SIMYORK REVISITED

In December 1998, I designed and developed SIMYORK, a simulation designed to get groups of people to wrestle with the problems of urban sprawl in York County, as reviewed in the RUSK REPORT, and to recommend possible solutions. Three separate simulations were conducted for groups of 30. The groups involved community members, public officials and community leaders, and high school students from William Penn, York Catholic and York Suburban. The participants adopted roles of community members who might have different points of view on controversial subjects such as limiting rural development or spreading more low-income housing throughout the county.

 

The project SIMYORK REVISITED involves establishing a consortium of high schools to conduct two special sessions (one each semester) of SIMYORK for high school students during the '98-'99 academic year. It is expected that the original schools (William Penn, York Catholic and York Suburban) would be willing to participate again.

 

The project will involve working closely with the six high school teachers to develop a coordinated program of background reading, research, and activities on the issue of urban growth. Thus, the students would be well prepared when they arrive at the SIMYORK session.

 

The students will develop positions on issues such as: mixed-use housing requirements, regionalization of key community services, revenue sharing between the municipalities, urban growth boundaries, etc. The results of each session will be publicized through special reports to the local new media. Additionally, the reports will be posted on the SIMYORK website which will be specially created for the project.

 

The Rusk Report on the Daily Record's Web site: http://www.ydr.com