Final Town Precedent Examples

The reason we use precedents in planning is because we want to know if what we are trying or attempting to try has been done before, and if it has been successful in the process. Ultimately we want to find things similar to what we are studying in order to have a better idea of potential outcomes to the solutions we are seeking to incorporate.

As we went through this process the precedent group narrowed down our results to nine towns that could be used as precedents for Bluff. Although there are many others I would like to have included in this document only the most refined could be included. Below are the towns that were included:

(See the Matrix below for how Bluff should evaluate these precedents.)

• Barrow, AK (which I previously discussed and posted information about)
• Bar Harbor, ME (also previously discussed)
• Boulder, UT
• Population: 223
• Economy: Tourism
• Government Type: Incorporated (1958)
• Location: Near Grand Staircase-Escalante National 
• Monument
• Deadwood, SD
• Population: 1,270
• Economy: Tourism
• Government Type: Incorporated (1876)
• Location: In the heart of Black Hills National Forest, 
• and near Custer State Park.
• Estes Park, CO
• Population: 5,858
• Economy: Tourism (Outdoor Recreation)
• Government Type: Incorporated (1917)
• Location: Near Rocky Mountain National Park
• Ketchum, ID
• Population: 2,680
• Economy: Tourism
• Government Type: Incorporated (1880)
• Location: Near Sawtooth National Forest
• Springdale, UT
• Population: 529
• Economy: Tourism
• Government Type: Incorporated (1959) Mayoral
• Location: Entrance to Zion National Park
• Torrey, UT
• Population: 182
• 
  

  
  

  
  

  Economy: Tourism
• Government Type: Incorporated (1934)
• 
  

  
  

  Location: Gateway to Capitol Reef National Park
• Wallace, ID
• Population: 784
• Economy: Tourism
• Government Type: Incorporated (1800’s)
• Location: Near Coeur d’Alene National Forest

Each of these precedents were chosen for their unique qualities and how they could be observed to help Bluff further their asperations. In addition I created this precedent matrix in order to help make our document more reader friendly and easier to interpret for the town of Bluff.

The Dark Sky Initiative

I started the Dark Sky research and probably put in 10 - 15 hours searching through ordinances and trying to better understand Bluff's capability for Dark Sky, what they would achieve by doing it, and general ordinance information. Below is a small portion of what I was able to find.

Bluff’s Dark Sky Capability:

• Retention of Community Character
• Residents want dark skies
• Still in a place that lighting can be controlled and curbed
• Petroglyphs that are sky related
• Huge participation in tribal nations
• Amenity West Community
• Promote dark skies at the arts festival and other festivals
• House of the Moon on Cedar Mesa

Ordinance Information:

• Lighting
• Type
• Externally illuminated signs (ban on internally illuminated)
• Down lit and back lit signs
• Blue spectrum
• *Look at Ketchum ordinance - fully shielded, downward directed, blue spectrum
• Location
• Residential
• Governmental
• Commercial
• Reuse automobile pieces and scraps for lighting fixtures
• Promote externally illuminated down lit and back lit signs, and use the words community character to help associate the lighting with the character of the place. (see Sabastisopal, CA and Golita CA)
• AMA blue spectrum street lighting - Street lighting has to be a certain kind
• Reasons for Ordinance
• Economic Development - in family friendly manner
• Retention of Community Character
• Dark Skies for our children and our children’s children
• Private Property Rights - Light Trespassing 

City Codes:

• Go Beyond the Ogden Model
• Summerland, CA
• East Hampton Long Island
• Sabastopal, CA
• Golita, CA
• Sedona - Sedona potentially did right what Moab missed on the lighting aspect

 Things To Consider:

• Wildlife
• Identify businesses in Bluff that already have dark sky lighting
• Light trespassing
• Bears Ears biggest national monument larger than Rhode Island
• Astro Tourism Dollars
• Colorado Dark Sky Cooperative - Astro Tourism dollars increase because it adds a night stay and a crowd shift to night time - see Fort Collins
• Dark Sky Initiative Ordinance Guidelines - Historic, Golden, and Test Case they want to take it to other communities
• What communities currently have a ban on  internally illuminated signs?

Dark Sky Initiative Locations:

• Grand Canyon
• Capitol Reef?
• Hovenweep National Monument?
• Natural Bridges National Monument?
• Canyonlands National Park?
• Dead Horse Point State Park?

Town Precedents for Bluff

After spending a few weeks researching towns that could serve as precedents for Bluff I was joined by four other to form the precedent group. In the preliminary research I did I compiled a list of over 50 towns that could potentially be considered in this process. Of those towns we each selected four that could be used for the final Bluff document. Below are the four towns I carefully selected to serve as precedents for Bluff.

Bar Harbor, Maine

• Settled in 1763 (by Europeans)
• Population of 5,264 in 2014
• Close to several State and National Parks 
• Large range of attractions (Biking, Hiking, Kayaking, Mountain Climbing, Nature Cruise, Shelling, Lighthouses, Whale Seal and Bird Watching, & Parks)
• Tourism based economy

Bar Harbor vs Bluff

• Strong tourism element to economy
• Similar school structure
• Students bussed/shipped in from surrounding towns
• Dark Sky Initiative
• Native American Historical Influence

Barrow, Alaska

• Settled in 1825 (by Europeans 500 AD by Inuit Group)
• Population of 4,384 in 2013
• Host of Several Festivals (Kivgiq, Piuraagiaqta, Nalukataq, Whaling, & Qitik)
• Unpaved roads and based on the Septic System
• Oil operations and Tourism based economy

Barrow vs Bluff

• Septic Tank Based Infrastructure
• Seeking to incorporate the Dark Sky Initiative
• Tourism economy based on Festivals
• Historical foundation in very similar time periods

Dorset, Minnesota

• Settled in 1898
• Population of 22 in 2010
• Unincorporated community
• Booming Tourism Based Economy
• Services supported by County

Dorset vs Bluff

• Strong tourism element to economy
• Tourism drawn in by uniqueness
• Similar community make up
• Stores and Shops run by Locals
• Outdoor Activities (Biking Tours)

Medora, North Dakota

• Settled in 1883
• Population of 112 in 2010
• Close to Theodore Roosevelt National Park
• Incorporated despite size
• Historic Town

Medora vs Bluff

• Strong tourism element to economy
• Historic Sites, Events, and Festivals
• Outdoor Recreation
• Very Similar town structure & Community Make up (Lodging, Services, Relationship to National Parks)
• Stores and Shops run by Locals

Bluff and Hozho

In doing research on Bluff, one particular term continued to pop up, and that term was Hozho.

Hozho: "The Navajo Concept of Balance and Beauty." "Consideration of the nature of the universe, the world, man, the nature of time and space, creation, growth, motion, order, control, and the life cycle…..expressed in terms quite impossible to translate into English." (BluffUtah.org)

Several of the survey responses had people sharing this concept and others expounded on it by stating ideas like: “Bluff is a feeling.”

On my visit to Bluff I would have to agree. It was a feeling. Entering Bluff through the red rock canyon was an exciting experience. They are securely nestled into a beautiful valley of great history, and when you visit Bluff you get that feeling. It comes from being there and interacting with the people.

You feel one with the land and sky, the river and the wind, and the people. Its peaceful and simple there and a place that allows you to contemplate what is most important to you.

This is what I think of when I saw Bluff and Hozho comming up almost as synonyms.

The BluffUtah.org site also mentioned that "Hozho is said to be the most important word in the Navajo language and is loosely translated as peace, balance, beauty and harmony.  To be “in Hozho” is to be at one with and a part of the world around you."

I think we all could use a little more of the feeling of Hozho in our lives.

Listening to Bluff - Mission Statement

In class last week Professor Goldsmith asked the class who would take charge of the mission statement. After a long pause and the lack of volunteers I raised my hand wanting to try and help shape the work in which our class will be embarking.






After much thought I came up with:  
"Our desire is to listen and seek to understand the character, values, and feelings of Bluff to help Bluff further shape its goals and future as a growing community."

Although that isn't the final version of our mission statement I used each word with a purpose.

• Our desire - It was suggested that we use goal instead. I didn't use goal as it seemed too generic and meaningless. I used desire because it seemed to show passion, drive, and willingness.
• listen and seek to understand - Listening to Bluff is the name of the document so using "listening" in the mission statement seemed fitting. That and it is what we are wanting to accomplish, but even more than just listening we want to understand what we hear in order to best assist the community.
• character, values, and feelings - These are three very different things and yet values can be derived from character, just as feelings can be derived from values. To continue this thought character can be derived from feelings sustained over a period of time. So each of these pieces help us to understand the present past and future of Bluff's community.
• help Bluff - I added this because after all we are here to assist or help them in their journey. This is not our own, but we can be there for an outside perspective on Bluff's inside ideals.
• further shape its goals and future - Documents have already been created to establish a framework of Bluff. Even before the documents Bluff was shaping its own goals and futures, but just as mentioned in the "help Bluff" section we can offer an outside perspective on their inside ideals. What I mean by this is, communities don't often realize what they desire most as a whole until it is discussed and collaborated on by the whole. We are here to help facilitate that process.
• as a growing community - I feel like people have the tendency to interpret the word grow to mean: become larger or greater over a period of time; increase. In actuality I was seeking to use the word growing to signify a second meaning, which is: to progress to maturity.
  
  To help further this idea I pose this question: After a person reaches the age of 30 do they not grow any more? The answer to this question, is of course they do. They may not grow in height, but they do grow in mental stability and maturity. That is the reason for why I placed this carefully selected word in the mission statement.

In closing and after a group discussion we agreed upon the following:

• “Our mission is to work in collaboration with the community; to listen and seek to understand the character, stories, values, and goals guiding the future of Bluff.”

Ultimately it carries the same meaning as above, but in a more unified way. For this purpose the world is run by communities.

Listening to Bluff - What I Learned From Existing Documents

Today in class we went over the past Bluff, Utah documents, and I learned a lot while going through the documents that could help to establish a better starting point for the work in which our class will be embarking. 

A few of the ideas that occurred to me while going through the documents were:

• New building and infrastructure design built with natural processes in mind
• Conservation techniques and water wise consumption - gray water systems and recycling water
• Precedence section in our document to help guide further development of Bluff allowing them to keep their character, encourage controlled tourism, and gain interest of potential young leaders
• How do you develop a resiliency plan and ordinances that help bluff keep its character?
• Affordable housing that matches the make up of current feel of Bluff
• How do you keep open space, view sheds, and the current character yet improve public health, community, jobs, and economy?
• Our task is not to create a place that I or any other outsider thinks is good. Our task is to create a place that the residents think is good and improves all the desired areas.
• What are the current challenges and barriers for residents of Bluff?
• How would they see improvement to current conditions?
• How do you "capitalize" on the existing character and features to attract younger residents and future leaders? (Simply put: how is Bluff going to attract younger residents?)
• Bears Ears national Monument?
• San Juan River Rafting?
• Biking, Hiking, and Horse Trails?
• The Comb?
• Without a step by step instruction book, how can we give them guidelines or a pattern of language to protect their current values?
• How do you word or craft an ordinance that accomplishes all Bluff's goals?
• How do you offer suggestions in a way that they are seen as positive despite potential negative connotations?

These were just some of the questions swimming around in my head that we need to find answers to in order to be effective in creating a planning document that will be of any use to the future town of Bluff.

Inclusionary Planning: A New Concept

(CMP 4280 Ecology Planning Workshop Class 1)

Today we had our first CMP 4280 (Ecology Planning Workshop) class and went over a few of the previous year workshop's documents. After going over those documents I started to brainstorm some of the other things that should be included in helping Bluff become a town.

One concept that occurred to me was the idea of inclusionary planning. What is inclusionary planning? In working with Bluff, Utah we need to include all it's residents (human, animal, insect, and plant), environments, cultures, characteristics, infrastructure, landscapes, needs, wants, past, present, future, etc. This is inclusionary planning. In other words inclusionary planning is seeking to incorporate everything and everyone into the planning process.

After sitting through the third class period our discussion turned to our potential to effect change in the places of influence we have. One specific thing that happened during the class was a brief discussion on who the "developer" truly is. Professor Goldsmith said something along the lines of, the developer is you and I, it is the public, city, and stakeholders, its everyone potentially involved. This is another way to better understand inclusionary planning. The development or plan includes all potential parties.

This way of planning, if not already the current track for planning, should be the future and only way to plan.



Definitions:

Inclusive: including or covering all the services, facilities, or items normally expected or required.

All-inclusive: including everything or everyone.

11 Marketing Tips for Planners to Engage Their Communities

Engaging the community can be a difficult, time consuming, and expensive task, but it doesn’t have to be. Getting the message out to the community to bolster attendance and public input in planning projects also doesn’t have to be done entirely by you. Although it is good to use social media, mailers, and newspapers (the most common forms of City Planning marketing efforts), your experience with these methods may have only supplied you often with meager turn outs of almost exclusively the older generations. Although the older generations are great and have experience, their viewpoints and needs are only a portion of the community’s.

Before I introduce myself, I wanted to give you a taste of what this list entails. Below you will find a list of 11 marketing tips to help increase community involvement and engagement. Along with these tips will be a brief explanation of the tip and how you can carry it out with little effort. (You can skip the intro and go straight to the tips below.)

Intro:
Although the question of why you should care about increasing public input may be obvious, why I care might not be. My name is Chris Hupp and I'm a marketing consultant turned urban planner. I attend Utah State University for Landscape Architecture then transferred to the University of Utah for Urban Planning. As a profession, however, I spent close to the last decade and a half in marketing and marketing strategy.

A while ago I was asked to attend planning meetings throughout Salt Lake and Utah County and critique their planning processes. Some of the critique questions we were asked to answer were: who attended, who was invited, how representative were the attendees/invitees, and what kind of input was sought. The majority of the meetings were attended by the older generations previously mentioned, and had it not been for me actively searching for meetings to attend I would have never heard about any of them.

That’s when it hit me; marketing is something foreign to the Planning world. Without public input planning solutions can fall flat; just like a doctor trying to diagnose a patient without knowing their symptoms. Better marketing strategies will help planners gather the input or symptoms of their communities.

Marketing Tips:

1. In Person Canvassing: (Service Driven Canvassing)
   I placed in person canvasing first on purpose. Right now a lot of you probably send mailers out to the communities you want to reach. These can just as easily be thrown away as any piece of junk mail your community receives. The in person canvasing idea reaches more individuals in the community and adds that personal touch which is harder to forget.
   
   You might be thinking our planning department doesn’t have the time or ability to canvas any area we want to reach, and I agree. There are hundreds if not thousands of individuals in your communities looking for service opportunities and resume boosters. These individuals aren’t hard to reach either. They include High School and College Student Councils and clubs, Girl Scout and Boy Scout Troops, The 4H Club, etc. These groups can pass out flyers in your target areas or put up posters in local businesses and gathering places and save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars on postage and potentially wasted mailers. Involving these groups will also create a character of civic involvement in younger generations helping boost later support for public engagement and pride.
2. Opt-in Text/Email Campaigns: (Quickest Marketing Tool on the List, But Use Judiciously)On civic websites, at events, or other public engagement activities you can have community members opt-in or sign up for email newsletters and/or announcements and text announcement campaigns. These can be grouped into different campaigns based on neighborhood, census block, etc.
   
   Texting is hands down the best way to reach the majority of your community nowadays. Emails are also effective, but not as reaching and active because community members can get inundated with emails or just as easily delete the email without reading it. This said texts can be used as reminders and emails as a way of conveying greater amounts of information.
3. Radio, Local News, and School News: (Tons of Local Viewership)90+% of Americans still listen to the Radio, 70+% watch local news, and 95+% of students in schools where news is broadcasted, watch it. With this kind of viewership, loads of community members will have exposure to your planning projects, meetings, and events. The more the community hears about that event the more they will remember it and potentially plan on attending it.
4. Local Bloggers and Podcasts: (Local Podcasts and Bloggers Have Tons of Local Followers)Local Bloggers and Podcasts as stated above can have hundreds if not thousands of local followers. These followers often act on the recommendations of the bloggers and podcasters they follow. Having local bloggers and podcasts place plugs for your events is usually as difficult as getting in touch with them. (This may be a little more difficult than finding Local Event Calendar Websites as listed below, but asking a techy son, daughter, or spouse can solve this problem.)
5. Local Event Calendar Websites: (Posting on Popular Event Calendar Websites)You might not know of any event calendar websites in your area, but a simple web search using your city, county, or region and event calendar would resolve that. Posting on these sites also doesn’t cost you a cent. The majority of these websites crave local community postings, and have an easy post feature located somewhere on the site. The only cost involved with this is the time it takes you to post your events, which are then at the fingertips of large amounts of community members.
6. Local Events: (Advertising at Local Events)While you are on the Event Calendar Websites take note of all the events happening in your area. These events are being advertised by others, allowing you to not spend money and capitalize on the audience full of your community. Plugs or advertising for your meetings and projects can often be easily incorporated into these events, and as listed above, setting up a booth for in person contact would go a long way to help communities remember to attend your event.
   
   Examples of Local Events you can attend are: concerts, fairs, festivals, mall or shopping center events, school events, sporting events, food truck gatherings, seasonal events, fundraisers, charity events, neighborhood block parties, fun runs, and treasure/scavenger hunts. (If nothing seems to be going on you could always sponsor an event or contact groups to create one.)
7. Capitalize on Civic Activity: (Raffles and Contests for Locally Donated Giveaways)I realize the title for this one may alarm you, but let me clarify. You are already receiving public input, and have a select group who always are civically active. To capitalize on those and make the event go viral or explode socially, incorporate a contest or giveaway. Although a hat or shirt with the City logo might be cool, it won’t excite people enough to want to engage or share the event. Herein lies your problem, but a problem easily solved. Local businesses, who you want to succeed, are constantly looking for ways to promote their business. You both can receive mutual benefit by approaching these businesses seeking for gift cards or merchandise allowing them to promote their business while enticing the community to respond.
   
   You might be asking now, how you would get the community to share the event; well, the response to that can be simple as well. Incentives based on attendance can be given to either those who attend or the referrer of attendees. They can also be given to individuals who follow and post feedback or share event details on their social media pages (tracking of this can be managed more easily through hashtags #YourEvent.)
8. Social Media: (Make Your Posts Welcoming and Useful to the End Users)You probably have a social media account, and may even post regularly. You might even have a decent amount of followers, but still potentially be using social media incorrectly to reach your target community. All good post should: grab attention, be shared at optimal times, and call the end user (the community) to action.
   
   Now you might be asking how I do all that with one post. For a lot of individuals it takes practice, but I will include some hints to help you get there faster. First, use attractive images, attractive images if nothing else will at least get your target audience to pause and glance at the post; though the more likely response would be to associate the activity with the image. Using more senses increases the chances of individuals remembering the post/event. Another way to grab attention is by sharing how your event is useful or beneficial to the reader.
   
   Second, if you want your post to be shared more, post it at times when people are on social media. Many articles say to post Thursday-Sunday between 1pm – 3pm. You can also post the event multiple times, changing the wording of the message each time. Lastly, a call to action is a call for someone to do something. Examples of this are “buy now”, “click to learn more”, etc. Calling someone to do something changes the community member from passive follower to an active follower.
9. Infographics and Pictures: (A Picture is Worth 1000 Words and Attracts Attention Better) As mentioned above pictures use more senses and go farther to help your target audience remember the post/event. Infographics take this idea to the next level. Good infographics convey large amounts of information quickly and effectively, allowing you to mix text and pictures. Consolidating this information down also helps you to focus on main ideas and the most crucial information, information that will then be easier for your target audience to remember and find important.
10. Online Ads: (Facebook Ads)For those of you who actually use tip 1, you can use a portion of the money you saved from not sending out mailers to put up city targeted Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads allow you to target specific locations, and can cost drastically less than mailers. When posting these ads abide by the information found in tip number 9.
    
    Also to help improve your Ads over time, pay attention to ads or articles you click and analyze them as to why you clicked it. Those similar things could be done to your posts and ads to improve their effectiveness.
11. Videos and Live Feeds: (YouTube Videos and Live Meeting Feeds)YouTube is the third most visited site on the internet, and millions of searches are happening ever second. Your target group is searching on it right now. Videos can be incredibly useful for sharing information, concepts, drawing attention. You can use them to teach, inform, and train your public to better help with planning efforts. You can record your meetings allowing more of the community to essentially attend your meetings. These videos can help the community envision the future of their communities, through different scenarios, or similar communities experience with related issues.
12. Bonus Tip. Location: (Use Popular Places Not Just Public Ones)This tip may be just as important as the rest of the tips on the list. If you hold your event in the council chambers you will get only the people you were able to reach through your marketing efforts. If you hold your event in a senior center, you will get seniors. If you hold your event in a popular public place, you can still draw a large crowd even if other marketing efforts failed. People frequent that place and often have a few minutes to spare to time to kill. Hold your meetings in popular public places, not just public ones.

Metropolitan Area Travel Diary and Regional Design

We were asked in our Urban Environmental Theory and Practice class to track our travel patterns over a five day period, then design the metropolitan area in which we live to better fit the needs of us and other residents.

1.       Start with a travel log or journal. Record all trips for five days (Saturday and Sunday and three weekdays).  Place the information in a table.

Friday	Origin	Destination*	Distance	Mode
Trip 1	Home	Work	12.1 miles	Car
Trip 2	Home	Bed Bath & Beyond, Walmart, Target	14.6 miles	Car
Trip 3	Home	Home	.7 miles	Walk
Saturday
Trip 1	Home	Church	1 mile	Car
Trip 2	Home	Sister-in-laws	15.2 miles	Car
Sunday
Trip 1	Home	Church	1 mile	Car
Trip 2	Home	Sisters	13.4 miles	Car
Trip 3	Home	Sisters	13.4 miles	Car
Monday
Trip 1	Home	Work	12.1 miles	Car
Trip 2	Home	Walmart	13.9 miles	Car
Tuesday
Trip 1	Home	AF Station	10.1 miles	Car
Trip 2	AF Station	Murray Central	24.4 miles	Frontrunner
Trip 3	Murray Central	Stadium Station	10.2 miles	TRAX
Trip 4	Stadium Station	Classes	3.1 miles	Walking
Trip 5	Murray Central	Stadium Station	10.2 miles	TRAX
Trip 6	AF Station	Murray Central	24.4 miles	Frontrunner
Trip 7	Home	AF Station	10.1 miles	Car
*All destinations ended at home except for Tuesday (Figure 1)

Map of my Home to Work Route by Car (Figure 2)

Map of my Home to School Route by Car, Frontrunner, and TRAX (Figure 3)

 2.       Reflect on why you chose the modes of travel that you did.  What factors weighed into your decision (either consciously or not).

I have broken this section into three paragraphs, one for each of the figures listed above and a brief paragraph of clarification. To explain figure 1, I live in Orem and public transportation is less than desirable for convenience, reliability, and time. With public transportation, biking, and walking, which I will get into later, being less than desirable I use a car to get around. I would love to ride public transportation more frequently, but Orem is set up in a way that doesn’t allow me to use it with any amount of ease. Looking at Utah Valley’s public transportation and the popular nodes makes it seem like it wasn’t actually designed with the needs of its residents in mind, which as you will see in answer to question four is the exact opposite of how it should be created. The closest public transportation stop for me is over two miles from my work, and half a mile from my house. This leaves me two potential modes of transportation from my hose to the stop, and the stop to my work. I can either walk the 3 miles or bike the miles. I used to bike, but the streets from the stop to my work are very car-centric; as the roads were developed for cars only with the safety of any other mode on those roads being questionable. Furthermore, it takes two different buses and over an hour to make it 6 miles. I could bike the distance faster, but the issue of safety comes into play. This is why public transportation is not a viable option for most residents of Orem and Utah Valley.

Now for my commute to the University of Utah, I choose a mixture of public transportation and car. (The American Fork Frontrunner Station is 10.5 miles from my home, and the similar factors come into play for this leg of my trip making car the only viable option to the station.) From the American Fork Frontrunner station to the University of Utah, I choose public transportation as it allows me to do homework, relax, save money on gas, and avoid the traffic of I-15 during rush hour. The University of Utah also provides me with free transportation on Frontrunner and TRAX helping sway my decision towards public transportation. The trip usually takes 15 minutes longer than driving but allows me to do more on the trip, and drops me off closer to campus. If I were to drive, I would have to find/pay for parking or walk a mile plus from free parking areas, (which I do on Thursdays because of the time it takes me to get home using public transportation systems later at night.) If the Frontrunner ran more frequently throughout the day, as it does in the busier times of the day, I would use public transportation every time I made the trip to Salt Lake City with few exceptions.

Before I attended the University of Utah I never would have taken public transportation as the overall stigma of public transportation is highly negative in Utah Valley, and people are so habitual and car prone in this valley that it will take greater access, reliability, and exposure to positive opinions of public transportation for any significant shift to be made. Habits are hard to break, and a habit of riding public transportation would be harder to keep if reliability decreases. It is a cultural shift that will need to happen, as there is a highly negative stigma to riding the bus in Utah Valley, and that is the only public transportation available to Utah Valley citizens.

3.       Outline physical changes to the location and design of places in the metropolitan area that lead/help your travel decisions improve.  Draw upon lessons from lectures and readings.

I stared at a map of Orem, and its major pathways for what seemed like hours racking my brain on how I would make physical changes to the design of the place in order to help my travel decisions improve. The a few things continued to come to my mind were the following thoughts; residents of Utah Valley have become auto dependent due to the design of the Valley. Huge single family residential areas are clumped together with strips of business districts strewn along a few main roads. There is little to no mixed use in the majority of the areas. Even where it can be found the cost is such as to dissuade most income levels from living there and being far enough from all necessities to merit the need to drive the majority of the time. The main roads have been widened to allow for greater traffic to use them, which has increased the speed of traffic and as discussed in class allowed for a greater amount of individuals to use those sources over other modes of transportation. In the next several paragraphs I will dig into these thoughts and create physical changes to Orem and Utah Valley to improve my travel decisions.

As I thought about this place and continued to try and brainstorm ideas of how I would physically change it to improve travel decisions, the start of a solution occurred to me. Keep the grid the way it is, grids allow for better connectivity for all modes of transportation and enhance connectivity with potential nodal areas. To further this idea I would widen 1600 N and leave the rest of the paths alone. The proper infrastructure, outside of 1600 N, exists currently in Orem and will work as a foundation on which I will improve the design of place, and enhance social, environmental, and economic equality for the city.

With this infrastructure in place I would wipe clean the current placement of all residential, public, and commercial structures and rearrange them to meet the needs of all areas of the city, and the same could be done for the entire valley. (See Figure 4 below)

Major Pathways of Orem, Utah (Figure 4)

Major Nodes of Orem, Utah (Figure 5)

After this thought occurred to me I developed a map focusing on the main pathways throughout Orem city. As the game went in class we placed schools, office buildings, and other community needs around transportation lines.  Figure 5 shows the main nodal sections marked in red to emphasis the main intersections of transportation routes.

With these maps in place we can now redevelop the area for its resident’s needs and equality of social, economic, and environmental needs. The businesses would now be focused around the red marked nodal sections in figure 5. Orem has the population to support three major high schools, one in the top left section in between the four nodes, a second in the bottom left section in between the four nodes, and the last in the right middle section between the four nodes. Grocery stores would be built around the major nodes and the 3 clinics would follow the same pattern as the schools with the major hospital being in the middle left section.

With this redevelopment in place, day to day transportation would be reduced in time and distance as amenities would be more centralized to their residents. The centralization of these amenities would allow for different modes of transportation to now be viable. This includes public transportation. I would establish a mixture of bus/TRAX lines down State Street, Geneva, 800 E, University Parkway, Center Street, 800 N, and 1600 N. These lines would not only allow for alternate reliable means of transportation throughout Orem, but could increase connectivity to all areas of Utah Valley. The streets are also significantly wide enough to adapt them all to complete streets sharing the width of the road safely with all forms of transportation.

These changes would break the death grip that the car-centric Orem has on its citizen’s lives. This same idea would be established in all of Utah Valley allowing everyone to commute between cities by other means of transportation other than the private vehicle.

As to the why I suggest these changes, it goes beyond the transportation reasons I stated above. These changes allow for all residents to have close access to public amenities including parks, hospitals and clinics, food/groceries (cutting down on the food deserts which currently exist in Orem), proximity to jobs, education, and entertainment. This also clears up confusion on navigation through the city as the grid will be the standard that all roads run off. This also allows those living in the city to breathe cleaner air as less emission intensive modes of transportation would now be available.

This would also develop a greater amount of mixed use areas and higher density areas yet still allow clumping of businesses to a certain degree. A mix between the two is still vastly important for the social sphere of the neighborhoods, and commercial districts.

I mentioned mixed use, and to further clarify the reasons behind why I would incorporate mixed use into the redesign of the city is to develop: a sense of place, a walkable community (which leads to economic equality), and shorter day to day commute times (which cuts down on carbon emissions and costs of travel).

The positives of mixed use would reverse the habitual need to drive long distances, and bring
architecture and urban design to the human scale. How will it accomplish this? If a city is walkable people will then think about their modes of transportation. If walking is now an option then design would have to adjust to meet the needs of pedestrians as well as the private vehicle. Outdoor seating which is almost nonexistent in the current Orem, would be more available as the number of pedestrians would rise. (Pedestrians in this context means citizens who walk.) A rise in pedestrians would also lead to Orem residents being more relaxed as they have more time to enjoy the outdoors. It would also lead to a reduction in obesity levels as walking is a form of exercise. This would also allow for past times as less travel distance and travel time converts to more time for other things.

4.       From this exercise, reflect upon what a transportation system ideally accomplishes and thus what it might look like.

A transportation system ideally accomplishes the needs and desires of the residents that are affected by it. In other words the transportation system is developed in a way that it allows its users to get from their point As to their point Bs in an efficient and timely manner. This includes proximity to homes, business districts, and public amenities. What it would look like depends on its users and geography. If planned with its users in mind, it would look like is a heat map of residents ideal transportation routes laid over a geographical map. “Nothing about us without us is for us.” Transportation should be developed with the economic, environmental, and social good of its stakeholders in mind, and its stakeholders are all those affected by it.

Skyscraper Farms and Edible Walls - Living Architecture

I have been looking for greater amounts of information verticle farms, and edible walls, and came across this image. The ideas of habitat take green roofs, and green walls a step further. See the video below: