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May 28, 2005
Photos: Balboa Park
We arrived at the park at dusk, making it a little challenging to take photos without a tripod. Although not the best set of pictures, it was a good chance to play with light settings.
May 27, 2005
Photos: San Diego Wildlife Park
More animal photos from San Diego -- this time at the Wildlife Park outside the city. The Park's role as a breeding facility was clearly apparent during our visit; there were babies everywhere!
San Diego Wildlife Park Photo Album
May 25, 2005
Photos: San Diego Zoo
The San Diego Zoo is a privately owned, non-profit Zoological Society and was founded shortly after the opening of the Panama Canal in 1916.
May 21, 2005
Article: The Rise of the Six-Figure Teacher
Wow. It is sad to see such disapproval of thirty-year veterans with graduate degrees making a reasonable salary in one of the toughest fields out there. Would there be fewer complaints from taxpayers it they considered teaching a merit-based field, rather than a union-dominated tenure based field?
The Rise of the Six-Figure Teacher
Article: College Waiting Lists Can Favor the Well-off
Money driven colleges and universities -- bastions of knowledge upholding income segregation.
Selective private colleges acknowledge that they sometimes take affluent teens over those from poor or middle-class families needing financial aid when deciding which students to admit from their waiting lists.
College Waiting Lists Can Favor the Well-off
Paper: Pre-K Expulsion Study
Yale's Child Study Center published a paper on the rate of expulsion for pre-K students, focusing largely on publicly funded preschools like Headstart. The discrepancies in expulsion between groups are predictable, but discouraging.
Boys were over four times as likely to be expelled as girls, and African-American preschoolers were about twice as likely to be expelled as preschoolers of European descent. Although a pattern of particular risk for expulsion with African-American students has been demonstrated during kindergarten through grade 12 (Holzman, 2004), the pattern of disparity appears to begin much earlier.
Expulsion is the most severe disciplinary sanction that an educational program can impose on a student. Prekindergarteners are expelled at a rate that is more than three times that of their older peers in grades kindergartenthrough 12 (6.67 per 1,000 preschoolers, as compared to 2.09 per 1,000 K-12 students). Prekindergarten expulsion rates were higher than those found for K-12 students in all but 3 of the 40 states that fund prekindergarten (Kentucky, South Carolina, and Louisiana).
Major newspapers have also picked up on the story . . .
Although preschool expulsion rates varied widely by state and type of setting, the study found that on average, boys were expelled at 4.5 times the rate of girls, African-Americans at twice the rate of Latinos and Caucasians, and 4-year-olds at 1.5 times the rate of 3-year-olds. Expulsion rates were lowest in preschool classrooms in public schools and Head Start, and highest in faith-affiliated centers, for-profit child care and other community-based child-care settings.
Research Finds a Higher Rate of Expulsions in Preschool
Article: How a District in the Bronx Got Results: From Pushing
Encouraged by the Institute for Education and Social Policy at New York University, parents and community groups banded together to form CC9, the Community Collaborative to Improve District 9 Schools. Since then, the group has lobbied relentlessly on behalf of the district's children. Targeting teacher support and professional development appears to work in this case...
In addition to fighting for safer streets around schools and better trained teachers and principals, CC9 last year brokered a remarkable deal between the teachers' union and the school system to create a "lead teacher" program, in which veteran educators were paired to share a class so they could spend half their time mentoring less experienced colleagues. Lead teachers are paid an extra $10,000 a year.
How a District in the Bronx Got Results: From Pushing
NY Times on Class in America
The Times is running a series on class, with a collection of graphics on income mobility, as well.
. . . class is still a powerful force in American life. Over the past three decades, it has come to play a greater, not lesser, role in important ways. At a time when education matters more than ever, success in school remains linked tightly to class. At a time when the country is increasingly integrated racially, the rich are isolating themselves more and more. At a time of extraordinary advances in medicine, class differences in health and lifespan are wide and appear to be widening.
Article: HUD Back to Court
That the federal government, including HUD, has a long history of having precipitated and perpetuated housing discrimination, there can be no question. At their inception, federal housing programs incorporated many of the prevailing practices of the private housing market and were explicitly discriminatory as a result. And as new housing programs have evolved, successive administrations, Democratic and Republican, have repeatedly missed opportunities to combat discrimination... Federal programs to assist low-income renters have helped concentrate poor, minority families in poor, minority neighborhoods, limiting housing choice and fostering social division.
Back to Court: The Federal Role in Metropolitan Housing Segregation
community and housing development
Article: Le Corbusier, by Design
When he became mayor of Firminy, Claudius-Petit initiated a large-scale renewal project, recruiting a team of planners to create a "vertical garden city" on an open site adjacent to the old town. The new town became known as "Firminy-Vert," in contrast to the notorious Firminy "noir" of the 19th-century mining era. Le Corbusier was asked to design three Unités d'Habitation, as well as a cultural center, stadium and parish church, which he organized as an ensemble around the bowl of an abandoned quarry. When Le Corbusier died, most of his buildings were still under construction. But Firminy-Vert was already being praised as one of Europe's most accomplished postwar planning exercises.
Article: The Vital Businesses of Immigrants
The concept of social capital has in recent times interested economic researchers as an explanatory factor for successful enterprise. As immigrant entrepreneurs as a rule find it more difficult to borrow from the bank than do the majority of the population, and for this reason are more dependent on social capital, this special case of enterprise ought to be a very productive object of study.
The Vital Businesses of Immigrants
May 19, 2005
Report: Why Segregation Matters
Orfield, Gary and Chungmei Lee, Harvard Civil Rights Project, January 2005
One of the common misconceptions over the issue of resegregation of schools is that many people treat it as simply a change in the skin color of the students in a school. If skin color were not systematically linked to other forms of inequality, it would, of course, be of little significance for educational policy. Unfortunately that is not and never has been the nature of our society. Socioeconomic segregation is a stubborn, multidimensional and deeply important cause of educational inequality.
Why Segregation Matters: Poverty and Educational Inequality
May 16, 2005
Article: Students Try Their Hand at Urban Design
Y-Plan made the Oakland Tribune yesterday! Congratulations Team Holloway, and, of course, Team Smith -- it was a long semester, but we made it. The next big question is sustainability; how will students stay involved with the station and see the design ideas to fruition in a decade?
Students Try Their Hand at Urban Design
central station, education, historic preservation, planning articles, urban design
Photos: Portola Redwoods
Portola Redwoods State Park is just up the road from Palo Alto.
May 10, 2005
Washington Square Park Redevelopment
I'm glad I took photos of Washington Square Park when I was in New York last month -- major changes are in store for the park, including leveling of the uneven grade, moving the dog runs, shifting the fountain to match the gate, and building a wall around the park. As it is now, the park is a lively, vital public space with an open plan and crowds of people on a Friday afternoon. Walling it off seems almost criminal, even if there is a "park curfew"... The parks commission is spending a large amount of money to sanitize the park itself, shifting the image from open to exclusive.
This issue of the wall speaks directly to Leonie Sandercock's critique of planning history as she outlines the work of Dora Epstein on fear. The wall is indicative of the gentrification of the area and a desire on the part of more affluent residents for "safety":
The pathology of solutions (an implicit belief that built environments and social interactions can be made right), she argues, blurs or erases our memories of how the problem -- fear -- was socially contructed and signified in the first place. Planning's solution-oriented drive, which has resulted in the attempt to create safe spaces, misses two fundamental points. These "safe spaces" neither limit the perpetuation of fear nor seem to take into account the research that shows that city dwellers are most at risk of violence from people close to or known to them, rather than from the ubiquitously feared Stranger.
Washington Square Park, Haven for Eccentricity, Is Set to Fall Into Line
May 08, 2005
Article: Florida Legislature Stings Bush
Jeb Bush's push for school vouchers and rolling back class size limits in Florida met with decidedly sweet defeat last Thursday. Legislator's refused to vote on the class size limits, making the voucher system also impossible to implement.
After Florida Legislative Session Ends, Governor Bush Feels Sting of Defeat
May 07, 2005
Photos: Mac@Cal
Photos from McClymond's students' visit to Cal last week... The students are in the process of modeling (to scale, no less) their proposals for the plaza and train station redevelopment, which includes a cafe and museum. Students present their plans at Oakland's City Hall this Wednesday, May 11th, from 6-8pm for a panel including Councilperson Nancy Nadel and landscape architect Walter Hood.
May 06, 2005
Article: Democracy Takes Command
Harvard Design Magazine takes a look at the changing role of "citizen planners" . . . how has the community development process changed over time, and where is it headed?
For designers who would be urbanists, the challenge is to move beyond the general knowledge of citizens engaged in planning their communities. The future of urban design now lies in the development and use of information systems and tools that all players in the community-making process will use. Understanding and supporting these knowledge bases and tools so they are integral parts of the democratic planning process is one of the great opportunities for the planning and design professions and portends a shift of historic proportions with regard to the means by which cities are planned, designed, and built, a shift as important as the design of any piece of infrastructure. As opposed to advocating urban design education for the masses or leading the people to the city on the hill of good design, planners, architects, and landscape architects, acting as urban designers, must associate themselves and their specialized activities with everyday people to do everyday planning.
community and housing development, planning articles, urban design
May 05, 2005
LA Weekly Issue on Housing
community and housing development
Opinion: Daley on Chicago's Community Schools
The Chicago Planning Report includes excerpts of Daley's State of the City message, emphasizing the importance of schools as key elements of a city -- community anchors that share park space and facilities. (among a variety of other things)
Creating livable communities in times of fiscal constraint requires innovation. Central to creating these communities is building schools that serve as community anchors. In recent years Chicago has been at the forefront of general school reform and the community school movement. TPR is please to provide excerpts of Chicago Mayor Daley’s address to the Sustainable Communities Summit on February 1, 2005, in which he talks about community schools and other strategies to enhance neighborhoods in Chicago.
Daley's Chicago State of the City Message Offers Proof of Mayoral Leadership
May 04, 2005
Land Use: Sonoma County Tentative Inclusionary Zoning
The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors tentatively approved 14 ordinances, including a 20% inclusionary zoning ordinance. There will be a final vote in June.
The County will consider the adoption of an inclusionary zoning program that will include a requirement that 20 or more percent of the base units for any subdivision or other residential project consisting of 5 or more units be available for households earning median income or less, that a fee equal to the subsidy cost of producing the affordable units could be paid in-lieu of the units, and that 20 percent of the base units would be required to provide second units affordable to low or very low income households.
Tentative Sonoma County Zoning Ordinances
Article: States Scrutinize School Construction Costs
New Jersey has even put a hold on new land deals, contracts, and change orders under its $8.6 billion facilities project for some of its neediest districts after a review by the state inspector general found “lax and/or nonexistent oversight and accountability” within the state’s School Construction Corp.
Meanwhile, Indiana is near the end of a 120-day moratorium on approving school construction projects. The halt was called by newly inaugurated Gov. Mitch Daniels in his State of the State Address in January to give the state time to review whether too much school construction aid was going to nonacademic frills.
Massachusetts recently formed a school building authority, which moves the audit process for construction projects from the state education department to the state treasurer’s office, partly to devote more people to routine audits of school construction.
And Ohio officials announced earlier this year that they would review and scale back school district plans under a $10 billion statewide building project after finding that some of the districts targeted for the project were seeing declining enrollments.
States Scrutinize School Construction Costs
education, land use, urban design
May 03, 2005
Photos: MOMA
Article: Higher SATs = Higher Housing Prices
The Higher the SAT Scores, the More the House is Worth
Parents are using the internet to research schools as they shop for new homes.
Opinion: NCLB
Instead of throwing barbs at teachers and unions, the Times should challenge the nation and the president to take on the difficulties facing teachers in disadvantaged communities. The Times--and other opinion leaders--should call for universal pre-school programs so poor children enter school on level ground with their more advantaged counterparts. They should call for universal quality health care and after-school programs so all children start the school day ready to learn. The Times and the Post should both do all of this, while putting on a spirited defense of NCLB. It’s important to protect the core mission of NCLB, but doing so at all costs is as dangerous to children as accepting Bush at his word.
Article: Sharing in the Dream
Whether newcomers to the United States or third-generation Americans, first-time Latino home buyers are overcoming cultural and institutional barriers, such as distrust of banks and lack of traditional credit, that for decades prevented many from buying homes. They are purchasing condos and single-family houses in Southern California, from the Inland Empire to the Antelope Valley, and helping to gentrify some neglected neighborhoods.
community and housing development
Article: Getting Smaller to Improve the Big Picture
New York has had its share of unsuccessful small schools, but claims to be doing things differently now.
Research by, among others, Jacqueline Ancess of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching at Columbia University's Teachers College, found that small schools suffered when forced to take root in large school buildings, alongside other schools with conflicting cultures and incompatible approaches to learning.
Getting Smaller to Improve the Big Picture
Interview: Chicago's Public School CEO
Arnie Duncan is Chicago's acting Public School CEO. In a city where the mayor has controlled the school system since 1995, Duncan and an appointed school board are focusing on community schools and small schools. In this interview, Duncan supports any movement the author throws at him. Although shared facilities planning and extending the school day are great ideas, the trend to create "small schools" is re-segregating schools at an incredibly fast pace. Smart growth rhetoric and the small school movement are being used to justify a new apartheid at lightning speed and without evaluation of academic outcomes.
Arnie Duncan - Chicago's Public School CEO
May 02, 2005
24 Historical Landmarks Named
New landmarks include Radburn and Chatham Village.
Radburn, Borough of Fair Lawn, New Jersey(1928-1936):
This community embodies the internationally acclaimed model of community design known as the "Radburn Idea," was designed in 1928-1929 by the planner-architects Clarence S. Stein and Henry Wright. Known as "The Town for the Motor Age," Radburn's design principles have influenced generations of community planning, including the three Greenbelt towns of the New Deal, many Federal Housing Administration-insured large-scale rental communities of the 1930s to 1950s, and new towns of the 1960s. Radburn was the product of the Regional Planning Association of America (RPAA) with the goal to promote social reform and improvement in the housing of moderate income Americans based on the principles of English Garden City planning.
Chatham Village, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1929-1956):
Internationally acclaimed model of community design based on Garden City planning, innovative methods of cost analysis, and pioneering efforts to reduce housing construction costs. Designed by local architects under the supervision of master planner-architects Clarence S. Stein and Henry Wright, as a philanthropic project by the Buhl Foundation to provide high-quality housing in a suburban, garden setting for clerical workers in Pittsburgh, PA. Building upon earlier work at Sunnyside Gardens, New York, and Radburn, New Jersey, Chatham Village is one of the most celebrated and influential projects to result from Stein and Wright�s highly creative, ten-year collaboration and the efforts of the Regional Planning Association of America (RPAA) to promote social reform and improvement in the housing of moderate income Americans in metropolitan areas of the United States. Immediately acclaimed as an ideal demonstration of neighborhood planning and cost-efficient housing, Chatham Village influenced the development of design standards used by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to approve large-scale, rental housing in suburban areas for federally-insured mortgages. It helped to shape the design and construction of the first federally-funded public housing projects under the Public Works Administration in the 1930s.
Recreating OUSD
The Oakland Unified School District is "redisigning itself" and offering a range of employment opportunities. Such systemic rebirth is neither easy nor cheap, and it will be a while before one can judge whether it is more than merely superficial.
OUSD is undergoing tremendous change, but it is also making an investment in public schools and the future of our children.
Our old approach wasn’t paying off. And rather than tinkering around the edges as in the past, OUSD is investing time, work and resources to build a better approach and to launch a bold, new beginning.
The new approach is centered on providing better support to schools and students, with the ultimate goal of improving academic achievement for all children. In addition to the creation of School Networks, which will support school leaders, the central office will be divided into a Strategy Group and a Services Organization.
Recreating Oakland Unified School District
SBE: Who's Minding the Store?
Larson, Rick and Real Enterprises, Inc., Who's Minding the Store? A Guide for Educators Working with School-based Enterprises: Activities and Strategies for Creating and Operating Innovative and Productive Learning Experiences, Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education, June 1995 (MDS-1254).
This guide is intended for use by educators who are working with school-based enterprises or contemplating the establishment of an SBE in their school. It seeks to help schools, students, and teachers develop enterprises that:
- place students in positions of responsibility for management and operations.
- provide an opportunity for students to learn entrepreneurial skills, group problem-solving, and effective decisionmaking.
- encourage creativity and innovation and help students learn a broad range of academic and career-oriented skills.
- provide an opportunity for students to learn about a number of aspects of the business, not just the specifics of a particular job within that business.
- operate responsibly from ethical, social, and economic perspectives.
- promote academic achievement.
National Center for Research in Vocational Education
Notes in the extended...
Continue reading "SBE: Who's Minding the Store?"
community and housing development, economic development, education
Article: A Crack in the Broken-Windows Theory
Researchers looked at racial bias as a determinent of neighborhood perception --
As the proportion of black residents in a neighborhood increased, white residents' perception of disorder also soared -- even in neighborhoods that the raters had judged to be no more ramshackle than others with a smaller proportion of black residents. The researchers found the same thing when they looked at the percentage of families living in poverty: In neighborhoods with more poor people, residents perceived more disorder, regardless of the objective condition of the neighborhood.
The answer, they argue, seems to be that blacks had bought into the same negative stereotypes as whites, and have come to associate black neighborhoods -- any black neighborhood -- with decay and dysfunction, regardless of the objective condition of the area.
A Crack in the Broken-Windows Theory
Photos: D'Errico and Antonelli Wedding
D'Errico and Antonelli Wedding Photo Album
Photos: Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park in Manhattan contains a variety of uses, including spaces for dogs, skaters, and children, along with ample seating.
Washington Square Park Photo Album
central station, landscape architecture, photographs, urban design
Article: Train Station Revival on Track
The West Oakland Train Station made the Oakland Tribune's front page today. The story puts a positive spin on the planned redevelopment just in time for tomorrow night's City Council meeting.
The stately Beaux Arts-landmark was closed after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 and vandalized by squatters in the years since. The empty land around it has been used to park trucks, store shipping containers and basically, collect trash. Reynolds and many of her neighbors are tired of looking at it and annoyed at activists who may hold up the new residential project.
Train Station Revival on Track
For a bit of contrast, check out the Just Cause Train Station Campaign, which takes a dramatic counter position.
central station, historic preservation, planning articles
Article: Amid Affluence, a Struggle Over Special Education
Interesting to see how affluent families are actively (and vocally) fighting for accomodations and services for their students. How many children are not receiving the services they need in less affluent districts? San Francisco Unified requires a student have a two year gap between their academic potential and their current performance in order to qualify for special education services. It's crushing to have a kindergarten student who clearly needs services, but will not be able to "qualify" until they are in the first or second grade.
With an estimated 5.7 million children in the United States qualifying for special education, similar struggles are playing out around the country. Federal laws aimed at protecting the disabled entitle those who qualify to a free and "appropriate" education tailored to their needs. But the definition of "appropriate" differs from town to town, leaving much to quarrel about.
The battle is particularly intense in the suburbs, where wealthy, educated parents no longer see special education as a stigma or trap. They are pressing hard for services and accommodations to address their children's learning needs, from extra time on tests to tuition for private schools. But many suburban school districts are aggressively challenging some of the requests as indulgent interpretations of the law.
Amid Affluence, a Struggle Over Special Education
Article: 'Skill gap' between races stagnant
A University of Chicago economist will soon publish documentation of the stability of the academic gap between white and black students from 1990 to 2000.
One tool Neal highlights to help reverse the current trend is quality early childhood education, an intervention well-established by research. The Chicago public school system, for example, has an academic-based preschool program that includes classes for parents at its "Child-Parent Centers."
'Skill gap' between races stagnant
May 01, 2005
The Highline
MOMA's Highline exhibit