![\"\"](\"http:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Uptown-District-photo.jpg\" "\\"Uptown")
<\/a>Dr. Bhuiyan M. Alam, left, and students in his Community Planning Workshop, from left, Rebekka Apardian, John Puente, Lance Dasher, James Marok, Qiong Zhang and Ryne Sundvold, along with Lucas Davis, who is not shown, gave a presentation in April on how to improve Toledo\u2019s UpTown District.<\/p><\/div>The seven students in the workshop during spring semester created a project titled \u201cUpTown District Land-Use and Walkability Analysis,\u201d which they presented to the Toledo Design Center and UpTown District board in April.<\/p>\n
The students found that although the area had a lot of potential because of its close proximity to downtown, it wasn\u2019t living up to it. They suggest improvements to sidewalks, roads, and better uses for vacant lots.<\/p>\n
During the project, some students looked at the use of the land, whether areas were well-used, vacant, residential, business or more. Others focused on the \u201cwalkability\u201d of the streets. One of the students, James Marok, made a video displaying photographs of the problem areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe divided up what skills and knowledge people had in geography and urban planning, and what they wanted to do with this course,\u201d said Ryne Sundvold, a graduate student, who worked on the project. His focus was the \u201cwalkability\u201d of the streets, since he is an avid cyclist.<\/p>\n
Students walked, biked and drove throughout the district, recording problem areas in a survey that reported the existence and condition of sidewalks, along with other factors such as whether a street had one-way or two-way traffic.<\/p>\n
The students discovered none of the main streets through UpTown had sidewalks from one end to the other, which causes problems for Toledoans who walk or bike from one place to the next. Many of the sidewalks also lacked ramps or had damaged ramps, which did not meet the standards of the Americans With Disabilities Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the goals the group had for the UpTown District was to create \u2018complete streets,\u2019 a national movement for streets to be accessible for walkers and bicyclists from one end to the other, using sidewalks and bike lanes,\u201d said Dr. Bhuiyan M. Alam, UT assistant professor in the Geography and Planning Department, who taught the course. \u201cPeople who like to walk and who like to bike, they\u2019re paying taxes for the roads, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their analysis led the group to recommend Jefferson Street as the best candidate to be transformed into a \u201ccomplete street\u201d because it is already in decent shape and construction would not deter traffic as much as it would on other streets.<\/p>\n
The group also suggested turning vacant parking lots into community gardens or farmers\u2019 markets, which would encourage community participation.<\/p>\n
They also had the idea of putting a grocery store or two in one of the unused lots, so that residents in the area would not have to drive so far for food and other provisions. Such accommodations also would attract young families and senior citizens to the area.<\/p>\n
Qiong Zhang, a student who focused mainly on the land classification aspect of the project, said she enjoyed the experience so much she plans to pursue a career in urban planning. Zhang, who is from China, is double majoring in public administration and geography, and is interning with the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority.<\/p>\n
Sundvold was offered an internship with the Toledo Design Center and plans to continue working on this project until next spring. A few other students in this class have been working as summer interns in urban at local organizations. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives you the feeling that you actually have a purpose in your community,\u201d Sundvold said of the course.<\/p>\n
Other students who participated in this project were Rebekka Apardian, Lance Dasher, Lucas Davis and John Puente from the Department of Geography and Planning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Students who took the Community Planning Workshop last semester shared their research and suggestions for improving Toledo’s UpTown District.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":538,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18030"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/538"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18030\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}