Student Voices on Transportation Justice Speaks Through their Art

Last semester 130 9th grade e3Civic High School students learned about environmental justice and transportation justice. I provided materials (articles and EHC blog posts) for students to review, gave a couple of presentations to the 9th grade students, and spent a day working with students think through their projects (I did this in my current role at the Environmental Health Coalition). I worked closely with Mr. Newman, a science teacher, who coordinated with the humanities and math teachers to develop a project for students to work on to showcase their knowledge on transportation justice and be able to share that knowledge with others. Students developed infographics from the information they found in the articles and EHC blog posts they read. They also went out into their own neighborhoods and took photographs of transportation justice issues they encounter, such as broken or nonexistent sidewalks, freeway congestion, transit opportunities, safe routes to transit, etc. From these photographs the students made beautiful stained glass images. Additionally, students wrote about the images they painted and how the images relate to transportation justice.

On January 26, 2016, the students had an opportunity to present their infographics and stained glass images to their parents and visitors at their “Winter Exhibition of Student Learning.” About 130 students stood by their infographics and stained glass images as their parents and others walked through the exhibit. As people stopped and looked at the exhibits, the students would share their project and what they learned about transportation justice. I heard students saying to adults, “you know when you add lanes to freeways it does not relieve traffic congestion in the long run…it just adds more air pollution in the neighborhoods.” I heard other students say to adults looking at their work say, “there are some neighborhoods that don’t have sidewalks or the streets are not safe for people walking so they are 10x more likely to be hit by a car than if they lived a more wealthy neighborhood…this is a transportation justice issue.”  Students also shared their own transportation justice stories about how they are sometimes unable to pay for transit, how in their neighborhood there are missing or cracked sidewalks, or how they felt crossing unsafe streets in their neighborhood. One student who stood by her stained glass image of a broken sidewalk told a story of how the poor conditions of the sidewalks and lack of ADA curb cutouts leave her grandmother unable to get around the neighborhood in her wheelchair. She asserted that she now this issue is a transportation justice issue.

There were probably about 200+ adults viewing the exhibit and as they stopped to see an infographic or stained glass image, there was a student there to greet them with information on what transportation justice is all about and what are the current injustices taking place in environmental justice communities. As the adults moved through the room the transportation justice message was continually reinforced by students that greeted them.

Additionally, students learned that SANDAG had a survey to get input on what type of transportation projects a potential ballot initiative should fund. As a result they set up a laptop and sign in the lobby and encouraged students and adults to take the survey urging them to support transit, funding for transit passes for youth, and say no to freeway expansion.

This event was a fantastic way to educate many people about transportation justice issues. Many students focused on the public health harm that freeways pose and that adding lanes to them is not a sustainable solution. Many other students emphasized the need for prioritizing environmental justice communities for infrastructure that makes streets safer and that more investment in public transit is needed. Through this effort, 130 high school students became knowledgeable ambassadors for transportation justice and about 200+ adult became familiar with the need for transportation justice.​

Digital Placemaking- Community-built app

On June 6, 2015, thousands of people from across the United States came together for National Day of Civic Hacking. The goal of National Day of Civic Hacking is for residents, community groups, and government to collaborate to make their communities stronger. Here in San Diego, the Placemaking Collective teamed up with Open San Diego to facilitate a workshop where people came together to create the ultimate smartphone app for people on bikes.

The creation of this smartphone app is an example of digital placemaking. According to Project for Public Spaces, digital placemaking is the “integration of social media into placemaking practices, which are community-centered, encouraging public participation, collaboration, and transparency.” Daniel Latorre of Project for Public Spaces, further elaborates, “People have embraced social media as a means to express their experiences within and knowledge about particular places, and researchers have continued to analyze these digital traces in order to better understand social activities within particular places.” The bike app seeks to do just that, provide people an opportunity to express their experience and knowledge about particular places  and have City staff unwrap the digital traces in order to better understand behavior and patterns to help inform the decisions they make.

The app is being designed by community members and staff from the City of San Diego so that it best meets their needs. City staff expressed an interest in data that showed routes being taken, the actual number of riders, the time of day, trends over time, etc. Additionally, community members expressed an interest in being able to communicate with the City regarding where infrastructure improvements need to be made or where they would like a bike rack by uploading geocoded notes and pictures at the actual site. This can help inform the decisions that the City makes regarding where to put bike lanes and make improvements to infrastructure where they are needed most and where it is most utilized.

Placemaking is about building community, expressing identity and culture, and connecting with others. This can be done in the digital realm when it is tied to the built environment, community driven, and is culturally relevant. People were really interested in being able to build community by using the app to share some of their favorite hidden treasures (i.e., urban art in alley ways, secret stair cases, etc.) and be able to upload curated rides (i.e., best places to eat tacos, historic home tours, etc.). The people who participated in the workshop represented a diverse group of riders- from people who ride long distances in spandex, to people who commute to work in a dress, to people who bike as a way of life. There was an acknowledgement that the bike community is quite diverse and that it would be great to be able to use the app to better connect and be able to share identity and culture of biking amongst the various types of people on bikes. Therefore, some people are interested being able to connect with other people on bikes by having a community board and calendar in which people can post community bike rides that people could join or advocacy opportunities where governmental bodies would be discussing transportation infrastructure issues.  

In addition to the placemaking aspects of the app, people highlighted the need for the app being able to have certain functions that are currently not available in any-one-given app, such as identifying steep topography and stress level and safety of routes (i.e., speed of traffic, where bike infrastructure is present and what kind, where it is safe to bike at night, etc.). There was also a focus on gamifying the app to encourage ridership and contributions to the app.

There were many creative ideas that were shared at this workshop (too many to mention in this blog post). The next steps for this project include working with a handful of talented volunteer coders who will be developing the app by incorporating as many of these ideas as possible. Then we plan to beta test it, improve it, and then do a proper launch for people who bike in San Diego. I’ll be sure to keep you posted!

**Are you a coder or designer and interested in getting involved? Shoot me an email atmonique.garcia.lopez@gmail.com and I’ll be sure to connect you with our coding team.

I come from....and I live next door (Interactive Art)

I recently volunteered for ACT- The Boulevard, a pop up placemaking event in City Heights, creating and facilitating an interactive art piece. The idea to put up painted doors on the sidewalk was originally spurred by organizers as a way to hide a line of U-Haul trucks parked right up against a well traveled sidewalk. However, it became so much more. I was asked to take the lead on this project and quickly started brainstorming with the others how this space through art could lead to greater human connection. We came up with the interactive art piece that prompted the people passing by and getting off the bus at the adjacent bus stop to engage with the piece and one another with the statement "I come from...and I live next door" in different languages. We placed a map of the world and handed people dot stickers to place on the map.

The interactive art piece quickly transformed this space that was once dominated by huge trucks lining a sidewalk to a place of community connection. People who would normally just walk quickly by pass the row of trucks, slowed their pace and stopped to look at the art and ask what was going on at the site. We then engaged the residents by asking them to put a dot on the place where they come from originally. What happened next was simply beautiful and showed the power and importance of creating places and opportunities for people to interact with their neighbor.

Lessons Learned

Transforming spaces to places can connect neighbors who are complete strangers. Additionally, the connection can continue outside of the place that has been transformed.

At any given time there were two or three people at the doors participating in the activity and engaged in conversation with one another.  One beautiful moment I witnessed was one woman from Zambia and one from Detroit were placing their dot on the map at the same time (City Heights is the hub of cultural and ethnic diversity in San Diego, with over 30 different languages spoken and people from all over the world). They started talking with one another and found out they only lived a few blocks from each other in City Heights. They came were from different parts of the world, but lived "next door." They soon left the location walking together continuing their conversation as they left the place. A well done placemaking effort has ripple effects of impacts outside of the transformed place. 

People expressed a great sense of pride in where they come from and providing opportunities to celebrate their identity in a new place (public space) which may seem or actually be foreign is so important in converting spaces into places.

A group of teenagers from Ethiopia stopped by and showed great excitement to be participating in the activity. In this place they were able to be proud of where they come from and "leave their mark" with pride for all to see in the community. Time and time again, as people placed the dot where they came from you could see them exhibit great pride and belonging as their identity was represented in the place.

This event highlighted the issue that most of the spaces around us are set up for people to move quickly through them, prevents people from connecting with one another, and lack markers of community identity and expression.

As artists, as planners, as developers, as well intentioned people with paint brushes, we have the ability to transform spaces into places where neighbors connect and diverse identities can be celebrated. All it takes is a few creative ideas, paint, and some people willing to share their time and talent.

Community Asset: Kindness

I've been volunteering with a group of community members on the HACER Project transforming a vacant lot into a park and garden. I borrowed a non-motorized lawnmower from a friend today and attempted to mow the vacant lot. However, the grass was too long and the twigs too many for a non-motorized lawnmower to tackle.  I needed to get the lot mowed this weekend so that it would be ready for the community movie night under the stars a few days away.

I didn't have anyone else to call to ask if I could borrow a lawnmower and was about to give up on the project and leave the lot. Just then, I saw a gentleman walking by and gained the courage to stop him. I stopped him and started off the conversation by asking him if he lived in the neighborhood and told him about the project. I then asked him the odd question if he had a lawnmower. He said yes and told me to meet him a few blocks away at his home. I met him at his home and he graciously let me, a complete stranger, use something of his.

As I was mowing the lot I was reflecting on what had just occurred. Yes, Logan Heights is a low-income neighborhood, and on its surface may seem like there are not many assets (at least traditional assets that are quantified). However, the asset that is often overlooked and not quantified is the kindness of a stranger. The gentleman had something that could improve the community and was willing to trust me enough to share that item.

Community Kindness in Action

This has been the common occurrence on the HACER Project. Community members have continued to be kind by contributing their time, talent, and treasures. I think as placemakers we need to count kindness as one of our greatest community assets for transforming public spaces. Kindness should never be undervalued. But, we should always have the courage to ask an odd question to our neighbors and strangers to provide them an opportunity to commit an act of kindness. 

The Planner: An Inventor, Artist, and Musician

A while back I was reminded of the time when I was a child and a teacher gave each student a piece of paper and asked us to draw what we wanted to be “when we grow up.” The teacher specified that we were only supposed to draw one profession, because after all each of us only had one piece of paper. Being confident that I knew my professional destiny, I wasn’t going to let the limits of one piece of paper get in my way. So, I folded the paper into three sections and drew a picture for each panel – an artist, musician, and inventor. I was reminded of this as I walked by a children’s art day camp and out of the corner of my eye I saw children building a city with cardboard, construction paper, legos, and recycled materials. I entered the fenced area and just stood there with a smile looking at the children collaborating with one another building their city.

I spoke with a few of the children about their masterpiece and a few of them expressed that they would like to be artists when they “grow up.” Later that day I reflected, am I what I wanted to be “when I grew up?” Yes, people’s desires and dreams do change overtime, but I think I can say that I am pursuing what I wanted to be. But as a child, I just didn’t know what they were called or where they worked. But now I do – planner. A planner has the opportunity to reinvent the city through zoning, ordinances, comprehensive planning, or informally through reclaiming space through community-build projects. A city is bricolage art, as  shown in the movie Koyaanisqatsi, with its many patterns and tapestries composed of streets, paths, trees, patches of grass and asphalt, buildings, houses, and people flowing in between these spaces. The rhythms’ of the city is music. Every city has its own rhythms as heard in a radiolab podcast describing how each city, because of its built form, has its own unique beat which people walk to.

As a child, I didn’t know what a planner was or could do. So, I drew an inventor, artist, and a musician instead. I really didn’t know until my mid-20s. At the age of 24, I just graduated with a master’s degree in political science and began working on air quality policy issues. I found myself frequently at the city and county planning departments to get the information I needed regarding land use plans that could potentially impact air quality. This was the first time I was introduced to the planning department. Often times I felt like community engagement was not welcomed because the information provided to me seemed like it was in another language and it was sometimes difficult to attain because I was unfamiliar with how to navigate the process. After four years of work, I started to understand the planning process a little better, but found myself longing for a better encounter at the planning counter. This experience inspired me to go back to graduate school and study planning because I wanted to be the person at the city, county, private firm, or nonprofit someday to help inform and empower community members to reinvent the city into the masterpiece they envision. My quest is to continually seek projects where I can be what I've always wanted to be "when I grew up"  –  an inventor, an artist, and a musician.