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URBAN REVIEW FALL 2015 2 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR URBANURBAN REVIEW very day I walk down the sidewalk of the city that I’ve lived in for three years now, and REVIEW Eevery day I notice something different that I swear was not there the day before. Every FALL 2015 day the city is changing: historic buildings are being renovated, subways are being put in, decrepit apartments are being torn down. The city – like a child – is always growing. If you’re not paying close enough attention, you could miss its first steps, its first set of bumps and bruises, or even its first words. As Italo Calvino once wrote, “The city, however, does not Editor-in-Chief Melanie Breault tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightning rods, the Managing Editor of Content poles of the flags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls.” Melissa Plaut Our program, like any city, has gone through some changes this year. We now have updated our Urban Affairs master’s program to better reflect the drive and intent of our Managing Editor of Design policy-focused students to be a Master of Science in Urban Policy and Leadership, making Lucy Block us now the Urban Policy and Planning Department at Hunter College. Our Urban Planning graduate students continue to think of innovative and strategic ways to update our cities, Associate Editor, Form & Style while our undergraduate students visualize what an urban future looks like. Zachary Bloom This is why our Fall 2015 issue of Urban Review had to be historic; it had to reflect back on the days of “Boss” Tweed, Mayor Hylan’s rapid transit goals, and master city plans Lead Graphic Designer like Brasilia in order for us to begin to conceptualize a new Second Avenue Subway Line, or Mia Moffett a city where everyone has somewhere to sleep at night, or even one where Bronx residents do Content Editors in fact have the right to a speedy public trial. Denise Cahir We wanted to bring our audience up to speed. We wanted to lay the ground work Nick Addamo for what challenges the city has to endure in order to effectively serve its citizens. And, Dash Henley ultimately, that’s what we’re here for, right? As planners and policy makers, we’re the ones Beatriz Gil who have to make the right decisions for our cities. We determine what is best, and what Katie Garrett better way to do that than to consider the past so we don’t make the same mistakes in the future? We spoke with a former student-turned-transportation-planner as well as a professor who just came back from working in the public health field to see what issues are Back issues of the important to them. Several of our students were able to present their work to the Office of Urban Review can be Management and Budget’s Community Solutions team in Washington, D.C. this summer. found online at hunteruap.org/urban-review Our students, faculty, and staff are continuously thinking about the city, and the features in this issue are some of the topics our community found to be important and relevant. These are the policy and planning issues our students lay awake at night thinking about as the city changes around them. CONTACT [email protected] Let’s take a moment to look back on how we got here and where we can go in the 695 Park Avenue future. Let’s look up from our cell phones as we move from subway stairwells to sidewalks West Building 1611 and really see how the city has changed before it’s too late. New York, NY 10065 P: 212-772-5518 F: 212-772-5593 Melanie Breault Editor-in-Chief URBANREVIEWFALL2015 3 URBAN REVIEW A magazine of the Hunter College Department of Urban Policy & Planning CONTENTS 04 Current Urban News UR Staff Learn more about the un- by dergraduate and graduate programs in Urban Studies, Urban Policy & Leadership, INTERVIEWS and Urban Planning at www.hunteruap.org. 05 Marisol Otero-Morales by Maggie Calmes 06 Philip Plotch Interviewers by Brett Amione Brett Amione Michelle Saenz 08 John Chin Maggie Calmes by Michelle Saenz Peer Reviewers Beatriz Gil FEATURES Melissa Plaut 10 Challenges in Planning Lucy Block Jeremiah Cox by Dylan Dekay-Bemis Zachary Bloom 13 Winds of Change Photographers by Shannon Jordy Jeremiah Cox 16 Sidewalk Shed Mia Moffett Cindy Penn by Cindy Penn & Zachary Bloom Zachary Bloom 17 The Perils of Politics Cover Art by Zachary Bloom Mia Moffett Lucy Block 22 Facing Homelessness by Marielle Ray 26 Backlog in the Bronx by Charles Bachmann 30 UPP in DC by Dash Henley 31 ENDNOTES Art deco graphic courtesy of Lucy Block 4 Current Urban News HOUSING TRANSPORTATION stagnated in recent years, its creative industries sector has been among San Francisco voters went to the Los Angeles is trying to improve its the fastest growing segments of the polls this November to decide on reputation of not being a “public city’s economy. While the growth is several propositions affecting urban transportation friendly city” by calling encouraging, New York City may not issues, including a measure to for hundreds of miles of new bus- be keeping pace with other cities use $310 million in bonds to fund only lanes, bicycle lanes, and “traffic – Shanghai, Berlin, Portland, and affordable housing development and calming” measures over the next Detroit for example – that are more preservation; an “Airbnb Initiative,” 20 years in its Mobility Plan 2035 aggressively cultivating their creative which restricts all private rentals to initiative through the city council. economies. 75 nights per year, requires guest and revenue reports from hosts and The Metropolitan Transportation ENVIRONMENT hosting website platforms, prohibits Authority (MTA) Board approved its The recent international refugee short-term leases of in-law units, 2015-19 Capital Program, totaling crisis, such as the drought and and allows private action lawsuits $29 billion, which marks the largest political unrest in Syria and other by anyone living within 100 feet of a investment in subways, buses, parts of the world, has caused some rental; and a measure for an 18-month railroads, bridges, and tunnels in in the urban planning community to moratorium on building housing units New York City’s history. think about the next refugee crisis: of five units or more in theMission climate change. District, as well as the establishment New York City also opened its 469th of a comprehensive housing plan. subway station this year, extending A report by the Center for an Urban The first measure passed, while the the 7 line to 34th Street-Hudson Future shows that park facilities are others were defeated. Yards. not equally distributed across New York City’s five boroughs. To combat New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio While cities continue to try and this, NYC Parks announced this summer his plan to regulate transportation network has announced create 200,000 affordable housing companies like Lyft and Uber, Lyft a Community units over the next 10 years. The has announced they are formally Parks Initiative, goal is to have 80,000 new units partnering with their first transit which is a plan and 120,000 preserved units from agency, the Dallas Area Rapid to invest in existing housing across the five Transit. public parks in boroughs. The Mayor claims the plan neighborhoods will generate 194,000 construction ECONOMIC that are densely jobs and approximately 7,200 populated, permanent jobs. DEVELOPMENT growing, and contain higher- REZONING Detroit is looking to become one of than-average the first cities to require developers concentrations There are a number of rezoning to invite community members to the of poverty. projects throughout the New York negotiating table when discussing City region, including in East New megaprojects. As reported by Next Las Vegas York, Southwest Bronx, Flushing, and City, “new projects with an investment has started an parts of Staten Island. Community of at least $15 million, expansions or urban farming Action for Safe Apartments (CASA), renovations of at least $3 million, or program a tenant organizing project of New projects seeking at least $300,000 called Vegas Settlement Apartments, is working to in public tax subsidies, developers Roots, where ensure affordable and safe housing would have to create legally binding community is protected and maintained in any documents guaranteeing jobs or residents, rezoning project in the Southwest quality-of-life protections for the students, and Bronx. East Harlem is moving along community that is going to be professionals in their “neighborhood plan,” which is impacted by the development.” come together being sponsored by Speaker of the to participate New York City Council, Melissa Mark While growth in New York City’s in a community Viverito and the community board. finance and legal services sectors has garden. URBANREVIEWFALL2015 5 AN INTERVIEW WITH MARISOL OTERO-MORALES Marisol Otero-Morales has been working at Hunter College for almost 20 years now. This year, she changed roles within the Urban Policy and Planning Department from its Administrator to Academic Program Coordinator. She tells UR how it’s going so far. When did you transition to the Program Coordinator role? Do The department has a new name now – Urban Policy and you feel settled in yet? Planning – and there is also a new Master of Science in Urban Policy and Leadership program that students can My role as Department Administrator changed significantly read about on our website.