Urban Go-Team 2014

Adventures in Elections & Voting

Past Go-Teams

2014: Adventures in Elections & Voting

This year, eleven students will join our staff of four for a three-day long adventure in voting, elections, and campaigns. The program will run from June 2 through June 4. Highlights will include street polling in downtown St. Louis, a view of elections from the St. Louis Board of Elections, a panel discussion with elected officials about what is involved in winning elections, and student production of campaign video commercials.
2012: Politics in St. Louis and Beyond

Students went behind the scenes to see how elections really work. They acted as political pollsters, and even made their own political ads.

The 2014 program will build on this model, focusing on local midterm elections rather than presidential politics.
2011: The Many Faces of Capitalism

There are many ways to make money in St. Louis. Some companies are huge, national and international. Others are small, locally owned and barely surviving in tough economic times. Still others are “doing well by doing good,” via something called social entrepreneurship.

Civitas Urban Go-Team 2011 took students inside and behind the scenes of some the big-name corporations, local shops, unions and small companies who are the pulse of St. Louis’ economy. The five day program included:

  • Bird’s Eye View of St. Louis from the Met Life Building (a reprise of the highly successful 2003 activity)

  • Visits to large businesses such as Monsanto and the Tarlton Corporation (the second largest privately owned business in the area with a woman CEO).

  • Visits to small businesses such as Plowsharing Crafts, Vintage Vinyl, and Local Harvest

  • Meeting with investment advisor Rick Lerner

  • A look at non-profit organizations including the Danforth Plant Science Center

  • Examination of the role of business regulators including the criminal division of the Environmental Protection Agency.

  • Public opinion polling with business owners, managers, and employees.
2010: St Louis--What's Working, What's Not

About a dozen students traveled all around St. Louis, visiting at-risk neighborhoods, and neighborhoods on the rise, looking for evidence of the problems that bring cities down, and seeking out creative solutions keep hope alive.

Students conducted public-opinion surveys; visited Old North St. Louis restoration area, an urban garden, and Crown Candy Kitchen; and visited Confluence Park, where the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers meet; and more.
2009: The Great Recession's Impact on Neighborhoods and the Economy

Students examined how St. Louis government, business community, and everyday people coped with the recession.

Two prep sessions in April and May. The first was an introduction to economic issues, followed up street polling and surveying small businesses in the University City Loop. The second was a scavenger hunt in the innner-ring suburb of Maplewood, and a tour of Hadley Township (See Go-Team 2007), an area in Maplewood that had been slated for redevelopment which had been put on hold repeatedly.

Urban Go-Team 2009 place during the week of June 7. Here's a brief outline the 5-day program:

  • Met with Clayton Mayor Linda Goldstein of Clayton

  • Street polling in Clayton on the economy

  • Exploration of the Garment District with Joan Suarez

  • Tour of the Danforth Plant Science Center

  • Learned about Collinsville's economic development plans

  • Granite City panel with Bob Wydra, David Stoecklin, John Herzog at Tri-City Port Authority

  • Urban farm & housing restoration walking tour with Mike Baldwin

  • GKN Aerospace tour with Greg LaFontain

  • Tour of the Alberici engineering company's innovative, eco-friendly building

  • Lunches included Crown Candy, the Tea Room in historic Lincoln place, McMurphy’s Grill, and a pizza party at the Brentwood Community Center

    2008: Making Elections Work

    Taking place during a presidential election year, this Go-team focused on how elections operate, how public-opinion polling plays a role the elections process, and how young people can get involved to influence and improve the American democratic system. The program ran out of the ProVote/SEIU office in the Skinker-Debaliviere neighborhood.

    The Urban Go-Team 2008 students:

    • Met with the St. Louis County Board of Election to learn how elections are organized and votes are counted/safe guarded

    • Helped register voters

    • Visited KETC, the staff of the Beacon, and the Missouri Historical Society

    • Canvassed beauty shops, barber shops, nail salons, laundromats and other small businesses in the University City and Demun commercial districts

    • Analyzed St. Louis-based political blogs across the ideological spectrum
    2007: Show Me the Money in St. Louis

    Go-Team 2007 honed in on commercial development, specifically in the Hadley Township/Maplewood Richmond Heights area, an inner-ring suburban community in St. Louis county. Issues eveloper-community relationships, the politics of urban planning, and the issue of neighborhood displacement emerged, along with other issues at the intersection of economics and community.

    The program focused in on the Hadley/MRH area for several reasons, especially that (1) most of it was scheduled for demolition in the next year as a new development takes shape. Many people would be moving out; many moving in. (2) The neighborhood rests adjacent to Highway 40 (I-64) and it will have to endure many of the hardships of everyone along the immediate corridor of the construction the highway over the next three years or more, and (3) the neighborhood is immediately north of where a similar community was uprooted five years ago to make room for a Wal-Mart, Lowe's, and a host of smaller retail outlets.

    The first steps involved extensive mapping and photographing of the area, along with interviewing residents. After two of these prep sessions in spring, fieldwork began in May.

    With the Hadley Township area, students had an opportunity to observe and possibly influence a wholesale change of a long-standing neighborhood. Go-Team revisited the area in 2009.


    2003: Urban Studies Seminar - A Bird's-Eye View of St. Louis

    The first full-length Civitas Urban Studies Seminar covered the pros and cons of development and sprawl. The intensive, two-week program included 11 students from several high schools--Parkway South, Maplewood-Richmond Heights, Rosati-Kain, Hazelwood Central, and home schooled.

    Students visited a diverse variety of urban and suburban communities and interact with a wide range of stakeholders--from urban planners and government leaders to environmentalists and commercial development.

    The literal "high point" of the program was a Bird's Eye Tour of the city from the 40th story of the Metropolitan Life Building in downtown St. Louis; the 21st story of the University Club Tower in the St. Louis county municipality of Richmond Heights; and several other high rises across the Greater St. Louis Areas. Along with the tour, students rode the Metro-Link from end to end accompanied by an urban planner, who provided commentary on urban development and environmental impact.

    At the end of the program, students polled their new knowledge of the region by making several innovative policy recommendations, including:

    • A bicycle-sharing program

    • redevelopment and beautification of North St. Louis neighborhoods

    • Development of McRee Town neighborhood in North St. Louis City

    • work-force planning [Transportation Impact Study] for new commercial developments.

    This highly-successful program attracted attention from several local news sources, and provided a solid grounding for future Civitas Urban Studies programming.
    2002: Urban Studies Pilot Program

    5-day program with 6 students from Maplewood-Richmond Heights High School. Following the program, several students participated in community activities focused on the proposed development of Wal-Mart in Maplewood.

    Leave a Reply