GLD in Professional & Civic Engagement
American cities are on the cusp of unprecedented investment and change on a scale that they have not seen since the industrial revolution. Decades of policy have hollowed out urban landscapes creating a car-dominant environment voiding cities of vibrancy. Bringing back life and human movement within the city has been a passion of mine ever since visiting my first city – Columbia. As a geography and political science student, I enjoy the relationship of humans with their surroundings and the policies created to govern them. Focusing on this interest, I selected courses that would align with my understanding of this relationship such as Geographies of American Cities, Geography of North America, and Cultural Geography as well as seeking out beyond the classroom activities to enrich my understanding of the city.
In Geographies of American Cities (GEOG 344 - Fall 2020), I saw the dramatic changes that many cities in the U.S. have gone through from their creation to the modern day. Cities started as sites of commerce, administration, and artisans, following a gridiron layout with grandiose plans to become a space that all could enjoy. This early sentiment unfortunately only came to fruition for white men as class and functional segregation is more pronounced in modern times than at the inception of the city. Cities with the help of Boosters (Growth Coalitions) grew rapidly and unsustainably as they were wrought with pollution, poor working conditions, and an influx of new labor which eventually caused racist and dangerous policies to be enacted which removed white residents from the city and left people of color to crumble with removed services. Cities today still bear these scars and have on average shrunk in population, decreased in public vibrancy, and have hollowed out. These scars were detailed in Artifact 1 below which examines the patterns of investment, development, affluence, and poverty in contemporary metro areas. Building upon the knowledge gained about cities and their developments, I also enrolled in Geography of North America (GEOG 244 – Fall 2021) as well as Cultural Geography (GEOG 311 – Spring 2022) to understand more about the people inhabiting cities and communities. Cultural Geography exposed the truth that the gentrification (when poor urban areas are changed and displaced by wealthier people moving in) being experienced by many American cities today, is a concept that takes place globally, often referred to as Hygiensation – a form of urban displacement that is directly informed by legacies of colonialism and racial class stigma. Geography of North America took this information into a narrower lens of a North American concept which introduced city movements such as the City Beautiful Movement to bring wealth and opulence to the city, the Modernist Movement which prioritized efficiency and function over form, and the Right to the City Movement which made concerted efforts to include justice and equity into master plans. While the policies that hollowed out the city and moved residents into suburbia are here to stay, investment and innovative solutions will bring back the life of the city. I wanted to bridge the gap between the city and the suburbs with innovative solutions which is how I fell into my interest in public transportation. I channeled this interest in trying to make the city move better by joining City and University initiatives to promote multi-mobility. I completed bicycle and pedestrian counts for the City of Columbia every spring and fall from Fall 2020 to Spring 2023. Sitting outside of major arteries of the cities, I counted each pedestrian and cyclist activity with streets/crosswalks and transit. These counts were sent to city planning staff who incorporated them into year-end reports mapping the priorities for pedestrian investment. Building upon this work allowed me to become a Walk Bike Ambassador for the city in November 2021 where I assisted in city mobility efforts by helping citizens move around car-free. I have audited several streets in the city for accessibility and have sent work orders to traffic engineering for repairs. Expanding upon pedestrian activism, I began to incorporate other modes of travel such as bike and transit. I became an ambassador for Columbia’s bike share network, BlueBikeSC, and have been featured in events, training, press releases, and media for the bike share system by creating the new slogan “With eighteen stations in the downtown area, unlock a bike today, and explore the city your way”. While it was exciting to see more people engage with the city on foot and two wheels, I knew this wouldn’t be enough to address the connectivity issues learned about in GEOG 344 and thus turned to where I am today, public transportation. I joined The COMET (Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority) in December 2020 as a Transit Services Intern assigned to the Planning & Development department. I was able to assist with bus stop placement, stop quality upgrades, bus routing & schedule changes, as well as creating key performance indicators (KPI) documents for staff and board members. A summary of the internship was produced for GEOG 595 as a final poster presentation in Artifact 2 below which was shown to the Department of Geography faculty and staff. I also served as the Secretary of Safety and Transportation for Student Government as well as serving on the Transit Advisory Committee. My office was able to bring issues from the student body to light and address concerns students had about safety and transportation. We conducted safety walks with USCPD to assess barriers to pedestrian safety on campus, led student town halls between USC Transportation and The COMET to improve transit quality on and off campus, and introduced drink safety lids for patrons of bars and restaurants. Wanting to fix large-scale problems in the city was a major reason for applying to geography at the University of South Carolina. I knew that to improve the city, I would need both the critical thinking skills of policy, demographic analysis, and activism, as well as the soft skills of effective communication and political buy-in. From my travels to cities such as New York, Chicago, and London, I’ve seen what a vibrant city is and the opportunities it can provide. As Jane Jacobs said in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” This has been a quote that I’ve carried with me from town to town and city to city – seeing how all kinds of people with all kinds of backgrounds, lives, and families, interact within the urban core and increase vibrancy. Transportation shouldn’t be a stressor in people’s lives and I won’t stop until everyone can prosper and thrive with or without a car. |
While the policies that hollowed out the city and moved residents into suburbia are here to stay, investment and innovative solutions will bring back the life of the city. USC Transit: How to Ride video featuring Blake Gibbons
BlueBikeSC tutorial on bike locking I performed for USC Students as well as recorded for public use
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Artifacts
Artifact 1: GEOG 344 Final 1: Patterns of investment, development, affluence, and poverty in contemporary metro areas (WTC) | |
File Size: | 24 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Arifact 2: GEOG 595: Final Poster (BTC) | |
File Size: | 4260 kb |
File Type: | png |
Supporting Documentation
SG Safety & Transportation Transition Manual (BTC) | |
File Size: | 9165 kb |
File Type: |
Multimodal Moves - Walk Bike Ambassador Press Release (BTC) | |
File Size: | 5758 kb |
File Type: |
Columbia Compass - Walk Bike Ambassador Press Release (BTC) | |
File Size: | 2946 kb |
File Type: |
Let's Get In Touch
Have any questions or comments about this portfolio or want to chat about my vision for urban life in the United States? Click below to get in touch with me
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