Youth Engagement

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to share some of my knowledge of real estate development with five young people who are spending their summer working on the youth engagement portion of the San Pablo Avenue Corridor Plan. My friend from graduate school, Alissa Kronovet, together with two faculty from Kennedy High School in Richmond, CA are helping these young people to make a positive impact in their community.

After a boring hour of somewhat interactive lecture about green building the real fun started when we left as a group to visit the 12th and MacDonald project site in downtown Richmond. Kinshasa Curl from the Redevelopment Agency met us there and described the goals of the project and what her role is, as a project manager with the City of Richmond, on the project. She was very enthusiastic, open to our ideas for retail on the site, and offering of herself as a mentor. She even offered to take the kids on a hard hat tour of the new Richmond Civic Center.

After our visit to the 12th and MacDonald project site the group took BART to 12th Street where we ate lunch, and walked by two AF Evans developments that are somewhat similar to what 12th and MacDonald will look like when it is complete. We then stopped by the AF Evans corporate office and spent 30 minutes talking with Muhammad Nadhiri who manages 12th and MacDonald at AF Evans . The group was engaged and interested in Muhammad's personal history, thoughts on how to make San Pablo Avenue more pedestrian friendly, and challenges of developing and building green.

It was a great day; a great escape from the office.

Photo from left to right: Marlin, Tiara, Kinshasa, Justin, Julio, Norman, Eduardo

USGBC - LEED

I can't say that I love USGBC's LEED system. But it does such a messy job of tying together so many disparate concerns that, in its entirety, it is a thing of beauty.

Everything from infill housing to second-hand smoke is addressed in the LEED certification process.

As a planner I wish they would give more points for compact development - perhaps this will be addressed once LEED-ND is released and buildings will get a whopping 10 points for being in a LEED-ND neighborhood.

And for all of the malcontents out there who whine about certain LEED points being very expensive to implement and others being cheap miss the holistic nature of the LEED system. LEED is not not just about saving energy; that's what we have Energy Star certification for. LEED is about addressing energy, indoor environmental quality, compact development, access to transit, water quality, and reducing GHG through regional sourcing, amongst others.

LEED is not a panacea but the amount of press coverage LEED buildings receive contributes considerably to public's general knowledge regarding the environmental impact of building and development.