Urban and Regional Planning Undergraduate Experience Video

Student presenting:

I took a map of Buffalo and cross referenced two tour guides and picked out roughly thirty something to forty something sites that were deemed points of interest around Buffalo. I labeled all the sites and they are broken down into separate categories, and they were represented by sticks. And the height of the stick is proportional to the amount of bus routes available within a quarter mile radius of the site itself.

Visiting Critic:

I like the way you brought it all together, because I remember you weren’t quite sure what it is you had made, but you knew you made something.

Professor:

I’m lost at the sort of philosophy that puts these things together, never mind the technology.

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Professor:

We are a non-profit community organization dedicated to improving the housing and employment situation on the West Side. Through home ownership and through mobilizing people around, a, housing and employment issues, we hope to reduce poverty. And then hold large entities that currently have a stranglehold over development issues and economic policy generally, hold them more accountable for their actions. We’re about mobilizing people in the neighborhood to take action for themselves.

Student 1 giving presentation:

We created a list of the sixty institutions and we met with probably about thirty of them, through attending a block club meeting or showing up after church to speak with the congregation. The West Side’s very unique in that over ten different ethnic groups are represented, so in contacting some of these institutions, language was a barrier.

Student 2 giving presentation:

First we had to pick our targeted groups and there are different priorities. A church organization’s priorities are not the same as an individual residence. So this brings up the need to listen, that also brings up the need for flexibility. We need to increase home ownership in order to stabilize the West Side, clean up vacant lots, and focus on community building. We had to hold the city hall and landlords accountable.

Professor 1:

We all passionately believe in community organizing, that’s partly why we end up as planners. But when we are inside the city hall, we forget some of the lessons we learn in the field.

Professor 2:

Coming from a place of academic privilege, I was just wondering if any of your, um, assumptions at the beginning of the semester when you engaged in this project were challenged or disputed or even confirmed.

Student:

You sort of look at some of the areas in the neighborhood and you see someone’s house is falling apart so you kind of get the impression that maybe people don’t really care, and then, you know, going door to door, talking to some of these people, talking to them on the phone, there is a significant amount of them that really do care, and they really are concerned.