Objective 3: Collaboration for a Pathway Vision

Collaborate with Communities to Develop Multiple Visions for Pathway Development

 

Steps Description
Step One: Research similar pathway development initiatives We will focus our research on projects within close proximity to the Black River Corridor such as the Liesbeek River which underwent a similar transformation. We will also look into current organisations which have similar initiatives such as Friends of the Liesbeek River, Friends of the Black River, and Two Rivers Urban Park.

 
Step Two: Discuss current state of the corridor with surrounding communities Our team will walk the corridor with members of the Gardening Club, marking any points of interest and taking pictures that are useful for the pathway planning.  After the survey of the corridor, the team will discuss evaluations of the corridor with community members.

 
Step Three: Facilitate discussions on potential pathway development

 

 After building the relationships described in our first objective, we will continue discussion pertaining to the potential uses of the pathway.
Step Four: Compilation of ideas Based on our research and discussions, we will develop final recommendations for the pathway vision.

Our third objective is to collaborate with the surrounding communities to develop multiple visions for the pathway design.  The first step is to create a visual medium to stimulate conversation with the community.  Our team discussed a book of photos that we could develop before traveling to Cape Town. The hope for this is to show the community the different options that pathway development can incorporate and to poll their responses to each. The second step is to actually engage in meaningful discussion with the community.  This will be a semi-planned form of interviewing in which our team will discuss questions they want to be answered and conduct an interview that feels more like a conversation.  A third step is to discuss the current state of the river with the community in order to gauge their opinion on developing it.  The next few steps involve documentation and analysis of the interviews.  Our hope is that the information gained from these steps will give us a somewhat clear image of the pathway development direction.

The biggest issue is balancing the different aspects of pathway creation such as incorporating local history, culture, recreational space and urban agriculture.  A further consideration is how to balance all of these aspects in a way that makes the community enthusiastic about the river pathway.