PolicyMap in the Classroom - Dr. Carolina Reid

PolicyMap in the

Classroom

#mapchatspolicymap.com/mapchats

PolicyMap in the

Classroom


Carolina ReidAssistant Professor, City and Regional Planning, UC Berkeley

PolicyMap: Revealing Context and

Contradiction in the Global City

PolicyMap in the

Classroom


PolicyMap in the Classroom


• A required “gateway” course for students in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Studies, and Sustainable Environmental Design

• 80-100 undergraduates, usually Freshman/Sophomores• Introduction to the social, economic, and environmental

challenges confronting contemporary cities, and the role of the environmental design professions in addressing those challenges

– Three modules grounded in “sustainability” framework• Environmental (climate change and coastal shorelines)• Economic (changing modes of production)• Equity (community development: poverty, inequality, difference)

ED4B: Global Cities

Carolina Reid

PolicyMap in the

Classroom




• Introduce students to the ways in which different forms of economic production (industrial, Fordist manufacturing, the “new” economy) shape the urban landscape– Agglomeration economies– Building types and uses, understanding what gets

built where and why– Impact on labor force, neighborhood amenities

Economic Module

PolicyMap in the

Classroom




Dogpatch, San Francisco

Neighborhood reveals a history of economic changes• Port location, early industry

in SF, including gunpowder manufacturing

• Became site for large-scale canning, steel production, shipping related industries

• Experienced significant decline during 1970s

PolicyMap in the

Classroom





• American Can Company

• Large scale manufacturing, plant closed in 1969

• Today, provides spaces for 285 businesses ranging from architects to a bakery to artisanal chocolate production

PolicyMap in the

Classroom





Economic shifts are changing the fabric of the neighborhood• Small business incubators that

focus on light manufacturing, artisanal production

• New restaurants and shops catering to an “elite” rather than working class clientele

• A new light rail station connecting the neighborhood to other parts of the city

PolicyMap in the

Classroom




• After field trip, students have to write a report about Dogpatch, drawing together the theoretical readings, the field trip (and their observations) and data

• Learning objectives– Connect theory to reality– Build an understanding of the building blocks of planning

data• Geographic scales (census tracts, counties)• Census variables• Elements of effective maps, conceptual understanding of

layers– Become critical consumers of qualitative v. quantitative

evidence

Using PolicyMap

PolicyMap in the

Classroom




Using PolicyMap

Identify Brownfield Sites

Identify Small Business Incubators

Use socio-economic and demographic data to show how these economic changes are changing composition of neighborhood

PolicyMap in the

Classroom




• Wide range of data variables make the platform adaptable to other neighborhoods/issue areas

– E.g. Fruitvale “equity” module: immigration, health, food deserts

• Intuitive interface coupled with excellent documentation of metadata overcomes the barrier of having to learn ArcGIS but not at the expense of rigor/accuracy

• Reduces barriers to working with data– Students have so much fun with the “mapping” that they

overcome the idea that they can’t do “statistics”

Using PolicyMap

PolicyMap in the Classroom - Dr. Carolina Reid

Education

Transcript of PolicyMap in the Classroom - Dr. Carolina Reid