professor lens isn’t a very charismatic individual and blandly reads off of slides. he uses music in the beginnings of the classes for some intrigue, but that quickly tapers off. if you watch a video by strongtowns, citynerd, or not just bikes on youtube & have a lick of history revolving around the 1900s, you’d be more than prepared for this class. bored, even. in terms of grading, sections, and communication, the ta’s are a godsend. very helpful, understanding, and fair. although i may not contest my grades, lens grades very harshly and doesn’t mince words. blithe comments and condescension mark his grading.
tl;dr, extremely intro level class, boring at many parts. ta’s are great, lens, not so much. wouldn’t recommend unless it’s required.

I've never written a Bruinwalk review before but just wanted to come on here to say that Professor Lens was my favorite professor I've had at UCLA by far. He's so engaging and passionate and just a really reasonable, likable, approachable guy. This was the first lecture I've had where I just genuinely loved coming in in the mornings and listening to him discuss these topics. Definitely made me realize I care about city planning and development and housing disparity, etc.

I wish I liked this class more. Something about it was off though and I just could not pay attention at all. Maybe it was all the text on the slides, maybe it was too early in the morning, maybe I was confused by the material a bit? but I didn't get as much out of this class as I had hoped. Prof Lens is super fun though and I would definitely recommend giving this class a try because he's definitely one of the better lecturers in public affairs. The workload was fine; my TA Lindsey was super helpful too.

This was my favorite class at UCLA of all time -- I would take it 10 times if I could. Professor Lens and his TAs were absolute gems and knew so much about the subject. Lectures were engaging, tests and homework were relatively easy and graded very generously. On another note: This class made me completely reconsider my academic and professional pursuits. I found it so interesting, I definitely want to take more classes in this area. I can not say enough good things. PLEASE take this class, especially with Prof. Lens!!

Professor Lens is one of the best professors at UCLA that I have taken so far. He is funny and approachable, making this class very fun to attend. His lecture was engaging, as he discussed many interesting topics fundamental to other urban planning disciplines. Even though there was confusion about final testing, as we were during the TA strike, he was open to students' comments and adjusted his plan to be more accommodating. The grading scheme was very generous if you completed all the weekly quizzes and assignments. Overall, this is a great class, and I would recommend taking this with Prof. Lens!

Professor Lens' class was very engaging, partly due to his fun personality (playing hip hop songs at the beginning of all his recorded lectures) but also because he covers really interesting material. You learn the history of urban planning in the U.S. and the way the government created racial disparities in the process. He's friendly and you get opportunities to interact with him, the TAs and your peers in occasional live sessions + discussion section. We had a rotating TA situation which I'm not sure I liked, but at least you could interact with more than 1 TA. I ended up not needing to have taken this class, but I don't regret it.