As I finish up my semester, I would like to share some of my thoughts and intentions for this blog and how well I believe I achieved or did not achieve them.

This blog was a means for me to quickly share my ideas and research to a large audience. While the efficiency of initiating, managing, and updating a blog is clear in the sense that the moment I hit “Publish”, a post or page publishes, it does not completely satisfy the requirements of a participatory planning process. In fact, the title of this blog is really a misnomer. The name “Sustainable Community Design for Public Housing” should really be and has since evolved to require a label more like “Sustainable Community Design for Public Housing Residents.

So, despite its many positive and useful qualities, a major shortfall of this blog is the lack of involvement with residents. However, I did learn one essential element of participatory planning that I was surprised by… one that strikes my mind especially. Physical designs to address the problems of public housing and associated residents are often limited by a distinct lack of social and cultural context embedded in the designs. Also, public housing residents desire the same qualities in neighborhoods that any resident desires: namely, comfort, sense of belonging, working fixtures, a visually attractive home, and a sense of pride in one’s own home and neighborhood.

However, the lack of direct involvement with residents was, in many ways, intentional. The Charlottesville area struggles with many preexisting and persistent social and cultural prejudices as well as historic injustices. To approach public housing residents without being adequately prepared about their perspectives and background beyond stereotypes, would not serve them well. Further, to directly speak to residents without an end objective of literally, physically, and IMMEDIATELY helping them with their problems would be an injustice as well. People affiliated the University often have a “paratrooper” mentality that I have tried to avoid… that is, jumping in to “save the day” and immediately withdrawing or leaving the vicinity based on the timeline of students and faculty (the semester academic calendar).

In addition, not only do I, as a researcher, planner, and urban designer, need to be adequately prepared to face public housing residents in person, but the residents themselves must be willing to be truly involved and initiate change from within. How this is to be done, is the ultimate question.

Could this line of work become a way that public housing residents develop workforce skills, give back to their community, and earn a living/have opportunities for volunteerism?

To view additional Design Sustainably videos, visit: http://designsustainably.blogspot.com

 
There’s a strong correlation between the energy efficiency of a building and the health of that building’s residents.

For more info, see:

Healthy Public Housing Initiative

US HUD Public Housing Environmental and Conservation Clearinghouse

New York City Housing Authority Green Initiatives: NYCHA is Going Green

Boston Housing Authority: Healthy Public Housing Initiative

Recycling industry provides more jobs than the solid waste disposal industry! 

Source: Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality: "Other Economic Benefits of Recycling"

See the original version in the relevant diagrams section of this blog.

Here’s are some fantastic resources:

BRING Recycling

Other Economic Benefits of Recycling

Most people can understand the “Warm Glow” reason to recycle, or the personal warm feeling that individuals get when they recycle, knowing that they have done their part to help the environment. However, is there such a thing as a casual recycler? Do intermittent recycling habits help the environment? The “Other Economic Benefits of Recycling” article suggests that for recycling to be a viable alternative to landfills, processing and end product use must also be local. Currently, only recycling collection is always local. The importance of local recycling from collection to the new product is similar to the idea of and need for local food. Local food is more sustainable because the food is sourced directly from the farmer and no truck has traveled hundred or even thousands of miles to deliver that food. With typical food deliveries in today’s global society spanning long distances, gasoline is consumed at a completely unsustainable rate.

The same concept can be applied to recycling. For recycling to be economically viable AND environmentally sound, the recyclables cannot be traveling miles upon miles to reach their ultimate destinations in their new iterations as post-recycled products.

http://www.epa.gov/ncer/multimedia/audio/scienceworks/transcript_styrofoam.html

The link to the audio podcast is at the top of the page.

Excerpt:

“Sometimes, it is easy being green.

Residents at Roxbury’s Orchard Gardens Estates are making their own contributions to help the earth. In March, the estates became the first family public housing development in Boston to have an on-site recycling program.

According to Luz Maria Colon, a community organizer with the Madison Park Development Corporation, the “Orchard Gone Green” program is an example of how city government and neighborhood members can work together to improve the city, as well as a way to show young people how to be leaders in the community.

“We started working with the city’s recycling program last summer,” Colon said. “I am very proud of the youth from the estate who took the initiative to get this program off the ground.””

The New York Times: In New York’s Public Housing, Spreading the Gospel of the Recycling Bin

The New York Times: Paper, Plastic, and Persistance Video

Organizing a Recycling Program in Public Housing

Grassroots Recycling in NYC Public Housing Developments 

Recycling. It’s not just for environmentalists anymore. There exists a common misperception that residents of public housing don’t have time to think about environmental issues because they are just trying to get by, day-to-day.  These media attempt to dispel this myth and misunderstanding.