Hill District Neighborhood Tour – 11.16.2013

On November 16th, group members participated in a neighborhood tour of the Hill District coordinated by Terri Baltimore, the Vice President for Neighborhood Development at the Hill House Association, a prominent community organization in the neighborhood.  Other participants included member of Public Allies Pittsburgh.  The tour consisted of walking from the Hill House Association Headquarters (1835 Centre Avenue) down Centre Avenue towards Downtown, before turning around and heading back into the neighborhood to view more developments. Key physical aspects of the tour included the former Lower Hill neighborhood that is currently parking lot, the new Shop N Save grocery store, the Thelma Lovette YMCA, the Carnegie Library, the Legacy residential development, and associated local small businesses frequented by Hill District residents.

As useful as this tour was from a visual standpoint (i.e understanding interactions in the physical environment of the Hill District), we found that the true value was derived from the insight Ms. Baltimore provided what we could not see: the complex interactions between stakeholders in the Hill District, and just how large a role the historical context of the neighborhood plays in the structure of these interactions. Examples include the entire Lower Hill District neighborhood being removed to provide space for the Civic Arena, the removal of Eddie’s (local eatery) to renovate the Carnegie Library, and the installation of the Thelma Lovette YMCA.

This tour allowed our group to gain insight into just how complex the interactions between stakeholders in the Hill are.  This includes interactions between neighborhood organizations (at the Hill District Consensus Group) as well as the interactions between the Hill District and outside entities (The City of Pittsburgh, the URA, the Pittsburgh Penguins organization). It also struck us that as CMU students, we are one of these outside groups that interacts with the neighborhood. We had whittled the scope of our project down to formulating a strategy for community interaction with the Hill District Vacant Property Strategy, in order to gain useful and productive community input on the technical recommendations within this report. This tour allowed us to view several of the actual physical vacant lots and properties, but more importantly it gave us a view into what is not physically visible in a neighborhood, and how this history shapes the interaction between the Hill District residents and various stakeholders.

     

Design(ing) Policy

As a Heinz student I am very interested in proper policy design at any level of government. This topic is of great interest to me as the first few months of this academic year have given me the opportunity to reflect on the relationship between policy design and what is thought of as “actual design”.  I specifically am choosing to focus on “user centered design” as I will not attempt to wade too deeply into the design waters and lose my bearing.

Policy design is centered around an issue or problem.  Simply put, policy exists where and when the status quo is not acceptable and the issue is serious enough, popular enough, and simplified enough to grasp the attention and eventual intervention of government.  From here, analysts determine the causes and factors affecting the problem (why is this problem happening).  The crux of policy lies in the actors of factors of the problem.  Policy designed effectively will get actors to start “doing something” or stop “doing something” in hopes of lessening a factor to promote change in our problem. Once these are determined, these analysts can craft policies to enable, educate, compel/incentivize, or protect actors in the situation.

This is where user-centered design is applicable to policy.  Just because analysts have determined the causal model and the factors that are most important, does not mean that change is immediate or guaranteed.  A policy program can be perfectly designed up until actual implementation, but if it fails for the end-user, the user will not change their behavior (as mentioned above), rendering the policy moot.  Note here that the “user” of the program can take many forms, including individuals, nonprofits, companies, other governments,  nations, and any demographic that arises out of the causal model.

User centered design is defined as “a type of user interface design and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end users of a product are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process.”  One of the most important and controversial pieces of legislation to be created in the 21st century is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010.  One section of the Act established state healthcare exchanges (online as of 10/1/2013) which are regulated where consumers may compare between and purchase private health insurance plans.  Of course, those within 400% of the poverty level will be eligible to receive federal subsidies to defray the cost of healthcare. These healthcare exchanges are intended to enable consumers to purchase health insurance, therefore lowering costs by allowing consumers to compare plans, as well as enabling the poorest among us to purchase health insurance.

This particular implementation of public policy requires attention to user-centered design. These exchange websites are the public embodiment of the entire Act, and must be designed with the utmost care and precision to focus on the consumers, who are attempting to make an extremely expensive and important purchase.  Unfortunately, this was not case.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304441404579119740283413018

The article linked above notes multiple reports of exchanges not utilizing “basic web efficiency techniques”, stray code, and a general inability to handle the traffic of prospective consumers.  Users of several states’ healthcare exchanges did not have positive experiences with this new process, and their complaints are detailed within the article as well. Thus, the two aspects defined above come into play.  It is not clear whether the PPACA is a well designed policy, as it is incredibly complex and long term impacts are not yet available.  The individual state healthcare exchanges, however,  were not well-designed with the end-user (the potential healthcare purchaser) in mind.  Indeed, I believe quantitative research on whether the usability of a states’ online healthcare exchange affected the purchasing rates and decisions of the consumers should be conducted to determine the effect of poor design on consumers. In summation, I believe that the best policies contain a causal model that is quantifiable, as well as effective user-centered design when implemented, in order that it may be best designed to change the behaviors of those users targeted.

Patrick Gibson

BioLite HomeStove: Social Innovation and Design

According to BioLite, a campfire stove design and production firm, “half the planet cooks on smoky open fires, causing over 4 million premature deaths each year and contributing to climate change.”  BioLite has designed the HomeStove to use wood more efficiently, produce less smoke, and eliminate black carbon emissions. Added benefits include producing electricity for use in charging flashlights and batteries. In underdeveloped regions, campfires are the most important method of food preparation, and collecting firewood consumes time that could be used more efficiently.  Details regarding specific improvements to existing technologies are shown below:

By utilizing firewood more efficiently, the HomeStove has the potential to improve the entire lives of citizens in underdeveloped regions. BioLite has announced that revenues from the sales of CampStove, their recreational camping product, will be used to aid BioLite in deploying HomeStove in large-scale pilot programs in India, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda.  BioLite is an excellent example of technologically advanced firms using existing strengths and advantages to spur social innovation and attempt to improve the lives of citizens and underdeveloped regions.  This firm has identified a social problem that requires innovative design, and has applied their skills and abilities to improve lives. Below are the improvements provided by the HomeStove when compared to existing similar methods of food preparation.

Sources:

http://www.biolitestove.com/homestove/overview/

http://www.biolitestove.com/news-press/news-events/news/jonathan-cedar-announced-as-sir.html