On Wednesday, I had the chance to participate in an engaging discussion with Stephan Schmidt.  Initially, I thought this talk would be centered around Stephan’s research and his opinion on environmental design and land planning.  Instead, he decided to go around the room and ask each one of us to describe our hometowns.  In doing so, I learned about everyone’s background and how different they were to mine.

While some of us grew up in urban centers like Brooklyn, others were originally from rural parts of India.  This gave me context as to how I viewed my community.  As a resident of Long Island, one problem my community is facing is the aging population.  Unfortunately, due to the high cost of living, young people who cannot afford the taxes of Nassau and Suffolk County move to the city.  I was able to express this concern to Stephan, and as a former Long Island resident himself, he understood the problem of the region.

Another part of our discussion was looking at Ithaca and its land planning.  I thought it was surprising when Stephan asked the question “who owns a car?”, and the only person to raise his hand was House Professor Blalock.  We then discussed how not having our own cars on campus made us dependent on public transportation.  Consequently, going to stores like Target and Walmart are not as easy.