About
I have an incomplete Bachelor of Science in Environmental Resource Management with a concentration in Housing, plus a Certificate in GIS from the world premier GIS program at UC-Riverside. It was intended as groundwork for a Master's in Urban Planning, which hasn't yet happened but might still happen someday.
I always wanted to be a regional planner and there aren't a lot of jobs in the US in regional planning and perhaps not in the world. After applying for a local community development job in Aberdeen, Washington and failing to get it, my volunteer involvement in local community development organizations had me increasingly researching the region as a whole, in part because it's clear to me that some of the local issues cannot be resolved locally. It will take broader solutions to get there.
At the moment, Eclogiselle is one of the many websites run by Doreen Traylor. I hope to eventually turn it into a viable business offering planning and community development services for small communities, especially in the Coastal Washington region.
Although I have a strong educational background for this kind of work, I am unlikely to ever get a job as an urban planner or similar because almost all jobs in this field require a driver's license and I no longer have a driver's license. I like to think of this as a feature, not a bug, because I take pedestrian-friendly development and transit seriously as essential to making my life work and not some afterthought or "nice to have."
Small communities have trouble competing for good planning talent because they cannot compete on salary with larger cities. Even if they can get someone very dedicated and talented, it can be nigh impossible to get good results when the available resources don't fit your needs because most such resources are geared to a larger community.
I see a service and information gap for small towns that creates inherent challenges in doing planning and development work and an opportunity to pursue my interest in regional planning as a consultant. If you do planning work in a small town, I hope we can be allies and I hope I can help you do your job better.
Summer 2023
I always wanted to be a regional planner and there aren't a lot of jobs in the US in regional planning and perhaps not in the world. After applying for a local community development job in Aberdeen, Washington and failing to get it, my volunteer involvement in local community development organizations had me increasingly researching the region as a whole, in part because it's clear to me that some of the local issues cannot be resolved locally. It will take broader solutions to get there.
At the moment, Eclogiselle is one of the many websites run by Doreen Traylor. I hope to eventually turn it into a viable business offering planning and community development services for small communities, especially in the Coastal Washington region.
Although I have a strong educational background for this kind of work, I am unlikely to ever get a job as an urban planner or similar because almost all jobs in this field require a driver's license and I no longer have a driver's license. I like to think of this as a feature, not a bug, because I take pedestrian-friendly development and transit seriously as essential to making my life work and not some afterthought or "nice to have."
Small communities have trouble competing for good planning talent because they cannot compete on salary with larger cities. Even if they can get someone very dedicated and talented, it can be nigh impossible to get good results when the available resources don't fit your needs because most such resources are geared to a larger community.
I see a service and information gap for small towns that creates inherent challenges in doing planning and development work and an opportunity to pursue my interest in regional planning as a consultant. If you do planning work in a small town, I hope we can be allies and I hope I can help you do your job better.
Summer 2023
