1. What is municipalism?
2. We know indigenous groups lived in urban settlements prior to European settler colonialism. Is urbanization necessarily settler-colonial?
3. How is the history of slavery and the history of urbanization tied together? In what ways are they unrelated? Use specific examples from Boston and New Orleans in your answer.
4. Why does the American revolution begin in cities?
5. Why do we not have a primate city system like most countries around the world?
6. Does hierarchical zoning make life better or worse for urban dwellers? Show you understand hierarchical zoning and the experiences of height zoning in NYC and Chicago.
7. Why does urbanization come at such environmental cost? Be able to answer with specifics from Seattle.
8. How does the federal government transform the housing system? Include the Housing Acts of 1934, 37, 38, and 49 in your answer.
9. Does urban renewal improve cities? Show you know what happened in 1949 and 1954 in your answer.
10. Which federal transportation policies encourage sprawl? Name specific legislation.
11. Why does equity matter to class mobility? What is the government role (if any) in building equity? When do families end up with negative equity?
12. Know Jane Jacobs’ principles of good urban planning. Be able to explain the critique of Jane Jacobs, including an explanation of why she was able to succeed where others were/are not.
13. Who is responsible for the creation of the “inner city”? Include a discussion of specific federal policies, the municipal bond market, and private industries in your answer.
14. What does the municipal bond market tell us about the process of urban renewal?
15. Why did the sunbelt become dependent on electricity instead of solar power? What consequence does this have for the Navajo nation?
16. Explain the relationship between universities, technology, and the service economy. Be able to answer with specifics from Stanford Research Park and the Research Triangle.
17. Who gentrifies neighborhoods? Include discussion of LGBTQ+ participation and gente-fication in your answer.
18. What is the best way to resist urban renewal? Include Tent City and Chicano Park in your answer.
19. Who benefits from homeownership? If I choose this question, I will choose two of the following that you must include in your answer: primary mortgage market, secondary mortgage market/Fannie Mae, MBS, subprime lending, CMOs, securities/derivatives, CDS, SIVA/NIVA/NINA.
20. How do you see the inequalities of shade evident in your own experiences of a specific city? (Name the city and show you did the reading in your answer.)
