Birdtown Flightplan: A Neighborhood Taking Off

This past semester I have participated in an independent study class, working with the City of Lakewood (just to the west of Cleveland proper). Three classmates and I have created a neighborhood plan for Birdtown, a neighborhood in the southeastern corner of Lakewood. Named Birdtown for its many streets featuring names of indigenous birds, it is a low to moderate income area. It is a well-defined neighborhood, and features a recently renovated park, brand new elementary school and community gardens.

The neighborhood planning process is long; ours was abbreviated to be a semester long. We started off by researching the neighborhood. Site visits, data crunching and reading about the history helped us ascertain the current conditions in the neighborhood, its development over time and lastly, opportunities for improvement. We also held a community meeting with the dual purpose of introducing them to the planning process as well as for us to gather information from the most important people of all: the current residents.

With this information in hand, we set about dreaming up suggestions to address some of the concerns that had arisen from the research stage. Some were invented by us; others were best practices from elsewhere. We organized our proposals into three key areas: commercial, housing and transportation. Each of the proposals was assigned at least one of the following categories in a fashion similar to the "tags" found on blogs such as this one: neighborhood identity, safety, connectivity and urban design. Once our ideas were developed, we moved into the production phase.

In addition to assembling the text for a plan, we created many images to help express our proposals. We used ArcGIS to create maps, Google Sketch-up to create some three-dimensional models and Adobe Photoshop to create photographic renderings. In a neighborhood plan, the visuals are every bit as important as the text.

To create the actual plan document, we sketched some possible layouts on paper. From there, we chose the best one and created a layout in Adobe InDesign. All the text and images were assembled into a thirty page document on legal size paper, in landscape mode. We titled it: "Birdtown Flightplan: A Neighborhood Taking Off." To ease navigation through the document, it features multi-colored bars on the outer edges of the pages. It also includes a resource guide for the residents, with information on municipal resources.

The last step is to submit our plan to the residents of the Birdtown neighborhood. We are presenting it to them this coming Tuesday at another community meeting. As this is a project completed by students, we will also be presenting it to selected faculty members of the Levin College of Urban Affairs this coming Thursday.

This semester has been an incredible opportunity for a not-yet-certified planner. To actively participate in this process, to create 1/4 of the final product, to actually create a real plan that will be implemented- this is huge to me. My educational career has been full of "make-believe" projects, with my only chances at working on real projects through internships. This is the real deal, though. It has been a great window into my future career, and I'm looking forward to including the plan document into my portfolio.

Rally in support of bike and pedestrian access on new Innerbelt Bridge

Location
Lincoln Park
W. 14th Street and Kenilworth Avenue
Cleveland, OH

Join the fan page for "Innerbelt access for everyone" -http://www.facebook.com/pages/Innerbelt-Bridge-access-for-everyone-including-bikes-and-pedestrians/183358026650

A rally to support pedestrian and bike access on the bridge will be held Sunday, December 6 at 2 p.m. at Lincoln Park in Tremont (W. 14th Street and Kenilworth Avenue).

Anyone interested in safe, convenient and healthy car-free access between Downtown and Tremont (and a great scenic overlook of downtown) is invited to attend. The event is free, and refreshments and entertainment will be provided. Cyclists are urged to ride their bikes, with free mechanical safety checks provided by the Ohio City Bicycle Co-op. Helmets are strongly suggested, and OCBC will have some available to borrow or purchase.

The rally will evaluate alternative walking and biking routes proposed by ODOT for the bridge and present other information about a dedicated path over the bridge. Participants will divide into groups, taking a different route from Lincoln Park to the intersection of Ontario Street and Carnegie Avenue, where a brief rally will address the issues of equity and civic interest in this nearly $1 billion project, before returning to Tremont for refreshments and discussion of strategies for further public input in this process.

After the rally, the job is not over. Please consider attending and voicing your support at a very important follow up: The December 11 meeting of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) at 10 a.m. when this local board will decide on ODOT's final proposal for funding of this project.

If you cannot make the meeting, consider sending an email, calling, or writing the Mayor's action line 216/664-2900, and the ODOT project director, Craig Hebebrand, at 216/581-2100 to let ODOT know you support biking and walking the proposed I-90/71 bridge. This huge taxpayer investment—ODOT's largest ever—will affect the places we live, work and play for the rest of our lives. Any donations to the event organizers will be used to help pay for engineering and professional services to document ODOT miscalculations of the feasibility and cost to safely accommodate pedestrians and cyclists in this project.

For more information, please stay tuned and visit http://www.gcbl.org/innerbelt

Friday 5: Career Choices

Five questions on a Friday eve. Early for once! From the LJ one. How appropriate that this Friday's be a career-related question, just after we our college's career coordinator speak at our student organization. One surprising thing I learned: in urban planning your resume can be two pages. Who knew?

1. What did you dream of being when you were a little child? I think when I "graduated" from nursery school I said I wanted to be a mommy. Of course, pretty much every other girl in my class said the same, so I might have just been going with the flow. Heck, maybe someday (in the very, very distant future) I will become a mommy and my apparent childhood dream will be realized.
2. What did you think you might become when you were between the ages of 12-13? Architect. I used to draw blueprints for fun. Seriously, who does that? And my dollhouse was m favorite toy, and I imagined that my room was a whole city around my dollhouse (albeit a walled one). Future urban planner much?
3. What career choices did you consider as a young adult? Civil or aero engineering. Then I discovered urban planning for a high school social studies project and knew that was it.
4. Did you follow along one of the career paths you considered? Urban Planning!
5. Have you changed careers since then? Was it by choice or necessity? No, I'm in planning school now. My concentration or focus within urban planning will change. Neighborhood planning is growing on me. Economic development and urban design are still two major interests of mine. Bike/ped planning and park planning are obvious interests. Freight planning, while a subset of transportation planning (albeit a super tiny one), is a field in its infancy, and that attracts me, along with the associated economic development implications. Basically I just want to fix up a city but I'm not sure how I will be going about that.

This is not to say I haven't occasionally considered other career options like, say, nursing. But urban planning just seems right to me.

Good-bye summer, hello insanity

Tomorrow is the first day of class, and I'm already double-booked. This semester is going to be absolutely off the hook:

• 20 hrs/wk at graduate assistantship
• Full course load, including a time-intensive independent study creating a neighborhood plan for Birdtown in Lakewood (which is kinda a haul to get to).
• 10 hrs/wk other projects
• Downtown Cleveland Alliance City Advocate program
• President of CSU/APA, our student chapter of the American Planning Association
• Half-mary training
• Applications for whatever the heck I end up doing after graduation

So, please forgive me if I post infrequently. I'll do the best I can, but merely staying afloat would be a success in itself. :)

Nom nom, rust belt city: on cities as donuts

Today, a local economic development entity likely made another donut-inducing decision about a major Fortune 500 company relocation project here in this rust belt city. Why the donuts? Not only do I want to eat a tasty fried snack to feel better, but it furthers the donut-shaped phenomenon that some cities are experiencing as the center cities become less and less relevant in favor of the exurban sprawl near highways.

This project involves a mind-boggling sum of money given to this Fortune 500 company so they can relocate from a downtown location out to a suburban office park near a freeway exit. The point of this entry is not to assess whether this move is a good idea; rather, it is to question the validity of heavily subsidizing sprawl. It also sets the precedent that any company could follow in their footsteps and ask for enormous sums of money so they, too, could move to their dream suburban campus. I get why the company wants to move to these locations- easy access, cheaper construction, etc. What I don’t understand is why an economic development supposedly committed to Cleveland is bending over backwards to assist them with moving out from the downtown.

This is a terrible precedent. More and more buildings sit empty in our downtown. More and more small businesses like flower shops and delis that support the big companies are folding up. I personally see few people during the day out on the street, even on a bright sunny day during lunch. Our downtown was declining, is still declining, and will continue to do so if we keep losing to our suburban cousins. But what do they have to offer? Fine cultural institutions? Distinctive locally owned restaurants? Historic architecture? I hardly think the movie theater at the mall or the Applebee’s in the parking lot can substitute for a world class museum of art or a bistro in an Art Deco building.

There is a general consensus in economic development (or at least what I’ve studied/experienced of it) that one of the keys to revitalizing a downtown is attracting the young professional crowd. I now count myself among that crowd. We’re mobile, educated, waiting longer to have families/settle down, and want a distinctive urban experience. We don’t want a bland office building in a sea of parking lots with unwalkable & unbikable streets. We don’t want an empty downtown devoid of life and relevance. We want a crème filled donut with frosting and sprinkles on top, not some cheap donut with powdered sugar that keeps blowing off and leaving a mess.

The city as my classroom and design as an expression of myself

"We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us." - Winston Churchill


One of the interesting things about currently studying urban planning and previously having studied architecture and art/design is that one is always surrounded by what one is studying. It is different than a lot of other careers because their field tends to be less pervasive in daily life (though one could certainly argue otherwise). It's sort of hard to leave the office/classroom behind because, in a way, the city is my office/classroom.

How so? Urban planning, in the most broad of definitions, is planning for how we use space 24/7/365. We are constantly in space, and generally in at least somewhat urbanized areas, so that's a no brainer. We are constantly around architecture due to our need for shelter. Art pervades my life less so, but design certainly does through product and industrial design and even things like typefaces. Perhaps I am more strongly affected by my surroundings than others, but regardless, I am always paying attention.


I tend to geek out over mundane things like sidewalks, curb cuts, street trees and pocket parks. I choose my running routes based on what beautiful homes and parks past which I want to run. I am always interested in how things are designed, ranging from the train that takes me downtown to things like spoon rests. It is natural, therefore, that my interest in the design of my environment extends to my virtual world as well. Having (already) grown tired of the Blogger layout, it is time to redesign my blog. I started by finding a cute background (check out the link in the upper left hand corner) and have a few ideas in mind to make this more 'me' (see intro post about narcissism and blogging). So, please bear with me while changes are being made. Who knows- you might even like the final product!