Neighborhood Plans Need example essay topic

Tampa's future, something each resident of Tampa and its sprawl should care about. The Tampa Planning Commission offered a chance to residents to come up with ideas, over looked problems, and solutions to be considered and added to Tampa's Plan. The planning Commission held five meetings that consisted of the resident "study circle" and Tampa planners together they hoped to move forward in a progressive and positive way. Session One 10-1-04 Session one was held at New Tampa Library and its topic was "How is change or the lack of change affecting our community?" I walked into the meeting and immediately I was out of place.

In fact I was asked if I was there for the story time across the hall. It was strange to see what I think is the future of Tampa not represented. It was obvious by the story time remark that these people were not expecting my age range to be represented either. Our topic came with a couple of reports for our review and for us to add personal perspective to. The first meeting explained how we were to interact with each other and that it was just a big conversation.

The meeting started with introduction's, and Tampa was well represented and most people there have lived in more than one part of Tampa. The meeting started with a question to get the conversation started and the Planning Commission members took notes to pull out the major concerns and ideas of what we were saying. The facilitator asked "Is the character of Tampa's neighborhoods better than eight years ago?" This got the circle to talk about the individual neighborhoods that make up Tampa. One point realized in examining our neighborhoods is that change is not consistent or even. One problem mentioned was an increase in traffic and its effects on residential areas. Back roads are no longer safe for residents or bikes.

One solution to this problem was the widening of I-275. On the other hand, what will this new construction do to one of Tampa's oldest and most history holding communities of Tampa Heights. The solutions are turning into more effects and impacts. This made me realize that there is still a divide even among one city.

Person A who needs to get to his high paying job from far away in sprawl doesn't care about person B's semi lower-income neighborhood or the people or history that make it up. Other points made were that transportation doesn't improve but housing costs go up, long drives and congestion on back streets doesn't build neighborhoods, unequal distribution of institutions have impact on family, the need for public transportation is urgent, we need to cut down on cars and growth. Most of my life was in outer sprawl, traffic and commuting are part of my life, and I actually consider driving my hobby. This made me realize life is not supposed to be lived this way and I envy people who can remember, "How it used to be". As the meeting went on I realized these ties in with my inner fire causing subject, of social conditions of neighborhoods and youth life. Some other changes had to deal with these issues and economic impact.

We all realized for the most part we do not know our neighbors and we questioned a part of ourselves "do we want to?"Do we have time to?" Mostly the answers were NO. We thought putting at least one parent back in the homes and institutions near by our neighborhoods would improve family, education, and community. Other issues raised were concerns about housing, land cost, funding, sprawl, the expense of development, the trade offs we have made (family vs. convenience) and Tampa's history. After the discussion Mr. Cullen pasted out those reports.

They were about issues raised by the public in county meetings, and a report on static and dynamic data about the city and asked us to review them for next week. This was when I offered my comments and was asked to remain in the study circle. Session 210-11-04 This session was held at Seminole Heights Garden Center, its topic was "Why is our community experiencing these changes?" In the session we had to choose one most important issue or problem that we felt needed the most attention. The issue that won by one vote was education.

Our conversation focused on the importance for education and how good education can help the other issues listed. We listed that lifestyle loss, fear, and unfriendliness all were a part of what needs to be changed along with education. In this meeting we discussed the responsibility of many parts of the community including government in making Tampa a better place to live. Some people were confused on why education won but I feel that education is the single most important building block to dealing with urban problems and for planning for the future. We realized that home, neighborhood, and community are the building blocks of the city, and good education is key to having all of those.

Our ideas about what we needed to accomplish these and have in our city started to flow, some ideas were: We need friendlier neighborhoods, with pedestrian features that foster community. Our neighborhood has sidewalks that bring people out of their homes, while adjacent neighborhoods lack sidewalks. Sidewalks are not always a sure thing. In a small neighborhood of 63 homes with sidewalks my neighbors and I do not know each other. The problem is bigger than that; we live in an era of fear. Society no longer believes it is possible to collectively build our community.

We lack urban enclaves with people who look after each other. If you had a tool to work your garden and then one day you didn't have that tool, would you get in your car and drive to the nearest hardware store OR ask your neighbor? We live in an era of fear - youth is my greatest concern. We are now seeing the effects of the first day-cared generation. Friendly neighborhoods start at home. We need afternoon gathering places that are preferably home-based.

If not, at least give our kids alternatives. Everything revolves around community - it takes a village to raise a child. Every spreads out from the community, and everything comes back to the community. Yes, if we get community right, then everything else takes care of itself. Everything is possible, if we know our neighbors - nothing is possible if we don't. It was easy to see that even the simplest things in life like talking to our neighbors has become obsolete in this money hungry age.

Other concerns about Parenting and children arose. Our graduation levels, teen pregnancy, and crime rates feel into this category and the outlook was not good. We came to realize that in this day in age families do not have the time to be together and deal with and combat these issues early and at home. We also discussed government responsibility in reaching our goals. Some comments were: We cannot rely on government for everything.

It does not have the money or the interest to look after all the details of neighborhood life. We need to do more for ourselves, and see government as empowering rather than just delivering. Southeast Seminole Heights was becoming a slum. Now it is thriving, and government had little to do with it.

Regular people have to do the heavy lifting. These statements are true as citizens we need to also take responsibility for our communities and get the job done. In getting the job done we also need to protect our environment and natural resources. We need to maintain what we have such as roadways so we can stop hurting more and more environment. We also felt that sustainability of structure and people were important to reaching our goals, if people want to move all the time and we need to keep building etc. that leads to more problems. If structures last and community is formed people will move less often.

All of these issues are important it seems hard to list the importance of them when each connects with another one; this is when I really started thinking about my surroundings and how I live my own life. This session focused on many areas and I think it was outlined well to realize what kind of problems the commission faces while planning. Session 310-18-04 This session's topic was "What are the Qualities we most want this city to have?" it was held at the Children's Board on Palm Ave. This session started a revolution in the study circle and how every meeting after that was held. With this topic it was hard for the older people to dream of a really utopian place where all the problems and issues of the city were solved because they have been living with them for so long. One member took charge and said, "What would you see or have in your ideal neighborhood?" We went around the circle and gave qualities one by one some qualities included: having a cultural system, to be yourself, recognize interconnectedness, controllable environment for children, less economic and more vibrancy in cultural life, celebrate diversity, educate youth, families can spend time with each other, and build community.

Building on these ideas people took a walk in their neighborhood and felt like this: no fear, happy, morally, I see festivals, I have time to maintain a lifestyle, and we have flowers, music, family, and, neighbors. Other issues were based on economics. People would like to see no one be too rich or too poor, there will be a vast amount of job opportunity, reinvestment in neighborhoods, and the youth will have skills training from working at local business. We also discussed how community would improve.

People would like to: walk to local business, see nature as part of the community, we are not walled in or out, downtown is vibrant, we have many local youth activities, I can see stars at night and hear birds in the afternoon, schools are no longer crowded, our structures last longer, and we use resources more wisely. We also discussed physical aspects of our Utopian society, we would like clean waterfronts and environment, streets and roads that provide smooth mobility, that nature is considered beautiful and a amenity, that we build wisely and maintain what we do build, and that our neighborhoods grow into communities. This session brought a new way of thinking for these few citizens and for the city officials. The physical, visual, social, and economic aspects of community are important and all need to be discussed and applied to our new plans. There are great things in Tampa that should not be lost, and we should put value in what we already have.

Session 410-25-04 This session was held at Kate Jackson Community Center, it topic was "What are our options for addressing change?" City officials came to this meeting. In this session we had to pretend that we were listing the parts that make our neighborhood great in this exercise we could be whomever we wanted in age, gender, race, etc. We want our neighborhood to be safe, sociable, and supportive, in this neighborhood people enjoy our brick streets with slow traffic that are lined with trees as we pass safe congregating places for all ages, I see my neighbor from my porch, we all take part in the neighborhood children's lives, we have clean enjoyable parks, and our neighborhood is designed for all ages, it is pedestrian friendly, and there is local dining and retail. Our next exercise in this meeting was imagining a perfect weekend in the city we live in. We could also be any person in this exercise. We are listing values for a college student doing a thesis; his major is city planning with a minor is sociology.

Some of our responses were: an active downtown, in our downtown we have the arts, open dining, we go shopping in non-chain stores, our downtown is walkable, our sports teams are downtown, people live in the downtown, our down town has riverwalk, theaters, museums, parks, tree lined streets, water taxis, festivals, a variety of retail, family oriented activities, great dining, we also have things open twenty four-seven so there is always something to do. Our city is safe with the lowest crime rate in the nation, we have mobility because of our local public transportation, we also have major world-class universities because we have such a high graduation rate and we have many jobs for those graduates. This college student has struck gold with our responses. We had many great ideas but we need to think how we can achieve results. We focused on government's and our neighborhoods responsibility in achieving our goals. In the neighborhood area we need a different form of planning, neighborhood plans need to be developed and adopted into law, we need to teach children history and offer them role models, and we need to develop a healthy downtown.

Government needs to govern as a whole and not govern by fragmentation of responsibility. We need to empower our communities. Responsibility for achievement lies with citizens, communities, and government. We need to work together and appreciate each piece offered. I know that some issues and ideas were repeated but I learned this is because every problem leads to or connects to another and that is what we need to solve one problem at a time.

I was glad to be a part of these meetings and to have a chance to help in the planning of my future. I was happy to see both government and citizens coming together for the meeting. I learned a lot about Tampa and its individual beauties with in neighborhoods, communities, and its people. Session 511-01-04 This session was held at Raymond James Stadium and its topic was " Shaping the future: what can we do in our community?" In this meeting we tried to reach some conclusions and head toward a starting point for the commission. We drafted a list of values that we felt is what we were working toward in our conversations throughout the month. Then we decided if these values were what we were actually saying, I was surprised that the conversations we had came up with this, I was like yeah that is what I said, with out knowing it could be put into a idea and a plan.

We started with some definitions, what is a value: a value is a belief or criteria that acts as a guide for all choices and actions. In our case we are talking about the values that should apply in attaining the city of Tampa I desire. We decided that character counts. The characteristics of our neighborhood should be safe, sociable, supportive, diverse, integrated, and being held accountable for actions and members. We listed that our neighborhood and city should be: interconnected, environmentally clean, have youth activities, redeveloped not expanded, have a sustainable economy, have a all age design, commerce supporting neighborhoods, value added downtown, and be safe. This is what we had been coming up with over the past month and now we could actually see what it was we wanted.

All of these things together but we aren't afraid to work for it. We also discussed that government's role was to be: participatory, empowering, integrative, and collaborative. I think the most important idea I walked away with was that our city needs to be useable. I was very pleased with the result of all of the sessions it seems that most people have a common goal and we need to start planning and producing cities like the one we envision because I bet that even in California so far away people want these same things for their city. I have learned so much in this class and through the commission meeting it really has made me aware of the need to plan and the need to be heard. I am much more away of my surroundings and I am not afraid or too busy to take a second look and take in the bad with good.

I think overall this experience was a success.