This week we are mainly focusing on the hardcore part of the research paper, which is gathering information and data from our research. We will bring our findings and try to fill our story with the data. We are also still deciding on determining the criteria for what the streetcar must meet in order to be considered ‘successful’. Mainly we hope to find helpful data that will coincide with our criteria which is listed in last week’s update.
Our task for Wednesday is to gather a lot of information, mobilize it, and find a place for it in our project. The data we collect will consist of qualitative and quantitative information. In order to effectively compare New York City with other cities that have running streetcars, we will have to compare some qualitative characteristics of the cities. We think this qualitative data is the most effective way of comparing the cities. One qualitative data is the population of each city. This is helpful because New York City has dense in population and in order to compare it we have to highly consider the density of population in other cities. Population will show whether or not it is appropriate to use a streetcar as a mode of public transportation. Also, another quantitative information that can be compared is the income of the families in the neighborhood around the areas of the streetcar. This data will show whether or not living around public transportation becomes more expensive. If so, does this mean that the neighborhoods around the BQX will face gentrification or zoning due to their low income? or maybe the data might show similar income in the neighborhoods around the streetcars in Hoboken and Baltimore as the income around the neighborhoods around the proposed BQX. Other useful qualitative information may include the amount of adults that use public transportation to work. This information can add on to our conclusions made by the population data gathered. All this qualitative information will be fetched using social explorer.
The quantitative data that will help with our project will be from the analysis of the proposed streetcars around cities like New Orleans, Cincinnati, and San Antonio. These cities are either in the proposal stage, construction stage or even expansion stage. It will be important to find out why these proposals were approved. This can be due to the lack of public transportation in the city, the dense population, or even for economic growth. We want to look at how the residents of the area reacted to the proposal of the streetcar. Was there any opposition? Why or why not? We will also look at what the people think about the streetcar now after it has been constructed. I will be in charge of gathering this qualitative data and will research this information using multiple cites.
Our idea for the Popular Education/Public Engagement Product is a brochure that unfolds into a flyer. The brochure will be regular sized printing paper and then folded into thirds so that the left and right flaps fold into each other. Each flap will contain information regarding the BQX. It will be information that is meant to give awareness about the BQX plan. When the two flaps are unfolded a map of the BQX proposed line would fill the page. The map will also have some information on it and it can be used as a flyer at the same time. Something similar to the attached image:
Sonia has e-mailed several community organizations, including Uprose in Sunset Park, Red hook Community Group, and Queens Community Board for Long Island City/Sunnyside, but no organization responded. We are still on the lookout for community meetings. For this week Sonia has emailed the people developing the BQX and people financing the BQX plan. In the meantime however, we are going to conduct interviews with people in affected communities. Jeffrey has conducted fieldwork by gathering quotes from residents around the neighborhood where the BQX line is proposed. These field notes and field analysis will be used as our primary data for our project. Jeffrey has also shared quotes from the online news outlets, including the New York Times.
After researching the last three weeks, Patrick will take all he has collected and start to put it into a cohesive report. He will have census data, such as public transportation ridership in Baltimore, median household incomes for neighborhoods around the Light Rail routes, and research whether there is any correlation between the data. Another that he will look into is making an objective call as to whether the light rail system was/is a success in Baltimore. It seems like the economics surrounding the light rail say one thing, while people living with the rail would say otherwise. To help him with this, he has begun reading two different reports. One focuses on light rail transportation and Transit Oriented Development and the other is a case study on the economic development impacts of light rail transportation in Baltimore. These two sources will also help get back to our key concepts of the future of public transportation, how it affects neighborhoods and how it is used as a means of urban planning.
Adrian is in charge of comparing the success/failure of the streetcar in Hoboken New Jersey with the proposed line BQX. So far, he has found that the Hoboken line has served a large number of people, encouraged development, increased access to employment and housing and allowed decreased dependence on cars.
As Edwin begins drafting the White paper, we will start contributing to it. Patrick will contribute a mini report of his findings, data and how to relate it to the BQX. The public education piece is a different story. Its focus will be strictly on the BQX. Adrian will work on drafting Hudson-Bergen line in NJ section for the white paper with a focus on how it addresses the criterion we established for a successful transportation project. I will include why the streetcar proposals in New Orleans, Cincinnati, and San Antonio were approved and whether they faced opposition. Then I will compare that with the proposal of the BQX. Sonia will include the community contact findings while Jeffrey will include the field work analysis into the white paper.
Dear Mohamed and all,
Please forgive the delay in my response! I thought I had posted it last week but Mohamed let me know today that it was missing. So sorry! Nonetheless, it seems like you have continued to make good progress on your project, and on multiple fronts. I hope the activities we’ve done in the last few classes have been helpful. A few bits of feedback:
1. Your use of qualitative/quantitative is confusing and inconsistent in this update. I’m sure you know the difference and I think I know what you mean, but do be careful in your white paper to specify correctly. I agree (assuming this is what you meant to say) that it makes sense to use quantitative (numerical) data to understand and represent things the demographics of the affected areas and the economics of the BQX, and to use qualitative data (words) to understand and represent people’s views, experiences, and feelings.
2. It’s so great how much you are learning from the other streetcar cases! A challenge that your group faces now is to figure out how to make a valid comparison when there are so many variables between the BQX/NYC and the other cases. For help with this I would look at the Craft of Research Worksheet that I handed out/posted last week- specifically the section on making a claim and supporting it, including the part on acknowledging and responding to other points of view. You may need to refer to the actual book for more detailed guidelines (Just google Craft of Research 2nd Edition-the PDF is free online)- and look at Ch. 7-10.
3. The pop-ed brochure sounds good to me! You’ll have time to develop this more after the white paper is complete.
4. I’m sorry you haven’t had more luck with the community contacts. If nothing else I hope you will continue to follow up with Julia at Trans Alt to get her input, as she is an excellent resource.
Keep up the great work!
Hillary