Colloquium Lecture with Kathe Newman, Rutgers University

About the talk: 

Cities are increasingly enabling land development in ways that yield a set of public benefits such as jobs, transit, and affordable housing. To better understand how land development with related social benefit arrangements happens, we are conducting a case study of New York City’s Midtown East 2017 rezoning. In an already dense area, aging buildings, unused air rights, and a need for transit and pedestrian improvements, combined to produce a politically palatable rezoning plan. We are especially interested in the role of the state, the mobility of land development rights and the public private governing process that has shaped not only a workable rezoning plan but also its implementation which includes improvements to the public realm. City planning documents and financial plans, non-governmental organizational reports and statements and extensive news coverage provide the basis for analysis. The analysis also draws on a set of archival materials that help to frame the historic relationship between land development and the production of the public realm and the tools that have shaped these relationships over time. 

Speaker biography: 

Kathe Newman is a Professor in the Urban Planning and Policy Development Program at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and Director of the Ralph W. Voorhees Center for Civic Engagement. Dr. Newman holds a PhD in Political Science from the Graduate School and University Center at the City University of New York. Her research explores urban change, what it is, why it happens, and what it means. Her research has explored affordable housing and housing insecurity, processes of financialization, governance, gentrification, foreclosure, urban redevelopment, food security, and community participation. Dr. Newman has published articles in Urban Studies, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Urban Affairs Review, Shelterforce, Progress in Human Geography, Urban Geography, Housing Studies, GeoJournal and Environment and Planning A. She is an associate editor at Environment and Planning A and the co-book editor for the Journal of Urban Affairs.