One of the easiest, most informative, and relevant courses I have ever taken while at UCLA. The exams are wholly based on the lecture slides despite him encouraging students to study the readings as well. The exams are a mixture of multiple choice, short response, and long essay. I would highly recommend this class especially if you are interested in the impact that city planning has on a number of other factors.

professor sarmiento is a pretty soft spoken guy but he makes a great professor and invited some interesting guest speakers. I definitely learned a lot, especially about housing and transportation policy in the US. there were no surprises on the exams, and there was one paper on a planning policy issue of your choice.