Katie and I had the opportunity to become acquainted with Bamberg and some of its residents yesterday. To my surprise, Bamberg was quite a beautiful bedroom community. Most of the people I interviewed have lived most or all of their lives within the community. The elderly loved their community and thought it was perfect, while the middle-aged, working folk were often disgruntled with the lack of jobs and the fact that they have to commute out of town to support their families. Needless to say, they still live in Bamberg, and I can understand why. Nearly everyone we passed in the car or on the street waved to us like we knew them. Strangers had no problem rolling by in their golf carts and striking up conversation. It makes me wonder if all small towns are this friendly. And it made me realize what my hometown, Charleston, has lost as more people have moved in.
So one of my concerns of bringing 'industry' to Bamberg is that it may lose its sense of community if it grows too much. I agree with Harry that the community needs basic services like soda shops, barber shops, retailers, etc...from the standpoint of an interviewee in her 80s, downtown Bamberg should become what it once was, a small town, not just a bedroom community. So how do you get small business to stay in business when there are only 3,500 people in your town? All I can think is to bring back necessities and make people want to frequent the downtown. Make it a public space. Unfortunately, SCDOT really crucified the downtown- ironically, the SCDOT maintenance office is right outside of the city limits. Makes me wonder if someone there came up with the brillant idea to 'revitalize' the downtown through poor engineering.
As another interviewee said, "Planning doesn't work;" well, for Bamberg's sake and the future of my career, I certainly hope it can.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
My Purpose and Role in Rules of Engagement
As a resident of South Carolina and someone who is studying planning, I have a vested interest in molding the communities of the state for their long-term future. As a planning student, I have not had a true opportunity to collaborate with other departments, and I feel collaboration and understanding the perspectives of different fields is an extremely important skill that I must have upon entering the workforce. I also feel it is important for me to gain experience working with the public. Reading books and working on theoretical projects is great, but it will not show me how the process works on the ground, what the conflicts are, or the means to resolve or attempt to resolve underlying problems. I hope that this course will bring me the skills I need to address the public, teach me how not to reveal my biases, and learn how to establish a good rapore with a community.
Some of the skills that I can bring to the table include: GIS experience, surveying experience, and plan writing experience. In the last year, I have thoroughly learned how to use GIS and where to obtain good GIS data for the state. I also know how to create data layers, which may come in handy for analyzing community conditions and opinions. In addition to GIS knowledge, I have taken a quantitative analysis course that thought me how to write an unbiased or leading survey, along with how to analyze the results from the survey. While I may be a little rusty on excel applications, I should still be able to determine how to do correlations between responses. I hope to be able to assist in inputting and analyzing the survey responses. Last year, I also had the opportunity to work with a team of three other students to create a comprehensive plan for Anderson County. In the beginning, I truly questioned our ability to produce a product better than the county. By the time the semester ended, we had far exceeded the quality of the existing Anderson County Comprehensive Plan. This gives me great confidence in incorporating my GIS skills, survey collection and analytical skills, and study of existing conditions to create a quality plan for Bamberg. I look forward to working on this project!
Some of the skills that I can bring to the table include: GIS experience, surveying experience, and plan writing experience. In the last year, I have thoroughly learned how to use GIS and where to obtain good GIS data for the state. I also know how to create data layers, which may come in handy for analyzing community conditions and opinions. In addition to GIS knowledge, I have taken a quantitative analysis course that thought me how to write an unbiased or leading survey, along with how to analyze the results from the survey. While I may be a little rusty on excel applications, I should still be able to determine how to do correlations between responses. I hope to be able to assist in inputting and analyzing the survey responses. Last year, I also had the opportunity to work with a team of three other students to create a comprehensive plan for Anderson County. In the beginning, I truly questioned our ability to produce a product better than the county. By the time the semester ended, we had far exceeded the quality of the existing Anderson County Comprehensive Plan. This gives me great confidence in incorporating my GIS skills, survey collection and analytical skills, and study of existing conditions to create a quality plan for Bamberg. I look forward to working on this project!
Understanding the South
Having grown up in the South, I have had a preconceived notion that there has always been animosity between all races. While racism shows its ugly face in many different ways and racism may vary by community type, it continues to exist even after the civil rights movement. Mind of the South by W.J. Cash helped me realize that racism did not always exist in the South as it does now. And after reading a portion of Race, Place, and the Law and watching Corridor of Shame, it makes me wonder: Has the progress towards accepting our fellow man been stalled during my lifetime?
Mind of the South really brought the early South to life for me. It made me realize that the South was not comprised of large plantations and the well-off elite were not as well-off as I thought. Nearly everyman that came to the US during colonial times was here to work some land, trade, and become financially stable. Depending on where one settled determined one's ability to succeed in growing crops or hunting game. Men and women from many different countries settled the American frontier, some merely succeeded better than others; therefore, they gained stronger political influence. There was a range in classes, but the majority of the people in the South were poor, lived off the land, and did not have people working in servitude for them. The few, well-off plantation owners with political power are the one's fighting the war to "protect" their state's rights- the right to enslave their fellow man. Cash indicates that the number of wealthy, powerful men was less than a few hundred. A few hundred who were making decisions for the entire South, and setting precedent for the racial injustice that would cloud our nation's policy for over a century.
I never would have considered how housing policy determined segregation until Dr. Farris addressed it in our Human Settlement course last year. I don't know how I lived my life up until this point without considering how suburbs and cities were modeled based on mortgage companies and housing policy. I have to say that this is a result of me growing up in a mainly white community, and just assuming that the historically African-American communities that existed on the fringes of my town existed because that is where there families chose to live once they were given their freedom. This may have occurred, but policy later determined that they had to continue to live within the bounds of their communities because separation would deter conflict as Delaney's Race, Place, and the Law indicates. It makes me wonder what would have happened is segregation had not been mandatory what kind of conflicts would have occurred and where would our nation be today? But we should not dwell on what would have been, we have to dwell on what we can make of the future by what we do today.
After watching Corridor of Shame, I became aware of a situation in my home state that I surprisingly had never considered. I am ashamed that as a South Carolina resident, we are continuing to allow students to live as if they were in the 19th Century. While the the documentary is relying on word-of-mouth to communicate the existing problems in schools along Interstate 95, I wonder if the word is really getting out there. I would say that I keep abreast of issues within my state and within my community, and I am surprised that the state and the national news are not blowing this issue up and shedding light on it. How are our presidential candidates addressing this problem? My best friend is an English teacher and is seeking an additional master's degree to combat urban education problems, and even she has not been exposed to the conditions in rural America. We cannot think that this problem is exclusive to South Carolina- it applies to rural communities nation-wide. We have to overcome this neglect; otherwise, the root of our nation will continue to disintegrate. We shall overcome; we must overcome, even if incrementally, step by step, community by community.
Mind of the South really brought the early South to life for me. It made me realize that the South was not comprised of large plantations and the well-off elite were not as well-off as I thought. Nearly everyman that came to the US during colonial times was here to work some land, trade, and become financially stable. Depending on where one settled determined one's ability to succeed in growing crops or hunting game. Men and women from many different countries settled the American frontier, some merely succeeded better than others; therefore, they gained stronger political influence. There was a range in classes, but the majority of the people in the South were poor, lived off the land, and did not have people working in servitude for them. The few, well-off plantation owners with political power are the one's fighting the war to "protect" their state's rights- the right to enslave their fellow man. Cash indicates that the number of wealthy, powerful men was less than a few hundred. A few hundred who were making decisions for the entire South, and setting precedent for the racial injustice that would cloud our nation's policy for over a century.
I never would have considered how housing policy determined segregation until Dr. Farris addressed it in our Human Settlement course last year. I don't know how I lived my life up until this point without considering how suburbs and cities were modeled based on mortgage companies and housing policy. I have to say that this is a result of me growing up in a mainly white community, and just assuming that the historically African-American communities that existed on the fringes of my town existed because that is where there families chose to live once they were given their freedom. This may have occurred, but policy later determined that they had to continue to live within the bounds of their communities because separation would deter conflict as Delaney's Race, Place, and the Law indicates. It makes me wonder what would have happened is segregation had not been mandatory what kind of conflicts would have occurred and where would our nation be today? But we should not dwell on what would have been, we have to dwell on what we can make of the future by what we do today.
After watching Corridor of Shame, I became aware of a situation in my home state that I surprisingly had never considered. I am ashamed that as a South Carolina resident, we are continuing to allow students to live as if they were in the 19th Century. While the the documentary is relying on word-of-mouth to communicate the existing problems in schools along Interstate 95, I wonder if the word is really getting out there. I would say that I keep abreast of issues within my state and within my community, and I am surprised that the state and the national news are not blowing this issue up and shedding light on it. How are our presidential candidates addressing this problem? My best friend is an English teacher and is seeking an additional master's degree to combat urban education problems, and even she has not been exposed to the conditions in rural America. We cannot think that this problem is exclusive to South Carolina- it applies to rural communities nation-wide. We have to overcome this neglect; otherwise, the root of our nation will continue to disintegrate. We shall overcome; we must overcome, even if incrementally, step by step, community by community.
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