“It’s
hard to be a grown-up” an eight-year-old concluded at this weekend’s first
Somerville Family Design Workshop, held at the Armory on Sunday afternoon. She
had just completed an exercise in which she had to try to pay bills on an
annual income of $36,000. As she found out, it was tough.
More
than 130 kids and grownups tackled challenges at this past weekend’s first
Somerville Family Design Workshop. They designed neighborhoods, studied parks
and open spaces, and solved hypothetical (though all-too-real) community
dilemmas.
A
group of parent volunteers organized the event with me to help identify priorities for
children and families. We will be replicating the event for other groups — like seniors and young adults.
At
the event, kids and adults visited different stations. At each table, they had
to problem solve and share their opinions about life in Somerville. Here’s what
we learned:
At the AweSomerville Game station,
game inventor Kelsey Kent and Melora Rush helped kids tackle a city challenge.
“Emergency!” kids learned. “Somerville’s water supply has been contaminated!
How do you get the word out? What’s the next step?”
Kids had lots of clarifying questions and ideas. “Is it so
contaminated that they’ll have to go to the hospital?” “Can we call every home
on time?” "How about have the mail carrier knock on doors throughout the day?”
“Can we install filters for everyone?” “How much will it cost to clean the
water?” As they solved problems, Somerville’s happiness score rose. Kelsey's take
away from listening to kids think through the issues: “Kids are amazing. They are
natural-born community enthusiasts and creative problem solvers.” One of the
kid’s take-aways: “We can solve problems and even make more money for the
city!”
Nearby at the Favorite Spaces station,
Courtney Cooke guided kids and adults on an exercise
developed by Somerville
mom and park designer, Eden Dutcher Martin. Participants marked up a big map of
the City’s open spaces, pointed out places they love, their own homes, and
their routes to open spaces.
Here’s
what they said they loved: shady spaces, with places to sit and access to port-a-potties.
They like playgrounds that are close to other destinations — like the library,
the pool, and a store to buy snacks or cool drinks. They love it when programs, like festivals, Art
in the Garden, or the Open Air Circus use public open spaces. Kids love “water
play” and “fun structures.” They love to be able to walk or bike to their
favorite parks.
And some ideas for improvements: “More and better athletic fields!” “Continued
progress towards an extended community path,” and “Can we use the Veterans
Memorial cemetery more?”
At
the Balancing a Household Budget station,
kids had a challenge. They learned that 37 percent of Somerville families with
kids make less than $50,000 per year as a household. Almost 2,000 families make
less than $24,000 per year. At the table, participants figured out how to live
on $36,000/year, or $3,000/month. Using pennies as their funds, they had to
pay: $2,100 (or 21 pennies)/month for rent, $1,000 for childcare, and
$800/month for food, $600/month for transportation, and $300/month for
recreation, vacations, and other expenses. They quickly learned that, though
$3,000 seems like a lot, it doesn’t cover basic expenses. Try the tool yourself here: https://jcalz.github.io/family-budget/
Participants
grappled with a few options to cut costs or earn more — and each option came
with its own challenges. In addition to the conclusion that being an adult is
hard, other thoughts included the following: “Life in Somerville is expensive,”
“It must be very, very difficult to raise a family in Somerville,” “I need my extended
family to help with my kids,” and “It’s not possible to afford to live here.”
What
can we do? The most popular idea — shared more than 15 times — was to help
families with childcare. Other ideas included building more high-density, affordable,
and family-sized housing. Also, people suggested providing free wi-fi, creating
more employment opportunity, building a bigger commercial tax base to help pay
for programs, and creating “bigger, open indoor public spaces for multi-aged
recreation.”
At the Immigrant Family’s Journey
station, participants had a chance to role-play (in a very simplified way)
the difficult decisions someone makes before they leave their home country.
After people tried it, they shared their reflections: “It is very hard for
immigrants to come to the U.S.,” “Immigration is very stressful.” As one
immigrant mom said, “It’s a very hard decision, torn between two lands, and can
be very dangerous for some.”
At
the Recreation table, Dave Ahouse
and Rob Odilon asked people a few questions and they had LOTS of ideas. People
said, we need better facilities, including more/better athletic fields (turf and/or
grass), a large indoor city pool, a teen recreation center, and easy ways for
the public to get to the facilities.
We
need more activities for ‘tweens and teens, including options other than
sports.
Participants said they’d like more both indoor and outdoor theater events,
and theater camp for all ages year round. Could we have a Somerville talent
show, or a theater festival similar to Honk/Porch Fest?” people asked. Also,
“What spaces can theater groups use?”
In terms of public spaces, many people asked for
port-a-potties in parks, “so we can stay all afternoon!” Residents asked if the
Kennedy Pool can be open longer, and also if it could have an “open community
park and playground?” Other wishes included the community path extension, more
dog parks, more movable red chairs, a new playground for the Brown school, and
help for restaurants to have outdoor seating.
People
threw out more ideas, including requests for more mixed-age activities, more
non-sports
activities, a free shuttle from Davis to Assembly, more inclusive
programming, and depaving of yards. Facilitator Rob Odilon said one of his
favorite ideas he heard was to have a citywide cookout — each block should pull
out their grills on one day in the summer and share burgers with neighbors.
At our housing table, Tim and Shu Talun helped kids and adults look
through magazines to find features of homes and neighborhoods they liked best.
Taking a look at the collage, it’s clear kids like interesting designs with
unique spaces, easy access to outdoor space, play elements, and natural
elements, like trees turned into benches. Based on the pictures of animals cut
out and glued, it’s evident they also love furry creatures. Parents asked about
ease of access to shared outdoor space, and wondered “Why don’t kids go out to
parks any more by themselves? Meanwhile Jason Behrens helped kids use many
different materials to build neighborhoods free form.
Finally,
at our community sustainability
table, Jennifer Dorsen led a discussion of how to invest in our community’s
environmental health. Composting was a popular suggestion here.
Stay tuned for a design workshop coming to you soon!
—photos
by Jeanine Farley
There were 40 fatal Opioid overdoses in 2015 and 2016. Almost all (91%) were non-Hispanic people, and 72% were men. The median reported fatal overdose age was 37, vs. 31 for non-fatal overdoses (Source: City SPD)
