Browsing by Author "Ayers-Johnson, Joseph"

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    Bus Stops as Community Assets
    (2018-05-04) Ayers-Johnson, Joseph; Howard, Kurt; Lauderdale, Casey; Polacek, Joseph; Schutt, Jake
    Metro Transit operates more than 12,000 bus stops over 907 square miles of the Twin Cities region of Minnesota, providing an important service that connects people to the places where they live, work, and play. While bus stops are fairly ubiquitous, their design and placement have come from an utilitarian approach rather than a community asset based approach. Although there is a need for efficiency given the magnitude of the system, the role that bus stops play in people’s daily lives and the impact they have on surrounding properties warrant a greater appreciation. There are opportunities to build bus stops into more community-oriented spaces - ones that both contribute to and are cared for by the community itself. The bottom line is that bus stops are - and have the potential to be further recognized as - valuable community assets.
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    Will the Faucet Turn On? Water Conservation Strategies for Ramsey, Minnesota
    (Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2017) Alarcon, Frank; Ayers-Johnson, Joseph; Buechler, Gretchen; Dix, Alec; Goodwin, Matthew; Weiss, Tiffany
    This project was completed as part of the 2017-2018 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Ramsey. Ramsey obtains its water supply exclusively from public and private ground water wells. The city’s soil is very sandy and drains quickly, creating a significant demand for water in summer months as homeowners and businesses irrigate their lawns and gardens. To reduce water demand and encourage water conservation practices, the City wanted to explore strategies for educating residents about the effects of excessive water use. Drawing on case studies and literature on best practices, students in Dr. Dan Milz’s Planning and Participation Processes class created a toolkit for City staff with recommendations for reducing household water use, outreach strategies to encourage household water conservation, a ‘water scorecard’ to help residents understand their personal water use, examples of successful water conservation programs, and potential partners and funding sources for the City of Ramsey to use in its outreach efforts. The students’ final report, poster, and scorecard are available.