Investigative Dialogue
Lets converse conversation
Tone • the Process
Justification • the Point
Dependent on context, a mix of processes for discourse will be employed
⟫ ⨳ ⟪
UNSTRUCTURED⁺ - certain studies may require a conversation which maintains a focused topic of conversation; where points may be guided (probed) towards finding certain points.
STRUCTURED⁺ - especially when data could be more compelling with quantitative responses, a controlled discussion may yield more meaningful analysis.
SEMISTRUCTURED⁺ - uses a combination of structured and semi-structured to get quantifiable metrics shown with structured interviews concurrent to some of the more qualifiable details (stories & experiences), given with unstructured interviews.
INFORMAL vs FORMAL - candid conversation with the many users to the diversity of services (i.e. land-uses) within Hoffman Heights makes transparent any organic opinion/perspective through casual discourse.
Cultural transformations which consider impacts by: age, gentrification, & development
⟫ ⨳ ⟪
AGE - Hoffman Heights may have been established in the 50's, however few of the original residents remain from this post-WWII boom. How have changes in age demographics - compounded by recent changes in zoning regulations & development - influenced cultural characters within the neighborhood?
• unstructured - stories
• structured - age
• semistructured - perspectives
RACIAL - the racial/ethnic makeup of Hoffman Heights is diverse & rapidly changing. How do various groups identify themselves and "others"?
• unstructured - sensitivities
• semi / structured - identification
ECONOMIC - the once-homogeneous economic composition of the neighborhood is becoming increasingly heterogenous. What considerations does this have for feminist urbanism?
• structured - education
• structured - income
• semistructured - opinions
PROFESSION - What do schools, hospitals, restaurants, religious institutions, transportation systems, parks, residences, and non-profits have in common? Not much. But they all have people (who employ or are employed). What do the perspectives of varying professions have towards Hoffman Heights concerning feminist urbanism?
• unstructured - as client / patron
• structured - employer
• semistructured - responsibilities
Fieldwork
2020.02.01 • Saturday
Location 1 • 12:00 Parking lot in NW corner of Hoffman Heights strip-mall
In Hoffman Heights commercial strip mall (SW corner of neighborhood; NW of E 6th Ave & Peoria St, Aurora. It is nice outside: 65ºF. The strip mall is bustling. There are a lot of people going about their errands; there is a group of teens who are chilling in their car.
While waiting to meet up with Sydeny, I get out to take a few photos of the parking lot and businesses. While I am photographing, the teens chilling in their car call me out for taking photos. I explain to them that I am a student capturing detail on the neighborhood for an assignment. They seem amused and then ask me to take a photo of them in their car. I take a few photos and show it to them. They ask to see it, at which point I am a little nervous. With a firm grip on the camera (borrowed from the DMC), I show them the shots from the LCD monitor. They collectively got excited; saying, “damn, that shit’s raw man.” At this point my stress eases and they say thank you and we exchange pleasant farewells.
⟫ ⨳ ⟪
Interview 1 • 12:30 (10 minutes)
I continue to photograph in the parking lot. It wasn’t long before another stranger calls me over. The stranger was male; white; older (assumably closer to retirement); in his all-white work attire; he was friendly, and quick to start conversation; missing his upper two-front teeth.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m a student photographing the neighborhood trying to get elements of change for a class project.”
“Photography student? That’s cool”
“Not exactly, I’m studying Urban Planning and the photography aspect is part of the fieldwork for an assignment we are doing.”
After the last confrontation with the teens in the car, my confidence is a little higher and I walked up to him. He is sitting in his work van, by himself, with the window rolled down. I start explaining the project to him and we get the conversation going. I explain to him that we are looking at the demographic changes and gentrification in the neighborhood and trying to better understand how people are responding to some of the changes in the area.
“What changes? There ain’t nothing around here.”
I respond by explaining that we’ve mainly noticed a lot of changes closer to the north side of the neighborhood closer to Colfax Ave, but it is interesting that he doesn't notice any considerable change. He immediately nods when I mention Colfax and cuts me off explaining how he works in remodeling for various projects in the area. He and his team recently started working on a remodel project in the area for a property where the vacated tenant was a hoarder,
“And a rich hoarder I might add.”
He goes on to explain how normally as part of his job description he is working with environmental regulation and removing “shit” like asbestos, molded walls, “and what not.” But with this specific project, him and his team went about “disposing” of about $45,000 (they ended up hauling a lot of it off in trash bags).
After being able to reflect, I wish I had been able to recognize that while the conversation wasn’t intended to be an interview, it was more or less an informal interview. I wish that I had taken a little more questioning to dive in to what sort of other examples he encountered in the area with clean-up projects; some more logistics about what sort of environmental regulations he was dealing with; and it would have been nice to get some specific details like the name of the company he was working for, how long he had been working there, and a little more about his position. I noticed as conversation was going about, I would sometimes interject concurrent to him, and it was a little awkward trying to stay on task without it seeming too much like a formal interview.
⟫ ⨳ ⟪
Interview 2 • 12:45 (20-25 mins)
Not long after I parted ways with the gentleman in his work van I ran into Sydeny. We exchanged notes and ran through the guides that we had printed out for reference. Sydeny was ready to dive right in and I awkwardly followed along. We walked along under the awning of the strip-mall to a potential interviewee she had noticed who was standing by herself.
Young; black; female; by herself with groceries; leaning up against the wall with earbuds in; dressed in all blue - possibly casual-lounge attire or possibly part of what looked like it could be a medical uniform.
After introducing ourselves and our research, Sydeny referenced our semi-structured guide and asked about what she thought about the space and how it is designed & how she had been using it. The young woman said she grew up with a strong sense of independence. She was living in Aurora now but grew up in Montbello. She was quick to note the buses where she said she wish drivers were better instructed on harassment, “both physical and sexual.” She explained that she had both witnessed and experienced some less-than-comfortable experiences - particularly on the 15 [this is the Colfax bus - notorious for being “that line”].
I followed up asking if it was more the drivers or riders that needed the training she mentioned. Bluntly, she responded, “both.”
She then went to start talking about how she had recently lost access to her car after the wheel flew off a couple of weeks ago. This got her to suggest there be more educational classes catered towards women for mechanical work to help teach independence in women and help break the sexist stigma that went alongside mechanical work. She referenced the MLK library [a large Aurora Public Library off of Colfax]. She new that such life-skills educational programming like this existed there, but none on this specific subject.
We then thanked her for her time and just as we were about to leave, Sydeny asked her age: 23.
Reflecting on this interview, I wish that we were more proactive about asking her from the beginning if we could have recorded. The conversation was quick to start off and it soon felt awkward to randomly jump in with the question about recording. Also, the young woman did not seem to have a problem chatting for a bit longer, but I feel that Sydeny and I almost instinctively felt that we were bothering her and so we didn’t want to take up anymore of her time. I also wish that we could have asked her about her work (and possibly make the connection to her blue attire); asked about why she left Montbello to come live in the area).
⟫ ⨳ ⟪
Interview 3 • 1:15 (10 minutes)
After leaving the young woman with her groceries, Sydeny suggested a man who was sitting by a curb. The man was black; middle-aged (probably in his 40s-50s). He was casually dressed and had longer, greying hair.
Again, Sydeny introduced us. She mentioned that we were focusing a lot of research around a woman’s experience, however, we were still very interested in what he had to say from his perspective as a man. He was happy to engage in conversation, but rather than dive right in, he wanted to get a little more specifics on what we were looking for.
“What sort of space?”
I respond, “really it could be anything, we are trying to get a diversity of perspective whether is be residential, public, or a commercial space such as this one. We are mainly interested in what you find most noticeable.”
“Okay, so like improvements?”
Sydeny then reconfirmed, “sure, and again it’s whatever you notice.”
Trying to learn from the last interview, I jump in and ask if we could get his permission to record, but reaffirmed that there was no pressure if he did not feel comfortable with this. Still sitting, he responded, “not that I’m scared, but my wife is on her way over right now and she is going to want to get going.” Sydeny then followed up reconfirming that it was okay that he didn’t want to record but if he wouldn’t mind sharing just a couple of quick thoughts about what he thought about the space.
At this point the man starts to stand up and explains that he had just recently moved to the area and that he wasn’t all that familiar with the area. His wife then comes in to the scene and starts putting the groceries in the trunk. She didn’t make eye-contact with Sydeny or I; and she seemed almost annoyed with us and ignored our verbal greeting. The gentleman seemed to take cue, and started to go around the car towards the passenger seat. As he was doing so, he continued to rush in a few last comments - in a bulleted-notes style:
There are too many people coming in; the development being built around here is obviously not being catered towards people of color and they are being pushed out.
