Affordances & In-Class Activities

So my planning education began with the in-class thought of “Affordances” which is when form meets function or designs meet a purpose. That gave me plenty to think about especially after going through the in-class exercise, “reflect upon and write down one affordance from your own life that has guided you in becoming the person you are today.” I chose the affordance of having both parents in my life which has afforded me to continue and never quit on my education. Throughout the day I kept thinking about other affordances that brought me to becoming a student at UNM. I then thought having thirty nine years of life has afforded me the opportunity to experience a lot of positives and negatives which has shaped me into the person I am today.

Then I thought about the in-class lecture phrase “we can only make things better or worse” which are the real world challenges known as Wicked Problems that are problems that don’t have a definite solution but are solutions that can make a problem better or possibly worse. I related to it because I have made life worse for myself in my youth until I decided I wanted better. It reminded me that there are many paths in life that can be walked and some are better or worse than others. I remembered that having a middle ground kept my mind open to possibilities instead of dealing in absolutes such as right or wrong. At the end of the day I thought about what a Bachelors degree would afford me in the future. How my education, experiences, and skills can make things better or worse because in life there are no guarantees. As a future planner I can only do my best and that may make a situation better or worse because the likely hood of fixing the situation is small.

Then the cookie evaluation activity is where we used the principles of evaluation because as planners we need to develop a consensus as to what is planned and by what criteria, was interesting because I thought it might have been a trick where two cookies were the same and only one was different. We came out with a list of criteria and did our best to rate them but two cookies did seem similar based on how we rated them and I wasn’t surprised the Wal-Mart cookie was similar to a name brand cookie. I’m learning as a planner we can design and build communities that serve the people in some way and for my community back home we could use a place that gives the community more than just a nice looking park. If my community government would do some research and implement something that will give Shiprock what it needs when building or redeveloping areas then the reworking of failed designs wouldn’t be happening.

When the book discussed zoning which are areas of a city or town designated for a particular type of use, I agree that areas should be designated for a purpose and to promote efficient use of city infrastructure because effective use of zoning does promote efficient land use for residential, commercial, and industrial usages of land lots. I did a zoning plan assignment for my town of Shiprock, NM so it was fun putting things where I felt like it made the most sense kind of like playing Sim City for that assignment.