All posts by Claudia Y

Project Update 4/13

Updates - Flushing West

Overview of Key Project Ideas:

Project has focused a lot since the last update. The deliverable has been changed to be more feasible. We attended the Flushing Rezoning Community Alliance town hall meeting and learned a lot from the event organizers. After regrouping and discussing all of the data that we have collected, our focus has shifted slightly and has also gotten a little more specific.

Updates on Current Progress:

One of our key pieces of evidence for the project is using Skyview Mall as a case study for looking at how gentrification and development has affected Flushing. As one of the city’s plans for Flushing is the development of a waterfront promenade in the space across from Skyview Mall is, we are also considering using the waterfront development in Sunset Park to try to extrapolate what we see Flushing growing into. Our goal of raising awareness and educating the community about rezoning has not changed, but it has gotten a little more specific as we want to encourage more democratic participation in the rezoning process.

An update on the project deliverable: my initial plan to develop an interactive 3D environment of the rezoning areas in Flushing ended up being a little impractical. I wanted to build the environment with Unity, which is a game engine that has all the resources I could need for building a 3D environment, however, I have never worked in depth with models and am more experienced in the scripting side. So even though the 3D idea was scrapped, I still wanted to make a deliverable that is interactive and not just a flyer or brochure for someone to stare at. With our goal in mind of educating people, I proposed making a trivia quiz around the current rezoning issues in Flushing. The best way to learn is by making mistakes, and when people are presented with questions that they realize they do not have the answers to, they learn and hopefully get more involved with what is going on in their community. I met with Aaron on Monday to talk about the plans for the deliverable and we decided that the best way for me to go about this trivia quiz would be to make an eportfolio site to host the quiz. It was such a good decision to discuss our options with Aaron as I had totally forgotten about how Macaulay students could create eportfolio sites, I had anticipated and was dreading having to start a website from scratch and deal with a database. Fortunately, the Macaulay has purchased the license for the Gravity Forms plugin which makes the trivia quiz MUCH easier to do. One of the things I would like to do at the end of the trivia quiz is a visualization of the results globally so that a player can see how the rest of the people who took the quiz fared; there is leaderboards functionality in Gravity Forms that looks very promising. Another great thing about setting up an eportfolio site is that we can add additional material to the site and really make the entire thing a strong educational tool for community centers to use.

On April 12, 2016 four members of our group attended the Flushing Rezoning Community Alliance town hall meeting. For our group members that had attended the last town hall meeting we were surprised by the significantly lower turnout compared to the last meeting. It turns out that the last meeting had such a large turnout because Peter Koo and a few other important city figures were to be present. As a result, this meeting went a bit differently, starting with announcements and then the meeting broke into three different groups to discuss plans for different aspects of the Flushing Rezoning Community Alliance. We went into the rezoning group that was discussing whether rezoning should be passed or not. We met Carol Mcloughlin and Alexandra Rosa who were both very knowledgable about the rezoning and helped to answer some questions about the rezoning in Flushing. A majority of the attendees at the meeting were actually immigrants and needed translators so we decided to just conduct informal interviews with Ms. Mcloughlin and Ms. Rosa. At this point, gentrification of Flushing is unavoidable, Flushing is a hot (moderate by developer standards) area, and as an area gets more popular, things begin to redevelop to increase the economic capability of that area. Currently, because Flushing has already been rezoned once, developers can buy land and develop it right now and not have to include any affordable housing units. In order for the new MIH changes to actually be included, rezoning needs to be passed. The rezoning would also include greenspace requirements, which would improve the environment of Flushing. A senior expressed discontent with the rezoning plans because it would allow for a greater number of units to be built in a lot, a thus cause Flushing to be even more overcrowded. Within the group, when we took a vote, the overall consensus was that the rezoning should be passed otherwise developers could just build and build, the rezoning could help hold back the developers from building thing entirely devoted to profit.

Interesting Findings:

We were actually all misunderstood about whether the rezoning had been passed or not. It turns out that the decision that was made on March 22 by the city council was actually for MIH, adding a more deeply affordable housing option to MIH and that getting the rezoning to be passed is a whole other matter.

Eportfolios and Gravity Forms!

Challenges Encountered:

As we gather more data and attend more Town Hall meetings our focus seems to keep shifting. MinKwon Center does not respond to our emails, we approached Jung Rae who works at MinKwon Center to see if we could get results from a huge survey that MinKwon recently did, hopefully after meeting us in person we will finally hear back from them.

Remaining Tasks:

Attend the press conference that the Flushing Rezoning Community Alliance will be holding, presenting different strategies that they would like to see considered in the rezoning of Flushing.

Continue gathering data and refining what exactly we want to argue. Work on white paper.

Group Dynamic:

At this point all off our group members have attended at least one town hall meeting. We have been collecting data and our discussions about what our data means has been very important, as they reflect the process that happens at the town hall. Different views on what is happening allows us refine our argument. Christine will be doing the last project update.

Pictures from the Town Hall meeting

 twhnhall1 twnhall2

Community & Balance

Clarifying Key Concepts

To me, the word “community” has never really held much strength for me. Maybe, it is because I am so disconnected from the current events of my own neighborhood and do not know about the concerns that people have about my neighborhood, but to me community has always seemed like a weak force against a very strong force (the city/government) in that a community’s strongest possible contribution would be a protest or a signed petition. What I often overlook is that these small moves made by the community coming together, really does help to regulate/control urbanization for a community/neighborhood that is just not ready to handle that growth. Normally, for the government the top down approach takes economic interests first, with the effect on current residents not fully considered.

This reading relates very strongly to my group’s Flushing project as it made me remember when my group attended the Flushing Town Hall meeting that MinKwon Center for Community Organization helped to organize. The meeting was held in a small church in Flushing and the attendees probably only represented a small fractions of the actual population of Flushing, however, the similar concerns that people shared made Council Member Peter Koo, stumble a bit with his words and votes that he claimed that he would make. It was a small group, but they were coming together as a community to prevent gentrification as a result of the new rezoning which would lead to new developments and higher rents. This friction that the government is running into the trying to make these changes causes delays which helps to slow the growth process to something that current inhabitants can handle. So even though it seems like writing your name on a sheet of paper does not seem like it would do anything, it is more important to make the effort to be involved and the rest should come naturally in your interest of keeping your community and your happiness from dropping without understanding why.

Discussion question: What happens to a community that restricts itself too much, not regulating growth. Is that beneficial/detrimental to the power of the community?

 

Constantly changing the approach to development

Contemporary Planning in NYC

As time passes, various growth factors in NYC could change and thus affect the approach to urban planning. Initially, planning for NYC was trying to adapt to the rapidly growing economy of the city, however that growth is not set to constantly grow at the same rate. Eventually some sort of plateau is reached where economic growth is not expected to come easily and the focus of development shifts to how to maintain growth.

Moses’ plans for NYC involved a lot of huge projects, economic centers would be based off of the spaces and highways that he developed. This approach gave a huge boost to the city’s economy, but it was also very general. Later on, an approach that resonated more with Jacob’s ideals started to have more prevalence. By focusing in on communities, breaking up the city into smaller pieces, those individual areas are able to pinpoint their efforts into achieving maximum economic potential in that area. If all of the small areas work to develop, the growth combined will be able to make a significant contribution to a city’s growth. I thought it was interesting how there was a small period where Jacob’s approach was taken but it later evolved into a more generalized formula for gentrification.

One last point that stood out to me in this reading was how 9/11 was linked to NYC’s development boom. It is pretty odd to see that it takes a tragic event to initiate a rebirth/redevelopment. It’s a pretty cold thought, but I wonder if when 9/11 happened, government figures would express concerns and sorrow about the event but at the same time also see it was an opportunity to rebuild the city.

Discussion Question: Would it have been possible for an approach following Jacob’s ideals to have been maintained without becoming this general formula for gentrification? Or in a city that grows so rapidly, is the maintenance for such an approach just not feasible?

ACT UP response

Uncategorized

ACTUP Response:

Interviews: “How to Advocate for Yourself” -Chris Cochrane and “The Strength to be ACT UP” – Joe Ferrari

For this response I looked at two interviews from the ACT UP Oral History Project. Both interviews focused on being gay in the 80’s and how the interviewees got involved with ACT UP. Something that I noticed in these two interviews was the difference in personalities and action between Cochrane and Ferrari. Cochrane’s experience with being gay seemed a lot quieter while Ferrari came off as very loud and confident about everything that he did. When both interviewees were asked about their first experience with ACT UP, you could immediately tell that they were talking about ACT UP in that the atmosphere’s described and the people there were the same, but what the individual did in that setting is different. Cochrane’s course of action was that of someone not used to advocating and being overwhelmed by the fact that there were so many people like him gathering in one place. He was not the person that immediately went up in arms to be part of the cause, and did what I would do, sit back and observe what is going on. Cochrane said he did not participate in the protests out of fear that he would be arrested, and I completely understood why he did that.

On the other hand, Ferrari’s approach was that he got involved immediately and attended the protests, risking getting arrested. He said in his interview that he saw the protests as an integral part of ACT UP. I think it is good that an organization like ACT UP was able to bring people together to fight for equal treatment. While protesting is an important part to getting your point across, I think it is important to remember that not everyone is willing to put themselves at risk for a cause and that they should not feel guilty about that.

Discussion Question: ACT UP and any other organizations are successful because there is strength in numbers. Higher numbers means a greater passion for a cause, but sometimes it is hard to get things done in a large group, are there times when an individual can impact a cause as much as a mob.

Fire, False Alarms and Overcrowding

A Plague on Houses

So I think we can all come to the consensus that fire destroyed a lot of neighborhoods in NYC and a lot of the blame can be put on the government and their poor approach to the combatting these fire cases. Rand’s Resource Allocation model was definitely incorrect in so many aspects. First of all, the model as well as the government’s approach to the fire problem was very much an outside-looking-in approach. It was unethical in that it basically created the most general model for fire response and it probably resulted in many deaths and destruction of communities.  At the time the city was not technologically advanced enough to be able to respond to fires quickly, the most efficient responses being from fire boxes and these boxes had a lot of false alarms coming form them. False alarms, poor communication and lack of resources made it hard for there to be good responses to fires. One of the strategies that the government used was suboptimization, which took resources from areas that were better off in order for it to match a lower average, saving resources.

I think that the two main problems that the government struggled with at the time was resources and overcrowding. Overcrowding increased the likelihood of fire and it is very difficult to ease overcrowding. Its not like the government can just expand a neighborhood and spread out the population like you would spread out excess cream cheese on a bagel with a knife. Plus, there is the additional problem that was mentioned previously about root -shock, people are unwilling to leave the areas that they have planted themselves in so its not very easy to resolve an problem that is causing another problem.

Discussion question: To what extent is outside-looking-in effective?

I decided on this discussion question because I was thinking about how a lot of the decisions by the government, ended up not really working for individual communities, a lot of the time, the approach is based off of an average idea of a neighborhood in the city. This relates to my group’s project of the Future of Flushing West in which development for vacant/warehouse specific land is to be rezoned for more retail and residential space. The rezoning is being contested because apparently the average low income statistics that the city has collected is higher than the actual low income in Flushing West. My problem with this that the city is being portrayed as sneaky by the MinKwon Center for Community Action, suggested by the article “Plan to Rezone Flushing West Flies Under the Radar” by Brandon Jordan, but the community is not exactly pure either. Yes, there are definitely those that make less than the average low income, but as a person that is from the area and knows more of Flushing’s dynamics, there are also plenty of people who take advantage of the system and lie about their income, wasting the city’s resources. It connects to false fire alarms that occurred at the time, they waste resources and makes real fire cases so hard to address.

The Practical Problem. WIP

Future of Flushing West, What's the Problem?, What's the Problem? - Flushing West

Flushing West’s rezoning plans, intends to alleviate the stress on Main St. Flushing, expanding the area of economic growth

Practical Problem: The city has plans for Flushing West that coincides well with the cleaning project of Flushing Creek, unfortunately the city’s plans do not really take into consideration the community’s interest (affordable housing,  mental health services and senior care). What can the city do listen to the community?

Issue: The city uses the city’s average low income to base low income housing. MinKwon Center for Community Action says that the actual income is much lower. Possible solution could be to propose to the City to recollect the income of those living in Flushing West and create a new average low income based on those numbers. However, a problem with recollecting the data is that it requires a lot of resources.

Issue 2: Does the city only decide to clean up polluted areas if the surrounding area has promise for high economic growth? The Gowanus Canal is one of the most polluted bodies of water in NYC but cleanup plans have been put off again and again – the area is mainly warehouses, is there not as much evidence of its economic capability compared to Flushing West?

 

 

Construction and Economic Growth

Situating New York City

In the section Upgrading the City, it is remarked that the city is constantly under development. With each new construction giving a significant boost to the surrounding neighborhood. The Twin Towers, Battery Park City and the New Harlem USA shopping center all helped to improve the image and economic value of the area, made the initial investment into development worth it. For people of lower income, more people did not want to live in the projects, instead preferring to invest their live savings into buying their own homes. By sharing the same goal, the investments of people of lower income were also able to achieve results similar to that of big Manhattan developments, in which the neighborhoods would gradually improve and become a nicer place to live.

This pattern of investment in development can still be seen today. In Flushing, the construction of Skyview Mall seemed a little unstable at first, with only one supermarket really attracting any business. However, over the years, the mall now has multiple chain stores in it and has extending the area of economic growth in Flushing (the mall is located more on the outskirts of Flushing, along the water). While Skyview has definitely achieved success, it can be noted that the only stores at the mall are chain stores; small businesses have tried to rent space in the mall but have not achieved much success. The rezoning plans for Flushing plan to develop a waterfront promenade near Skyview, with smaller retail spaces to encourage small businesses. Even with NYC’s pattern of new developments equaling economic growth, I am a little wary about the feasibility of this plan as new roads will need to be constructed, Flushing Creek is heavily polluted and will have to be treated, and also the waterfront view, won’t be much to look at. Or is the population in Flushing so high that any developments have a significantly higher chance of success, as more people look to escape, if only by a small distance, from the intensity of Main Street?

Discussion question: Is it possible for other cities in the United States to achieve the same level of “success” as NYC?