Tag: pick em

‘Pauldoe’ transformed into Columbia Brookside

By Kelcey Caulder
Rows of apartments, small and exactly alike, line Pauldoe Street in Athens, Georgia. White roof tops, brick bottoms, and narrow walks leading up to each door. Occasionally, a basketball might run across the street. A child runs after it, yelling over to his friends that he’ll be right back. A man comes home from work and makes his way up the narrow walk, exhausted after a long day at work. None seem to notice — or, if they do, it seems an unspoken rule that they don’t say it — that their neighborhood doesn’t look like the rest of Athens. 
It’s older. Window air-conditioning units hang from shuttered windows and the bricks are faded with age. This is the place the people who live there call home. It is what Rob Trevena at the Athens Housing and Community Development Department labels ‘concentrated poverty.’ 
That is why, in 2012, the Athens Housing Authority (AHA) petitioned to receive tax credits from the state to transform the neighborhood, formerly known as Jack R. Wells Homes into Columbia Brookside. 
Initially, some of the neighborhood’s residents worried that the renovations would permanently alter the culture of the area. Others, according to Marilyn Appleby, the Communications Director at AHA, were eager for something new and were supportive of the decision to update the property.
“Residents were asked that if it were possible, would they be more interested in renovations or tearing down the buildings and starting again. The residents as well as Housing and Urban Development approved of the idea of us working with outside parties to create a very different neighborhood than what had been there in the past,” said Appleby. “They wanted something more modern, something better taken care of.” 
So, with assistance from the community and from the Housing and Urban Development Department, the AHA partnered with Columbia Residential, a leading Atlanta-based developer and manager of affordable and mixed-income housing, to develop a multi-family community of which a third of the apartments are public housing, a third are subsidized through tax credits and a third are market-rate. Several units would also be designated as senior living spaces. 
Columbia Brookside will be the first mixed-income community in Athens. Units throughout the neighborhood will be divided among residents who can market-rate prices, ranging anywhere from $790 for a one-bedroom unit to $1,275 for a four-bedroom unit, those who qualify for a “tax credit” rate based on income and those who qualify for public housing whose rent will be the equivalent to 30 percent of their income. 
When asked for her opinion about the mixed-income model, Commissioner Melissa Link said that it is the best way to ensure communities succeed. 
“When you fill a community with only low-income individuals and those who have been in poverty, then you only get more concentrated poverty and crime,” said Commissioner Melissa Link. “I think Athens overall has switched over to this mixed-income model, like what will exist at Columbia Brookside, because it really does offer people the best chance of having the communities we all strive for and desire.” 
According to Link, this type of mixed-income housing has been widely popular and successful across the country since the early 1990s because of the likelihood of increased investment in neighborhoods, enhanced security and higher management expectations. Link also stated a decrease in crime and an increase in property value as benefits to the mixed-income model. 
Trevena also approved of the model, stating that the mixed-income units would be more sustainable than low-income units. He believes that developing Columbia Brookside as mixed-income would be a way to fight future blight, acting “almost like preventive medicine.” 
“What we often find in my department is that when we renovate an area, it encourages the people who live there to keep renovating and renewing the area,” Trevena said. “One of the ideas is that, with mixed-income, people living in the community will be able to keep it up. And, hopefully, that will encourage other people living there to keep it nice too. After building is completely finished, which will be, I think, next year, there will be 372 apartments there. We want to see those last as long as possible.” 
The 372 apartment units will replace the 125 housing units that existed at Jack R. Wells before renovations, more than doubling the amount of housing available on the property. But, for many who previously resided in the Pauldoe community, the number of houses doesn’t matter. Instead, they hope that the community spirit that existed there continues to survive. 
Quintavious McCreed, a former student at Clarke Central High School who was displaced when renovations began on the Columbia Brookside project, spoke about what it was like to live in the neighborhood in Clarke Central High School’s Odyssey Online newspaper in 2013. 
“When I first came to Pauldoe I was  very quiet and stayed to myself. I would only go outside when I was playing with my little brother. In less than a month, though, that all changed. I grew a strong bond with those people. Everyday we hung out with each other, played ball and lived life. It was more than a bond like friends .We were all like brothers,” McCreed wrote. 
Later in the same article, he describes leaving Pauldoe behind. “The thought comes through my head mostly every day: that was a big experience to be living in Pauldoe and being around everybody. But I think I can always keep it in my mind, in my heart.” 
Today, McCreed is a graduate of Clarke Central High School. His family still resides in River’s Edge in Athens, the place they had moved into after leaving Jack R. Wells. He still remembers Pauldoe and how important that time was for him, how impactful it was to mentor and tutor kids at the Community Center and hopes that Columbia Brookside brings the same experience to other children and teenagers that will live there. 
“It was a place that I really won’t ever forget and I hope that other people get to feel that too. It was known for being a bad neighborhood, but it was our neighborhood and it was really cool to be a part of it,” he said. 
When asked, Appleby said that the AHA hasn’t spent too much time discussing how the culture of the area might change following the completion of the remodel nor about how it has changed since the senior living units were opened. 
“All I can say is that we believe the mixed-income model will benefit the community and that we know it has worked in other communities and been very successful. Personally, I think if that holds true, the culture of the community will be just fine,” Appleby said. 

Pick ‘Em: Value of The Humanities

The number of college students choosing to major in humanities has been declining significantly over the past decade. The Academy of Arts and Sciences analysis of education data found that humanities degrees have fallen to the lowest levels on record since 1948.  Between 2012-2014 alone, there was an 8.7% decline in core humanities degrees. This downward trend has been attributed to various sources ranging from increasingly evolving STEM fields, post-Recession job insecurity, and skyrocketing tuition costs and student loan debt. Yet a chorus of education experts, debt-ridden graduates, and even professionals without degrees say that despite their decreasing popularity, high school students debating college or college freshman shouldn’t assume that humanities are an irresponsible choice professionally or financially. 


“We know that those with [any] college degrees, including humanities, earn more in their lifetime, they live longer, and they’re statistically happier,” says Phil Grant, a Ph.D candidate in Education Policy at the Carl Vinson Institute. 


The term “humanities” traditionally brings to mind the core of English, history, linguistics and similar majors. Yet even by the broadest definitions of humanities that include art, religion, and gender studies, humanities have still hit an all-time low of just 9.9% of all bachelor’s degrees awarded. 


Jack and Jenna Photography was founded in 2013 with a “huge leap of faith” brought about by desperate circumstances. Jack Cortez, a mostly self-taught amateur photographer since high school, studied Cinematography at the Savannah College of Art and Design for one year. He accrued $13,000 in student debt before dropping out in 2012, in part because of financial difficulties. Jack worked odd construction jobs until an injury left him out of work. Struggling to survive on his girlfriend, Jenna Hall’s, income alone, they decided to pursue wedding photography together. Jenna saved up tip money from her waitressing job at the time to buy a camera off Craigslist. 


“Pretty much everything you need to know to run a successful small photography business you can learn, online, for free,” says Jenna. She later quit her waitressing job earlier as their business grew into a two-person, full-time business. 


While you’d be hard-pressed to find a successful engineer working without a degree, fields like art, photography, creative writing and graphic design have a lower barrier to entry for those with self-taught skills and little by way of formal education.


“Literally the first thing I shot I had no idea what I was doing,” says Jenna, who originally obtained a college degree in Education but never worked in the field. In between bookings, Jenna poured over photography manuals, forums, and blogs to master basic technical elements. She joined photography Facebook groups centered around constructive criticism and mentoring.  For the abundance of information on the internet, Jenna admits a degree would have likely made her a more knowledgable and confident photographer. She ‘lucked out’ with her partner Jack, who she credits as taking on a mentor role with her, filling in the gap of formal education. She considers herself even more lucky to discover that, beyond financial security, she’s actually truly passionate about her art. 


And experts say the heavily cited lower employment rates after graduation for humanities majors may be overstated, with humanities majors generally facing only 2-3% higher rates of unemployment. 


Another factor that isn’t discussed enough, particularly to low-income students who may be more avoidant of the humanities because of their perceived risk, is the flexibility of employment options for humanities majors, according to Phil Grant. 


Andrew Schwegler is a graphic designer and a computer programmer based in Atlanta. His degree from the University of Georgia, however, is in political science. His obsession with graphic design and programming began in middle school, and in college he found himself designing websites for organizations like the Phi Kappa Literary Society at UGA. 


Schwegler admits he has regrets about obtaining a degree in political science given his current position. In fact, he wishes he’d gone with what he loved, and studied English – a major with one of the steepest declines even within the humanities. In his position at the (now-defunct) Blink! Media years ago, he was told they see humanities as invaluable, because they teach you how to think independently and creatively. 


And yet, eschewing humanities degrees means avoiding tuition costs and the average $35,000 of debt per undergraduate nationally. Just one year of tuition at a private college like the humanities-heavy Savannah College of Art and Design will cost you over $35,000. 


Megan McCranie spent six years regretting her Art History undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia. She graduated with little direction and few tools to secure a job she was passionate about. After six years as an administrative assistant at an architectural engineering firm, she went back to SCAD for graphic design. 


A closer look at the numbers shows that the much-cited income gaps between humanities and STEM degree holders is actually around $7,000 for similar levels of education. This income gap narrows with advanced degrees.


McCranie is quick to admit her $60,000 of student debt from SCAD is a ‘huge financial burden’. Still, she credits SCAD with being able to nail her dream job as a graphic designer at Coca-Cola straight after graduation. 


SCAD boasts an employment rate of 91% for graduates. Though only 65% of students will actually complete a degree within six years, Jack Cortez hypothesizes the low graduation rate may be students who are recruited while still in school off the strength of their portfolios. Coca-Cola and other companies regularly visit SCAD to view student portfolios and recruit new employees. McCranie says her experience of being recruited for a position wouldn’t have happened without the visibility and reputation of SCAD in the industry. Jack, despite his self-made success, echoes the sentiment in favor of pursuing humanities degrees if financially able. 


“If I had finished out my four years at SCAD in film…there’s no question I probably would’ve had a job right out of school. Just because SCAD is that great of school,” says Jack.