Assignment 10: Internship Update

Working with the city has really opened my eyes to the complexity of running a municipal government. There are so many formalities one must follow to abide by city, county, and state laws when trying to make a change in the community. I also did not realize the amount of laws and code that a city planner needs to be familiar with. I like that at this internship they treat me like a member of the team, so they allow me to become familiarized with all of the jargon that is thrown around. 

The most surprising thing about my internship is how well the community development team is able to communicate and perpetuate the vision they have for the city. I am constantly in awe of the director of our department. She knows exactly what she wants and how to make sure that she and everyone she meets with are on the same page. Her attitude inspires me to be more charismatic and straightforward. 

I think the number one way I can improve myself during this internship is to be as attentive as possible. Additionally, I need to do research outside of my required hours to ensure I can be as up to date and informed as I can. Since there is usually a lot of downtime at the end of the day when I am in the office, I can take advantage of that time to read texts that are available to me on the city and planning in general. 

Yasamin 10/28

Assignment 9: Reflection

For this assignment, I had to create an annotated bibliography for the source cited below.

Dawkins, C. (2013). The Spatial Pattern of Low Income Housing Tax Credit Properties: Implications for Fair Housing and Poverty Deconcentration Policies. Journal Of The American Planning Association, 79(3), 222-234. doi:10.1080/01944363.2014.895635

The study lead by Dawkins analyzed the prevalence of Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties in major American metropolitan centers, and it found that LIHTC properties tend to cluster together due to government incentives in certain areas of lower socioeconomic standing. Since the focus of my research is on the effect of gentrification in large urban centers, research on clustering of low income households is important for me to understand. To understand why gentrification occurs, one first needs to see where it occurs. This source provides the proper data to determine the location of low income neighborhoods at a high risk of gentrification. 

The source will likely not be something that I quote directly in my essay. Instead, the information provided by Dawkins's research will allow me to further relate the source and effects of gentrification in lower income neighborhoods, which is what I plan my project to be on. The source, being from the American Planning Association, is reputable, so I am sure that the information present is correct. The article provides a good array of data for me to reference, as well as graphical displays of the data that really help me visual my research. I can reference this information with further articles that better help elaborate the data specifically to gentrification.

 Yasamin, 10/21