Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Iowa Law Symposium: The Future of Law & Transportation
The Future of Law & Transportation
Presented by: Iowa Law Review & the Iowa Innovation, Business and Law Center
Faculty Organizer: Professor Gregory Shill
November 6, 2020
University of Iowa College of Law, Iowa City, IA
Held virtually via Zoom. Click here to receive registration information.
This year’s Symposium will focus on the law, policy, and potential of transportation, an area that is growing increasingly important due to its connection to economic growth, public health, and climate change. The Symposium will, for the first time, convene a diverse group of scholars from multiple fields to discuss and produce scholarship on the past, present, and future of law and transportation from a variety of perspectives, including: land use, state and local government, environmental, administrative, tax, and tort law, as well as allied fields in the social sciences. Pieces from the Symposium will be published in Issue 5 of Vol. 106 of the Iowa Law Review. To sign up for a Zoom link and other information, please click here. A list of keynote speakers and presenters is listed below, and can also be found here. Please provide your best mailing address by October 19 to receive a postcard.
Schedule
The Future of Law & Transportation
Iowa Law Review Symposium, November 2020
All Times Central; All Events Virtual
CLICK HERE FOR A PDF OF THE EVENT PROGRAM
Friday, November 6
8:30-8:45am: Welcoming Remarks & Introductions
Dean Kevin Washburn, N. William Hines Dean and Professor of Law, University of Iowa College of Law
IBL Center Director, Professor Jason Rantanen, Professor of Law, Ferguson-Carlson Fellow in Law, and Director of the Iowa Innovation, Business & Law Center, University of Iowa College of Law
Law Review Organizers and Hosts, Dana Waterman and Hayley Sherman, Editor-In-Chief and Symposium Editor, respectively, Iowa Law Review
Faculty Organizer and Host, Professor Gregory Shill, Associate Professor of Law, University of Iowa College of Law, and Affiliated Faculty Member, National Advanced Driving Simulator, University of Iowa College of Engineering
8:45-9:45am: Panel One
Transportation Planning & Land Use I
Professor Jonathan Levine, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
“Transportation Policy Entrenchment: Institutional Barriers to Accessibility-Based Planning”
Professor Audrey McFarlane, Associate Dean of Faculty Research & Development and Dean Julius Isaacson Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law
“Black Mobility and the Refusal of Funds: Structural Racism and Mass Transportation Decision-Making”
Professor Sara Bronin, Thomas F. Gallivan Chair in Real Property Law and Faculty Director, Center for Energy and Environmental Law, University of Connecticut School of Law
“Dangerous by Design: How Vehicle and Street Standards Hurt Us”
9:45-11:05am: Panel Two
Rights of Way & Public Space
Professor David Prytherch, Professor of Geography, Miami University, Department of Geography “Mobility Justice and the Public Right-of-Way: The Geography of Traffic Law and Design”
Professor Jamila Jefferson-Jones, Associate Professor of Law, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law
“#DrivingWhileBlack as #LivingWhileBlack”
Professor Tara Goddard, Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University, College of Architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
“Not ‘Just Semantics’: How the Language and Framing of Transportation Safety Shapes Perception and Practice”
Professor Vanessa Casado Pérez, Associate Professor of Law, Texas A&M University School of Law, and Research Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M Department of Agricultural Economics
“Reclaiming the Streets: Pedestrianization”
11:05-11:15am: Short Break
11:15am-12:00pm: Keynote Address
Ms. Beth Osborne, Director, Transportation for America
12:00-12:45pm: Lunch (no programming)
12:45-1:45pm: Panel Three
Mobility, Segregation & Polarization
Professor Clayton Nall, Assistant Professor, University of California-Santa Barbara, Department of Political Science “The Road to Inequality and Political Constraints on Legislating a Green New Deal”
Professor Deborah Archer, Associate Professor of Clinical Law and Co-Faculty Director, Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, New York University School of Law
“Transportation Policy and the Underdevelopment of Black Communities”
Professor Daniel Rodriguez, Harold Washington Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
“Road Wary: Transportation, Law, and the Problem of Escape”
1:45-3:05pm: Panel Four
Transportation Planning & Land Use II
Professor Janice Griffith, Professor of Law, Suffolk University School of Law
“Metropolitan Planning Organizations: Evolving Roles as Transportation Planning Incorporates Environmental and Sustainability Goals”
Professor Noah Kazis, Legal Fellow, New York University Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, New York University School of Law and the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
“Transportation, Land Use, and the Sources of Hyper-Localism”
Professor Kenneth Stahl, Professor and Director, Environmental Land Use and Real Estate Law Program, Chapman University, Dale E. Fowler School of Law
“Integrating Transportation Policy into the Land Use Curriculum”
Professor Darien Shanske, Professor of Law, University of California-Davis School of Law (co-author: Professor Deb Niemeier, Clark Distinguished Chair, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland A. James Clark School of Engineering)
“Subsidizing Sprawl, Segregation and Regressivity: A Deep Dive into Sublocal Tax Districts”
3:05-3:15pm: Short Break
3:15-4:00pm: Keynote Address
The Honorable Ray LaHood, 16th U.S. Secretary of Transportation
4:00-4:40pm: Panel Five
Transportation & Finance
Professor Pamela Foohey, Professor of Law, Indiana University-Bloomington, Mauer School of Law
“Bursting the Auto Loan Bubble in the Wake of COVID-19”
Professor Randall Johnson, Professor of Law and Director of the Public Service Law Center at Mississippi College, Mississippi College School of Law
“Why Illinois Should Eliminate Its Video Tolling Subsidy”
4:40-4:45pm: Thank You & Farewell
October 27, 2020 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Fellowship @ Yale Ludwig Community and Economic Development Clinic
YALE LAW SCHOOL CLINICAL FELLOWSHIP
in the
Ludwig Community and Economic Development Clinic
Yale Law School seeks applications for a clinical fellowship in the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, within Yale Law School’s clinical program. This is a thirty-month position, beginning on or about January 1, 2021, designed for lawyers with at least three years of practice who are considering a career in law school teaching. The Fellow will work with the Ludwig Center for Community & Economic Development (CED). The Fellow’s responsibilities include representing clients, supervising students, assisting in teaching classes, and pursuing a scholarship agenda. In addition, the Fellow may be asked to co-teach a section of a six-week fall program for first-year students, Introduction to Legal Analysis and Writing. Candidates must be prepared to apply for admission to the Connecticut bar. (Candidates with five years of practice experience may qualify for admission without examination.)
The Ludwig Center for Community & Economic Development (CED) is a semester-long, in-house clinic that provides transactional legal services to clients seeking to promote economic opportunity and mobility. CED’s clients include affordable housing developers, community development financial institutions, farms and farmer’s markets, fair housing advocates, and neighborhood associations. CED’s legal services help our clients to expand access to financial services, bring arts institutions and grocery stores to chronically under-resourced communities, break down barriers to affordable housing development in high-opportunity communities, promote access to healthy foods, and facilitate entrepreneurship among low-income people.
On behalf of our clients, our students negotiate and draft contracts; provide advice on the tax consequences of deal structures and entity choices; structure and carry out real estate transactions; represent borrowers and lenders in financings; engage in legislative and regulatory advocacy; form for-profit and not-for-profit entities; and resolve land use and environmental issues. In addition to representing clients, students in their first semester of the clinic take a seminar which covers federal, state and local policies affecting urban and suburban places; substantive law in tax, real estate development, and corporate governance; and transactional and regulatory lawyering skills, such as negotiation and drafting contracts.
The Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization is committed to building a culturally diverse and pluralistic faculty and staff to teach and work in a multicultural environment. Candidates must be able to work both independently and as part of a team, and must possess strong written and oral communication skills. Experience in creative and community-driven advocacy is a strong plus. Annual salary is $65,000-70,000. In addition, the Fellow will receive health benefits and access to university facilities. Email a resume, cover letter, writing sample, and names, addresses and telephone numbers of three references to Osikhena Awudu, Program Manager, The Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, [email protected]. We will accept applications until November 30, 2020 but will review them on a rolling basis (early applications encouraged).
October 27, 2020 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Friday, October 23, 2020
Online Symposium, Oct 30: Cutting Through Academic Silos to Achieve Sustainability
|
October 23, 2020 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Thursday, October 22, 2020
Reframing Sustainability: Introducing the Land Use, Human Health, and Equity Project, Post 2: Planning for Public Health: A New Beginning for Land Use Law
[This is the second in a series of posts by Prof. John R. Nolon and series editors Jessica Roberts, Jillian Aicher, and Colt Watkiss from the Land Use Law Center at the Elisabeth Haub Law School, Pace University. This post also appears on the law school's GreenLaw blog. ]
Planning for Public Health: A New Beginning for Land Use Law
The story of local land use law is one of constant new beginnings. It began as a mechanism for designating zoning districts in which specific land uses are permitted and others prohibited and building construction prescribed. As development sprawled, local land use law began addressing the need to protect natural resources and promote smart growth. As evidence of climate change later mounted, local land use law shifted focus to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the realities of a warming climate. Now, as U.S. cities confront the challenges posed by COVID-19, local land use law finds itself engaged in another new beginning.
While it is too early to understand the full impact of COVID-19 on cities, there is evidence to suggest that people who can leave them are doing so in substantial numbers. In New York City, real estate values and office and residential rents have fallen dramatically, and vacancies have more than doubled from just last year. Meanwhile, data shows "unprecedented sales growth" in suburban areas like Fairfield and Westchester counties, "driven by a continuation of New York City buyers relocating" amid the pandemic.
One reason for this exodus is residents’ concern over crowding, especially considering the ease with which COVID-19 can spread. There are legitimate concerns that the subways, busses, sidewalks, playgrounds, restaurants, and entertainment venues that have long attracted people to cities may now be unsafe. The command to socially distance and convenience of working from home compound the situation. However, if this mass migration from cities continues, we risk recreating the post-WWII "white flight" that eroded cities' tax bases, segregated communities, exacerbated health disparities, and contributed to a massive amount of sprawl.
Given these risks, planners and lawyers must continue working to prevent this pattern of urban flight from repeating. While no one can be sure of the duration of this pandemic, the likelihood of future pandemics, and the ultimate effect on cities, one thing remains clear: cities need to become safer. Cities must continue to make density appealing by making public health a central concern in urban planning and design. What follows is an abbreviated menu of options for how cities can begin:
Comprehensive Plan: Cities can include public health components into their comprehensive plans. These plans can specify the goals, objectives, strategies, and techniques for achieving safe buildings and densities.
Building Standards and Checklists: Local checklists of safe construction techniques can be created regarding, for example, better internal ventilation, ultraviolet light to disinfect indoor air, high-efficiency air filters, health screening technology, wide corridors, work from home spaces, more elevators (including voice-activated elevators), automatic doors, special distance metrics for indoor service, and redesigned interior amenity spaces.
Capital Investments in Infrastructure: City budgets can fund "creative place-making," including social distancing in urban parks and open spaces, tree canopies, broader sidewalks, increased bike lanes, expanded capacity for outdoor retail, curbside management to facilitate pick-ups, and "slow” and "dining" streets.
Zoning and Land Use Regulations: Short term permits can be given for new uses and expansions, and temporary permits can be offered quickly to commercial tenants adjusting to the changing economy. Cities can award emergency variances from setback requirements, reduce the amount of required parking, allow retail and dining uses of parking lots, and amend office zone standards to allow creative interior arrangements and flexible residential uses. Where retail is not feasible, cities can eliminate requirements for on-street retail use. Permits for all small business applications can be expedited by bringing together regulatory agencies, authorities, and government departments to review projects simultaneously. Pre-application meetings with developers can include health professionals to assure the health of future occupants.
Existing Buildings: To reduce the risk of potential contagion, cities can encourage building owners to retrofit their properties, work with public health experts to create standards for safe buildings, and offer incentives for compliance with these standards. Emerging ratings such as the WELL Health Safety Rating and Fitwell Viral Response Module models can be consulted, and financial incentives such as tax abatements given for adopting recommended improvements.
Small business recovery: Grants and affordable loans can be provided to small businesses so they can better accommodate their customers’ changing service needs. Courts can also refer eviction proceedings to city-supported mediation clinics to search for win-win solutions where both commercial tenants and landlords' bottom lines are considered.
These suggestions provide a brief overview of how cities can begin preparing for a safer future. Additional strategies will be developed by our team and highlighted in future blogs and reports.
Prior Posts
Introducing the Land Use, Human Health, and Equity Project
October 22, 2020 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Reframing Sustainability: Introducing the Land Use, Human Health, and Equity Project
[This is the first in a series of posts by Prof. John R. Nolon and series editors Jessica Roberts, Jillian Aicher, and Colt Watkiss from the Land Use Law Center at the Elisabeth Haub Law School, Pace University. The series is also available on the school's Greenlaw blog. ]
Reframing Sustainability: Introducing the Land Use, Human Health, and Equity Project
The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change gravely threaten public health. Both call for a sharper focus on “sustainability,” a term given new meaning by these undeniable threats. A fear-based trend of people leaving cities has emerged as an initial response to the pandemic. If this trend continues, it could pose serious risks to low-carbon land use strategies recently adopted by densely populated urban communities and worsen already disproportionate public health harms in marginalized communities. Land use law can play an essential role in effectively addressing these issues and shaping a healthier, more prosperous future.
The Land Use Law Center’s Land Use, Human Health, and Equity Project will make accessible effective land use tools for strengthening public health and environmental protections in urban communities in response to the pandemic. These strategies can contribute to communities’ healthy and resilient post-pandemic futures while also reinvigorating cities’ climate change management capabilities. Through a team of two dozen student researchers led by Professor Nolon, this project addresses climate change and COVID-19 by discovering local solutions.
The project will provide data on the pandemic’s effect, responding to questions such as: Who is fleeing? Where is urban flight occurring? To what degree? What is the effect of this flight on municipal budgets and affordable housing? How does it affect small businesses, and how can they recover? What are the implications regarding evictions and displacement? And, and how can land use law protect residents, workers, and businesses? Our reports will describe local land use solutions, garnered from case studies and reports, to show how localities are responding to the pandemic through land use planning and regulation. We will demonstrate how comprehensive plans, land use regulations, the review of development proposals, novel uses of public infrastructure, and other feasible strategies can protect public health, promote equity, and provide financial stability.
The project will demonstrate the importance of density in mitigating climate change and providing affordable housing and efficient transportation. It will search for environmental justice-centered land use solutions to pervasive health and environmental disparities stemming from racial inequities.
While the future of our post-pandemic world remains uncertain, one thing is clear: new energy and innovation are required to ensure that buildings and neighborhoods are safe for families, workers, and businesses. This is not a new idea, but these times make it imperative that officials, professionals, and advocates review, revise, and renew existing strategies to respond to what is clearly an existential threat. As many wrestle with existential fear and uncertainty regarding climate change and public health in a post-pandemic future, the Land Use, Human Health, and Equity Project will offer concrete steps toward ensuring sustainable density, prosperous cities, and healthy communities.
October 21, 2020 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Stein on autonomous vehicles and the sharing economy
Gregory Stein (Tennessee) writes to share two new articles:
I recently uploaded my new manuscript, The Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on Urban Land Use Patterns, forthcoming in Florida State University Law Review, to SSRN. As you can probably guess from the title, the article looks at how the long-anticipated rise of self-driving cars in the coming years will cause us to have to rethink the urban landscape. Everything from parking requirements to the need for drop-off zones to roadway design to how cities raise revenue will be on the table, and local jurisdictions need to be thinking about these issues now.
In addition, my new article, Inequality in the Sharing Economy, has been published in the Brooklyn Law Review. The article examines the extent to which the sharing economy, including its use of dynamic pricing, may increase existing inequalities. Among other topics, it asks how the growth of services such as Airbnb have impacted housing supply, and other similar topics relevant to land use professors.
October 20, 2020 | Permalink | Comments (0)
