Final Essay

Syllabus and Assignments/Assignment Four – Final Essay.html

Assignment Four: Final Essay – Write a note to your boss

Imagine the city of Portland is electing a new mayor, and one of the candidate organizes a housing task force for the campaign and selects you as a consultant. The mayoral candidate you are working with thinks that addressing the rising housing cost issue will be his central part of his campaign proposals. After a term’s study in this “housing and urban development” course, you are ready to provide your first report to your boss.

The report is a reflection paper on what you have learned during this course, both locally and internationally. It should include mainly three major components: an analysis of the major reason that have led to Portland’s current housing challenges, a description of an ideal housing goal that the new mayor should pursue, and an proposal on what the new mayor could do to achieve the goal based on your analysis.

Explain causes of Portland’s housing challenges. It is possible to describe the situation at a scale that you can find evidences. Class readings and previous assignments may inform you certain research methods that you will use for the study.  Make sure that you have structure in your report, so that your boss can easily understand the different kind of reasons that collectively might have led to today’s situation.  

Describe the ideal goal of housing in Portland, from what you have learned, specifically from the international housing experiences that struck you the most. Please be aware that almost all housing policies may achieve certain results they want to address, while together bring new problems that they did not expect. The ideal will not be perfect.  Explain the socio-economic, political or cultural background that has facilitated its happening in the certain country of interest. At least two international examples should be covered in this section.

The proposal part is more a summary and discussion on what you think the new mayor should do. Most likely it is impossible to borrow other country’s housing policy in full. It is important to distill the policy principles that you feel US can learn from.  Explain why is your proposal, and what might be challenges and unexpected problems to implement the policy principles in Portland.

Please include references in correct format. 

Guidelines for preparing your essay

Make sure your essay follows the structure listed above.

Due: Tuesday of Week Eleven, at 11:59pm PST or sooner. Submit via Assignment Four: Final Essay.

Length of the paper: 1500-2000 words.

Percentage of final grade: 20%.