From Holly Nelson (nelson.holly.r@gmail.com):
I am a masters student in UIUC’s Urban Planning program and I was a 2004 Central graduate. Given recent discussions in Unit 4 about building a new Central, I decided to focus on the school siting issue for my thesis project. I have been coordinating with the City of Champaign and Unit 4 but I’m also very interested in perspectives of community members. My research focuses on the impacts of choosing various sites (I selected five sites, meant to be demonstrative of a whole range of options), including transportation, social, environmental, and cost impacts. I completed the transportation analysis last semester and will likely be presenting the results at next Monday’s [Jan 23rd] school board meeting.
My goal with the project is actually not to make a specific recommendation (although I’m happy to share my opinion), but to make tradeoffs more explicit. I think we as a community can make a better decision if we know more about potential impacts. No solution is going to satisfy everyone but I think we can all be better negotiators if we can lay out the tradeoffs that must be made in order to reach a compromise.
If anyone is interested, please let her know. I am having an interview with her tomorrow (Friday) and can report back.
