My name is Mark Stepanian and I am an MBA candidate at Johns Hopkin's Carey business school. For this fall semester, I am participating in a course called "Citylab" which involves the process of bringing together local business, professional, and community leaders together with Carey Business School students, alumni, and faculty to explore ideas and strategies to build more livable cities for a livable future. While news articles, self-exploration, and urban immersion help me to understand the community of Gateway, the true voices of Gateway tell the richest, fullest story. Therefore, my goal is to better understand what living in Gateway is like to further progress the viability and sustainability of creating a more livable neighborhood. To do that, I want to ask you some questions about living in Gateway and your experiences.
Tell me a little about yourself and your history with Gateway.
- Mary has lived in Gateway for about 20 years. She is involved with a local daycare and also at her church.
What do you like most about Gateway?
-She is proud to call it her home. It’s a tight community where everybody knows everybody. We watch out for each other. She really likes that community aspect. For the most part, the neighborhood is fairly safe and a good place to raise kids. They have other kids to play with and don’t have to worry so much about going outside like they might in other parts of the city.
-She also mentioned the neighborhood church and neighborhood daycare. She thought these were good aspects of the community.
How do you think Gateway could improve as a community?
-The first thing she mentioned was all the industry around. This is something that I noticed going into the neighborhood too. There are a lot of commercial business warehouses and constant construction taking place and construction crew members walking around. The community member mentioned that she did not like that. It could get very noisy at times and she did not like the look and feel of the buildings with wire fences around her house. A lot of the construction crew are not part of the neighborhood. She mentioned that she did not like this as she did not know if she could trust them. All the trucks clogged up the small neighborhood roads and produced noise and smog that she did not like. She also mentioned the lack of good places to access food. I will talk about this in the following paragraph.
Where do you shop to get groceries? Do they have an adequate selection of food for you or your family?
-She mentioned that there is no grocery store in the neighborhood. So on a daily basis if her kids are hungry, the closest options are a gas station. I visited the gas station and all they had were sugary, unhealthy snacks and beverages. She also mentioned a fried chicken place that was within the neighborhood.
-She mentioned that there were two grocery store options that she preferred: Shoppers and Aldi. Although these are over a mile away and without reliable transportation it can be difficult to go on a regular basis. Sometimes she would go with other people in the community who have a car.
-There’s also a street within walking distance that has a lot of small corner stores and carry outs. However to get here, they have to cross a couple very busy streets so she doesn’t really like the children to go alone. I asked about fresh produce and she said that these stores were not a good place for that. Any produce that they do have are usually rotten or contain flies around them.
How do you access health care? Are there any barriers to accessing health care like transportation?
-She mentioned that she does not have a car so any time she goes to the clinic, she has to take public transportation. She mentioned that she is almost always very early or very late because of that. She does not keep regular appointments for herself but tries to always make it to appointments for her kids.
How do you get around Gateway?
-She mentioned that Gateway is a small community. For the most part she can just walk everywhere that she needs to go. The only concern with that is that on the outskirts of the neighborhood there are a lot of big semi-trucks and construction trucks so she has to watch out for those.
Do you use Dakota Playground and park?
-She said that the playground does look nice but that it is hardly every used She doesn’t like her kids to go there late at night by themselves. Sometimes it can bring in crime or homeless people will sleep there. The other disappointing part is that it is right across from where they do construction so it can be loud and busy.
Where do the neighborhood kids attend school? I noticed a few child care facilities as well. Do you know if there are other areas for educational support?
-She never mentioned her husband or any other permanent support structure in her life but was proud to say that her children attended private school. She elaborated about how she thought life would have been different for her if she valued her education so she is trying to instill in her children a sense of pride and importance in their education.
Are you involved in the community? Are there community events or organizations like church groups that you know of or enjoy participating in?
-She said that her kids and she do go to church and that it is a good supportive group. Anything that happens, the church group is always there to help. She does enjoy participating in this group because it’s a time to come together with the community and celebrate. She said that it’s a very positive space. She also does bible study and group dinners through church. She enjoys cooking for these and taking her kids to these.
Tell me a little about yourself and your history with Gateway.
- Mary has lived in Gateway for about 20 years. She is involved with a local daycare and also at her church.
What do you like most about Gateway?
-She is proud to call it her home. It’s a tight community where everybody knows everybody. We watch out for each other. She really likes that community aspect. For the most part, the neighborhood is fairly safe and a good place to raise kids. They have other kids to play with and don’t have to worry so much about going outside like they might in other parts of the city.
-She also mentioned the neighborhood church and neighborhood daycare. She thought these were good aspects of the community.
How do you think Gateway could improve as a community?
-The first thing she mentioned was all the industry around. This is something that I noticed going into the neighborhood too. There are a lot of commercial business warehouses and constant construction taking place and construction crew members walking around. The community member mentioned that she did not like that. It could get very noisy at times and she did not like the look and feel of the buildings with wire fences around her house. A lot of the construction crew are not part of the neighborhood. She mentioned that she did not like this as she did not know if she could trust them. All the trucks clogged up the small neighborhood roads and produced noise and smog that she did not like. She also mentioned the lack of good places to access food. I will talk about this in the following paragraph.
Where do you shop to get groceries? Do they have an adequate selection of food for you or your family?
-She mentioned that there is no grocery store in the neighborhood. So on a daily basis if her kids are hungry, the closest options are a gas station. I visited the gas station and all they had were sugary, unhealthy snacks and beverages. She also mentioned a fried chicken place that was within the neighborhood.
-She mentioned that there were two grocery store options that she preferred: Shoppers and Aldi. Although these are over a mile away and without reliable transportation it can be difficult to go on a regular basis. Sometimes she would go with other people in the community who have a car.
-There’s also a street within walking distance that has a lot of small corner stores and carry outs. However to get here, they have to cross a couple very busy streets so she doesn’t really like the children to go alone. I asked about fresh produce and she said that these stores were not a good place for that. Any produce that they do have are usually rotten or contain flies around them.
How do you access health care? Are there any barriers to accessing health care like transportation?
-She mentioned that she does not have a car so any time she goes to the clinic, she has to take public transportation. She mentioned that she is almost always very early or very late because of that. She does not keep regular appointments for herself but tries to always make it to appointments for her kids.
How do you get around Gateway?
-She mentioned that Gateway is a small community. For the most part she can just walk everywhere that she needs to go. The only concern with that is that on the outskirts of the neighborhood there are a lot of big semi-trucks and construction trucks so she has to watch out for those.
Do you use Dakota Playground and park?
-She said that the playground does look nice but that it is hardly every used She doesn’t like her kids to go there late at night by themselves. Sometimes it can bring in crime or homeless people will sleep there. The other disappointing part is that it is right across from where they do construction so it can be loud and busy.
Where do the neighborhood kids attend school? I noticed a few child care facilities as well. Do you know if there are other areas for educational support?
-She never mentioned her husband or any other permanent support structure in her life but was proud to say that her children attended private school. She elaborated about how she thought life would have been different for her if she valued her education so she is trying to instill in her children a sense of pride and importance in their education.
Are you involved in the community? Are there community events or organizations like church groups that you know of or enjoy participating in?
-She said that her kids and she do go to church and that it is a good supportive group. Anything that happens, the church group is always there to help. She does enjoy participating in this group because it’s a time to come together with the community and celebrate. She said that it’s a very positive space. She also does bible study and group dinners through church. She enjoys cooking for these and taking her kids to these.