PERRY, Iowa -- Iowa State University community and regional planning students shared their plan for Perry during a community forum in December. Their presentation, a final report from their Town/Craft studio experience in the community, provided an innovative approach that integrated the Latino population into plans to revitalize the downtown. The students’ plan outlined the framework for a business-retention and development incubator, the design of more functional public spaces and a networking resource center.
Their plan was the culminating project of a semester-long College of Design studio conducted in alliance with the Town/Craft Center and Iowa State University Extension. “I wanted to expose students to a multicultural environment,” said Gerardo Sandoval, assistant professor of community and regional planning at Iowa State. “These students are the next generation of community planners. It is very important for them to be exposed to working in a diverse environment. This studio challenged the students to think in innovative ways to integrate the elderly Anglo population, Perry’s youth and immigrant Latinos and create a more vibrant downtown.”
ISU Extension staff at the Town/Craft Center acclimated the students to Perry and its residents through a historical overview of the community and by connecting them with community leaders in the Anglo and Latino populations. The students conducted demographic studies, researched the economic development of Dallas County and became familiar with the community through site visits and interviews with Perry residents. Working in study/project teams – economic development, design, social service and land use – the students explored the needs of the community and developed their plan.
Christine Hall, one of the students involved in the class, interviewed Perry Mayor Viivi Shirley as part of the project. “During the reconnaissance I visited various parts of the community at different times of day to identify the downtown business activity, locate social service offices and in general, map the area,” said Hall. “The mayor expressed her concerned about the state of her community, and how important it is that the downtown becomes more vital again. Her vision of a revitalized Perry is a walkable, healthy living town that offers downtown business plus activities for youth and young families.”
The students learned through conversations with leaders of the Latino population that the needs of the Latino families overlapped the needs expressed by the long-time Perry leaders. “It was interesting that the needs of the Latino and Anglo leaders were very similar,” said Sandoval. “Latinos wanted to begin businesses downtown and wanted to have opportunities for community social activities for their families – but they didn’t have the connections to make it happen.”
Three important lessons
Sandoval said his students learned three very important lessons from their Perry experience, lessons that would benefit other communities that want to integrate immigrant populations into their community planning and development.
First, according to Sandoval, towns need to be willing to see immigrants as a source of opportunity, instead of a source of conflict. Then, community development plans must have a sense of community participation – a real understanding of the particular immigrant population needs and the needs of the community in general. Once key needs are identified, planners must find the common ground and integrate that commonality as they create a plan. Sandoval believes that planners can create positive change by following these three lessons.
Hall, representing the next generation of planners, said the experience gave her new insights into community participation and ways to reach out to various ethnic groups in order to create more diverse and vibrant spaces in Iowa.
Sandoval and Hall discussed the project during Iowa Public Radio’s “Talk @12” program on December 8. An archive of that interview is available from the ISU Extension audio news Web page at http://129.186.89.193/radio/index.php .
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