterprise		Hall, Ch. 11   [19]
17 Mar, M	The City of Permanent Underclass		Hall, Ch. 13, pp. 427-468   [41]
19 Mar, W	Test #1 Questions	Grading Criteria	[400]
24 Mar, M	Los Angeles as Arcadia		*McClung, Inventing Utopia (from Landscapes of Desire), 1-39 [39]
26 Mar, W	Intro to LA		Info on accessing  Scott & Soja,The City, Ch. 1,1-21 [20]
31 Mar, M	Cesar Chavez Day (campus closed)
02 Apr, W	Intro to LA II		Info on accessing  Scott & Soja,The City, Ch.2,22-46 [24]
07 Apr, M	Transportation Ideas		Info on accessing  Scott & Soja, The City, Ch.5,106-160 [54]
09 Apr, W	The Dialectic of Ordinary Disaster		Davis, Ch. 1    03-56       [53]
14, 16 Apr	Spring Break
21 Apr, M	How Eden Lost Its Garden		Davis, Ch. 2,     57-92       [36]
23 Apr, W	The Case for Letting Malibu Burn		Davis, Ch. 3    93-149      [56]
28 Apr, M	The Literary Destruction of Los Angeles		Davis, Ch. 6    273-357 [84]    Assignment
30 Apr, W	Beyond Blade Runner	Blade Runner 117 min [8247]	Davis, Ch. 7    357-422 [65]
05 May, M	Blade Runner II		*Stenger, “The Hollywood Redevelopment Project”, 59-72 [13] *Desser, "Race, Space and Class: The Politics of the SF Film from Metropolis to Blade Runner" [13]
07 May, W	“Other” Planning Voices		*Wirka “City Planning for Girls” 150-162 [11] On reserve
12 May, M	Presentations	Projects for WTC	www.renewnyc.org/plan_des_dev/wtc_site Assignment *Marcuse "Planning After Sept. 11" [9] On reserve
14 May, W	Overview of the Course		Study guide
21 May, W	TEST #2, 2:45-4:45 p.m.		[455]

Readings: *items on reserve;     #web-book at www.coast.csulb.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Prerequisite: GEOG 466 or consent of instructor. (Undergraduates register in GEOG 467; graduates register in GEOG 567.) This course examines geographic components of metropolitan problems and problems with their perception and solutions. The course is organized around the changing utopian and dystopian visions of the city among the key 20th century urban intellectuals.  Problems related to transportation systems, housing, evolution of ghettos, urban perception and behavioral patterns will be discussed in terms of theoretical, imagined and practically applied urban planning solutions with particular regard to the city of Los Angeles. (Lec, problems 3 hrs.)
TEXTS        P. Hall. 2001. Cities of Tomorrow.  Oxford: Blackwell. M. Davis. 1999. Ecology of Fear.  Knopf.
These are very important urban texts, yet you should be aware that they are not conventional textbooks, so consider taking a lot of time with the reading and taking notes as you read.  Davis is a thought-provoking and entertaining author, yet you might not like his biased Marxist agenda.  Some chapters are quite lengthy, be aware of the uneven reading load for classes.  We also have some reading items on reserve in the library.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS    Reading/Participation: As upper division students, you are required to take reading seriously and be prepared for discussions in class.  Total points for attendance and participation 60.

Short response letters on readings and supplementary materials should be typed, approximately 1 single-spaced page in length, and submitted to instructor in advance.  No papers will be accepted after 12:00pm on the day of class.  You can email them to me as Word attachments. Total 150 points.

Exams (150 points each) will be in-class, mostly blue book format.  Questions will be discussed in advance.

Film review Each student will write a critical film review essay (app. 2000 words) comparing and contrasting two urban films suggested by or agreed with the instructor.  This exercise demands finding citations beyond the two required texts.  All citations should come from academic or analytical journals (website citations are not allowed).  This project will be discussed in class.  No late papers will be accepted.  Total 100 points.

Graduate students, in addition, should read an extra book from the list of suggested titles, write its 1500 word review, and make its presentation in class.  They should actively contribute to discussion and lead one of them (on one of chapters from Ecology of Fear). 

GRADING  Maximum possible score for the course is 610.  Grade will be based on a curve (A > 90% of max).

MAKEUP POLICY    Makeups are possible in the event of a documented unexpected emergency (such as health problem) or through prior arrangement with the instructor when the student has advance knowledge of a compelling conflict in schedule. Makeups under these two circumstances will be only symbolically penalized (1-2 points deducted). All other makeup requests are subject to denial or serious penalty (at least 10 points for each postponed day).

ATTENDANCE POLICY  Attendance of all classes is required.  For each missed class 2 points will be deducted.

UNIVERSITY WITHDRAWAL POLICY    It is the student's responsibility to withdraw from classes.  Instructors have no obligation to withdraw students who do not attend classes and may choose not to do so. Withdrawal from a course after the first two weeks of instruction requires the signature of the instructor and department chair, and is permissible only for serious and compelling reasons. During the final three weeks of instruction, withdrawals are not permitted except in cases such as accident or serious illness where the circumstances causing withdrawal are clearly beyond the student's control and the assignment of an incomplete is not practical. Ordinarily, withdrawals in this category involve total withdrawal from the university. The College of Liberal Arts adheres to this policy strictly, and does NOT sign withdrawal forms in the final three weeks of class for other reasons.

Suggested Extra Readings for Graduate Students

Jacobs, Jane. 1972. The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Boyer, M. 1983. Dreaming the Rational City: The Myth of American City Planning
Wilson, Elizabeth. 1991. The Sphinx in the City: Urban Life, the Control of Disorder, and Women
Sandercock, Leonie. 1997. Towards Cosmopolis: Planning for Multicultural Cities
King, R.  1996. Emancipating Space: Geography, Architecture, and Urban Design
Craig Whitaker. 1996. Architecture and the American Dream
Mannheim, Steve. 2003. Walt Disney and the Quest for Community
Ross, A. 2000. The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Value in Disney's New Town
Sitton, T. and W. Deverell (ed.). 1999. Metropolis in the Making: Los Angeles in the 1920s
Hise, Greg. 1997. Magnetic Los Angeles: Planning the Twentieth-Century Metropolis
Cuff, D. 2000. The Provisional City: Los Angeles Stories of Architecture and Urbanism

SCHOLASTIC CONDUCT     As a student at Cal State University, you are part of an academic community and expected to behave in a manner that is respectful of that community, by not engaging in academic misconduct. 

Academic misconduct is an act in which a student:   
    a) seeks to claim credit for the work or efforts of another without authorization or citation;    
    b) uses unauthorized materials or fabricated data in any academic exercise;
    c) forges or falsifies academic documents or records;
    d) intentionally impedes or damages the academic work of others;
    e) engages in conduct aimed at making false representation of a student's academic performance;
    f) assists other students in any of these acts. 

Examples of academic misconduct include, but are not limited to: 
•    cheating on an examination;
•    collaborating with others in work to be presented, contrary to the stated rules of the course;
•    submitting a paper or assignment as one's own work when a part or all of the paper or assignment is the work of another;
•    submitting a paper or assignment that contains ideas or research of others without appropriately identifying the sources of those ideas;
•    stealing examination or course materials;
•    submitting, if contrary to the rules of a course, work previously presented in another course;
•    tampering with the laboratory experiment or computer program of another student;
•    knowingly and intentionally assisting another student in any of the above, including assistance in an arrangement whereby any work, classroom performance, examination or other activity is submitted or performed by a person other than the student under whose name the work is submitted or performed.