The conflicting nature and tradeoffs of planning: The case of the flooded trail

Walking the streets–or Northampton’s case, its trails–is when a person learns about the environment. We took a pre-lunch walk with Joe along the Smith College Trail, which runs right beside the Mill River.

We were also left with a few lessons on the reality of what planning work entails because of an eroded part of the trail. This is a micro-level example of something that planners have to deal with, but it’s a fascinating case for me all the same, because of the public-private interplay on land. It was also a good case for my buddy Fai, who is an environmental engineer working on phytoremediation. Let’s take a closer look.

 

About the trail

The red line shows the entirety of the Smith College trail. (Take note of the terrain elevations.)

Living buildings, green infrastructure, and the collective effort for sustainable cities

It’s been a roller coaster of a ride, going to Whately, Amherst, Williamsburg, Hampshire, Holyoke, and all the places where we can learn so much about sustainability, so here’s a rather loaded post on what we’ve learned here in the beautiful area of the Pioneer Valley in the past two weeks.   We got to study and immerse ourselves in places that tackle medicinal meadows to breathing buildings, from fish elevators and carbon-free cities to spiritual environmentalism.

Let’s start with Whately.

Living with landscapes

After the Local Solutions Climate Conference in Manchester, I realised how impactful our perspective of landscapes can be. Solutions don’t always have to be about concrete, there are so many ways where we can use nature’s given solution to improve our cities. Here’s a write-up where I shared the learnings: Click to read the full article.

As always, thank you, Philippine Daily Inquirer. And to YSEALI and ICMA for the opportunity to attend the conference.

Meet the Planning & Sustainability Department (Plus Broad Brook, and the Parklets Tour)

Want to know what we do in the Professional Fellowship Program? 🙂

It’s been a week since we got to Northampton, so let me tell you about our host: The Planning and Sustainability Office of the City of Northampton.

(Check out their very resourceful website here.)

From one capital city to another: The turnout of Burnham’s masterplans

Being in Washington DC was a dream come true–and a bittersweet experience. This is because one couldn’t help but think about what could’ve been in Manila: A similarly implemented capital, and a beautiful one at that. Here’s something I wrote for the Philippine Daily Inquirer: Click here to read the article.