Peace and Planning

Category: Reflections

  • On traffic gardens

    It’s not often that you have a dream for something that you know will bring joy, play, and connection to your neighborhood and then have the opportunity to bring the vision to life. Last weekend I had the extraordinary opportunity to install a pop-up traffic garden on a closed-off street…

  • On nutshells and eggshells

    Over the past few years, I’ve been fortunate to present my work at several conferences spanning various disciplines – planning (x2!), geography, political science, peace and conflict studies, international studies, and urban studies. While traveling to five in a 12-month period isn’t for the faint of heart (read: me), I…

  • A recommitment and an update

    It has been a good long while since I’ve posted and honestly I have been deliberating about whether or not I should return to blogging. There are several reasons why I am back at it (which I will get to shortly) but in the meantime, here’s a brief recap since…

  • Appreciation abounds 🙏🏻

    As we kick off a season of reflection and thanks, it’s hard not to be awestruck by all I have to be grateful for. I somehow landed in the exact PhD program I needed to offer me the perspective I was yearning for. I ended up with an incredible dissertation…

  • Can we have our car cake and eat it, too?

    I had the good fortune to travel to Spain this summer – the land of bike buses, superblocks, and Pontevedra’s pioneering approach to eliminating cars in the city center – and visit many of the places that had long been on my urban bucket list (sadly, Pontevedra will have to…

  • When performance oversight testimony isn’t a mere…oversight

    You know time is flying when you think it’s still March more than a week into April 🤯 Now that I know what month it is – and since it’s been a minute – I figured I was overdue for getting updates and reflections out into the blogosphere.  For one,…