"Planning for Essential Workers"

Now that I am a bit more settled in the Bay Area and, well, trying to keep my mind moving during the pandemic, I am going to try to bring the blog back to life. First by sharing something I wrote earlier in the pandemic.

I wrote a short essay called “Planning for Essential Workers” for the California APA’s magazine this summer, discussing how planners could take into account the needs and desires of people who work in communities as well as those that live in them:

COVID-19 has made it clear that the community includes not only the traditional categories of “residents and business owners,” but also the workers that provide key labor to support those who planners conventionally see as community stakeholders. If we are to thank essential workers, we are also to include them in the communities we work in as we plan for the future.

The full essay (all six paragraphs of it!) is available here. The rest of the issue can be read online.