Sustainability / Public Places

Sustainability indexes are interesting, since it follows environmental principles and revolves around a world that we wope to achieve, but seems rather impossible if we are going to disturb the planet with development. I would consider myself someone that looks more at the excitement of the development process and usually am not interested in sustainable principles. I must admit that I can't stand the horrible bureaucracy that is the California Environmental Quality Act. It drives me crazy and there are times that I could leave California for only the reason that I could get to of having to apply the boredom that is CEQA stuff.

There was also some interesting stuff about learning cities and collective communities and the value of the public space. I definitely agree that we need to focus more on our public spaces in the planning field and really look at the usage and get people involved to see what we can do to improve public areas, parks, plazas, etc. I am looking forward to getting more involved in the Parks and Recreation Master Plan that we are doing so we can focus on many of the public spaces here in town. I am hoping that this will trigger the public involvement that we usually lack during the public hearing process for subdivisions and other public planning projects. My hope is that the central gathering locations will inspire people to move forward and take more interest in collaborating and coming up with an sustainable and practical area for their own neighborhood parks.