I have been meaning to go to a TRIP meeting all year long but I usually have class on Wednesday. But now I finally got to go! I was very excited to be sitting in on another meeting. During the meeting, they went over scooters, the Portsmouth Square study, 41 Ross transportation exhibit, relocating the 12 bus line, and adding bus only lanes on 4th street. I have not been keeping up with the new changes SFMTA made so it was a lot of new information for me to learn all at once. I was mostly concerned about the 12 bus line reroute because it could mean different wait times for people who usually wait for the 10/12 by Montgomery Station. Overall, the meeting was very informative.
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These recent two weeks, the arrangement for the program was balanced. Every morning, we got to stay in the CTA and listen to story and experiences shared by the guest speakers. And every afternoon, we took or the public transportation to visit different places such as the PUC and SPUR. I loved this experience, and I regarded it as the field trip. (I always love field trip) Since I had talked about PUC in my reflection, I am going to talk more about SPUR in this blog. The SPUR stands for the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association which is a nonprofit organization that provides advices to the city hall in order to make Bay Area a better place to live. The SPUR has a long history in working with the government organizations and had done a lot of remarkable works. At the office of the SPUR, we got to share our opinion of how to create a better community and also learn about what were some of the factors that affected the community. And we also analyzed and shared our thoughts of four different pictures, each represented the form of the future community. Each picture showed us the future community with different economic and social factors. For me, the most important experience at the office of SPUR was that we were thinking how could we apply this knowledge to develop the Chinatown, and what kind of community we wanted Chinatown to be in the future.
After starting to study at Urbana Institute, the time has been passing by quickly. Through the two weeks of study, there are plenty of knowledge that I would love to highlight. The most impressive knowledge that I have learned is how powerful it was for the entire Chinese community to stay together and fight for their own rights. People fought and protested for their bigger home, Chinatown, and smaller home, the affordable housing. They stood together to fight for Chinatown to stop the market district taking over the Chinatown which is the cultural center of the Chinese American for entire North America. The CCDC, Chinese Community Development Center, played the most important role in affordable housing program which makes sure people with the low income can still live at where their ancestors used to live. I have been attracted of how the process of building an affordable housing works, especially the funding and financial obstacle. After the lecture, I learned that the government and HUD have played an crucial role in funding the affordable housing because it not only directly provide the fund, it also promote the large corporations such as Bank of America, and TransAmerica to make the investment by providing the tax credit. The corporations can make the investments to the affordable housing program, and in return, the certain portion of the tax can be exempted by the government. It is like a financial instrument that can benefit the corporation, and it can benefit the society at same time. To me, it is one of the governmental social welfare which can benefit the residents who live in downtown San Francisco even though there are much more demand than the supply.
The other interesting knowledge that I want to highlight is the history of Chinatown. I learned this history from last week’s documentary which showed me how hard it was for the first generation of Chinese immigrants to live their live in a foreign country, especially with the social unfairness and discrimination. Despite all the problems and challenges the ancestors had to face, they made their life through, and they won the rights which they deserved. I also respect the efforts that Chinese immigrants putted in to make themselves to be absorbed into the American mainstream society. In 1906, after the devastating earthquake which destroyed the old Chinatown, the Chinese immigrants decided to reconstruct the Chinatown with different appearance which contained the core of Chinese culture and could attract the American tourists at the same time. After decades of years, Chinatown had changed to what it looks like nowadays, a community with the oriental appearance that Americans imagine. Also, the different generations of Chinese American have been changing their living style along with the entire American style. I think it is fascinating that Chinese American keep the elements of both Chinese and American. In the documentary, there was a parts which talked about how Chinatown first time had the western style marching band which was consisted of all Chinese; the lady who worked for the telephone services, and she got the job because she was able to speak different Chinese dialects. All these stories have shown me the combination and mixture of different cultures, and I personally love the cultural blending. The last thing that I love to highlight is the tour of the Chinatown and the SRO, Single Room Occupancy. This tour combines what I have mentioned above together. The tour of the Chinatown has shown me that it is time for the Chinatown to start its renovation just as it had at 1906 because society has changed rapidly, so it is important for Chinatown to change to catch the trend of the current society and to survive. After the tour and study at Chinatown, I went to the Japanese town. The differences between Chinatown and Japanese town have shocked me because Japanese town is more organized and cleaner compare to Chinatown. If I were a tour who first time came to San Francisco, and I went to both Japanese Town and Chinatown, I would definitely recommend my friends Japanese town over Chinatown. After having the interview with some owners of Chinatown’s stores, I noticed that the owners started to make changes on their own shops, but to me, this speed is not quick enough. And the tour of the SRO showed me how crucial the reality is because it is never easy to build the affordable house even with the help of the government because there are too many things and too many groups with their own interests that need to be compromised. The consequence of compromising is that the result is not always what people wanted. What I wrote above were some thoughts and highlights that I found very interesting and inspiring. Thanks to my efficient teammates, we got most of our PPT done for the final presentation. As we were completing our PPT, we were integrating the knowledge we have learned through the program. We also went tot visit the Chinatown Visitor Information Centre which is located at Kearny and Clay street. Surprisingly, the Chinatown Visitor Information Centre was very well managed and decorated. The Visitor Centre also contained many different kinds of directories and brochures which could be very helpful for the visitors. The TV placed at the front of the entrance was playing the video of Chinatown history. The receptionist was also friendly. When we had question about where we should go for lunch, she gave us many suggestions. After visiting the Visitor Centre, we made a little change on our suggestion because the Visitor Centre was brand new and nice; therefore, instead of making a new Visitor Centre on the Grant Street, we thought it would be a good idea to create more signs that can guide the visitors to go to the Visitor Centre.
After the program, Megan and I stayed at the CTA because we needed to go to help out the BBQ party with members of CCDC youth program. However, at the end, we did not get to do the BBQ, we went to the little garden which was held by the CCDC to pick the vegetables. The little garden was tiny but neat. Megan and I assembled a bench which can provide more seating place for the little garden. The most exciting thing I have done for the week was that I got to go to the top of the city hall which I believe not many people could get to do it. On the top of the building, I got to see the beautiful view of San Francisco. Also, the explanation from Robert gave me the idea of how city hall functions, and how engineers reinforce the entire building in case the large earthquake that might happen in the future.
For the first week of study in Urbana Institution, I met new friends from different backgrounds. After went through the brief ice breaking process and few tours together, I started to know others better. In the first week of study, I did not only make friends, but also have the general idea of Chinatown history and the history of the affordable housing. Thanks to Gordan’s book and his tour guide, I started to view the Chinatown at a different perspective. Before, I viewed Chinatown as a tour sight and a community for Asian Americans. Now, I view it as an icon and exemplar of Chinese community in the United States, and it also absorbs the Chinese and American culture.
My perception of San Francisco Chinatown after participating in the Urban Institute has transformed in multiple ways. Before participating in the Urban Institute, I had no idea just how connected SF Chinatown is to different agencies across the city. My perception of Chinatown prior to this fellowship was that all services and anything else to do with Chinatown were pretty much consolidated within this neighborhood alone. I’ve always thought of Chinatown as its own space and I did not previously consider that it is considered and cared for by people/places outside of the immediate neighborhood. However, after attending the various field trips around San Francisco such as City Hall, the Public Utilities Commission, and SPARK, I have learned that Chinatown is taken into consideration and is dealt resources unto as any other neighborhood in San Francisco. A reason that I formulated this perception was because in my mind, I always saw SF Chinatown as self-sufficient and thriving. However, through my experiences in the Urban Institute, I now see that Chinatown definitely has its fair share of issues and it takes many different resources both in and outside of the neighborhood to work towards sustainable solutions.
After delving into our project that is centered around Tourism and Economic Activity within Chinatown, the most surprising highlights of this experience came from the survey portion that my group successfully facilitated. The surprising part did not entirely come from the results of the survey itself, but from my own growth and process as an interviewer. My first surprise happened during the first day of interviews. I was initially very excited and picked this topic as my first choice because I thought I would be great at talking to tourists. I couldn’t be more wrong! When approaching the first group of people we decided to interview, I immediately froze and purposefully walked hurriedly past our intended interviewees. My interviewing partner, Guinevere, thankfully was on the same page as I was on and agreed with me that this was not as easy as we thought it would be. I have always considered myself a highly interpersonal individual, but from this one assignment I have learned that I have a lot to practice upon in regards to being an interviewer and even as an interviewee. When it came to the tourists inquiring about our program, the intention of the survey, what Chinatown CDC was, etc., I initially was flustered and wasn’t prepared to answer their questions. However, after time went on and the surveys flowed, I became more comfortable as I was practicing my answers with each passing survey. I think the greatest takeaway from this project that I will apply to my life after this fellowship has ended is the knowledge that I need to practice and work on my interviewing skills, especially as I am preparing to enter the professional working environment. In regards to our project’s findings, I was surprised to find out that 100% of our 44 respondents answered that they did not know where the Chinatown Visitor Center was located. I think that this is definitely an area to explore and improve on as visibility and accessibility will boost the economic activity within Chinatown when individuals know where they can shop and spend their money. While in Chinatown, I did not see any signage pointing towards or even mentioning a visitor center. I think that by having more posters, directional aid, etc., many more tourists will flock to the visitor center and become better acquainted with Chinatown. Personally, I enjoy traveling more when I know where I am going, where things are such as restaurants, shops, and points of interest that would make my vacation more memorable. Another surprising finding was that a majority of our respondents utilized public transportation to get to Chinatown. I was surprised that this was the most utilized mode of transportation because I assumed that many tourists would rely on rideshare options -- especially as the buses are always packed full which I thought would be a deterrent for tourists. I know it is for me sometimes! The Urban Institute has been a very unique experience that I am glad to have taken part of. I feel like I have learned so much more in these handful of weeks than I would have in a traditional semester of college. I will definitely be applying the connections I have made and the resources I have attained far beyond this fellowship. I am glad to have come into contact and personally meet many individuals from different backgrounds as I widen my career options and begin my post-graduation job search. One of the greatest takeaways is that I have learned of so many new-to-me and interesting different careers pathways, many of which align with my strong interests in community empowerment and sustainability. - Megan Mah Session 8 – Storytelling + Public Utilities Commission In the morning, we had a brief session about storytelling. I get excited about storytelling b/c I love writing and reading stories – although I don’t necessarily tell stories in a strictly oral fashion, I think stories characterize so much of the human experience – the nuanced details that shape a hero’s journey. Felicia Lowe came to show us a VR project she created to document the Angel Island experience – the 360-degree, immersive experience that characterized a Chinese immigrant detainee on Angel Island. I wish we could have heard a little more about her storytelling process – how she fashions a narrative, how she employs tools and methods, how she brainstorms, how she works w/ a staff to create a product. Her Pacific Gateway clip makes me think a lot about the migrant detention camps that are currently under intense public scrutiny. How are these migrants’ stories captured? Will we look back at this time of detention camps and family separations in disgust and horror? Where are the storytellers to capture those raw emotions? In the afternoon, we visited the HQ for the SF Public Utilities Commission, which was extremely impressive. I don’t think I ever grasped the magnitude of the size of municipal governance – the public utilities authorities alone included 2,300 employees – a staggering number! I mean, a company w/ 2.3K employees, is already considered large – and just this number to staff a city’s utilities! The HQ building itself was ~14 stories high, and looked amazing inside – w/ floor-to-ceiling glass windows, large cubicles, renewable energy sources, a treatment plant for its own wastewater, an emergency operations command center. I have come to realize that it is not only tech companies that have livable, user-centric working spaces, but the culture of the SF Bay Area – on open space, on sunlight, on working spaces designed to improve productivity and morale. Some things we covered: - How the Hetch-Hetchy Reservoir provides most of the water for SF - How the SF water authority sells its water to East Bay, Stanford - How the 900k residential population surges to > 2M during the day and utilities supply must surge to accommodate that - The workings of the in-house water treatment plant and the wetland blocks that soak in wastewater - Environmental justice w/ the placement of the waste water plant in Bayview Session 9 – The Atlantic Economic Opportunity Forum + Chinatown TRIP In the morning, thanks to Erika’s heads-up, I got to listen to a couple of speakers at a forum named “Building Opportunity For All” hosted by the Atlantic and Shared Prosperity Partnership. he first talk was about how tech changed everything: - Molly, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business lecturer She talked about how the power to change things really comes from policy-making, and she seemed to dismiss that engineers held a later-in-the-pipeline role of implementing the vision of a city or a product. From an urban planning perspective, what she says does make sense – that city government, think tanks, and community advocates need to set a vision for the city before free market forces sweep tech companies’ vision in. It’s refreshing change from the tech start-up culture that I have definitely immersed myself in at Stanford – engineering and the search for product-market fit came before urban and social policy fit. She talked about how regulators should work w/ investors to set frameworks for emerging and disruptive trends, and I see the potential for government and VCs, these economic catalysts, to collaborate on synthesizing a vision. - Michael, McKinsey Partner I thought that he had quite an interesting career starting up a tech company, becoming a municipal chief information officer, and then moving into consulting. What an interesting way to intersect at tech and policy – which definitely piques my interest. Work + Tech = Opportunity? Round-table w/: Eloy Oakley, the Chancellor of California Community Colleges – I never thought about the importance of tangible credentialing. It had always been ingrained in me that higher education was about critical thinking – learning how to define a problem, how to break down a problem set into smaller pieces, how to work w/ a team to produce a project, how to set intermediate deadlines for a larger goal, and yet I’ve realized that I haven’t thought about credentialing – what does it mean to be a nurse or a teacher, an electrician or a plumber. At noon, I got my first real dose of civic engagement and community brainstorming when I shadowed the Chinatown TRIP meeting. Around this round table, a squad of old-timer veterans who founded TRIP to advocate for transportation justice and a squad of young (not much older than me) Chinatown CDC planners talked for more than two hours about the various transportation justice issues facing Chinatown. They talked about multiple issues: - The Bird scooter sharing, conversations w/ the company to limit drop zones, giving company reps tours so that the product better fits into the community - Portsmouth square transportation intercept surveys - Thanking the outgoing MTA director and seeking an audience w/ the incoming MTA director as well as providing input into that executive search - High-speed rail and how consultants seek community input to check boxes rather than substantively factor in feedback - 30 bus line: a mid-block bus stop, bulb-outs, and a debate on where the bus stop should be at Yet, the most interesting interaction to capture was their engagement w/ the MTA Transit Public Relations Officer, Bonnie, who came to this meeting of TRIP to ask for feedback. She mentioned a proposed re-routing of a bus route, 12, that started in the Mission District and would wind its way thru FiDi before crossing the length of Chinatown. The proposed re-routing would include a couple more blocks in FiDi to accommodate more commuters and residents in newly built developments. And the opposition to this proposal was tremendous – and echoed previous rallying cries in the course textbook – b/c such an extension of the bus route would load up the bus w/ more residents and commuters, effectively rendering the bus full and unavailable to Chinatown riders during peak hours. These nuances of transportation justice amaze me – b/c I never could have understood these things, I would not be able to interpret how ridership could effectively privilege one community and deny another one. Although the meeting was never acrimonious, there was a sense of civic urgency and standing up to protect transportation rights – and I have not been such civically engaged in a while. I guess I have always heard of the door-to-door canvassing, the campaign rallies, the marches, even the protests and demonstrations outside, but this was a different type of engagement – directly working w/ the transportation authority and municipal government to provide input directly into a transportation proposal and do it on a person-to-person, conversational level. I was quite inspired b/c the conversation was both civil and informational, and I would hope that productive conversations like these lead to substantive transportation practices that truly serve the community. Session 10 – SPUR
In the afternoon, we visited SPUR – San Francisco Planning and Urban Research, an urban planning, community organizing and advocacy group. I was quite impressed w/ the breadth of their work, just as I have been impressed by the sheer scope covered by Chinatown CDC as well: - Offices in SF, Oakland, San Jose - Various events hosting speakers - Magazine about urban issues And again, I was impressed w/ how comfortable and beautiful their working space was! It’s not just Google, Facebook, Uber, LinkedIn – it’s also the SF PUC, it’s also SPUR. They have these spacious working spaces that enable conversation, beautiful murals and exhibitions that tell the story of their work – right smack dab in the middle of the city. I was also impressed w/ the two-dimensional quadrant that they constructed for the vision of where SF could go – along the dimensions of economic development and social inclusion. I have always tried to say that we should consider issues among multiple dimensions, but they painted multiple scenarios (quite literally, in these paintings that we were asked to observe and comment upon) and then plotted it along these axes. That was extremely helpful to me. During the third week, we learned about urban planning and TRIP. Urban planners does urban data collections and determine land use base on public interests. TRIP stands for Chinatown Transportation Research and Improvement Project and it improves pedestrian safety and transportation in Chinatown.
-Tianlan |