blURB blog

Mr. Fairbanks

2009-12-18T09:34:00.000-08:00

This past Wednesay I met with Profs. svara and Dantica while they interviewed Frank Fairbanks.

I have to say it was one of the coolest things I have done as a student. Mr. fairbanks is incredibly intersting to listen to and with almost twenty years under hs belt it is not entirely surprising.

I am not sure how effective the interview was. While Fairbanks had lots to say and did anser the questions the professors had, I am not sure he gave them what they were looking for. Some how, the subject turned to fire fighters. Apparently the fire fighters union control all city councils around the valley. Campaign laws forbid public officers from participating in local elections. To get around this, fire fighters from Mesa will come and put up fliers and signs for upcoming elcetions in Phoenix. At the same time, there is and has been Phoenix fire fighters on other city's councils. Likewise, Phoenix has also had fire fighters from other parts of the Valley sit on its council. The union has no agenda, but it fosters a great sense of cooperation between the cities in the metro area. I had no idea such an allience ezisted. It seems odd at first, and it is hard to think a union does not have an agenda, but this has been going on for at least two decade and even longer as Councilman Pell had perviously been the president of the union. Weird huh?

Miscellaneous 5

2009-12-15T19:49:00.000-08:00

I have offically turned in my history thesis. I admitt that I did not do much to it after I finished the rough draft. My professor gave me three pages of suggestions that he would like to see done to it, but I just did not feel like doing the required work.

Anyhow, the final draft was due last night, at my teachers house for dinner. It was mighty awkward. I have never been to a teacher's house before and I have a hard time imagining them as people outside of school.

It did not go as badly as I had imagined. I had visions of being the only one who showed up but thankfully all nine of us showed up.

Miscellaneous 4

2009-12-15T19:10:00.000-08:00

I went to Disneyland this last weekend. It is a family tradtion. Every fall semster, after finals, my family and I go to Disneyland. It is cold, but it is usually a week before the rest of the world gets out of school and the crowds are relatively low. I do not mind saying either that it was amazing. It rained all day Saturday and the crowds were non existent. The cloud cover kept in the heat so it was not even that cold. We got our official Disney paunchos and walked around with plastic bags over our heads all day. About the only down part to whole thing was that I had a hole in the bottom of my left shoe. By the end of the dayI had trech foot and literally had to peel my sock from my foot.

Unfortunately I broke with tradition in this year in that I still had a final to finish, only I did not know i had final to finish until the day we left for the park so really it was unintentional. I rudely found out that my grade was not where I wanted it and had to complete the optional final. It was so unbearably painful that by the time I finished it I did not even care if it was remotely correct. Good news is it is done an over with. Now I just have to finish up this blog and Ill be done for good.

Prof. Dantica

2009-12-15T18:55:00.000-08:00

So I had another meeting this week with Professor Svara and met Professor Dantica for the first times. As it turns out. she is the ring leader in this particular research project. She is gicing a pressentation in Chicago in April about the Garfield and South Phoenix Neghborhoor redevelopment programs. To be honest I am litte confused as to who is in charge I guess. I know that Professor Svara is the one that met with Clarance Stone in Belgium when the idea of the international cross-comparative study was introduced. I guess it is not importants but still it would be nice to know who I am excpected to look to for direction.

The nice thing about this second meeting was that my opinion was actually asked for. That has never happened so far in my life, in an academic situation anyway. The neat thing about it was that I could actually follow the covnersation the two professors were having, and in a few instances contributed a point or two.

Small victories I guess.

Mscellaneous 3

2009-12-07T15:41:00.000-08:00

I am fed up with my job!

It is not an uncommon complaint, I am sure. However, I am so stickin tired of it. Yesterday and today we had two people call out on both of my shifts. I understand it is flu season and than in the food business it is better to be safe than sorry so I am not particularly mad at the sick people. I am fed up at the lack of coverage in my store though. Labor has already been dramatically reduced by 40% - meaning we run skeleton shifts even during peak times- but when two people call off of a skeleton crew we just get screwed. There is no one to call that is not already working or over their 40 hours. Leaving us flat out boned for six hours, with no relief coming in before everyone else is off. Which only leads to a cyclical decline in the appearance and function of the store. There is no one avaialable to do the dishes are the next day's prep which means the next day crew has to catch up before they even start.

Quite possibly the rudest offense of all was when my mananger decided to go to the bank and not return without telling anyone she was not coming back. She just left, leaving three people- all of which needed breaks- to run the store for four hours before the next person came in for their shift. I work at the largest store in the Valley. We have a massive lobby compared to others, and we have a drive thru, conviently located just off the SR 51 so business never really stops. It slows every once in a while, but never stops completely. To be properly staff we need at least 5 people, and that still does not give coverage for prep work and cleaning. We should have 3 people working the front and three working the drive- not 3 working the entire store.

My manager deserves to be fired for that alone- and believe me that was not her first offense either, but it was certainly the straw that broke the camels back

Prof. Svara

2009-12-07T15:32:00.001-08:00

I have officially jumped ships. I am no longer working with either Professors Duke or Ramirez. I am now going to be working for Professor Svara. I have not had a class with him yet, but he seems like a nice enough guy.

I met with him for the first time on Friday to learn a little more about his research and what all I will be doing for him. His research is focusing on the growth and development of the Garfield District and South Phoenix Village. He has been researching both for about three years now, but the research itself dates back to the late 80s and early 90s. He is working with fourteen other professional administrators in the US, Canada and in Europe. Each person is reasearching two such neighborhoods, and in the end they will compare to find trends and best applied practices.

I have another meeting with him and a Ms Danitca on Wednesday. She has also been instrumental in the research. I am not sure what this second meeting will be on, but then again we never really discussed what role I will be playing in this project. There is a tentative due date sometime in April when Ms. Danitca will be giving a presentation of her findings in Chicago, but that is about as much as I know so far.

Next Wednesday, the 16th, Prof. Svara has asked if I could sit in on meeting between himself and Frank Fairbanks. I know Mr. Fairbanks is relatively accesable as far as officials go, but I have not had the oppertunity to meet him yet so I am excited. The down side is that I am also taking the GRE that morning. So, yeah, I have kind of a full plate all of a sudden.

Using Sun Devil CareerLink Effectively

2009-12-03T17:54:00.000-08:00

This would be me second career oriented event I attended for this class. Never in my wildest dreams would I have gone to this event without the pressure of a grade resting on it.

Luckily for me though it ended just before my only class today so I did not have to stay any later or cut class like I did for the Job Offer and Benefits thing downtown.

I have to be honest here. I do not think half or even a forth of what was covered today is going to stick in my mind. I am retarded when it comes to computers. My friends laughed at me in the beggining of the semester when I said I had to create a blog. (Confession: I had to have my boyfriend start this because I just about gave up on this back in August.)

So todays program was all about learning how to utilize the services ASU offers to graduates and allumni in terms of helping them gets jobs or internships. It was basic and it walked the group through the My ASU pages and accounts. In reality if I could remember how to use this tool when the times comes it has the potential to be a tremendous help. But, knowing my illiteracy with computers. I fear I will foget how to log on to My ASU within a semester of leaving ASU- let alone setting up profiles and accounts. Asi es la vida.

Miscellaneous 2

2009-12-03T17:40:00.000-08:00

It is Thursday night, December 3. This weekend I have a take home final to perfect, stats homework, its extra credit and possibly the optional final depending on how well or poorly I did on the last assignment. I have to come up with about 12 more blogs for this class. The realy kicker is my history thesis though. The rough draft was due on the 17th. Since then I have had to give an in class presentation and stand up to the grilling of a life time by my peers and my teacher. I will be honest here, the grilling and the presentation were not as bad as I had anticipated for. I actually walked away from it feeling like I hade done a decent job.

This Monday rolls around and I recieve an e-mail from my professor with about three additional pages of suggestions on what I could do to improve the paper. Now, I felt like I was more or less done with the paper. Re-writing or re-organizing I was okay with., but noooooooooo this guy has three pages of add-ons. Requiring probably another two the three weeks worth of research.

So I panicked. I recieved the e-mail on Monday. The final is due in a week. There is no way this guy is going to expect me to do everything he outlined. No fricken way....

Until today, when he announces like a magnificent benefactor that he will make the paper due on the 14th. ***crickets churping**

Pass the feeling of elation, reality sinks in- the 14th is almost a full month from the due date of the rough draft. He is definetly going to expect that extra research and work. I DONT WANNA though. I am checked out. I am done, finished

So here I am. I have three other classes to finish up and the family's annual trip to Disneyland next weekend. Oh and once that is done and over with I have the GRE to take on the 16th. Holy gato. I feellike there is no time any more. Where does it all go?

Change in Plans

2009-12-03T17:31:00.001-08:00

In light of recent changes, ones I was asked not to talk about- (and yet here I am blogging)- I will be leaving the affordable housing project with Professors Lucio (sorry I keep refering to her as Duke. I had her for URB 300 last fall while she was still known as Duke) and Ramirez.

Instead I and my services are being passed along to Professor Svara. I have not had him as a teacher yet, but in just about every polci taxt book I have had- his political dichotmy chart has made an apperance. S0 I at least know who he is and some of what he has done. I am greatful to Professor Ramirez for at least recommending me to what for Professor Svara.

Anyhow, I am going in to meet with Svara tomorrow to learn more about his current project. From what I ahve been told so far it is focused on the redevelopment efforts in the Garfield and South Phoenix Village neighborhoods. I am not sure if the study will expand into other surrounding neighborhoods, or if these two were specifically chosen as models.

On the plus side it leaves the door open for at least one more related blog tomorrow or Saturday.

Prof. Duke

2009-12-02T14:24:00.000-08:00

So I am still in a quandary about this blog. Pass/fail classes are usually fantastic, but this is just getting ridiculous.

I have tried to help Prof. Ramirez as much as possible but, still there is nothing for me to do. Instead, I decided to listen to some of your comments and initiate something. Technically, the study on affordable housing which I am working with is lead by Professor Duke. So techinically I should be working for her instead of Ramirez. However, since I have ramirez for my 220 class I jave simply been talking to him this entire semester. Worring about the state of this pathetic blog has lead to me to e-mail Prof. Duke to see if there is anything she needs done.

Alas, she has nothing as well. She has been waiting on the side lines for the would be survey to go out even longer than Prof. Ramirez. Once I again I find myself behind the ball- although this time it is not entirerly my fault.

Sorry to keep whinning about not having work and about not passsing this class. To be honest I sometimes forget I have this "class." Signing on to blackboard is about the only reminder I have.

Evaluating Job and Benefit Offers Workshop

2009-11-30T14:35:00.000-08:00

So the smester is practically over nore and I am weofully behinf on the blog and in a last ditch to complete the two required career post elements of the class I went to the Evaluating Job and Benefits Offer Workshop this afternoon at the historic post office downtown.

I am not going to lie. It was boring and a little depressing. At this stage in my career I am no where near a job that would offer real, or at least substantial benefits. I have also never really been offered or applied for a job other than my standard part time, after school job at starbucks.

It was interesting to know now that there are jobs out there. It seems like there are hiring freezes every where. Of course the workshop wanted to emphasize that there is still hope. There was a definite push for high education which is encouraging since I am going to graduate in May, but at the same time I am skeptical and I know that this is not the best job market for anyone.

Networks

2009-11-30T14:16:00.000-08:00

I still have not had any new assignments from Professor Ramirez. I am still a little trepedatious about actiually passing this pass/fail course.

On the plus side, I finally have a good idea as to what it is Professor Ramirez is actually working on. Before, I thought he was measuring the strength or distances between involved networks in the policy arena of affordable housing. About a week ago, right before Thanksgiving break, he explained his personal research in his URB 22o class. It turns out that he and Professor Duke are measuring, over time, the influnce that municipalities, NGOs and private business have on the affordable housing market. In the past, municipalities used to work more closely in contract networks with NGOs and private business. (The city designs and signs a contract to deliver or pay for services. Business is cut and try: this for that). Since the economic recession and the general housing bust this pattern has changed. In more recent times, private businesses are engaging in contact (not contract) networking with other businesses, cities, and NGOs. In this instance, private companies are taking the lead role in providing affordable housing- often because in intitiating these networks with cities, they recieve governement tax breaks or subsidies. Private developers like Poulte and Del E Webb have become more "community" aware in the past three years because it has finally become beneficial. Need is the mother of all necessity. Private citizens and private business are going bankrupt and there is a greater need on both parts to equalize loss and try and stabalize finances. In this instance local governments are stepping up to play mediators between the two.

I find this idea facinating. I find it hard to believe that this type of network would have formed if the economy had not tanked as badly as it did things would have stayed the same and growth would have stagnated.

update

2009-11-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

Well, this blog is becoming mighty difficult fill out seeing as my professor has nothing for me to do. Still my last assignment was addressing cover letters. It is not for my lack of asking. I actually see Professor Ramirez twice a week for a different class, but he keeps say next week. Apparently he is waiting for his survery to be approved of by a board or committee of some sort. I am not sure what the whole process is but I find it horribly ironic that as an Urban Studies teacher, his work is being held up by some bureaucrat. See, he covers bureaucracies a lot in both the classes I have had taken with him, and for the most part he seems pro government. Imean he seems to be more in favor of public services than contracting out or privitization. Maybe you would have to take his classes to appriciate the irony. On the one hand I am okay with the lack of work because I plenty of other stuff to keep me busy, but really, the semester is coming quickly to an end and I am still like 15 posts behind where I should be.

Another timely update

2009-10-31T14:25:00.000-07:00

So again nothing new with my research project. I addressed 33 letter too 33 different officials last time. All of which were date October 20. I asked my professor the other day whether or not he sent them out- no was the only terse response he gave. Now I am not a psychic, but I am going to go out on a limb and guess that for my next almost pointless assignment I will be changing the dates on 33 cover letter.

This past Wednesday my professor says he may have something for me to do in about a weeks time. This is no beuno for me because I have a history thesis rough draft due in a little less than two weeks, So no field trips to Kearny are scheduled. In related news, my history 498 is on the history of Phoenix. I have honestly never learned so much about the Valley or the Sunbelt in general. I will say that my once discombobulated grab bag list of courses over the past four years is really starting to come together and show some signs of cohesion.

Miscellaneous 1

2009-10-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

Most painful idiosyncrasy:

This is one of the two random posts we need for this class. Its inspiration comes from my last post about two minutes ago.

I work at Stabucks. All in all it is a pretty good part time job. I have been a barista for four years and I am now the oldest partner -(the term for all Starbucks employees regardless of title or position)- at my store. I can have as many hours as I want whenever I want them. I am a bizarre breed of baristas in that I prefer to open the store even though it means getting up at 3:30 in the morning. The work setting is relatively clean and safe. I would say stress free but it is not. Morning customers are always on their way somewhere. Every second standing in line or waiting for a drink is another second waisted. At the height of the morning rush, the tension is palpable. To make matters worse within the past year the spirit of Fredrick Taylor has risen and taken over everything! I could keep on ranting, but believe it or not, this is not the reason why I am writing this post.

Getting to the point... I am barista. It is not a job that I would consider overly physical, but some how I always end up getting hurt at work. Burns are expected and a given. Slipping and tripping are other daily occurrences. Mashed and jammed fingers not so much and yet.... For some reason my nails are always chipped, broken and torn. It is not a big deal really, I am not allowed to paint my nails or have acrylics, but still, when I am not at work and especially when I am at school I cannot help but notice that every other woman has nicely manicured hands.

Still getting to the point..... this past Sunday I noticed that I had broken my right thumb nail and while I was on my break I did my best to even it out to keep it form snagging. I am at work however so I have no clippers and I am forced to result to pulling. It did not feel good and I did draw blood, but I had to do it . I could not live with myself even through the rest of my shift knowing I had a chipped nail. Today, the same thing happened to my right middle finger. Again I was compelled to even it up. You would think after Sunday that I would have learned not to tear my nail, but no. I was compelled to do it. I could not not do it. So I pulled and teared and again drew blood. The good new is that the snag is gone, bad news is so is the entire nail.

The point to this post.... I have been typing very awkwardly with two very sensitive finger tips for the past thirty minutes, and yet even this was not as painful as writing my previous post.

ooops

2009-10-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

Whooooopsi!

So much for staying on top of this blog. It is week 9 of the semester on this will be my third post. In my defense my research project has come to a stand still.

This past Friday I was given my latest assignment. It consisted of addressing thirty three cover letters to various city official around the Valley. The letters are asking these officials to participate in a survey Professor Ramirez is conducting on inter-municipal relationships. I cannot tell completely what he is measuring, but it seems to focus more on competition than on cooperation. I am not sure thought, so do not hold me to that. These surveys are supposed to be going out tomorrow, October 20th, but I am not sure what the return time frame is. Professor Ramirez did drop a subtle hint the other day that I may be paying these officials an in person visit. About the only thing I have to say to that idea is that Phoenix is the fifth largest metropolitan area. This semester is not going to end soon enough.

Inter Update

2009-09-23T19:44:00.000-07:00

Where did I leave off last time?
Oh well...its not terribly important.

My first assignment as a research assistance was to compile a list of contacts for municipalities and various membership organization working with or around some form of affordable housing. It was boring to say the least. And if any of you out there are wondering, places like Kearny and Mammoth AZ are simply too small to even merit a measly web page. If I, one of the most technologically retarded for my age cohort, can make not one but two blogs in the pursuit of my four year degree, then someone, somewhere in Kearny should be able to make a web page. I kid you not, I had to use wikipedia to find an e-mail address for some public officials. How reliable those e-mail addresses are is not my problem..for now. I have a feeling I may be going on a road trip before the semester is up.

As a minor side rant of indignation, the professor who assigned me this tedious task did not like way my excel spread sheet looked and pretty much had me switch all my rows to columns and vice-verse. I do no use excel ever! I had a hell of time getting the stupid information to look right the first time, so being asked to change it out of mere aesthetic values...grrrr. I am sure there is probably an application or a button that can switch that information and I am making a bigger deal out of it than it really was, but I do not know where this magical button exists and ended up copying and pasting a whole lot.

My next assignment is summarizing various undergraduate level public program degrees from several universities around the country. Now, I am not an expert, and I certainly do not know where the paper my professors are working on will go, but I have an inkling that this particular task is off topic. I do not mind really. Over the summer I worked for a study abroad program in London, where my last task was to summarize all the London study abroad programs available in California. ALL OF THEM! Does any one know how many fricken universities and colleges are in California? Not to mention the vocational schools and special summer programs run through various other educational institutions. That has by far been the biggest busy work assignment I have ever received in all of my educational career. I have no doubt that my boss skimmed over everything and focused only on the UC and CAL State programs. But hey, if she ever needs to know where or how Palomar Science Institute spends their June and July months, she will know where to look.

Affordable Housing

2009-09-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

So for my internship I am working with Professor Lucio and Professor Ramirez. They are currently working on a joint venture exploring affordable housing and economic development within the greater Phoenix Metro area. To date, they have an introductory written to the study, but are currently researching the breadth and depth of the affordable housing situation in the Valley. They are mapping the network between 36 municipalities in central Arizona, NPOs, private organizations and membership organization concerned with affordable housing.

What they have discovered so far is the municipal governments are the furthest remove from the actual community development process, but the most connected in terms of communication with other governments, NPOs, and private organization. Conversely, private organizations are the most involve in individual community building, but the further removed from the communication loop. NPOs are somewhere in between. It seems right now that their research is more concerned with these systems of network right now, but that may change in time as the study progresses.

My glamorous first assignment has been to create a contact list for these government, NPO, private and membership organizations. I assure you that this job is even less fun and even more boring than it sounds. It is also surprisingly time consuming. Right now, all I have is the 36 cities governments and that took all of my Friday. The task is not exactly straight forward because each cities has different names for their different departments, and not all the same departments are responsible for the same services. Problems also arose when it came to looking up towns like Kearny and Mammoth, AZ. These cities do not really have department heads and their general plans only really predict into 2010.

The easy part is unfortunately over though. At least I had the names of the 36 cities I was looking up. From this point forward I have to research and find NPO and private organization that are tied to housing in some form or another. Google don't fail me now. If you happen to know of any and want to share please do.