SPAM_2021 by SPAM UVA

FALL 2019 - SPRING 2021

STUDENT PLANNERS ASSOCIATION MAGAZINE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SPA @ UVA

SPA Executive Team Members

SPA Magazine Editors

Sugar Research in Hershey, Cuba

Conversations with MUEP Faculty - Barbara Brown Wilson

Seneca Falls, WV

Conversations with MUEP Faculty - Alissa Ujie Diamond

Planning and Big Data at UVA

2020 National Planning Conference

Frank Dukes on the Memorial to the Enslaved Laborers

How Can Planners Advance Environmental Justice?

Planning Internship Survey

2020 Summer Internship Spotlight - Adam Kdach

2020 Summer Internship Spotlight - Meghan Asbury

100 Mile Thanksgiving

Recipes

Hoos Without Cars (HWC)

TedTalks for Planners

How Kids Can Help Design Cities

Petersburg, VA

Green Infrastructure Planning

Right: The City of Havana, Cuba. Image provided by Alum Tyler Hinkle, 2019.

SPA @ UVA

STUDENT PLANNNERS ASSOCIATION

SPA is the Student Planner’s Association at UVA. Student Planners Associations are active in Planning Departments at universities throughout Virginia and the nation. Involvement in SPA is a great opportunity to grow as a professional, expand your network, and get to know you fellow students at any level of commitment. SPA connects planning students at UVA to professional development opportunities, resources and to one another. SPA has organized: 1) Panel discussions on various topics of interest such as: • Post-Suburban Planning • Equity in the Built Environment • Covid-19 Impacts on the Planning Profession 2) Professional workshops such as: • Portfolio and resume-building Work shops • Group study sessions • Professional certification information sessions 3) Fun student body and department-wide events: • An annual Thanksgiving potluck featuring locally-sourced dishes • End of semester Parties • Game nights • Happy hours among the student body and Student Planning Association Chapters at other Universities

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• Field trips to experience various places and meet with practicing professionals performing a wide range roles in those places SPA is also instrumental in getting students prepared for professional certification. SPA directly coordinates with the American Planning Association to get students the information they need to prepare for the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) exam and provides students discounted rates to the APA National Planning Conference and the APA Virginia Chapter Annual Conference. SPAM, the aptly named magazine of the Student Planners Association is intended to serve as a resource for prospective, accepted and current students to showcase the organization’s activities, provide student and faculty perspectives on planning topics and the broader context of their work, and provide insight into students’ experience throughout the program as well as how future students might get involved and engage one another. Through it’s work, SPA strives to build a respectful and welcoming community of planning professionals, advance the discourse on planning topics outside of the classroom and provide a rich social experience to all students in the Department and involved in Planning education at UVA. We would love to have you involved!

Top Left: SPA Fall 2019 kickball team. Top Right: SPA re-purposing a parking space on Grounds for Parking Day 2019. Center: Habitat Rake-A-Thon in

for the Fall

Humanity of 2019.

Bottom: MUEP ‘20/21 cohort after their studio presentations in the Fall of 2019.

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SPA EXECUTIVE TEAM MEMBERS CAROLYN HEAPS

SPA Graduate President Carolyn is a MUEP student with a concentration in resilience planning. She is originally from Eldersburg, Maryland (outside of Baltimore). She is interested broadly in the ways that cities can exemplify mutually beneficial (or at least non-destructive) human/non-human interactions. Within this topic, so far she’s been doing a lot of research and work around climate adaptation planning, considering how our cities can evolve to support both humans (equitably!) and non-humans as temperatures rise, flooding occurs more frequently and more severely, and extreme weather events become more common. She is particularly interested in land use decisions, long-range planning, and hazard mitigation planning.

HARRISON PREMEN

SPA Graduate Vice President Harrison is an accelerated MUEP student with a concentration in transportation and land use. He also serves as the APA representative for the Student Planners Association. He is originally from Warrenton, VA. He is primarily interested in land use and transportation policy. For example, he loves digging into zoning codes, exploring multi-modal planning, and working on infill redevelopment projects.

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SPA EXECUTIVE TEAM MEMBERS JAKE HECKER

SPA Undergraduate President Jake is a second year BUEP student. He is from Lorton, VA. He is interested in studying public space, urban design, transportation, and urban ecology. As undergraduate president, he has been very involved in the development of BUEP social events and young professional development. Examples include the BUEP socially distanced walking tour of downtown and a panel discussion on housing justice.

LILY ROBERTS

SPA Undergrad. Vice President Lily is a second year BUEP and Dance major. She has an interest in the intersections of dance and planning, especially in how principles of movement and design thinking can be applied to the design of ethical and sustainable public spaces in urban environments. She is originally from Williamsburg, Virginia. She serves as both the Undergraduate vice president and treasurer for SPA. Lily stands out as one of the most passionate members of SPA. She has been behind the budgeting and purchase of many of our SPA gear and perks for members.

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SPA EXECUTIVE TEAM MEMBERS MOLLY NEALSON

Social Media and Marketing Molly is a fourth year in the BUEP program with a minor in foreign affairs. She is originally from Alexandria, VA. She is interested in the development of urban planning policy and design to ensure a more equitable and sustainable future. As social media and marketing chair, she has been actively promoting SPA through Facebook, Instagram, and other means.

ALAN SIMPSON

Workshop Director Alan is a third year in the BUEP program. He lives in Richmond, VA where he is originally from. He is interested in public transit infrastructure and affordable housing. Alan worked extensively on the Cville Affordable Housing Discussion Panel hosted in March 2021. In 2020, Alan became the Student Planners Association’s Workshop Director as Hannah Kemp graduated in the Fall of 2020. 8 | SPAM

SPA EXECUTIVE TEAM MEMBERS CAROLINE GAENZLE

Sustainability Chair Caroline is a fourth year BUEP with a minor in architecture. She is from Richmond, VA. She is interested in green infrastructure and planning, transportation planning, and resilient cities. As sustainability chair her role involves preparing events catered to the organization’s learning and active participation in sustainable practices on campus.

HANNAH KEMP

Former Workshop Director 2020 Hannah is a graduate of the accelerated MUEP program. She holds a certificate in urban design. She is originally from Falls Church, VA. As part of the SPA executive team, Hannah prepared numerous events such as a portfolio workshop and TED-talks. She also provided many pictures for student presentations and field trips as part of her work as a teaching assistant. We wish her the best of luck in her career, and hope she keeps in touch as an alum! SPAM | 9

SPA MAGAZINE EDITORS CAITLIN CAUM

SPA Magazine Editor 2019-2021 Caitlin is a MUEP student with a concentration in community-based design. However, her background is in architecture. She is interested in interdisciplinary collaboration with architecture, urban design, and planning. As a SPAM editor, she focused on project management, graphic representation, and surveying student groups. She would like personally thank all of the people who participated in the production of SPAM!

WILLIAM DAVIES

SPA Magazine Editor 2020-2021 Will is a second year student in the BUEP program. He is double majoring in urban planning and economics with a minor in architecture. He is from Princeton, NJ. He has an interest in economic development, sustainable communities, and environmental psychology. As an editor of SPAM, Will has been a key contributer to the magazine, and has written a number of articles for this edition. Thank you, Will! 10 | S P A M

SPA MAGAZINE EDITORS KEVIN KASK

SPA Magazine Editor 2019-2021 Kevin is a MUEP student with a concentration in land use. He is from Springfield, VA. He has been very involved with the Living River Trust in Norfolk, VA. He is particularly interested in how development, conservation, and land use intertwine. Kevin contributed a significant number of articles to the magazine and worked firsthand with professors and students for interviews. Thank you for all of your hard work, Kevin!

MAGGIE CAMPBELL

SPA Magazine Editor 2019-2020 Maggie is a graduate of the BUEP program with a minor in architecture. She plans to join the MLA program in the fall of 2021. Maggie assisted with articles for SPAM, producing promotional posters, and providing her student work to be featured in the magazine. Thank you, Maggie! We wish you the best of luck as you return to UVA this fall!

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SUGAR RESEARCH IN HERSHEY, CUBA DATE : FEBRUARY 2020

The photos shown in this article were generously provided by Tyler Hinkle, former SPA President of 2019. Currently, Tyler serves as Shenandoah County’s County Planner.

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Alum Tyler Hinkle (MUEP 2020) and Professor Suzanne Moomaw visited Havana, Cuba to attend the “Citizen Participation and Municipal Governance” symposium in February of 2020. The invitation came from Kettering Foundation and the Antonio Núñez Jiménez Foundation. In addition to the symposium, the team traveled to the former site of Hersey, Cuba. Today, it is recognized as Camilo Cienfuegos, a small village that served as the Hershey Chocolate Company’s sugar plantation. As part of Professor Moomaw’s research, the trip focused on the study of post-industrial economic decline which resulted in the closure of company towns like Hershey, Cuba. For more information on the research and travel experience, check out the link below: Professor Suzanne Moomaw Expands Research on post-Industrial Cities to Cuba’s Camilo Cienfuegos.

Top: Ruins of the Hershey Factory. Left: Professor Suzanne Moomaw and Tyler Hinkle at the Hershey Cuban Railroad. Right: Worker housing in Camilo Cienfuegos. Below: Painted signage for a factory town store.

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Previous Page - Top: Rooftops of Havana, Cuba. Bottom: Vintage cars near National Capitol. Top Left: French-inspired architecture. Top Right: Man riding a triple-extended bicycle. Bottom Left: Apartment complex in Havana. Bottom Right: Vintage taxi in local square. S P A M | 15

CONVERSATIONS WITH MUEP FACULTY

BARBARA BROWN WILSON ON THE ROLE OF PLANNING AND UVA

SPA sat down with Planning Faculty Barbara Brown Wilson and Frank Dukes and PhD Student Alissa Diamond to get their thoughts on dynamic, new roles for planners, the state of planning today and the role that UVA has in our changing profession.

SPA: What are the values and knowledge that the UVA’s A-School empowering its student body with? BBW: At the UVA School of Architecture, we are really committed to interdisciplinary, and to making sure our students have opportunities to learn by doing, and to learn through complex problem-solving. So, in our Masters of Urban and Environmental Planning (MUEP) Program, a big component of the core requirements are actually a methods sequence that has you partnering all year long on a set of courses that are understanding quantitative and qualitative methods but understanding them in partnership with a local expert who’s guiding the project not only through their lived expertise, but their longer commitment and sort of necessity of actually having the power in the decision-making process. So, it teaches our students about being useful, humble partners, listening well, and it teaches them how to animate these skills that their learning in both 16 | S P A M

quantitative and qualitative methods, and how they connect. Very few projects only use one method or only use one technique or a way of thinking about data. So, to work in partnership and to work in mutual benefit and respect is a really important thing to learn, while you’re also learning how to conduct a focus group, or how to develop a survey. So, I find it to be an incredibly gratifying thing to teach the qualitative course because it’s actually a methods of community engagement and research class that not only planners take but also landscape architects and policy students and engineers, really anyone from across the University who’s passionate about this work can take one of these classes. But its really not only learning your traditional qualitative methods but then also learning about methods that help us understand things that are hard to express in words or that transcend linguistic boundaries. Today in class, we talked about counter mapping, so thinking about how you use the spatialization of knowledge in different ways to think about narratives

that are often underheard or suppressed, think about restructuring narratives to give power to those who actually deserve it and don’t have it, about using art and voice and multimedia ways to think about how we tell stories spatially and how we understand space differently. We also do things like body mapping and other techniques, like photo-voice, that are about understanding how to work through something that might be hard to express in words but is a really important thing to take apart. And I think this actually allows us and prepares us to help our students deal with the next set of urban issues which are really around climate change and racial justice and a lot of the really hard, important issues of our time that manifest in the built world but have all of these dynamics that have to be considered together and in partnership with people. So, we try to give opportunities to think those things through in real time. SPA: What is the role of a planner ? BBW: For me, the role of the planner can be many different things, it’s one of the real joys of teaching urban planning, is how many roles planners take on. The field emerged in a sort of more professional, solidified form as cities started to need collaboration around complex systems like automobile transit and public works and water systems to combat mass amounts of diseases like cholera that were really spread through bad sanitation practices, but it also came out the need to provide social services for communities, and the need to understand land use in a way that could grapple with making sure that our spaces allowed for sunlight, that allowed for the other parts of health and wellness, that they also allowed for legibility and readability, if you’re a landowner. What’s really exciting is that these days, we’ve matured well beyond those sort of basic understandings of the role of planner in the city and instead, I think, the opportunities planners have to redress a lot of the inequities that have been built into our land use system because

we didn’t acknowledge the disparate impacts that were harming many communities across the globe and certainly in the United States are now opening up a whole set of roles for urban planners that allow them to be hybrid facilitators that are using technical knowledge, but also social and cultural humility to really meet people where they are, understand what’s happening in a place based on lived expertise, use ethics and tools of community organizing to build power when necessary to get an understanding of what a larger collective of people might want, skills of negotiation and conflict resolution when your community doesn’t agree, which is almost all the time, skills of project management to make sure that a good plan becomes embodied into action and actually does meet the equity goals and the resilience goals and the economic development goals, whatever goals of the project there are, and then accountability, so planners are often really good at identifying how we measure success and then monitoring progress to make sure that its not all just talk, but it’s actually action. So, I think planners have a tremendous amount of ways that they can draw from the skills that they use, and really the special thing about this profession is that it really sees the city as a complex, adaptive system and it understands that things will change, and actually change is not all bad, but being able to hold space for the centering of your community’s values in whatever decision-making processes you need to take on is a critical component. So, it’s a really fun thing to teach because you have to have many skills in order to anticipate the unanticipated.

Barbara, thank you for your incredible insight!

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SENECA FALLS, WV MUEP | FALL 2019

In Fall 2019, MUEP students planned a short end of semester trip to West Virginia as part of SPA. Students hiked up to the Seneca Falls rocks which overlook the mountain valley.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic began, this was one of the last student trips taken as part of the Department of Urban + Environmental Planning. We savor this experience as one of the last that we could experience as a group for the class of 2020 and 2021.

Students met with the City of Harrisonburg Planning Department before heading into the hilly landscape of West Virginia. Beforehand, they explored the local cuisine and downtown. Students stayed in a cabin used for outdoor summer camps in the high season. Along the way, they had adventures with storytelling, exotic food experimentation, and even Kevin’s banjo! To our SPAM readers, we hope these images bring back fond memories of life before the pandemic! 18 | S P A M

Top Right: MUEP’s left to right; Caitlin Caum, Hannah Kemp, Kevin Kask, Adam Kdach, and Tyler Hinkle. Top Left: Kevin climbing the Seneca Falls rocks. Center: Seneca Falls Mountain Top.

Right Center: Tyler Hinkle and Hannah Kemp overlooking the Seneca Falls valley. Bottom: Cabin lodging for the overnight trip.

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CONVERSATIONS WITH MUEP FACULTY

ALISSA UJIE DIAMOND ON THE ROLE OF PLANNING AND UVA

SPA: What is the role of a planner? AD: My perspective is an interesting one because I come to planning education from the perspective of architecture and landscape. The reason I’m in planning, is because I was really frustrated with design fields. I think its in large part because of the existence of the field of urban planning and the differentiation of fields of expertise, but I was really frustrated with the lack of social and historical context that we were working with as spatial designers and I felt that in order to have a responsible spatial practice you need to consider all these social and historical factors. So, for me I think the role of the planner can be multiple. We were looking today (in class) at the “image of the ecosystem of social change” and I think that planners can be formal planners and can also be in some ways, anyone because everyone is theorizing and planning as far as how they live their daily lives. So, what I’m interested in terms of pedagogy and research is, how do we expand the idea of who does planning and what planning is in terms of how formalized it is and how can we also recover histories that are useful in thinking about how we want to shape the future. It’s kind of non-answer answer but really its that everyone is planning and so how do we come to a more equitable future by expanding the idea of who counts as planner. 20 | S P A M

SPA: What are the values and knowledge that the UVA’s A-School empowering its student body with? AD: That’s something that’s constantly contested and I think that that’s a really productive conversation to be having. For instance, this summer some young alumni organized a kind of call for action in terms of making demands of the administration in light of the kind of demands that were emerging from the George Floyd killing and Black Lives Matter protests that were happening over the summer and spring, and so I think that kind of tension is really productive, and as we were taking about disruption in class today, the idea that students and alumni are kind of looking towards the futures that they want to be shaping and asking that the administration and faculty really think about what is the body of knowledge that we want to be giving students. I’ve come from both a critique point of view. In large part I came back to UVA because I was frustrated with the canonical views of design education and both architectural history and landscape and archi-

tectural theory frustrated by the narrowness of the paradigms that were coming out of the base education that I was given as a practitioner and then once I hit practice, not really having the frames that I felt I needed in order to process really difficult histories that were coming across as I was doing research for park design for instance, like histories of slavery, histories of native American land dispossession, were all very much present but I wasn’t really allowed to talk about them as part of a design team. So, what I hope is that education and academic spaces provide places that aren’t quite as tied to the market forces that prevent you from talking about those important issues and provide spaces where you’re allowed to have these contentious discussions about what counts as spatial knowledge and what counts as planning knowledge. SPA: What are the hot planning topics of the current time? AD: I think there are so many. Call to action is a really good example of the struggle to try and take the bigger societal demands and visions and figure out what does that actually mean for what we’re doing every single day, what we’re teaching, what we’re talking about, the structures of power within our own school, so I think that really for me these are often the hot topics that I’m thinking about, like what is all this larger debate, like how does it land in terms of what I do when I wake up n the morning. And I think that, at least for now since I’m fairly new to teaching and fairly new to the research world, So, for me that’s the hot topics and I think that’s because in part as my position as a new faculty member who’s getting to write my own syllabus for the first time. But I do think the issues that were talking about in class in terms of what are useful frames for thinking about why the world is the way it is and where do these bizarre systems come from that seem so self-evident when you’ve grown up in them but are really incredibly specific, and what

are useful tools for navigating through those or pushing against them, or hacking or subversively using those, whatever strategies you decide to use. I think it’s interesting because so much of the schools messaging especially in the design or design-oriented departments is so future oriented, and I think that’s great but you can’t really be future oriented if you cant understand where the “now” you’re trying to change is coming from. SPA: Where do you see planning going? AD: Given the circumstances of COVID, of the really obvious acceleration and obviousness of climate change, I’m just like, we’re in a moment, and I think we always have been, probably my entire life but its so much more visible to me now, were in a moment of intensive indeterminacy, and that’s super scary but also, there are so many possibilities that I’ve been thinking about in the past year that just weren’t available to me before this. Like the idea that the systems that we have and always thought were permanent are being fundamentally called into question from a lot of directions, is a thing that I’ve just been thinking about a lot in terms of what does it mean to be a person who does anything in this world right now. So that’s another answer not answer, but I’m really inspired by Anne Marie brown who are talking about emergent strategy, and the idea that small action and dispersed action over long periods of time and over large geographies can organize us in ways that we have to let go of our top-down paradigms about design in order to be able to recognize and to live in. I’m really excited about that because I see a lot of our systems that, like I said the systems that I have seen as permanent as undergoing really fundamental change.

Alissa, thank you for your eye-opening interview!

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PLANNING AND BIG DATA AT UVA Image Source: UVA School of Data Science, Hopkins Architects and DumontJanks, 2020.

“Big data” is having an increasingly important role in the planning profession. Planners have many sources of data available to them to inform their policy and project decisions. For instance, cities use data from the Census and American Community Survey to determine how state and federal resources are allocated. Many cities also maintain their own publicly available GIS data sets. However, Census data are based on population surveys that are done at best, within a few years of one another and City Open data do not provide measures of public opinion. On the other hand, vast amounts of data that can be analyzed in real time are generated everyday through our use of social media, platforms like Google and apps that we download to our phones. Surveying populations is costly and labor-intensive. Big data is accessible to anyone with minimal coding experience or can be purchased from data companies at a fraction of the price of a survey. The use of Big data is not limited to data scientists. If planners can learn to extract the most useful bits of data from the wealth of information created by our digital infrastructures, they can reveal valuable insights into how people use move around cities, utilize public spac22 | S P A M

Although exciting frontier in the profession, planners must learn to use big data ethically, as they do in other areas of the profession. For more, visit: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/06/08/your-big-data-responsibility-the-rise-in-data-ethics/?sh=cd1ec6f72f79 . The UVA Planning Department is continuing to explore the possibilities of Big Data on the Planning profession. Andrew Mondschein has written extensively on Yelp Reviews and the insights they provide into desired transportation modes. Similarly, Tim Beatley’s Biophilic Cities team is exploring the use of Twitter data in determining how people have accessed nature during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the growth of the School of Data Science at UVA and the development of the new school of data science building, there is more potential for collaboration with the planning department. With the know-how of data scientists and planners’ awareness of urban systems, trends in urban systems and public discourse and unique population information can be revealed. Those interested should take Quantitative Analysis (just kidding, you have to take this!) and Urban Data science with Bev Wilson.

2020 NATIONAL PLANNING

Covid-19 had a huge impact on the American Planning Association 2020 National Planning Conference and the 2020 APA Virginia Chapter Conference. Although not being able to meet in person took away some of the in-person networking opportunities that normally make the Conference a great event, APA and the UVA Planning Department were able to adapt to provide a meaningful conference experience to its students and attendees. The UVA Planning Department paid for the registration fees of the student body to the 2020

CONFERENCE

Virginia Chapter Conference connecting students to the educational and online-networking opportunities of the conference in lieu of attending in-person The Planning Department has offered to do the same with 2021 National Planning Conference in May 5-7, which covers a variety of topics ranging from attainable housing challenges, equity in disaster planning, abolishing parking minimums, diversifying single-family zones and pandemic impacts.

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FRANK

DUKES ON THE MEMORIAL TO THE ENSLAVED LABORERS

I was with a group of people that were advocating back in the beginning of 2007, 2008, and 2009 that the University of Virginia needed to tell a more complete history, that a lot of our history had been hidden. Certainly there’s value in telling that history in and of itself, but also the fact is that we have a significant number of racial disparities within our institution and within the community at large that the University has a role in, and that we really understand our history and why we have those disparities and what we need to do to address those disparities. One element for that history is to develop a memorial to enslaved laborers. When I went to the University, I was a transfer student, but I did spend two years here, graduating in 1975, the narrative was there were no slaves on grounds because, correctly, Jefferson had forbidden students from bringing their “servants” on grounds. Correctly, I mean in the sense that it was true that Jefferson did attempt to do that. However, what we’ve leaned in the past couple of decades is in fact that this was a landscape of slavery, with many, many dozens of enslaved people working on the grounds, certainly during construction but also later. So, at 4,000 that we know of and 4,000 and up from that. Students were very disappointed of the one recognition of slavery at the University which was a slab in the Rotunda put up in 2007 which essentially said, “Recognizing the contributions of the workers, both enslaved and free who helped realize Jefferson’s vision”. So, the only recognition was still centering Jefferson and was a slab that most people wouldn’t even see as they

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walked over it. So, students advocated for creating a memorial. We had the project UCARE, University and Community Action for Racial Equity. We hired some of those students as interns, as they developed the ideas, they developed a student organization MEL, the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, and they advocated for it, and finally in 2016, the Board of Visitors approved moving forward with such a memorial. I had no idea that I would actually be involved in the design, but was asked to join the design team that was responding to this request for proposals in 2016, Howler and Yoon, and we were selected to do the design for the memorial. I think we were selected largely because we did not come in with a design, we came in with a suggestion for a process. What we needed to do was to engage students, staff, faculty, alumni, and most especially the community members, and especially representatives of the descendant community, descendants of the enslaved population here, and ask them, what do they think this memorial should be? Not necessarily what it should look like, but what stories does it need to tell? What histories should we be understanding from that memorial? What emotions

should it evoke? How should it be distributed, should it be in one place or should it be in different locations? So, the design team spent about 7 or 8 months meeting with individual groups, visiting Monticello, Montpellier, and hosting community-wide meetings. We did that at the Jefferson School’s African American Heritage Center, we did that at Ebenezer Baptist Church, and Mount Zion First African Baptist Church, both of those historic African American Churches, the Alumni Association, students eating at Newcomb Hall, and so forth, and we had hundreds and hundreds of people who made comments about what this memorial should mean, what it should evoke in people and ultimately we came up with a Memorial that’s a Freedom Ring and the different components of it reflecting what we heard, that it should have the names of the enslaved to the extent possible, which it does, on the inside. It should reflect the beauty of the work that these very skilled workers actually did, so the surface on the inside is very smooth, beautiful stone, but also the hardship, so it should not avoid the truth. So, the outside is rough and striated, and it is large enough to not be missed, but close enough to the community. It was the community members in particular who said, “if we do this on the lawn, we’re not going to go there, we don’t feel welcome there.” So, its in the triangle of grass which is next to the Corner, still on the world heritage site, which is also important. So that was a lot of work, a lot of people from the community contributed their ideas, the design team really reflected hard, kept bringing back different ideas for community members to take look at and say, “I like this” or “I like this part of this” and coming back ultimately with a design that the community said they liked and that the Board of Visitors approved. Fundraising happened, it broke ground a year ago, and the memorial is (now)

complete. We had an event that was a private event for local descendants although actually some drove in. So not a large group, some 20-25 people that came in December, when the memorial was still very much under construction, but at least they could see the inside, they could see their names, and it was certainly a powerful and moving experience and we think that this is going to be something that will help us understand our history more, help the African American community understand that there are people at the University that want to see this recognition and help us also stimulate questions like, “What else has been happening?”, “What happened to these enslaved people?”, and “Why are these racial disparities here today and what can we do to address them?”. From all of us at SPAM: Thank you, Frank!

Image Source: Sanjay Suchak, 2020; New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/16/arts/ design/university-of-virginia-enslaved-laborers-memorial.html S P A M | 25

HOW CAN PLANNERS ADVANCE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE?

Vulnerable populations disproportionately experience the negative impacts from industrial activities and natural disasters as well as live in under-resourced communities. [1] Some of the most notorious examples of environmental injustice originating in the U.S. include the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, where water supply agencies failed to treat water to prevent the corrosion of aging pipes, exposing residents to elevated lead levels, pollution in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, where concentrated petrochemical plants have caused cancer risk in surrounding low income, majority-Black communities to reach as much as 50 times the national average, and Uranium mining in the Southwestern U.S. where abandoned, improperly sealed uranium mines have contaminated the air, water and soil of the Navajo Nation. [2] [3] Upon taking office, Biden signed a series of executive orders aimed at improving environmental justice. While some have lauded the order for integrating environmental justice efforts across agencies, others remain skeptical, citing the failures of Clinton’s Executive 12898 Order that made similar claims to advance environmental justice. [4]

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As can be seen by past Federal initiatives, environmental justice is ultimately a local issue. Although racist and discriminatory planning policies were endorsed by the highest levels of government, local decisions ultimately created the inequitable environment we inherit today. Therefore, planners are at the forefront of advancing Environmental Justice issues. Planners help mediate the interests between communities, landowners, grassroots groups, governments, and industry and work to facilitate processes that are collaborative and trusted by the public. They help determine the goals of their organizations and advocate for policies in land use, housing and transportation that advance environmental justice outcomes. Planners work to advance projects that achieve those precedents and, although this is not always be achieved, they work to create a productive dialogue between communities and decision makers.

Although the profession has historically allowed environmental injustice to occur, planners are embracing new roles as facilitators and community liaisons / advocates. (See interviews with Barbara Brown Wilson and Alyssa Diamond on the changing roles of planners)

In Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, concentrated petrochemical plants have caused cancer risk in surrounding low income, majority-Black communities to reach as much as 50 times the national average.

The future of environmental justice in the planning profession looks promising. Communities are investing in assets like green infrastructure and renewable energy. [5][6] Activists and advocates are building larger and more diverse coalitions. [5] Researchers, scientists and practitioners continue to empower communities in partnerships that involve them in citizen science, the design of their spaces, and political advocacy. [5][7] [8] Local governments are passing progressive new policies, like the City of Minneapolis who recently eliminated its historically exclusionary, single-family zoning policies. [9] Planners can build upon this growing momentum by assisting communities to come up with their own solutions rather than imposing their own and make a consistent and genuine effort to include historically marginalized groups in planning processes.

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HOW CAN PLANNERS ADVANCE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE?

1) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2017, June 02). Environmental Justice Timeline. Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://www.epa.gov/ environmentaljustice/environmental-justice-timeline 2) Clark, A. (2018, July 03). ‘Nothing to worry about. the water Is FINE’: How Flint poisoned its people. Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https:// www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/03/nothing-to-worry-about-the-water-is-fine-howflint-michigan-poisoned-its-people 3) Lartey, J., Laughland, O., & Morris, S. (2019, May 06). ‘Almost every household has someone that has died from cancer’. Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/usnews/ ng-interactive/2019/may/06/cancertownlouisana-reserve-special-report 4) Hersher, R. (2021, January 29). Hope and skepticism as biden promises to address environmental racism. Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/2021/01/29/956012329/hope-and-skepticism-as-biden-promises-to-addressenvironmental-racism 5) Cabrera, Y. (2020, January 14). Here are the environmental justice stories to watch in 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://grist.org/justice/six-environmentaljusticedevelopments-to-watch-in-2020/6) Dolesh, R. (2020, October 09). 6) How green infrastructure in parks can lead to community empowerment. Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://pittsburghparks.org/ how-greeninfrastructure-in-parks-can-lead-to-communityempowerment/ 7) Community Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health Lab. (n.d.). Community Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health Lab (CEEJH). Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://sph.umd.edu/laboratoryresources/community-engagementenvironmental-justice-and-health-ceejh 8) Schmidt, S., & Orton, K. (2019, June 07). In an Old Mobile-home Park in charlottesville, the residents get a say in the redevelopment. Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/inan-old-mobile-home-park-in-charlottesville-theresidents-get-a-say-in-theredevelopment/2019/06/05/b3396420-8569-11e9-a491-25df61c78dc4_story.html 9) Kahlenberg, R. (2019, October 24). How Minneapolis Ended Single-Family Zoning. Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://tcf.org/content/ report/minneapolis-endedsingle-family-zoning/

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PLANNING INTERNSHIP SURVEY

SPA surveyed the urban and environmental student body on their past and current internships and how these experiences relate to their future career goals in planning. 2020 was a tough year for MUEP internships. Many MUEP students had internship plans substantially altered, and all interns had to adapt to the new demands of remote work. Despite these challenges, students were able to adapt and have great internship experiences. There was a wide range of internship experiences both within and outside of the University. Students worked at University organizations like the Institute for Engagement and Negotiation, private firms like Grimm and Parker Architects and the Lane Group, public organizations like the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (FAMPO) and the Albemarle County Community Development Department, Transit Agencies like the Federal Transit Administration and Jaunt, and non-profits like Piedmont Environmental

Council and the Rails to Trails Conservancy. Although some internships even resulted in employment into the school year, many students opted to be full-time students in the Fall. Students’ interests covered a wide spectrum of the Planning profession and ranged from Environmental, Design, Transportation, Community Engagement, Local Government, Non-Profit or Research-Based, and Real Estate. These interests were reflected in the positions they wanted to have in the future, with roles including design, consulting, research and real estate development being prevalent answers. The results recorded thirty various student experiences, and the chart above shows their responses to the question, “What type of internship would you prefer?” Multiple types could be selected as part of the response. S P A M | 29

2020 SUMMER INTERNSHIP SPOTLIGHT

ADAM KDACH CA VENTURES-DEVELOPMENT INTERN

SPA: Tell me about your internship? AK: I worked for a big company doing construction management. While my duties were in construction, they provide services at all stages of development from preconstruction, finance, construction to property management. They were happy teach, and had no expectations that I knew anything prior to coming in. Even though a lot of work was done remotely, I was lucky enough to travel and meet with people in person, despite the pandemic. I was able to spend some time in Raleigh (NC) at a job site and bond with my team at dinner. Travel expenses were taken care of. The first couple weeks was mostly shadowing and me asking questions. By the second month, took on managing people. It was a bit stressful, but I really learned a lot. The internship really changed my summer, and I feel like I did practical and meaningful work. I learn better in 30 | S P A M

person, so I really enjoyed being able to do that as well. SPA: What are some of the takeaways? AK: I learned never say no to any opportunity. If the thing you’re doing is challenging, get involved and ask questions, don’t be afraid. Ask why something happened. Ask the right questions and show your curiosity and that your involved. Doing this led to me getting involved in a project in Pennsylvania. Show your commitment and be present. By doing this consistently, you can get a team to trust you. SPA: What was the most valuable insight or thing you gained? AK: Traveling and hanging out with good people.

Image Source: CA Ventures Home, 2021; ca-ventures.com

SPA: How did you grow personally/professionally? AK: In my internship, I got exposure from higher management, and was able to fit in lots of experience in a little time. Having a structured internship, the company having all services in-house gave me the resources I needed to succeed. Because the Company had no expectations that I knew anything ahead of time, I was able to grow naturally. The first days were very intimidating, but I got more confident and got to the point where I knew what I was doing. It took away my apprehension in managing people on site. I also learned to challenge negative thoughts, gained confidence, and honed my leadership skills.

want to be doing for a living and what really matters to me in my career. It exposed to different jobs and showed me that you can only control so much. I learned that I’m less interested in working with the contractor full-time on-site, not during that phase of development. I’m more interested in the project inception, how you’ll make it happen, because you can use your creativity more.

SPA: How has it influenced the direction of your career? Did it reinforce the direction you’re going or cause you to pivot?

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2020 SUMMER INTERNSHIP SPOTLIGHT

MEGHAN ASBURY T H E R O S E K E N N E D Y B O S T O N G R E E N W A Y C O N S E R V AN C Y

SPA: Tell me about your internship. MA: I interned for the Rose Kennedy Boston Greenway Conservancy, unfortunately online due to COVID. I was the Capital Projects and Maintenance Intern and reported to the Director of that department. My major focus was the redevelopment of Mary Soo Hoo Park in Boston along the Greenway that experienced issues with drug use and men urinating publicly. Really glamorous stuff. So my job was to determine how to redesign the space to discourage unseemly or illegal behavior and to incorporate exercise equipment and art into the space. SPA: What were some of the takeaways? MA: Stay flexible. Ask questions. Remember to laugh. Calling is way faster than emailing. Kindness during COVID but also 24/7 is a great skill to have as a colleague, employer, and employee. 32 | S P A M

SPA: What was the most valuable insight or skill you gained? MA: Probably working with a budget and speaking with vendors to determine what could realistically be done with the space. This wasn’t a practice, studio, dreamy redevelopment. Like, here is $25k, it costs $10k just to remove some of the existing structures so now you only have $15k, what can you actually get with this budget? This is public and nonprofit work and it is tight on the wallet. SPA: How did you grow personally/professionally? MA: My ability to adapt and stay resilient continues to grow. Hiring freeze because of COVID? No worries, I’ll piece together multiple part time internships and work. I’m resilient, that is the biggest thing. Last year was bizarre but I still managed to make meaningful connections at work and learn more about what

Image Source: Alan Auger, 2018; Mary Soo Hoo Park. https://www.rosekennedygreenway.org/smoking-cessation-in-mary-soo-hoo-park/

Image Source: The Rose Kennedy Greenway Map, 2021; Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy. https://www.rosekennedygreenway.org/map/

I enjoy within planning. SPA: How has it influenced the direction of your career? Did it reinforce the direction you’re going or cause you to pivot? MA: I really enjoy tangible work. Talking to vendors, looking at site plans and maps, literally measuring a space and visiting it and seeing how I could improve it, and in non pandemic times I would have direct (in-person) engagement with the community members. It reinforced that I want to do work that involves people, and that I am passionate about real-time work that is hands on. I know I want a job that keeps me mobile, not tied to an office. S P A M | 33

100 MILE THANKSGIVING FALL 2019 Gathering at the University of Virginia’s Baptist Church, members of the Student Planning Association joined with others from the A-School for the annual 100-Mile Thanksgiving, a traditional thanksgiving potluck with one important rule: all food must be sourced from within a hundred-mile radius of the University. The event, along with being a wonderful opportunity to share a thanksgiving meal with our own extended community of a-schoolers, serves as a celebration of and campaign for planning local, sustainable food systems. In addition to the usual suspects of reducing transportation carbon emissions and supporting the local farming economy, the APA cites that robust local food systems bring “a greater likelihood that

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residents’ greater connection to their region as a source of sustenance will lead them to care more about the region’s resources, protect them, and balance appropriately the priorities for development versus conservation of regional agriculture” (Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning, 2007). Professors came with their children and families, and students brought along friends from outside of Campbell Hall, making for a good-spirited community event worth coming back to again. Thank you to Frank Dukes, Andrew Mondschein, and Alissa Diamond for the recipes!

RECIPES SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into three or four pieces each. Insert into boiling water until completely soft. My mother would add some of the orange juice to the boiling water. Using a mixer, incorporate the other ingredients to the taste and to the consistency you wish. For some families, no additional sweetener would be needed. Others may wish to add a few tablespoons. You may prepare this a day or two in advance and keep in the refrigerator, and then reheat in the oven. You may also wish to add small marshmallows at the very end, toasted under a broiler.

1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7)

Sweet potatoes salt orange juice to taste milk (or cream, to taste) butter to taste cinnamon brown sugar or honey if de sired

GREEN AU GRATIN

1) 2 lbs hearty greens (like kale or collards) 2) 4 tbsp butter 3) 1 cup chopped onion 4) 2 tbsp flour 5) 1 cup dairy (milk, half-and- half, or cream depending on your tastes) 6) 2 cups shredded cheese (any combo of melting or hard cheeses to your preference) 7) 1 cup breadcrumbs (home made or storebought) 8) salt 9) pepper 10) nutmeg

1. Tear the greens into rough 2x2 inch pieces (or so), removing thick stems; 2. Wash the greens; 3. Boil a large pot of salted water and next to it, have an pot filled with ice water waiting; 4. Add the greens to the boiling water and boil for about 2 minutes; 5. Remove the greens from the boiling water, immediately dunking in the ice water (this sets the color but not necessary if you would rather not); 6. Remove the greens from the ice water, squeezing out all excess water with your hands as you go; 7. In a stove- and oven-safe casserole, heat the butter over medium heat; 8. Saute the chopped onion in the butter until golden; 9. Add the flour and stir rapidly until golden; 10. Add the dairy and stir; 11. Add the greens back in; 12. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg to your taste; 13. Stir in about half the shredded cheese; 14. Mix the rest of the cheese and the breadcrumbs and spread on top; 15. Bake in 450 degree oven for 10-15 minutes until the top is bubbly and brown but not burned. Ready to serve!

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RECIPES AMERI CAN PERSIMMON PUDDING WITH BASTANI IRANI FOR THE PUDDING: 1) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9×13 baking pan, or oven proof custard cups. Peel and remove the seeds from about 2 pounds of American persimmons (Fuyu Asian persimmons will also work, and can be grown in VA). Pulse in a food processor until smooth. 2) Combine the wet ingredients and sugar with the persimmon pulp using a whisk. 3) Combine dry ingredients by whisking or sifting. Add dry to the wet and mix well. Add chopped walnuts. 4) Pour into the baking dish and bake for 1 hour. It will set up like a cake but a knife will not come out clean. Allow to cool at least 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm with Bastani Irani or whipped cream. This freezes very well, and can be thawed in the refrigerator and then reheated in the oven. FOR THE BASTANI IRANI: 1) Set a medium bowl in a large bowl of ice water. In another medium bowl, beat the egg yolks until pale, 1 to 2 minutes. 2) In a medium saucepan, whisk the cream with the milk, sugar, salt and saffron. Bring to a simmer over moderate heat, whisking, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Very gradually whisk half of the hot cream mixture into the beaten egg yolks in a thin stream, then whisk this mixture back into the saucepan. Cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the custard is thick enough to lightly coat the back of the spoon, about 12 minutes; don’t let it boil. 3) Strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into the bowl set in the ice water. Let the custard cool completely, stirring occasionally. Stir in the rosewater . Press a piece of plastic wrap directly on the custard and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 4 hours. 4) Pour the custard base into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions, OR put in a metal bread loaf pan and put in freezer. For the loaf pan method, stir vigorously after 45 minutes, and then every 30 minutes after until it reaches the consistency/fluffiness of ice cream. Transfer the ice cream to a chilled 9-by-4-inch metal loaf pan, cover and freeze until firm.

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FOR THE PUDDING: 1) 2 pounds American per simmons (should be mushy, not hard, can be gathered in late fall) 2) 3/4 cup sugar 3) 1/2 cup melted butter 4) 1 cup whole milk 5) 1 cup heavy cream 6) 2 eggs, beaten 7) 1 1/2 cups flour 8) 1 teaspoon baking powder 9) 1 teaspoon baking soda 10) 1/2 teaspoon salt 11) 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 12) 1 teaspoon cinnamon 13) 1 teaspoon ginger 14) 1/2 cup walnut pieces FOR THE ICE CREAM: 1) 6 egg yolks (large) 2) 1 ½ cups heavy cream 3) 1 ½ cups whole milk 4) ¾ cup sugar 5) ½ teaspoon kosher salt 6) ½ teaspoon saffron (finely ground, saffron crocus grows very well in Virginia) 7) ¼ cup pure rosewater (can be made with local roses-https:// frugalfamilyhome.com/home/ diy/homemade-rose-water) 8) Dried roses (for garnish)

HOOS WITHOUT CARS HWC What are the most sustainable modes of transportation? How is COVID-19 affecting mobility? How will our streets look in 50 years? These questions guide the student-run bicycle research group called Hoos Without Cars (HWC).

The HWC team is made up of six undergraduate and graduate students working with Professor Suzanne Moomaw. The research project came to fruition after a study abroad trip to Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland in the summer of 2019. Under the guidance of Professor Moomaw, the students witnessed first-hand the innovative steps European cities –particularly Copenhagen– have taken to reduce their dependency on cars. City streets have separate, elevated bike lanes much wider than any in Charlottesville. There are bicycle traffic lights that turn green before lights for cars. There are even bridges designed for bicycles that are closed off to both cars and pedestrians. Copenhagen has effectively shifted its primary mode of transportation from cars to bicycles and used strategic design to make biking the fastest mode of transportation. HWC is developing strategies to make Charlottesville more bike-friendly and less dependent on automobiles. The project kicked off with inviting Morten Kabell, former mayor of Copenhagen and head of Copenhagenize, to speak to the Architecture School about bicycle mobility. Since his visit, the HWC team has gathered existing planning documents and current data from the city to lay out existing bicycle conditions. They are also developing comprehensive

studies of precedents where bicycle infrastructure has been a priority both nationally and internationally. The students have created some design interventions based on their research and hope to see some of their work come to fruition. Most recently, HWC has been studying the feasibility of implementing bike runnels on staircases around grounds. Bike runnels¬–or railings–are ramps installed along the sides of staircases so that bikers can roll their bikes up and down stairs without having to carry them. This technology is quite common in cities like Copenhagen and HWC hopes that a pilot program at UVA will persuade the University and City to take further steps to implement runnels city-wide. Biking is healthier and better for the environment, and with the help of aggressive strategic design, it can be faster, too. Bicycle infrastructure is far less expensive than infrastructure for automobiles, and prioritizing bicycling as an important mode of transportation now will do wonders for the future of sustainable and efficient mobility in Charlottesville.

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TEDTALKS FOR PLANNERS EQUITY AND INCLUSION Liz Ogbu TEDWomen 2017 What if gentrification was about healing communities instead of displacing them? https://www.ted.com/talks/liz_ogbu_what_if_gentrification_was_about_healing_communities_instead_of_displacing_them/upnext Esther Sullivan·TEDxMileHigh America’s most invisible communities — mobile home parks https://www.ted.com/talks/esther_sullivan_america_s_most_invisible_communities_mobile_home_parks/up-next OluTimehin Adegbeye·TEDGlobal 2017 Who belongs in a city? https://www.ted.com/talks/olutimehin_adegbeye_who_belongs_in_a_city/up-next DESIGNING PUBLIC SPACE AND ACCESSIBILITY Peter Calthorpe·TED2017 7 principles for building better cities https://www.ted.com/talks/peter_calthorpe_7_principles_for_building_better_cities/up-next#t-683295 Jeff Speck·TEDxMidAtlantic 4 ways to make a city more walkable https://www.ted.com/talks/jeff_speck_4_ways_to_make_a_city_more_walkable/up-next#t-2461 Chris Downey·TEDCity2.0 Design with the blind in mind https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_downey_design_with_the_blind_in_mind/up-next#t-675199 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY Noah Wilson-Rich·TEDxProvincetown How you can help save the bees, one hive at a time https://www.ted.com/talks/noah_wilson_rich_how_you_can_help_save_the_bees_one_hive_at_a_time/up-next Kate Orff·TEDWomen 2010 Reviving New York’s rivers — with oysters! https://www.ted.com/talks/kate_orff_oysters_as_architecture/up-next COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Bennett Peji TEDxSanDiego Diversity and inclusion empowers community centered design https://www.ted.com/talks/bennett_peji_diversity_and_inclusion_empowers_community_centered_design/up-next Smruti Jukur Johari TEDWomen 2019 What if the poor were part of city planning? https://www.ted.com/talks/smruti_jukur_johari_what_if_the_poor_were_part_of_city_planning/up-next#t-138243 Thank you to Hannah Kemp for compiling this amazing list of TedTalks!

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HOW KIDS CAN HELP DESIGN CITIES TED TALK

“Our society routinely makes decisions without consulting a quarter of the population. We’re making choices about land use, energy production and natural resources without the ideas and experiences of the full community. The car, an inanimate object, has more say over public policy than this group of citizens. Can you guess which group I’m talking about? It’s children.” Urban Designer Mara Mintzer, cofounder of Growing Up Boulder, a youth-friendly city initiative, opens her TED talk by confronting her audience with an omission in community outreach. Although an apparently radical idea, involving children in the planning process, even toddlers and infants, has proved fruitful. Mintzer admits that it is fair to be skeptical: concerns that young children may not be able to wrap their heads around complex urban topics, or that their ideas would be childish or unrealistic to implement are to be expected. But not including children in city planning is still less favorable than including them. As Mintzer puts it, “if we’re building a park to be largely

used by kids, then kids should have a say in the park’s design.” And including kids in the planning process doesn’t just help create a better city for children, but for everyone. Kids cannot drive themselves to a park a mile away from their house, and teenagers can’t afford to grab an expensive lunch at upscale cafe’s downtown. Affordable buses that help young teens, tweens, and college students without cars get around the city also provide better service for independent elders in the community and commuters who can’t afford a personal vehicle. “If we can build a successful city for children, we will have a successful city for all people.” Watch the full talk at https://www.ted.com/ talks/mara_mintzer_how_kids_can_help_design_cities! For more TEDTALKS, visit the next page for a full list of videos for planning related content!

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PETERSBURG,VA AN EXPLORATION OF PARKS AND RECREATION

MAGGIE CAMPBELL FALL 2020

Petersburg, Virginia is a small city just to the south of Richmond. Its convenient location on the Appomattox River allowed it to become an important trading location for all kinds of freight. Today, the city is seeing a decline in population as people move 40 | S P A M

elsewhere to find jobs and more amenities than a smaller city like Petersburg may be able to offer. Unfortunately, this decline is only supposed to continue in the coming decades. It is important for Petersburg to come together to work on its faults and promote its assets in order to attract new growth to the area. One of the strong suits of the city is its abundance of nature. According to the 2014 comprehensive plan, the city currently has 5% of its total land area dedicated to parks and green spaces. This number is only being encouraged to increase as open spaces are advertised throughout planning as being necessary for small cities and towns to thrive. In light of the recent global pandemic, this need for accessible public spaces has grown profoundly as people desire being outside. While the current Parks and Recreation resources have served Petersburg well thus far, this report hopes to not only highlight was is currently available to the city’s citizens, but will also make recommendations on moving forward to promote Petersburg as a healthy, green city.

Top Left: Extending the Blackwater Swamp Boardwalk. Top Right: Greenway made from abandoned Seaboard System Railroad line.

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QUARTER MILE RADIUS

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AROUND PARK ACCESS POINTS

INVENTORY OF PARKS

Petersburg, Virginia is a beautiful historic city that has all of the potential to become a vibrant, healthy city. The natural elements are already in place for the city to truly promote and appreciate what is there. In order for a parks and rec plan to be complete, there must be a strong look at the future; what do we want for our children, or our children’s children decades down the road? Natural spaces like parks and green spaces take on a life of their own as a community lives and plays in it. Parks that are loved and cared for can often last longer than buildings; the goal of a public space is to create something that is going to bring a community together. While Petersburg is doing well in these regards, there is always room for improvement. Engaging the youth through school or sports programs allows them to learn from a young age just how important nature is to the built environment and to humans themselves. Projects like Rails-to-Trails or wetland education and management programs can provide the resources to encourage growth, learning, and enjoyment through the outdoors. S P A M | 43

GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AND EQUITY

Image Credits: New York Times. Gilpin, a majority-black, low-income area that was formerly red-lined, has plenty of heat-absorbing pavement and scant tree cover, making it much hotter in the summer.

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GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AND EQUITY AUTHOR KEVIN KASK Green infrastructure is made up of the interconnected network of waterways, wetlands, woodlands, wildlife habitats, and other natural areas; green ways, parks, and other conservation lands; working farms, ranches and forests; and wilderness and other open spaces that support native species, maintain natural ecological processes, sustain air and water resources and contribute to health and quality of life [1] Despite the benefits that green infrastructure can provide, its positive impact on property values means that it can also to contribute to gentrification in the areas where it is implemented. To execute green infrastructure measures, cities often turn to private financing resources and tools, attracting these investments to wealthier neighborhoods where real estate revenues can better accommodate these interventions and the political influence of residents and developers can undermine the interests of socially vulnerable groups. [2] There are many well-documented cases where this occurs, with Central Park and the High Line in Manhattan being some of the most popular examples.

these neighborhoods are significantly hotter and their residents are more prone to heat-related death than their counterparts with Richmond’s four hottest ZIP codes having the city’s highest rates of heat-related emergency-room visits. [3] Green infrastructure is essential to reducing this disparity in health and quality of environment. Green infrastructure can be planned in an equitable way in consultation with the affected community and integrated into greater plans to include affordable housing that retain existing residents. Cities should ensure that their visions for future green infrastructure do not ignore these neighborhoods and populations and include them in the planning, design and maintenance of future green assets. Sources: 1) McDonald, L. A., Allen III, W. L., Benedict, M. A., & O’Conner, K. (2005). Journal of Conservation Planning Vol 1 (2005) 6—25. Journal of Conservation Planning Vol, 1, 6-25. 2) https://www.pnas.org/content/116/52/26139 3 ) h t t p s : / / w w w. n y t i m e s . c o m / i n t e r a c tive/2020/08/24/climate/racism-redlining-cities-globalwarming.html

While green infrastructure can act as a gentrifying force, it can also play a role in correcting historical injustices, such as redlining and racial covenants, that have resulted in a lack of green assets and a disproportionate impact on the health of those in predominantly African American neighborhoods. In Richmond, Virginia, neighborhoods that were red-lined have 30% less green space than neighborhoods that were historically reserved for whites. [3] Today

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