Constructing the Country We Want

By Briana Belfer

By the People: Designing a Better America is an exhibit that envisions an American future in which our physical surroundings are reflective of change. Many of the featured projects are ideas meant to benefit local citizenry; but with some variation and original thought, they could be implemented elsewhere. 

The Cooper Hewitt, Designing a Better America exhibit is an expansive look at how America can be bettered through physical design and social initiatives. Many projects were based directly out of New York and offered unique solutions to issues that are common within urban areas with large populations. Some projects offered perspective on nationwide issues that could stand to be utilized on local and municipal levels to better enhance institutions. Some of the most intriguing projects were those that were so uniquely attuned to a particularly suburban or rural area and paid specific note to the nearby population, building to enhance their lives in nuanced ways that cannot be so easily imitated in other areas of this vast country.

The ‘Text4Baby’ ad campaign from New York City was a unique awareness initiative in particular. It incorporated technology as a way to combat infant mortality rates and offer helpful tips to young, inexperienced, or impoverished mothers who are more likely to have access to a cell phone than cable, wifi or internet service. The campaign included posters and ads that offered an intriguing glimpse of what the free service would look like, helpful pop up tips in chronological order, tracking throughout pregnancy and then, a child’s life. Text messages included information on pregnancy progress, advice on basic infant health, safety and rearing, reminders to set doctor appointments, reminders for milestones, etc. The SMS service acts as a useful and encouraging resource and reaches out to poor women through a commonly seen and pervasive form of technology, the text message, ensuring they will receive the information and implement it to the best of their ability.

‘Field Guides to Ensuring Voter Intent’ was a collaboration between the Center for Civic Design and Oxide Design Inc. This project is not specifically local, but its nationwide intent is what makes it so privy to being applied to states and cities in desperate need of modifying their Boards of Elections. ‘Field Guides’ includes a number of simplistic, clean, portable booklets that include a bevy of information on how to enhance voting ballots and simplify them in order to ensure accurate, organized elections that make it easier for citizens to exercise their civic duty, not more difficult. The example of the Florida butterfly ballots that caused massive confusion and controversy in the 2000 election elucidates why the ‘Field Guides’ are necessary, many citizens mistakenly casted their votes for the wrong candidate because the zig-zag design was disorienting. The ‘Field Guides’ include helpful information on simplifying the voting process from top to bottom, including; how to design more comprehensible ballots, testing them efficiently, educating poll workers, designing useful pamphlets to educate voters, updating Board of Elections websites, putting useful information on the internet and making it easy to locate, etc.

The New York State and New York City Board of Elections could massively benefit from using the Field Guides. The NYS and NYC Board of Elections have garnered a collective reputation for not having the most updated or easily accessible websites, polling places, and other election related structures. In the most recent election year, numerous issues were recorded in New York City, including purged voter rolls (registered voters who were unknowingly dropped), errors in translated ballots, and the general issues of long lines and low staff. Implementing the ‘Field Guides to Insuring Voter Intent’ would surely benefit New York City and New York State by clarifying the design of the ballot system, the way it is tested, and the way that voters can remain informed in the 21^st century. The ‘Field Guides’ should serve as a general rule of thumb all the way from the graphic designers creating BOE websites to poll workers assisting voters. Putting more information online and making it look clean, easily outlined, easily searchable and linked to other websites as the ‘Field Guides’ suggest would vastly improve voter awareness and likely increase registration. Using large type, plain language, standard font, visual instructions, and other visual elements that clearly suggest importance (candidates’ names and their corresponding bubbles), would likely enhance ballots and reduce mistakes. Distributing easily comprehensible guides for poll workers to help them understand the tasks, the steps, necessary to help ensure an efficiently run polling site with less confusion and long lines would also serve as a huge benefit to New York City who has been plagued with many election related issues. ‘Field Guides to Ensuring Voter Intent’ could serve as useful guidelines for the New York State and City Board of Elections infrastructure.

The Edcouch-Elsa Fine Arts Center is a stunning structure built specifically for the Edcouch-Elsa Independent School District based in Edcouch, Texas, above a highway for all to see; but it would not be a realistic fit for a city like New York. The center is designed in a way that is very specifically attuned to the residents of Edcouch and thoughtfully pays homage to Latino culture that is present in the school district and area. It is shaped to resemble the sound waves of the local high school’s fight song and painted in vibrant colors reminiscent of local auto shops and a bright reminder of the activities going on within the center, art, community building etc. While the Arts Center is a beautiful structure, it wouldn’t be so easily transplanted into the already crowded New York City. Fights for commercial space are already difficult enough in New York. The fight to build such a vast and unique public space would be a hard task to accomplish. There are more residents to accommodate in New York City (making it harder to define a specific purpose for such a center),  and more municipal regulations and institutions in place that would delay or debate the process of building the center. The Edcouch-Elsa Fine Arts Center appears to be a wonderful community building, but it is built to the curvatures and specificities of a less populous Texas town, not a bustling, coastal urban area.