Session Two

Challenges in Cities Around the World

This session will focus on identifying contemporary urban planning and policy issues of concern to students in the course.. Identify contemporary urban planning and policy challenges and opportunities. The following question will guide our discussion:

1. What principles can be used to provide direction for urban administrators as they try to address these challenges and adopt new approaches?

Required Reading

1. The 10 most important issues facing cities according to their mayors
   1. Economic Development
      • Grants and loans to small businesses
   2. Public Safety
      • Racial policing
      • Community policing
   3. Budget
      • Most cities are spending more on their police than similar sized countries spend on their militaries
      • Militarization of the police
   4. Infrastructure
      • Empty malls
      • Fires
      • Public transportation
      • BRT/Trains
      • Water infrastructure
        • Lead
      • DAPL/water warriors
      • Electric infrastructure
      • Disaster response
   5. Education
      • Inaccessible
      • Expensive
      • Internet access and race
   6. Housing
      • Homelessness is caused by poverty
      • Lack of access
   7. Energy/ Environment
      • Electricity and fires
      • Climate change from bad energy sources
   8. Demographics
      • Gentrification
      • Intersectionality
      • Representation in governance
   9. Technology and Data
      • Increased efficiency
        • But for who
      • Collecting the right data
      • Information hubs
   10. Healthcare
       • Expensive
       • Inaccessible
2. Five big challenges facing cities around the world
   1. Environmental Threats
      • Flooding
      • Cyclones
      • Heatwaves
      • Epidemics
      • Lighting Siege
      • Wildfires
   2. Resources
      • Oil
      • Water
      • Solar
      • Land for agriculture
   3. Inequality
      • Widening wage gap
      • Racial and ethnic inequality
      • Regional inequality
   4. Technology
      • Infrastructure for access to equality
        • Internet => Education
        • Water
      • Increased efficiency
        • But for who
      • Collecting the right data
      • Information hubs
   5. Governance
      • Who gets represented
      • Biased regulations
      • Cultural competency and representation
3. The 5 toughest challenges facing cities
   1. Communicating “invisible” problems
      • Use factual scientific information
   2. Financing modern water infrastructure
   3. Transportation grid determines life quality
   4. Reinventing urban environments
   5. Innovating in agriculture to feed 9 billion people
4. Call it What it is: Anti-Blackness, New York Times editorial
5. Social Impact of Covid 19, United Nations Report