Cross Keys High School students plan Buford Highways

future
www.reporternewspapers.net /2016/03/04/cross-keys-students-plan-buford-highways-future/
John Ruch
Posted by John Ruch on March 4, 2016.
On a recent Friday at Cross Keys High School, students in Rebekah Morriss ninth-grade English class
were studying something unusual: their own community along Buford Highway.
In the Buford Highway Project, 90 students are drafting their own visions for improving the rapidly redeveloping
corridors safety, accessibility and quality of life. The top reports will be delivered to city governments that have
official Buford Highway plansmost developed with little or no such input from residents of the famously diverse
community along the road.
I just wanted to make a real-world connection to [answer the questions], Why do we
need to read? Why do we need to write? Why do we need to make presentations?
said Morris. This is a real-world way to make them see, My thoughts matter today.
Several students said the class project is eye-opening. Theyre excited about some
government ideas, like pedestrian safety fixes and the proposed Peachtree Creek
Greenway park. Other ideas arent going over as well, such as Brookhavens 2014
study that called for rebranding the corridor as Buford Boulevard and replacing
affordable apartments with mixed-income housing.
Why are they going to change the name? Weve been Buford Highway for so long,
said Lisa Sims, whose family lives on Clairmont Road. Imagine your name is Jim and
you change it to Tom. Everybodys still going to call you Jim.

Cross Keys High teacher

Rebekah Morris, who is leading
her class in the Buford Highway
Project. (Special)

I live in BrookhavenEvery little chance they get, they tear something down and replace it with houses her family
couldnt afford, Sims added.
When I was younger, I used to live in those apartments. We didnt have much money, said Johnathan Vargas,
summing up his concern: How these people are making changes to our community and most of them dont even
live here.
The Buford Highway Project assignment came out of Morriss conversations with Marian Liou of We Love BuHi, a
new program aiming to promote and preserve the corridors cultural diversity. Liou praised the class for improving
community engagement in an immigrant community with language and cultural barriers and perhaps a lack of a
strong civic tradition.
I think empowering students to become active stakeholders in their own lives is especially important in areas like
Buford Highway because they often mediate the world for their parents, Liou said. These students can take what
theyve learned home and share that enthusiasm and sense of ownership with their parents.
Several students said language barriers are an issue for their parents, who speak Spanish or, for one students
family, the Ethiopian language Amharic. With no translators available at most government meetings, that keeps their
families home.
Maybe they think no one would pay attention to their opinion because they dont speak the language, said Zujey

Ramirez. But I think they should [be included] because theyre the ones who live here.
The students have no hesitation about sharing their opinions. As part of the project, some of them attended a recent
Doraville City Council meeting to hear the citys development plans and to share their own.
And the student visions, while still in rough draft form, are brimming with ideas. Architecture and the environment
are focuses of one presentation, created by a team of students, including Leticia Arcila, Faysal Ando, Dinamis
Roblero-Lopez, Cindy Ramirez and Zujey Ramirez. They call for a mix of modern architecture and antique stores,
along with a local art museum.

More green space, trails and trees with decorative lighting are other ideas. Ando noted that many Buford Highway
apartments are like a forest in the back, but have barren front yards. The students offer some ideas for fundraisers
to pay for it all and solar panels to power it.
Ando also joined students Vladimir Castillo and Osmany Gaitan in a street safety plan. Its personal for Ando, who
lives on a stretch of Buford that has a dirt trail instead of a sidewalk. Ive almost gotten run over a couple times, he
said.
Most of the students said they
would like to ride bikes on Buford,
but are afraid to. Cindy Ramirez
said she goes to Chamblees
Dresden Park to ride her bike
safely.
The students agreed that cultural
diversity is their favorite thing about
Buford Highwayand that their
biggest worry is losing it to
displacement and gentrification.
Diversity, cultureI guess thats
what makes a community, said
Zujey Ramirez, raising
Brookhavens proposal to
redevelop apartment buildings. I
have questions, because what
would happen to the people in the
buildings right now? Would they be
kicked out of their homes or placed
in another city?

Cross Keys students Lisa Sims (left) and Johnathan Vargas discuss the Buford Highway Project in
their classroom. (Photo John Ruch)

We need a plan to also keep people here, said Roblero-Lopez.

As the students work on their proposals, Morris is arranging opportunities for them to share their ideas with elected
officials, the Atlanta Regional Commission and activist groups like the MARTA Army . She also aims to hold an open
house for parents, officials and the general public to view the final presentations.
Meanwhile, the students said that studying their changing community is already changing them. It feels like doing
something that will alter our lives, Ando said.

Facebook Comments:
comments

From left, Cross Keys students Dinamis Roblero-Lopez, Cindy Ramirez, Zujey Ramirez and Faysal
Ando gather around laptops displaying their Buford Highway presentations. (Photo John Ruch)