URBS 360 - Reckoning with Urban Renewal, Gentrification, and Displacement

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as GEOG 360) Federal programs have transformed American cities over the last century. During the Depression of the 1930s, the Home Owners Loan Corporation “redlined” whole neighborhoods as “hazardous” for investment. After World War II, federal funding for “urban renewal” operated on U.S. cities between 1949 and 1974 with “slum clearance” of what planners regarded as blighted neighborhoods, although they were often vibrant (even if redlined) communities. Urban renewal focused on providing new public and private housing, freeways and expressways, cultural centers, recreational and educational facilities, office complexes, and more. Those displaced by eviction from their homes numbered in the millions, comprised disproportionately of working classes, people of color, and immigrants. Social displacement now results more from urban revitalization and “gentrification,” which increasingly affects cities worldwide. After exploring the complex linkages among these historical and contemporary processes, students apply applicable urban theory to explain changes in cities of their choice. Brian Godfrey.

Prerequisite(s): Previous course in Geography or Urban Studies.

One 3-hour period.

Course Format: CLS