IDH 4001H (Seminar 4): Shaping the Future of City, Spring 2015 Macaulay Honors College at Baruch College Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:10 a.m. – 12:25 p.m. Newman Vertical Campus,

Professor Donna Gitter Office: Vertical Campus, 10-292 Office Hours: By appointment. I am happy to schedule a mutually convenient time. Telephone: (646) 312-3602 Email: [email protected]

Instructional Technology Fellow (ITF) Name: Kara Van Cleaf Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Tuesdays, 10 AM – 2 PM, Weinstein Honors Lounge, 17 Lexington Ave, Room 903 (no appointment necessary) Baruch ITFs Website: http://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/baruchitfs/

Course Description: Seminar 4 examines the issue of income inequality in , including its definition, whether it is truly a negative phenomenon, and how it is related to education, housing, a living wage, health care, the environment, and entrepreneurship, among other issues Your final projects will involve considering whether income inequality is truly a problem, and, if so, how to address it. Learning objectives for the seminar include: Students will use primary sources to analyze contemporary legal and policy issues facing New York City. Students will engage critically and constructively in key policy debates that shape the future of the city, through in-class discussions, presentations, and colloquia. Students will propose and explore innovative approaches to the issues studied. Students will demonstrate the necessary technological, written communication, and oral communication skills to convey their ideas effectively and persuasively

Course Assignments: This course has the following assignments and requirements: 1. Reading reactions and question. For each of the following classes listed below, you must post to the class blog (directions for that below) a response of at least five paragraphs reacting to the assigned reading (not a summary of the reading. Please post the night before the class in which we’ll discuss the reading. I want to know if you agreed, didn’t agree, didn’t understand, wanted more clarification on the issue), as well as a thoughtful question about the reading or the topic. You will be asked to share these in class and we will use these as a jumping off point for our in-class discussion. These posts are due for your choice of 14 out of the following 17 classes: Classes 1

# 1, 2, 3, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22.

You do not have to write a response to 3 of the above classes of your choice. I will not grade the responses you hand in, but you will receive no credit for your submissions if they are not thoughtful and/or if they do not reflect that you have done the reading. In order to post to the course blog, please follow these directions: Go to: http://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/gitter15/ If you are not already registered for your eportfolio account, login using your eportfolio username and password. Then, click on “Add Me” to sign up for the site using the password: "seminarfour". Now you are ready to post! For some refreshers on how to post and use wordpress, look under the "Resources" menu for "Wordpress Tutorials."

2. Final Project: The Seminar 4 symposium is on Sunday, May 3 at the Macaulay Honors College at 35 West 67th Street. As a class, we will present a 15-minute video analyzing whether income inequality is a problem in New York. If we feel it is not, we will focus on one of the problems facing New York that we are discussing in class (education, housing, etc.). If we determine income inequality is a problem, we will consider which of the many topics we study (education, housing) provides the best means of addressing it.

Each group of 4 students will create a 3-minute video setting forth their policy proposals, along with an 8-page paper describing the policy measures in more detail. ITF Kara Van Cleaf is available to help you use imovie to create your video.

The video will be due on Tuesday, April 28. Please email a copy to me and to ITF Kara Van Cleaf (contact information on the first page of this syllabus) The paper is due on Thursday, April 30. Please hand in a hard copy in class.

Grading: I will calculate course grades as follows. Please note that as this course involves a group project, a portion of your grade will be based on a peer assessment completed by the other members of your group. I will provide assessment forms at the end of the semester. Reading reactions/questions 15% Class presentation on February 26 (see description below) 15% Final video 20% Final paper 20% Peer assessment 15% Class participation (includes attendance at Seminar 4 Conference) 15%

Course Requirements:

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Your attendance and participation in class sessions are critical and mandatory. Participation means that you have completed all required readings, are prepared to engage in a serious conversation about the readings, listen to and respond to your colleagues, offer thoughtful commentary, and ask questions. I will take attendance at each class session. I will permit only three absences for any reason. For each absence above three for any reason (excessive lateness also counts as absence), I will reduce your final course grade by one notch (e.g. from B+ to B). Turn off cell phone and other devices, including laptops, during class, unless you have discussed with me why you need to leave your phone or laptop on. Please make sure that you know how to access the Blackboard site for the course, as course documents are posted on Blackboard. You should also check it and your Baruch email address on a regular basis, as I may send messages to the class via Blackboard. Hand in your work in hard copy, at the beginning of class, or, if it is a blog post, post it before class begins. If you need an extension, you must communicate with me beforehand and negotiate a mutually acceptable deadline. I will not accept unexcused late assignments and you will receive an F for the assignment. Please take advantage of the opportunity to schedule an appointment with the Instructional Technology Fellow or me for office hours if you have questions or comments about the course, the readings, the lectures, or the technology. I am interested in your feedback, and will make myself available to meet with you at a time that accommodates your schedule. Course Reading: There is no textbook for this course. The reading for the course is available on Blackboard, in the Content section. Please know that if there is a URL link and it does not work for you, you can log in via the Baruch library to search for and access these resources online. If there is Content on Blackboard marked (FOR USE IN CLASS), you do not need to read that in advance of class, as it will be material we cover in class (such as a video or PowerPoint presentation). I also recommend that you read the New York Times and your local community newspapers as additional reading to support your knowledge of the issues we will discuss. If you see articles that you think would interest the class, please feel free to give them to me and I will copy and distribute them. Services for Students with Disabilities: Baruch College provides reasonable accommodations and modifications for students with disabilities to ensure that no student with a disability is denied the benefits of, is excluded from participation in, or otherwise is subjected to discrimination under the education program or activity operated by the College because of the absence of educational auxiliary aids for students with disabilities. Arrangements for adapting class procedures without compromising course content and standards may take time. Therefore, students who require accommodations or modifications should speak with me as soon as possible. In order to receive services, you must register with the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities. Documentation is necessary for every disability. For more information concerning services for students with disabilities, please contact Barbara Sirois, Director of the Office of Services for 3

Students with Disabilities, Vertical Campus Building, One Bernard Baruch Way, 2nd floor, Room 2-270, 646-312-4590. Academic Honesty: Cheating and plagiarism are serious offenses. The following definitions are based on the College's Academic Honesty website: Cheating is the attempted or unauthorized use of materials, information, notes, study aids, devices or communication during an academic exercise. Examples include but are not limited to: Copying from another student during an examination or allowing another to copy your work Unauthorized collaboration on a take home assignment or examination Using unauthorized notes during a closed book examination Using unauthorized electronic devices during an examination Taking an examination for another student Asking or allowing another student to take an examination for you Changing a corrected exam and returning it for more credit Submitting substantial portions of the same paper to two classes without consulting the second instructor Preparing answers or writing notes in a blue book (exam booklet) before an examination Allowing others to research and write assigned papers including the use of commercial term paper services Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person's ideas, research or writing as your own: Copying another person's actual words without the use of quotation marks and footnotes (a functional limit is four or more words taken from the work of another) Presenting another person's ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging them Using information that is not considered common knowledge without acknowledging the source Failure to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory assignment I will give a failing grade on any assignment that has been plagiarized. I will make no exceptions. In addition, I am required by College policy to submit a report of suspected academic dishonesty to the Office of the Dean of Students. This report becomes part of your permanent file.

Class Schedule: Please note that the readings listed below each class are to be completed for that class.

Part I: What Is Income Inequality? Class 1 (1/29/15)

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Reading: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Society at a Glance 2011: OECD Social Indicators (2011), http://www.oecd.org/berlin/47570121.pdf Esmé Deprez, Income Inequality, Bloomberg QuickTake (December 17, 2014), http://www.bloombergview.com/quicktake/income-inequality WE WILL WATCH AND LISTEN IN CLASS: Richard Wilkinson, How Income Inequality Harms Societies, TED Talk (July 2011), http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson?language=en (16:54) John Ydstie, The Merits of Income Inequality: What’s the Right Amount, WNYC (May 18, 2014), http://www.wnyc.org/story/the-merits-of-income-inequality-whats-the-right-amount/ (5:11)

Class 2 (2/3/15) – Charter Schools and Inequality (and Guest Speaker) Reading: Trymaine Lee, Separate and Unequal: The Charter School Pedestal the Public Can’t Reach, MSNBC (April 25, 2014), http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/charter-school-debate-new-york Pedro Noguera, Why Don’t We Have Real Data on Charter Schools, The Nation (October 13, 2014), http://www.thenation.com/article/181753/why-dont-we-have-real-data-charter-schools# DO NOT READ THIS, WE WILL LISTEN IN CLASS: Beth Fertig, New York City Charter Schools Test New Rent Rules, WNYC (September 12, 2014), http://www.wnyc.org/story/new-charter-law-means-schools-can-seek-rent-city-expense/ (5:16) DO NOT READ THIS, WE WILL LISTEN IN CLASS: The Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC, Explaining the Charter School Battle Lines (March 7, 2014), http://www.wnyc.org/story/charter-school-battle-lines/ (27:50)

Class 3 (2/5/15) – Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century Reading: Thomas Piketty’s “Capital” Summarised in Four Paragraphs, The Economist (May 4, 2014) http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/05/economist-explains Paul Krugman, Why We’re In a New Gilded Age, The New York Review of Books (May 8, 2014), http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/may/08/thomas-piketty-new-gilded-age/ John Cassidy, Piketty’s Inequality Story in Six Charts, The New Yorker (March 26, 2014), http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/pikettys-inequality-story-in-six-charts A Modern Marx, The Economist (May 3, 2014), http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21601512-thomas-pikettys-blockbuster-book-great-piece -scholarship-poor-guide-policy?fsrc=explainsdig

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Class 4 (2/10/15) – No reading We will watch in class: Elizabeth Warren and Thomas Piketty Discuss Nature, Causes of Economic Inequality, Huffington Post (August 2, 2014), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/02/watch-elizabeth-warren_n_5434250.html (47:47)

Class 5 (2/12/15) – Visit to the New York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West (between 76th and 77th Streets), Manhattan, Exhibit: Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion

Classes 6 and 7 (2/17/15 and 2/19/15) – Your regular Baruch classes will meet, but we will not. At the end of the semester, each group of four students will make a 3-minute film, and we will splice these together to present at our end-of-the-semester conference. If you need an imovie refresher, please review the handout on Blackboard and spend some time on this imovie tutorial this week: https://www.apple.com/uk/support/mac-apps/imovie/

Class 8 (2/24/15) - Income Inequality in NYC Reading: Tami Luhby, Just How Wide is New York City’s Income Gap?, CNN Money (January 9, 2014), http://economy.money.cnn.com/2014/01/09/new-york-city-income-inequality Nicole Gelinas, What the Rich Give to New York, City Journal (Summer 2014), http://www.city-journal.org/2014/24_3_nyc-private-wealth.html Idea of the Week: Inequality and New York’s Subway, The New Yorker (April 15, 2013), http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/idea-of-the-week-inequality-and-new-yorks-subway DO NOT READ THIS, WE WILL LISTEN IN CLASS: WNYC, Stiglitz on American Inequality (March 31, 2011), http://www.wnyc.org/story/121224-stiglitz-american-inequality/ (26:03)

Class 9 (2/26/15) – Class Presentations Please come to class prepared to present for 5-10 minutes in a creative format on 1-3 of the questions below, in any format you like. It can be photos, video footage, a poem, a poster, a spoken essay, a series of questions and answers, a personal account. Just not PPT. The idea is to inspire you and the audience to think about the questions. You can be interactive with the audience (asking and answering questions, doing an opinion poll). Feel free to have note cards with you as reminders of what you will say.

1. Is income inequality rising and is it a negative thing for the U.S. and/or NYC? Why or why not? 2. Is inequality a natural consequence of democracy? Or of capitalism? 6

3. Is the system rigged? 4. Is the U.S. a fair society? Should it be? 5. Is the U.S. fairer than other societies with which you are familiar? 6. Would you prefer to live in a more equal (in terms of income) society? 7. What policy changes (in terns of taxation, education, housing policy, job creation, etc. would help society function better?

Class 10 (3/3/15) – Can Education Remedy Income Inequality? Reading: Josh Kraushaar, The Proven Way to Fight Income Inequality: Education, The Atlantic (January 7, 2014), http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/01/the-proven-way-to-fight-income-inequalit y-education/282875/2/ Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane, Growing Income Inequality Threatens American Education (March 28. 2014), http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/03/01/kappan_duncanmurnane.html Duncan and Murnane, http://restoringopportunity.com/infographic/ James Piereson and Naomi Schaefer Riley, Getting More Poor Kids Into College Won’t Fix Income Inequality, Post (October 23, 2014), http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/getting-more-poor-kids-into-college-wont-fix-income-i nequality/2014/10/23/494e491a-4fc5-11e4-babe-e91da079cb8a_story.html

DO NOT READ THIS, WE WILL WATCH IT IN CLASS: Restoring Opportunity, New York City Small Public High Schools of Choice, http://restoringopportunity.com/ (6:39)

Class 11 (3/5/15) – Income Inequality and Housing Daniel Hertz, One of the Best Ways to Fight Inequality in Cities: Zoning, The Washington Post Blog (August 13, 2014), http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/08/13/the-best-way-to-fight-inequality-in-citi es-is-through-zoning/ Emily Jane Fox, Enter Through the ‘Poor Door’: Income ‘Segregation’ in N.Y., CNN Money (July 28, 2014), http://money.cnn.com/2014/07/28/luxury/housing-inequality-poor-door/ James Pethokoukis, That Financial Times Study on US Income Inequality and Housing Totally Misses the Point, American Enterprise Institute (August 13, 2014), https://www.aei.org/publication/that-financial-times-study-on-us-income-inequality-and-housing-totally- misses-the-point/ Ed Glaeser, A Happy Tale of Two Cities, Daily News (October 13, 2013), http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/happy-tale-cities-article-1.1483174

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Class 12 (3/10/15) - Insider Trading and Guest Speaker David Siegal Reading: Pam Martens, Former SEC Attorney, James Kidney, Speaks Out on Court’s Insider Trading, Wall Street on Parade (December 15, 2014), http://wallstreetonparade.com/2014/12/former-sec-attorney-james-kidney-speaks-out-on-courts-in sider-trading-bombshell/ William K. Black, The Second Circuit Makes Sophisticated Insider Trading the Perfect Crime, New Economic Perspectives (December 10, 2014), http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/12/second-circuit-makes-sophisticated-insider-trading- perfect-crime.html

Class 13 (3/12/15) – New York City’s Housing Inequality New York University Furman Center, State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods in 2013, Section 3: Renters and Their Homes, pages 32-37, http://furmancenter.org/files/sotc/SOC2013_Part2_CitywideAnalysis.pdf DO NOT READ, WE WILL WATCH IN CLASS: Bill Moyers, The Long, Dark Shadow That Plutocracy Casts on American Society (December 1, 2014), http://www.alternet.org/economy/bill-moyers-long-dark-shadow-plutocracy-casts-american-society (video) (23:09)

Class 14 (3/17/15) – The Living Wage

Kevin Short, Who Will NYC’s New Living Wage Policy Benefit Most?, The Huffington Post (October 1, 2014), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/01/de-blasio-new-york-wages_n_5908152.html Michael A. Fletcher, Will De Blasio’s Big Raise for Low-Wage Workers Encourage Other Cities to Follow Suit?, Washington Post Workblog (September 30, 2014), http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/30/will-deblasios-big-raise-for-lo w-wage-workers-encourage-other-cities-to-follow-suit/ Christina D. Romer, The Business of the Minimum Wage, The New York Times (March 2, 2013), http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/business/the-minimum-wage-employment-and-income-distributio n.html?pagewanted=all James Sherk, Who Earns the Minimum Wage? Suburban Teenagers, Not Single Parents, The Heritage Foundation (February 28, 2013),

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Class 15 (3/19/15) – The Living Wage II Andrew J. Hawkins, ‘Living Wage’ Inflation, Crain’s New York Business (April 20, 2014), http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140420/POLITICS/140419841/living-wage-inflation

John C. Goodman, The Five Biggest Myths About Income Inequality, Forbes (January 1, 2014), http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngoodman/2014/01/02/the-five-biggest-myths-about-income-in equality/

Jana Kasperkevic, Living on $2.13 an Hour and tips: The Harsh Inequality of the Service Industry, The Guardian (January 19, 2014), http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jan/19/restaurants-tips-minimum-wage-service-industr y

DO NOT VIEW, WE WILL VIEW IN CLASS: Nick Hanauer, Beware, Fellow Plutocrats, the Pitchforks Are Coming, TED Talk (August 2014), https://www.ted.com/talks/nick_hanauer_beware_fellow_plutocrats_the_pitchforks_are_coming (20:22)

Class 16 (3/24/15) – Job Creation The United States Conference of Mayors, Wage Gap Widens From Recession As Income Inequality Grows: (August 11, 2014), http://www.usmayors.org/pressreleases/uploads/2014/0811-release-metroeconwagegap.pdf

Nelson D. Schwartz, Job Growth Is Sluggish, Raising Fear of Malaise, The New York Times (September 5, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/06/business/august-jobs-report-released-by-labor-department. html

Ben Wolcott, Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2014 Job Creation Faster in States That Raised the Minimum Wage (June 30, 2014), http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/2014-job-creation-in-states-that-raised-the-minim um-wage

DO NOT VIEW, WE WILL VIEW IN CLASS:

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Nick Hanauer, Rich People Don’t Create Job, Banned Ted Talk (May 17, 2012), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKCvf8E7V1g (5:49)

Class 17 (3/26/15) – Just-in-Time Staffing Tim Worstall, The Ignorance of Nick Hanauer’s TED Speech, Forbes (May 19, 2012), http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/05/19/the-ignorance-of-nick-hanauers-ted-speech / Jodi Kantor, Working Anything But 9 to 5, The New York times (August 13, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/us/starbucks-workers-scheduling-hours.html Cohen Millstein, McDonald’s (March 13, 2014), http://www.cohenmilstein.com/cases/327/mcdonalds Robert Barnes, Supreme Court Rules Doesn’t Have to Pay for After-House Time in Security Lines, The Washington Post (December 9, 2014), http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-rules-amazon-doesnt-have-to -pay-for-after-hours-time-in-security-lines/2014/12/09/05c67c0c-7fb9-11e4-81fd-8c4814dfa9d7_st ory.html

DO NOT VIEW, WE WILL VIEW IN CLASS: Elizabeth Warrren, Elizabeth Warren Reveals the Truth About Income Inequality in American, Occupy Democrats (September 18, 2014), http://www.occupydemocrats.com/watch-elizabeth-warren-reveals-the-truth-about-income-inequali ty-in-america/ (5:48)

Class 18 (3/31/15) – Health Care Kevin Quealy and Margot Sanger-Katz, Obama’s Health Law: Who Was Helped Most, The New York Times (October 29, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/29/upshot/obamacare-who-was-helped-most.html? abt=0002&abg=1 A Perfect Fit for Some, But Not Others, The New York Times (October 26, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/27/us/affordable-care-act-personal-stories.html

Class 19 (4/2/15)

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Is the Affordable Care Act Working?, The New York Times (October 26, 2014). http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/27/us/is-the-affordable-care-act-working.html#/

NO CLASS APRIL 3 – 12 DUE TO SCHOOL HOLIDAY Class 20 (4/14/15) – Environmental Inequality Reading: BBC News, What Is Fracking and Why Is It Controversial?, (June 27, 2013). http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-14432401 Thomas Kaplan, Citing Health Risks, Cuomo Bans Fracking in New York State, New York Times (December 17, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/nyregion/cuomo-to-ban-fracking-in-new-york-state-citing-h ealth-risks.html?_r=0 Film to watch in class: Screening of Gasland I (2010) (104 minutes) Class 21 (4/16/15) – Inequality and Fracking Kate Sheppard, Income Inequality and the Fracking Boom, Mother Jones (July 23, 2013), http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/07/income-inequality-and-fracking-boom Mark J. Perry, We Should Welcome Increases in Income Inequality That Result From Revolutionary Breakthrough Technologies Like Fracking (January 21, 2014), http://www.aei.org/publication/we-should-welcome-increases-in-income-inequality-that-result-fro m-revolutionary-breakthrough-technologies-like-fracking/ Daniel Aldana, New Yorks Two Sandys, Metropolitics (October 30, 2014). http://www.metropolitiques.eu/New-York-s-Two-Sandys.html Class 22 (4/21/15) - Technology and Entrepreneurship Tyler Cowen, How Technology Could Help Fight Income Inequality, New York Times (December 6, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/upshot/how-technology-could-help-fight-income-inequality .html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

Class 23 (4/23/15) – Entrepreneurship Kahliah Laney et al., Launching Low-Income Entrepreneurs, Center for an Urban Future (April 2013), (https://nycfuture.org/research/publications/launching-low-income-entrepreneurs TO BE VIEWED IN CLASS: Does U.S. Economic Inequality Have a Good Side, PBS News Hour (October 26, 2011), http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business-july-dec11-makingsense_10-26/ (8:58)

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Class 24 (4/28/15) – Student film screenings and discussion Class 25 (4/30/14) – Hand in papers and class discussion Remainder of student film screenings

Class 26 (5/5/15) – Wrap Up No reading Discuss the symposium Fill our peer review forms

Class 27 (5/7/15) – Museum Visit to the Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues

Class 28 (5/12/15) – Screening of Gasland II (2013) (125 minutes) Class 29 (5/14/15) – Remainder of Gasland

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