urban planning
My exposure to Urban Planning started back in the mid 90s, at a nationwide level while working for the Ministry of Education/World Bank (Nicaragua) project formerly known as Basic Education Project, now completed. The main objectives of the project are to improve the efficiency, quality and equity of basic education in Nicaragua (pre-primary and grades 1 to 6) by reducing the repetition and dropout rates, and enhancing student academic achievement. The proposed project focuses primarily on pre-primary and primary education where the vast majority of students come from poor segments of the population. There were four components of the project: 1) School Decentralization; 2) Education Materials; 3) Pre-primary Education and 4) Infrastructure.
I was the Coordinator of the Infrastructure Component from February 1994 to May 1996. I coordinated the activities pertaining to the Infrastructure Component of the BASIC Education Project. Worked in a multicultural setting supervising the activities and workload of the international consultants mainly to create a national plan to remodeling and rebuilding primary schools throughout Nicaragua based on school requirements as well as reviewing architectural proposals for the design of school buildings. I also provided input to define the Component of Communications and Creativity.
Studies - Career
In May 2000 I obtained a Masters degree in Urban Planning with a concentration in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), from San José State University (SJSU) in San José, California. My graduate studies thesis, "Lincoln Avenue Neighborhood Business District Parking Study" can be found at the San José Public Library. The main objective was to come up with a solution for the business district's parking nightmare. The picture to the left shows how the district was divided into parking regions to analyze them individually and comprehensively because it was obvious that some areas were underparked and some were not. Geographic Informations Systems played a key role in this parking analysis.
My career in Urban and Regional Planning continued when I began an internship with the Planning Division of the City in San José in July 1997. In April of 1998 I was hired as a Planning Technician. Most of the work was related to address the mapping efforts of the Special Projects Team and later on the General Plan Team.
As I moved up and became a Planner II (for the City of San José), I worked in long-range planning as the project manager for General Plan Amendments, in current planning processing rezonings and site permits and their correspondent environmental review; and finally in the development services area where I processed minor development permits such as single-family house permits, legal non-conforming letters, just to name a few.
This field has tought me among other things, processing, streamlining, communication, connectivity, networking and responding to community needs while coordinating with elected officials, local and regional agencies, and state level department. More detail of what I have accomplished in this field can be seen in my resumé page.
Looking into the future
I can only wish for a new begining in the Green Building Industry so I can put to good use the recent Green Building Professional Certificate that I accomplished and it was issued by Build it Green, a non-profit membership organization whose mission is to promote healthy, energy- and resource-efficient building practices in California.