Urban Sustainability Transformation in St. Petersburg, Florida: the Final Final of Vienna

I just completed my final final for the Vienna semester of the 4CITIES Masters of Urban Studies. I am relieved. It has been a long way coming and the 3,500 words didn't come easy. The class was Urban Sustainability Transformations.

The paper felt a bit silly when it only looked at Civil Society Participation, Data Accessibility, and Drivers & Constraints. Those were the main aspects we (as a class) chose to assess but they don't feel like the best ones for St. Pete with its environmental and social challenges. However, found a way to work Racial Justice into the paper with literature from outside the class.

It wasn't so easy to find sources related to racial issues and urban processes. But I did find a few I liked:

• Struggle In The Sunshine City: The Movement For Racial Equality In St. Petersburg Florida 1955-1968 by Peyton L. Jones (2010)

  • A USF Masters Thesis about St. Pete during the civil rights movement.

• Rebranding Black Public Spaces In St. Petersburg, Florida: Economic Development For Whom? by Evelyn Newman Phillips (2016)

  • An overview of how tourism in St. Pete historically had negative impacts on Black residents.

• The urban process under racial capitalism: Race, anti-Blackness, and capital accumulation by Prentiss A. Dantzler (2021)

  • Talks about how racial issues haven't been discussed much in the literature on urban processes.

Overall, I'm relatively happy with the paper and ultimately enjoyed the process of researching for it and finding some interesting papers along the way.

Now it's time to enjoy summer break :)

Update 11 July 2023: My friend Evan recommended another book

• Where Have All The Mangoes Gone? Reactivating the Tropicana Field Site by Sarah-Jane L Vatelot (2019)