Answer any 2 of the following questions this week.
1. Watch the video about water shortages in Mexico. Consider the issue of resource dilemmas and Table 13.1. What is a resource dilemma in your area? What are the issues at stake?
2. Discuss the impact that the surrounding environment has on our behavior. Please be sure to cite from the text, and outside readings in the module.
3. In what ways can the manipulation or design of space better promote self-efficacy?
4. How can the defensible space theory limit crime in an area? Is there a particular space or social design in your life that best promotes your well-being?
5. Discuss the role Defensible space theory played in the Yonkers Housing Crisis (optional- You would need to do a little outside research for this (the United States vs. City of Yonkers)
NOtes:
Videos:
Resource dilution-enough water to wash hands?
Mexico water shortage (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/mexico-water-shortage-hand-washing-difficult-200418125143892.html)
Watch these short videos about the water shortage in Mexico. Consider the issue of resource dilemmas and Table 13.1. What is a resource dilemma in your area? What are the issues at stake?
The Defensible Space Theory and The Built Environment- presented by Dr. Fabrice Julien
https://uab.instructure.com/courses/1547867/pages/module-11-videos?module_item_id=16063385#:~:text=The%20Defensible%20Space%20Theory%20and%20The%20Built%20Environment-%20presented%20by%20Dr.%20Fabrice%20Julien
Provided below is an excerpt from a recent New York Times article regarding the Yonkers Housing Crisis. The article is written by Lisa Belkin, a former Times writer and the author of Show Me A Hero, the basis for the HBO miniseries. The article is titled The Painful Lessons of the Yonkers Housing Crisis (for those interested in further reading). For many of the Yonkers residents in the 1980s, opposition to this court order was rooted in the fear that the poor minority residents would bring with them a different culture of poor housing maintenance and elements of the crime that would negatively impact the property cost of the area. Essentially, there existed a fear that the “there goes the neighborhood” idiom would take place. After years of legal fighting, the residents were able to move into their new homes in Yonkers and this ultimately proved to be successful in part due to Oscar Newman and his defensible space theory. Newman was consulted when it was realized that the city of Yonkers would need to comply with the federal ruling. His application of the theory in the design of the new housing structures was highlighted in the recent HBO miniseries ‘Show Me A Hero’. Here is a link of the episode recap that touches on this:
Social Design: Education
http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/08/18/432082407/a-design-firm-rethinks-learning-spaces (Links to an external site.)
New Urbanism and The City:
Below is a link to a classic article of the New Urbanism Movement. The movement grew out of a belief in fostering social capital among neighbors. We should move away from car-dependent suburbs and add back in sidewalks and frontporches, rather than drive-into-garages with steps coming up into the home. There should be green space in communities so that people meet and greet and have a gathering place. They were inspired by ideas of defensible space, that also ensured that people could live in a building in which we could see the comings and goings of others, and know everyone in the community. With defensible space then, an outsider would easily be recognized. For the new urbanism, you need mixed income housing, sidewalks, alleys, gathering space, front porches, public transportation etc.
https://www.innovations.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/hpd_1104_bohl.pdf (Links to an external site.)
Please also then read the Birmingham News article about Hope IV in Birmingham
https://www.al.com/living/2015/07/did_hope_vi_help_rebirth_of_do.html
