City Life

Course Description

This course addresses the planning and design of cities. Most of our lives are lived out on the stage of streets and buildings that are not created by us, they are created by others. In this course, we will see how the built environment of cities is planned for and designed, and how our lives are structured by this environment. I have roughly separated urban planning and urban design along the of making spaces versus making places.

Readings: Two books, The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, and Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir by Waldie are available in the UMC Bookstore. They may also be cheaply obtained online. All other readings will appear via links on the class schedule. You are expected to read the materials before class, and if necessary, to print them out on your own and bring them with you.

Grading

Attendance & Participation: 25 pts

Short Papers: 2 @ 4-6 pages each: 15 pts each

Peer Reviews: 6 Reviews for a total of 5 points

Community Analysis: 40 pts

Attendance and Participation

Attendance

Regular, on-time attendance is expected. There is much that happens during class that contributes to your learning. The attendance policy, then, is this: you must make up each course that you miss by looking up the minutes for the class on-line, and writing a 2-3 page reflection paper on the topics discussed for the day to be turned in before the next class period. Failure to do this will result in a loss of 5 points from your course total. Even this, however, is a poor proxy for missing class. Thus, if you miss more than two classes, out of fairness to the other students, you will lose the right to receive credit for this course. Since there is only one class per week, there is no such thing as an excused absence; you must make up all missed classes regardless of your reason for missing them.

Participation:

Participation is expected. This means speaking up during every class and giving us your thoughts on a subject. A seminar will not work without this. In addition, there will be many in-class writing assignment, some will be read by me and marked, some will be read by me but not marked, and others will not be marked. Nonetheless, I will assign a grade of “check-plus”, “check”, or “0” to every student to indicate their level of participation for the day.

Short Papers

You must write two short essays during the term of 4-6 pages, double spaced. Before each day’s readings, I will hand out in class or email to you a set of questions about the reading. You must write a short essay on one of these questions. Since there are fifteen weeks, and you only have to write two essays, there is a considerable amount of flexibility on your part to choose a time that fits in with your schedule.

When you turn in your papers, bring three copies to distribute to your classmates for them to review. They will return them to you one week later, and you will then have one more week (i.e. two weeks after you first turned it in) to hand in a final draft, which will be graded by me.

I will explain this procedure more fully in class.

Rules:

1) You must write one of you essays during Part 1 of the class (Making Space) and one essay during part 2 (Making Place)

2) Late work will be deducted 15% per day. I will not grant extensions because you already have much flexibility in choosing when to write.

3) There is a tragedy of the commons problem here. Typically, most people wait until the last possible week to write their essay. This creates a grading burden on me when all of the papers come in at once. So here is the rule: if more than 1/3 of the class writes their essay on the last possible day of each section, then I can not promise to get them graded and returned to you before the final.

Community Assessment and Plan

A major component of this course is a group project that will require you to analyze a community her in Boulder. Your groups will turn in a “planning document” during the scheduled final period, and will deliver a presentation on your plan to the rest of the class during the final period as well.

I will assign groups later, and will explain this project much more thoroughly as the class proceeds.

Assigning Letter Grades

A-: 90 points or better; A: 95 points or better

B-: 80 points or better; B: 83 points; B+: 87 points

C-: 70 points or better; C: 73 points; C+: 77 points

D-: 55 points or better; D: 60 points; D+: 65 points

Writing style
Clear, concise writing is very important. In your professional life, you will often be
judged by how well you express yourself in writing. Your sentences should be short and
jargon-free, and written in active voice.

There are many good books on writing. You should own a copy of at least one. A classic
text is The Elements of Style by Strunk and White (Longman). The New York Times
Manual of Style and Usage (Times Books) and The Chicago Manual of Style (U of
Chicago Press) are both good references to help write better sentences and use
punctuation properly.

University Policies

Disability Services. If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability please submit to me a letter from Disability Services in a timely manner so that your needs may be addressed. Disability Services determines accommodations based on documented disabilities (303-492-8671, Willard 322, http://www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices/).

Academic Integrity. The intellectual reputation of the university depends on maintaining the highest standards of intellectual honesty. Commitment to those standards is the responsibility of every student, faculty, and staff member on this campus. Consequently, cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated in this course. Cheating is defined as using unauthorized materials or receiving unauthorized assistance during an examination or other academic exercise. Plagiarism is defined as the use of anothers ideas or words without appropriate acknowledgment. Examples of plagiarism include: failing to use quotation marks when directly quoting from a source; failing to document distinctive ideas from a source; fabricating or inventing sources; and copying information from computer-based sources, i.e., the Internet. For additional information on the academic integrity policies of the University, see http://www.colorado.edu/policies/acadinteg.html.

Religious Observances Campus policy regarding religious observances requires that faculty make every effort to deal reasonably and fairly with all students who, because of religious obligations, have conflicts with scheduled exams, assignments or required attendance. See full details at http://www.colorado.edu/policies/fac_relig.html

Classroom Behavior Students and faculty each have responsibility for maintaining an appropriate learning environment. Those who fail to adhere to such behavioral standards may be subject to discipline. Professional courtesy and sensitivity are especially important with respect to individuals and topics dealing with differences of race, culture, religion, politics, sexual orientation, gender, gender variance, and nationalities. Class rosters are provided to the instructor with the student’s legal name. I will gladly honor your request to address you by an alternate name or gender pronoun. Please advise me of this preference early in the semester so that I may make appropriate changes to my records. See policies at http://www.colorado.edu/policies/classbehavior.html and at http://www.colorado.edu/studentaffairs/judicialaffairs/code.html#student_code

Discrimination and Harassment The University of Colorado at Boulder policy on Discrimination and Harassment, the University of Colorado policy on Sexual Harassment and the University of Colorado policy on Amorous Relationships apply to all students, staff and faculty. Any student, staff or faculty member who believes s/he has been the subject of discrimination or harassment based upon race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status should contact the Office of Discrimination and Harassment (ODH) at 303-492-2127 or the Office of Judicial Affairs at 303-492-5550. Information about the ODH, the above referenced policies and the campus resources available to assist individuals regarding discrimination or harassment can be obtained at http://www.colorado.edu/odh

Honor Code All students of the University of Colorado at Boulder are responsible for knowing and adhering to the academic integrity policy of this institution. Violations of this policy may include: cheating, plagiarism, aid of academic dishonesty, fabrication, lying, bribery, and threatening behavior. All incidents of academic misconduct may be reported to the Honor Code Council (honor@colorado.edu; 303-725-2273). Students who are found to be in violation of the academic integrity policy will be subject to both academic sanctions from the faculty member and non-academic sanctions (including but not limited to university probation, suspension, or expulsion). Academic sanctions may include (but are not limited to) a failing grade for the assignment or for the entire course. Other information on the Honor Code can be found at http://www.colorado.edu/policies/honor.html and at http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/

Fine Print

The above schedule, policies, procedures, and assignments in this course are subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances, by mutual agreement, and/or to ensure better student learning.