Urban Planning Archive Internship
- Open to all Urban Sustainability, English, and Sociology majors.
- $15/hour + course credit
- 7-10 hours/week @ the Brooklyn College library
Under the supervision of College Archivist Prof. Colleen Bradley-Sanders, the Urban Planning Archive intern will arrange and scan the endnotes for Tom Fox’s (Brooklyn College ‘75) forthcoming first-person history of NYC’s Hudson River Park.
The 4.5-mile-long Hudson River Park is the largest park built in Manhattan since Central Park. It’s transformed a derelict and dangerous waterfront, protected the Hudson River estuary, created new recreational opportunities for millions of New Yorkers, enhanced the image of the city, preserved maritime commerce, stimulated redevelopment in adjacent neighborhoods, and set a precedent for waterfront redevelopment. It attracts seventeen million visitors a year.
The Urban Planning Archive intern will help the Brooklyn College Archives preserve Mr. Fox’s collection, which include efforts to defeat the proposed Westway project, including arguments made against the proposed Westway State Park as well as memos, research, reports, correspondence, budgets, plans and media coverage of two city/state commissions established to develop an alternative plan for the West side. They describe coalition building, fighting inappropriate development, securing public funding, completing the Park’s Concept and Financial Plan, and passing state legislation to create the Hudson River Park as well as efforts to protect the park working with all the public stakeholders.
The documents are primary source materials, and the intern must be organized, responsible and pay attention to detail. The internship requires a working knowledge of Microsoft office suite (Outlook, Word and Excel). Pay will be $15/hour and work will be done at Brooklyn College Library between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday thru Friday.
This internship offers a unique window into successful community and environmental efforts to stop inappropriate development in the Hudson River and create a world-class maritime park. The process was a unique community and environmental planning effort recognized as a model for New York and other cities in the nation.
The internship is ideal for students interested in pursuing a career in library sciences, public service, urban planning, or environmental advocacy and stewardship. To apply, send a cover email and resume with references to tom@tomfoxnyc.com.