After collecting mental maps from residents and chatting with them about the city, I realized that there is no single set of smart city recommendations because Portland is different for every single one of its residents. One of the Issues that most interviewees pointed out was the lack of efficient public transportation system. So, I guess there are some recommendations that can make life better and easier for all residents.
See Mentals Maps and Cafe Ethnography inside this post…
October 26, 2014
Portland Cafe Ethnography.
Location: Coffee by Design on India Street
1:00pm
There is a strong smell of coffee and the cafe is surprisingly full for an early Sunday afternoon; there are different kinds of people here; some people are working — on homework or other stuff; most of them have laptops, iPads. There is one guy sitting in front of me; he is nervously checking his phone, seems like he’s waiting for someone.
There is a parking lot across the street. but there are much more people walking by than driving. Only one person is reading a physical newspaper – man in his 60s. There are tables and chairs right outside of the cafe today, the weather is beautiful.
1:10pm
Bunch of new people just walked in; people seem to be really excited about the sunny weather, a lot of them are starting to sit outside. Cafe has tea brands and themed mugs for sale. Everyone who walks in spends around 30 seconds looking at them.
1:20pm
A lot more people walked in over the course of past 10 minutes; younger people come in groups or couples, while older people are mostly alone, spending time drinking coffee and reading physical newspapers.
1:30pm
The cafe is narrow, some people seem to be leaving when they see people standing around; seems like they do not want to wait. More people started coming in. Mostly in groups of two. People who are sitting alone are less responsive to mental map requests.
1:40pm
The proximity of the tables brings people together; strangers are talking across tables. The cafe is not expensive; this must be a reason for a wide range of people coming in.
1:50pm
The influx of people stopped; early afternoon must be a peak time for getting coffee; people who are here right now seem to be settled down for a while, working, reading or talking. There is a couple who is knitting in the cafe which is pretty cool. Its gotten pretty quiet in here.
2:00pm
More and more people are starting to leave the cafe as the time goes on. There are only a couple tables occupied right now, while there were almost none free about 20-30 minutes ago.
2:10pm
People who are still here are either working on something or in a group; no more people reading newspapers or drinking coffee by themselves; no more people walking in to get coffee or bagel either; seems like the busiest time is from 1 to about 1:30 pm, at least on Sundays.
2:20pm
Some more people started walking into the cafe; but again mostly couples. Nothing interesting is going on anymore, no more loud conversations across tables or between people who are together. It is still very quiet.
2:30pm
While asking people for mental maps, it turned out that a lot of people who have been in the cafe for a long time are not residents of Portland; people come to Portland for a day to just hang out. People are coming into the cafe again. The timing of this is interesting, why are some periods completely dead? Now there are people talking and the sound of coffee machines can be heard again. It makes a cafe more lively.
2:40pm
People keep coming in from time to time, it is more quiet though than when there was the same amount of people earlier in the day. Number of people walking outside has decreased, as well as the number of cars driving by.
2:50pm
As it turns out music has been playing the background all along, but I only noticed it now, because it is unusually quiet; People’s conversations have been filtering the music out before.
3:00pm & 3:10 pm
No significant changes, some people left, some people came in but the general atmosphere is still the same.
3:20pm
Still the same situation; I think this is one of the quiet periods of the cafe as noted earlier.
3:30pm
Still no changes. Very quiet and relaxed; no significant inflow or outflow of people; One woman has been here all along.
You make an excellent point about how there is not just one set of “smart” city recommendations for Portland because there are so many different types of people who live or work in the city. It’s interesting to me that despite the different backgrounds of the people from whom you received mental maps, the issue of public transportation was brought up by most of them. Did any of the people you interviewed offer suggestions as to how this problem could be addressed, or did they simply share with you their discontent with public transportation in Portland? I’d be interested to hear their perspectives on the matter; the best way to improve Portland would be to try implementing the ideas of the people who live there.
I think it is interesting that three of your maps focus mostly on the streets, whereas the fourth one does not label any streets but rather labels the buildings in the area. Were the interviewees that labeled the streets more aware of the transportation system? Many of my interviewees also pointed out the lack of public transportation, two citing that they would like better bus lines and one mentioning he wanted more bike lanes. Did your interviewees mention what type of public transportation system they would like to see?
I agree with you, that this research concluded that there is no one “set of smart city recommendations.” I did not find anyone with strong believes that the city needed to be “smarter.” There is a strong indication that all public infrastructure (roads, bike lanes, etc.) and services (bus system, and parking) is the main issue in the city. Your ethnography also matches most classmates as younger age and white individuals.
Your ethnography shows the amount of diverse people coming in and out. It flows well as you carefully explain your thought process.
I also found that people were more interested in improving current infrastructure than they were in creating a new “smart city,” but this can in part be explained by the fact that they are more familiar with the current infrastructure. It is very difficult for people to think of things they want until they see them. No one in 1995 knew that they wanted a smart phone. The very idea of a smartphone would have been foreign to them but 20 years later when they have become standard everyone is aware they want them. Smart cities might just work the same way.
These maps are more focused on one location than the ones that I collected. It seems like they focused in on the area where they live or work. Did they say anything interesting about the maps about the maps as they drew them or did they just hand the sheet back? I assume we gave slightly different impressions to the people working on our maps which led them to go their different directions, and I wonder how we should account for that in making our composite.
In your post you mentioned that throughout collecting your mental maps you realized that there is no single set of smart city recommendations for Portland simply because the city is different for each resident. I totally agree with this and I definitely think it connects to the point that I made in my post also about whether we are qualified to make all of these suggestions for Portland when we do not live in the city and experience this unique ‘Portland experience’ every day. This also makes me think about the article we discussed earlier in the fall about the right to produce infrastructure within a city; the Jiminez article described that city residents have to right to produce infrastructure as well as the fact that infrastructure has the right to produce us. We have to remember that whatever infrastructure changes we propose for the city of Portland, they will affect each resident differently in that some will benefit more than others will. I think your idea about improving public transportation is the most promising idea because it would benefit the most people across the city from all socioeconomic backgrounds and is a relatively simple problem for the Portland city council to tackle.
What I like about the mental maps you gathered is that, regardless of their intentions in drawing Portland accurately, each person incorporated a form of grid pattern in their drawing. It seems that people naturally associate the city with a grid organization, and I find this especially interesting given that Portland has a more natural street layout. The grid system is a modern city structure, and we can see its influence in many parts of the city (particularly in the newer neighborhoods.) But this is still particularly interesting because a grid is rarely perceived from the ground level. I would be curious to know if this is actually how people see their city–or how they think they should draw it, because its a city.