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LAW-2799 Urban Mechanics: Boston Practicum
Prof. Janice C. Griffith,
3 credits day; 3 credits evening.
Students using this course to fulfill the experiential learning requirement may not also use this
same course to meet the legal writing requirement.
Students will work on helping the City of Boston with legal issues in the housing and
transportation areas:
(1) In relation to Mayor Walsh’s housing initiative outlined in Housing a Changing City - Boston
2030, the City needs to review and possibly update its Inclusionary Development Policy and its
linkage fee program to fund the construction of affordable housing and to fund the City’s job
training programs.
(2) In connection with the City’s Go Boston 2030, a new initiative to provide innovative
solutions to the City’s transportation network, the City will need to examine legal issues
surrounding the use of its 850 miles of roadways, including the use of innovative technologies.
Chris Osgood, co-chair of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, recently was appointed
to a new position in the Mayor’s cabinet to work in tandem with the Public Works and
Transportation Departments (see Nicole Dungea, Walsh Appoints “Chief of Streets”, BOSTON
GLOBE, Aug. 7, 2015, at B3). This new partnership between two City departments has been
tasked with creating forward-thinking solutions to street-level issues. Research areas may
include:
• City’s comprehensive mobility plan
• Citizens Connect, a mobile app
• New parking services
• Role of ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft
• Redesign of streets to accommodate vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians
• The leverage of data from traffic aggregating
• Examination of the feasibility of a municipal car-sharing program
• Reconstruction of the Northern Avenue Bridge
Enrollment is limited: 12
Elective Course
Meets Experiential Learning Requirement
Final Paper Required
<<Course Updated: April 06, 2016>>