On the southern outskirts of Chapel Hill lies a unique neighborhood whose creators hoped would have the feel of an early 20th-century village. Featuring narrow streets, easily accessible parks, bicycle and pedestrian paths, Southern-style porches and garages tucked away in the rear, Southern Village boasts both charm and new urban ideals. Almost a decade after the neighborhood’s conception, nine graduate students with diverse interests in urban livability surveyed its residents to find out whether Southern Village has fulfilled the goals of its creators.

According to Weiss Senior Fellow Mary Santiago, the presentation of their research was the culmination of everything the group had learned during the academic year. “The group had a really good dynamic, and we all learned a lot from one another working on this project,” Santiago said.

Photos by Rich Fowler

Kenneth Ho, a joint degree candidate (MRP/MBA) in the Kenan-Flagler Business School and the Department of City and Regional Planning, described the project as an investigation of the “truth in advertising” of new urbanism, one of several remedies to urban sprawl, which is still in its infancy.

If any group of students is prepared to argue the merits of a new movement in urban living, it is the Weiss fellows — but you might not guess it from their résumés. Last year, the fellows were pursuing careers in history, sociology, social work, public policy and maternal and child health care.

But according to Weiss Fellow Beverly Wilson, one of three city and regional planners in last year’s group, it is the fellows’ range of interests and diversity of backgrounds that gives the program its strength.

Vimalanand Prabhu, for example, came here from Mumbai, India, to study public policy analysis. Ellen Wilson studies health care for Latino immigrants. And Ho, a Chinese American, has a particular interest in cultural diversity in urban settings.

But considering the diversity among the fellows, one wonders what they share to make them Weiss fellows. The answer is their common interest in making urban areas more livable — plus a résumé replete with accomplishment.

For some of the fellows, the urban livability connection is clear, while for others it’s more veiled. For Conaway Haskins, for example, whose interests lie in community planning and economic development, the connection is obvious.

But when Ellen Wilson found out she had been offered a Weiss Fellowship from the Graduate School to study child and maternal health care last year, she was taken aback. “I was surprised that my background and interests suggested urban livability,” Wilson said. “But it has been interesting to see ways in which urban livability has cropped up in classes in ways I would not have anticipated.”

The fellowship itself is the creation of Professors Emeriti Charles and Shirley Weiss, whose gifts have provided stipends to about eight graduate school applicants a year since 1992.

At the time of the first gift, Shirley Weiss said, “We want to encourage the best students to come to this University and see how, in their specialized field — be it city planning or environmental science or any other — they can create a higher level of urban livability.”

"The group had a really good dynamic, and we all learned a lot from one another working on this project." -Mary Santiago

Santiago, who now works at the Wake County Courthouse as project director with the Court Improvement Project in the 10th Judicial District, seems to speak for many fellows when she says that without the Weiss Fellowship, returning to school would have been financially impossible. “I’m so grateful to the Weisses for this opportunity,” Santiago said.

And for all the fellows, the benefits of the fellowship have clearly transcended its monetary value. “I identify the Weiss Fellowship as one of the great achievements in my life,” Prabhu said. “It has given me an opportunity to learn about issues of urban livability and things that touch your heart. It has been a big morale booster for me.”

Ho said the fellowship has allowed him to work with colleagues from other disciplines and has helped him better understand the views of other key stakeholders in planning. “There’s often a tension between politicians and planners in practice,” Ho said. “I have a feeling that my exposure to the public administration program will help me better understand politicians’ perspectives on planning issues.”

While the fellowship has explicitly encouraged fellows to work together, it has also allowed them to learn from experts outside their ranks, mainly by bringing in guest speakers.

Last October, the fellows heard from Pearson Stewart, the man who planned Research Triangle Park more than 30 years ago. They also heard from Alison Eisenberg, a UNC-Chapel Hill assistant professor of history who recently finished a book about 20th-century Main Street improvement projects.

The speaker who may have influenced the fellows most last year was D. R. Bryan, the developer of Southern Village, the neo-traditional neighborhood the fellows studied throughout the year. In his talk Bryan provided the fellows insight into how to approach their yearlong group project.

The fellows took on a qualitative research approach for the project. They surveyed residents of Southern Village to find out how they feel about living in a new urbanist environment.

Results of the survey were a mixed bag. Many residents felt Southern Village had met their expectations; they cited the neigh-borhood school and pedestrian-friendly feel as aspects of the Village they liked. Others said they felt key improvements were needed, such as encouraging more diversity among residents and adding an on-site grocery store — though the Village has plans to add a cooperative market in 2002. Still other residents said new urbanist ideals were not even a factor in their choosing to live there.

Ho said the study elicited important information for future investigations. “With limited time and resources, we were able to conduct a valuable study and get a sense of what further research needs to be done,” Ho said.

And, adds Beverly Wilson, the project “provided a unique opportunity for individuals from different backgrounds to come together and explore issues of growing social importance.” Furthermore, Wilson added, “The opportunity to share the findings with the University community and the public was a stimulating experience for all involved.”

-Joshua Myerov

© 2002, The Graduate School, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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