Interesting article about one of the crime hotspots in Ithaca.
Unfortunately, I don't think the recommendations (even if ever implemented) would have much of an impact on that area. From the Cornell Daily Sun:
The West Village Apartments in the City of Ithaca’s West Hill neighborhood have seen an uptick in crime in the last few years. (Akane Otani / Sun Managing Editor)
Landscape Architecture Class Seeks to Improve West Hill Neighborhood
NOVEMBER 20, 2013 1:04 AM
By DAVID JANECZEK
Cornell landscape architecture class is working on a plan to improve Ithaca’s West Hill neighborhood, which has in the past been plagued by crime and tensions between high-density, low-income housing residents and other homeowners in the area.
The class has explored a variety of options from implementing relatively standard urban planning concepts — like the addition of bicycle lanes, better street lighting and greater pedestrian accessibility — to targeting West Hill-specific problems, like the preservation of open space and the problems associated with the lack of a large community meeting place like a neighborhood school or a community center, according to Prof. Thomas Oles, landscape architecture.
The students in Landscape Architecture 3010: “Integrating Theory and Practice I” hope to produce a plan to “preserve West Hill’s character, beauty and community values, while giving residents access to new resources and amenities,” according to the class website.
Among the challenges facing the West Hill community is a high rate of crime. The West Village Apartment complex, a low-income housing development on West Hill, has been the site of multiple stabbings and the shooting of an off-duty police officer in the last two years, The Sun previously reported.
The class, which is made up of 12 upperclassmen, is intended to help students bridge the gap between the theories they have learned in the classroom and the challenges presented when those concepts are applied in a real world environment, Oles said.
“We’re trying to create something new, and it’s also a new way of working for the students. They haven’t worked collaboratively in a single group to produce a single output,” Oles said.
Oles said the class valued input from the community and attempted to involve residents of the community throughout the process. Chief among these outreach efforts was the decision to open up class meetings to members of the West Hill community, a rare move in a design studio class, according to Oles.
Oles says that he hoped this move would help the classroom become “a space of dialogue, not just of production.”
In addition to opening up class meetings to the community, students hosted a public event to hear about residents’ hopes for West Hill, made several trips to the community to speak to residents about their neighborhood and created a website to keep interested residents informed about the class’s progress.
Mujahid Powell ’15 said he thinks the course has challenged him to combine a theoretical and practical approach to landscape architecture and urban design.
“While the class still uses its knowledge of design and planning theory regularly, this project has largely been focused on working collaboratively with local residents to develop a vision [that] reflects the community’s desires and needs,” Powell said.
At the end of the semester, students will produce a book with their suggestions for improving West Hill. Oles said he hopes the book will be widely distributed throughout the West Hill community, as well as to planners and architects.
A main objective of the project was to create a final product that can be read by residents who do not have an educational background in urban planning or landscape architecture, according to Oles.
“Our goal has been to create something that can be read and understood and accessed by a wide array of people,” Oles said.
The students will present their report on Dec. 14 at the Museum of the Earth on West Hill. Oles anticipates that the full book will be ready in January.
Here's the link:
http://cornellsun.com/blog/2013/11/2...-neighborhood/