The Grand Boulevard Employment Office Building

For the final action project in my Policy course, we learned about what Utopia looks like. For this action project we were asked to write an ordinance for a problem and or an area of our choosing. The reason for this action project is to re-imagine a space in your community, by creating and presenting a multimedia Utopic ordinance. My ordinance is written for the neighborhood of Bronzeville, but I have redesigned an abandoned insurance building as an example. My ordinance is seeking to help people that only lives in the Bronzeville neighborhood. Having people that is unemployed come to this organization and choose a job that they want to apply for will be a great opportunity for them and the company. Below is a voice recording summary of what my ordinance is and talks about.

TITLE; The Grand Boulevard Employment Office Building   

PURPOSE; The purpose of my ordinance is to have “gated community” unemployment office for this specific area. For anybody who is unemployed, they can come to this organization and sign for jobs that they want to do. Within this building, there will be individual offices for anybody who will need the extra time after they’re done with their work hours. When you are given a job that is not located near the premises shuttle busses will be able to take you to where you need to go and be able pick you up. If the individual is uncomfortable with that option, they will be given fare cards for public transportation via train, & bus. The reasoning for this is because there are many unemployment offices (30) across the city of Chicago. Usually there many people from all over city going to one building, over crowding the place, and not having the chance to even get a job. The closest unemployment office is 1303 E. 53rd Street. This  job site will be located at 4650 S. King Drive.

REQUIREMENTS;

1. Work experience needed
2. No Police record
3. If you are between the ages 15 - 17 you will only be able to work for one of the 4 seasons. (During this time this will be only an internship. When the individual turns 18, it is great chance that they will be hired for their job)
4. Have to be drug and alcohol free

TERMS;

1. Your work attendance at job placements must be above 90%
2. Behavior has to be at a respectable level
3. If you are between the ages of 15 - 17, you will have to choose 1 season to go through job training
4. Individual will not be accepted if they have a drug and or alcohol history (Check enforcement's below)

ENFORCEMENT;

1. We administer drug and liquor tests. Failure of either one will result in a client being dropped. Clients will have  chance to re-apply after 14 days have passed since your last failed test. Only 2 chances will be given.
2. Background checks will be conducted before being approved to this employment program.

PENALTIES; If any individual is fired, and or quit their job they will not be able to come back to the corporation and sign up for the second time

DATE; Starting the fall of 2014 - 2020

The Perfect Block - Entire Meals Food Market

This is my final Action Project in my Urban Planning course. This last unit was about what a city or a specific block needs that'll make it better. What I learned in my external unit before this final project was that every major city had a water source for trade and protection, large walls to keep out invaders, and farming for the crops. This project was for me to re-create a block of a city or area that I think need improvement or change. I chose the 46th block of King Drive in the Bronzeville community. The building I wanted to re-design was the Mammoth Life and Accident Insurance Company. I chose this specific building because its been abandoned for more that 15 years, and it hasn't been put to a good use in a while. For this project I am most proud that I can add my ideas to an area that I think needs a change.

                                          DS, May 2014. Plan for Transformation


  5 redesigned sections that will improve this space is; this place will be redesigned to be an eco friendly local market place. With a green roof included, it just gives the place more of an eco feel. Solar Panel on the rooftop also for the natural electricity. Plus, there is an organic garden on the outside of the building because of the large empty space there. Lastly, there is an irrigation system for the outdoor garden.

46th and King Drive in the Bronzeville neighborhood. The main purpose of this area is to serve the community. It has jobs, community centers, and near by markets so people wouldn’t have to travel so far. The strengths of this area are that it has trade (stores/markets) and have buildings for the community, such as the Harold Washington Cultural Center. The only weakness is how the area looks. Even though whole block of 47th is sweet and nice, the lead up to it is terrible. There are buildings falling apart, & large vacant lots this space needs serious renovation. Remodeling and redesigning the look of this neighborhood would make it better.

The shape of the area I want to redesign is a rectangular shape. The calculations are shown below

Calculations #1; (meters)

Area = W x H

Width ~ W

Height ~ H

W = 40

H = 200

Area = 8,000

Calculation #2;

Volume = L x W x H

Length ~ L
Width ~ W
Height ~ H

L = 23  
W = 40
H = 200

Volume = 184,000

DS, May 2014. Birds Eye View Sketch

                                              DS, May 2014. Entire Meals Sketch

DS, May 2014. Entire Meals Model

                        

DS, May 2014. Entire Meals Model

Resolution to Living Condition's In Bronzeville

In Unit 2 of my Policy course, we studied the meaning of the word "Midtopia," the middle ground between dystopia and utopia. We learned that policies can mold a specific area and that they can create a more productive future for everyone. I am proud that during Unit 2 we saw physical evidence of how we can make resolutions to certain problems in our local neighborhoods. We went to the CHA building downtown in Chicago and had a guest speaker talk to us about how resolutions are coming about.  Below is a letter I wrote to my Alderman, Pat Dowell, to alert her to a problem in my local neighborhood; Insufficient Living Conditions in Bronzeville. I ask her to read my resolution because she the person who is in charge of what goes on in the community. You can listen to me read my letter below.

Eco Circuit

This unit was about the flow of electricity and how two kinds of currents came about over time: Direct Current and Alternating Current (DC & AC). Also electricity flows differently through different things. It's easy to flow through water, but plastic has nothing in it for electricity to flow through.

I learned that Nikola Tesla was the man who created Alternating Current, which is an electric current that reverses direction at regular intervals.  

This project is asking me to create an electrical circuit with 5 resistors, a main switch, and at least one parallel branch switch.

I am most proud of being able to transfer the knowledge we’ve learned in this class to make a real circuit.

DS, May 2014. Eco Circuit

We had to build on our idea as we went because seeing it in real space & time made it different. As we built we noticed some resistors weren’t being powered, and had to move them around to make sure they were.

Our design evolved over time and became better because of the innovations we added along the way. Adapting to it was easy only because it was a great change overall.

Our model is DC & based of the ideas of NexTek. NexTek saves energy by converting everything to DC at once which eventually saves money and energy! Our real model is also using DC power because it’s power source is from a battery.

A few of the problems that I encountered was being able to use a good amount of energy and to save some.

Overcoming this problem, I used a few resistors so the number of electrons can flow out equally amongst my entire design.

I learned that creating an eco parallel circuit is hard to do.

Pros & Cons: 
A pro in this design is that it doesn't have a ton of energy flowing through the circuit. If you have too much energy flowing, it could cause electrical problems such as electrical fires and too much usage. A con of this project is that we have enough resistors but it seems like they're pulling too much energy from our First Light and our LED Light.

Usage:

First light: Direct Drive Washing Machine

Second: LED Lights

Motor: Programmable Air Conditioning

Resistor: Eco Friendly TV - Sony

Resistor: Refrigerator

                                           BS, May 2014. Circuit Cover

Calculation: 

Ohms Law ~ I = V/R 

We have 6 volts flowing through the entire circuit.  Using Ohms Law if there were 12 Ohms, we would have .5 Amps charging the electronics.