New York City is the nation's largest city, with a strong, active municipal government and an annual municipal budget of approximately $110 billion. The city charter provides the mayor with more power than the mayor of any other large city in the United States. The role of the mayor, the state government and the city council are explored with a focus on economic development policies, public safety, immigration, transportation, planning and climate change.

The field of urban economics addresses a wide variety of questions and topics. At the most general level, the field introduces space into economic models and studies the location of economic activity. Urban economics typically addresses four sets of questions, and this course is organized around these four areas. The first set of questions focuses on the development of urban areas. Why do cities exist and why do some grow more rapidly? How can local governments encourage such growth? The second set of questions addresses patterns of development within metropolitan areas.

This interdisciplinary seminar brings together law, urban planning and public policy students to analyze historic and current trends in affordable housing, community development, land use, and housing finance.  We use New York City as a laboratory that is both unique from, and similar to, other American cities.  The course focuses on housing/community development policy, real estate and mortgage financing, subsidies, community participation, environmental impact, and neighborhood change such as gentrification and displacement, with particular emphasis on how issues of race, povert

This second course in the Housing and Community Development sequence expands upon the foundational understanding of housing and community development policy by focusing on how key policy drivers, the current political and social moment, and core stakeholders are likely to create and/or limit opportunities moving forward. The course will examine the ways that policy does and does not change, primarily by focusing on selected high-profile issues such as pandemic responses related to housing, gentrification, efforts to address racial inequality, and the ongoing challenges of homelessness.

The United States is a very law-driven society, with many of the most important issues and disputes of the day ending up in the courts -- and in the newspapers. This course is designed to help public service students understand key aspects of the U.S. legal system.

This course is designed to give you a better understanding of the legal and administrative framework used to regulate land use at various levels of government, and the relationship of the planner to the law. We will cover basic legal procedures as well as statutory and regulatory materials relating to zoning, urban renewal and eminent domain, regulatory takings, inclusionary housing, historic preservation, and environmental law.

This course examines historic and contemporary patterns of racial and ethnic stratification often found at the center of disputes concerning urban development, the allocation of city resources and unequal distributions of power. Also embedded throughout the course are ongoing analyses of the ways in which structural inequalities often function in class and gender-specific ways.

This course examines the special mix of tools, tactics, theories and trends that shape and transform cities.   It will be grounded in case studies that look at both successful and unsuccessful urban revitalization strategies in places ranging from Times Square (in different decades) to the Bronx River to Singapore to Atlantic City.  Seasoned guest speakers, who in the past have included “Broken Windows” author George Kelling, the Director of the Brownsville Partnership, a NYPost columnist, the Director of a Public Art initiative, a former Atlantic City public official, and th

Over the last few decades, disparities in income, wealth, and mobility have widened in the United States, but the U.S. fares worse in wealth inequality than income inequality. Wealth, in particular, is crucial to many functions across the life course and between generations, including but not limited to: spending on healthcare and education, acquiring and retaining investments for profit, weathering unexpected expenses or shocks, ascribing social status, and transferring assets to children and/or other family members.