Beaumont newspaper notes urban
planning students’ renewal efforts

Beaumont city leaders have begun implementing ideas from urban planning students at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture in an effort to revitalize the city’s North End neighborhood with a $20 million federal grant in the wake of damage from Hurricane Rita in 2006.

The Beaumont Enterprise, in a Dec. 3 story by Dee Dixon, reported on a presentation by students Walter Peacock, Jared Briggs and Lone Avery to city and community leaders. Their recommendations combined research prompted by an October visit from Aggie graduate and undergraduate students to the North End.

Among their recommendations, led by assistant urban planning professor Cecilia Giusti, the students promoted the establishment of empowerment zones, a measure to spur economic development, and advised adjusting city bus routes to improve transportation availability for residents of a housing project in the North End.

Another group of students led by Giusti and assistant professor of urban planning Shannon Van Zandt visited Beaumont in 2007 to help with the area’s renewal after the devastating storm.

For Dixon’s story, see http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/