A Tale of Two Cities: Urban Sustainability in New York and Mexico

The Center for Urban Research and Policy (CURP) is raising the bar for undergraduate education. At the start of the past academic year, the Center-part of the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP)-inaugurated a workshop series that blends classroom learning with fieldwork experience and expert guest speakers. The Urban Research Workshop (URW) tackles problems of urban sustainability through a year-long comparative study of the development challenges of two major international cities. In 2004-2005, students studied urban sustainability in New York City and Mexico City.

Throughout the year, students formulated individual research projects that took social and environmental approaches to understanding sustainability in both cities. Using small neighborhoods as units of analysis, the projects demonstrate that the uneven allocation of resources in society created by neo-liberal policies pose serious challenges to sustainability. In both metropolises, social inequality also reflects a commensurate imbalance in exposure to environmental risks. Students spent the year conducting fieldwork in New York and traveled to Mexico City for five days in March to complete their fieldwork.

The interdisciplinary experience was invaluable for many students. In a reflection piece on the recent trip to Mexico, student participant Manmeet Bindra (BC '05) writes, "The benefit of having an interdisciplinary class allowed me to learn from my peers who are ultimately interested in the same goals, though work on social problems through different avenues. It is rare to find oneself working on a project or engaged in academic work with students from different disciplines, but I strongly feel that it is something I must continue doing throughout my life."

The individualized projects were complemented by workshops led by Sudhir Venkatesh, CURP Director and Associate Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies, and a speaker series. In the past year, the speaker series hosted renowned scholars in the field of urban international sustainability, including Jeffrey Sachs, Saskia Sassen, David Harvey, Janice Perlman, and Hashim Sarkis.

The product of a year's work and collaboration was presented by the students to an expectant audience in Lerner Hall on May 2. Posters lined the back of 555 Lerner with overviews of social topics such as the informal economy, surveillance and policing, and tourism policy and environmental issues of air quality, green space, solid waste, and water.

One of the program's strongest proponents, Columbia College Dean of Academic Affairs Kathryn Yatrakis was in attendance. Throughout the year, she has remarked on the importance of training undergraduates to conduct research. "I was very impressed with the presentations made by the students in the Urban Research Workshop," she said. "The oral summaries combined with the poster presentations provided attendees with a clear understanding of the academic work in which students engaged and the important issues they explored."

Faculty leader Sudhir Venkatesh also emphasizes the need to foster this kind of research activity at the undergraduate level. With his leadership, CURP is committed to providing such opportunities to undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty. "We want to support all members of the Columbia community interested in conducting research on cities around the world," Venkatesh explains. "And I think it's important to expose people early to research, which means, in this climate, while they are juniors and seniors thinking about their careers."

Paris may serve as the comparison city for next year's Urban Research Workshop. As a contender for the Olympics, preparations to host the upcoming summer games will exert significant demands on the city's resources and raise important questions about sustainable development.

The Urban Research Workshop is now accepting applications for 2005-2006. For more information, contact Alexandra Murphy. Social Issues Addressed

• Informal Economy In Mexico City's Zocolo plaza and New York's Times Square, we observed large groups of licensed and unlicensed street vendors, as well as day laborers. Unregulated workers in New York tend to be undocumented migrants who suffer from discrimination and poor working conditions, whereas in Mexico City most unregulated workers are accepted and respected members of society.

• Security In both cities, growing investment in policing-such as increased police discretion, private security guards and more surveillance cameras-represent efforts by municipalities to manage the symptoms of social inequality rather than the underlying causes.

• Tourism Two significant issues, corruption and natural resource allocation, prevent urban strategists in Mexico and New York City from reaching their tourism and development goals. Unfortunately, we observed that many development efforts in both cities-such as the one led by Carlos Slim in Mexico City's Zocolo, and the redevelopment of Times Square in New York-seek to attract tourists, rather than combat corruption or inequality.

Environmental Issues Addressed

• Air Quality Mexico City's air ranks among the most polluted in the world, in part because surrounding mountains prevent air circulation. New York City benefits from regular wind currents, though air quality varies by neighborhood. Both cities have enacted automobile emissions control policies that have yet to be fully enforced.

• Green Space We studied distribution of green space in both cities. We found that low-income neighborhoods are more likely to contain pollution and noxious land use, but less likely to contain green areas that would help mitigate affects of these health hazards.

• Solid Waste New York City's waste collection and disposal services consist mainly of formal recycling and incineration. Although Mexico City provides less state-sponsored collection, relying more on informal and private management, it diverts roughly the same proportion of collected waste to recycling.

• Water New York City sometimes has water shortages, but it is fortunate enough to have access to clean water from the Delaware River and Catskills. While Mexico City transports water from outside the city, it cannot transport enough water due to geographic constraints. Mexico City is currently employing several innovative tactics to avoid a water shortage and to help make water distribution more equitable.

Sponsors

• Center for Urban Research & Policy
• Office of the Provost
• Office of the Dean, Barnard College
• Office of the Dean, Columbia College
• CCSC/ESC Challenge Grant
• Barnard College Student Government Association
• The Earth Institute
• Barnard-Columbia Urban Studies Program
• Barnard Environmental Science Department
• Action for Immigrant Rights
• The Chicano Caucus