MIT: Independent Activities Period: IAP

IAP 2013 Activities by Sponsor - Urban Studies and Planning

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Brownfield Redevelopment Workshop

Kerry Bowie, Director of Brownfields & Environmental Justice

Jan/25 Fri 09:00AM-05:00PM 9-450A

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 20 participants

Kerry Bowie, Director of Brownfields & Environmental Justice for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, will lead a one-day Brownfield Redevelopment Workshop (not for credit).  Bowie and other guest speakers will provide a general survey of Brownfields, covering topics such as assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment while examining technical, legal, and financial challenges.  The format of the workshop will include a general overview, guest speakers, discussion, and a field trip to a Boston area brownfields site.  Graduate and undergraduate students welcome; no prior brownfield experience is required.

Signup: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dG9MQ0lRMl8zZUctcG5BbGxyYVBjeXc6MQ

Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Katherine Buckingham, 513.382.8632, kbucking@mit.edu


Community-university partnerships in Boston: The experience of the MIT GreenHouse Studio Symposium

Patricia Molina Costa

Jan/17 Thu 05:00PM-09:00PM 9-450

Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/14

Strategies for solving urban planning problems have become increasingly global in nature, reflecting the similarity in challenges cities face in a globalized economy and a changing physical climate. In order to share knowledge across boundaries, planning institutions increasingly seek to understand how similar problems are being addressed from different cultural perspectives, methodologies, and legal regulations. This approach formed the basis for the Parallel Workshop for Sustainable & Equitable Neighborhood Revitalization held in the spring of 2012 by the MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) and the Departamento de Urbanística y Ordenación del Territorio (DUyOT) at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). The workshop focused on contemporary urban challenges from two very different perspectives and formulated proposals for two different neighborhoods—Ciudad de los Angeles in Madrid, and Fields Corner in Boston— working closely with community-based organizations. On the occasion of the exhibition, a half-day symposium will be held to discuss the experience of community-university partnerships between MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning and community organizations from the Boston area.

5:00-6:15pm: A Plan for Sustainability in Fields Corner: the GreenHouse Studio collaboration with VietAID

6:15-6:30pm: Break

6:30-8:00pm: Community-university partnerships in the Boston area: reflections from diverse experiences

8:00-9:00pm: Exhibition opening

Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Patricia Molina Costa, pmolina@mit.edu


Data Diggers: Groundhog Day Hack-a-Thon

Ezra Glenn

Feb/01 Fri 12:00PM-03:00PM 9-450A, bring a laptop!

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

To celebrate Groundhog Day (OK, OK -- it's one day early) and prepare for the inaugural Spring Semester of MIT Data Diggers, we'll meet over IAP to start to dig up (or perhaps hunt down) some data sets to use in the class.  Come prepared to use all your hacking tools (and some good old-fashioned resourcefulness and traditional research skills as well) to seek out rich veins of MIT-related and publicly-available data for use in Spring semester.  Races, prizes, food; data-oriented costumes optional.

Open for all MIT students, whether you plan to enroll in 11.S195 in the Spring or prefer not to take the funnest class at MIT.

Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Ezra Glenn, 7-337, 617 253-2024, EGLENN@MIT.EDU


Games for Planners

Ezra Glenn

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

During IAP, we'll try to keep it light with some fun games that help hone your planning skills. Learn to speak, draw, and build, and have fun in the process.

Please come join us -- the more, the merrier (or the messier, or the muddier, or something like that...).  Prizes, food, celebrity guests, etc.

Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Ezra Glenn, 7-337, 617 253-2024, EGLENN@MIT.EDU

Games for Planners: Gab!

Jan/15 Tue 03:00PM-05:00PM 9-450A

All planners need to feel comfortable speaking in public.  Ideally, you'll know what you are talking about, but being able to speak extemporaneously on an subject is a great skill to have as well, and can really help loosen you up and get you comfortable with speaking in front of an audience.

Ezra Glenn

Games for Planners: Pictionary

Jan/29 Tue 03:00PM-05:00PM 9-450A

Good planning, design, and public process often depend on effective visual representation.  Come play this classic party game, with a planning twist.  Can you draw "Floor Area Ratio"?  "Foreclosure"?  How about "Emerald Necklace"...?

Ezra Glenn


Homeless Children: America's Newest Outcasts

John H. Wong, Ph.D., DUSP, '92

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions

This year is the 25th anniversary of the Education of Homeless Children and Youth Program—America's primary response to critical problems in the education of homeless children. This seminar, led by DUSP alum John Wong (PhD 1992), will examine the accomplishments and shortcomings of this legislation, with the goal of improving the lives of the more than one million homeless children in schools.

Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Ezra Glenn, 7-337, 617 253-2024, EGLENN@MIT.EDU

Jan/22 Tue 10:00AM-12:00PM 9-450A
Jan/23 Wed 10:00AM-12:00PM 9-450A

John H. Wong, Ph.D., DUSP, '92


Interactive Census Data Tools

Alexandra Barker

Jan/14 Mon 02:00PM-05:00PM 9-450A

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/07
Limited to 25 participants

DUSP, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the Mel King Institute for Community Building, and the U.S. Census Bureau are partnering to offer this hands-on workshop to learn how to use interactive web tools to access 2010 Census and American Community Survey data.

The workshops will focus on accessing 2010 Census and American Community Survey data using the following systems:

 

Attendees will learn what demographic and socioeconomic data are available for their communities and how to retrieve it online. The workshop is divided in 3 parts:

 

Representatives from the U.S. Census Bureau and the BRA will conduct the workshop. Participants must have access to a computer with internet access.

Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Ezra Glenn, 7-337, 617 253-2024, EGLENN@MIT.EDU


Planners Read The Gorgias

Ezra Glenn

Jan/22 Tue 03:00PM-05:00PM 9-450A

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

What is the role of oratory and power in a democratic society? Is it worse to do wrong or to be wronged? What is the difference between knowledge and true belief? Why is it important for both the accused and their judges to meet naked in court? (And what do all of these questions have to do with becoming an urban planner?) Come explore these themes with us in a dramatic -- possibly participatory -- reading of Plato's "Gorgias," a Socratic dialog written in 380 BC that is as relevant today as when it was written. Greek food included; togas optional.

Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Ezra Glenn, 7-337, x3-2024, eglenn@mit.edu


Planning Exercise: Managing climate change-related uncertainty in infrastructure planning

Todd Schenk, PhD candidate, Environmental Policy and Planning

Jan/15 Tue 10:00AM-01:00PM TBD

Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required

Interested in planning in the face of the risks and uncertainties posed by climate change? Want to practice your negotiation skills in a simulated multi-stakeholder environment? Interested in infrastructure planning?

I am looking for people to participate in a role-play simulation exercise at MIT (with lunch provided). 

As part of my dissertation work, I will be using this short exercise exploring the best ways of handling the uncertainties involved in managing climate change risks on urban waterfront infrastructure with decision-makers and other stakeholders in various locations (Rotterdam, Singapore and New York). I would like to pilot it here first. I hope that this exercise will be beneficial for all involved, providing an opportunity to think about the management of uncertainty in decision-making, along with a chance to practice negotiation skills. I also expect it to be fun.

The location is to be determined, but will be somewhere here at MIT. Please RSVP directly to me if you are willing and able to attend, or if you have any questions.

Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Todd Schenk, (617) 230-8480, tschenk@mit.edu


Planning, Funding, and Implementing Transportation Projects in the Real World (or How It Really Works)

Kate Fichter, Eric Plosky

Jan/30 Wed 01:00PM-04:00PM 9-450A+B

Enrollment: ACTIVITY FULL
Sign-up by 01/25
Limited to 30 participants

As a vital and complex element of any urban or regional environment, transportation infrastructure both affects and is affected by land use patterns, economic development policies, political power-brokering and environmental resources, and so offers a lens through which to study many of the choices and constraints available to today's planners. This seminar will offer a practice-oriented overview of the issues, players and trends most relevant to contemporary transportation planning, as taught by two MIT/DUSP alumni currently working in the field.

Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Ezra Glenn, 7-337, x3-2024, eglenn@mit.edu


Student Showcase on Climate Adaptation and Mitigation

Amanda Graham, Director of Education, MITEI

Jan/29 Tue 01:30PM-03:30PM 10-105

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required

MIT students: Are you involved in research related to climate adaptation or climate mitigation? Would you like to share your work with state officials leading Massachusetts’ efforts to prepare for climate variability? Apply here by midnight on January 24 to have your work considered for a showcase on January 29, 1:30-3:30 pm on the MIT campus.

Selected participants will present highlights of their research to officials from Massachusetts agencies, including the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. The event will include brief remarks and 3-5 powerpoint slides by each selected participant as well as informal conversation. MIT community members are welcome to attend the event to learn and discuss.

Co-hosted by the MIT Energy Initiative, the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and the Department of Anthropology.

Space is limited. MIT community members: please register here to attend this event.

Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative, Joint Program/Science and Policy of Global Change, Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Amanda Graham, E19-370K, 617 253-8995, AGRAHAM@MIT.EDU


Urban Planning Film Series: Really Long Films

Ezra Glenn

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

For IAP, the department's ongoing Urban Planning Film Series continues with a twist: since there are no classes, p-sets, or other distractions to contend with, this month the series will feature some of the great LONG (or even SUPER-LONG) films in the genre.

 

Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Ezra Glenn, 7-337, 617 253-2024, EGLENN@MIT.EDU

When the Levees Broke, by Spike Lee

Jan/17 Thu 02:00PM-06:00PM 3-133, end times vary

Subtitled "A Requiem in Four Acts," Spike Lee's heart-rending portrait of New Orleans in the wake of the destruction manages to be both intimate and epic.  Originally aired as a four-part HBO miniseries, the film tells the heartbreaking personal stories of those who endured this harrowing ordeal--yet, somehow, amidst the ruins, the people of New Orleans are finding new hope and strength as the city rises from the ashes.

Ezra Glenn

Half the Sky, by Maro Chermayeff

Jan/24 Thu 02:00PM-06:00PM 3-133

Originally aired as a four-hour television series for PBS, this epic work introduces women and girls who are living under some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable---and fighting bravely to change them.  Traveling with intrepid reporter Nicholas Kristof and A-list celebrity advocates, the film reflects viable and sustainable options for empowerment and offers an actionable blueprint for transformation.

Ezra Glenn

Public Housing, by Fred Wiseman

Jan/31 Thu 02:00PM-06:00PM 3-133

This cinema-verite documentary captures daily life at the Ida B. Wells public housing development in Chicago. The film illustrates some of the experiences of people living in conditions of extreme poverty, including the work of the tenants council, street life, the role of police, job training, drug education, teenage mothers, dysfunctional families, elderly residents, nursery school, and after school teenage programs.

Ezra Glenn