The new NYC Probation offices. Credit: Samantha Manners
There is more to a city than tall buildings, bright lights, and a rushed pace. There are millions of people and millions of separate lives navigating the intricate city simultaneously. There is beauty and there is adversity. There are no doubt difficulties, but there are also innovative people striving to overcome them.
This first project, located in New York City, works to help the New York City probation offices have a user friendly environment that encourages productivity. Probation Resource Hubs is a project designed by Oliver Munday, Carin Goldberg, James Victore and Paul Sahre, and Biber Architects. It is a project to improve New York City’s probation system. Before this project took effect, the waiting rooms of New York City’s Department of Probation were crowded and impersonal where people would wait for hours. Probation Resource Hubs took those waiting rooms and rebuilt them into welcoming places where the staff was no longer behind glass, thought was put into the design to make it user friendly and productive, and wait time was reduced to 20 minutes. Making the New York City probation offices run smoother is key to keeping fewer people in jail. Probation is a good alternative to keeping people in jail and creating a system that is pleasant all is a positive step forward. Not only does this project help the NYC Department of Probation, it employs designers and other laborers which helps the economy of the city. Even the building materials such as benches made from recycled milk cartons had a positive impact, in this case on the environment.
This next project is located in Ohio and positively impacts the environment as well as the economy. The Evergreen Cooperatives is a project designed by Ohio Employee Ownership Center, Democracy Collaborative and Cleveland Foundation. Its purpose is to create environmentally friendly projects that create jobs in underserved communities. Some of their projects include: a green laundry, alternative-energy enterprise, and hydroponic greenhouse. These are all cooperatives, or employee-owned, and are all placed in struggling areas of the city. They also provide any necessary training and education to assist the employees economically. This is an example of government funded projects that help both reduce the city’s carbon footprint and its wealth gap.
I believe this is a project that can be used in NYC. The state government could create environmentally friendly cooperatives that can span such areas as urban agriculture to alternative-energy enterprises. This program works to encourage and educate people on the importance of creating a greener and more self-sustaining city. Another benefit would be the economic relief it would provide to people out of work or in low paying jobs. Projects such as community gardens could be started in and near public housing. Evergreen Cooperatives hardly has to be changed to work in New York City.
This last project, although it is undoubtedly useful and important along the Mexico-Arizona border, the issue it addresses is not applicable to New York City. Humane Borders Water Stations and Warning Posters is a project designed by Humane Borders. This project aims to help migrants from Mexico to Arizona after many died of dehydration while attempting to travel on foot through the desert. Humane Borders placed tanks of water painted blue and labeled “Agua” accompanied by a 30-foot pole and flag with the goal of preventing migrant deaths. They also educated people through posters of the dangers of the desert. Humane Borders works to save lives on two fronts: one proactive by educating people on safety risks and the other reactive by providing lifesaving water to people who have taken those risks.
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