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November Fieldwork for the Metro Class

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The year's Metro class -- for the uninitiated, "Metro" is Urban Studies-speak for UR 212 American Metropolitan Evolution -- did a little fieldwork in the Canal District today.  Walking along Green Street to Kelley Square and about halfway up Water Street, the class took in the city on foot, catching glimpses of all the little things you cannot see when you are driving through the area. This was a practical approach to help them see how to approach the research and writing for their semester term papers, The Neighborhood Paper.


At the corner of Green and Winter Streets, for instance, we all wondered, what's the story here? It was a scene in which the build-out of an older house gives the impression that it was just dropped into the middle of an international grocery.  We'll have to investigate it more closely in the Worcester House Directories in CityLab. 

Sometimes we had an easier time making connections across decades as with the building at 97 Water Street.  A century ago, it was Arkus Pharmacy when the city's Jewish population lived on Union Hill and owned shops on Water Street. But this building had fallen into disrepair by the 1970s and was reinvigorated more recently.


For those of you who have taken Metro already, you may be thinking: Wait a minute... isn't Metro a Spring class?  Yes, it has been. For the past 12 years, I have taught it in the Spring with an occasional summer version, and for years before that Dr. Boehm and Dr. Corey taught it in the Spring as well. But this year was a little different. Last Spring I was on a sabbatical and we couldn't wait another semester to run it because students needed it to graduate this term.
(photo by Amanda Adamuska)

The trip was not without its humorous moments, too. In fact, it began with a glimpse of the newly re-elected mayor being locked out of the Worcester Public Library. We watched this for about 10 minutes -- the pacing, the texting, the peering in -- as we waited for classmates to arrive, and then we got underway. I guess it can happen to anyone.
 

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