Urban Planning Meets Community Reform: UB Researchers Exploring Neighborhood Infrastructure

“I was first drawn to the field of planning while working as a community organizer in St. Louis, where I observed the misalignment between transportation planning practices and community needs on a daily basis,” she shared. “Planning practices grounded in assumptions about growth and expansion hinder our ability to think creatively and critically about opportunities for repurposing and redesigning infrastructure systems built for larger populations.” In Buffalo and other upstate New York cities, these tensions are playing out in debates about removing highways built in the mid-20^th century.

Soon after arriving at UB, Fischer initiated Corridors of Community Learning, an interdisciplinary collaboration between the UB Institute for Learning Sciences, which brings together community partners and scholars to rethink how people learn and share knowledge, and the Bruner Center, which fosters innovative thinking and dialogue about the role of design in the complex process of city building.

Focused on Buffalo’s East Side and Black Rock neighborhoods, the Corridors Project set out to engage residents in deep conversations about community history, infrastructure, and their hopes and fears for the future of their neighborhoods. Discussions centered around neighborhoods adjacent to the Kensington Expressway (Route 33) and the Scajaquada Expressway (Highway 198).

The objective was not to influence policy but to better understand how residents learn about and participate in conversations regarding infrastructure transitions and neighborhood change. Those insights can have the power to inform more thoughtful and effective ways for policymakers and advocates to involve communities in reform. “As researchers, we’re interested in the intersection between learning and urban planning,” Fischer explained. “We want to understand how social learning occurs in the context of infrastructure reform and how it varies across neighborhoods in the same city.”

Discussions surrounding the history, impacts, and future of these two highways have long been complex and contentious. That’s what makes projects like this so important: many planning and policy decisions prioritize advancing specific solutions rather than creating space for residents to reflect on what their neighborhoods mean to them. That process of reflection is key to building community and making thoughtful, collective decisions. 

The inspiration for this collaboration stemmed from Fischer’s previous experience working alongside learning scientists, where she saw firsthand how innovative approaches to learning and knowledge-sharing can strengthen urban planning processes. “The learning sciences utilize methodologies that focused on interpersonal dynamics and thinking about how to design interaction and learning in a way that urban planning doesn’t,” Fischer noted. “One of the benefits of this partnership is integrating new insights to overcome barriers that are entrenched in planning about how we work with communities, what knowledge we think is valuable, and how different types of knowledge influence planning processes.”

“We can’t solve society’s big problems by cramming old information into people’s heads more efficiently,” says Dr. Christopher Hoadley. “We need approaches that help us all become better learners, to build and share new knowledge.” As director of UB’s Institute for Learning Sciences and professor in the Department of Learning and Instruction and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Hoadley and two post-doctoral researchers, Dr. Ari Hock and Dr. Heather Killen, led development of the project’s learning design framework and engagement activities.

The UB team took a specific design research approach, intentionally creating a space that fostered curiosity and vulnerability. To establish a sense of trust and sharing within the room, they knew they would need to be open and honest themselves from the start. “The residents we’re working with have so much deep knowledge of their neighborhoods. Our team has been inviting them to use it as a resource for helping all of us to understand the possible impacts of highway reform,” says Hock.

UB began recruiting participants in early 2025, and workshops launched that summer with 18 participants from the East Side and 5 from Black Rock. Each group participated in five workshops held in neighborhood spaces rented from local community organizations, engaging in discussions over meals catered by nearby restaurants.

The workshops centered on two primary activities: mapping and documentary storytelling.

For the mapping exercises, participants identified “waypoints”—places in their neighborhoods that held personal or historical significance. Enthusiastically diving into this task, they arrived at the meetings with backup— handwritten lists, high-school yearbooks, and family photographs. Together, they mapped homes, schools, churches, and the sites of important events, such as the riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the origins of Buffalo’s Juneteenth celebrations. Then, as a group, they strategically made edits to hone the final product.

Residents also led walking tours through their neighborhoods, which formed the basis for the documentary-style short films. Residents Omar Overstreet and Lovette “Buttons” Williams led participants down Jefferson Avenue, while Black Rock residents toured the area along Scajaquada Creek with Joe Kedron (MArch ’79, BPS ‘77) and Alan Oberst. Along the way, they shared memories, talked with neighbors, assessed changes in the natural landscape, and imagined new possibilities. “One thing I learned today is to let go and know that it’s okay to be vulnerable within your community and within your people,” Williams shared at the tour’s conclusion.

Four students from UB’s environmental design program have contributed to the project. Three of them—Grace Wiseman (MUP ’27, BAED ’25), Tendaji Ya’Ukuu (MUP ’27, BAED ’25), and Jason Myrick (BAED ’26)—were supported through SUNY’sExperiential Learning Network grant, which funds faculty-mentored undergraduate research opportunities. “The students were treated like collaborators,” Fischer noted. “We didn't say, ‘here's a story map, go build it.’ We sat down with them and said, ‘if you were living in the community, what would you want to be on your story map?’”

They were tasked with compiling census data spanning from 1930 to the present, developing interactive StoryMaps for the project website, and assisting with fieldwork and filming. A fourth student, Adacelis Mendez (BAED ’26), has been working with data from the workshops and interviews, coding it for future use in journal articles and other academic endeavors. Camden Miller (PhD ‘22, MUP ‘16), clinical professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, has also provided support for the project.

In early 2026, the team was met with a shift in the narrative informing their discussions. Sean Ryan, the recently elected mayor of Buffalo, had petitioned the New York State Department of Transportation to return decision-making authority for the two highways to the city. This welcome development illustrated the importance of adaptability in community-engaged research.

“That’s a challenge,” Fischer acknowledged, “but also a real opportunity for our team to be in the flow of what’s going on while it’s happening, and to understand how residents process changes in real time.”

The project culminated in a Learning Showcase on June 4 on UB’s South Campus. Eager to talk about their work, the participants, along with their families, friends, and neighbors, gathered to share a meal, view the interactive neighborhood maps and documentary films, and continue the conversation together.

Now that the videos and maps are complete, the project has entered its next phase: exploring ways for these materials to be utilized as educational and community-building tools. Fischer has already incorporated the project into her own infrastructure course at UB’s School of Architecture and Planning, and the materials may be used to support university-level lessons in planning, design, and education, as well as in K-12 classrooms. With project participants, the team is also exploring possibilities for future community gatherings as well as collaborations with church and block groups and other neighborhood organizations.

At the showcase event, Hoadley reflected on the project’s goal—for good conversations to help people better understand themselves and their neighborhoods, leading to stronger collective futures. He left attendees with a challenge: “Think about what you learned today and think about who else needs to learn what.”

To connect with Fischer or learn more about the project, you can contact her at LF44@buffalo.edu.