USF’s “Topics in Urban Geography” Students Offer Insights on Small Business Improvement [12/27/2007]

by Judi Jetson

USF Geography Professor Elizabeth Strom brought her classroom to life – and also into the community – in the Fall of 2007, with support from a USF Collaborative Faculty Grant. Strom’s Topics in Urban Geography students used two urban neighborhoods as their field research sites: Drew Park near the Tampa airport, a former military base area now highly industrial, and the established residential neighborhood of East Tampa. Students worked with city officials and community volunteers to refine their research questions and methods, gathering and displaying demographics, interviewing business owners, and studying the potential which Façade Improvement programs offered each neighborhood.

In Drew Park, a neighborhood with about 14,000 residents and about 400 small businesses, students found more than half of the thirty businesses they surveyed were interested in improving the paint, signs or parking at their buildings if the City provided small grants. In East Tampa, an established residential area of about 16,000 where more people own than rent their homes, most of the businesses were retail-oriented and interested in help with new paint and plaster, signs and sidewalks. City officials will use the information gathered through these research projects to help them implement new neighborhood improvement programs during 2008.

For more information about the Topics in Urban Geography Service-Learning class, contact Professor Strom at estrom@cas.usf.edu. For information about other service-learning classes at USF, or to apply for a USF Collaborative Faculty Grant, contact Judi Jetson at jetson@usfcollab.usf.edu.