Scarsdale Students Study Urban Planning in Real Time and Place

Scarsdale High School teachers Maggie Favretti's and Fallon Plunkett's City 2.0 class gathered on the evening of February 11 to pitch to a live audience on their Super Design Challenge solutions for urban neighborhoods. Students in this class apply a range of disciplines to an exploration of New York City and design real, viable improvements to an aspect of urban life that interests them. Four student teams presented the results of their challenge to create implementable solutions that will have a positive impact on a New York City community. In each case students faced the joys and trials of pounding the pavement in New York City, making contact with relevant community organizations, identifying neighborhood needs, coming up with workable solutions and taking the opportunity to listen to residents to determine practical rather than ideological answers. This class is only open to seniors so any juniors out there who are looking for a unique, hands on urban studies experience should sign up for next year. Enjoy highlights from the evening below:

The first team to present focused on the East Village. They identified a number of diverse groups in the neighborhood (Ukrainian heritage, college students, young professionals) and wanted to find ways to connect these groups to enhance the sense of community. They decided to develop an art project to tie together some of the distinct community segments. They worked with The East Village Community School on 12th Street, Middle Collegiate Church on 2nd Avenue and a well-known Ukrainian restaurant on 2nd Avenue, Ukrainian National Home. The group placed a poster board in each location and asked visitors to write down how they say "hello". The completed posters form the basis for an art project that they plan to display in the neighborhood.

The next three groups all studied Harlem neighborhoods. One group is deeply involved with the Luis Munoz Rivera School located on 109th Street in East Harlem and is working with the school to establish a big/little mentoring system similar to what many students fondly remembered from their own Scarsdale elementary school experience.

Another student team is working with small businesses in Harlem to develop a web directory. This group discussed the challenges of finding a workable project. Although they identified a number of possible neighborhood improvements some of the projects they discussed (improving trash collection, reducing waste) ran into roadblocks when they sought to involve the necessary municipal agencies. Ultimately these false starts led them to a project where they could work directly with small businesses and employ web development skills.

The largest student group has taken on the challenge of rehabilitating a community play area on 144th Street with a jazz themed community garden and other enhancements. The group presented a number of improvement ideas for the park including murals, black top games, fence decorations and a stage. Each improvement project within the park was well researched and presented with associated costs. The group has fund raising ideas and they are working closely with neighborhood residents, schools and the community board to achieve their goals.