During the fall of my second year in graduate school, I participated in the Community Planning Workshop run by the Design + Society Research Center, where I was a graduate research assistant, and the Charlotte Action Research Project. My group of five graduate students and one PhD student worked with the Jersey City neighborhood in Salisbury, North Carolina. As a group we worked with neighborhood residents and city staff to create a series of goals and objectives for the community.

In order to understand the needs of the residents and the city, we held a cookout/neighborhood meeting. We had tremendous turnout and were able to learn about many of the residents' connection to the neighborhood as well as their concerns about it. The deep pride and history found in the residents and their neighborhood helped us to further focus on issues that could help restore Jersey City to its former self.

The first key focus was the renovation of Jersey City Park. The existing equipment in the park was either in need of replacement or not designed to fit the needs of the residents. Our proposal expanded the grounds of the park to allow for additional functionality. This expansion also reclaimed the land where a recently razed duplex had previously been a drughouse in the neighborhood. The residents overwhelming response to this suggestion motivated the city to transfer the land, which it already owned, to the parks department. This helped the residents to understand that through their participation and voice, they could better their neighborhood.

The second focus was on how best to increase the population of the neighborhood, which is home to numerous vacant houses and lots, while also connecting the neighborhood to the recently built greenway behind the community. Our proposal looks at a cluster of lots that the city owned which abutted the greenway. We made two proposals with various options to the residents and city staff. Our main goal in the proposals was to begin to help the city creatively think about how they could best develop their lots to maintain the character of the neighborhood and create a strong connection between the greenway and the neighborhood through their land.