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Eastern Michigan University Planning & GIS Programs

...Thinkaboutit Quote...

If you wish to live wisely,
ignore sayings...including this one.
...Misc.

What is planning?

Planning Student of the Year-
Jennifer Bruen

Jenny Bruen has been one of those special students who has contributed in so many ways to the success of the Planning Program and its students during the past year. In addition to a busy family life and her studies as a graduate student obtaining her Planning degree and a Certificate in Historic Preservation, she has led a very active role as president of the Planning Awareness Club of Eastern (PLACE). Her activities as president have been too many to describe in detail, but a simple listing of them gives recognition to her contribution during the past year.

- Led student weekend trip to Chicago, with tour of green buildings, new projects and the loop.
- Organized group of students to attend annual conference of Michigan Association of Planning in Traverse City.
- Planned student field trip to see Detroit riverfront projects and meet with a planner.
- Student visit in Ann Arbor to see a "green" project and also visit a local planning firm.
- Encouraged students to attend Planning Student state conference in East Lansing.
- Worked with Erik Dotzauer on continuing the Planning Program's Mentoring Program.
- Established Monday evenings at the Corner Brewery social time.
- Worked with other club officers to establish a constitution for PLACE and its recognition as an official campus student organization.
- Planned a club ski trip to Boyne Mountain.
- Set up a Dodgeball competition with other student clubs.
- Worked with Adam Cook to reestablish publication of the PLACE Journal, a student-run planning journal.

As is evident, Jenny's leadership has led to a very successful year for PLACE, and many Planning/GIS students have benefited. Hopefully she has stimulated other students to follow in her footsteps.

Planning Studio Presentations

Both the undergraduate and graduate Planning Studio classes gave presentations on Wednesday, April 23rd. Students in the undergraduate studio presented a variety of schemes for the Water Street Redevelopment Area in Ypsilanti, including this one by Sandon Lettieri.

The graduate studio presented a single concept for a block in the Lowertown district of Ann Arbor. Attending were representatives from city council, the planning department, the Downtown Development Authority, the Department of Geography and Geology, and local residents.

Once again, The Journal of Place

With the semester coming to an end, thoughts turn toward finals, Spring classes and upcoming summer adventures. I encourage you to take a few moments, though, to read through the new issue of The Journal of PLACE, the academic journal of the Urban and Regional Planning programs at Eastern Michigan University. After a few years' absence, we are committed to publishing the Journal on a regular basis from this point forward. It is the forum for students, faculty and alumni to present research, writings, and ideas to one another in hopes of "diffusing information, inspiration and innovation" to the community at Eastern and beyond.

You can be published in a future issue of the Journal; simply email your submissions to journalofplace@live.com. Likewise, if you have any comments or questions about this issue, or have any ideas about what you would like to see in future issues, please don't hesitate to contact us.

We hope you enjoy this issue of the reborn Journal, and hope you have a wonderful summer.

Click to find the Journal of PLACE

Adam Cook, Editor
Journal of PLACE

Nina David joins Planning faculty

We are pleased to invite Nina David as a new tenure-track member of the Planning faculty. She will begin in the Fall semester, when she will have completed her PhD at the University of Michigan. Her research topic and specialization is Regional Planning in Michigan.

The search committee was impressed with Nina's knowledge of Michigan planning, her involvement with the Michigan Association of Planning, her comfortable teaching style and ability to communicate with students.

Nina has degrees in Urban and Regional Planning and also Environmental Science from Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Madras University in India. She has taught courses in Metro Growth, Fiscal Planning and Management, Decision Theory for Planning, and Statistics, as well as giving various guest lectures. Her publications and presentations have been largely in the field of regional planning, but in other topics as well.

We feel Nina will make a great addition to our team, and we hope you will have a chance to meet her soon.

Notice: Laura Buhl leaving Planning Lecturer Laura Buhl has decided to return to planning practice and will not be teaching in the Fall semester. That is the reason for some of the adjustments to teaching responsibilities among the faculty.

Spring and Fall classes

The schedule is finalized for Spring and Fall classes. This list includes some updates to the EMU Schedule booklet. You should register right away to ensure that the classes won't be canceled; you will not be billed until just before the semester begins.

In the Spring semester, Hugh Semple will teach GPLN 276-GEOG 579 Principles of GIS on MTTh at 2:00.
Jim Schafer will be teaching PLSC 655 The Politics of Local Planning in the Spring semester (5-10, 5-17, 5-31, 6-7, 9am to 4pm). This popular course will be offered on four Saturdays at the Livonia campus, and is a required course for graduate students in the Planning program.

In the Fall semester, new Planning faculty member Nina David will be teaching two courses: GPLN 215 Intro to Urban and Regional Planning and GEOG 555 Comprehensive Planning.
Rocky Ward will be teaching GEOG 553 Urban and Regional Planning.
Norm Tyler will be teaching GPLN 216 Readings in Urban Planning; GPLN 435 History of Urban Form and Function; and GEOG 557 Community Development and Downtown Revitalization. GPLN 401 Planning/Preservation Graphics may not be offered, and a substitute course will be acceptable for students requiring it.
Bill Welsh will be teaching GPLN 276 Principles of GIS and GEOG 405-GEOG 575 Aerial Photo Interpretation.
Hugh Semple will teach GEOG 476 Advanced GIS, GEOG 579 GIS; and GEOG 678 Advanced Applications of GIS.

Graduate students: view an Excel Spreadsheet of classes for Fall semester.

Chicago Trip

Students have returned from a PLACE sponsored trip to Chicago from March 20th to 22nd. Most of them rode in the MegaBus which travels non-stop from Ann Arbor to Union Station in downtown Chicago. They especially enjoyed being able to use the Metro transit system to travel around the area.

The first morning they toured the Morse Theater and had a special tour of its "green" design features as explained by the project architect. Although the day was cold and snowy, they went on a long walking tour of the loop with alumnus Jeff Schroeder, who lives and works in the city. Dinner that day was Chicago Style pizza, in quantities that made some of them sick. But not so sick they couldn't stay up until 3am.

Front left: David Lewis, Shamus Bruen, Sarah Leaders, Chris Fellows, Jeff Schroeder, Jerrue Purnell, Will Grapentine, Daniel Vergun
Behind: Jenny Bruen, Courtney Veraldi, Nathan Isydorek, David Waligora
The 13 students and alums making the trip enjoyed the two days in the Windy City. The officers of PLACE want to thank the individuals who generously gave financial support directly to students for the club's trip, contributing over $400. Contributors included...
Michelle Aniol, McKenna Associates
David Schleg, City of Dallas
Sherrie Pryor, City of Plymouth
Joe Lawson, Ypsilanti Township
Leslie Kettren, City of Adrian
Brian Gross, City of Cleveland
Norm Tyler, EMU

Invite another student Planning Students. It's now time for students to pick their Fall semester courses. If you get a chance, encourage someone to consider the Urban and Regional Planning Program. A word-of-mouth recommendation is the most effective promotion we could have, and we'd love to see a lot of new students in the fall.

Bob Jones appointed Interim Department Head

Planning faculty member Bob Jones will serve as department head for Geography and Geology throughout the remainder of this academic year and 2008-2009. Yichun Xie removed himself from this position because of the great number of grants he now needs to administer through the Institute for Geospatial Research and Education (IGRE). Beginning in the Fall semester, a national search will begin for a new permanent department head.

Best Careers

U.S. News and World Report just issued a Career Guide listing the "Best Careers." The list included "Urban Planner." This is an important recognition of the status of our profession, but, of course, we already knew this. ;-)

The careers were chosen based on job satisfaction, training difficulty, prestige, job market outlook, and pay. It lists the median national salary for someone in Planning as $68,800.

David meets Andrew in Shanghai

This note came from David Schleg, who recently visited alumnus Andrew Armbruster.

I was able to meet Andrew Armbruster and his girlfriend Xiu Xiu for a very nice Saturday night meal. I was at my limits regarding native Chinese food (as was my stomach), so Andrew, Xiu Xiu and my friends Dr. and Mrs. Aquino let me treat them to Italian at a nice restaurant which overlooked the Bund.

Andrew is doing very well from all we discussed and I was very impressed by his insight and drive concerning living and working in Shanghai. Although I only e-mailed him a few times before my trip and only met him for our dinner, I think it was a reflection of our EMU program (staff, students and alumni) that we got along very well from the beginning of the evening until we departed later that night. There is a great fellowship and common bond when you meet a fellow EMU Planning person that I think is truly special.

Preservation conference

28th Annual Historic Preservation Conference, May 8-10, 2008 Dearborn Inn, Dearborn, Michigan

Preserving History, Conserving Energy

"The greenest building is one that already has been built" - Carl Elefante, AIA, LEED AP
The 28th Annual Statewide Preservation Conference of the Michigan Historic Preservation Network (MHPN) will be held Thursday - Saturday, May 8-10, 2008 in Dearborn, Michigan. The conference will be headquartered at the 1931 Georgian style, Dearborn Inn, Dearborn, Michigan. Designed by Albert Kahn and constructed for Henry Ford, the property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The conference theme, "Preserving History, Conserving Energy," will be explored in lectures, hands-on workshops, and tours. On Thursday and Friday, four concurrent tracks will focus on "green" restoration and its application in neighborhoods, commercial districts, rural settings, and metro areas.

For the 28th Annual Conference, MHPN has added a series of special sessions on Saturday, May 10th. Included in these sessions are the MotorCities Summit, sponsored by the MotorCities National Heritage Area and the 20th Anniversary Program for the Michigan Alliance for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage which will include sessions on protecting paper-based collections and an Emergency Preparedness Planning workshop.

To learn about the "Preserving History, Conserving Energy" conference, find out for which sessions AICP credit is being offered, or learn which can be attended as single ticketed sessions, download a copy of the brochure at www.mhpn.org or request a brochure by fax at (517)371-9090 or by email at Finegood@mhpn.org. Selected area photographs are also available for print publication at www.mhpn.org

PLanning Awareness Club of Eastern

PLACE has set up a number of great activities for the Winter semester. We encourage you to make all of them you can, since such activities will introduce you to planners and projects throughout the region.

Thursday through Saturday, March 20-22: The club took a trip to Chicago to tour the downtown on Friday and meet with planners and alums.

Club members and anyone else are welcome to meet at the Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti on the 3rd Monday of the month. Join the group at about 8:00 pm. It is located at the corner of River and Norris Streets, just north of Depot Town.

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The club sponsored a number of interesting activities during the Fall semester. A student field trip to Detroit toured Detroit's river area and included a visit with a professional planner on Grosse Isle.

A second field trip included a tour of a "green" building, the Mallets Creek Library in Ann Arbor, lunch at a local coffee shop, and an office visit at Carlisle-Wortman Associates.

Also, many students and faculty came to a holiday party at the home of Bob Jones.

About a dozen students attended the Michigan Planning Student State Conference, which took place this year at Michigan State University. Sessions included presentations by professional planners, presentations by students, and one-on-one mentoring with students. A field trip to three current development projects in Lansing, led by the city's mayor, wrapped up the afternoon and led to the evening's party at a downtown restaurant and bar. Next year's conference will be hosted by EMU's Planning Program. The Michigan Association of Planning is looking for volunteers to help in its planning. Let us know if you're interested.

PLACE is the student club for Urban and Regional Planning and GIS undergrad and grad students. This year the president is Jenny Bruen. Other club officers are Erik Dotzauer, Kristin Hatfield and Jessica Corsi. Any student can become a member simply by attending club meetings; there is no membership fee. For information, contact Jenny Bruen at jbruenplanning@hotmail.com.

Kristin (Hatfield) Delaney has set up a terrific blog for PLACE, with much more news about activities. You can find it at http://emu-place.blogspot.com/

APA Conference in Las Vegas

This note came from Planning grad student Barry Hicks

I would like to make the Planning Students and PLACE club aware of the National Conference in Las Vegas this year. It is Sunday, April 27 - Thursday May 1 - I am a huge advocate of this conference. Though it may cost a bit of $$$ it is well worth the networking opportunities and experience in general.
It has been my experience that there is usually a reception on the Saturday before the opening ceremony, so probably Saturday April 26??? Although I do remember one year in San Francisco they did it on Sunday night � I have not seen anything official posted about this, but it is probably the single most "fun" event to attend with a gathering of planners. I would highly recommend anyone going to go a day early if for no other reason than to catch this event. That and it's Vegas, come on! If you can't have fun here, you should check your pulse!
I will be attending and would encourage as many people to go that can afford to. Of course they need to be an APA member, but they can request the Student Rate which is between 1/3 and 1/4 the price of the "new professional" or "professional" rate. The website is http://www.planning.org/nationalconference/ Everyone should check it out.

New promotional video

Are you interested in assisting Norm on the development of a video promoting the Planning and GIS programs. We have the video equipment, a flat-screen TV and quite a few photos and video clips from which to select. If you'd like to help with this interesting project, see Norm.

Alumni News Updates

If you're interested in keeping up-to-date on the activities of our programs' alumni, link on over to the Alumni News page. It's updated regularly.

IGRE grant

A National Science Foundation award of $889,753 is supporting a three-year project to develop the Detroit Mayor�s Youth Technology Corps (MYTC). Collaborating with Eastern Michigan University in this broad-based, wide-ranging effort are the Detroit Public Schools, the City of Detroit Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and the Environmental System Research Institute, Inc.
�MYTC-Detroit will provide two cohorts of 100 high school students from Detroit with training and hands-on practice in a variety of Information Technology management tools,� says Project Director Yichun Xie of Geography and Geology and the EMU Institute for Geospatial Research and Education (IGRE). Other EMU people involved include Gerald �Skip� Lawver, Director of the EMU Center for Information Assurance, and Xiaolin Luo of IGRE, who is a doctoral student in the EMU College of Technology.

Welsh and Jones research project

Professors Bill Welsh and Bob Jones have received a two-year Michigan Sea Grant to conduct an integrated assessment of brownfield redevelopment efforts within the coastal areas of Michigan to determine what makes some projects more successful than others. Their work will include evaluation of economic, social, environmental, public policy, and other variables associated with coastal brownfield redevelopment. The information they collect will be entered into a geographic information system (GIS) that will permit ready access to locational and other data on the projects, as well as information on their level of success.

Using the GIS, decision analysis theory, and various computer algorithms, Welsh and Jones will develop a spatial decision support system to help evaluate coastal brownfield data against different redevelopment possibilities and alternative policy scenarios. The outcome, the two anticipate, will be a GIS based set of tools that will enable policy makers, managers and stakeholders to more effectively accomplish the goals of coastal brownfield redevelopment, and provide a model system that could be adapted for use throughout the Great Lakes region.

Hugh Semple now GIS adviser

The adviser for all GIS students no longer will be Norm Tyler, but will be Hugh Semple, beginning immediately. Norm will be transferring all files to Hugh and he will sign off on applications for both admission and graduation, your Program of Study, course substitutions, and all other program administrative activities. Norm will remain the adviser to undergrad and grad Planning students.

Important Note To All Undergrads

It is VERY important that every undergrad student who is majoring in Urban and Regional Planning declare it as your major. Having more declared majors is critical in supporting our program, so do it right away. (Note: You can change majors at any point in your studies.)

Go to your my.emich account and declare. It's easy and painless.

Take a class at another university?

Are you a grad student who would like to take a class at UofM or MSU or Wayne State. The Michigan Intercollegiate Graduate Studies (MIGS) program allows you to do just that. If the Host University has room in the class, your advisor can set it up with the host instructor. You pay the tuition rate of the Host University, and your grade applies to you degree requirements at EMU.

For more information, check out MIGS online or see your advisor, Norm Tyler.

Guide to Planning Programs Are you an undergrad student considering going into a graduate Planning program. You can look for schools online at: http://www.acsp.org/org/links_to_planning_schools.htm

"Cyburbia" Cyburbia was founded in 1994, and is the Internet's oldest continuously operating planning-related Web site; it functions today as a portal and busy social networking site for planners and others interested in the built environment.

"Planetizen" There's an online service that will send you twenty interesting articles on planning twice a week. It also lists job openings for planners. It's called "Planetizen" and it's free. The Planning faculty use it regularly to stay updated on news.

Contact For information on the Urban and Regional Planning programs, contact Norm Tyler at ntyler@emich.edu or 734.487.8656. For the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) programs, contact Hugh Semple at hsemple@emich.edu.