This Reflection Paper assignment asks you to discuss some of the key concepts from Richard Florida’s, Jay Gonzalez’s and Ben Green’s books.  Exercise creativity and try to make connections between the various readings for week 1

1. What are the five key elements of the new urban crisis? (the answer is in the New Urban Crisis book, pages 6 8, see attached documents).

2. What is the significance of Piketty’s r > g to the new urban crisis, “clustering forces”, urban income inequality and how urban dwellers are affected? (the answer is in the New Urban Crisis book, pages 32 33, see attached documents)

3. Ben Green discusses “Tech goggles” and “solutionism” as factors in livable cities, in particular in relation to cars, traffic congestion and walkable streets.  What are the pros and cons of these factors? ( I dont have the book for this at the moment, so feel free to use other resources)

4. Considering Gonzalez’s “Trends and Issues” on Immigration, what is your opinion, pros and cons, of “sanctuary cities”? (the answer will come from the book Immigrations and American Cities on line at Chapters 13,14,15,19)

5. What is your opinion about the Kelo case as it relates to “takings” issues, compensation and the US Constitution? (the answer will come from the book Eminent Domain and Economic Growth Chapters 13,14,15,19)

Note: Using the weeks readings as the main background, write up your own experiences that validate or invalidate from your perspective particular elements related to the readings—-3 pages, double spaced. This is a place where you can exercise creativity and explore the infinite potential synergies amongst the many facets of the urban condition. The reflection paper should have a very short and succinct one paragraph executive summary, introduction, main body, and summary/conclusion. Twenty percent of the paper should briefly cover the readings with the remaining 80% devoted to your opinion/experience related to the readings. The best papers utilize information from both required textbooks and interrelate the book material with your own experiences. The paper should be well crafted and tell a story. Also use in-text citations

Book References:

Gonzalez, Joaquin Jay, Kemp, Roger L. (2016) Immigration and Americas Cities. McFarland and Co. Publishers 

Florida, Richard (2017). The New Urban Crisis

Gonzalez, Joaquin Jay, Kemp, Roger L., Rosenthal, Jonathan (2018). Eminent Domain and Economic Growth. McFarland and Co. Publishers