Service Learning in Lawrence, MA
In this essay MIT Activist Scholar and Associate Professor of Urban Studies and Planning Lorlene Hoyt uncovers the importance of universities and communities collaborating to solve modern urban problems. Hoyt has led a partnership between MIT and the City of Lawrence, Massachusetts since 2002. Hoyt is a Faculty Affiliate at CoLab. Her essay is a call for activist scholars, at MIT and beyond, to boldly explore alternative forms of scholarship.
“What do you do when an Italian energy conglomerate owns the alleyways, canals and dam of one of America’s earliest industrial cities … and the people of the city want those assetsback?”
A poster advertising course 11.423: Information, Assets and the Immigrant City sparked controversy when it first appeared along the corridors of Buildings 7 and 9 at MIT in early February 2010. The poster’s question referred to the ongoing debate in the City of Lawrence, Massachusetts over ownership of the alleyways and canals in the city. Some say these spaces are owned by the Enel Corporation, the Italian energy conglomerate that, many believe, assumed ownership of these assets when it bought the Essex Company, the group that first constructed the city. Others argue that the City government is the rightful owner; still others maintain that abutters (property owners whose land is immediately adjacent to an alleyway, for example) own them. While the debate continues over ownership, some residents have tried to maintain the spaces, but most of the alleys and canals have fallen into grave disrepair.
So what do you do? To find out, download and read the final report, Taking Back Lawrence and watch the class reflections. You can also read more about the class’s journey via a series of CoLab Radio posts found below.
- “What Do You Do?” March 17, 2010.
- “Who’s Got the Power?” March 27, 2010.
- “Findings on City Alleyways and Canals.” April 22, 2010.
- “Bringing Together Lawrence 8th Graders and MIT Grad Students.” May 2, 2010.
- “Lawrence Practicum: Final Presentation.” June 3, 2010.
Marianna Leavy-Sperounis made this video in support of her Master’s Thesis, “Manufacturing Recovery: A Networked Approach to Green Job Creation in Massachusetts Gateway Cities.” Here she highlights the particular toll that the economic crisis has taken on the city of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and the story of one resident who is interested in finding employment in the clean energy sector. (Music credit: Jay Calder, “The 2nd Quadrant.”)
THESIS ABSTRACT: In “Manufacturing Recovery,” Marianna compares workforce development planning in Lawrence and Lowell, Massachusetts. She specifically examines local planning processes around job creation in the clean technology sector. She aims to show that the differences between the two cities’ approaches to workforce planning (1) Reflect differences between them that date back to their original physical designs, (2) Contradict the myth of Lawrence and Lowell as “urban twins,” and (3) Highlight the need for stronger, place-specific green job creation policies for the state’s post-industrial “Gateway” cities. She concludes by proposing a collaborative and networked planning model that, with support from the State, might help Lawrence and Lowell to better leverage their respective assets and support a regional green economy.
Check out DUSP alumnus Maggie Super-Church in this New England Cable News segment which reports from Lawrence, Massachusetts where two families, with two very different backgrounds are living side by side, and closing the economic gap.
We’ve just updated the list of research from M@L graduate assistants and friends, including new research on green jobs, regional economic growth in Merrimack Valley, and career and technical education in our new Class Papers or Projects section. Also, check out the extensive new curriculum for networking college bound high school students, developed for the Lawrence Leadership Project in Spring 2009 and the notes from the first year of the Green Jobs Working Group.
Also, check out more video interviews from the M@L Story Project and leave a comment on our new academically enhanced version of the M@L Story documentary entitled Sustained City-Campus Engagement: Reflections on Our Practice on our MIT TechTV collection at http://techtv.mit.edu/collections/mitatlawrence.
If you like these videos, you’ll also like videos from our friends at the Community Innovator’s Lab (Co-Lab) focusing on how communities like Lawrence and departments at MIT can work together to solve the challenges of civic engagement, environmental sustainability, and economic development in the time of crisis and stimulus. Check them out on TechTV and CoLab Radio - a place to find out about innovative things happening in communities, to explore the relationship between communities and universities.
The Lawrence History Center’s exhibit, Made in America~ Story of Southwick-Union Crossing~People Place, Product will open on June 18th, 2009 at the Lawrence Heritage State Park (One Jackson St, Lawrence, MA), featuring oral history interviews and research done by Lawrence Community Works staff and youth members, and MIT@Lawrence practicum students in Spring 2009 - see interviews at http://uclawrence.ning.com/page/audio-1.
The exhibit tracks the 100 year history of the Union Crossing site - from manufacturing textiles, shoes and clothing, to creating this vibrant new Lawrence community. Focusing ont eh themes of “People, Place, Product”, the exhibit highlights transformations that took place in the complex and celebrates the spirit of community present throughout the site’s history.
Exhibit Reception, Thursday June 25 5-7pm
Open Daily 9-4pm
June 18th, 2009 - Labor Day
Free Admission
Check out this video of the final presentation to the Lawrence Community Works Union Crossing Committee, describing programs devised by the graduate and undergraduate students in the Spring 2009 Lawrence practicum course in the Dept of Urban Studies and Planning (11.423 LAWRENCE PRACTICUM: Info, Assets, and the Immigrant City). The presentation described three ideas for programs where LCW could incorporate storytelling as a process for community building around the re-development of a mill complex into green affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization - through channels such as on-site installation, skill-building workshops that feed into larger events, and virtual story documentation and sharing online on a social network. See http://uclawrence.ning.com/ for the proof of concept and to hear some of audio and video stories that the class produced or gathered.
You can also download the Powerpoint presentation.
Have you heard the MIT@Lawrence story lately? Join us for an on-campus screening of the M@L Story Project documentary this Friday May 1st, in the Bush Room of Building 10 at 1:30pm.
The partnership between MIT and the City of Lawrence has grown from a commitment made between the Dept. of Urban Studies & Planning and Lawrence CommunityWorks in 2002 to today’s thriving network of 29 departments, labs and centers at MIT and 27 partner organizations in Lawrence. This year’s initiatives, a mix of new ideas and ongoing projects, include: a practicum course focused on incorporating storytelling as a community-building tool for the nation’s first LEED Platinum certified mill redevelopment project; a strategic city-wide affordable housing plan; a GIS help desk and laboratory; a college prep program for low performing high school freshmen; and a spatial inventory of publicly-owned infrastructure gathered by iHouse undergraduate volunteers. With support from the Co-Lab, we’ve also spent the last year strengthening our student-run management strategy and incorporating collaborative approaches to reflect on our practice and learning.
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Earlier this week, we had over fifty attendees at our end-of-year celebration expo in Lawrence where we screened our new documentary and interactive timeline (see http://mitatlawrence.net/matl-story-project/). Special thanks to the hard work of all the guest speakers (including Milagro Grullón and James Barnes from the City of Lawrence Community Development Department, Jess Andors from LCW, and MIT’s own Ezra Glenn and Lorlene Hoyt), old and new partners, the hard-working research assistants, and the sounds of the Bruce Ferrera Quartet who made the night a great success!
Next year, we look forward to welcoming the incoming MCPs and PhDs we recruited and integrating them into such projects as a Lawrence-based green jobs working group and the Lawrence@MIT youth math and science program.
Come the inaugural Green Drinks networking event in Lawrence on
Greens Drinks is an international movement which brings together people who are passionate about the environment and green technology to share ideas, make contacts, and talk about anything and everything green.
Check it out at www.greendrinks.org
