The Rose cafe with Stephan Schmidt covered the increasingly important topic of place and its definition and implications in urban and regional planning. I am extremely interested in this topic as it has to do with what I would like to work in as a civil engineer. Though I would be working in the engineering aspect of it, I am passionate about the effects place and environment have on its citizens.

I really enjoyed going around the room and hearing where people were from and how they described their hometown in terms of urban scale. It was interesting to note that though each city has some unique qualities, most American cities are very similar in their structure. But these small unique factors make large differences in the way people live in them. I had never realized the degree to which people were affected by their environment until we all talked about what our hometown allows us to do and what it restricts us from doing. It is so interesting to compare this to our living situation in Cornell in which most things are communal and centered around the university as opposed to an urban community. Dr. Schmidt pointed out how our manner of living here in Cornell no doubt represents a significant decrease in our carbon footprint from when we are home because of the fact that so many things are centralized and shared. This makes me think of the fact that in cities, centralizing certain things like eating areas and some amenities may be more difficult than other things like transportation, recreation, and living. I think the future of American cities is to move in the direction of improving its intra and intercity travel as well as improving the areas where people have fun and live in to accommodate more and all types of interests and people.

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.

Last week during the Rose Cafe, Professor Schmidt visited to tell us about is area of study: urban planning. The discussion began with his going into his field a little bit. He told us about why something like urban planning would be significant and how the same large questions persist throughout the study. One of the big themes he tied in the climate change and how civil engineering can help reduce the carbon footprint people leave behind.

Professor Schmidt make the discussion interactive by having each student tell where they are from and what type of area they grew up in, whether rural, urban, or suburban. I found this very interesting because there was a huge amount of people from suburban areas, which I guess could be expected. But I definitely was surprised by how few people were from the inner city. We mainly gauged our areas based on concentration of people, types of buildings, and transportation. We then answered questions about how this affected our childhood growing up in terms of recreation and schooling, especially in suburbia.

The discourse then shifted to how living on Cornell’s campus greatly plays a factor into reducing our own personal carbon footprint. For example, much of our produce is locally sourced. Many of Cornell’s facilities are communal, such as bathrooms, laundry rooms, and relaxing areas. There has been a rise in communal communities around the cunty, and it seems like this would be the way to go if thinking about the Earth.

I really wish we had more time to talk to Professor Schmidt. One thing I would have liked to discuss is how being from low income areas- that are usually urban- affects one’s carbon footprint. As someone who comes from inner Los Angeles, I find that low income people have been ‘green’ because they do not have a choice: many cannot afford to eat meat often, reducing their carbon footprint by a significant amount. They often wash their clothes by hand because laundry is expensive or they do not have their own laundry machines. Electric and water bills are always conservative to save money, and many grow their own food in hopes of saving a dime.

I think they are an untapped guide on how to live greener, but many seem to overlook this because these qualities are seen as  markers of being underprivileged. Yes, they sometimes do so out of necessity, but the outcome is the same. They save money while also saving the world, and that is admirable to say the very least.

I went to a Rose Cafe last week where we talked about city planning. Professor Schmidt asked us where we were from and whether we thought that our hometown was a city, suburb, or a rural area and why. I’m from Pittsford, NY, which I would describe as a suburban area. We talked a lot about what defined a suburban area, and the thing that stood out the most was the need to drive everywhere. This is definitely true for Pittsford because Wegmans is about a 15 minute drive from my house, and the mall is about 25 minutes away. This definitely has environmental consequences. Climate change is a huge issue right now, and we need to find a way to stop or slow down climate change. Millions of people driving everywhere is definitely not good for the environment, but there really isn’t a good solution for this problem. Public transportation really isn’t very good where I’m from, but even if it were I don’t know how many people would use it. The reality is that using public transportation can be a huge inconvenience, as I’ve learned from my experiences at Cornell, because you have to plan your schedule according to the bus’s schedule. You also can’t go grocery shopping as easily because it’s hard to carry a lot of bags on the bus. It’s just easier to toss the grocery bags in the trunk, and go shopping whenever you have time. I don’t know how many people are willing to give up their cars, especially in a suburban or rural area where everything is far away. One solution to this problem might be electric cars because they are better for the environment. Of course, they also have their drawbacks because they are pretty expensive right not and there are not as many electric car charging stations as there are gas stations. But, if we can find a way to get around these problems, electric cars could help stop or slow down climate change.

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.

This past Rose Cafe focused on how where we live can really impact our lives and choices. For example, people living in urban areas are probably more likely to use public transportation and have more options in terms of food. People in very rural areas, conversely, need to use a car and are probably more limited in what they can choose from food-wise. This made me rethink the idea that just anyone can live a sustainable lifestyle. We can all take steps to decrease our carbon footprint, but it’s much more difficult for some people than others.

When we talked about the difference between urban and rural areas’ choice of food, it reminded me of a topic I was interested in a few years ago. Where I live in California, there is a huge disparity in life expectancy just between counties. This is largely due to the fact that one of our counties, San Bernardino, has a “food desert”. If I’m remembering correctly, a food desert is when there are no fresh food options within a certain radius of your home. People turn to fast food chains because they are basically their only choice. Planning out cities in a way that everyone can access healthy, fresh food is definitely integral to improving peoples’ life quality and expectancy.

At Dr. Schmidt’s talk this past Wednesday called “Place Matters”, I got the chance to learn a lot about what my peer’s lives are like outside of Cornell and how these lifestyles were shaped by their home environments. While I generally ask people where they’re from when I first meet them, I’ve never asked anyone to categorize their hometown as rural, urban, or suburban or to tell me about the history of where they’re from or to discuss the amount of diversity in their hometown. This talk made me realize that 1) people come from a really wide array of homes ranging from densely-packed urban environments to sparsely populated pacific islands, 2) you can never guess what it’s like where someone is from just by looking at them or hearing what state/country they live in, and 3) you can really learn about and connect with people if you give them the chance to share. I connect to my home city very strongly and it was inspiring to hear people share about where they are from. This was by far my favorite Rose Cafe talk that I’ve ever attended because it was an awesome discussion.

Professor Schmidt took time out of his busy schedule to sit down and discuss the differences in people’s lives based on where they live. While he mainly focuses on urban city planning, he knew a great deal about the effects of an environment on a person’s habits. I am from New Jersey and consider my hometown to lean more towards a suburban classification. I spoke with the group about the relative sizes of the properties/houses, distance to shopping centers, and diversity in the town. Professor Schmidt and I had a nice conversation about the high diversity rate in New Jersey as he had first hand experience from his time at Rutgers University. I believe that some of my habits would be different if I lived in a different location. For example, at home I need a car to drive to all places that are too far to walk to. However, at Cornell I am able to walk to all of my classes and do not see the need for a car except in certain exceptions. Additionally, at home my meals are more repetitive than at Cornell. At home I will eat a sandwich or a salad most days for lunch as it is quick and easy to make. However, at Cornell I go to a dining hall where there are many options that vary greatly every week. It was very interesting to hear about other’s perspectives of their hometowns. I am definitely considering taking an introduction to urban planning class in the future and I recommend that every sit down and have a talk with someone in the field as it is very stimulating!

I want to start off this blog post by expressing how truly happy I am that we had Professor Schmidt speak to us. I’ve been looking at Urban Planning in AAP ever since I got to Cornell and while I found the major incredibly interesting, I was despondent to discover that I may not have enough credits free to take a class in it for fun. But this talk with the Professor definitely opened up my eyes to how interesting and worth it the classes really are.

Start off, we talked about where each of the attendants was from and how we classified our hometowns. We had the majority of students labeled themselves as from a suburb, a few from urban areas (I’m from a city) and one participant saying she is from a small island in Hawai’i! We then talked a little bit about zoning and what makes each of us classify our homes this way.

It was so interesting to see the diversity of homes in the room. Only two participants were from the same place (Brooklyn) and the rest were very varied. I’m also very glad we had time to discuss income inequality and its palpability in cities. For example, we talked about how there are torn-down houses and a few blocks away there are huge mansions. Although being from a city most of this has been surrounding me my whole life and therefore I’ve been previously exposed to it to, I’m very happy to see others are recognizing it as a problem.