conducting an analysis of the urban politics

Selecting an urban issue that is important for you and conducting an analysis of the urban politics of said topic. Urban issues based in New York City are preferred, as you would have better access to information and research opportunities. Nevertheless, issues in other US cities, or even other cities of the world, are also accepted. After selecting the issue to be studied, you have to identify the problem under political dispute, raise a question that will guide your research efforts and design a research strategy to answer the question. Once you have done the research, you will prepare a 10-minute presentation of your project and a written report (5-10 pages).

There are two tracks that you can take in your final paper.
Track 1, the origins of the urban problem under study. Your paper can be about identifying the key events in the history of American urban politics that helps us explain your urban problem as it is manifested today.
Track 2, the politics of your urban problem. Your paper can be about describing the current and ongoing competition among actors to win and hold control over the solutions that governments should put in place to solve the problem.

Methodology
You should start your project by defining the problem. Here are some questions that can help you in this process:
What is going on and why is this problematic?
Where is this problem happening and who is suffering the consequences?
What are the negatives that could happen if the problem does not get solved?
What are the positives that could come up if the problem is resolved?
The next step is to justify the importance of your topic. To do so, you have to answer the most significant question: so what? That is, why is this urban issue an important one?
Then, you should propose a research question that will guide your research project. What is it exactly that you want to know about this problem?
The question could be related to finding a solution to a problem or can be related to better understanding some aspect of the urban issue under study.
Finally, design a research strategy. To do this, you have to think carefully about the information that you will need to answer your research question. Where is it? Who has it? Once you have identified where the information is, you should design a strategy to go get it. We can work on this research strategy together via email or in person during my office hours.
Deliverables

A 10-minute presentation of your final project taking place in one of the last two class sessions of the semester. The presentation should be supported with graphic or audio-visual material (this can take the form of power-point slides, photographs, video, or any other format).
A 5-10 page written report of the project (Arial font, size 12, 1.5 linespacing). Your report must include discussions on the following topics:
A description of the issue being investigated and an explanation of the problem (What is going on, where, when? Why is this problematic?)
An explanation of why this urban issue is important. The ‘so what’ question.
The research question that drives your project (One question is enough).
The research strategy that you used.
A description of your first-hand observation of the issue, conducted during your research.
The urban politics analysis:
If track 1:
How does the urban problem under study relates to the history of urban politics? That is, what are the historical urban politics roots of the issue being studied?
What aspects of the urban issue under study can be better understood by tracing its history in American urban politics?
If track 2:
Identify the individuals or groups involved in the politics of the urban issue, and their positions towards the problem being investigated.
Describe the strategies used by the different actors to influence governmental policy related to the problem.
Concluding remarks. Make sure to include your own position on the political dispute and what you think the governmental solution to the problem should be.