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September 14, 2008
The Urban Memory Project
alldaybuffet interviews The Urban Memory Project's Co-Founder and Director Rebecca Krucoff about a project that asks young people to "document the changes they see in their own neighborhoods, and helping them to develop informed opinions about the changes taking place around them."
Terms like gentrification and development have various meanings to New Yorkers these days and nowhere is it more of a hot-button issue than in Brooklyn where the proposed Atlantic Yards projects have sparked protests, rallies and many, angry T-shirt slogans.Of course some development as a city grows and changes is inevitable. But how do we decide what we preserve, and what is worth preserving?
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The students have very strong opinions (they’re teenagers after all). Many of them are anti-gentrification and development, but there are always gray areas, and it often depends on a particular issues. Does gentrification harm or help a neighborhood overall? Will the Atlantic Yards Project benefit more people than it harms? We also want them to reflect upon and consider what makes their city valuable to them, personally, as well as for the people of the city as a whole. This is why we emphasize the “personal city,” and ask students to photograph and write about places that hold meaning for them.
Posted by amy at September 14, 2008 3:09 PM