Brainstorming for my Community Inquiry Project topic has led me to the point where I have realized that I am interested in learning about the historical events that led to the construction of the city of Newark, including what specific forces played a role in that constuction. I am interested in how Newark looks structurally and how the city is laid out spacially, in order to evaluate the effects that structure may have on urban youth.
If the topic seems vague, (which after reading that paragraph I too am a bit confused) I can elaborate. I started off by thinking about the higher institutions that exist in Newark, including Essex County College, Rutgers University, The Seton Hall University School of Law, The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). I found a great article by CHEN, the Council for Higher Education in Newark, which provides extensive information as to the economic impact of these institutions on the city. I am interested in uncovering the issues that CHEN does not discuss (mainly because these issues would not serve the agenda of CHEN as an institution itself); how the surrounding areas and even the city of Newark itself may suffer as a result of these higher institutions. I will have to do research in to the history of the area, and I also plan on doing a walking tour of the University Heights area as well as the surrounding area outside of University Heights to assess the situation myself via a photo analysis. Here is a map of the area.
Some important questions that I would like to address:
-How has the growth of university on-campus housing (particularly NJIT and Rutgers) and renovation of surrounding apartments changed the demographics as well as the local businesses, restaurants, etc. in the surrounding areas?
-Do these changes mean that the area is necessarily safer or a "better" place for urban youth to inhabit, if, in fact, they even live in these parts of the city?
-How do urban youth and the local communities personally feel about these institutions, and do they consider these institutions and the students that go to them to be a part of their community?
-How has the introduction of these institutions into the community changed local life, modes of transportation, housing prices, etc. in the University Heights areas? Has there been a movement of people out of the area in order to make room for and accomodate to the incoming students?
I think this is a good start, although there are many questions that I have and I am not sure if I will be able to find the answers to them...thus the process of doing research.
I think this is a good start, although there are many questions that I have and I am not sure if I will be able to find the answers to them...thus the process of doing research.
1 comment:
i wonder: if per chance these educational institutions can be said in some way to have a deleterious effect on the immediate environs, does that mean that they should not be there? Newark is the hub of northern NJ. Although Trenton stands as capital, in many ways (beyond the governmental) Newark is "it" for the Northern portion of the state. As such, it seems a rather likely place for this confluence of higher education.
Having said that, even if there is a deleterious effect (we won't for the moment consider the clinics that these schools offer to the communities), can we say that the higher education itself serves a beneficial purpose? If so, do you then not find yourself engaging in NIMBY?
I think you ask an interesting question; but as you compile the data you might try to keep in mind the general good will (or at least a sort of tolerable ambivalence)towards Newark that is often cultivated by students over a course of 3 or 4 years. This "good will" most often replaces, for many otherwise un-exposed suburbanites who find themselves in Brick City, feelings of fear and loathing--cultivated through many years of simply avoiding the city. So maybe what I'm saying is that one of the benefits of having those schools in Newark is merely exposing a number of people (students, faculty, & administrators) who would not otherwise have reason to be there-- and it is always easier to ignore the problems you don't have to actually see.
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