Individual Contract STUFF

Good news and bad news. The good news is my Individual contract "Big City Sustainability Tour" was approved(YEA!). The funding I planned was not approved(BOOOO!). As I lick my wounds and figure out how to pay my travel expenses, here are my learning objectives for the contract
-Objective 1
To answer the question" Do urban municipal parks in Chicago, New York, and Oakland facilitate sustainable connectedness in terms of ecological democracy?
Activities
Visit municipal Parks in Chicago, New York, and Oakland. Visit four parks in each city and determine whether each park facilitates connectedness between community and environment, business and municipality, or a combination of all four.Use research methods based in ecologically democratic theory . Post my research on a blog.
-Objective 2
To create a dialogue between myself, people who work/represent the municipalities I have researched and plan to visit, and people in the environmental community about where and how communities become connected to form Ecological Democracies. Create a blog to post my past, current, and future Big City Sustainability research and work.
Activities
Communicate via internet(blog,email,etc) with people in my community and in the cities I have researched and plan to visit, about community connectedness and Ecological Democracy Theory in general.
-Objective 3
To compile my research and observations of the cities I have visited and write a paper describing my findings and how they relate to community Connectedness regarding Ecological Democracy theory.
Activities
Write a 1000-1500 word essay on my visits to each city(Chicago,New York,Oakland). The essay's will report on the entities/events in the cities and how they facilitate connectedness in their communities.
-Objective 4
To work with my sponsor and other instructors to improve my academic skills regarding research and writing.
Activities
Receive feedback and suggestions from sponsor and other instructors regarding academic writing and research methods. Work with writing center to go over drafts of essays.

If anyone has any good idea's on how to travel and stay in NYC, Chicago or Oakland, PLEASE let me know. Any academic critiques and suggestions I'm also open too( remember I'm thin skinned and have a huge ego..LOL). I'm pl

anning on traveling during May so I have got to get on it. I will keep you posted