Name: Eleanor Mayer
SFS Program: Australia Spring 2001
Education: Brown University, Urban Studies 2002; University of California-Berkeley, Master of City Planning 2007
Current Position: Program Associate for Wicker Park Bucktown (WPB), an organization focused on creating, maintaining, and managing clean, attractive and competitive commercial districts for two unique Chicago neighborhoods

Why did you study abroad with SFS in Australia?
I’ve always been interested in the interaction between developed and undeveloped space, or, the place where the city ends and the wilderness begins. At the end of my sophomore year in college, I had to choose a concentration, and I had a difficult time deciding between urban studies and environmental studies. I grew up spending the summers in Yosemite and loved the outdoors, and I wanted to preserve and protect it. I was also drawn to exploring ways to more efficiently plan cities, or more specifically, how to rein them in and make them more compact.  

In the end I decided on urban studies, and I was happy to find SFS Australia where I could continue to look at land use practices on a large scale from an environmental perspective. The SFS field station in Yungaburra has seen different designations – dairy farming, logging, and a protected world heritage site. I was interested in seeing how other countries approach land use issues.

What was it like to spend three months at a field station in the rainforest?
To be living where you’re learning is a real gift. I met other fantastic students, our professors were engaged and excited, and I had the opportunity to be in the wilderness, swimming in the local lake, learning the birds, the flora and fauna and their Latin names, hiking the rainforest at four in the morning with my binoculars. In Australia, you can see things like mushrooms that are bioluminescent, ordinary looking by day but glowing in the dark at night. It was really a wonderful time.

What is your most vivid memory?
For my directed research project I used an early version of GIS (Geographic Information System) and aerial photographs to survey SFS land and to create a base map for how the rainforest re-growth was progressing. I was looking at the history of changes on the land, such as what percentage was populated with acacia trees. I remember that it was very wet and very leech-y. We were carrying these survey stakes around, wading through streams with our pants duct-taped around the bottom, and making maps. I really felt like an explorer!

What do you do for work?
I am a Program Associate for Wicker Park Bucktown (WPB), an organization focused on creating, maintaining, and managing clean, attractive and competitive commercial districts for two unique Chicago neighborhoods. Wicker Park and Bucktown are diverse, arty, hip areas, and our job is to preserve their character and quality. Our work is financed through the City of Chicago’s Special Service Area program where a portion of local business’ property tax is designated for this purpose.

It is an interesting organization because we not only create a master neighborhood plan; we also oversee its implementation. This is great because I am always interested in seeing it all come together, seeing the plan’s vision really happen on the ground. And at Wicker Park Bucktown, the implementation is done with a great deal of community outreach. In recognition of this, we recently received a National Planning Excellence Award for Public Outreach from the American Planning Association.

We manage important details like street sweeping and snow removal, but we also address the big questions, like what are the essential, small details that give you the feel of a neighborhood, and how can you best enhance them? We pair artists and independent retailers with landlords to fill vacant properties. We offer façade rebates. This year, we are working in partnership with public transit authorities to provide bus tracker information in local retail shops, letting people know when the next bus arrives, but also when the next community event will be taking place. 

Since we’re a small organization, I’m a jack of all trades. I sit on a committee that gives grants for community events and another that looks at the environmental initiatives like the neighborhood recycling program, but I also answer the phone and do the accounting. I meet with local merchants and residents to get to know them and to learn their wants and needs.

What did you gain from your experience?
Environmental studies at a remote field station and urban planning can seem so different, but I see them as absolutely connected. At SFS, I felt plugged into the environment that I was in, rather than being a tourist. As a planner, you want to be really plugged into the environment where you work.

Also, good planners look at problems from different angles, and at SFS, we learned to look at problems comprehensively. The curriculum was interdisciplinary, and we approached our work from different schools of thought. We also learned to be sensitive to the community in which we worked.

The direct research project was empowering because we designed a project and worked together as a team. Working with a group to formulate questions and solve problems – that is what being a planner is all about. Also, learning the GIS mapping program was really important for me for starting a career as a planner. When I reencountered GIS at graduate school I already had some experience, and that was helpful.