Affordable Housing
Affordable housing is a global issue that affects people in our community as much as people outside of it. Last Thursday, I had the privilege of attending Poly's own HIVE Be Good event on affordable housing.
Matt and Harper came to visit our Global Scholars Seminar twice during the fall to brainstorm different "riddles" to present at the event. We split into groups and talked about different areas of interest and then came back together to present our theme/riddle. In the end, our class agreed that affordable housing would be the most interesting and perhaps the easiest to wrap your head around. So Matt and Harper took the theme of affordable housing and planned out this event! The results were incredible!
The even was incredibly well planned and organized. Matt wasn't there, so Harper ran the show. The setup was very nice, the food was delicious, the music set the mood well (thanks Cole), and every part of the night was organized down to the minute. Harper had a speaker from the Pasadena Department of Housing and the Los Angeles Department of Housing, as well as two very moving speakers who were homeless themselves, one of whom now volunteers for the Department of Aging. They were all extremely entrancing speakers who all had their own opinions and stances on this issues but all agreed that affordable housing is a dire necessity of the city of Pasadena and the city of Los Angeles as a whole.
Although the event was well run, I unfortunately did not find it to be very productive. I felt like, at least at my table, we had a very good discussion about affordable housing, but we didn't reach any conclusions. Because my fellow Global Scholars and I already had lengthy discussions about affordable housing, by the time of the event I was ready to sit down and make a change. But some of the other guests weren't ready for that. So we talked about the problems, talked about the myths, and then talked more about why the problems are so hard to solve. Based on the reflections after, it seems like none of the other groups made it very far in this category either. I was hoping some of the big movers and shakers in the Poly community would come to the event and help brainstorm how we could possibly make steps forward in this huge and very polar issue, but I was sat at a table with three kids, two teachers, one parent, and a moderator (who didn't actually do her job very well). None of us knew a thing about affordable housing outside of what the students had learned in Global Scholars and outside of what we had just heard a few minutes ago. We were not the right group to make a big difference in affordable housing. I guess I just feel like, on principle, we need more time and more background to properly address an issue of this magnitude.
In conclusion, I loved the structure of the event, and I think events like these could be extremely productive, but I think we need a little more time to consider the problem and more people who are experts in this field. Nonetheless, this was an incredibly interesting process (both designing the riddle and participating in the event) and I learned a lot about an issue I am not very familiar with. Thank you so much, Matt and Harper!
Matt and Harper came to visit our Global Scholars Seminar twice during the fall to brainstorm different "riddles" to present at the event. We split into groups and talked about different areas of interest and then came back together to present our theme/riddle. In the end, our class agreed that affordable housing would be the most interesting and perhaps the easiest to wrap your head around. So Matt and Harper took the theme of affordable housing and planned out this event! The results were incredible!
The even was incredibly well planned and organized. Matt wasn't there, so Harper ran the show. The setup was very nice, the food was delicious, the music set the mood well (thanks Cole), and every part of the night was organized down to the minute. Harper had a speaker from the Pasadena Department of Housing and the Los Angeles Department of Housing, as well as two very moving speakers who were homeless themselves, one of whom now volunteers for the Department of Aging. They were all extremely entrancing speakers who all had their own opinions and stances on this issues but all agreed that affordable housing is a dire necessity of the city of Pasadena and the city of Los Angeles as a whole.
Although the event was well run, I unfortunately did not find it to be very productive. I felt like, at least at my table, we had a very good discussion about affordable housing, but we didn't reach any conclusions. Because my fellow Global Scholars and I already had lengthy discussions about affordable housing, by the time of the event I was ready to sit down and make a change. But some of the other guests weren't ready for that. So we talked about the problems, talked about the myths, and then talked more about why the problems are so hard to solve. Based on the reflections after, it seems like none of the other groups made it very far in this category either. I was hoping some of the big movers and shakers in the Poly community would come to the event and help brainstorm how we could possibly make steps forward in this huge and very polar issue, but I was sat at a table with three kids, two teachers, one parent, and a moderator (who didn't actually do her job very well). None of us knew a thing about affordable housing outside of what the students had learned in Global Scholars and outside of what we had just heard a few minutes ago. We were not the right group to make a big difference in affordable housing. I guess I just feel like, on principle, we need more time and more background to properly address an issue of this magnitude.
In conclusion, I loved the structure of the event, and I think events like these could be extremely productive, but I think we need a little more time to consider the problem and more people who are experts in this field. Nonetheless, this was an incredibly interesting process (both designing the riddle and participating in the event) and I learned a lot about an issue I am not very familiar with. Thank you so much, Matt and Harper!
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