Who understands the landscape of Garfield and Penn Avenue better than those who live and work there? Who knows better than recent in-migrants the reasons why people move to other cities? Realizing how critical to our plan these conversations are, we have engaged PLOT to help us. They specialize in creating new methods of getting people to participate, interact and work together.
The key, they say, is to design a process in which the locals and in-comers can articulate how they feel clearly, without any pressure to say what they think we want to hear. We need to learn what locals think is good about the neighborhood and what’s bad about it, how they feel about the other locals, and how they feel about potential in-migrants. We need to understand what they wish for.
We also want to learn what in-comers think about Pittsburgh, why they made the decision to move, and what might have made it easier for them. Ultimately, we’d like to understand if Garfield, Friendship and Penn Avenue can become a landing spot for such in-comers.
PLOT will help us to connect the dots.