By Geoff I. Bradley, AICP, President and Principal at M-Group
What makes a bad City? A good one? What’s “Density,” “Out of Scale,” “Walkability,” and “Urban Design?” What do planners do everyday?
I spent about an hour at the Salinas La Paz Middle School with about 300 thirteen to fifteen-year-olds enrolled in the AVID program (“Advancement via Individual Determination” program that helps students get ready for college). We talked about what sense of place, green cities, transit-oriented development, air quality, and accessible design meant.
At the end of the session I asked students to consider how these concepts would relate to their own lives, including what they could do to make their City more fun to hang out in, what they could do to make their neighborhood a safer one at night, and imagine what the City could look like if it had less cars.
To encourage students who want to become planners and give them a sense of direction, I also encouraged students to work on Writing and English, geography, history and math, try their hand at sketching and drawing on computers, travel and read, and overall develop their observation and questioning skills.
After the talk I received a few hundred letters from students saying thank you and what they learned about city planning. Here are some quotes:
“One thing I liked about your presentation was all the illustrations, because it made the presentation more interesting and enjoyable to see. I also liked how everything you explained was easy to understand and interpret. I learned what a city planner does and I also learned what I should do to become one, which will be very useful.”
“One thing that I learned is that being a city planner is not boring. I will use this experience and use it by not making fun of city planners and have respect for them.”
This experience was very rewarding for me both personally and professionally. It reminded me in a very powerful way of why planning matters and why we do what we do. I would like to thank the staff, teachers and students at La Paz Middle School for this incredible experience!