City Critique in Manhattan

"Neil Brenner, who teaches sociology and urban studies at New York University and moderated the panel on March 30, acknowledged that it was 'interesting and paradoxical to do a panel like this in a place like this.' The four panelists, he observed, were 'not just interested in describing contemporary cities but in critiquing the forms of power and exclusion and domination and exploitation that obtain within cities around the world.'

Not stuff you would typically expect to hear on Wall Street, in other words.

First up was Peter Marcuse, who teaches urban planning at Columbia. He outlined what he said were three distinct approaches and visions that have been taken in approaching planning for Lower Manhattan.

The first, he said, sees Lower Manhattan as an 'enclave' where people can live, shop, work, and 'spend their lives, in a matter of speaking' - 'a community that essentially is separate and can stand on its own feet.'"