DURATION
MY ROLE
TEAM
May 2019 - July 2019
UX Researcher
Maya Genson, Farah Selman, Eva Smith, Benjamin Zeffer
This was presented to the City of Ann Arbor in effort to provide recommendations and call to actions for prevalent resiliency issues presented by the public.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
After interviewing residents in the Haisley/Arborview neighborhood, feelings of frustration and worry were expressed due to several notable issues surrounding the topic of resiliency. Residents interviewed expressed feeling that there is a lack of racial diversity, skyrocketing property values and a lack of affordable housing, health concerns regarding the Gelman Plume, a lack of racial and economic diversity, and feeling disconnected from the city. With the analysis of interviewee perspectives and desk research, some recommendations for the City of Ann Arbor were generated. One recommendation is to revise the current Ann Arbor newsletter system by releasing it on a weekly basis instead of monthly. The city should post these weekly updates to the a2gov.org website, but also allow residents to subscribe to the newsletter via email; hard copies sent via mail for a subscription price also as an option. This will allow residents to feel more connected with their community and city while allowing for a more efficient method of keeping these residents regularly informed in a way that’s convenient for them.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
How might we empower residents in the Haisley neighborhood to be more resilient in the face of future emergencies and disruptions?
RESEARCH GOALS
The goal of this research is to understand how Ann Arbor residents in the area of Haisley Elementary would like to engage in improving resiliency, as well as to gain insights into residents’ perceptions of the city’s attempts to realize that goal, and how the citizens think the city can support them in this journey.
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
A combination of desk research and interviews best fits the context of the study. Face-to-face interviews allow the collection of qualitative information to help understand the depth of citizen participation in the facilitation of a resilient Ann Arbor. The desk research aids in facilitating understanding about the area and any concerns uncovered during the interviews. With this more objective information on the history and other data regarding the area, biases are reduced in interviews and analysis of the collected data.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
RESEARCH PROCESS
INTERVIEWS
Recruitment Strategy
With a goal of 6-10 interviews, seven were conducted. The first two were formal sit-down interviews with couples who reside in the Haisley neighborhood. Both parties were recruited in advance through convenience sampling, due to personal connection with them and their desirable location. The remaining shorter interviews were gathered using an impromptu method done in the area around the Maryfield Wildwood Park. Those who were outside of their home and were willing to participate were recruited at the time for the more brief interviews.
Participant Criteria
Adults who have lived in the Haisley/Arborview neighborhood of Ann Arbor for a minimum of 10 years were targeted. The majority of interviews conducted were with retired residents.
Participants Descriptions:
• Formal Interviews
• retired couple, long-term residents: retired teacher and artist homemaker
• retired artist couple, long-term residents: retired professor of dance at the University of Michigan, and visual artist.
• Impromptu Interviews
• woman, musician, long-term resident
• man, retired postal worker, Vietnam veteran, long-term resident
• middle-aged man, lifelong Ann Arbor resident
• woman, retired long-term resident, former professor of urban planning at The University of Michigan
• Two women, retired, long-term residents
DESK RESEARCH
Social Media
Social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter contain outlets for discussion. Reading into relevant discussion pages helped inform us about topics residents in the Haisley/Arborview neighborhood are concerned about and how they would like actions to be taken as an attempt for solutions.
Background and Current News
Researching the background and current status of disruptions generated further insights beyond what was mentioned in interviews. This was accomplished by reading articles from credible newspapers and pieces published through public libraries.
AFFINITY MAPPING
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
ANALYSIS/THEMES
• Lack of economic & racial diversity concerns
• Health concerns regarding the Gelman plume
• City Services such as: transportation or lack of parking
• Law enforcement racially profiling
• Housing crisis: the demand is not being met
• Communications between the city and residents
• Neighborhood relations and community
Issues ranked from most to least important were as follows: housing crisis, demographic and racial diversity, the Gelman plume, neighborhood relationships, communications between the city and residents, law enforcement, and city services.
PERSONA
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
INSIGHTS
The lack of racial and economic diversity in Ann Arbor as a result of the affordable housing shortage: “As a minority myself, I wanted to live somewhere that embraced my diversity and valued including people with different backgrounds into the community. I see housing cost continue to rise and the city becoming catered to wealthy and like-minded individuals. I wish the city would acknowledge my values because when I think of obstacles of resiliency, I think of lack of diversity and affordable housing.”
Recommendation: Ann Arbor needs to do a better job of making the city a welcoming place to a diverse group of people by paying special attention to how those minority residents feel in Ann Arbor. Further research needs to be done to determine why residents of Ann Arbor believe that lack of diversity and affordable housing will hamper the goal of improved resiliency.
Skyrocketing property values and lack of affordable housing: " My home value is more than four times what I originally paid about 30 years ago, and Ann Arbor is becoming less and less affordable to obtain property in. I see my friends and others being deterred from living in Ann Arbor as there's a lack of affordable housing. I wish there was a greater effort to implement affordable housing so that Ann Arbor is available to more people".
Recommendation: The city should re-evaluate their current affordable housing plan because they are falling short of their goals that were set in 2015. This new affordable housing plan should take into account the resources available to the city so that they aren’t falling short of their plan. It’s possible that the city should be allocating more resources to this affordable housing plan effort in general in order to meet the needs of the citizens.
Gelman dioxane plume raising health concerns as it nears: "I have been hearing about the dioxane plume travelling through Ann Arbor’s groundwater for decades. I am frustrated because the actions taken are too slow in aiding a crisis of such a large degree as it nears a major water source in the city. I wish the city would provide us a better sense of security, in case of emergencies, by providing valuable updates about the status of the plume and their cleanup plans".
Residents don’t feel they’re being informed: “Being informed about affairs within the city is important to me especially on topics that I’m voicing concern about. Finding information on what’s happening and being done about these issues is difficult for me because I find that it takes too much time and energy to find. I wish that there was a convenient place to regularly find information about what the city is currently working so that I can put more trust in the city.
Recommendation (for 3 & 4): Revise the current newsletter system and release the letter on a weekly basis instead of quarterly. The city should post these weekly updates to the a2gov.org website, but also allow residents to subscribe to the newsletter via email. There should also be an option for hard copies sent via mail for a subscription price. This will allow residents to feel more connected with their community and city while allowing for a more efficient method of keeping these residents regularly informed in a way that’s convenient for them. The content on the newsletter itself could be decided by the city, but administration should reach out to citizens via social media, email, and mail to see what the residents of Ann Arbor would like to include in the reworked newsletter. This would help empower the residents of the Haisley/Arborview neighborhood to be more resilient.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
LIMITATIONS/BIASES
• With a time constraint of only a couple of weeks, interviews were restricted and lacked a variety of residents to be interviewed based on their demographics and time spent living in the neighborhood.
• The interviewees were mostly retired residents of the Haisley neighborhood. They had all lived in the area for the majority of their lives and may be more aware of the disruptions that have been occurring more specifically in their neighborhood.
• More inclined to speak out about certain issues because of their personal attachment and involvement in the area.
• Younger family with children may not have as much time to involve themselves due to how much time and effort it can take to learn of local concerns.
