The Ward project DUE FEBRUARY 12TH

In your group (or on your own) gather demographic and historical information
about your Ward, including but not limited to: location within DC, average household
income, racial demographics, Health issues, housing costs, crime rates (specify what
types of crime), neighborhoods within ward, council representation, and landmarks of
interest. Feel free to include particular historical features of note or other elements you
feel are striking.
The paper detailing your ward should be 5-7 pages in length. All of your sources
MUST be cited properly and you must cite all of your sources (e.g., if you provide a
fact you must supply the source for this fact). You only need to turn in ONE Ward
paper (whether you are working alone or with another person).
Additionally, each of you will have a different neighborhood within the ward that
you will need to do a walkthrough of. During this walkthrough, take note of the streets
(are they freshly paved? One lane? Multiple lane? Lots of traffic?), housing (what types
of houses? Do the yards appear well maintained? Are these row houses or condos?)
buildings (what sorts of buildings do you see? Grocery stores? Corner markets? Business
offices? Liquor stores?) and people (who do you see? What are people doing? What can
they tell you about the neighborhood?)
The paper detailing your neighborhood should be 3-pages long. This paper
should provide historical and demographic information about the neighborhood (similar
to that discussed in your ward) but should focus more on the questions posed above.
Finally, reserve a portion of this paper to discuss the map you created documenting your
walkthrough. What kind of information does your map convey? Why did you choose to
create the map you did? Is your map of your experiences meeting new people? Or is your
map more spatially based?
The map of your neighborhood walkthrough should be creative. You may use
computers and technology to produce this map BUT you may not use any mapping
software or programs to produce your map (e.g., google maps, mapquest, etc). We have
read a great deal of material in a short amount of time problematizing the function and
roles of traditional maps. We have also seen and read about several examples of maps
that do not follow roads, typography or other traditional elements of a map. Most
importantly, this is your opportunity to engage with this material and (in this context of
this course) meaningfully use it.
In total you will submit:
1) A 5-7 page paper about your ward (only ONE per group/per ward need be turned
in)
2) A 3 page paper about your neighborhood and walkthrough (ONE per student per
neighborhood)
3) A map exploring your walkthrough (ONE map per student per walkthrough)