University of Virginia

On Monday I woke up early and got on the road around 6:30 for the 2.5 hour drive to the University of Virginia. I found out the School of Architecture, where UVA's Urban & Environmental Planning program is housed, was having an open house and I couldn't pass on the opportunity to attend. Once I got out of the city, the drive was beautiful with along the rolling hills on the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The leaves of the trees were in differing shades of color change and looked magnificent in the rising sunshine.

In the time I had to wander around before check-in I got to take in the beautiful campus. It is gorgeous!! Now let's remember, I hadn't been out of the city in almost a month so any sort of nature was bound to knock my socks off. And obviously rolling hills + changing leaves will look good on any post card. But with a closer look I was again not disappointed, all of the red brick buildings are beautiful though none pristine. They are used, they are real. After spending four years on a limestone-covered campus in southern Indiana it only seems appropriate that grad. school might be spent with the sharp red brick. Coming here also made me realize how much I miss IU and how much I really love the campus/environment of a large state school.

So I love campus, but I also love the school! While most Urban Planning programs grant an MUP (Masters of Urban Planning), UVA grants a MUEP (Masters of Urban & Environmental Planning) as creating a sustainable future has been important there long before being green became cool. This is important because one of the largest problems with Detroit and other rust-belt-type cities is that sustainable planning wasn't even thought about. In Detroit, there were cars, so they built roads, and cars went faster, so they build expressways...but no one thought about what would happen in the long run. The professors and students through out the day made sure to point out that while environmentalism may include solar panels and windmills, in this context it equally refers to creating a built environment people will enjoy and want to live & work within.

In short, love the program, love the school, LOVE UVA!

Exciting people on the Metro

This week has been filled with lots of strange happenings, some of them bedbug related and others not. Some of those non-bedbug happenings involve DC’s infamous Metro system. Much like my summer stories of hobos in Detroit, these are things my mother would never want me to experience…story of my life.

Sunday afternoon a group of WLPers was waiting for a Metro, headed to class. On the platform with us was a short man, talking to himself and toting a suitcase. After a few minutes he took what looked like a steak knife out of his suitcase and began sharpening it on one of the metal supports of the Metro. We were all slightly alarmed, but he wasn’t eating on the Metro, so obviously, no problem.

After we boarded the Metro the man sat down near us and began analyzing (out loud) whether each of us might be racist or not. He would identify us as “the brown hair with the white shirt.” He didn’t seem very happy, so I can only conclude that we were all deemed racists.

That was my exciting weekend Metro customer but of course my Monday commute would not be complete without more excitement. While getting off at Union Station, along with hundreds of other Capitol Hill workers, we were in line for the escalator behind a gentleman in a wheelchair. Yes, wheelchair + escalator. The man rolled right on like he knew what he was doing and it went well for a couple seconds, then the stairs started to separate.

The man’s wheelchair began to roll backwards and took out the two rows of people in front of me, my row, and the row behind me. In what must be one of the only moments of solidarity in Metro history the escalator population banned together and slowed the wheelchair’s roll and caught the lovely gentleman inside it. After bracing ourselves we all finished our ascent and the man rolled away like nothing had happened. Those of us behind him were left staring at each other quizzically wondering what on Earth had just happened, and why?

20 Years Old in DC!!

This past weekend was my 20th birhday! Finally I am not an invincible teenager. Although I did not get to see my family and have my puppy rip open my presents with her mouth, it was a pretty darn good birthday!!

I made red velvet cupcakes to take to work and I would say they were pretty popular based on the Thank You emails I got for making them as well as the fact that 20 of them were gone in an hour!! On Friday night we had a dessert party complete with cookies, more red velvet cupcakes, and a cake decorated like the WHITE HOUSE made by my friend Emily!!

Saturday was a girls day in Georgetown and a half-dozen of us went on a historic home tour of a place called Dumbarton House (no photography allowed) and wandered around the beautiful neighborhoods. as well as at lunch at Circa at Dupont where I had a delicious cheese sampler platter :) and some delicious pizza with mozarella, mushrooms, and prosciutto. YUMM!! That night I went to a DC United soccer game with my friend Jon. Even though they have not been a very good team this season, and lost 0-2 on my birthday it was great to see some soccer. It also reminded me how much I miss playing!

1 Month In

Another week has gone by and I realize I've already been here for a month, scary. I have become more and more comfortable with life in the city and can even give directions around my home and work!

My first few weeks in Senator Levin's office have mainly been filled with running errands, obtaining signatures, and mail and news sorting. But in addition to these tasks I got to give my first tour of The Capitol last week. The couple I took around were history buffs and very politically aware so in addition to teaching them about The Capitol, they taught me a few things! One of my favorite tidbits about the building, and that my tour participants enjoyed, is a statue on the Capitol Rotunda carved in 1921, Portrait Monument to Suffrage Pioneers, that depicts Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott as well as a large uncarved chunk of marble. This statue was carved just after women gained the right to vote and it is reported that the uncarved portion was reserved by the artist for the first female President of the United States. Additionally I got to escort the Afghanistan Ambassador to the U.S. through The Capitol for a meeting on the House side. It was a really neat opportunity and I was particularly excited that the Ambassador had been to Bloomington, and knew how beautiful the IU campus is! The Senate adjourned last week so things are definitely going to be slower at work. I'm hoping that there will be more opportunities to become involved in more comprehensive, in-depth projects.

This past-weekend some of us IU girls headed down to the National Mall for a rally at the Lincoln Memorial. I had not yet been to the Lincoln Monument, and definitely had not been to a rally like this! The event was named "One Nation Working Together" and was billed as a positive message in opposition to the recent Tea Party gatherings. Although it turned out to be almost exclusively a pro-union gathering that did not stick to the script of strictly positive messages it was an incredible experience to see tens-of-thousands of passionate people gathering for their cause. There were lots of extra signs and things laying around so I tried my hand at being a protestor!

Captiol City Living

So far I've been in Washington DC for about three weeks, and definitely loving it!! My experiences so far have definitely reinforced my desire to live in an urban area. And working & pretending to be an adult has not been too bad so far!

I am interning in Senator Carl Levin's office on Capitol Hill so there are always a million things going on and lots of work to do. In my first week in the office I attended the House hearing on the Enbridge Oil Spill in Marshall, MI. It was a really good experience, even though I could only stay (standing at the rear of the room) for 4 hours of the 6 hour hearing! First the commissioner allowed 6 Michigan residents living around the spill to testify as to the hardship and health issues the spill had caused them, as well as troubles they had in dealing with Enbridge. Next officials from government agencies dealing with the spill answered questions about how Enbridge's pipeline was not shut-down due to deficiencies before the spill as well as what changes will be made to government regulations to avoid future disasters like this. Lastly, the Enbridge CEO answered harsh questions about his company's policies and their post-spill actions. Unfortunately I did not get to stay to see the CEO get drilled with tough questions, but the transcripts show how serious the committee was about getting answers.

As for my living situation, the apartment is really nice! We're on the 6th floor with a beautiful view of downtown Silver Spring, Maryland and the Metro stop is about 500 yards from the front door so it's really great to commute and travel to see things. There are 4 of us living in the apartment, 2 in each bedroom and though we all didn't know each other we're having a blast living together! We are also learning that a furnished apartment isn't quite completely furnished, for instance we have 2 pots and 1 pan for the stove, and if we don't run the dishwasher once-a-day we usually run out of something we need. We were also bummed to learn that our provided "artwork" in each room is exactly the same in the other students' apartments. So we have begun to cover them up with more personalized items, including our own finger-paintings and a full-page picture of dogs we found in the Washington Post.

Hopefully more details, and pictures, soon!

Mercury

While no one really knows if the recent decision by the media that Ford Motor Company will in fact eliminate Mercury from its lineup is actually true, it's had me thinking about the sensibilities of this decision. And to me, it seems there really aren't many.

Before I get to the emotional reasons Mercury needs to live on, I must talk about the more sensible reasons.

1) First and foremost it must be asked, why think about scrapping Mercury in the first place?What are the immediate reasons this speculation has turned frenzy?

This is a pretty simple answer a) Mercury has no stand-alone vehicle b) There is NOTHING in the product development line for Mercury c) Mercury adds nothing to the Ford lineup. These are all incredibly compelling reasons until you think about WHY they exist...because Ford has created them. If you put nothing in, you get nothing out. Let's compare this to something on a more individual level; I'm going to go to college to become a doctor, I wont go to class, I wont study, I wont even invest in purchasing books, but I will become a doctor. Of course I am going to FAIL. Ford has said we're going to make a mid-level brand without the investment of any effort, no money, no unique vehicles, heck not even anymore repackaged vehicles. It's no wonder Mercury has not been a success. But the well-received and selling Mariner and Milan show that there is a mid-level population that will buy products that are worth their time. And the upper-middle class soccer mom Mountaineer craze of the first half of this decade show that Mercury can indeed create better-than-Ford attitudes with its product.

2) Thinking toward the future, what would be left of Ford if Mercury died? And what would be the implications of this slimmed company?

Ford & Lincoln: Elimination of Mercury would leave Ford Motor Company with just two brands* from which to serve the entire automobile-buying population. Ford's recent success in regaining some of the loftiness and elegance of Lincoln Motors has undoubtedly created a gap between the Ford and Lincoln marquees. Elimination of Mercury would create a gaping hole for these mid-level customers to jump to other brands. Young professionals and young families looking to up-class their Fords but who aren't ready for the leap to the Lincoln brand would be forced to leave FMC showrooms with a good bet that they wouldn't be back to visit.

3) Edsel Ford's Legacy.

Edsel has 2 main legacies at Ford, a) The Edsel, infamous in biggest-flop lists everywhere b) Mercury. Edsel had no part in the creation of the car bearing his name, the flop it became, and the humor it provides at car shows everywhere. He did have a part in the creation of Mercury, as Henry had created the Ford brand for everyone, appropriately Edsel created Mercury as an entry to luxury for the upper-middle class he associated more with. But now Edsel has no control over the fate of his creation just as he did with the car bearing his name. It is possible for Mercury to succeed, but it will rely on others to polish Edsel's legacy.

4) Competition with Grandma's Buick and General Motors

If GM has Buick, Ford must have Mercury. Without something to compete with the other North American giant, sales will undoubtedly be lost to those looking for a first entry into the upscale market. Additionally, Mercury has had a much easier time convincing customers of its "cool" than Buick has had. Cars like the Mountaineer, Mariner, and Milan have shown that Mercury can create products tasteful to a younger segment. Buick has had a much more difficult time removing the "Grandma's" from the front of its name.

*Disregard being shown for both Volvo and Mazda, just following Ford's lead.

Day Three: Work Day

30cm wide, 50cm deep, 1/2 km long. Pick-axing and shoveling through hard, dry dirt, rocks, roots, and prickly burrs. A day of pure manual labor, today has been incredibly exhausting and rewarding. Staring up a mountain, legs cut-up and a nice dirt-tan covering my body, just knowing that 25 of us had worked together to make this happen was incredibly satisfying. Throughout the remainder of our work week it will be a group of IU and NYU kids, eventually joined by a team from USC that will bring water to 4 families whom have never had water in their homes before. The fact that this can happen in one week, done by a group of less-than amateurs makes one believe that almost anything is possible.

(part of the trench we dug before lunch the first work day)

So many forms of inspiration here allow me to push my body to limits I am not normally physically able to accomplish. Just one hour