Spring 2010

Professor Jennifer Mapes

Office: KAP 450C
Office Hours: MW 10 am – 11:30 am,
or by appointment
Phone: 213-790-0743
Email: jmapes@usc.edu

GEOG 401: Sustainable Cities

Course overview
Cities present some of our greatest challenges, and greatest opportunities, for a more sustainable
future. This course examines these challenges and opportunities at multiple scales. We will examine
theories of sustainability: What does sustainability mean? Is it a useful concept? Can humans ever
really negate their impact on Earth? What role to cities play in this? We also consider how
sustainable practices can be integrated into urban and regional planning and design. How can we
design cities to produce less waste? Consume less energy? Use land wisely? Finally, we examine
how these ideas and plans work out on the ground and in our everyday lives. What role does culture
play in our daily decisions? How about politics? What might be the role of technology and
communication in the future of our cities?

It is always important to contextualize these questions. We'll look at examples from the Los Angeles
area, and our final project will examine sustainability prospects for the University of Southern
California campus.

Course objectives

 Be able to identify and discuss key concepts in sustainable urbanism

 Recognize and understand strategies in sustainable urban design, as well as critical
perspectives on these practices
 Describe and explain the importance of individual decisions for the collective future of the
city.
 Explain the challenges of these multiple scales for creating a “culture of sustainability”

Required texts:

Stephen Wheeler & Timothy Beatley, Sustainable Urban Development Reader (2004 or 2008) (SUD)
Richard Register, Ecocities: Rebuilding cities in balance with nature, 2006. (ECO)
Emilie Buchwald, Toward the Livable City, 2003. (TLC)
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Course schedule
Jan. 11 Introduction

Jan. 13 “Ecotopia” (excerpt), Ernest Callenbach (SUD)

“Towards Sustainable Development,” The Brundtland Commission (SUD)
“The lived-in city,” Jane Holtz Kay (TLC)

Theory
Jan. 18 No class/holiday

Jan. 20 Cities & Sustainability

Chapter 4, The city in history (ECO)
“Divorcing the city,” Lynda Morgenroth (TLC)

Environmental health
Jan. 25 Chapter 2: The city in evolution (ECO)

Jan. 27 Chapter 3: The city in nature (ECO)

“Divorcing the city,” Lynda Morgenroth (TLC)

Social equity
Feb. 1 “People-of-color environmentalism,” Robert Bullard (SUD)
“Opportunity-based housing,” John Powell (TLC)

Feb. 3 Guest speaker: Mona Seymour, Alleys in Los Angeles

Economic viability
Feb. 8 “The economic system and natural environments” (SUD)
“Natural capitalism” (SUD)

Feb. 10 “Import replacement” (SUD)

Reinventing a vibrant riverfront,” Judith Martin (TLC)

Feb. 15 No class/holiday

Feb. 17 Exam

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Practice

Land use & ecology

Feb. 22 Chapter 5: The City Today (ECO)

Feb. 24 “The next American metropolis,” Peter Calthorpe (SUD)

“Outdoor space and outdoor activities,” Jan Gehl (SUD)

Energy & waste

Mar. 1 “The metabolism of cities,” Herbert Girardet (SUD)
“Waste as resource,” John Lyle (SUD)

Mar. 3 “Toward a history of trashmaking,” Susan Strasser, from Waste and Want: A social
history of trash (Blackboard)
“The backside of civility,” Emily Hiestand (TLC)

Transportation
Mar. 8 “Transit and the metropolis,” Robert Cervero (SUD)
“Bicycling Renaissance in North America?” (SUD)
“Cambridge walking,” Sara Antoine (TLC)

Mar. 10 Chapter 6: Access and Transportation (pgs 137-158)

“Selections from Roadkill Bill,” Ken Avidor (TLC)

Mar. 15/17 Spring recess

Restoration & green building

Mar. 22 “City and nature,” Anne Spirn (SUD)
“Land development and endangered species,” Timothy Beatley (SUD)

Mar. 24 “Design, ecology, ethics and the making of things,” William McDonough (SUD)

Exam/project
Mar. 29 Exam

Mar. 31 Green report card/class project

Everyday
Measuring individual impacts
Apr. 5 “Urban sustainability reporting,” Virginia Maclaren (SUD)
“What is an ecological footprint,” Wackernagel and Rees (SUD)

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Apr. 7 “Seeing change,” Allan Jacobs (SUD)
“City places, sacred spaces,” Terrell Dixon (TLC)

Apr. 12 & 14 Graphic design workshop (no class)

Culture & technology

Apr. 19 “A burden, a blessing,” Tony Hiss (TLC)
“How to fall in love with your hometown,” Jay Walljasper (TLC)

Apr. 21 “If you build it, will they change?,” Bill McKibben (TLC)

Decision-making & politics

Apr. 26 “A progressive politics of meaning,” Michael Lerner (SUD)
“Collective action toward a sustainable city,” Hsin-Huang Hsiao and Hwa-Jen
Liu (SUD)

Apr. 28 “The region: The true city,” Myron Orfield (TLC)

May 10 Exam, 2 pm

Course evaluation
Presentations (10 percent)
Each week a student will present on a chapter of Toward a Livable City. These chapters tend to be
reflections on individuals’ experiences and opinions about the idea of a “livable city.” Your
presentation should include:
a) Discussion questions: Sent to other students via email/Blackboard by 6 pm the day before class.
There should be at least five questions, with a focus on debates and issues rather than just yes/no
content questions.
b) Presentation: An overview of the concepts presented, using bulleted lists written on the board or
on power point. Draw connections to other readings for class
c) In class discussion: Lead a 20 minute discussion on the questions provided earlier.

Participation (15 percent)

For this type of course, participation is vital. You must attend every class, or provide a valid excuse if
you cannot attend. You will receive the discussion questions a day beforehand, so it would behoove
you to jot down answers as you do your readings. An alternative to answering discussion questions
in class is to come prepared with your own questions about the readings, for me or for the other
students. These can be content questions, but can also be debate-type questions about the
decisions cities make about sustainability. Students who attend every class and ask/answer questions
during most classes will receive 15/15. Students who do not participate in class and miss classes
sporadically not only will fail this section of the course but may receive a grade lower than 8/15,
which would have a negative impact on your overall course grade.

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Exams (50 percent)
Exams will be evenly weighted and non-comprehensive. The course is divided into three parts:
theory, practice, and everyday; there will be an exam after each section. It will include fill-in-the-
blank and short answer, as well as an essay that will focus on the key concepts of the material
covered in that section.

Project (25 percent) (Due May 7)

The final project/paper for this course will be an integrated project that the class will work together
to produce. Each team of 2 students will take responsibility for one aspect of the report, but the
entire class will be responsible for putting together a final project in printed form. Thus only one
project will be submitted, with citations reflecting who researched/wrote each section.

Here is the background for your project:

USC recently scored poorly on its Green Report Card. This report card, issued annually, measures
the sustainability efforts of college campuses in terms of investments, actions, and results. USC
received an overall C+, with several D’s for climate change, green building and transparency.
While USC was applauded for numerous efforts, its grade reflected its poor performance in
comparison with other campuses across the country. As an urban campus and the largest employer
in the City of Los Angeles, it is important for USC to become more sustainable.

For this class, you will work together to create a report for the USC Office of Sustainability that will
consider how the campus may perform better on the Green Report Card, but also will assess to
what extent the Green Report Card is a useful set of indicators.

Please note that while this is a technical report, it will require research! You will need to investigate
how indicators are selected and measured, consider other college experiences and examples, and
find statistics on USC's performance, which may be hard to come by. For some sections you will
need to use class material AND MORE to support your argument. You will need to cite your sources
properly. Opinions without proper research to back them up will hurt your grade significantly. Your
writing for this project should be short and to the point. You should pack as much information into
each section as possible, without making it too long.

For each section you will examine:

 describe the indicators used
 why the indicators provided are important
 what you might suggest the green report card change (add/subtract) in this category
 past performance (visuals – charts, graphs, etc) (work with campus sustainability office)
 goals for future performance AND how these might be achieved

Each section should be about 10 pages (single-spaced), and include visuals (maps, charts, graphs,
diagrams, photos) which will not count toward your page total. The sections will include:
Administration & Investments, Students, Transportation, Green Building, Food & Recycling, and
Climate Change & Energy.

The report should also include an introduction (including overview of USC), conclusion, and
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executive summary. These should be compiled by the project leader. The project leader will also be
in charge of assuring that the sections are cohesive, without repetition or gaps. They will be in
charge of quality assessment and may return sections to teams if they need to be edited for fail to
include the required components.

Grading, out of 25 total points, will include 5 points for the project as a whole, 5 points for each
section as a whole, and 15 points for the portions that you are indicated as author. You may share
authorship on part or all of the section, but you will also share the grade.

You project/section as a whole grades will also reflect monthly project reports. These reports should
indicate the status of your work, and the names of those who attended the meeting. The first
meeting will be for the whole class, during the first week of classes. During this meeting you will
select a project leader. Project leaders will have less research to conduct, but will have more
responsibility in terms of seeing the project as a whole (they will write the introduction and
conclusion). The January report will indicate who the project leader is, a possible table of contents,
and the division of the class into four sections. These sections will determine your presentation
schedule for the rest of the semester. In future reports (Feb. 1, Mar. 1, April 5), each section will
submit a description of their progress, roadblocks encountered, interesting facts, etc. Failure to
produce these reports (one page is fine) will result in a lower “section as a whole” grade.