Category Archives: Uncategorized

How to Survive a Plague

Uncategorized

Act Up worked courageously to make a difference and in a time where AIDS was misunderstood and feared, any action at all was an enormous feat. It was alarming to even watch as protesters were pulled apart and arrested during their demonstrations. I was also shocked to see how many people were affected by this epidemic even though government officials had still only taken minimal action. It was compelling and ironic to see individuals selling AIDS drugs on the street because many did not have access to these drugs that they actually needed to save their lives. When action was taken, it was as if there was a hierarchy of who should be helped since women and people of color were not a part of clinical trials to test new drugs that could potential save their lives. When there seemed to finally be something available that had a chance of helping people, the medication was extremely overpriced. It looked like progress had been made, but it was slow and Act Up’s mission was to accelerate this process so they had a chance to live another day.

The media created a skewed view on the facts about Act Up and AIDS, which further fueled the stigma surrounding the issue. For example, news reporters told the public that Act Up protested to shut down the FDA, when in actuality they wanted them to work faster to approve something out there that would save the millions suffering. They also tried to promote celibacy as a logical solution and then sweep the issue under the rug as if that was a practical option. The way interviewers spoke about Act Up’s efforts made it seem as though the public felt like the issue was too taboo and should not be address. However, this obviously could not have been the case since many companies had taken heed to Act Up’s message, probably due to the public support of it, and made changes such as new drug testing protocols and discontinuing secret meetings. Act Up was able to change HIV/AIDS from a topic no one wanted to mention to one that all presidential candidates had to address. Act Up seemed to be a near perfect organization that not only brought criticism but provided solutions as well.

 

Discussion Question: Act Up believed that individuals should have the right to decided to take a drug they thought would help save their lives while TAG thought more testing should be done before a drug is approved in order to ensure it would work. Do you think having the FDA approve a drug for individuals to use and then continuing to observe it to approve it a second time for individuals who want to be sure would be a good solution for both groups?

What is Happening in Flushing West

What's the Problem?

Power Relations/Politics

Councilman Peter Koo’s concerns about the plans for the rezoning of Flushing are that Flushing Creek needs to be cleaned up, the capacity of the Tallman Island Wastewater Treatment Plant needs to be improved, the developments in Flushing West should be made to meet the needs of the community, and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) needs to be made affordable to the local residents. The MinKwon Center for Community Action is also concerned with people in Flushing not being able to afford the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (Edmonds, ”Koo: Clean Creek, Then Rezone Flushing West”). To take these problems into consideration, City Planning officials have been holding community meetings in Flushing.  

What kind of knowledge are you working with?

In the area proposed for rezoning light manufacturing zones are going to be turned into residential zones, and heavy industry zones are going to be turned into light industry zones (Edmonds, ”Koo: Clean Creek, Then Rezone Flushing West”). This type of city planning also happened in Sunset Park. The development of a waterfront  property in Sunset Park has contributed to  gentrification and displacement of Brooklyn residents (Hum, “The Hollowing-Out of New York City’s Industrial Zones“). Displacement and gentrification are also concerns of Grace Shim, Executive Director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action (Jordan, “Plan to Rezone Flushing West Flies Under the Radar”).

What are our next steps?

We plan to contact people from the MinKwon Center for Community Action so that we may learn more about their stance on the rezoning of Flushing West and how the Department of City Planning is handling their input.

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?

 

 

What’s the Problem?

What's the Problem?

It’s time to take stock of what we know, how we know it, and what we need to find out.  During class on Wednesday, please work in your groups to do the following:

    1. Translate your Topic into a Research Problem (Follow these Guidelines for focusing your group projects).  Cite your sources!
    2. Summarize your research problem and how it has developed (historical background)- in terms of key concepts from class readings.  Cite your sources!
    3. Summarize the power relations/politics surrounding your research problem and making it difficult to address (political context)- in terms of key concepts from class readings. Cite your sources!
    4. Explain how you know what you know. What kind of knowledge are you working with?
      • Community Knowledge—cultural practices and wisdom passed down for generations.
      • Knowledge from Experience—what we learn and know from living and doing it.
      • Academic Knowledge—published facts and data produced by research “professionals” usually from outside the community.
    5. Indicate the knowledge and kind of knowledge your group needs to move forward.  What are your next steps?

Someone from each group should your group’s response on your project page.  Others in the group can add and edit at any point, and anyone in the class can comment.  As you learn more, I encourage to you continue developing and refining your descriptions of the problem (in the same post!).

Pseudo Progression?

The Roots of Community Planning, Uncategorized

Community planning and redevelopment should be done for the purpose of improving the lives of its inhabitants but from the readings we have done thus far,  it seems that these efforts do very little to accomplish this. Instead, redevelopment projects seemed to be done with the rich in mind.

In examining the history of community planning, the colored and poor constituted a large portion of those displaced because early redevelopment projects often allowed those involved with the planning to identify the communities that needed to be redeveloped; however, these evaluations were often made based on the people living there rather than the environment itself. Afterwards, conditions started to improve slightly, as dissatisfied tenants and citizens banded together to protest the unwanted changes made to their communities. One such example is when the inhabitants of Morningside Heights and Columbia students successfully prevented the establishment of a gym in place of the community park. Other events that marked an increased involvement of citizens in community planning projects include the Model Cities Program and the establishment of Community Boards. These developments seem to indicate a progression in the fight for greater involvement but upon closer inspection, one will see that these advancements were met with setbacks. The Model Cities Program ended after President Johnson’s term and members of the Community Board, in reality, had very little say. In the end, their words had very little power in causing the changes that actually occurred.

This can be extended to the current problem of rezoning. Current rezoning efforts are said to involve the residents as much as possible through meetings which are held to determine the direction that redevelopment should go. But as mentioned in Savitch-Lew’s “Will the City’s Rezoning Plan for East Harlem Heed Community’s Vision?” , many residents are complaining that involvement is in fact minimal. While it is clear that community planners can no longer exclude residents from their plans, the question is: have we really progressed in terms of resident involvement?