Urban Planning Newsletter
September 20, 2019
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Greetings, Fall 2019
Welcome to Columbia GSAPP - Urban Planning and for some, welcome back!
I am excited to share with you the first edition of the Urban Planning biweekly newsletter. This is a place for you to stay updated on the latest ongoing events on and off-campus! With each edition, we will be including a student spotlight feature as a fun way to introduce yourself to your classmates.
Contributions or ideas for the newsletter can be submitted here. For jobs, internships, and fellowships, please refer to the career portal.
Wishing you all a wonderful start of Fall 2019 semester.
Sincerely,
Lorraine Liao
Editor of UP Newsletter
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Summer Workshop Testimonial
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“Urban Data: Parking in the Ala Moana Area and Its Impact on Mobility.”
Honolulu, Hawaii
Adjunct Professor Kaz Sakamoto co-led a workshop in Honolulu, Hawaii with Two Twelve Principal and Adjunct Professor Ann Harakawa entitled “Urban Data: Parking in the Ala Moana Area and Its Impact on Mobility.” Over a two-week period, the group met with multiple stakeholders across diverse sectors in Hawai’i, field surveyed the streets using Coord and traditional GPS methods in the study area, analyzed data, and conducted policy research that interfaces with parking. At the end of the workshop, the group presented their findings and inventory data to Ulupono Initiative and the City & County of Honolulu.
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Circular Cities
London, UK
Professor Malo Hutson’s summer workshop, “Circular Cities,” explored how principles of the circular economy could be applied across the urban systems such as the built environment, energy, and food. The workshop examined linkages across these systems by comparing NYC and London-led initiatives ranging from startups such as Toast Ale, which uses surplus bread to create craft beer, to large-scale facilities such as Cooper Recycling, which operates the largest construction and demolition debris recycling facility in NYC. Through site visits to composting, recycling, and company tours/presentations around New York and participation in London’s Circular Economy Week, the group was able to observe, learn, and hear about the experiences of implementing circular economy opportunities and challenges.
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Student Updates
Mariya Chekmarova (M.S. UP'20) spent her summer interning at the DCP in the Regional Planning Division. She worked on an updated Geography of Jobs report that will be released later in September. This semester, she is focusing on conducting her thesis research on digital governance by taking a combination of urban analytics courses as well as political science courses at SIPA.
Maya Ephrem (M.S. UP'20) was selected as a Morgan Stanley Community Development Graduate Fellow for the 2019-2020 academic year. She will be working with Community League of the Heights in Washington Heights on two major projects: the Inwood Library Redevelopment and NYCHA PACT Renaissance Collaborative.
Aline Estefam (M.S. UP'20) worked in Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, a non-profit responsible for managing three Business Improvement Districts in Downtown Brooklyn. She was part of the Real Estate and Economic Development Team.
Last summer, Christine Ghossoub (M.S. UP'20) was hired as an intern at Gensler, a global design firm. She was part of their urban planning and design studio in Washington, DC, where she collaborated on master planning projects, both local and international. Some of her tasks involved massing design options, developing phasing studies, and creating various diagrams for large-scale developments. This experience was an opportunity for her to both contribute some of the skills she acquired at Columbia and to learn from a team of great leaders and professionals in the industry.
Tyler Haupert (Ph.D. UP) recently had an article published by Housing Policy Debate. The article, “Racial Patterns in Mortgage Lending Outcomes During and After the Subprime Boom” examines the impact of a borrower’s race and the racial composition of their targeted neighborhood on lending outcomes. It can be accessed here
Zhengzhe (Jay) Jia (M.S. UP'20) worked as a summer data analyst intern at the NYC Office of Census, directed by Columbia alumnus Julie Menin and Deputy Mayor J. Phillip Thompson. His work focused on making online maps to raise public awareness on how neighborhoods performed in past Decennial U.S. Census and active participate in the upcoming census 2020. Apart from the the analytic work, he attended various community meetings, NYCHA Family DAYs, neighborhood activities, rallies and parades, where he represented the census office promoting census 2020 to people.
Ri Le (M.S. UP'20) was a Graduate Research Assistant for the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Earth Institute, where they helped assemble materials for courses on disaster management and built a data transformation tool using Python. Ri learned a ton about automating Adobe InDesign with ExtendScript/Javascript as well as GUI application development using Python.
Yining Lei (M.S. UP'20) worked at New Yorkers for Parks this summer as a GIS Research & Policy Intern. Founded in 1908, New Yorkers for Parks is a citywide, independent non-profit organization championing quality parks and open space. The main focus of her work was open space profiles, including maps, quality of life measures, and socioeconomic statistics. They will be proven tools for communities advocating for additional resources or improved services.
Stefan Norgaard (Ph.D. UP) worked this summer with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in Boston, MA, where he successfully authored three case studies on city leaders’ negotiations in Stockton, CA, Naperville, IL, and Somerville, MA. These cases will be published by BHCLI and used with mayors and city leaders globally. Stefan also completed action-oriented research and developed analytical frameworks for the cases surrounding negotiation pedagogy, mixed-methods research, and public-goods delivery. He was a member of a five-person team supervised by Harvard Kennedy School Professor Brian Mandell and Harvard Business School Professor Guhan Subramanian. In addition to his work with Bloomberg, Stefan road tripped through Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico this summer.
James Piacentini (M.Arch/M.S. UP'20) traveled to Riace, a town in Calabria, Italy for six weeks this summer to study the intersection of migration policy and public historic space with funding from the John Belle Travel Fellowship. He will present his research findings at the offices of architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle in October.
Luyun Shao (M.S. UP'20) joined BuroHappold as a summer intern and was proud to have participated in projects including Reimagine the Canals and LA County Sustainability Plan.
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Lecture in Planning Series
Paavo Monkkonen presented his talk entitled “Built Out Cities: How California cities restrict housing production through prohibitions and process” on September 10. His lecture focused on California’s housing crisis in better understanding and evaluating land use regulations. In particular, his research dissects the zone capacity in California, or rather its lack thereof. He also provides a multitude of examples, honing in on the bureaucratic housing process of Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and Rancho Santa Margarita. Rather than emphasizing the differences, he shows how similarly low each’s housing rate is while they all have distinct processes. To support his statements, Monkkonen begins to critique California’s bureaucracy in underlining how the state’s process isn’t working, and more so addresses that the current process is at the expense of low-income residents. He approaches his research on the impacts of land use regulations with some technical dimensions and rounds out by explaining the motivation and contributions of his paper, the literature on regulations and housing markets, and the analysis and results found after.
Reflection written by: Elaine Hsieh (M.S. UP ‘21)
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Urban Magazine: Open Call for Proposals
URBAN Magazine is seeking writers and artists to contribute materials for our fall issue. The theme is OBSOLESCENCE.
This is a call for proposals primarily for written work but ideas for drawing, photography, design, mapping, etc are also welcomed.
If you are interested, please submit your pitch to urban.submissions@gmail.com by Friday, September 27.
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BSA+GSAPP First Meeting:
Tuesday, September 24
BSA+GSAPP’s first general membership meeting of the 2019-2020 academic year will be next Tuesday, 24 September at 7pm in Buell 300 South.
All are welcome!
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Urban China Forum: Saturday, October 5
Urban China Network (UCN) is a student organization in Columbia GSAPP. Since its founding in 2013, the organization aims to establish a platform for students, scholars, and practitioners across multiple disciplinaries to share their thoughts on Chinese urban issues, and ultimately, to contribute to a comprehensive discussion of Chinese urbanization in the Greater New York Area. Major annual events by UCN include the Urban China Forum (UCF) held every October, and the Alumni Career Panel held every Spring semester.
The upcoming UCF will be on October 5 and will include interviews and small lectures.
Updates of all UCN events can be found through their webpage here
This summer, UCN interviewed several second-year students who worked in the nonprofit sector or public departments of New York. The interview could be found here
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First-Year Student Spotlight
Jinkil Lee
Where are you from?
Seoul, Korea
Where did you study for your undergraduate degree? What was your major?
Seoul National University, Regional Information Studies
Do you have any professional experiences?
Not much.
Why did you choose to study at Columbia University?
The reputation and location.
What is your interest within the urban planning field?
Housing and real estate.
If you could pick up a new skill in an instant what would it be?
Native proficiency of English
Been anywhere recently for the first time?
BoraBora Island
What TV shows are you currently binging?
The Office
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Second-Year Student Spotlight
Emily Junker
Where are you from?
New York City Metropolitan Area
What and where did you study for your undergraduate?
NYU, Fine Art Photography
Why did you choose to study at Columbia University?
I chose to study at Columbia for the simple reason that it was one of the few schools that would allow me to do a dual degree with Urban Planning and Historic Preservation. When I was in my undergrad at NYU I took a course in Historic Preservation and my professor there introduced me to the program at Columbia. While I was not considering studying HP at the time, it stayed in the back of my mind. When I did decide to apply for graduate school Columbia was the only viable choice for me. I lived within walking distance already, I was interested in the international development track and the theoretical base of Columbia as opposed to more practical or policy based programs in UP in the region.
What has been your favorite urban planning class so far and why?
I decided to study Urban Planning because I felt it would give me an overall understanding of different elements of society such as history, law, economics, and policy, and would allow me to question contemporary and historical issues at a large scale through several lenses. My reasons for studying Historic Preservation were more grounded in my photography and architectural history background. The subject matter of my work was typically old buildings or streetscapes which I felt carried historical, age, cultural, community, and personal values. Understanding these values and human connection to their sense of place, identity, and the past through the built environment interests me most. Furthermore, the dual degree allows me to ask questions of how immediate needs such as housing or aid can compete with preservation values and whether planning and preservation can be instrumental to meet these needs.
What is your interest within the urban planning field?
Making cities better for all people
What is one advice that you have for the first-years?
Do not stop questioning. There is a tendency for students to want to take courses that will give them practical tools for their future careers. However, being in a university is your chance to be in an environment that fosters questioning and conversation that can have an impact on the advancement of our field of planning and society. You can learn practical skills while working in the field, but once you leave the university it becomes more difficult to have the intellectual stimulation and resources that can support your inquiry.
What is your dream career?
To do something that makes the city better, which I am passionate about, while making enough money to continue living here.
Tell me something that most people don’t know about you.
I teach ice skating to children.
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Upcoming Events
“Tour | Art Deco Washington Heights: Elegant Uptown Architecture", September 22, The Municipal Art Society of New York
This walk with Anthony W. Robins will also include a one-story taxpayer, and one of the city’s few frankly Deco subway entrances. But the star attraction is the Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist (now the Hebrew Tabernacle of Washington Heights), one of perhaps a dozen or so Art Deco houses of worship anywhere in the city. Mr. Robins is the author of the award-winning book, “New York Art Deco: A Guide to Gotham’s Jazz Age Architecture.” More info
“AIA-NY Industrial Waterway Tour to Freshkills Park”, October 6, AIANY
Travels through industrial waterways into Freshkills to see the development of what will be a city park 3 times the size of Central Park!
One of the most remarkable land reclamation projects in the world.
Includes light hors d’oeuvres and a complimentary beverage from the bar (beer, wine or champagne). Additional beverages are available for purchase by credit card only.
Cruise on the vibrant waterways of the Kill Van Kull and the Arthur Kill and into the heart of Freshkills Park in Staten Island on one of our luxury yachts.
The AIANY & Freshkills Park planners host this special Classic Harbor Line tour; the only public water tour into the Freshkills waterway. More info
“Digital Urbanisms Conference”, Friday, October 11, Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall
Professor Leah Meisterlin is organizing a one day symposium on digital urbanisms to bring together urban researchers and practitioners to discuss the digital processes and products shaping cities, their promises and problems, and discuss alternatives and approaches for operating within and against the uneven spaces they characterize. More info
“2019 APA-NYM Chapter Annual Conference”, Friday, October 18, Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave
Join this year’s APA New York Metro (APA-NYM) Chapter Annual Conference, together with hundreds of regional planners, officials, students, and allied professionals. This year’s conference program will cover topics including biophilic urbanism, expanding
opportunity through technology, business improvement districts, zoning for cannabis, and the “pink tax” on transportation. Session times, details, and speakers will be announced in early September. More info
“Dean’s Lecture Series: Richard Sennett”, Wednesday, November 6, Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall
A lecture by Richard Sennett on Climate Change in Cities: A Problem in Urban Ethics with response by Weiping Wu, Director of the Urban Planning program at Columbia GSAPP.
Richard Sennett is the Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and a Senior Fellow of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University. His most recent book Building and Dwelling: Ethics for the City, published in 2018, traces how cities are built and how people live in them from ancient times to now. He draws on his deep learning and intimate engagement with city life to form a bold and original vision for the future of cities. This event is free and open to the public. More info
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