Dr. Carolina Reid shows her students how to use data and maps from PolicyMap to confirm their neighborhood research and surveys.

1. PolicyMap in
the
Classroom
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PolicyMap in
the
Classroom
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Carolina Reid
Assistant Professor, City and
Regional Planning, UC Berkeley
PolicyMap:
Revealing Context and
Contradiction in the Global City

2. PolicyMap in
the
Classroom
#mapchats
policymap.com/mapchats
PolicyMap in
the Classroom
#mapchats
policymap.com/mapchats
• A required “gateway” course for students in Architecture,
Landscape Architecture, Urban Studies, and Sustainable
Environmental Design
• 80-100 undergraduates, usually Freshman/Sophomores
• Introduction to the social, economic, and environmental
challenges confronting contemporary cities, and the role of
the environmental design professions in addressing those
challenges
– Three modules grounded in “sustainability” framework
• Environmental (climate change and coastal shorelines)
• Economic (changing modes of production)
• Equity (community development: poverty, inequality, difference)
ED4B: Global Cities
Carolina Reid

3. PolicyMap in
the
Classroom
#mapchats
policymap.com/mapchats
PolicyMap in
the Classroom
#mapchats
policymap.com/mapchats
• Introduce students to the ways in which different
forms of economic production (industrial, Fordist
manufacturing, the “new” economy) shape the
urban landscape
– Agglomeration economies
– Building types and uses, understanding what gets
built where and why
– Impact on labor force, neighborhood amenities
Economic Module

4. PolicyMap in
the
Classroom
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PolicyMap in
the Classroom
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Dogpatch, San Francisco
Neighborhood reveals a
history of economic changes
• Port location, early industry
in SF, including gunpowder
manufacturing
• Became site for large-scale
canning, steel production,
shipping related industries
• Experienced significant
decline during 1970s

5. PolicyMap in
the
Classroom
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PolicyMap in
the Classroom
#mapchats
policymap.com/mapchats
Dogpatch, San Francisco
• American Can
Company
• Large scale
manufacturing, plant
closed in 1969
• Today, provides
spaces for 285
businesses ranging
from architects to a
bakery to artisanal
chocolate production

6. PolicyMap in
the
Classroom
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PolicyMap in
the Classroom
#mapchats
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Dogpatch, San Francisco
Economic shifts are changing the
fabric of the neighborhood
• Small business incubators that
focus on light manufacturing,
artisanal production
• New restaurants and shops
catering to an “elite” rather than
working class clientele
• A new light rail station
connecting the neighborhood to
other parts of the city

7. PolicyMap in
the
Classroom
#mapchats
policymap.com/mapchats
PolicyMap in
the Classroom
#mapchats
policymap.com/mapchats
• After field trip, students have to write a report about
Dogpatch, drawing together the theoretical readings,
the field trip (and their observations) and data
• Learning objectives
– Connect theory to reality
– Build an understanding of the building blocks of planning
data
• Geographic scales (census tracts, counties)
• Census variables
• Elements of effective maps, conceptual understanding of
layers
– Become critical consumers of qualitative v. quantitative
evidence
Using PolicyMap

8. PolicyMap in
the
Classroom
#mapchats
policymap.com/mapchats
PolicyMap in
the Classroom
#mapchats
policymap.com/mapchats
Using PolicyMap
Identify Brownfield
Sites
Identify Small
Business Incubators
Use socio-economic and demographic
data to show how these economic
changes are changing composition of
neighborhood

9. PolicyMap in
the
Classroom
#mapchats
policymap.com/mapchats
PolicyMap in
the Classroom
#mapchats
policymap.com/mapchats
• Wide range of data variables make the platform
adaptable to other neighborhoods/issue areas
– E.g. Fruitvale “equity” module: immigration, health,
food deserts
• Intuitive interface coupled with excellent
documentation of metadata overcomes the barrier
of having to learn ArcGIS but not at the expense of
rigor/accuracy
• Reduces barriers to working with data
– Students have so much fun with the “mapping” that they
overcome the idea that they can’t do “statistics”
Using PolicyMap