Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)
In Spring 2021, I enrolled in Engineering, Environment, and Society, a UC Berkeley course "engaging at the intersection of environmental justice, social justice, and engineering to demonstrate how problems that are commonly defined in technical terms are at their roots deeply socially embedded" (course site). My colleague and I supported APEN in how to help Richmond residents at risk of foreclosure.
Background
APEN brings together a collective voice to develop an alternative agenda for environmental, social, and economic justice. Through building an organized movement, they strive to bring fundamental changes to economic and social institutions that will prioritize public good over profits and promote the right of every person to a decent, safe, affordable quality of life, and the right to participate in decisions affecting our lives.
Problem Statements
Homes in Richmond that are at risk of will be bought out by investors, kicking out long-time residents.
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Through previous survey data of Richmond residents, the APEN Richmond community organizer informed us that more and more residents were becoming at risk of foreclosure. The percentage of units at risk by area in Richmond was double that of the state of California and the rest of the county.
Ask
Community Land Trusts (CLTs)
APEN tasked us with researching potential revenue streams to support community land trusts power to buy land/properties. This information would help APEN and Richmond Coalition members decide which policies to pursue to get land preservation funds for the Community Land Trust.​
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A community land trust (CLT) is a nonprofit corporation that holds land on behalf of a community. It serves as the long-term steward for affordable housing and other community assets on behalf of a community. The most important part of our task was to figure out how APEN could secure funding for a CLT so they could establish their CLT with partner organizations such as Richmond Land.
Research
We interviewed other CLTs in the area, such as the project manager for the BayArea CLT, researched previous successful preservation funds and CLTs within the Bay Area, and looked at statistics regarding foreclosure risk to validate the need for CLTs and inform our audience of the gravity of the issue.
Changing the layout of the farmers’ market
Pandemic Layout
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COVID capacity limitations (# of shoppers in the market)
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two main points of entrance (rather than entering from anywhere) that control the inflow and outflow of people, with two employees available to manage this flow
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people in lines required to stand a certain number of feet apart
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may not be worthwhile with increasing vaccination rates and decreasing restrictions
Regular Layout
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focus on increasing the number of vendors at the farmers’ market
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agricultural vendors and non-agricultural vendors must be clustered together
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stalls dislike being moved around, as they notice a drop in demand immediately following a change in market location
Both Layouts
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cannot change the physical location of the entire farmers' market
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employee capacity
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minimal data to model market capacity: must be collected manually in-person at the market
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Annual Paperwork System
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no capacity to use a databases system (onboarding and budget constraints)
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currently using Google Sheets and Google Drive, all information and documents stored there
Data Collection
Changing the layout of the farmers’ market
Metrics
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rate customers enter/leave the market
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# of customers that pass through every hour
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queuing within the market
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customer servicing times
Collection Methods
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time lapse videos of people moving around the market to find congestion points
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recording line lengths for every stall
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timing service times for each customers, finding the max and min service times
Annual Paperwork System
Collection Methods
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interviewing the operations team to understand the current workflow in Google Sheets
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diagram workflow and download existing paperwork data
Market Layout: Findings and Recommendations
Isolate Busy Vendors
One vendor's line ended up growing too long and overflowed outside of the market. This overflow resulted in customers confusing the vendor line for the line to get into the market, instantiating a moment where the market did not allocate enough space for a vendor’s line. The farmers’ market’s operations team decided to move that vendor to the street side adjacent to the park rather than buildings, so the stall’s line was structured to overflow into the park instead of the street or market. Due to our team’s observations both before and after this transition, we were able to notice that the overall crowding of the market decreased and flow improved.
Place more vendors in "dead zones"
The area around the information booth has significant dead space. The vendors in this area did not get busy enough to justify the size of their line space allocation. Therefore, it appears that another vendor could likely be added into this area.
General vs Specialized vendors
The longest lines at the farmers' market are for farms that sell a wide variety of produce. Other stalls that specialize in tinctures or granola rarely have more than 3-4 people in line. We recommend that the busier general stalls be placed on the park side of the streets; this will allow them to be kept close together as their lines can be overflowed into the park itself. The less busy stalls should be placed on the non-park sides of the street; they can then be kept close together as they do not need large line allocation space.
Create a 2 way street
The middle central path often becomes congested with lines, people running into each other, or people walking in opposite directions and bumping into each other. The farmers' market could consider creating a 2 way street with cones or chalk so people move through the market consistent. People will experience less congestion and a heightened market experience as a product of easier navigation through the market.
Annual Paperwork System: Workflow Recommendations
Airtable ended up being the best balance of a more organized and automated database with ease of use and understanding. In order to make the transition from Google Sheets to Airtable easier, we tried to make the workflow and tables similar to their current workflow.
Vendor Table: This includes all vendor contact information and core information like whether they are an agriculture or non-agriculture vendor. On the sidebar, we set up example views with filters that employees can easily switch to (ie. Tuesday Vendors, Ag Vendors, etc.).
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Problem: When employees requested vendors to fill out the required annual documentation, they had to send multiple back-and-forth emails and then manually update the spreadsheet and Google Drive folders with the correct data and attachments.
Solution: In order to automate the workflow, we set up the "Forms" view on Airtable which would allow BFM to send out forms that vendors could fill out. The recorded answers, which can include attachments, would automatically populate in the Airtable database.
02
Problem: The marketing manager often had to send emails to vendors with missing materials or expired certifications. With Google Sheets, this involved manually checking a spreadsheet column for expired certifications (color-coded) and then emailing each vendor about their documentation.
Solution: We implemented an email automation tool on Airtable that would send an email automatically to a vendor whenever the current date surpassed the expiration date. This automated email autofilled the vendor's email, subject line, and body.
03
Problem: Whenever a vendor received an infraction, a manager would have to send an email to the vendor and update the Google Sheet manually. Because there are a lot of infractions per farmers’ market, emailing all the vendors took a lot of time.
Solution: We set up an email automation with different infraction templates that managers could use to send out to vendors. When an infraction is entered into the table, an email is automatically sent to that vendor. Because the tables are linked, the vendor email is auto-populated.
Challenges and Learnings
Working with non-technical clients
The Berkeley Farmers’ Market team is unfamiliar with simulations, modeling, and databases. We needed to balance application of classes over the years with practicality so that the market team could understand our results and use our work. Overloading the client with too much technical information would turn our proposed solutions into problems and burdens for them.
Test data as its being collected
Our first few rounds of data, while collected accurately, ended up being the wrong kind of data, which resulted in uncertain and inaccurate models. The variable service times of customers made the queuing model yield infinite lines. Luckily, we were able to change direction before we spent all the remaining weeks collecting this data, and focus on line lengths and time lapses to provide recommendations to our clients.