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This second to last week on Mountaintop has been an extremely rewarding one. We have made so many beautiful connections and heard so many beautiful stories from the folks who live here- I truly cannot express my gratitude enough for this experience.

We had a few great interviews as a result of last week’s Facebook post. We learned a lot about how expensive it is to exist in Bethlehem, in terms of both trash and other aspects of home maintenance such as trees and sidewalks. We also gained some insights from Bethlehem committee members, experts in the field of environmental consulting, so it was interesting to hear their perspectives on environmental problems in Bethlehem. We also met with some creatives from Bethlehem, who had such unique and novel perspectives on how trash impacts lives and communities. Most notably, we met with some unhoused folks and also workers at New Bethany- who are incredibly sweet and passionate. Some of the things they shared were very important- like that the unhoused encampments tend be clean, as they risk losing everything due to police sweeps otherwise. In addition, the city provides trash resources for them, which was a bit unexpected in my opinion, but I am so glad to hear this is the case.

We also did some outreach at a community celebration in Yosko Park, where we were able to connect with old friends, meet some new ones, and educate kids and adults alike on our project. Since we do not have approval to interview kids, it was really great to hear from them and their families in a casual and fun setting. We also recruited some more folks from the Southside for the Interview Study, and got acquainted with some other local partners to reach out to about future connections.

We also had the Project Expo this week, which was such a fun and rewarding experience. I loved sharing our research with all who attended, and I was even able to do some networking out of it. It was also really cool to see peers’ posters, and how presentation skills have improved so much over the course of the summer. I think this was really rapid growth for a lot of people, and I am honestly impressed both with these skills, and even all the work that has been accomplished in this short summer.

I’m sad next week is the last week of full time work, but I am excited to meet more people and make more progress on the map and report. I also hope to start transcribing some interviews and drafting some memos

Now that week 8 is coming to a close, there is a lot more comfort and familiarity of the tasks we are doing, which is sad because it means that the summer is almost over. This week we continued working on deliverables and interviews.

On Monday, we spent a lot of time finishing up the poster for the project expo. It is hard to decide what to include and what not, especially when we must balance the accessibility of our information with the more strict research expectations that exist in academia. Regardless, I think we have a nice middle ground of being suitable for residents while also appeasing Lehigh academics and other stakeholders. It was also important to emphasize CBPR in the project, as it is integral to our methods and decisions, as well as being worthwhile to highlight since it is often overlooked in research expos like this one.

We also did a few interviews, both with residents and key informants. Our key informant interview was very insightful because they live in the Northside and work in the Southside. We were able to hear many helpful Southside perspectives. We also scheduled more interviews, courtesy of the Complainers of Bethlehem Facebook group, of all places. Apparently, people on Facebook who love to complain also love to give their opinions and personal qualms and hopes and dreams. In other news, I am now considered a Top Contributor on Facebook, something I never saw coming. As a result of a resident interview, we may now have an “in” with a longtime Southside resident with many connections historically, which is good. We also gave out more fliers at the Public and Green Space Meeting, where we further got more names of people to interview, so I think the next two weeks will be busy with that.

In addition, Shelby and I did a walking audit of the Northside to investigate places that had been brought up repeatedly to us in interviews. The Rose Garden is not as bad, Sand Island is quite bad. We found a baby turtle who had made his home in a Styrofoam takeout container. So we have many more places to add to the map, as well as more places to investigate and photograph.

We also had a meeting regarding a news story for the project which is very exciting, and I’m glad the word is being spread about to project so that we can reach as many residents as possible. I hope we continue to create impact for this vibrant, kind, passionate community.

I definitely jinxed myself last week… this week has been far busier than last, which is very exciting and I’m glad we were able to accomplish so much this week.

Shelby, Kate, and I conducted several amazing interviews with residents, key informants, and community partners, and even some community guides in the process. In addition, we were able to meet many helpful innovators in residence who have provided much help in the qualitative aspects of our research. Many interviews were conducted in person this week, which has been such a lovely experience. It is so great to listen to people and hear their different stories.

We have also been working on our poster for the upcoming Project Expo. Its honestly a struggle because there is so much information that feels important enough to include, but there’s only so much one can adequately put on a poster while still looking professional and being readable.

We also continued to recruit and make new connections with some local Bethlehem business, as well as non-profits such as Lehigh Valley Trash Pact.

We are collecting so much information, so next steps will be uploading all of the recordings from our devices onto our laptops, so that the information can be transcribed and potentially coded as well. It has been interesting to hear similar things from residents- such as a hatred for the parking authority, but a desire for a trash authority equivalent, as well as wishes for city-wide compost. Also, it seems that while single-hauler is more supported than ever, it genuinely might not be the best solution for Bethlehem. I think we need to hear more from Southside residents living in the highly densely populated areas- which will hopefully happen soon thanks to connections from Carolina Hernandez and Diane Elliot. Regardless, there are many alternate solutions we can now look into for the city, such as compost, more education, more enforcement, etc. as well as implementing large collection days for items like Styrofoam and batteries.

A struggle this week has definitely been organization, since there is so many paper notes, consent forms, guides, fliers, gift cards, thank-yous, etc. so a goal of mine for next week is to be more organized and on top of materials!

I am excited to continue meeting with residents and experts next week!

I am writing this blog post in between all of the press conferences that have been happening on the Mountain today- to give an idea of how busy this week has been. Now that we have IRB approval, and started recruiting, we have been continuing to recruit, conducting outreach, and even starting interviews and gathering other materials.

After attending a park clean up over the weekend, I was able to learn about a great networking opportunity through a picnic hosted by Lehigh Valley 4 All, a political activism group. We also started out the week by receiving our recording devices, which Shelby and I played around with. In addition, we created a shortened version of our interview guide of must-hit points. This was actually originally suggested to us by Rachel Leon at our semester recap meeting this past Spring, and proved to be quite useful during an interview today in which there was a bit of a time crunch. It is so exciting that we were able to finally conduct our first resident interview today. I was honestly surprised by some of the data- such as that they did not perceive Bethlehem to be dirty, whereas Allentown and Easton were.

Throughout the week, Shelby and I emailed and called folks who filled out the interest form and seemed to be legit (since we have now hundred of spammy emails and numbers) and began scheduling both resident and Key Informant Interviews for the coming weeks.

We also conducted a KI interview, which was good practice since we are more comfortable with the KIs that we know than residents for the most part. Ultimately, it is more formal than I anticipated, but this could also be a novelty aspect.

We also placed more recruitment fliers this week, as well as attended the Bethlehem Farmers Market in the hopes of recruiting people there. It is nice to be out in the community, so I think this is something we will continue to do in the future, especially considering how many residents attend.

The main focus of the week was prepping for the Press Conferences- which I believe was quite successful! The audience was engaged and we received great questions throughout. I am excited to continue interviews next week, as we have planned to have our first in person interviews, definitely different than the interviews we have been doing over zoom.

We also might look into tabling, so we have been planning out the necessary supplies as well as creating merch to be able to do this more successfully in community.

Happy week 5! It truly amazes me how quickly the summer has gone by. I am finishing up week 5 here at Mountaintop, which is already halfway over. We have gotten so much done, but there is still so much more to be done.

Monday morning was spent mostly in the Southside, as Shelby and I conducted a walking audit in the morning, and had a team meeting with Kate in the afternoon. During our walking audit, we noticed 4 areas of concern as we canvassed a few city blocks. Much were dumping and trash pile up. Separately, I was able to document some homes near me on Boyer Street, as there is bulk items and loose trash cans ever-present on the street. During our meeting with Kate, we were able to discuss some articles we read on the process of qualitative interviewing, as well as notable research we had found in the literature thus far. From there, we decided what aspects to add to our interview guide, as well as how we should collect our data. Kate and Shelby looked into recording devices, as well as data analysis software specifically created for qualitative analysis. I also reached out to some friends regarding vests and creating a design for our team- so that we have personalized, visible clothing to wear when we are out in the field. Designs and taglines pending!

Wednesday was very exciting because we got word our research was approved, and we were clear to start interviewing! Thus, Shelby and I went through and continued to edit the interview guide, as well as prepare our recruitment materials. On Wednesday we were also able to practice our pitch for the press conferences.

Thursday we were able to start putting out our recruitment fliers, and continued interview prep as well as literature research/ review. Unfortunately, we found out that the restrictions on the interest form severely limited access as to who could sign up, which was stressful, and definitely a learning moment for me (check everything- with every email account!) but Shelby managed to get it fixed during the Environmental Advisory Council Meeting that evening. At that meeting, we also learned about the importance of trees and green space, and how the Southside has extremely bad tree equity, which was very interesting. Shelby and I were also able to introduce our project to the group, and forge some new connections with various subcommittee members. We also sent fliers to some community partners and got great feedback about locations to post them, which was very helpful.

Friday we woke up to a lot of responses to our interest form! Like, too many. Like, multiple per second. Who knew bots were so efficient at creating spam email accounts? Unfortunately, we tried adding different “walls” which honestly do not seem to be working- and it is hard to distinguish between what could possibly be a real email address and what is a fake. So, this is kind of stressful even though I know we have so many meaningful relationships already and can gather participants through the snowball effect.

In addition, we were able to meet with Becky Mer, an “Innovator in Residence” who provided us many helpful insights. For example, in addition to conducting walking audits, we could also table in the community as a means to spread the word and recruit people. Similarly, since Kathy Frederick is so versed in tech/communications, she suggested reaching out to the CSO and the library, as did Janine.

Hopefully, we were able to get contact info for real residents and can start interviews next week!

This week was similar to last week, as Shelby and I continued to conduct heavy amounts of literature research. I focused on physical and mental consequences of pollution and trash in general. It is important to account for different types of pollution as many are relevant to multi-hauler trash. Multi-hauler trash causes an increase in TRAP (traffic-related air pollution), an increase in noise pollution, and is overall more traffic on the roads. In addition, trash can have direct and indirect health effects, so it is important to note all of these in our literature report being presented to the community. Directly, trash and landfills attract bugs and other pests that can spread diseases to humans. Indirectly, the presence of trash can put stress on the mind and body, which can be a risk factor for mental health disorders such as anxiety and schizophrenia. Notably, this is the first time I’m citing research in APA instead of MLA, which is crazy considering I’m an incoming junior, but I am glad I am learning it now.

In more exciting news, our team met with Mike Halbfoerster at the Recycling Office at City Hall this week! We met to discuss their complaint map, the complaint process, as well as context and history for trash and recycling in Bethlehem. He offered many insights into the process of recycling, as well as the quite lengthy administrative processes that go into filing trash complaints. Importantly, he noted that there are not *more* complaints from the Southside when compared to the Northside, which is not what most people assume is the case. I also did not anticipate how long it took to handle trash complaints. It can take months for action to be taken that finally yields desired results. We also discussed taking a tour of the recycling facility in August. In all, it was interesting to compare the complaint map and the recycling map to the trash map.

The theme for the league check-in this week was essentially comparing our project to existing solutions, which was a good reminder of how our project and map will be uniquely helpful compared to what the city already has. This was definitely the most productive league meeting we have had thus far, as we had many audience questions. The main takeaway was that the student population knows next to nothing about the city’s trash and recycling policies. People had no clue the city did not do trash, they did not know that all the different companies had different pick up days, different rules, etc. I’m glad we were able to inform the small group, but it leaves me wondering how we can remedy this Lehigh specific issue in the future at a larger scale. Especially since students are huge contributors to trash in the Southside- informing them of the problem might go really far in remedying this aspect of the issue.

Shelby also had a fundraising event for the farm she works at this week, so I went with her and we did some community outreach in terms of making more residents aware of our project as she tabled for the farm. We continued this outreach as educators from a local community college were at Mountaintop meeting some of the project teams. We got some very helpful insights from them, such as a mapping software called CalTopo which we should definitely look into, as it had so many cool features such as background layering opacity, parcel IDS, and more- and is a free software for the basic version.

Lastly, we really got into preparation for our qualitative interviews for when the IRB gets approved (since the previous IRB work was just edits we had to make before submitting). This included going over our interview materials as well as researching different types of qualitative interview methods such as probing, the docent method, photomapping, go-alongs, etc.

Overall, this week was slower than previous weeks, but productive nonetheless! We wanted to do more walking audits this week but couldn’t, as the air quality has been bad again recently.

This week was kind of strange in terms of spacing, as I did a lot of stuff for the project Saturday, and then was off Monday for Juneteenth. Regardless, this was another literature focused research week, with some community events throughout.

Saturday started bright and early with a clean up hosted by Community Action at the Martin Luther King Jr Park. It was so nice to see some familiar faces- like Rachel Leon and Anna Smith- and exciting to meet some new ones! Notably, Lupe Martinez, a 50 year Southside resident super passionate about getting Bethlehem cleaner, as well as Reset Outdoors, an organization dedicated to improving mental health with green space activities. It was a super nice day, and it was fun to see so many kids playing in a now cleaner park. Later on, me and Shelby attended the Juneteenth festival that was happening at the ArtsQuest. It was such a lively event, and I got to hear all kinds of new music, as well as watch insanely talented dance groups of kids of all ages.

Tuesday started with a meeting with Kate, where we discussed some more more revisions with the IRB for the project proposal, as well as plans to create a final literature report that we can hand over to the community. This is important information that they need so that they can be better informed on the issues of trash, pollution, and environmental justice. However, information from academic journals is extremely inaccessible, as we only get access through Lehigh. Thus, a majority of the week has been spent reading and taking notes on a very many journal articles ranging from medical anthropology to environmental science. We also discussed acquiring funding for supplies we’d need for clean-ups and other events we’d host with residents.

Wednesday had a very early start, as Shelby and I had plans to conduct a walking audit and clean up with Kathy Frederick of LVCleanUp, who so generously took the time on a weekday to pick up trash for 2 hours near 5th and 6th streets. It is honestly crazy to see how much more trash there was as I walked in that direction- which I have since learned is most likely due to the Southside Ambassadors cleaning up around 3rd and 4th streets. We collected a lot of normal household trash- wrappers, bottles, etc. Most notably was the FOUR HUNDRED AND FORTY ONE cigarette butts I had picked up in that time. (side note: save these to recycle next time! I learned at the Public and Green Space on Friday that there are now receptacles in which to recycle solely cigarette butts.) We also got to chat with some residents, some who thanked us, and others who thought we’d be able to dispose of bulk items and construction furniture (which we cannot).

Uniquely, was a man who talked to us covered in purple stains. He explained he was picking mulberries, and how angry he was at the lack of female trees in Bethlehem. Apparently, the city only plants male trees as they will not produce fruit. Shelby was intrigued by this and did some separate research and actually came to the conclusion that Bethlehem does not allow fruit or nut trees- as they’d “attract pests” and would “disrupt” soil, which is insane to me because trash attracts more pests than anything else (obviously an opinionated statement). It is infuriating that so many people struggle to obtain healthy and nutritious food because of policies like this- but this is not a problem currently on the agenda.

Better news was that Dr Jackson officially submitted the project proposal to the IRB! More amazing news is that the project was approved for funding from the Southside Initiative! Thanks to Kate for doing that work, Seth for approving it, and everyone else a part of the SSI for seeing the potential of the project.

On Friday, Community Mapping and Permaculture Park teams attending the Bethlehem community and public green space committee meeting- where we were able to hear various news and updates from the community, as well as present about our projects and receive questions and/ or feedback. We learned of some more community events as well as got closer to Lupe- who is so sweet and passionate. In addition, we were told of a tabling opportunity at a community celebration in a few weeks- so we will definitely look into the logistics to be able to do this. It was such a great week with so many lovely connections and I can’t help but express my gratitude for this experience. It is so refreshing and inspiring to be surrounded by such zeal and kindness from strangers and partners alike.

As the ball has just started rolling on this project, there have been many firsts for me this week, the theme of which being our IRB approval. We got all preliminary IRB things done by Monday, including the application as well as some supplemental materials, such as recruitment posters. Our meeting with Dr Jackson was at Café the Lodge Monday morning, which was the best way to start the week! (they have giant iced chai lattes for very cheap.)

Originally, we did not know if we would need recruitment materials or not as we were going to find people via the snowball effect- meeting others through pre-existing connections- but ultimately discussed at our meeting that we would need more interviews than what this method could provide, and we also have to consider the representation of our sample, further demonstrating that we should be utilizing as many avenues as possible for finding residents to interview. We also discussed the types of interviews we’d be conducting, as we had to distinguish between resident interviews, key informant interviews, and focus groups.

On Tuesday, we got our first round of IRB feedback. It went better than we envisioned, but I am permanently mortified by a spelling error in a recruitment flier I had submitted. Always triple check your work! (since checking it twice was clearly not enough). Regardless, I spent a majority of my time on Wednesday doing an overhaul of our recruitment materials- they were too wordy and nobody will read them when information is presented in such a way. I made fliers for a community consultant position, a document translation position, as well as for resident interviews and resident focus groups. Our key informants do not need to be recruited since many are community partners we have already met with, and who are involved through their work. Along with fliers, I made QR codes corresponding to interest forms for all aforementioned fliers, as well as added all links into the Linktree. Hopefully, we will be able to start distributing the QR codes to the Linktree at local businesses so that the project is able to gain more traction amongst Bethlehem residents.

Tuesday afternoon was also extremely exciting because we were invited to go to city council where we were able to meet with around 10 different government officials all related to trash in Bethlehem. Hopefully this meeting was the first of many discussions on how we can come together to work towards a solution for how trash is handled. Currently, all of us had been independently working, but now there is more of a foundation for our many parties to collaborate and combine/ share knowledge. Most notably, we were able to meet Mike Halbfoerster, Jessica Lucas, and Shari Penchishen, undoubtedly key players.

Mike has a multitude of experience, as he currently works as Director of Recycling, but has experience working at different trash hauling companies, as well as being on Easton and Allentown administrations as they transitioned from multi- to single-hauler in the 80s and 90s. This allows for a unique dual perspective on the issue. In addition, his department is the one receiving all complaints about trash, and they have been working to map and categorize these complaints- which is extremely useful data. Similarly, Jessica has been Environmental Director and experienced firsthand what it was like to try and get a single-hauler policy passed in Bethlehem. She went as far as to say that the beratement and hostility she was met with at city hall meetings across at least 2 different administrations gave her “PTSD”.

Honestly, this makes me a little afraid that the community will never get the results they desire. It was made clear at the meeting that a quiet majority is pro single-hauler, but that it is the minority (anti single-hauler) who is always the loudest at city council meetings. Hopefully this means the work we are doing to engage and inform the community will be a more unique and successful approach.

Some other solutions/ future resources include work from Shari, as she mentioned conducting GIS surveys to inform neighborhood based solutions.

Overall, some takeaways from the meeting were that we really have to consider the roles of large vs small hauling companies, and that Allentown and Easton will be great resources for future guidance in terms of outlining a potential plan for Bethlehem. We also should consider interviewing district judges. A key takeaway was that we learned the four major complaints regarding trash in Bethlehem, which came predominately from the Southside: material overflow, bins being left out beyond mandated hours, furniture, and illegal dumping.

When we returned from city council, Shelby and I attended our first League Meeting, which led to same great insights from other project teams. Notably, someone in the Biological Software group mentioned showing us some cool things in ArcGIS, and then someone else making us aware of an app called NextDoor which should be a really helpful tool to meet community members and further look into problems residents are commonly facing. In addition, it might be helpful when determining microneighborhoods and their boundaries within the Southside which we were considering looking into to see if microneighborhoods had already been working towards their own solutions by all deciding to use the same hauler, etc.

A lot of Thursday was spent doing more research- in which I focused on Allentown and Easton’s trash and recycling policies. If Bethlehem residents do want to go single-hauler, a plan is needed first in order for the city to consider it. Allentown and Easton have very efficient pick ups, even allowing for the removal of bulk items and construction materials weekly. If Bethlehem were to implement something like this, I imagine that illegal dumping would be less of an issue. There is definitely more research to be done, as Shelby is also looking into Bethlehem policy and ordinances.

Friday morning we received a second round of IRB feedback, so we will be looking into those notes, as well as continuing research on Bethlehem recycling, as well as trash and recycling policies in Allentown and Easton. We also created our presentation for next week’s League meeting, and planned out community events to attend in the coming days and weeks.

Any further feedback would be appreciated!

First things first- welcome and thank you to whoever has made it to my blog! My name is Amy Zimmerman, incoming junior at Lehigh University, and I am incredibly excited to be sharing this work with you. I’m sure you have noticed the incredibly lengthy project title, Community Mapping for Environmental Justice in Collaboration with Southside Bethlehem, and are perhaps wondering why it is so wordy, and that surely shorter titles are more efficient and more easily remembered? Ultimately, every aspect of the title is important to communicating the scope of this work. The emphasis on Community Mapping as opposed to mapping shows the necessity of the community to the research; Environmental Justice is what we are striving to achieve for the community as a result of this research; and members of the Southside are equal contributors to this project, and we owe it to them to include them in its name.

Essentially, our project is (hopefully) a testament to CBPR: Community-Based Participatory Research. Thus, community partners are included and considered part of the research team. They help formulate research questions, guide and inform data collection, provide their uniquely helpful perspective, and are there to provide the researchers with insights and intel that we otherwise would not even think to consider. While this project is still extremely young, and we have only recently constructed questions and themes to guide the research during this past spring semester, I would like to express my gratitude and joy at the long list of community partners and Bethlehem residents that have already provided feedback, data, and helped inform the beginnings of this research. Notably, Anna Smith of Community Action Bethlehem, Councilwoman Rachel Leon, Southside Ambassador Sandy Zajacek, Leo Rooney, environmental stewardship developer, and Kathy Frederick of the (semi-)famous LVCleanup pages on Facebook and Instagram. In addition, I would like to thank the project’s faculty mentor, Dr Kate Jackson, for having built so many meaningful relationships in her short time in the Southside and has in general been beyond passionate and inspiring in regards to conducting research and helping people through a CBPR lens.

With the help of those aforementioned, and more folks to come, myself and Shelby Carr (my fellow Fellow, if you will) will work alongside community members to create an interactive map to help inform the city of Bethlehem, allowing for resident empowerment so that they feel confident and able to fight for change in their community- whatever change that may be. Thus, the main goals for our team are to gather, organize, and consolidate information from various sources so that relevant data is accessible and easy to digest so that all people, regardless of status, language, race, education level, etc. are able to feel knowledgeable and aware of possible solutions.

Much of this first week on Mountaintop was spent refamiliarizing myself with existing data, as well as analyzing new sources. This project started in one of my health classes, CGH/HMS 375- Community-Based Participatory Research Methodology (even though CBPR is not a method, it is a guide), and there was already much information in our Shared Google Drive. Specifically, preliminary trash hotspots and illegal dumpsites, case studies, literature reviews, and previous meeting notes. In addition, I read up on Bethlehem’s Climate Action Plan, as well as missions of various Bethlehem groups such as the Green Space Committee, the Food and Waste Committee, and the Environmental Advisory Council.

I also worked to compile a spreadsheet of contact information for all current and potential community partners, as their insights and roles will be invaluable to the data we are able to collect, and the trust we can hopefully build within the community. Similarly, I searched for events and community meetings and made a shared Calendar so that project team members can be involved in the community throughout the summer and to hopefully form new relationships and gain insights as a result.

Some things I’ve learned this week: while ArcGIS seems like a scary and complicated software- internet tutorials (and Shelby) have been extremely helpful in demonstrating its many uses, IRB Proposals and consent forms were more straightforward than anticipated, and that this summer is probably going to be the most rewarding and busy summer I have had thus far!

Things that might pose a challenge include actually including every single detail we want on the map in a concise way, finding a translator and getting everything translated expeditiously for IRB purposes, and not doubting my ability to write blog posts 😉

To close out this blog post, might I suggest heading over to our brand new Project Blog, https://sites.google.com/view/communitymappingej/home, and following our Instagram, @mapping4environmentaljustice

^ feedback is so incredibly important to the work we are doing, so thank you in advance for reaching out!

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