The city has the same numerous complex issues of other urban centers: population loss, decrease in business activity, increase in crime, deteriorating infrastructure, and serious social problems such as chronic poverty, homelessness, and drug addiction. Many of these problems are the product of the commuter cities/suburban development model, adopted in Puerto Rico beginning in the 1950s. Cities transformed from compact urban multi-purpose structures designed for living, shopping, work, and recreational activities into segregated scattered structures in which people must rely on cars. A population exodus toward the suburbs left traditional urban centers abandoned.
This 20' x 8' mosaic, on the Humberto Vidal building on Brumbaugh Street in Río Piedras, was made by students to suggest that the river unites different communities sharing the same urban space.
To deal with these signs of social deterioration, Public Law No. 75 was passed in 1995, creating a special incentive program to rehabilitate Río Piedras. Because of the symbiotic relationship between the Campus and the city, UPR took charge of implementing this law in 1999.
Center for the Integral Development of Río Piedras
Public Law 75 provides for the organization of collaborations not paralleled by other urban revitalization projects; it engages the government, the Campus, and the community to work together on a consensual basis, so that no one entity has control over the other.
The consulting group–composed of residents, business owners, and government representatives–is a responsive, representational vehicle for articulating the desires of the community. After continuous dialogue, the group determines the needs of the Río Piedras community and the agenda to be followed. An interagency team then makes certain that governmental agencies deliver the services, in keeping with the plan.
In the process of articulating these efforts, the Centro para el Desarrollo Integral de Río Piedras, temporarily located in front of Plaza de la Convalecencia, was born as the coordination center. History professor Juan Giusti, Ph.D., is the executive director of the special interagency work team for Río Piedras. He has the important job of coordinating activities and acting as a catalyst to encourage the participation of all sectors and citizens. The goal is for the center to become a place of encounter for the Campus, the community, and governmental agencies.
University City Initiative
Public Law 75 allots an annual budget of $150,000, some of which is earmarked for a series of research projects in Río Piedras, grouped together under the university/city initiative. One of the most extensive projects–headed by Professors Danelia Rocha of the Graduate School of Planning, Carlos Guilbe of the Department Of Geography, and Germán Díaz of the College of General Studies– involved conducting surveys to document the city's condition.
One survey on land use consisted of an inventory of bulding sites and their physical conditions. Another study was aimed at profiling the homeless. It wasn't surprising to find that many are addicted to drugs and alcohol. But contrary to the popular belief that those living on the streets are from other towns, most are originally from Río Piedras. With this information, more effective strategies are being developed to assist the homeless.
In addition, Commercial Development Program Director Marinés Aponte, Ph.D., along with Pablo Más, M.A. and Francisco Montalvo, M.B.A., both professors in the College of Business Administration, conducted a study to learn about the crisis affecting businesses in Río Piedras, one of the sectors that has suffered the most in the past several years.
Because they wanted this initiative to be more than a list of problems that would only get filed away and they didn't want to impose solutions based on theories by academic experts, the study was carried out with the active participation of business owners. Now workshops are offered that address business owners' concerns and needs.
The top half of this photo collage shows the abandoned buildings in the center of Río Piedras. The bottom half shows the new train station in Río Piedras and buildings in various stages of renovation, including the Centro para Desarrollo Integral de Río Piedras, located in the old Farmacia Modelo building.
Link
For the rehabilitation process to be a success, the university established a physical presence in Río Piedras. "Maintaining a continuous and systematic presence in Río Piedras will facilitate more direct contact with the population," says Consuelo Figueras, Ph.D., director of the Graduate School of Information Sciences and Technology.
UPR conceived the Community Service and Technology Center in Río Piedras and named the project Enlace (Connection) to stress the cooperative relationship of the university and the residents of Río Piedras. This center will be the headquarters for the services the Campus currently provides to the community. In the meantime the Campus has provided the community with access to a computer laboratory, in an effort to help bridge the digital gap among the poor who lack training in computer technology. In addition, workshops are being offered to residents to provide them with the skills to participate more effectively in the labor force as well as in public and private decision-making.
Community Design Workshop
Not all of the Campus's efforts are aimed at research, advising, and coordinating governmental agencies. Equally necessary is a sense of community–understanding that the space between the Campus and the city is continuous.
"It's important that we create a more porous, more transparent space so that there is more communication between the two communities. We must find an intervention that includes activities to change people's attitudes," says Edwin Quiles, architect, professor, and Community Design Workshop director. This idea led to the creation of Red-crear Río Piedras, an urban public art workshop involving residents interested in beautifying the city and raising awareness of healthy living. A product of this workshop, the mosaic on the Humberto Vidal building, was designed and constructed by students to depict the Río Piedras river as a metaphor of how the city and the Campus are interconnected.
UPR has realized that it is in its own best interest to be surrounded by a socially healthy community in order to attract the most talented professors and students. Because the university has become so large, it can benefit Río Piedras by providing employment, service, and training. And Río Piedras can in turn provide business, service, and a convivial space for the university community.
Through the programs it offers to Río Piedras, the University of Puerto Rico joins a growing number of universities that do not view communities as simple research laboratories but as real partners in education.
http://egcti.upr.edu/comunitario
