Hunter Urban Planning Students Win Top Prize in Community Development Competition

Date: Thursday, May 3, 2007
Contact: Meredith Halpern (meredith.halpern@hunter.cuny.edu)
Phone: (212) 772-4068

NEW YORK – New York’s taxi drivers may be getting a new health and fitness center, thanks to an extraordinary partnership between one of the city’s top academic institutions and one of its front-line advocacy groups.

On May 3, a team of 12 graduate students and two professors from Hunter College’s Urban Planning Department earned first prize in the prestigious JP Morgan Chase Community Development Competition.  The award-winning project, designed for the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, recommended that a health and fitness center be built for taxi drivers at the John F. Kennedy International Airport and was the culmination of a year-long studio.  

The annual competition among graduate-level urban planning programs in the Northeast requires that schools partner with non-profit organizations on a real estate development project.  The student teams serve as planning consultants to their partner organizations, completing a community needs assessment, site plan, architectural renderings, and a financial feasibility study.  The winning team’s non-profit partner receives a $25,000 cash award.

The Alliance, led by Executive Director Bhairavi Desai, is a leading advocate for the taxi driving community.  “I can't express in words how much this means to us,” Desai said.  “We will be able to expand our staffing, have a precedent for funders, and have indisputable evidence of community support to present to the Port Authority, city council, governor, labor allies, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, and our beloved members.”

The Hunter team’s report outlined the tremendous need among taxi drivers for a major public health intervention.  More than three-quarters of all taxi drivers lack health insurance, and nearly one-quarter have never seen a doctor.  Their long working hours and sedentary working conditions contribute to a host of health issues, and their low pay prevents them from attending to basic health care needs.

The team recommends locating the health and fitness center at JFK’s Central Taxi Holding Lot, where drivers wait up to three hours before being dispatched to pick up a traveler at a terminal.  More than 6,500 drivers enter the lot each day, and the group felt that this was the best opportunity to serve the greatest number of drivers.

The Hunter team’s plan calls for a 7,000-square foot, one-story health and fitness center, comprised primarily of a medical wing and gym, and a landscaped park.  The medical wing would include six exam rooms and allow drivers to receive basic primary care checkups.  The gym would include a mix of cardiovascular and weight-lifting equipment, locker rooms, and physical therapy space, and would accommodate up to 30 clients at a time.

The financing plan calls for a mix of public and private funding.  More than 20 elected officials, including several city council members and two borough presidents, have pledged their support.  In addition, the Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC), a leader in promoting expanded access to primary care for underserved New Yorkers, is involved in the project.

“The Hunter students did an extremely impressive job of taking an intriguing and worthwhile idea and transforming it into a compelling and feasible project proposal," said Nancy Lager, Director of Project Planning at PCDC.  "When the Taxi Workers Alliance approached PCDC with their idea of a health center for taxi drivers, and made a clear cut demonstration of the need and potential benefits, we were delighted to be able to refer them to the Hunter program to flesh out the proposal.  The result is better than we even imagined and we look forward to assisting the Alliance to make this project real."

The team spent the academic year developing the project.  They prepared a 25-page report and presented their work twice to a panel of judges, which included bankers, developers, and non-profit executives.  The team included: students Jessie Chung, Nick Cicero, Brock Doerr, Alison Filosa, Ryan Herchenroether, Cecilia Jagu, John Johnston, Michael Kent, Karen Kleinman, David Salerno, Chisato Shimada, and Laura Stella, and Professors Alice Blank and Sigmund Shipp.

About Hunter
With a highly diverse student population of more than 20,000, Hunter is the largest college in the City University of New York (CUNY) system and the first choice among all CUNY applicants. Founded in 1870, the College offers more than 170 undergraduate and graduate programs. Hunter is noted for its professional schools in education, health sciences, nursing and social work, as well as its excellence in the liberal arts. Heralded as the "Crown Jewel of CUNY" by The Princeton Review, Hunter College has a distinguished reputation for nurturing talented minority scientists and meeting the challenge of providing high-quality science education in the 21st century. The College also oversees the Hunter College Campus Schools serving gifted and talented students, preschool through grade 12. For more information about Hunter College, please visit our Web site at http://www.hunter.cuny.edu.

Back to Top