Week 2: a few pointers

So, if you were in a "regular class" of mine that met on TR, you would have known that I was away from campus on Thursday--I was down in San Diego at the annual meeting of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, whose publication, Pacifica, I edit.  Now, there, that is done!

Before I head into outlining how you might want to approach the readings this week, I want to highlight some of the aspects of DQ1.

1. Make sure your responses reflect an understanding of all the materials you are required to address in the question I assign.  For instance, a response that is strictly with reference to the WSJ article but with little to say about the essay from Dissent becomes incomplete.  (BTW, my toughest job will come up when I have to assign letter grades! Here is a great essay on this issue, but you will have to eventually route through the library to access it)
2. A typical course on urban geography at a larger school will usually have a very different structure from what I have here.  I use this format because our university is small, and I find that I add more value to students if I am able to include readings that are less jargon-filled.  So, again, at the end of the course, feel free to provide me your comments on the readings also.
3. The Dissent essay was a wonderful overview of many of the topics we will cover in this course.  It provided an introduction of sorts to the course.  So, keep going back to it every week and you may find it more useful than you initially thought.  I was confident that the WSJ item would immediately grab your attention, and your responses clearly indicate that it did.  One of the panelists listed there, David Plane, was at the conference as well and he talked about how his Top Ten were not quite the same as the final list. Plane said that everybody agreed that DC will be a hot magnet because of the number of jobs that were being generated there--triggered by the federal involvement in stimulating the economy.
   
4. Some of you did point out the irony of Portland--a wonderful city, indeed, but not with many jobs to offer.  Eventually the college graduated baristas will tire of the gazillionth espresso order.  Where will they go?  This is a contrast to the way American cities grew--people flocked to cities because they offered jobs of all types.  The historical growth of Chicago and New York are classic examples.  The current Great Recession seems to suggest that there will be a big time rethinking of where and how Americans will want to live, and where their jobs might be.  
5. You maybe got the impression from both the essays that American cities seem to be always changing--the big ones become small, new ones come up, the shape and flavor changes .... that is uniquely American, I would think.  As much as Americans reinvent themselves, the cities also do; if they don't they risk losing out completely!
   

Now, for this week:

• The two chapters are relatively non-technical and easy to read.  The bottom-line in the first chapter is this: there are many different approaches to urban geography.  An economic lens into urban geography will yield results that are different from when one uses a political lens.  Most of what I do typically involve an economic lens, but in a course like this that serves students from different majors, I try to address more than the economic perspective alone.  Again, refer to earlier Point 2.
• If you have never ever read about the history of cities, then you might be in for a big surprise when you find out through Chapter 2 that cities are very, very recent in the history of humans, and that the earliest cities were not in what we recognize as the advanced countries of today.  Many of them are still around and inhabited.  Again, the historical content will be an easy read.
• Read them.  If you find something that triggers a need for clarification or discussion, yes, bring that up for conversations--just as we would in a regular class.  I hope to get going with the camera this weekend and I shall start YouTubing my thoughts soon :-)
• Finally, as promised in the schedule, I will send you DQ2 on Wednesday.  Make sure that you address all the components of that question, and do not skip anything.
  

Note: My "notes" such as this email will usually include hyperlinks--it is not required that you read the materials at those links.  But, your understanding of this subject will be richer if you did.  Think of all my stuff here as the equivalent of my lecture--I am doing you a favor by not making you sleep in my class :-)

And, BTW, in this course we will NOT take up the issue of how we might create a better city, or how to mitigate problems that urban areas face.  Those set of issues are handled in a separate course, GEOG 425.