The second half of class today we're going to talk with Laura Lewis Marchino, Assistant Director of Region 9 Economic Development District. The first half of class we'll get focused so we can make the most of her visit.
We'll start the focusing process by going back to Detroit to learn about the Eastern Market, a exciting food project that I visited three years ago. We've talked about the definition of markets. This is about an actual marketplace. This short video gives you a sense of how this economic development project works and the power of creating a place where the community can gather and interact. Some have suggested that Durango needs a year-round market like this for farmers, food processors, and artisans and craftspeople. What do you think?
After the video, I want you to go to the Google Doc with the outline of a project proposal. You typed some notes into this on Tuesday about our local community into the Community Description section.
Yesterday, most of you chose an issue (e.g. housing, agriculture, health care, etc.) to focus on based on the community profile I gave you to look at. Great! Some of you got further and started to come up with a project and think about how to implement it. Enter any notes you feel are worth keeping from yesterday's lightning session into section 3 "Project Description" and section 6 "Institutional Plan for Implementation."
If you didn't get that far on defining the project, move on to the next thing....which is going to your journal and creating an entry titled "Economic Development Project Ideas."
For this entry, journal on the following questions....
· What do you need to know about your issue (e.g. housing, health care) and how it plays out in our area to create an economic development project?
If you have an idea for a project that you like, answer the following question....
· What do you need to know to move that project forward? For example, maybe you want to know if something like your project has been tried before or how you would get started or who you should talk to or where you would get the money...
Journal on at least one of those two things
If you weren't in class yesterday, use the journaling time to look at the Community Economic Profile and note statistics or conditions that jump out at you and think about questions to ask Laura about our local economy.
After you finish journaling, which shouldn't take super long, keep your computer open and re-assemble in your groups from yesterday. Talk about your issue or project idea and what information Laura might be able to give you to help you move forward. Include this as the last paragraph of your journal entry...
Make sure everyone gets heard, give each other ideas, ask questions of each other, think out loud. This will take us to break....
After break, I'll introduce Laura and ask a couple of questions to get us started and then we'll open it up. Laura used to run Operation Healthy Communities, an organization that used to run interactive "issues summits" for the whole county. These summits would attract many of the most active people in the community and resulted in many grassroots initiatives that have made a real difference in our community. Now, she's a certified economic developer:
· Ask her about issues in the community
· Ask her what an economic developer does
· Ask her for advice on moving your project forward
· Ask her what's most important when thinking about the future of Durango
If we have time after Laura's visit, you can get started on the homework for Friday. I'm going to give you two short readings about "resilience." One is by Dave Roberts from the online magazine Grist. The other is from a book called The Resilience Imperative by Michael Lewis and Pat Conaty.
On Monday, we're going to seminar on these readings and another one I'll give you on Friday. Tomorrow you'll discuss these readings in small groups to prep for seminar.
Homework due on Friday, February 6th
Annotate the article from Grist and the excerpt from The Resilience Imperative and answer these questions in your journal:
· What is the difference between a robust solution and an optimal solution?
· Which of the seven principles of resilience outlined in The Resilience Imperative do you think is most important? Which principle do you not understand?
Also, you must email your Senior Project Research Question and Abstract by tomorrow. The abstract is 3-5 sentences that talk about why you're interested in the question, how you came to it, and what you expect to find.