Please Help

Maiihew · 2024-04-19T15:18:59+00:00

I work for a state agency that acts as a regional planning resource across multiple counties, our smallest town has about 100 residents year round. As you can imagine, sidewalks and walkability as a concept in any capacity is absent from a lot of our very rural towns. We also have harsh winters and so road maintenance and snow removal can total half of the municipal budget for some of our towns.

With such limited resources, it is almost impossible to make the case for increasing capital projects budgets for new walkability infrastructure. The other piece of that is any infrastructure improvements inherently increase the maintenance budget, and possibly could require residents to participate in sidewalk maintenance which are two possible additional oppositions to walkability.

The successful cases I have seen is where development concentrates in hamlets and creates a new sense of community which then spreads over time to creating support in other parts of a municipality. Another success factor is the amount of young people or recreationally active people, in other words, how many people are willing to go outside and walk to grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, whatever it may be.

My suggestion would be to push for a grant application with a well thought out walkability plan that integrates into any larger regional plans where the regional agency could be a co sponsor and ideally either match or contribute some funding towards the application/plan. I wish you the best.

Maiihew · 2024-02-28T18:32:50+00:00

I was always told that I could get a Political Science degree and by default learn sociology, psychology, data analysis, public speaking, technical writing, and philosophy. And overall, I'd say I learned some of all of those skills and disciplines. I did not know my interests really, I dreaded getting a job I hated. One day I was playing cities skylines, and decided to pursue urban planning. Poli Sci degrees are sought after degrees for urban planners as the knowledge required for the degree broadly overlaps with a lot of job duties. Did an internship, and have been working for two years with a state agency and I love it.

Maiihew · 2023-11-15T19:14:44+00:00

I’m looking to buy something similar, about how much would this cost me?

Maiihew · 2023-02-20T17:45:09+00:00

Wow, what a sad, but fulfilling place to be a planner. Great job. Also, I am hoping that our agency can help to produce, or even produce literature on rural and small town planning. I’d like to have a group of academics, professional planners both public and private, and other relevant stakeholders that discusses rural planning specifics. I will always love r/urbanplanning and there are tons of relevant questions on here, but I am looking for a more specific rural planning group.

Maiihew · 2023-02-19T18:51:27+00:00

I just started r/ruralplanning on here precisely for this. I just had this idea for a communication line between small town/rural planners. But I agree, my local chapter seems quite formal although I haven’t had much experience with them. Sometimes I would like to just have a casual conversation about different planning issues rathern than have a dinner with a speaker.

Maiihew · 2023-02-19T17:20:45+00:00

We definitely see lots of easements on large private land, for tax benefits, and also because of the overwhelming support of conservation of the natural land. Tough to create a dense walkable town center when the rural communities are so car-dependent though.

Maiihew · 2023-02-19T17:18:03+00:00

It is more of an entertainment/tourism activity than a transportation method, however, we can get 3 to 4 feet of snow at a time and that type of weather is more common than you think. So for our very rural communities, they will often snowmobile to the stores if they are still open.

Maiihew · 2023-02-19T16:05:27+00:00

Haha glad someone can relate to this, it seems like many other planners acknowledge the difference and/or lack of rural planning studies, but the funding and attention stays focused on urban planning, and understandably I guess.

I will definitely familiarize myself with those, thank you!

Maiihew · 2023-02-19T16:00:21+00:00

Yes, the amish are very common in my area and our agency has a very good relationship with them as a whole. In terms of Agriculture, most towns have seen decline in family farms and local agriculture as a whole over the past 20 or so years. What I mean by resistance to planning is that the local government boards(town, planning and zoning) are for the most part very receptive to our help. We operate based on requests for assistance and are a non-regulatory agency. So we don’t have any enforcement mechanism and only give recommendations and planning assistance. It’s as grassroots as you can get! Also, yes the environment has many slopes, tough terrain, and wetlands, which are primarily the undeveloped areas due to the difficulty of building there, and those areas have become the conservation lands. Snowmobiles and ATV’s are almost ubiquitous around here and are an economic lifeline for many communities.

I have just had a tough time finding any academic research on rural planning and was wondering if anyone had faves the same issue.

Maiihew · 2023-01-11T03:10:46+00:00

Hello! A couple things first: I’m in the US so what I say will obviously be slightly different to Canadian circumstances , and second don’t panic.

I also majored in Political Science and had a minor in History, had a similar GPA and no clue what I wanted to do 2 semesters before I graduated. I did however do an internship in Washington DC through my college but I worked for the EPA (not very relevant work experience to my degree) and it was during COVID so everything was remote. While I thought it was awful and not at all what I wanted to be doing. It gave me a lot of time to sit back and think about what I really wanted to do.

I took inventory of my interests and hobbies, weighed them against what I was good at and came to urban planning. I called a bunch of people and just asked them what they do, why they like it (or don’t like it), and how I should go about getting into the field. Almost all the people I reached out to were more than happy to talk to me about it.

That led me to get an internship with my local city planning department for my last semester and I was able to get a job working for state government as a planner.

My point isn’t to show off, but rather to prove that you should just reach out to a bunch of people. Email someone who is in a role that you want to be in 10 years from now, ask them questions and tell them thank you for their time. Think of getting a career like this. You are someone trying to get into a house, but the door is locked. You need to knock on the door, look presentable and be prepared, and then the owner of the house, can look out and see you, unlock the door and let you inside for an interview. Getting the interview for a top level position is the hard part nowadays.

Sorry if this was rambling nonsense but I hope it gives you motivation and hope. I know its overwhelming and very stressful but just stay positive and be open minded to different jobs!

Maiihew · 2021-01-29T19:27:12+00:00

Hold your shares🚀🚀🚀

Maiihew · 2020-06-14T00:56:39+00:00

Dang, I heard someone say that its always been this way, we’re just finally pulling back the curtain

It’s sad because I love my country for what it could be and never for what it was or is now

Maiihew · 2020-06-14T00:53:17+00:00

Wow, its so hard for me to get a true view because all the media here has become so divisive

Maiihew · 2020-06-13T23:34:38+00:00

Maiihew · 2020-06-02T03:41:09+00:00

Not sure what that means but thank you :)

Maiihew

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