Photo Essay: Urban Design Elements in Hyattsville

As a part of class, I examined the new Route 1 development in Hyattsville. I was specifically looking at urban design elements and how they compared to some of the older structures in the neighborhood. I wanted to explore different presentation media, so the following is a presentation I created using Prezi.prezi

Social Media & Social Equity

Social media has fundamentally changed the way we interact and connect with other people, and the technology will continue to be prevalent even after its beginning stages (such as Myspace and AIM) left the spotlight. The dominance of online communities like Facebook reveal a new social universe, but as a planner – I have to ask – can social media help create social equity?

Now, I’m  not referring to the newest definition of the term, which refers to the brand reputation of companies online, but rather the term in its planning sense. Can we use this new technology to further connect people and put everyone on the same playing field? Or is this only strengthening the economic – and now digital – divide between many parts of the world?

Of course, Twitter and Facebook campaigns like KONY2012 have shown us how social media can spotlight a global issue, but creating awareness is only the first step in creating equity. Furthermore, creating awareness of an issue not only puts that issue in cyberspace, it puts your organization out there as well. (KONY2012 was, and should be, questioned about where their doubled revenue is being spent.) So, we should be prepared to answer more than questions on the issue, but about our process.

And the catch with social media is: people can ask questions anytime, from anywhere. The engagement process is no longer restricted by a 9 – 5 window, which can help or hurt our goals depending on how it is used. While posting a tweet takes seconds, reading and responding to feedback takes much longer; those who want to be active in the online social sphere need to be constantly vigilant in order to limit the spread of misinformation.

That seems like a lot of work for a small advocacy group. Can we really rely on our social media campaigns to produce action?

The marketing world says, Yes. According to t2social.com, “Influence on social media translates into influence on decision making.” And focusing on specific online communities helps build targeted outreach and influence very quickly,. So, start smaller and work towards building a following, while remembering that “every tweet, every blog post, every Facebook response… and the subsequent following you receive… is a small investment into the future.”

So – circling back to my original point – we should be invested in using social media as a marketing and outreach tool. And, conceivable, our efforts will produce action and influence; be it one person at a time. The Planning Pool states that social media is “empowered participation” with varying levels: sharing, cooperation, and collective action. The article also argues that social media has fundamentally changed the way commons – either physical or digital (ie a park or data) – are managed; we, as the public, have much more power over the commons than we had before.
At the end of the day, true social equity is only going to result from physical action, but I believe that planners can use social media technology in innovative ways to strengthen commitment to equity issues, and to reach audiences beyond our normal capability.

Why Planners Should Get to Know (at least a little) about Code

No one can deny that internet expertise is a skill employers are looking for, but it may not be enough. As planning becomes more and more tech savvy, behind-the-scenes programming knowledge will be critical. True, we cannot require planners to become computer programmers – we already have those – but basic html skills will make a huge difference in smaller organizations that lack in-house technical staff.

While most of this post is my own opinion, I do believe that html coding can be a transferable skill in and outside of planning.

HABISP: Technolgy & Urban Planning in Sao Paolo

Writing this blog has forced me to look for new planning initiatives that are being creative in the ways they use new technology, beyond a simple mapping feature or twitter account. HABISP is one of those projects.

HABISP is an innovative information system used by the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 2005, The Department of Urban and Housing Development (SEHAB) contracted an information technology team to create a “user-friendly system that municipal staff could access and input data themselves.” The end goal was a complete dataset containing information about residents of public housing and precarious settlements – over 30% of the city’s population lives in slums – such as favelas, informal land subdivisions, slum tenements, and hazardous areas. Its purpose was to provide a comprehensive view of all settlements in Sao Paulo so staff could identify and prioritize interventions.

In order to provide updated housing records for the software, over 2,000 field inspections were conducted. All data, after being entered into the system, was then geo-referenced to cartographic and photographic databases. Lastly, data from the Basic Sanitation Company of São Paulo which mapped the existing network of water and sewer mains was added. From there, staff could create a picture of different types of settlements, their precariousness, and their needs.

Since 2008, HABISP has been available on the web and open to the public, meaning not only do city staff use it, but citizens can become involved and informed about the urban poor. Users can see the different types of communities, but also be updated on projects and decisions the city is making to improve these areas. It helps the city remain accountable and transparent.

Critics of the program suggest stronger lines of communication so that information can be disseminated through parties more easily, but overall the program has received good feedback. A review of the program’s current success stories was presented at ITC’s 2008 ExpertGroup Meeting on Slum Mapping in Enschede, the Netherlands.

Sao Paulo is one of the wealthiest cities in its region, and therefore was able to devote the monetary and manpower resources needed in order to complete the project. But is something like this possible on a smaller metropolitan scale? Can a program like this be easily mimicked in other cities? And more importantly, how can we, as planners, continue programs like these that have both a social and physical impact on the urban landscape?

Why Planners Should Care About the Connect America Fund

Many of us have heard of the FCC, but most of us may not be familiar with the Universal Service Fund, and even less so with the Connect America Fund. I only know about CAF through working at a telecom-focused organization, and reading multiple articles on its purpose and proposed benefits piqued my interest.

Broadband, and access to it, has risen from a luxury to a necessity in order to survive in modern America. Consider that thought, and think about all the times you use a smartphone, tablet, or computer for class or work. What if you were still using dial-up? What if you couldn’t download large files? Would it affect your work?

For that reason, the FCC is reforming its Universal Service Fund and the Intercarrier Compensation initiative to help accelerate broadband build-out to rural America. It is the hope that this reform will not only drive economic growth in these rural areas, but expand the online marketplace overall, thereby creating new jobs and businesses.

The FCC describes “universal service” as “the principle that all Americans should have access to communications services.” It is also the name of a funding program run by the FCC that supports specific projects that adhere to and implement this principle. There are 4 programs within the Universal Service Fund:

  • High-cost program (now the CAF)
  • LifeLine (see previous article)
  • Schools and Libraries (see previous article)
  • Rural Health Care

All these programs are being reformed and rolled under the Connect America Fund, as many of them (especially the last two bullets) deal with rural connectivity issues.

The Connect America Fund
The Connect America Fund provides support to qualifying companies serving high-cost (usually rural) areas, in order to ensure that residents of these regions have access to “reasonably comparable service at rates reasonably comparable to urban areas.”

The FCC estimates that nearly 18 million Americans in rural areas currently do not have access to broadband. Check out the Broadband Availability map here, which shows where broadband exists and does not exist, and compare it with the map of Potentially Eligible Areas. Thirty-seven states received funding in Phase 1 of the process, the amount of funding detailed by state here.

The ultimate result would be high-speed broadband access in every corner of the country, resolving unreliable service issues.

From a planning perspective, the Connect America Fund provides a potential in-road to disconnected areas and opportunities for economic development outside of large metropolitan regions. Broadband expansion can lead to an online market expansion, allowing more companies to take advantage of online sales and marketing. It can also build efficiency by providing businesses with faster connection speeds and better larger bandwidth.

Think about how broadband has affected your life. Now, how can it improve the lives of others?

Mobile Apps for Urban Planning

Anyone with a smartphone can tell you their favorite app – whether it be a game like Angry Birds or a tool like Google Maps – and anyone with a mobile device has multiple apps for multiple uses.  In addition to using mobile devices as research tools (see previous post), mobile apps provide opportunities for planners to not only collect data, but also share data and engage citizens in the planning process.

According to Jennifer Evans-Cowley, apps provide “the opportunity to engage new audiences, because a lot of people don’t have time to go to a public meeting.”  She goes on to say, “The nice thing about social media is really that the time frame of participating is quite brief. You can put in your two cents without necessarily putting in a whole dollar.”

Evans-Cowley’s research on this topic was published in 2011, entitled: There’s an App for That: Mobile Applications for Urban Planning.  Evans-Cowley and student Brittany Kubinski also surveyed planners on their use of mobile apps in 2012, reporting that the most commonly used apps on a daily basis were social media-based, such as Facebook and Twitter. Note taking apps like Prezi were also popular. Future needs described included apps that provide census data, location of healthy food stores, and APA awarded site locations.

The following are some apps listed from Planetizen and Cyburbia that planners should keep on their radar:

  • Transportation – Railbandit: mobile app for light rail in US & Canada. It displays information on upcoming trains and, if your phone is GPS equipped, you can also track yourself on the train
  • Economic Development – ESRI BAO: From their site: “With the free BAO for iOS app, you can access key demographic and market facts about any location in the U.S., using your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch”
  • Public Participation – Accela Mobile 311: This iphone app enables users to take an active role in their community by requesting services or reporting incidents to their local government agency.
  • Zoning – ZONER: From their site: “Zoner BETA gives you the ability to calculate the maximum buildable floor area for your property in seconds. Just enter the zoning values and let it work for you.”

Check out even more apps here.

Social Media: Keeping Us Connected in Times of Crisis

I decided to write this post in honor of my favorite city and all my family who lives there.

While there may never be a way we can fully avoid tragedy in our lives, there are ways we can help others through it, and that’s exactly what many people did in Boston yesterday. I am always struck by the kindness and heroism displayed during events like this, and many of these acts were shared over Facebook and Twitter as encouragement to others. People who were physically in the area responded to help, and – because of technology – people who were not physically in the area were able to respond as well.

A spreadsheet publicly hosted by Google was created after the bombings to help out-of-town runners and families find a place to stay. Over 6,000 entries were made.  Google also set up a person-finder to help connect those looking for loved ones and those with information about their location. The Red Cross has a similar website called Safe and Well in which users can list themselves as “safe and well” after a disaster and search for loved ones.

Many used Twitter and Facebook to let loved ones know they were ok, since the airwaves were congested with an overwhelming number of calls. Local restauarant El Pelon Taqueria used Twitter to let people know they were open for business and were offering cold drinks and a place to charge cell phones.

People are also banding together on Twitter to declare that they will run the Boston Marathon next year in honor of the victim’s of the bombing.

Mobile Devices as Research Tools

We use our cell phones, tablets, and laptops for work and play, but what about research? Our smartphones can do more than take phone calls, and our tablets can be used for more than reading pdfs; both can be used as data collectors.

There are more than 6 million mobile phones in use worldwide today, and that number is expected to rise to 1 billion smartphones in 2013. Incorporating these new tools in research can dramatically increase the “number of observation points potentially available to researchers.”

The following are examples of current projects exploring the use of mobile devices as research tools:

  • At UCLA’s Center for Embedded Network Sensing, research on Participatory Sensing is continuously conducted to discover how individuals relate to their local environments, and test new technologies in order to “transform our capacity to help individuals, families, and communities monitor and improve their health behaviors, adopt sustainable practices in resource consumption, and participate in civic processes.”
  • A PhD project from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University used locational data from Twitter and Foursquare to make a social map of cities like Pittsburgh and New York. The geographic maps are divided into Livehoods based on clusters of data.

Although many of us are not technical experts, most of us know how we use technology. We can apply our personal experience to research techniques, and perhaps broaden our horizons by partnering with computer programmers in order to develop new ways to obtain and process mobile data.

Life Wireless & Affordable Technology

For many of us, it is difficult to remember the days before we had our smart phone – the days where we used pay phones to check in or had to wait until we got home to check our emails on our desktops. Today, it seems like everyone has a cell phone. But “everyone” is a relative term.

The price of buying a cell phone and paying for service, while much lower than the early days, can still price many people out; the advent of smartphones and bigger data plans has also increased prices.

Life Wireless , a Lifeline support program, offers free cellular service to eligible customers and also provides cheaper-than-normal plans to those who do not fully qualify for assistance. Lifeline itself is a government assisted program, and benefits apply to a single line of service per household (land or wireless).  The program was created in 1985 by Congress to ensure that all Americans have access to quality telephone service.

In addition to monthly service, Life Wireless customers receive a basic mobile handset with voicemail, text message, call waiting, and other features (smartphone not available). Service currently extends across the country, more coverage being located on the east coast and in midwest with spottier coverage on the west coast. Recently, the company has expanded its coverage to  new markets in Michigan and Texas.

Jim Carpenter, a senior vice-president with Life Wireless, stated: “We’re excited to expand our services into these two states. Our sales representatives go out into the community to reach those in most need of telephone service…A cell phone is not longer a luxury item, it is a necessity.”

As a planner, I began thinking about how people communicate and how they can access opportunities to better themselves. Cell phones are now a major lifeline of communication – both to build personal relationships, but also to access emergency services when not at home, to respond to job inquiries, and to generally stay connected. Jim Carpenter is right – a cell phone is a necessity in a highly connected world; and there is an opportunity for planners to coordinate community development with existing programs such as Life Wireless in order to help individuals and communities make these connections.

Economic Development @ Your Public Library

Public libraries are an important part of many neighborhoods, and upgrading them with new technology can and is helping improve individual lives. Libraries have been important partners in many Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) projects, which have received American Recovery and Reinvestment grants through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

An American Public Libraries report , released in February 2013, states that these investments have “enabled libraries to improve their public access technology resources, better address workforce development needs, expand digital literacy training opportunities, and create stronger community linkages and integrated services.”  The report estimates that 3408 libraries were received funds in the form of three different grant programs:

  • 1744 – public computer center,
  • 266 – sustainable broadband adoption and
  • 1438 – comprehensive community infrastructure.

Many of these libraries can now offer high-speed broadband to their patrons, as well as updated computers, and helps provide training programs in conjunction with these services. For example, in DC, the District of Columbia’s Community Computing Resources project (DC-CCR) focuses on economically vulnerable populations by providing computer skills, job search and internet use training with current library staff and outside instructors. Equipment and connectivity are also being improved; as of September 2012, 767 new computers were installed and broadband connectivity upgraded from 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps at all sites.

What can planner’s take away from this report? How can we expand our vision to include innovative ways to get funding and improve communities through the use of public institutions like our libraries?