AuthorHi, I lift up resources and insights for dreaming into a regenerative future. Here I share inclusive, equitable, and strategic solutions for climate action, urban development, and climate action plans. Archives
January 2025
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Urban Development1/23/2024  The future of urban Development is regenerative.
"Housing stability is also integral to community resilience, helping to enhance social cohesion, build community ties, and enable residents to stay better connected — particularly during extreme weather or other emergencies when neighbors often become each others’ first responders." That's right, we are each others' first responders. "As the need for climate-resilient, affordable housing becomes more pressing, cities will need to consider a multi-pronged strategy with solutions that address the full scope of climate threats to frontline communities — physical, economic, and social. Legal and policy tools should focus not only on increasing the availability of affordable housing, but also strengthening the resilience of housing to climate change impacts through measures that counter, rather than exacerbate, displacement and gentrification. Importantly, effective tools that promote resilience and equity in equal measure must also be guided by an explicit understanding of the reinforcing nature of social inequity and housing inequity.” - Georgetown Climate Center Equitable Adaptation Legal & Policy Toolkit. The need to go well beyond sustainability and LEED certification drives home the necessity for Climate Action Plans to include toolkits with ordinances for municipalities to adopt to hold urban development projects to 21st century standards of affordability, ecological stewardship, habitat restoration, and community resilience. This is especially true for critical watersheds, rural communities facing new development pressures, and areas navigating post-disaster housing pressures. Over the years I've had opportunities to work with urban developers, cities, and retailers, large and small, to design and enhance their role as community partners. I am attracted to projects and people who align with a big vision of resilient communities and then set out to drive innovation with new metrics for prosperity. Reach out, let's talk:
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The function of cities1/23/2024  What is the function of cities?
My work experience reveals a series of answers with over a decade of innovative and creative gestures; rethinking retail as a place of refuge, pop-up markets as spatial justice, public art as foresight strategy, civic engagement as cultural resilience, vacant spaces as business incubators, and backyards transformed into habitat labs for climate action. As we head into a period of economic uncertainty, what does designing for prosperity look like? During the last downturn our response in the Bay Area as creatives included Spontaneous Interventions, Tactical Urbanism, Guerrilla Planning, and Urban Prototyes to test new solutions to urban challenges. Today we can apply this same strategy, with little pin pricks of innovation, as we test, adapt, or retool urban infrastructure to meet the challenges of climate resilience. Interested in implementing radical and urgent regenerative approaches to affordable housing, regional climate action plans, and local policies? Want to support ambitious global climate goals in your projects? Through discovery, planing, strategic climate communications, research, analysis, and multi-sector collaboration I welcome collaborators and the opportunity to contribute to your organizational transformation, initiatives, and strategic plans. Leverage my EDI expertise in downscaling climate frameworks to the neighborhood level: -Strategic Climate Communications -Regenerative Placemaking -District and city specific and regional planning initiatives, including Climate Action Plans -Policy toolkits for Local Climate Action Reach out here or schedule a call:
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The Permaculture City1/23/2024  Years ago, when I read Berkeley native Toby Hemenway's book The Permaculture City - Regenerative Design for Urban, Suburban, and Town resilience, I discovered a paragraph about my company Popuphood!
At the time, I was leaning into the next phase of my work examining how I could bring permaculture principles into the planning projects that I was contributing to. It was a resonate chapter about creating conditions for prosperity that cited our work in Oakland. This was a watershed moment for me to reframe the work I was doing in local economic development as applied permaculture principles creating the conditions for spontaneous possibilities. I dove into researching urban climate resilience. In 2020 I made a pivot to found Regenerative Futurist and offer a framework for urban development projects which expanded on the work of Popuphood to set the conditions for prosperity within planetary boundaries. "[Complexity applied design (CAS) sets up conditions and guidelines which allow possibilities to emerge, creativity to thrive, and healthy and desirable outcomes to occur in communities and towns. Popuphood is a business incubator for reinvigorating depressed neighborhoods that attempt to set up the conditions for success, and then let it unfold.]" I invite you to check out my updated website where you will find more info on how we can work together and how to partner with Prosperity Forest, my nature-based futures lab piloting backyard climate solutions on the shores of Lake Michigan. Reach out here or schedule a call:
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What's a futurist?1/23/2024  Futurists are part scientist and part artist.
We are well versed in 5 year plans, yet looking 10 years into the future stretches us into unknown probabilities. In order to design resilient communities we are already seeing what we need to prepare for. However, It is an act of urgent optimism (Jane McGonigal, IFTF) to design for what would delight us, connect us, and give us joy. The complexity before us is daunting, yet designing for preferred futures allows us to imagine something so compelling, that we can't wait to build it. I help mission driven organizations expand their reach by centering their vision within a larger narrative that is future oriented. Working with cities, urban planners, and organizations invested in innovation, regenerative design, and strategic planning with a DEI lens, I've founded a couple companies and honed my consulting over a decade. Reach out or schedule a time to chat about how foresight strategies and regenerative frameworks could work for your next project or initiative.
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What's in a name?1/23/2024  Regenerative Futurist is a new term for an emerging field- it's a mouthful!
But the future is going to need to feel different on our tongue if as we speak a new world into existence. Right? So, what do I mean when I say regenerative? The term regenerative in the context of urban development, rethinks waste as an input beyond sustainable compliance and the built environment. Think of a circular economy as an example. It is a framework to envision systems designed to limit extractive practices, expand nature-based solutions, and challenges us to prioritize meeting the needs of all people while respecting the limits of planetary boundaries. I'll be posting more definitions, intros, and more context about what I am up to, so stay tuned. If you are looking for a regenerative urban development strategies, climate action plans contributes, and consultants with a DEI lens let's talk: |
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