That’s a wrap!
By: Jayne Vidheecharoen
Tags: Urban Planning, Graduate School, Data Science, UCLA, GIS

End of spring quarter/final grad school wrap up.

A small sampling of our MURP 2021 graduating class since not everyone joined the in-person event

I know it’s cliche, but I really can’t believe I’m already done with grad school. Last year felt so long, but this last quarter went so fast! It’s also weird to have spent 2/3 of the program remote and then have many of these in-person celebrations the last week. But I’m glad we were able to get together at the end.

Here’s a little summary of my final quarter and some parting thoughts to round things out.

History of the Built Environment

This was my last required class for the Design & Development concentration, which covered the history of a wide range of typologies like garden cities, data centers, Chinatowns, retirement villages, trailer parks, etc. For our midterm, Carolyn Chu and I wrote about Airports and LAX. I am most proud of the fact that I was able to work in a reference to the Backstreet Boys in this paper.

Screenshots from the Backstreet Boys music video for ”I Want It That Way,” which was shot at LAX

For the final, we had to write an “obituary” for a space that has been erased from our material world. I wrote about Skeletons in the Closet, a kitschy gift shop that used to be in the LA County Coroner’s office.

Advanced GIS

The previous GIS class was focused on Python and open source options. This class was focused more on learning GIS using the “classic” ESRI tools, specifically the old ArcMap. From a user experience perspective, there are so many things about this software that make it very painful to use. I know ESRI is planning to sunset this app and has been pushing people to use ArcPro instead. But still, ugh!!

“The annoying thing about ArcMap is that…there are A LOT of annoying things about ArcMap.” — our professor, Maddy,

Nonetheless, I think our group put together a pretty nice final project. Ellie Troxell, Alejandro Gonzales, and I worked on a project about Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in Seattle, and Los Angeles called Much Ado About ADUs.

One of the slides in our final presentation.

Urban Data Science

This is the first time the program offered this class, which was taught by Adam Millard-Ball. It focused on using Python and other open-source tools for “scraping, processing, and managing urban data, and using tools such as natural language processing, geospatial analysis, and machine learning.” A lot of buzzwords in there, but basically cleaning and formatting data to look for interesting trends.

Shinah Park, Zack Zeilman, and I analyzed Airbnb listing and review data (from InsideAirbnb). We were trying to see if the listings and reviews contain common keywords in the text that could serve as indicators of gentrification (as defined by the Urban Displacement Project). We weren’t able to find any conclusive results but did make a few interesting charts and maps like the ones below.

Percent of Airbnb listings with mobility keywords in the top 10 gentrifying neighborhoods

Percent of Airbnb listings with the keyword “walk” in the neighborhood description, by neighborhood.

Capstone

I wrote up the summary of my capstone project earlier, and I’m still planning on writing up a little how-to guide at some point. One exciting development, though, the project won the inaugural “Excellence in a Transportation Equity & Justice Capstone Prize,” so that’s nice! Thanks to all the alumni and friends of the program who crowdfunded these awards.

Reflections on the program

So that’s it, after two years, it’s finally done! Was it worth it?

From a financial return on investment perspective, I suppose we’ll have to wait and see how my job hunt pans out! From a personal development perspective, I think it was really nice to spend the time diving into topics I’ve been curious about while leveling up my quant and writing skills. Also, despite the mostly virtual environment, I think I was able to meet a lot of interesting folks who I wouldn’t have otherwise.

Before deciding on grad school for urban planning I was also considering business or computer science programs. I think I managed to incorporate a little bit of both interests through planning. So much of my identity has been tied up in “Being A Designer” that it feels a little…weird to venture into this other territory, but in a good way. I feel a little more balanced or something.

I also have a very long backlog of ideas for random silly side projects now, inspired by the things I’ve encountered the past 2 years. And now that I’m done, I finally have time to experiment with these ideas.