NEWS: Press Democrat Guest Opinion

In 2011, the Press Democrat published an opinion piece I co-wrote with Dennis Rosatti, We Must Continue to Fight Sprawl, about the importance of urban growth lines and smart growth in Sonoma County. For a link to the article, click here.

PUBLISHED RESEARCH: How to Ease Women´s Fear of Transportation Environments

In 2007 and 2008 I worked with UCLA Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, on a study about women’s safety and urban design issues in transit environments, funded by the Mineta Transportation. The report was published in 2009.

To read our findings and download a full version of the report please click here http://transweb.sjsu.edu/project/2611.html

PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Our Oakland

During 2009, I was a free lance project manager for a public art project in Oakland called Our Oakland: East Side Stories. Artist Rene Yung created a Digital Storytelling interactive kiosk for the new East Oakland Community Library located on 81st Street.  For more information, visit the website at: http://oaklandspeaks.weebly.com/

Transforming Pacoima

I worked with a team of UCLA students to envision new urban design and economic development strategies for Pacoima, a neighborhood located in the East Valley region of Los Angeles.

Pacoima: a Closer Look at Demographics and Food Access

One of the issues in Pacoima is environmental justice and food access. Using GIS as an analysis tool, I identify possible sites for nutrition education programs and farmers' markets. The idea is to work with farmers and grocery stores to sell produce at cost to low-income families and youth, at select after-school program sites.

In order to find an appropriate location for the Farm Fresh Program it is important to review and analyze the following information:

1) Demographics for Pacoima, especially low income, minority, youth who are the target participants for the Farm Fresh Program;

2) The schools in the area, since the since the selected Farm Fresh location will be at an after-school program site; and

3) Existing supermarkets to determine if there is a need for farmers' markets in Pacoima

User Groups: Douglas Park, Santa Monica

In Winter 2008 I took a Site Planning course and wrote a 35 page Site Analysis of a 10 block area of Santa Monica along Wilshire Blvd. The report includes a lynch analysis, maps of perceived and actual zoning, architectural typologies, historic landmarks, a Sanborn map as well as suggested design interventions. The following images of user activities and movement patterns are from the section on Douglas Park. (Click on image to enlarge). Click here: (http://abreports.blogspot.com/) to view the complete Douglas Park chapter. Please email me if you would like a PDF of the entire Site Analysis document.

Arts Education in Richmond: Creating Cities Project

From 2003-2005 I worked for The Richmond Art Center, in Richmond California, and ran an arts education program in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. Additionally, I taught art as an Artist-in-Residence at several of the schools. I designed a curriculum that integrated arts learning with themes of identity, culture, and community. For one of the projects, a class of 4th graders at Grant Elementary created a model city. Each student made a house, apartment, or commercial building from paper. Together they placed the buildings in a grid and added trees, streets, traffic signs, and other elements of their choosing. They discussed what they liked and disliked about Richmond and used these ideas to collectively create a set of rules and concepts for their model town.