During the Rose Café, Stephan Schmidt came in to have a discussion with us about city planning. During the discussion, he had everyone in the room talk about where they were from and classify their hometowns as being rural, suburban, or urban. It was interesting to hear about the different places that everyone was from and how they saw their hometowns. I never really thought too much about where I was from and how I would describe it. I grew up twenty minutes right outside of Seattle. I thought that where I grew up was in between urban and suburban. My hometown is different from the Seattle downtown area. Even within a small radius, there are many different neighborhoods. Also, my hometown is very different from Ithaca. It was interesting to hear about where other people grew up and how they may be similar or different from where I grew up. It was also interesting to hear why people classified their hometowns as urban, suburban, or rural because it seemed like many people talked about transportation as a reason. City planning is very important because every town, city, and neighborhood have different needs, and it is important to address their specific needs. We are in some way affected by our surroundings. My hometown did shape me as a person. I want to learn more about city planning, and specifically how city planners go about addressing issues within a community.