Urban Planning 584:  Economic Development Planning 

Winter 2025

Assignments

last updated Saturday, April 19, 2025 10:45 AM


Students are expected to complete all the required readings before the scheduled class time, actively participate in class discussions and presentations, and complete several written assignments and presentations over the semester.  Evaluation of your work will be based on substantive content, analytical rigor, and writing quality.  Be sure to follow appropriate citation guidelines in all your work. Late assignments will result in point reductions.

Format and Style Guidelines (READ CAREFULLY):

 

1. Place Marketing Example (1-2 slides) + 1 page analysis/critique • due Feb 4

Each of you is to locate an interesting example of place marketing and briefly present the image in class. In addition, you are to write a one-page analysis/critique of the place marketing strategy. I would encourage you to select an example that is complex and engaging (such as the effort of an older industrial city to rebrand itself as a high tech center; or the selling of a neighborhood that is part of a larger gentrification movement; etc.)

Task for class: Find an example of "place marketing" / place branding. (print, web, video)

1. Presentation (Feb 7): Create a slide of your image(s) and upload it to the class "google slides" file created for this task. Give a 2-3 minute presentation on your example.

2. Write a one-page analysis/critique of the place marketing strategy. [upload to Canvas BEFORE the start of class.]
Possible elements of your analysis might include:

A few broader questions to consider about place marketing:

  1. Sometimes you want to remind people of what they already think about a place (Paris is romantic, Las Vegas is exciting with a hedonistic edge, etc.) and sometimes you want to change the image people have of a place (Detroit is more vibrant than you think).
  2. But if you push the latter too far (e.g., Detroit is a global city), you might invite scorn and dismissal.
  3. Some place marketing relies on associating one city with another (e.g., “come to Bratislava – it’s like Vienna only more affordable”); other place marketing emphasizes the unique quality of a city (“Come to Reykjavik – a city like no other…”)
  4. Some place marketing relies on the conventional highlighting of locational advantages:   geographic centrality, pro-business climate, good infrastructure, etc.
  5. A recent shift in place marketing:   from selling the locational advantages for business to selling the appeal to a talented, highly-educated workforce (amenity-driven economic development).
  6. It’s hard to know what place marketing efforts are effective – but the perception of cities (both by potential residents, tourists, and firms) plays a huge factor in decision making.
  7. These perceptions often trump (i.e., outweigh) the technical, quantitative locational advantages of a location (e.g., cost of land, labor, energy, transportation, regulation, etc.).
  8. Some advertising is to increase a firm’s (or a city’s) market share:   to shift consumers from another brand to yours (from Coke --> Pepsi; from Las Vegas --> Atlantic City);  some advertising is to expand the market (increase overall sales of soft drinks; increase overall tourist spending).
  9. Place marketing:  part of a larger strategy of competition between cities in this neo-liberal era? 
  10. Should we be troubled by what some see as the “commodification” of place by place marketing?
  11. Place marketing has a long history, though each era (and each segment of the market) has its own distinct style and challenges (the industrial revolution; the era of business relocation to the American south; the selling of suburbia; selling tourist cities; promoting the shift to the post-industrial city; selling the global city; etc.)

 

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2. Critical Analysis of a Local or Regional Economic Impact Study • select your case study by Feb 6 • analysis due Feb 27

Goals of the Assignment

Steps of the Assignment

  1. Decide you are working individually or in a group of two (your choice).
  2. Locate an example of a local or regional economic development study/report by Feb 6. (Examples: an economic impact study; a marketing study; a labor impact study; etc. Ask me if you need help finding a suitable example.) You want to find a study that discusses in detail their methodology (and not just the results).
    Enter your case study selection to this google file by Feb 6
  3. Carefully read and probe the assumptions, methods, sources and conclusions of the study. (You may also critique its writing and use of visuals)
  4. Write a concise 3-5 page (longer if group of 2) page critique of the report. Please upload to Canvas. (*Do attach either a copy of the original study, or a link to it if available). Your analysis due Feb 27.

Here are some questions or issues to consider (Note: these are SUGGESTED questions; not all these questions may be relevant for your study so no need to systematically answer all)

  1. What is the purpose (stated or implied) of the study?
  2. Who is the intended audience?
  3. Differentiate between studies that ask a genuinely open question ("Was this program worthwhile and should we refund it for another five years?") vs. studies that seem to be rationalizations (justifications) of decisions already decided ("What are all the benefits of this project that justify its expense?")
  4. Some studies ask a specific question (e.g., will a public-subsidized stadium generate new jobs and revenues?); others ask a broader question (what is the most effective use of public funds to increase local employment and revenues?). Do these two approaches often lead to different results?
  5. How do the studies address time? e.g., short-term vs. long term costs and benefits?
  6. How do they employ discount rates (if at all)?
  7. Does the development attract new residents (from outside the city, or perhaps outside the region) vs. attracting residents from within?
  8. Where relevant, how do the authors use (and make assumptions about) such terms as multiplier, direct vs. indirect vs. induced benefits, etc.
  9. What assumptions do the authors make about larger economic trends (e.g., growth in demand, interest rates, etc.)?
  10. Do the authors clearly explain the sources of data used in the study? Is this data publicly available?
  11. Do they assume new economic activity (i.e., a net gain) when the program/policy/event/etc. might simply shuffle existing activity around (i.e., a zero-sum game)?
  12. Is there evidence of double-counting benefits and/or omitting costs (such as opportunity costs)?
  13. Does the report consider equity impacts? impacts on local residents vs. new arrivals? etc.
  14. Does the report consider environmental impacts?
  15. Note:  examples might include studies of public projects (e.g., infrastructure spending, a new bridge, government research facilities, job training program, etc.) or of public-subsidized private developments (e.g., of a stadium, casino, research park, film industry subsidies, tax increment financing, etc.).  Such studies might look at either the fiscal impact (costs and revenues for governments) and/or economic impact (jobs, wages, R&D investment, etc.).
  16. If you were to do a detailed, rigorous critique of the study (perhaps attempting to replicate the results), what skills, methods or data would you need? Does your preliminary examination of the study (for this class exercise) highlight areas of economic development methods you hope to master? [Since we are doing this brief exercise at the beginning of the semester, many of the terms and methods in the study understandably will be unfamiliar to you. Some of these we will cover throughout the semester, while others may be beyond the scope of this course.]

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Terms, Methods, Data Sources often cited:

Overall, what question are they asking – and answering?

What are warning signs/clues in reports that the study is incomplete, biased or not reliable (this may be: assumptions made, data used, data not used, problem definition, wording, methodology, geography, time frame, citations/sources, etc.)? Note: sometimes you may not be able to distinguish between a poorly-done study and a well-done but poorly-documented study.

A partial list of characteristics of a good, trustworthy, useful economic impact/evaluation study.

You might find these pages useful [links to be updated]

 

a few background readings to provide examples (see also the syllabus for more resources):

Note: please let me know (on this page and elsewhere) if you encounter broken links

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As with all assignments, use complete and correct citations (really small footnotes or references fine -- or perhaps use footnotes on one page and have a separate "sources" page). Refer to all sources used (including data, maps, images, tables, graphs, course readings and materials found on the Internet). Please familiarize yourself with standard practice of academic integrity in coursework. --> See this link for complete information.

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3. Local Economic Portrait • Select case study by Feb 13 •  Draft Report Apr 3 • Presentations Apr 15-17 • Final report Apr 25 (revised)

A Detailed Economic Portrait of a Small Urban (or Suburban, or Small Town) Space (e.g., a block, a street, a strip, etc.). Combine data analysis, local history, profiles of businesses and market conditions, the role of place in shaping local economies (and the role of local economies in shaping place).
Preferred group size: two to three students. (You do have the option of working alone)

**Please list your group members and location on this google class document by FEB 13. Do also use this same form, before Feb 13, to share ideas about possible themes and case studies and to assist student team formation.

DRAFT VERSION -- due April 3. Plus: editing groups to provide feedback by April 8.

To encourage peer-to-peer feedback, I will form editing groups by April 3. Each group will be paired with another, and you are asked to read each other's draft and provide comments.  To facilitate sharing drafts, be sure to upload your draft BOTH to Canvas and this class google folder by the end of the evening on Thursday (Apr 3).  Please provide written comments to your paired group before class on Tuesday, April 8.  (This class will be a work session on these projects.)

 

Please upload

We will later divide the groups into Tuesday and Thursday presentations. You are expected to attend both sessions.

Local economic activities are embedded in place: in the buildings, streets, sidewalks of neighborhoods. Select a specific location, such a one-block segment of a commercial street, a block, a commercial strip, an industrial zone, etc. The area should be big enough to provide a substantive set of economic activities but small enough to be easily documented, visualized and analyzed. Be sure to clearly delineate your area on a map.

Your task: document and analyze the characteristics and dynamics of the economic activities and impacts of your selected area. Are these locally-serving businesses or part of the "economic base" (e.g., where do the customers come from; where are products shipped)? What are the demographics of the employees and customers? What trends do you see in the area (e.g., decline, transformation, gentrification, stability, etc.)? What visual clues provide evidence of economic conditions and changes? What are the biggest opportunities and challenges in the area? etc. (Strive for a vivid, insightful, multi-dimensional representation of the place.) The overall spirit of the assignment is to engage, analyze and communicate/visualize the rich interactions between place and economic activity in a specific, highly-localized context.

Possible sources and formats of evidence:
* visual representation of the site: photographs, drawings, plans, observation, graphics, drawings
* interviews with people on the street [interviews can be a powerful addition to your research and are highly recommended!]
* expert interviews (with shopkeepers, business owners, local community development staff, etc.)
* secondary data (Census data, etc.)
* newspaper stories etc.
* public documents and data (e.g., plans, tax data, etc.)
* public meetings, planning hearings, etc.
* other sources

Format of assignment
The assignment has two components:
(1) in-class presentation (on Apr 15 - 17)
Please upload your presentation file to this class "google slides" file created for this task.

Depending on the class size and mix of group sizes, you will have roughly 10 - 20 minutes per group for presentations.
Since the time will go by fast, present your most important findings and slides up front. Given your presentation focus and structure and organizing your analysis around a central question (e.g., research or policy question) — rather than simply giving a broad, diffuse, descriptive overview of the location. (And where relevant, selectively find connections between your case study and class themes).

(2) written component (draft due Apr 1; final version due Friday, Apr 25) - upload your text to Canvas (one file per group)

FORMAT:

Elements include:

Additional Ideas on Sources of Information:

Advice to prepare a great portrait of an urban economic space:

  1. Use multiple sources of evidence (inputs): interviews, data, observation, photographs, newspapers, historical records, business journals, annual reports, non-profits' reports, local business associations, etc.
  2. Put effort into several areas of your product (output): photographs, charts, maps, description, analysis, interpretation, stories, history (don't just concentration on one). Integrate these into a coherent presentation. (Avoid just presenting a series of images or a flurry of descriptive data.)
  3. Critically (thoughtfully, analytically, creatively) engage the interaction between place (buildings, storefronts, sidewalks, streets, etc.) and economic activity (employment, sales, value-added, etc.) and people (customers, residents, shop owners, employees, etc.). How does this place work as a very local economy?

As always, a fundamental requirement of scholarly integrity (and human honesty) is to write your own original essay, in your own voice, and clearly and explicitly give credit to all outside sources (of text, ideas, data, graphics, etc.). All borrowed text MUST be put in quotes and accompanied by a full citation. And in this era of chatbots, AI, ChatGPT, etc., you are welcome to explore them for your own education and amusement. But to use text (or ideas) from them without full, explicit acknowledgment is a 21st century form of plagiarism, and in not permissible. For more advice/details on this, please carefully read: additional writing advice, including advice on style, citations and formatting tables and graphs.

 

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4. Last Session: Course Synthesis • due Apr 22

This last session will provide an opportunity to reflect on the course, and develop a set of principles for good local economic development planning.

TASK: Each student is to prepare a concise, insightful distillation of what have been, for you, the most important or resonant (or disconcerting) lessons/principles/ideas/themes in your encounters with local economic development. (Note: you do NOT need to comprehensively summarize all the elements of the course syllabus.) I welcome a range of approaches and themes, and I encourage you to be rigorous and creative in thinking and format (including graphics). A few format options might include: develop a conceptual diagram/map that shows the connections between various course themes; develop 4-7 lessons / principles about local economic development planning; develop a a storyboard about the course.

You are to prepare several items:
(a) a brief (3 minute) oral presentation that concisely highlights your central points. For this presentation, prepare a slide to be shared with the class on this class "google slides" file.
[NOTE:  one slide will do, but if you find it easier to present your materials on two slides, that is also an option.] Consider various formats, including diagrams, maps, tables, illustrations, a concept map, a flow chart, a numbered list, a storyboard, a comic strip, a Socratic dialogue. Use supplementary text where appropriate to elaborate specific ideas/points.

(b) A one-page (single-spaced) narrative that concisely explores these ideas. [to be uploaded to Canvas]

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5. Summary Essay • due April 29

Answer ONE of the questions below.

1. Making Sense of the Wide Variation of Local Economic Development Policies and Ideas: A frustration expressed by some students and practitioners of local economic development is the lack of a systematic list of effective programs and policies (i.e., no universally agreed-upon set of “best practices”). The readings from this course suggest a wide (and perhaps conflicting) range of elements that may be crucial to creating and sustaining a healthy local economy: strategic clustering of several targeted sectors; diversification across many sectors; a friendly business climate; agglomeration economies; a good offering of local amenities to attract a highly educated workforce; low-cost labor and land; a tight network of innovative firms; aggressive economic development tools (e.g., TIFs); proximity to universities, research parks, airports, etc.; place marketing; active neighborhood-based involvement; protectionism; free-trade; to name just a few.
To what extent do you think the field of local economic development possesses — or lacks — a coherent set of principles and best practices? Explain your answer and support your position with specific examples from the course readings. To make your analysis more concrete, you might identify at least two principles or best practices discussed in the readings and how they reinforce or conflict with one another. If you think the field DOES have a core set of principles and lessons, please provide a concise description of them. If you instead conclude that the field DOES NOT have a core set of principles and lessons, explain why you think this is the case.

2. Do US-Style Local Economic Development Policies translate well or poorly to other contexts? American-style economic development strategies are often applied to other parts of the world — sometimes with success, and sometimes quite inappropriately with unexpected outcomes (due to radically different regulatory contexts, labor markets, tax systems, social customs, etc.). Select at least two economic development strategies discussed in class (for example, tech research parks, tax increment financing, university-based technology transfer, business improvement districts, enterprise zones, arts-based development, subsidizing sports complexes, community benefits agreements, etc.). Be sure to precisely define each strategy. Discuss how well or poorly these tools have been applied (or could be applied) to the non-U.S. context. Clearly explain your reasoning. To focus your analysis, you might use a specific city, region or country outside the United States as an example.

3. Diversification and Clusters: Economic diversification and clustering have been two reoccurring themes in the course discussions and readings. Referring to various readings, define each concept and explain the relevance for local and regional economic development (including why each might be advantageous for local economies). Are the two goals compatible, or is there a fundamental tension (or even a contradiction) between aiming for a diversified local economy and also promoting clusters (that is, can you diversify and concentrate at the same time)?  If relevant, you might refer to various case studies in the readings: Silicon Valley, Detroit, Research Triangle Park, the boomtowns in China or shale fracking areas, etc.

4. Arguments for and Against Public Involvement in Local Economic Development: The use of public monies, institutions and authority to promote private enterprise in the public interest raises complex and at times unsettling questions about the proper role of economic development planning. Using class readings, identify and compare several arguments for and against government involvement in local economic development planning. Define criteria (i.e., standards) that you use to evaluate these arguments, such as effectiveness, fairness, legitimacy, legality, impact on innovation, ethics, social justice, corruption, etc. Where appropriate, cite examples (e.g., stadiums, arts facilities, tourism, TIFs, enterprise zones, etc.).  Differentiate between ideological, logical and empirical arguments. Can you make a universal argument for or against public engagement with local economic development, or is it very site- and program-specific?

5. The Physical City, the Economic City: The organization of MURP coursework by focus areas would suggest that "physical planning and design" (PPD) and "community and economic development" (CED) are distinctly different (or even unrelated) activities — the former shaped by architecture, urban design and land use planning, and the latter driven by urban economics, industrial and labor policy, and community politics. Yet in this course we have also striven to find the connections between place and local economies.
Referring to class readings and examples, discuss the links and disconnects between local economic development and physical planning/urban design/placemaking. Cite specific examples where relevant. Are there missed opportunities for collaboration? And if so, how might planners exploit the latent synergies between physical design and economic policy? (Optional: suggest revisions to the MURP curriculum that might better address the potential of integrating PPD and CED.)

6. Promoting Development, Mitigating Development: Local economic development planners face two divergent priorities: to promote economic expansion and development (e.g., new construction, employment growth, firm attraction, increased local value-added, etc), and to assist communities in dealing with the fallout and consequences of this economic development (e.g., displacement, environmental harm, inequality, loss of historic buildings, etc.). Explore the relationship between these two priorities. For example, are these two priorities compatible, complementary or in fundamental conflict? (Perhaps the conundrum of gentrification is an example of this tension.) How do local economic development policies (e.g., TIFs, CBAs, development agreements, subsidies, etc.) promote one or both of these priorities? Can a single local economic development agency simultaneously promote development and mitigate its impacts, or should a city instead have two separate offices: one to promote growth, the other to deal with the fallout?

7. Resilience: One hears a lot of talk about the benefits of resilience for a city or region (sometimes in response to natural hazards, sometimes to economic downturns and crises). But what does "resilience" actually mean in concrete terms for local economies? (For example, how might it be linked to other characteristics of the city, such as diversification, robustness, social capital, linkages, capacity, wealth, civil society, social justice, well-established markets, high levels of human capital, etc.?) And if resilience is a beneficial characteristic of a local/regional economy, how do you build resilience in a community? Is resilience a strategy itself or an outcome of other strategies? In your essay, explore competing definitions of resilience, how one might measure or otherwise assess a city's resilience, and how cities might promote greater economic resilience. Do you find it a useful term for local economic development planning? Why or why not?

8. The role of Anchor Institutions. One frequently hears about the many positive benefits of “anchor institutions” for local communities and economic development, especially for cities that have lost manufacturing firms and other sources of private sector employment. We typically speak of “eds & meds” (education, specifically universities; and also medicine, including large hospitals) as two obvious examples. In your essay, begin by summarizing the various potential benefits of anchor institutions, and critically evaluate the strength or weakness of each claimed benefit. Then select one (or more) examples of a potential category of anchor institution beyond the “eds and meds” category. These might include an arts center or complex (e.g., theatre, opera, symphony, museum, etc.), a major department store, a large public library, a public market, a train station, or a major sports complex, etc. Analyze the ways that this type of urban land use acts as an anchor institution. Compare the local economic and community impact of this category to those of “eds and meds.” Does it matter if these institutions are public, private, or nonprofit organizations? In the end, do you think we should expand our conception of anchors institutions to include other types of urban land uses (such as the example you examine)?

9. Housing and Economic Development: A New Alliance? Housing (its form, density, location, financing, role in social integration or racial segregation, location in either the city or suburb, status as either private investment or public good) has long been a central topic for urban planning. Recently, one observes increased attention on the interaction between housing and local economic development. This relationship runs both ways: the impact of local economies on housing market dynamics (e.g., high tech clusters rapidly driving up housing costs), and housing's impact — positive and/or negative — on local economic development (e.g., the lack of affordable housing as a barrier to attracting new workers to a region). This emphasis on the housing-urban economy relationship diverges from a view that housing is outside the concerns of local economic development, which should focus primarily on industrial and commercial (e.g., retail and office) land uses, and not residential.
Drawing on class readings (including Rodríguez-Pose and Storper, 2019; Schuetz; and other readings), engage this question of the relevance of housing (e.g., issues of inequality, affordability, density, location) for local economic development efforts. Contrast supply-side and demand-side explanations of the current housing crisis. How do the differing diagnoses of the current housing market lead to divergent policy recommendations?
[Option: to give your answer more focus, you might write in the form of a briefing memo to the director and/or staff of a local economic development agency. (You could name a specific city if helpful). Suggested title might be something like: “Analysis of the current unaffordable market’s impact on local economic development and different policy strategies to address this crisis.”]