12.03.2013

VA: Swap Shop reflection

With such a crazy semester I don't think any of us has had the time to really sit and absorb what he have all been doing at Manheim Park. For me none is it felt 100% real 'till the day of our presentations at the neighborhood association meeting as I was getting back in my car one neighbor walking by said "great job young man, thank you for all the help". It felt good that the people there actually took something from our ideas as my classmate were giving their presentations I was looking around the room and there were tons if smiles. That day seemed like a complete 180 of the usual treatment of their meeting, we didn't talk about crime rates, we didn't about slum lords, we talk about the future, a future many of the member could not envision. I proud of that, even if our ideas never become reality I still feel that we did something great we showed this community the potential of their neighborhood, a potential that most of them probably could not see.

Swap Shop is a big thing, me and my partners first brainstormed ideas that would not be impossibly costly and through that this really cool idea of repurposed crates came out. We thought "why can't something this trendy live in a space like this?". We didn't see an area known for high crime and dirty streets, we saw a cool new market space on a busy road in a historical part of town and thats the vision we wanted others to see.

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