Visions For An Equitable And Vibrant City

It is often easy to castigate large cities or third world countries as failures in the field of affordable housing, yet the crisis, like an invisible cancer, manifests itself in many forms, plaguing both urban and suburban areas. Reformers have wrestled passionately with the issue for centuries, revealing the severity of the situation in an attempt for change, while politicians have only responded with band aid solutions. Unfortunately, the housing crisis easily fades from our memory, replaced by visions of homeless vets, or starving children. Metropolis magazine explains that “…though billions of dollars are spent each year on housing and development programs worldwide, ? At least 1 billion people

After reading the case study Welcome to the new town manager, by Mary Jane Kuffner Hirt, I established three major problems the community of Opportunity needed to correct. These problems involved the water & sewer system, the balancing budget, & the pay-as-you-go method. The city manager, Jennifer Holbrook, must implement strategies that would correct these problems quickly.

Muriel Bowser has a vision of rebuilding the DC community and providing a promising future for the residents. In fact, she highly regards residents’ opinions and wants to include them in the transitional process in order to create a culture of inclusion and transparency. As a way of increasing public participation, Muriel Bowser

Within DC government, Mayor Muriel Bowser has made various contributions to the improvement of current social, economic, and environmental issues in which plagues residents. Recommendation of further leadership goals and measurements

A junior in Brownsboro High School, Ashley Dixon was asked an important question, “What improvement would you like to see in Brownsboro/Chandler.” In receiving this question, Dixon pondered for a while and gave her response : “ I would like to see more places to eat, more areas of entertainment, and new schools hopefully soon.” However, she added, “the only issue is that they would have to raise the taxes, and find some investors, but overall, it would make the lifestyle here more entertaining. We would also expand the area and hopefully attract more people into town.” Altogether, Dixon just wants the best for her hometown, her family and her peers.

We met for lunch with Marisela Williams, the Director of HR for Freedman Seating. The company produces bus seats and frame structures for buses, motor coaches, vans and specialty vehicles. It’s a family owned company that’s being around for over 150 years and employees approximately 650 workers. She has been with the company 3 years and prior to that she worked for an organization that had 350 stores across the United States with approximately 540 total employees. Below are the series of questions that we asked her along with her responses.

My choice of whom my subject is isn’t as typical as the Popular choice of ‘Donald Trump’, or ‘Justin Trudeau’. This essay is about Naheed Nenshi, the re-elected mayor of Calgary.

Paul Rook has been dynamic in the Scarborough group for more than 35 years, as a teacher, a political coordinator and a member in nearby associations. He taught in different secondary schools all through Scarborough and had a specific energy for showing Civics class. For a long time he was full-time Vice-President and after that President of the Scarborough area of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation. He is Secretary of Agincourt Community Services Association and Chair of the Nominations Committee.

For many years cities like Detroit, Toledo, and Cleveland to name a few, have been slowly losing population and the end of the decrease still hasn’t been determined yet. The city of Cleveland has been hit with multiple downturns; declining steel mill, massive ford plant shutdowns, increased crime rate, and the inner city school district quality. Coming into this world, we are always striving towards the “American Dream” and for the people in the city; this idea is starting to fade away because of the lack of opportunity for them to succeed. The city council of Cleveland needs to rebuild the industry and fund better schooling in order to prevent thousands of people from leaving.

The Cleveland Policy Planning Report was implemented on a smaller scale in the sense that its main focus was addressing the mass inequity in the city. Other problems like considering solutions to the failing economy were discussed yet, they were addressed through an equity lens. To elaborate, one aspect of the plan was not just to bring jobs to Cleveland but instead to bring jobs to Cleveland that were targeted for a specific demographic. The Connecting Cleveland 2020 Citywide Plan on the other hand, was much broader in this subject and had a grander vision for Cleveland. Issues of equity were included in its description in addition to other pressing subjects absent from the Cleveland Policy Planning Report such as environment, arts/culture, sustainability and

The election campaign represents how we as voters are well-informed and mature enough to choose whom we are going to support and will eventually vote during the election. The election is known as the main support, or the backbone, of our democracy and without an election, there is no democracy. The recent mayoral race is one of the most democratic elections in the history of Illinois. It has always been a lively show of democratic ideals for the state of Illinois and has always been that way in its history. Aurora sees the dawn of a new collaboration between the different ethnic groups present in the city. Mayor Irvin wants to represent each and every minority group as he has always dreamed of a united Aurora, not mindful of the colors or races interacting with one

As part of our final report we are expected to select a planning issue within the City of Boston and undertake an analysis of the issue from a planning perspective. An issue that the City of Boston is dealing with that caught my attention was the lack of affordable housing available to its current and future residents. As cities start to evolve and attract large amounts of people, they also face some drawbacks that can affect where and how city residents can live. Our trip to Boston, Massachusetts opened my eyes to the city’s housing issue and its increasing housing and land values. An issue of this nature often causes residents to be pushed out of the city, into the suburbs or can cause homelessness. Low to moderate income families and youth across the City of Boston are struggling to pay rent and make ends meet. After our meeting with the Boston Housing Authority, I wanted to further explore the issue of housing affordability so I reached out to the City’s Department of Neighborhood Development for more information This paper will look into some topics such as when housing became an issue in the city, if Boston’s student population plays a role, if there any shortcomings in terms of how the city plans for affordable housing, if there are any specific programs in place that deal with affordable housing and if Boston is looking into what other cities may be doing.

I have spent copious amounts of time in communities stricken with low socioeconomic statuses, less fortunate than the usual neighborhoods I see in Pikesville. The experiences has engrained a strong moral compass into me, leading me to have a solid goal; of beautifying and bettering areas of destitute.

Street Fight is a documentary film by Marshall Curry. The documentary film is about the Election in 2002 with Cory Booker versus Sharpe James, who was both running for mayor of Newark, New Jersey. This documentary mainly focuses on Cory booker and how he goes about this election. Cory Booker is a 32-year old, Rhodes Scholar/Yale Law and an elected councilman for the city's poor in Central Ward. This film takes place once again in the year of 2002, month of April and May in Newark.

Housing is one of the most pressing issues facing communities today. It effects practically all demographics, especially students, minorities, and low-income workers. College towns are often face the toughest challenges, with many students experiencing an extremely high cost of living. Without a detailed housing plan drafted by community members there is no chance of improving the conditions of housing or their related expenditures. So, what should be done about housing in college towns? How can we hope to provide for a municipality’s citizens while keeping costs down? Can neighboring institutions and cities assist or should they give communities the autonomy to improve themselves? The answers, I hope, will be found within the rest of this essay.