Tamika Camille Gauvin

Tamika Camille Gauvin is a candidate for the Master of City Planning from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at M.I.T.

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Full Bio

Tamika Camille Gauvin is a candidate for the Master of City Planning from the
Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Tamika holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago
and worked in Information Technology Training at Morgan Stanley. She is making
a career change into urban planning where she is interested in doing work
related to maintaining and promoting affordable housing in urban
revitalizations.

Urban Renewal: Tragedies and Ironies Yesterday and Today

One of the most interesting things that I have learned in school thus far is the history of the urban renewal program. As a budding urban planner, I have often used the term “urban renewal” interchangeably with “urban revitalization” to describe the process of neighborhood improvement via economic and housing development. Regardless of the term I used, I was very clear that revitalization – or renewal – was a catch-22. The implementation of business and housing developments would jumpstart a neighborhood deemed blighted and consequently, only affluent residents could afford to enjoy the amenities of the revitalized neighborhood.

New Orleans on My Mind

Last Thursday night marked the end of an intense two-week team project in my Gateway: Planning (a kind of Introduction to Planning) course. In this project, my classmates and I assumed the role of consultants to a fictitious working group of the real-life New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) and prepared and delivered oral briefings on key challenges to post-Katrina housing recovery.

Orientations, Courses, and Riding the Figurative Bike

This week will be my first full week of classes at MIT; however, I have actually been here for three. I arrived into Cambridge at the end of August to attend the weeklong department orientation, which was as orientations are – full of very important yet-easy-to-forget information. Alone, the pressure of learning nearly 65 names can induce periodic episodes of amnesia.

The Accidental Planner

I clearly remember the day that I received a call from MIT faculty notifying me of my acceptance into the Master of City Planning (MCP) program. I could not believe that a department within the illustrious MIT (and I do not say that facetiously), the epitomic bastion of computer geeks, rocket scientists and the like selected me for its MCP program. Moreover, the path that led me to that moment was somewhat accidental. My interest in urban planning, though earnest and fervent today, was not grounded in even the slightest exposure to urban planning or urban design in my pre-MIT life.

Tamika Camille Gauvin