Building Blocks Donor Appreciation Issue - University of Memphis

the neighborhood through newsletters and
coordinates the volunteers.
Several U of M undergraduate and
graduate civil engineering students
teamed up with neighborhood volunteers
to distribute flyers to all the residents
informing them of the project and to see
if residents wanted to be involved. The
students also conducted surveys to find
out what residents perceive as the biggest
issues in terms of transportation and
pedestrian safety.
The project is developing a neighborhood
Web site, which is published and
updated by the U of M students.
“We’re hoping to get somebody involved
from the community that will take over so
it will be a sustained effort to keep their
community focused and on target,” says
Ivey.
The students have also done field work,
including traffic counts through visual
surveys and traffic counters. This information
will be used to evaluate the need for
traffic calming and signage.
Local high school students have
conducted sidewalk surveys by taking
pictures of different sections. The neighborhood
has also identified walkability
corridors where they want people to walk,
like routes to schools or to parks.
“The main thing beyond the traffic part
is to get more people in the neighborhood
working together as a community and having
a sense of community. We want them
to recognize what could be if they got
behind some of these things,” says Ivey.
With the grant funding, the project was
able to pay the students and to purchase
equipment like traffic counters and road
tubes.
Mural Project
(University District: $17,980)
The University Neighborhood Development
Corporation (UNDC) teamed with
the College of Communication and Fine
Arts’ Department of Art to create several
Opposite, top: As part of a mural project
aimed at the University District, a graphic
design student carefully paints at the corner
of Southern and Highland Avenues. Bottom:
The University Neighborhood District
Corporation has partnered with the U of M
art department to create several murals that
will be collaborative between art students and
neighborhood residents.
public art projects that will include community
residents and young people in the
design and implementation.
“I kept hearing there was a need for
some high profile visual messages and
symbols that represent the change that
is going on around us and the revitalization,”
says U of M alumnus Steve Barlow,
executive director of the UNDC.
Barlow and Cedar Nordbye, U of M
assistant professor of art, went to several
community meetings to let the community
know about the planned project and find
participants for the steering and review
committee.
The first phase was to get people
thinking about the project through various
community meetings and temporary
artwork. Barlow’s vision for the project is
that the design concepts come from the
community.
“I wanted the artist to be the tool of the
community expressing itself. The role of
artist as the brush of the community and
channeling the neighborhood’s needs,”
says Barlow.
After getting input from business
leaders, neighborhood residents and
the University, Nordbye has already
completed a temporary mural and two
billboards that reflected the ideas from
the community meetings to generate
excitement about the permanent projects.
Two neighborhood residents helped complete
those projects in the Highland and
Southern Avenue areas. The temporary
art is intended to inspire questions and
thoughts.
“The community will have a say in the
design. We will broadly collect input and
Cedar will convey that message (in the
artwork). They will critique what we’ve
done so far and identify sites,” says
Barlow.
More permanent murals will come out
of what the community wants. One of
Nordbye’s fall classes will come up with
the concepts for public art projects by
interviewing residents and going to community
meetings. They will submit their
art proposals that were created with community
members and five of the proposals
will be funded.
Another part of the project will be children’s
art workshops offered in the spring.
Eight to 10 Saturdays will be dedicated
to teaching students in art education how
to teach kids art. Immediately following,
the art education students will lead free
workshops for parents and kids.
Abandoned Housing Study
(Frayser Rugby neighborhood: $6,400)
Gene Pearson, U of M professor
emeritus of city and regional planning,
is embarking on a study with the Frayser
Community Development Corporation
(CDC) that is seeking to improve the
housing values of the neighborhood.
The Frayser CDC is a nonprofit housing
developer which provides foreclosure
counseling and home-buyer education.
“The real estate market is in tremendous
crisis everywhere, but particularly in
Frayser. There are a lot of empty houses
and housing values have plummeted,”
says Steve Lockwood, executive director
of the Frayser CDC.
The housing market caused the CDC to
take a drastic step — a rental program.
Although the CDC’s focus is homeownership,
they wanted to address the empty
houses.
“We either leave them empty, let landlords
pick them up who are often not our
favorite people, or we have to get them,”
says Lockwood.
Since Frayser is large, the CDC chose
Rugby, a historic neighborhood and gateway
to Frayser.
“The housing stock is pretty degraded,
but it’s beautiful — meaning it’s rolling in
green,” says Lockwood.
The plan is to buy 60 rental properties,
fix and rent them, then see if it will drive
housing values up.
“People have already lost an awful lot
of value and often times it’s more than the
house is worth,” says Lockwood.
Besides lowering the density of abandoned
houses, the CDC will also provide
the renters with ongoing credit counseling
and financial education to help improve
their financial status and hopefully
encourage them to become homeowners.
The purpose of the study is to collect
data and help the CDC look intensely at
and identify the worst stuff. The funding
has supported U of M graduate student
Zach Schauffler to do data collection.
Lockwood is hoping to cross reference
the data and find out which ones aren’t
owner occupied.
“There may well be that some problematic
investors will reveal themselves. If
we find that some guy owns 12 houses, all
of which are empty, we’ll make a particular
effort to go after those properties. You
don’t know about them until you study,”
says Lockwood.
Gene Pearson is a master planner and
his role along with one of his classes is to
take all of the information on the houses
and ownership patterns and build a business
plan telling the CDC how and where
to buy houses.
“There are more expensive houses that
are easier to get into and up and running
and rented, but there are more dilapidated
houses that would have a more
advantageous effect,” says Lockwood.
14 THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS
FALL 2008 15