Progress 10/01/09 to 09/30/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: P. Horrigan was solely in charge of overseeing R2G NY in 2011-12. It now includes a large number of action projects and activities traceable to R2G NY's beginnings in February 2010. Specific action projects either facilitated, managed and/or produced in concert with Cornell's R2G NY include the Utica-Oneida County Food Assessment Project (now the Mohawk Valley Food Action Network Project);Cornell Landscape Architecture Dept's R2G Capstone Design Studio, senior honors, masters thesis and MPS projects; summer Rust to Green Civic Intern Program (2010,11,12); 11-member R2G Utica College Consortium; R2G Utica Core Group; R2G NY communications/website; and a wide range of community engaged research and design projects either underway or completed in partnership with community stakeholders. In addition to projects cited in earlier CRIS Reports, 2012 projects include the One World Garden Design Project (w/ Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees), Kemble Park Project (w/Utica Neighborhood Housing Services and "I have a DREAMscape Project (w/ MLK School). All 3 projects used a participatory process to emerge design proposals that are now being used for funding and implementation being undertaken with R2G NY assistance. Over 2012, considerable work went into redesigning a more comprehensive R2GNY website (rust2green.org) working with Iron Design Consultants. The new site will profile and disseminate R2G NY information, accomplishments and activities and be launched in January 2012. It will be linked to other project related websites including http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/oneida/; www.mvfoodaction.com; and http://academics.hamilton.edu/rust2green. Over the project's duration there have been many presentations given to national academic and professional audiences via seminars and conferences, many of which were peer-reviewed. There have also been public presentations at community venues in Utica, Syracuse, Ithaca and Clinton, NY. Considerable efforts to obtain additional support for R2G Utica and R2G NY activities resulted in approximately one-half million dollars of funds to support Rust to Green activities in Utica and Oneida County, NY. R2G NYS funding support has come from a wide range of sources including the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties; Cornell Cooperative Extension, Colgate University's Upstate Institute and Hamilton College to support summer interns; USDA Hunger Free Communities Grant Program to support MVFAN; Utica's CDBG Program to support community improvements; and most recently from the TKF Foundation Open Spaces, Sacred Places Program to support planning for the One World Garden; and the Cornell Center for Engaged Learning and Research to support the Rust to Green Service-learning Capstone Studio. A 1.6 million dollar grant proposal is currently under review by the TKF Foundation to support the construction of the One World Garden as well as a longer-term research project (w/ N. Wells at Cornell and R. Coughlan at SUNY Empire College) examining the impact of nature on distressed urban inhabitants. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals: R2G NY Director Paula Horrigan has played a leadership role in managing the project, facilitating and recording meetings with stakeholder groups, applying for funding, supervising students and overseeing research components. For the first two years, Jamie Vanucchi played a principal role in program design, supervising students and managing and conducting research on the project. Partner Organizations: CCE Oneida County is a key R2G NY and R2G Utica partner with Director Ron Bunce and staff particularly supporting R2G Utica programming, R2G interns and the Mohawk Valley Food Action Network (MVFAN). Other partners include Utica's Resource Center for Independent Living (RCIL), Community Foundation of Oneida and Herkimer Counties, Utica Neighborhood Housing Services, Utica DPW, Parks, Planning and Engineering Depts., Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, Hamilton College's Levitt Center, Colgate University's Upstate Institute, Empire College, Martin Luther King Elementary School, Corn Hill Neighborhood Association and NY Campus Compact. Collaborators and Contacts: Scott Peters(Cornell Horticulture) advises on community engaged research methods and links R2G nationally to Imagining America:Artists and Scholars in Public Life. Shorna Allred provides project input and grant proposal assistance. CU's Public Service Center, Center for Engaged Learning and Research and Dept of Landscape Architecture supports R2G's engaged service-learning and research. Nancy Wells, (Cornell Human Ecology) is a partner on the One World Garden Open Spaces Sacred Places (OSSP) which also include CU Landscape Architecture, SUNY Empire College, Ringling Brothers College (Florida) and the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees. R2G leadership is being invited to present at regional and national conferences and is part of a growing network of planning and design academics concerned with Rust-Belt Cities.The R2G College Consortium is a major collaborative effort between Cornell's R2G and Hamilton College's Levitt Center and is promoting faculty and student research in partnership with community stakeholders and agencies. MVFAN is a collaborative effort jointly spearheaded by R2G and CCE Oneida County with over 20 agency and institutional collaborators. Utica public space, parks and streetscape projects have come through collaborating between R2G, Utica's Depts. of Engineering, DPW and Parks as well as NY State's DOT. Finally, R2G's success in Utica and collaboration with CCE Oneida County have led to new proposals to launch a New York CCE Statewide R2G Program in the upcoming years and emerging partnerships with Cornell's Atkinson Center, Center for Engaged Learning and Research, CaRDI and Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. TARGET AUDIENCES: Utica has one of the highest poverty rates in its already underperforming County at 27.5%. This as compared to a US poverty rate of 15.1%, and a statewide poverty rate of 13.8%. Utica and its MSA was identified in the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal's 2009 Mohawk Valley Regional Report as one of the poorest of New York State's cities. Census results qualify the majority of Utica as a Community Development Block Grant entitlement community, with large areas designated or eligible as distressed Census Tracts (51% poverty), Empire Zones, Empowerment Zones, Enterprise Zones, Targeted Employment Areas and Brownfield Redevelopment Areas. Target audiences for R2G's efforts include individuals living in HUD's CDBG Target Area, an area identified in Utica's 2011 Master Plan as desperately in need of revitalization and regeneration. CDBG funds allocated to R2G and channeled through CCE Oneida are targeted to revitalizing downtown and its surrounding neighborhoods. R2G redesign of Chancellor and Kemble Parks and MLK's schoolyard all aim to regenerate neighborhoods and improve access to recreation, nature and open space for urban youth, adults and the elderly. In Utica's public schools 31 languages are currently being spoken due to the fact that 1 in 6, (over 10,000 residents) are refugees beginning life anew after experiencing displacement from their home countries due to war, genocide, or other social, political and economic upheavals. R2G's One World Garden is targeted to the city's culturally and racially diverse, and largely low-income refugee population. As a UN recognized Refugee Resettlement City Utica's changing identity will have much to do with its reimagining and future development. The MVFAN project is directed at Utica and Oneida County with a special focus on understanding the contributing factors impacting food security and access to healthy and nutritious foods in both urban and rural areas. Utica has a particularly high child poverty rate, which in 2006-2008 was 47 and rising. In 2010, just under 70% of K-12 students in the Utica City School district qualified for free lunches, and almost 80% of students qualified for reduced rate lunches. Therefore, a target audience of MVFAN is Utica's school system with hopes of impacting food security as well as increasing access to healthy and nutritious foods. R2G Projects like the MLK school garden and sustainable schoolyard are directed at educational experiences and activities connecting teaching and learning to food and health for children and their families. The MVFAN project casts a wide net as it hopes to alleviate hunger and improve food access but also to innovate in the food system in ways that activate the local economy, promote new programs and collaborations between food providers and consumers, promote environmental, social and physical health and well-being and encourage investment and development in the food economy of the Mohawk Valley region. As a result this project aims to engage farmers and food producers on one end of the spectrum and consumers, on the other end. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: R2G leadership changes have negatively impacted its momentum and organization as stated in earlier reports. Jamie Vanucchi, who relocated to SUNY ESF's Dept. of Landscape Architecture in August 2011, has been unable to fully engage in R2G NY for the past year. This has meant that the full responsibility for R2G leadership has fallen to P. Horrigan. Utica City Hall reorganization and the election of a new mayor in 2011 diminished earlier momentum created when the project began, but new alliances and directions are also on the horizon as a result of state level initiatives coming through NY Governor Cuomo's administration. Over the past year, R2G NY has worked less with municipal government and more with community stakeholders and local non-profits. R2G's action research methodology makes the project ever expanding in nature. R2G projects or action steps often lead to pursuing funding proposals, immediate activation and implementation. The R2G College Consortium and MVFAN are examples of R2G projects with their own goals, objectives and network of collaborators. Overall R2G NYS suffers from being under-resourced and unable to adequately respond to the rapid, ever-expanding growth it is experiencing. This leads to gaps in communication, organization and management. There is a need to address the program's management and infrastructure to enable it to move forward effectively. The proposal to activate an R2G Program Area in CCE Oneida County is aimed, in part, at addressing these concerns. Without such infrastructure in place, R2G's current schedule and time constraints, combined with its robust emergent nature, is proving to be a major challenge.
Impacts
R2G NY's efforts resulted in founding R2G Utica (2010), a local network with their own mission linked back to Cornell's R2G NY. R2G Utica's CORE group continues to be identified and generated as R2G related projects and activities unfold in Utica and beyond. A community-based grass root effort called the Mohawk Valley Food Action Network (MVFAN) results from the USDA Grant secured by R2GNY, R2G Utica and CCE Oneida County in April 2011. This project is increasing awareness of the area's food system and resulting in collaborative projects and policies to address food insecurity and increase food system resilience and sustainability. Other R2GNY outcomes include a growing awareness, by municipal level decision makers in Utica, of alternative urban design strategies for addressing stormwater and pollution caused by the city's combined sewer/stormwater system. Design changes to the Oneida Square Roundabout, Liberty Park, City Hall Parking Lot, Franklin Square Alley and Genesee Street- all involving sustainable design and green practices- are changing the city landscape and its agencies practices and are directly attributable to R2G-generated design and planning documents. The Kemble Park Project, MLK School "I have a DREAMscape Project and the One World Garden are yet other examples of R2G projects aimed at revitalizing the urban environment and making it healthier, safer and more sustainable. These projects, done with R2G Utica community partners, are also helping to draw attention to the role of nature, environment, green infrastructure and public space in promoting human health and well being and generating community and economic development and renewal. Summer Utica Monday Nites and eight weeks of R2G programming in 2010 and 2011, resulted in increasing awareness of sustainable design and planning. With its action research, participatory and community engaged set of principles and practices, R2G NY is playing a significant role in convening myriad partners and stakeholders to collectively identify and address community problems and needs using combined research and design approaches. Projects such as the One World Garden and the MLK Sustainable Schoolyard are being developed as combined design and research efforts that will lead to built-environment changes and also research projects and findings useful to other communities and audiences. The R2G Utica College Consortium is resulting in cross-institutional interdisciplinary research, teaching and education projects involving eleven of the Utica region's higher ed. institutions. R2G NY has had a successful collaboration with CCE Oneida County since teaming up to launch/co-lead MVFAN and the USDA-funded project from which it springs. CCE Oneida County has taken a particularly strong lead in advancing R2G Utica and has decided to develop and institutionalize a Rust to Green Program Area that can also act to support and advance R2G Utica over time. In the upcoming two-year period, R2G NY will work to more fully develop and activate CCE Oneida County's Rust to Green Program Area and R2G Utica and to use it as a model for possible adoption by other CCE's in NY State.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/11 to 12/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Activities: R2G NYS key faculty, Horrigan and Vanucchi, facilitated and oversaw: 2011 Rust to Green Utica Monday Nites (8 weeks,60-100 participants); Utica-Oneida County Food Assessment Project Research Team mapping and surveys; R2G teaching, thesis advising, Civic Intern development and management; Ten-College R2G College Consortium coordination/ facilitation (meeting monthly); Rust to Green Utica Core Group coordination/facilitation (meeting monthly); Summer 2011 Civic Research Fellows oversight; Wide range of project-based community engaged research and design and oversight, management, meetings and workshops with community stakeholders; R2G Communications and Website development; R2G NYS and R2G Utica presentations directed to local, regional and national audiences. Products: Production of design and planning documents for Chancellor Park, Franklin Square, vacant lot reuse, Bleecker St., Oneida Square Rotary, Green Infrastructure, RCIL, MLK School and R2G Eco-Citizenship Smart Board Curriculum; Built revitalized urban spaces at Liberty Park, Bleecker Street Block, Oneida Square; R2G Activation, mapping and surveys of the Utica-Oneida Food Project; R2G Activation of Rust to Green College Consortium and R2G Civic Research Fellows; R2G Activation of MLK Sustainable School Yard; Published abstracts, webinars and articles from conferences; Websites: http://www.mvfoodaction.com; www.rust2green.org and http://academics.hamilton.edu/rust2green. Presentations: "Rust to Green: Cultivating Resilience in the Rust Belt," Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Annual Conference, Los Angeles (Horrigan, Vanucchi:50 attendees) and Environmental Design Research Association, Chicago, (Horrigan: 40 att.); "Rust to Green," Cornell Social Entrepreneurship Conference, Ithaca, NY (Horrigan: 40 att.); "Rust To Green Utica," We Live NY Summit, Ithaca, NY (Horrigan, Vanucchi et al: 50 att.); Cornell Committees on Academic Affairs and Student Life, Ithaca, NY (Horrigan: 80 att.) ; "Rust to Green NYS," Urban Revitalization Transformations through Art & Design, Imagining America, Syracuse, (Horrigan, Vanucchi et al: 40 att.); "Rust to Green NYS," Upstate APA and ASLA Conference, Utica, NY, (Horrigan, Vanucchi et al: 60 att.); "Rust to Green Utica - Addressing Community Needs Through A Food Policy Council," Cornell Cooperative Extension Centennial Conference, Syracuse ( Horrigan et al: 40 att.); "Creating Sustainable Urban Communities in Syracuse and Utica," Hamilton College, Clinton, NY ( Horrigan: 50 att.); "Rust to Green Utica," New Hartford Rotary, Yahundasis Golf Club, Utica, NY ( Horrigan: 30 att.) Funding Proposals: P. Horrigan worked to secure R2G NYS funding support with applications for 2011 summer internships to CC Extension and Colgate University's Upstate Institute Summer Research Fellowship (awarded); USDA People's Grant (not awd.); TKL Foundation Open Spaces, Sacred Places Program (awd.); United Way of Herkimer and Oneida Counties (awarded); CALS Course Development (awd.); CU Public Service Center (awd.): CU Toward Sustainability Foundation (pndg); Statewide Cornell Cooperative Extension (pndg). PARTICIPANTS: Individuals: Paula Horrigan played a principal leadership role in coordinating and managing the project, facilitating and recording meetings with stakeholder groups, managing and applying for funding, supervising students and overseeing research components. Jamie Vanucchi also played a principal role in program design, supervising students, managing and conducting research on the project. Partner Organizations: CCE Oneida County is a key partner acting in a leadership role on the Mohawk Valley Food Action Network (MVFAN). Director Ron Bunce and his staff have been supporting R2G and promoting collaborative research, funding, programming and intern oversight. Other partners include Utica's Resource Center for Independent Living (RCIL), Community Foundation of Oneida and Herkimer Counties, Utica Neighborhood Housing Services, Utica Planning and Engineering, DPW and Parks Departments, Mohawk Valley Center for Refugees, Hamilton College's Levitt Center, Colgate University's Upstate Institute, Empire College, Martin Luther King Elementary School, Corn Hill Neighborhood Association and Imagining America. Collaborators and Contacts: Scott Peters(Cornell Horticulture) is advising on community engaged research methods and linking R2G nationally to Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life. CU's Public Service Center supports R2G's service-learning teaching and research experiences. Nancy Wells, (Cornell Human Ecology) is a partner on the Open Spaces Sacred Places (OSSP) planning grant, which will design a refugee garden and study the impact of nature on its users. The OSSP team represents CU Landscape Architecture and DEA, SUNY Empire College, Ringling Brothers College (Florida) and the Mohawk Valley Center for Refugees. A growing network of planning and design academics concerned with Rust-Belt Cities is emerging and leading to discussions about convening a conference on the topic. R2G leadership is being invited to present at regional and national conferences. The R2G College Consortium is a major collaborative effort between Cornell's R2G and Hamilton College's Levitt Center. Hamilton has mounted a Consortium website and supported summer interns, promoted faculty and student research, and collaborations between Hamilton and Cornell. Eight other colleges form the Consortium and funding for summer 2011 interns came from Colgate, Hamilton College and Munson Williams Proctor Pratt (PrattMWP). MVFAN is a collaborative effort being jointly spearheaded by R2G and CCE Oneida County with over twenty agency and institutional collaborators. Utica public space, parks and streetscape infrastructure projects have come through collaborating between R2G, Utica's Departments of Engineering, DPW and Parks as well as NY State's Department of Transportation. Finally, R2G's success in Utica and collaboration with CCE Oneida County have led to exploring the possibility of launching a New York Statewide R2G Program. To this end, Paula Horrigan, Rust to Green PI and Ron Bunce, CCE Oneida County Executive Director, have drafted and submitted a proposal to CCE leadership and are engaging in follow-up dialogue and planning in pursuit of this goal. TARGET AUDIENCES: Utica has one of the highest poverty rates in its already underperforming County at 27.5%. This as compared to a US poverty rate of 15.1%, and a statewide poverty rate of 13.8%. Utica and its MSA was identified in the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal's 2009 Mohawk Valley Regional Report as one of the poorest of New York State's cities. Census results qualify the majority of Utica as a Community Development Block Grant entitlement community, with large areas designated or eligible as distressed Census Tracts (51% poverty), Empire Zones, Empowerment Zones, Enterprise Zones, Targeted Employment Areas and Brownfield Redevelopment Areas. Target audiences for R2G's efforts include individuals living in HUD's CDBG Target Area, an area identified in Utica's 2011 Master Plan as desperately in need of revitalization and regeneration. CDBG funds allocated to R2G and channeled through CCE Oneida are targeted to revitalizing downtown and its surrounding neighborhoods. R2G redesign of Chancellor and Kemble Street Parks aim to regenerate neighborhoods and improve access to recreation, nature and open space for urban youth, adults and the elderly. In Utica's public schools 31 languages are currently being spoken due to the fact that 1 in 6, (over 10,000 residents) are refugees beginning life anew after experiencing displacement from their home countries due to war, genocide, or other social, political and economic upheavals. R2G's OSSP garden is particularly targeted to the refugee population, which is culturally and racially diverse and largely low-income. Utica is a United Nations recognized Refugee Resettlement City whose changing identity will have much to do with its reimagining and future development. The Mohawk Valley Food Action Network (MVFAN) project is directed at Utica and Oneida County with a special focus on understanding the contributing factors impacting food security and access to healthy and nutritious foods in both urban and rural areas. Utica has a particularly high child poverty rate, which in 2006-2008 was 47 and rising. In 2010, just under 70% of K-12 students in the Utica City School district qualified for free lunches, and almost 80% of students qualified for reduced rate lunches. Therefore, a target audience of MVFAN is Utica's school system with hopes of impacting food security as well as increasing access to healthy and nutritious foods. R2G Projects like the MLK school garden and sustainable schoolyard are directed at educational experiences and activities connecting teaching and learning to food and health for children and their families. The MVFAN project casts a wide net as it hopes to alleviate hunger and improve food access but also to innovate in the food system in ways that activate the local economy, promote new programs and collaborations between food providers and consumers, promote environmental, social and physical health and well-being and encourage investment and development in the food economy of the Mohawk Valley region. As a result this project aims to engage farmers and food producers on one end of the spectrum and consumers, on the other end. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: R2G leadership changes have negatively impacted its momentum and organization. Jamie Vanucchi relocated to SUNY ESF's Dept. of Landscape Architecture in August 2011. Horrigan and Vanucchi are currently pursuing a collaborative arrangement involving Cornell and ESF working together on R2G. A major change impacting R2G occurred in Utica City Hall. In R2G's start up year Utica's Mayor assigned Robert Sullivan, Director of Urban Renewal and Planning, as R2G Liaison charged with activating R2G Utica. In early 2011, the Mayor expelled Sullivan from his position and announced plans to step down at year's end. Additional City Hall firings and redirected priorities made communication and collaboration increasingly difficult. R2G hopes to redevelop alliances with newly elected Mayor Palmieri in 2012. R2G's action research methodology makes the project ever expanding in nature. R2G projects or action steps often lead to pursuing funding proposals, immediate activation and implementation. The R2G College Consortium and MVFAN are examples of R2G projects with their own goals, objectives and network of collaborators. Overall R2G NYS suffers from being under-resourced and unable to adequately respond to the rapid, ever-expanding growth it is experiencing. This leads to gaps in communication, organization and management. Horrigan has no release time and continues to be responsible for a full teaching load leaving only summer months for work on R2G. R2G's current schedule and time constraints combined with its robust emergent nature poses a major threat to its long-term viability.
Impacts
Changes in knowledge in Utica, NY as a result of R2G's work include a community-based grass root effort called the Mohawk Valley Food Action Network (MVFAN). MVFAN results from the USDA Hunger Free Communities Grant secured by R2G and CCE Oneida County in April 2011. This project is assessing the area's food system and developing projects and policies to increase its resilience and sustainability. MVFAN will culminate in creating Upstate NY's first Food Policy Council in 2013. Additional R2G outcomes include a growing awareness, by decision makers, of alternative urban design strategies for addressing stormwater and mitigating pollution caused by discharges from the city's combined sewer/stormwater system. R2G is creating green infrastructure proposals to retrofit and redesign city streets and parking lots as well reimagine vacant lots, parks and open spaces. Utica DPW, City Parks, Planning and Engineering Departments are working with R2G to enact such alternate sustainable design practices. Summer 2011 R2G educational programs at Utica Monday Nites, resulted in increasing awareness of sustainable design and planning and identifying opportunities and challenges facing Utica as it attempts to adapt and transform itself into a livable city. MVFAN and R2G's USDA food system research, is unfolding as an action research project involving more than 20 local partner agencies. MVFAN's process mirrors the working process of R2G NYS. It will result in policy making, environmental and economic innovation related to the food system and increased access to healthy and nutritious foods. Similarly the R2G College Consortium is resulting in cross-institutional interdisciplinary research, teaching and education projects involving ten higher education institutions. In summer 2011, 29 students from 5 area colleges worked on R2G action-research projects. The design and development of the area's first Refugee Garden- "From Afar: Garden of Transitions," is being launched by R2G working in concert with the Mohawk Valley Center for Refugees. Physical changes to the Oneida Square Roundabout, Liberty Park, City Hall Parking Lot, Franklin Square Alley and Genesee Street- all involving sustainable design and green practices- are changing the city landscape by providing ecological services and publically accessible spaces. Such changes are directly attributable to R2G-generated design and planning concepts and documents. These projects aim to improve water quality, reduce pollution, create a cleaner environment and improve the quality of life in the city and region. Such successful projects are resulting in the city adopting sustainable design techniques and methods and altering their own practice habits. The unfolding R2G Ecological Citizenship Curriculum will be used by the Utica School System to educate and activate area youth to become involved in sustainably shaping their neighborhoods and communities. Finally, the design of the sustainable schoolyard at MLK School and Kemble Street Park Project are examples of R2G projects aimed at changing the city's environment and making it healthier, safer and more sustainable for young and old.
Publications
- Horrigan, P. and Vanucchi, J. 2011. Rust to Green: Cultivating Resilience in the Rust Belt, Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) Annual Conference Proceedings (abstract), Los Angeles California, March 2011.
- Horrigan, P. and Vanucchi, J. 2011. Rust to Green: Cultivating Resilence in the Rust Belt, Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) Annual Conference Proceedings (abstract), Chicago Illinois, May 2011.
- Horrigan, P, Jardieu, P., Vanucchi, J. and Williams, C. 2011. Rust To Green Utica, We Live NY Summit Proceedings (abstract), Cornell University, March 2011.
- Horrigan, P., Jardieu, P. Sullivan, R. and Vanucchi, J. 2011. Rust to Green Utica, Connecting Communities Joint Conference of Upstate APA and ASLA Proceedings (abstract), Utica, NY, September 2011.
- Horrigan, P., Manning, J., Richardson, D. and Williams, C. 2011. Rust to Green Utica: Addressing Community Needs Through A Food Policy Council, Cornell Cooperative Extension Centennial Conference Proceedings (abstract), October 2011.
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Progress 12/31/09 to 12/31/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Since January 2, 2010, Rust to Green New York State has been very productive in working with its partner cities of Utica and Binghamton, NY. Much activity has centered on Utica, NY where the city has lacked a Master Plan for more than 50 years. Rust to Green NYS convened and facilitated Utica Core Partner meetings throughout 2010. Meetings were held monthly and in the summer, at two-week intervals. Each 2 to 3 hour session was attended by from 15-30 key stakeholders. These meetings are the main venue for outlining the project's overall action research agenda and process. From R2GCore sessions, key projects have been generated and identified. Rust to Green is now facilitating a R2G Utica College Consortium group of upwards of 30 representatives from 10 area colleges. It has received a USDA grant and formed a Food Policy Working Group with 25 stakeholders working to develop a resilient food system for Utica. Rust to Green Utica conducted surveys at two locations over summer 2010 including Saranac Thursday and R2G's Utica Monday Nite display.Six Rust to Green Civic Research Fellows were involved in summer 2010 collecting data and generating information displays directed at teaching local Utica citizens about how their city currently uses its resources.Posters and materials were viewable at 6 Utica Monday Nite events and on the rust2green.org website. Public Rust to Green events included the Utica Monday Nites series entitled "Rust to Green at the Marketplace." One R2G week included an on-site rain barrel demonstration.Rust to Green NYS was visibly present at events both in its target cities as well as at Cornell and in Buffalo NY. These included: Cornell Trustees Meeting, October 29, 2010: CU faculty and students and Utica partners presented the R2G Utica Project to 100 Cornell trustees; AIA/ASLA Buffalo Annual Meeting, October 16, 2010: a 3-hour intensive outlining Rust to Green to about 75 NY architects and landscape architects; Resource Center for Independent Living Retreat, November 5, 2010: P. Horrigan keynote talk entitled, "Creating Social Change: Rust to Green Utica," attended by 200 people;Hamilton College, May 21, 2010: presented R2G Utica to 30 faculty and administrators at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY;R2G Presentation Utica, April 2010; State of the City, Utica, NY May 2010: R2G Utica was focus of mayor's annual speech where he announced his administration's commitment to dedicating a city building as the new R2G Utica headquarters; Binghamton Smart Growth Conference, October 23, 2010: presenting panelists as well as exhibiting contributors to this event; RE-utica Film and R2g Utica Event, December 14, 2010:presented a powerpoint and discussion on R2G Utica to about 250 guests at the Munson-Proctor Art Museum. Rust to Green's website is rust2green.org and was created over the summer of 2010. Materials currently mounted on the website include mapping and posters. Green Maps and Blue Maps depicting the green and blue infrastructure of Broome County were prepared, exhibited and made available to the City of Binghamton Planning Department and Livable Communities Alliance of which Rust to Green NYS is a part. PARTICIPANTS: As CO-PI and now PI, since the departure of Deni Ruggeri from Cornell, Paula Horrigan's principal role has been one of Project Facilitator/Director convening key stakeholders as well as setting forth research and project agendas, grant writing, presentations, teaching and mentoring student researchers. Deni Ruggeri, Co-Pi until May 2010, played a principal role in aspects of research design and development, communication and mentoring of student researchers. Jamie Vanucchi has participated as a full member of the research team and played a crucial part in leading important aspects of the research effort as related to sustainable urban and regional planning and design data collection, mapping and representation. She has also mentored student researchers and integrated Rust to Green research activities into courses at Cornell, thereby connecting teaching and learning between the campus and community. In the City of Utica, Robert Sullivan was appointed to be the Rust to Green coordinator in the city's Department of Planning and Economic Development. He played a major role in coordinating efforts with the city and with integrating the activities of Rust to Green with the City's new Master Plan and Community Development Block Grant program. Dana Criseno, City Planner, also played a critical role in coordinating the Local Waterfront Access Plan project in which Cornell played a major part by providing waterfront mapping and data. Partner Organizations include the following colleges in the Utica, NY area: Hamilton College's Levitt Center, Mohawk Valley Community College, Munson-Proctor Art Museum, Upstate Institute at Colgate U., SUNY IT, Utica College, Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees and the following agencies: Utica Department of Planning and Economic Development, Resource Center for Independent Living, For the Good, Utica Municipal Housing Authority, NYS DOT, CCE Oneida County, Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, Inc., Habitat for Humanity. In Binghamton Department of Planning, Housing and Community Development. Major collaborator, Scott Peters in Cornell's Dept. of Education, has been actively leading a team of student researchers who are tracking the activities of Rust to Green community members using narrative interview methods. Shorna Broussard-Allred, Cornell Dept. of Natural Resources has also provided input and feedback on various project research components. A Rust to Green service-learning workshop was held at Cornell in Spring 2010 and involved 35 students working on 4 major components contributing to the larger research project's launch. A new R2G Utica Civic Fellows program engaged 5 graduate students working full-time with CU researchers and community groups during summer 2010. A 3-hour credit-bearing course was presented at the October 2010 ASLA/AIA conference on Rust to Green and was attended by upwards of 70 professional NYS architects, landscape architects and planners. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences include citizens living in the City of Utica and especially those residing in the city's Community Development Block Grant entitlement zone. Utica's aging infrastructure and building stock, high poverty levels, lack of long range planning, economic disinvestment and changing demographic where one in six residents are refugees are all indicators of the challenges this formerly industrial rust-belt city is facing. Rust to Green's efforts are aiming to connect with the many community grass roots and non-profit agencies and organizations that comprise an active segment of the population and an area in which there is evidence of tremendous social capital. At the other end of the spectrum, Rust to Green is connecting to city and county government to address larger scale issues and realities, which are playing a major role in how the city and region will shape their future. Ecological and green infrastructure solutions, for example, may enable the city of Utica to address their combined sewer/stormwater challenges while enhancing the urban environment. At larger scales, a regional food policy will increase resiliency and identify potential avenues for addressing food security, stimulating innovation and spurring economic development. Rust to Green's effort to develop a Rust to Green College Consortium is aimed at connecting faculty and students from ten area colleges (including Cornell) to community partners in the private, public and non-profit sector. By working together their collaboration aims to promote innovation, research, invention and locally grown solutions to the problems Utica and its region faces. A Rust to Green Utica home base housed in a downtown Genesee Street location, contributed by the City, will create a publically accessible venue for education and outreach to diverse individuals and groups. Rust to Green's delivery of knowledge has been undertaken through a series of venues. The project's website provides access to posters and mapping being generated. Community events for knowledge exchange have included Utica Monday Nite's, Rust to Green at the Marketplace summer 2010 program. Rust to Green presented its work to a large audience at the December 2010 screening of the film entitled Re-Utica, at the Munson-Proctor Art Museum Auditorium. Public meetings related to Utica's Local Waterfront Access Plan provided the opportunity to present Rust to Green's waterfront mapping. Several Cornell classes have been engaged in both learning about and contributing to the Rust to Green project. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: The principal change in the Rust to Green project involved the loss of the CO-PI, Deni Ruggeri, who left Cornell after less than 6 months on the project. This has had a major impact on the distribution of responsibilities and on work levels for the remaining two members of the research team. It has made it also difficult to both manage and deliver the action research approach in not just one, but two cities. This situation, as well as the high level of receptivity and readiness being demonstrated in Utica NY, has meant that the primary work effort has shifted to Utica. Utica has been able to convene a large and diverse group of partners and the City of Utica has also welcomed our efforts by providing intern stipends, staff support and dedicating a city-owned building to Rust to Green. It is likely that the efforts in Binghamton NY will remain more peripheral and Rust to Green will continue to act less as a convener and more as a partner, working particularly with the Livable Communities Alliance which it helped to found there.
Impacts
Rust to Green NYS has created significant changes in the City of Utica. A key concern in Utica has been the lack of coordination in City Hall between different departments addressing the built environment. Rust to Green Utica has activated greater dialogue in City Hall related to sustainable planning and design. The key example of this was Rust to Green's ability to retrofit a city owned and designed parking lot to include green practices. This lot now includes a bio-retention area and the city's first demonstration site of a green parking lot. This project demonstrated city hall's need to educate and empower its engineering, planning, and design units to understand the most up-to date green design practices. Plans are to initiate a Rust to Green Education Series for City Hall. Rust to Green NYS's effort in Utica has facilitated the formation of a Rust to Green Utica group with its own stated vision and mission statement. This group is acting to catalyze larger projects in the city. The group has expressed its increased sense of empowerment and capacity as a result of the inclusive, participatory and collaborative action research approach being taken by the Cornell research team. The group has also stated that this approach, which aims to promote creative dialogue and action, is markedly different from other efforts they have been involved in. The focus on shifting the narrative, from rust to green, has met with a particularly positive response by those involved who perceive that the city, its press and much of its leadership focuses too much on the negatives as opposed to the positives, or social, environmental and economic capital on which the city has the potential to rebuild. One of the major goals of Rust to Green NYS is to get local groups working more collaboratively together to address community problems. In Utica this outcome is already becoming visible through the creation of the Rust to Green Utica College Consortium and the Utica-Oneida Food Policy Working Group. Both groups have formed through the Rust to Green Utica Core and as a result of early identified needs related to college-community relations and addressing poverty and community food insecurity. Now these 2 groups have formed dynamic learning communities and are working to address their respective goals. The R2G Utica College Consortium aims to promote community-based research, service-learning and civic engagement linking university and community resources to addressing community problems. The R2G Utica Food Policy Project is convening to address food security and the design of a city and region-wide sustainable food system. Both projects have been activated in large part by the contributions made by the Cornell Rust to Green research team and its partners. Rust to Green's efforts are being particularly instrumental in helping to provide a venue for articulating, defining and acting on community problems in collaborative and transdisciplinary ways. It is acting to convene, direct and facilitate collaboration, dialogue and joint responsibility for community problem-solving. Its focus on action is enabling visible and tangible results to emerge as the project unfolds.
Publications
- Horrigan, P., Ruggeri, D. and Vanucchi J. 2010. Reenvisioning Upstate NY Cities Through
Sustainable Urban Design, Placemaking and Green Infrastructure Approaches, Creating the Fabric of Our Culture, AIA/ASLA Upstate Conference, October 14-16, 2010, Buffalo, NY
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