The visit exceeded my expectations. I had originally thought we’d be viewing exhibits about the History of New York City and perhaps how sustainable the city is, for example how they deal with waste, transportation, efficiency, etc. I was pleasantly surprised when we walked into the Future City Lab. The first thing I notices was that massive curved screen that presented all kinds of information. But the first thing I walked over to was a table full of cards that you could write on. One side of the card said “What if…” and then the other side read, “then.” On my card I wrote, “what if college was more affordable…then more students would have access to higher education and graduates would begin their adult lives with less debt.” After that I moved over to the other side of the room where there was a giant screen that projected future cities. Around it were interactive screens that you could build up and then have presented on the large monitor. I spent a lot of time at this station. I chose Jackson heights, Queens as the community I would work on because I am from Queens. You were given a lot of options of things you could add, bus lanes, trees, compost stations, and more. There were also four categories you had to meet: Cost efficiency or budget, Environmental impact, Mobility, and Safety. I spent a lot of time trying to get each bar in the green. Adding bus lanes, bike lanes, and car lanes increased mobility. Adding composting stations, trees, more public transportation than cars, and crop growing plots helped the environmental impact. Putting in things like cross walks and stop lights improved safety. While adding all these amazing things made those categories go up, it bright the budget all the way down, and there wasn’t anything you can do to help it. It was a very interesting experience because it truly highlighted the wicked problem that there is so much that needs to be done to improve our communities, but no budget to do so. The way this exhibit was set up was truly amazing and effective. I feel like I learned a lot and enjoyed learning about it in an interactive way.
(The pretty light fixture in the museum)
