In my random wanderings across the web late in the evening I discovered an article in US News & World Report. Apparently urban planning got cool last year and I totally missed it — it was touted as one of the “Best Careers of 2009“… they definitely seem to have gotten the multidisciplinary, multiple hats thing right in the summary but there’s a definite under emphasis in the following statement describing a ‘day in the life’:
“The official workday ends at 5 p.m., but tonight, you need to lead a public hearing on the project. Everybody has a complaint.”
And knowing that it kind of makes this factoid seem a little lackluster:
Salary Data
Median (with eight years in the field): $62,500
Bummer. But apparently someone thinks that’s cool.
The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) grants a number of fellowships each year through the Comparative Domestic Policy (CDP) program.
CDP fellowships, jointly supported by the Compagnia di San Paolo and the Bank of America Foundation with additional support provided by the Ford Foundation, are intended to provide opportunities for practitioners and policy-makers working on economic and social issues at the urban and regional policy levels to meet with their counterparts across the Atlantic and discuss policies and measures that have been implemented. Fellows can then return from their time overseas equipped with the ideas and insights necessary to effect significant and lasting positive change in their own communities.
**The Spring 2010 Call for Applications is now open. Further information can befound here.**
Matt Nichols is Principal Transportation Planner for the City of Berkeley, California, where he supervises the city’s efforts in mobility management/TDM, carsharing, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, and transit planning. He is a contributing author of Berkeley’s Climate Action Plan, and helped obtain financing for the Ed Roberts Campus, a universally accessible transit-oriented development at Berkeley’s Ashby BART Station.
Matt earned a Master’s in Urban Planning from UCLA. He has worked for ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and the Bay Area Air Quality Managemetnt District, and has served on the San Francisco Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s “Parking Policy for Smart Growth” technical advisory committee. Matt also served as a founding member of the Board of Directors of City CarShare, the car sharing non-profit for the Bay Area.
From February-May 2010, Matt will be based in Torino, Italy as the Comparative Domestic Policy Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, where he is investigating European cities that have made recent significant transit investments to compare approaches to station area planning and multi-modal accessibility.
He is married to Margi Clarke, is the father of two boys, Kiernan and Eli. They have been living without owning a car for 6 years.
