This summer, I am working with the Governor's Office of Planning and Research — specifically with its Planning and Community Development Team to write a 2022 update to the state's Environmental Goals and Policy Report (EGPR). This document is meant to guide the state in managing growth (population, urban, etc.) and investment decisions. This work is made even more pivotal due to the economic impacts of COVID-19, the increasing implications of climate change, and an ever-growing need to advance equity in the built environment. The premier EGPR was written in 1978, aptly named the 1978 Urban Strategy. Since then, no other document has been written and adopted by the governor — this is our chance to change that.

My excitement began when I was assigned this project — I often wondered the type of work it took to put together such an important and comprehensive document like the 1978 Urban Strategy. I believed this would be an opportunity to conduct plenty of research and build a solid foundation for how infrastructure development and planning occurs at a high level. The reality of my experience was not too far off what I expected, save in a few areas. First, planning at this level is governed by policy (how its written, interpreted and implemented). This work manifested in researching policy, reading reports and memos, and interviewing key staff because their approach to their work and the policy that governs is central to their implementation. The second and harder-to-swallow of the two realities was that planning at the state level, especially for a state as large and powerful as California, makes it hard to interact with the beneficiaries of our hard work directly. In fact, many of the policies we advance will take years for us to see the results! This realization was a bit challenging for me, given that I have devoted my time to community-centered development at the local level. REframing this for the state level looks very different since there are so many more factors.

This summer, my contribution to OPR was taking the document from the ideation and outline stage to a complete first draft. I did this in two clear stages. First, I conducted interviews with key staff and organized key documents to supplement the writing I will be doing. I designed and conducted 17 interviews, transcribing and taking notes on them. The second stage involved organizing and synthesizing interview responses with resources from our literature review to communicate key ideas succinctly.

My career is centered on improving access to opportunity through infrastructure in the face of climate change. This summer internship experience, while not involving technical engineering or data science, built a solid foundation of the key components to what planning looks like on a large scale. As a result, I better understand the impacts of climate change and how the natural and built environment interact. Additionally, I have expanded my knowledge of tools (such as policy) to influence our trajectories while strengthening my critical thinking abilities. For example, knowing that transportation is the largest producer of GHG emissions, we can do three things in this space to reduce them:

1. Transition to electric vehicles
2. Transition to cleaner fuel sources
3. Have people drive less by shrinking their activity spaces.

Each of these ideas has several policy and technical components warranting their own analysis and hurdles to overcome. For example, with the third option, we promote infill and high-density development; however, we are faced with the backlash of people wanting their own space to live.

Through my work, several virtual coffees, and numerous interviews, I have broadened my understanding of the various work I can do to improve the world around me, especially in the public sector. In addition to this, I have learned that our road to a cleaner and more equitable future requires people doing work at various scales and that we need more data to make better decisions. My overall experience has been extremely rewarding and insightful as I prepare for the next step in my career.

In Video Form 📹

Thanks for reading – talk soon!
Awoe ✊🏾