In class today, we discussed the updated class schedule and noted that teams have until 5pm today to post the revised draft research question.

Please take the midterm survey to give your instructors and classmates some feedback on improving the class. The survey is open through Tuesday, April 7.

Classes are not held April 8-10 and we do not meet next week, Thursday, April 9. Your professors will keep their usual office hours (Montgomery | Leonard). Stay safe and healthy, everyone.

Of interest to anyone looking for paid part-time work with a community service learning component, the deadline to apply to the CUNY Service Corps has been extended to April 19.

The reading and blogging assignment due Tuesday, April 7 is below:

Please read the following 3 pieces: one is an opinion piece by Joseph Alexiou, author of Gowanus: Brooklyn’s Curious Canal. The next is a booklet that explains zoning and offers templates for workshops and activities to better understand this complicated concept. The last is a primary source, a collection of documents from the NYC Department of City Planning, that together comprise the rezoning proposal for the Gowanus.

  1. Alexiou, Joseph. “The Gowanus Canal Will Never Be Clean.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 20 Jan. 2020. https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2020/01/17/the-gowanus-canal-will-never-be-clean-opinion/.
  2.  Center for Urban Pedagogy, What Is Zoning? 2013. welcometocup.org/file_columns/0000/0530/cup-whatiszoning-guidebook.pdf. Read pages 10-35 and 79-105.
  3. Gowanus Neighborhood Planning Study from the NYC Department of City Planning, 2018. Explore and skim, but no need to read the entire study.

After you’ve read all 3 pieces, write a 150-word reflective blog post, due on April 7 by 5pm. Please respond to the following prompt:

Alexiou offers an overview of the tensions between development and environment while expressing doubt that current practices will ever result in a cleaned-up, safe environment. The Gowanus Planning Study is an overview of a plan to rezone (or upzone) the neighborhood to allow denser residential development. How could New York do things differently, what does “clean” even mean in 2020, and what right to New Yorkers have to a clean and safe place to live? Your reflection could offer a critique of current NYC zoning practices, a critique of the Gowanus draft study, and/or a critique of the EPA cleanup efforts under the Superfund project.