We have moved into the 'soft' and more elusive elements of urbanity. To help guide you inquiry I have compiled a shopping list of 'soft' elements to be investigated, please add to this list as you discover more opportunities and data bits:
Population Demographics: Age, Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Religious Affiliation, Income
Historic Use
Employment
Affordable Opportunity
Transportation Access
Crime
Safety
Ownership
Funding Sources
Accessibility
Gentrification
Youth
Education / Enrollment / Graduation Rate
Sexual Orientation
Family Size
Immigration Status / Generation
Community Representation
Relevant Organizations
Commercial Revenue
9 comments:
I will let you in on some good sites. I would take this information with a grain of salt, but they do give a good barometer to work off. They at least get your mind thinking.
Good data info and graphs: http://www.city-data.com/
Assessing: http://www.somervillema.gov/Department.cfm?dept=ASSESS
Neighborhood info, Demographics and more descriptions of the area, Also gives walking ratings on a scale of 1-100: http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/
GIS Maps: http://www.mass.gov/mgis/mapping.htm
Bow St. Police Station Reuse: http://www.somervillema.gov/CoS_Content/documents/Bow%20Street%20Station%20-%20Union%20sq..pdf
Please highlight any info that you find interesting.
Nick, just reminding you to send me access to post on the site… e-mail is baldwinjr@cdm.com.
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I uploaded the sketchup model of site 1 and i'll upload the Union Square sketchup tomorrow.
I will be in the computer lab tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon from approx. 1-6 if anyone wants to meet up to coordinate the site modelling.
cell 617-571-3941
I was going to start to look the Organiazations and Community Representation.
Brief explanation to my posts of the last 2 days:
Sketchup "nolli" is Union Square general map to be coordinated with street/sidewalk (Andrew/Wendell?)
Sketchup "site 1" is just the 4 lots w/houses; to be developed later.
"SanbornMap 1900" is a series of maps that I stitched together to show the build-out of Union Square in 1900. Amazing to see how little has changed in 110 years. The biggest change is the Market Basket plaza area.
Terry,
I cannot locate your sketch up uploads, please make sure you have placed them in a folder that is accessible by everyone, I would suggest UIS/SITE MODEL AND UIS/SITE 1 respectively
I will tackle transportation access with a graphic presentation. I will include primary walking pathways, (The new T stop), Cars, Buses and primary bicycle access.
@ Scott, what are the (preferred) streets a bicyclist would use to get into Union Square.
Thanks, Andrew
Jeremy,
The gis maps link is intense but I think if you can catch on to it quickly it can be very useful; the Police Station Re-use study is a fantastic benchmark for the expectations of the city in a full scale professions study of the re-use potential of a property, maybe we can analyze their study to find holes or opportunities that we could learn from in an effort to step up the level or depth of consideration.
Andrew,
I think your plan is good, to keep studying traffic flows in all its form, if the trace is working for you than keep using it, keep it informal, and physical. Looking at your surface parking study, it might be nice to render the street and the surface lots all the same color... In terms of the value of this exercise, we can figure that out later, for now I thinks it is a nice documentation effort.
All,
I know everyone is working hard on the documentation and analysis, but lets try and get the conversation going on the issues, try making a post, keep up the steady work!
Andrew
Per your question about cycling in Union. The whole Square is a little hairy for cycling (if I was to rate it on a scale of 1 to 10(1 being not dangerous and 10 being VERY dangerous) it would be a 7, especially around the intersection of Somerville and Washington. The roads are very broken up right now, the traffic patterns don't allow for the intergration of riders like at Davis, Porter and Harvard (all provide a lane), during the weekends/rushhour there seems to be a heavy volume of commuters cutting through the square at a higher speeds, and with the broken up (a lot of potholes)roads it seems to be poorly lit.
Hope that helps.
All, I have uploaded two transportation access documentation graphic's to the “Hard Information Folder” on the blog.
@Nick, thanks for the comments. I think trace is a good method of quickly representing ideas. Given the number of topics on the shopping lists I don’t see how we have time for polished documentation graphics. Kevin Lynch recommends keeping early analysis “sketchy” graphically speaking. As for value I agree with you, its there for sure but we can talk about it later as a group; its part of the density & identity of Union Square for sure. I’m currently working on ways to quickly and creatively represent the soft issues. Understanding what they are and the difference between soft issues and hard issues is the easier part for me.
@Scott thanks for the post, I might be able to use that information for a graphic sketch.
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