Planning to plan

Some ideas take a long time to germinate and grow. Some of you may know that I've been harboring a creeping interest in urban planning / transit since my early college days in Missoula. You could even say that I had a childhood interest in city planning that dates back to SimCity.

Early on in university, when I was working for the computer helpdesk, I met Bob Giordano who heads theMissoula Institute for Sustainable Transportation. I helped out occasionally with MIST and FreeCycles (though not nearly as much as I should have in retrospect). Mostly from that involvement, and from my journalism courses at UM, I've developed strong feelings about such things as roundabouts, bike lanes, road diets, pedestrian malls, urban greenways, public transit, public policy, and city government.

Though working in IT has been a valuable experience, and has afforded us the opportunity to move across the globe, I can't suppress the nagging feeling that I'm abandoning my civic idealism. That and the diminishing allure of IT for me has me considering my next career move. Though I typically reserve the right to be fickle in such matters, I've decided to commit to going to grad school to become an urban planner, probably in the US, in less than two years.

By making some sort of public statement to friends, family, and strangers on the Internet, I'm trying to hold my own feet to the fire on this one. On those dark and rainy winter nights this next year, when I'm more inclined to surf reddit, chat online, or watch TV than read planning literature, I'll know I can't slack.

Toward these ends, I've started reading the books outlined in MIT's Open Courseware courses on urban planning. I've already finished the first book in just a few days. The architecture and planning library at the University of Auckland rocks, and I've already got the second book on my list. My review is forthcoming.