Urban Vignettes Week 1: Mobility in the Motor City

Mobility in the Motor City

Mobility is a word that has multiple meanings, I'm going to explore two: transportation and socioeconomic structure.

Let's start with transportation: as the auto capital of the world, Detroit is actually not a city that promotes public transportation, and the system it does have is limited. Our primary public transportation method is freeways. We have buses, but they are not rapid, and they are mapped out and set up in a way that can be difficult to adjust to for the new bus rider. Our only light rail is something we call the "People Mover".

The "People Mover" is 2.9 miles of single-track elevated trains encircling the business district of Downtown Detroit. With 13 stations at the largest buildings and commerce points in the city, it serves only a limited population, generally non-residents. In 1976, President Gerald Ford offered $600 million dollars to Southeast Michigan to build a rail transit system, and the only result was the People Mover. It was a competition to see who could build the most effective light rail transit system with the funds. It would seem that Detroit lost to its competitor, Miami. However, in recent news, Detroit plans to begin construction on the Woodward Light Rail Project which will connect to the People Mover, creating a more useful light rail system, which will also connect to the main passenger rail line, Amtrak.

                            

(Credit: Farley, Couper, Krysan, 2004)

To connect transportation to mobility is natural. We can now draw the line of transportation/mobility to class/mobility. Detroit is an incredibly poor city, we are considering bankruptcy as an option this year to solve some of our budget woes, and a financial state of emergency is in place. The city is poor, and the people are poor. A city with sharp racial divides - the city contains about 70% of all blacks in the Detroit Metropolitan region, and only about 5% of all whites. The staggering amount of poverty in the city is a sharp contrast to the suburbs as well. This causes incredible feelings of stress and hopelessness in regards to upward mobility for those who live in the city, and an equally incredible amount of privileged attitudes for those living outside the city.

The Renaissance Center (a.k.a. GM Headquarters) is located in the heart of Downtown Detroit. It is a symbol of hope to some, a symbol of automotive power to others, but to me, it is a symbol of Detroit's future mobility of both class and transport. As residents of Detroit, we rely on the automobile and its continued success and innovation. As the most visible building in Detroit it is one of the central stops of the People Mover. Rich and poor alike admire it, but only people with money will enter it to use its many features. However, the outdoor view is astounding, and the fountains along the river front outside of it are frequented by children from all over the city, visitors, and residents alike. 

I have found that something as simple as sharing space with someone who relates differently to the world makes us grow. If we can take these interactions and expand them, we might create new ways of becoming mobil in both socioeconomic status and transport. To examine all the elements of race, class, transportation, mobility could fill volumes. I am only briefly examining how these ideas are connected, and I invite you to share your thoughts.

Race, class, transportation, mobility: all are connected to our ability to move, interact, and develop as a city and as individuals. The fact that we are the Motor City, does not make us the Mobil City. But I think we're getting there.

Sincerely,

Kaity Nicastri,

Detroit Lover

To see this post in its original form (without all the cool linked tidbits), go to Urban Vignettes!

Very Few Women Stay in Foreign Policy. Why?

Read a quick blog post by the State Department to get started on something that I find not only frustrating, but somewhat intimidating as I go through the FSO recruitment process: Women Retention Problem in State Dept. 

Hilary Clinton. Photo Credit Unknown.

What does this mean to me as a woman? I am driven, intelligent, collaborative, quick to learn new languages ... yet I am sensitive to my environment, and despise sexism and harassment that meets me so often in the workplace and in general. This article was a reality check for me: the most intelligent and policy savvy women (Yeah, I just used savvy!) are exiting my dream job. Why? 


Mixed information, but I'm sure it boils down to an inhospitable environment coupled with larger ambitions. Also, I think it lies in the mobility of workers in this age: government jobs are no longer so sacred that they are coveted 'til death or retirement hits. I'm not going to run numbers or frantically cross check. (Frankly, it's too late and I've done too much other research today.) But I will rely on the oft-quoted statistic that young professionals of today will have at least 5 jobs or careers in their working lifetime. -- I am, in fact, wayyyyy ahead on this figure... -- So, I would guess that other interests (Guess what? People today are likely to have at least 5 separate and diverse interests. A figure that I'm sure covers at least 88.7903% of people in the U.S. Probably the world.) present other opportunities in areas that women that are in the State Department are likely to pursue. This could mean a promotion, a job change, or a complete career switch.


Now, why don't men change as frequently from secure foreign policy jobs? In my own experience, I find that men are saddled with more social norms and responsibilities in the career area. They feel that they must be single-minded in pursuing a career and a salary. That is equated in the non-sports-world with power, strength and virility. Perhaps, they live off the adrenaline of a high-powered profession that requires a lack of emotional response (something men are trained to do from infancy far more than women). 


Whatever the reason for less women being in this career, I am sure that societal mores and gender roles play a hand in it, although I'm inclined to believe it is less insidious than one might originally suspect.


Who has a thought on women in the workplace? Especially powerful policy positions?

Detroit: A City of Firsts and Paradoxes

For the full beauty of this post, go to my Urban Vignettes Introductory Blog about Detroit.

Detroit is a city of firsts. Most people in present times take autos for granted, but Detroit birthed the auto, the bus, the motorcyle. We had the first stoplight in the world, the first paved stretch of expressway, and the first motorcycle police officers. Henry Ford gave the first $5/day wage in an industrial position in order to stabilize his work force. We created malls [as we know them today], the sprawling suburbs were born out of having the luxury of vehicles available to most working families. We have influenced daily life around the industrialized globe.

We have a number of struggles and a reputation as one of the roughest, poorest cities if not in the nation, then definitely the Midwest. But if you scrape away the surface, you find a city that is full of fighters, lovers, artists, and people who truly value hard work. Our industries have faded, yet the city is searching for ways to stay afloat and create new industries and fields of economic growth. 

We are a city of paradoxes, of starting trends that spread out (Motown music, electronic music, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, & Diana Ross come to mind...). Detroit is an unlikely urban farming and community gardening hotspot, but they are multiplying to combat a lingering food desert. The Motor City has a thriving biking community. The healthy food and the heart disease-causing food live within walking distance of each other. Our chefs are creative, affordable and approachable. 

 

Dinner at Sala Thai in Eastern Market

You can see our small but gorgeously uncluttered skyline from the shell of the Packard Plant, which closed in 1958 and was left to decay in nearly a mile long set of ruins:

Packard Plant 2012

Our story is one of birth, death and rebirth. We are a creative city: finding ways to make our way with scraps and memories and sheer determination. The world and suburbanites think we are dead city, but we are just an underground city - a city that deserves and requires a closer look. An intimate city, where you might eat next to a gallery owner or city official and have a conversation. A city looking from its past into its future. An international border town where the American dream came true for many immigrants and families.

Detroit River Walk facing Downtown Windsor & Detroit

I hope you are ready for a walk through the Motor City.

Sincerely,

Kaity Nicastri,

Detroit Lover

Urban Vignettes Bid for Detroit

This is my bid for Detroit to be in the new and very exciting blog: Urban Vignettes. 

I would like to bid for Detroit, MI. Our past, present and future are unique as an industrial & post-industrial city, and one picture I would like to share is from Detroit's oldest neighborhood, Corktown. This neighborhood is a symbol of stabilized neighborhoods in a city where most neighborhoods are unstable and suffering from depression and housing issues. It has maintained its value and its neighborhood spirit for nearly two centuries.

Another picture I would say is a defining feature of Detroit is that the "Detroit River" is an international waterway dividing the U.S.A. from Canada. This waterway includes several parks belonging to one country or the other and is spanned by the only known, privately held international bridge in the U.S.A. The Detroit River Walk is a public area for walking, running, biking or generally enjoying the skyline and waterfront.

Another unique feature about Detroit is the amount of repurposed materials used in art projects, building features, new buildings and neighborhood projects throughout the city. I am including a couple of interesting samples - one being a fountain made out of old sinks and a tube, and another is from the renowned Heidelberg Project on Detroit's East Side, initiated by Tyree Guyton (a local artist).

Let's take a stroll through Detroit together...

Guest Blog! Showing Others What We Do.

Have you ever wondered about why knowing how to quantify what you do is important? I shed a little light on that in this blog:

Evaluation. That’s a hefty word. Most people cringe when they think of evaluation, but it’s really not that scary and doesn’t need to be feared.

With the arts in mind, evaluation can take on many forms—it can be programmatic, project-based, user/patron feedback, monitoring sales/attendance, but they all have a unifying theme: understanding the impact of your work.

I started working with a community public art program over two years ago as a Master’s-level intern from the University of Michigan’s Community Based Initiative. With a concentration in policy and evaluation, I fit the nerdier side of social work. I’m not your average caseworker. 

In my new role, I was faced with a program that had surveys, but no real evaluation and no understanding of the results of the surveys. Simultaneously, taking a technical evaluation course, I started with a logic model. This process is truly the crux of all good evaluation. If you don’t understand what you are trying to accomplish, evaluation will mean very little. 

Through the logic model, I learned invaluable information about the structure of the program and goals of the directors, funders, and participants for various investments in the program. The logic model process created a useful document that informed my evaluation knowledge and development. 

Once the logic model was established, I could determine the goals of the evaluation and design a preliminary evaluation. Afterwards, through various consultations, I decided on a process that would gather the richest, most valuable information possible. Then the hard part began: data collection. 

You would think that with all the dissidence around community work, and if it really makes neighborhood life better, more people would have jumped at the chance to give us their opinion, but there are challenges that evaluators face, especially in urban settings.
If you send surveys home, find a way for participants to return it free of charge. If you have people who are not able to attend meetings or events but are on your email lists, offer the survey online. Online survey tools are many and varied in their capabilities. Some common/popular ones are: Survey Monkey, Zoomerang, Constant Contact, Form Site, Kwik Surveys…the list goes on. 

Once you jump the final hurdles and have enough responses, you can begin analysis of data and use the analysis to report results. 

Depending on the survey design, you might need qualitative analysis or quantitative analysis. Qualitative analysis means you have results that are open-ended responses. That means people are able to give their own opinion on a question or statement, which offers some valuable feedback on programs or projects. However, you have to spend more time to find commonalities among answers. 

The other type, quantitative analysis, is numerically based. This doesn’t always mean that the answers are numbers, but rather that all answers are standardized. This could be a multiple choice answer, true or false, a scale [(strongly)agree, (strongly)disagree, neutral] or a similar way to standardize answers. Demographic data falls into this category. 

You can also use mixed analysis with qualitative and quantitative questions. This provides comments and opinions but also basic data like demographics, participation, and similar standard information. 

Evaluation helps programs. Any results should be taken to heart and used to improve services. 

Most importantly, you should be learning from evaluation. Evaluation will allow you to integrate your results by creating new practices and processes that will solve past problems and improve future positive results. 

My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant has a good process cycle chart for evaluation:What type(s) of analysis have worked best for your programs? Share in the comments below.

For more on evaluation and why you should be getting on that like fuzz on Velcro, go to Americans for the Arts' blog.

Deep Pockets

Pocket Neighborhoods

While driving through Northend on my way to Hamtramck yesterday, I had a thought about "Good Pockets" not just in Detroit, but in many cities.

Pocket neighborhoods are little areas that are in better shape than other areas. In Detroit the pockets are fairly small, yet powerful. In bigger cities, the pockets can be much larger, with less stress in between. These deeper pockets are because cities (like New York, Chicago, Boston, Miami, L.A., San Francisco) literally have deeper pockets.

People coming into Detroit don't always see them because they are off the main drag, or they only look at the number of houses that are in disrepair. They see it through the lens of the news, the statistics, their built-up fears, or any number of things that don't actually measure the strength of a neighborhood.

Love Your City

It's easy to love cities or neighborhoods where every street is pothole free, and every lawn is manicured. Detroit is rough around the edges, and the middle ... ok in a lot of spots, but it has character and a history and is populated by (guess what?) human beings. Human beings who struggle with life, money, keeping up with family, love, self-esteem, addiction, foreclosures... everything that anyone can deal with.

So whether your city is well-kept, middling, or downright struggling to make ends meet, appreciate the beauty that lies beneath: the relationships between neighbors. That's the reason that we have good neighborhoods is the connection between the people that live with us. Pocket neighborhoods grow when we open up our hearts, and our pockets grow.

Mexican Hipster Project - The Final Chapters

 If you were waiting anxiously to hear about the Mexican Hipster Project, your patience is about to be rewarded: Diego has gone so hipster that he decided he didn't want to try to be a hipster because that would make him a faux hipster. And as any hipster follower knows, faux hipsters are far worse than true hipsters. He didn't like the idea of being defined as part of a particular set (even though Mexican hipsters are a rarity). His take on his retirement from hipsterdom:

"I definitely learned the hipster force. I can't stand hipster haters or in the closet hipsters."

So if you were really excited about a Mexican wearing skinny jeans and drinking PBR while thumbing his nose at popular music ... you might be mildly disappointed. Instead you'll be getting a Mexican wearing tennis shoes and jeans while drinking a Corona, listening to Tribal, scorning Shakira and eating taco truck tacos. (This happens almost every weekend.)  So being a Mexican hipster is entirely different. We should come up with a better term, in Spanish of course. Let's try: caderero?

Naturally, I have hipster treats for your viewing pleasure: Hipster Detail: "The Donut" video. Hipster police protecting the world from an indifferent hipster takeover.

And one exotic island picture for the traveling hipsters out there.