CP&DR's Aaron Engstrom's offers his irreverent take on his very first APA conference.
"Who'd have thunk a workshop about parking would be the most entertaining of the conference. "Smart Parking for Smart Communities" opened with the most creative PowerPoint I've seen when Dr. Rick Willson of Cal Poly Pomona played the role of a disheveled car who is homeless and confused by new pushy regulations with "unbundling" and "peak demand." Distraught with the system, Dr. Willson, the car, went to his therapist to hear, "It's probably you."
...
"My last workshop was El Toro/The Great Park: Setting New Standards in Sustainability. I learned that Lennar is the greatest sustainable developer ever, according to Bob Santos, president of Lennar. The park, as envisioned, does sound nice, with photovoltaic solar panels on every home and tentacle-like tracts of open space extending from the park into the town center."
Thanks to Bill Fulton
FULL STORY: My First Time: A Young Man Survives A Planning Conference
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
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Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research