Category Archives: Jobs

Jobs, Weekly Newsletter

Jobs, Opportunities and Funding as of September 25, 2018

Welcome to the second The Black Urbanist Jobs, Opportunities, and Funding Weekly. Today is September 25, 2018.

In case you missed opening the last email and the one earlier that week that announced the coming of said email, this is the reboot and revamp of my weekly dispatch.

You’ll still get announcements and recommendations about and from me, but the focus of this email/ post is going to be me making sure you know of some great opportunities in the land use and planning world.  There’s always a version of this linked at www.theblackurbanist.com/job-board and I will do my best to make sure that this hits all the major social media sites as well. Please forward to your friends!


To add your job, opportunity, or scholarship to this list, please shoot me a direct message on Twitter or Instagram @blackurbanist, tag your job posting or send via DM on LinkedIn or email me at kristen@theblackurbanist.com with a clear link to your announcement, whether or not you can be a recommendation or resource about the opportunity and if the link doesn’t include it, the close date, salary and compensation information, materials required to apply and to whom any cover letters need to be addressed. If you want to make the weekly cutoff for next week’s list, it needs to be in by midnight on Thursday, as I will be waking up on Fridays to do this list, with the goal of releasing Friday, Saturday or Sunday of each week. Travel and exhaustion kept me from sticking to that this week, but hopefully soon, I’ll have some help of my own to keep this ship running (and catch any typos).

Before we add some new opportunities this week, let’s get started with some of the older ones.

The Rockingham County, NC Planning and Inspections Director position is still open. Marcus Slade is still your contact, his email (note the correction from last week) is marcus_slade@outlook.com.

Same with the SieX Director of Communications and Director of Finance positions. Again, these could be remote positions, but it’s preferred that you’re based in their Downtown DC (Farragut Square) office space. Also, this is a startup, so salary and stock options are dependent on fundraising. However, if you’re in a place where you could take on a position building a startup company, especially with time spent in DC and possibly traveling to other areas, feel free to apply.

And now a few new ones.  First, the latest job leads from Jessica Roberts. Thanks again to her for pulling together this transportation heavy list. Last week’s list is here.

The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) Transportation Department is hiring a Senior Transportation Planner (Bicycle and Pedestrian Planner). Arlington, TX, Source: APBP list serve. Salary listed.

The City of St. Petersburg is hiring a Planner I to focus on Active Transportation and Complete Streets. St. Petersburg, FL. Apply here. Source: APBP list serve. Can’t tell if salary is listed.

Portland Community College is hiring a part-time Transportation Ambassador. Portland region, OR. Source: emailed to me. Salary listed.

San Diego State University is hiring an Assistant Professor: City Planning/Innovation. San Diego, CA. Source: emailed to me. Salary not listed.

The City/County of San Francisco is hiring a Transportation Planner IV. SF, CA. Source: Twitter user @sbjinsfo. Salary listed.

Go Triangle is hiring a Travel Services Associate. Durham/Raleigh, NC. Apply here. Source: TRANSP-TDM list serve. Salary listed.

North Seattle College is hiring a Transportation Coordinator. Seattle, WA. Source: TRANSP-TDM list serve. Salary listed.

Justin Garrett Moore, of NYC Planning, BlackSpaceNYC, AICP, and a litany of other related things, has one of the best LinkedIn pages for looking for jobs and opportunities in this space. Definitely, bookmark him and Jessica for jobs and opportunities. I’m going to share this particular job from his page, as it’s really compelling.

Please share with the francophone urbanist network:

Surbana is looking for young urban planners for their new technical office in Kigali. Selected candidates will support our local coordinator in implementing projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Key requirements:

Graduated in Urban Planning, Geography, Urban Design, Environment Engineering or similar.

Minimum 1-2 years experience in Regional or Urban Planning, Urban Design, Strategic Planning.

Fluent written and oral French and English languages.

Availability to move to Kigali, Rwanda, for a long-term assignment.

Excellent knowledge of GIS, CAD, Photoshop and Illustrator, Office Package.

Interested candidates are requested to send CV with relevant experiences and Portfolio to the following email address: enrico.morriello@surbanajurong.com

If you’re in need of career guidance, Gilsa Bush, A.K.A. GiGi The Planner, is offering her virtual career coaching sessions for free until September 30. Several people from around the world already have taken this opportunity to work with her. I got a chance to have a phone chat of my own with her earlier last week and she’s got a lot of good ideas and I’m thrilled to have her as a fellow planner-entrepreneur, not just focused on service provision, but on enhancing the practitioners and people involved in everyday community life, especially our youth! Again, she’s helping high school, college and early career folks especially figure out their place in the land use and planning world, but, she’s willing to talk to anyone who just needs advice.

In the same spirit, feel free to email or message me not just with job announcements, but any questions or advice. If I can’t answer it, someone in this network can.

Also, my guide on choosing a career in placemaking has helped several people decide on graduate school, career changes and just getting your life right. Take a look at it and let me know either on here on in person how much it’s helped you. I really appreciate that!

Other Things

— My online shop is finally open again! Kristpattern: A Black Urbanist Design is where you’ll be able to find merch that will help you tell the world who you are and who you support. Basically, anything I offer that’s not a service, but a handheld product will live here. Check out the new line of grocery totes.

I am a Black Urbanist tote, transportation patterned tote, humming bird and morning glory flower tote and I support Black Urbanist tote for sale in The Black Urbanist Shop via Print All Over Me for $36.00

Bookmark www.theblackurbanist.com/shop as well as www.theblackurbanist.com/job-board.

—The more journalistic and essay part of the site is set to completely relaunch next month, in honor of the site’s eighth anniversary. I am accepting submissions, with priority for folks who either want to cross-post content from your organization or site for further exposure or who are ok with me sending you a $50 grocery card for your efforts. I am aiming to pay writers more than their groceries, but if you’re an organization or person who wants to send a well-written op-ed, share some of your own blogs and op-eds or anything else that’s under “exposure”  or groceries and you’re ok with just that, share a Google Doc, Evernote Shared Note or something similar that we can co-edit in real time to theblackurbanist@gmail.com. We will discuss appropriate compensation and I will not run your piece until you are paid what you need!

—As you have seen if you follow my social media and at the top of this email, YIMBYTownand Boston were great! Thanks to the coalition of organizers, organizers committed not just to build new shiny things but committed to making sure everyone in Boston gets to live there, without threats and pressure. Video from my talk is forthcoming as we didn’t do a direct live stream and we need to do edits to sync my slides and my speaking.

Have a great week!

Never heard of me before this post? Come over here and let’s get to know each other better.  This platform doesn’t have a paywall,  but I still need to eat. Buy me a meal via PayPal or Cash App, or many meals via Patreon.

Jobs, Weekly Newsletter

Jobs, Opportunities and Funding as of September 15, 2018

Welcome to the very first The Black Urbanist Jobs and Opportunities Roundup. Today is September 15, 2018. For now, this will replace my weekly dispatch, but I’ll still include announcements and fun stuff at the very end. There’s always a version of this linked at www.theblackurbanist.com/job-board and I will do my best to make sure that this hits all the major social media sites as well. Please forward to your friends!

To add your job, opportunity, or scholarship to this list, please shoot me a direct message on Twitter or Instagram @blackurbanist or email me at kristen@theblackurbanist.com with a clear link to your announcement, whether or not you can be a recommendation or resource about the opportunity and if the link doesn’t include it, the close date, salary and compensation information, materials required to apply and to whom any cover letters need to be addressed. If you want to make the weekly cutoff for next week’s list, it needs to be in by midnight on Thursday, as I will be waking up on Fridays to do this list, with the goal of releasing Friday, Saturday or Sunday of each week.

So I have to give my mentee and longtime follower Marcus Slade a shoutout. He’s one of the first people I helped with resume prep and strategy for figuring out what sustainable life looks like for a black person from North Carolina who has an MPA in this space. When I wrote my post announcing just the new resources page, I got a direct message from him with this position, a Planning and Inspections Director, with the Rockingham County, North Carolina Planning Department.

This position appears to only require a bachelor’s degree, with COURSEWORK in planning, not a full masters of any kind or even a bachelor’s in planning, as long as you can prove that you can do the tasks on the job description. Also, there’s a rolling close date. However, the salary will depend on how much you know and do and can agree upon. I would make sure you research the minimum and maximum requirements for a planner in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point area and make sure you are comfortable with that range. Rockingham County is just north of Greensboro.

Oh, and yes, you’ll be working with Marcus. You can email him at marcus_slade@outlook.com with any questions, including how to submit using the form on the site, which looks to be the standard that many local governments use when applying to jobs.

Meanwhile, I also want to give another shoutout to Jessica Roberts, who’s done an excellent job rounding up transportation specific jobs over the past few months. Note, I trust her judgment on this list, that there are clear guidelines on how to apply when to apply by, and who to apply to. I’ll be including her roundup each week as well.

The Oregon DOT is hiring a Region 1 (Portland Metro) Active Transportation Liaison. Portland, OR. Source: emailed to me. Salary listed.

MORPC is hiring an Active Transportation & Safety Planner. Columbus, OH. Source: APBP list serve. Salary listed.

The City and County of SF are hiring a Senior Community Development Specialist I. SF, CA. Source: A Jobs Jawn. Salary listed.

The City of Bloomington is hiring a Transportation & Traffic Engineer. Bloomington, IN. Source: emailed to me. Salary listed.

National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) is seeking a full-time Program Associate for its Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI). Source: National Center for Biking and Walking. Salary not listed.

Phoenix Bikes is hiring an Executive Director and an Education Program Manager. Arlington, VA. Source: emailed to me. Salary listed.

MassDOT is hiring a Multimodal Planner. Boston, MA. Source: National Center for Biking and Walking. Salary listed.

DVRPC is hiring a Transportation Implementation Engineer. Various cities, NJ. Source: National Center for Biking and Walking. Salary listed.

McMahon Associates is hiring a Multimodal Transportation Professional. Boston, MA or Lincoln, RI. Source: National Center for Biking and Walking. Salary not listed.

U.S. PIRG is hiring a Transportation Advocate for the national 21st Century Transportation program. Washington, DC. Source: National Center for Biking and Walking. Salary not listed.

VHB is hiring a TDM Planner.  Watertown or Boston, MA. Source: National Center for Biking and Walking. Salary not listed.

The City of Boca Raton is hiring a Transportation Analyst. Boca Raton, FL. Source: National Center for Biking and Walking. Salary listed.

District Department of Transportation, (DDOT), Infrastructure Project Management Division (IPMD) is hiring a Supervisory Civil Engineer. Washington, DC. Source: NACTO jobs board. Salary listed.

She also forwarded me this notice from Becca Wolfson from the Boston Cyclists Union on the City of Boston’s initiative to hire 20 people across disciplines:

There has been a lot of advocacy that led to allocation of funds for the city to add these jobs. They’re intended to help the city of Boston more rapidly implement GoBoston 2030 — the latest transportation plan which includes buildout of the network of protected bike lanes, greenway paths, BRT, complete streets, policies around emergent transportation technology, as well as implementation of vision zero, and more. There is a mix of planners, engineers, policy folk and operations staff. All positions and a description of this significant hiring initiative can be found at this link:

boston.gov/transforming 

Finally, my Baltimore friend and colleague Eva Wingren forwarded from Bethany Quinn from the Street Investors Exchange (SieX), a new startup focused on increasing women and African-Americans in venture capital, their open Director of Communications and Director of Finance positions. These could be remote positions, but it’s preferred that you’re based in their Downtown DC (Farragut Square) office space. Also, this is a startup, so salary and stock options are dependent on fundraising. However, if you’re in a place where you could take on a position building a startup company, especially with time spent in DC and possibly traveling to other areas feel free to apply.

Likewise, I myself am looking for volunteers to serve as a joint advisory and editorial board. As I begin the process of growing this site into a full platform, I could use some awesome folks that are great with thinking through finances; engineers, researchers, and planners who are great at technical advisory and finally writers. Be sure to fill out the reader’s survey and let me know how you would like to contribute.

***Other Things***
Still praying and hoping for the best over those who are in the path of Florence. Yes, we get these things in North Carolina and on the coasts, but they’re never easy to bear, especially when damage is involved and routines are interrupted. Also, please take the right safety precautions and make the right decisions for you and your loved ones when it comes to this storm. I would follow WRAL for local coverage.

My Congressional Black Caucus Annual Leadership Conference Panel went great, the live stream is here.

Finally, for those in the Boston area, it’s not too late to see my keynote at YIMBYtown on Saturday morning September 21 at 9 a.m. at Roxbury Community College- register at www.yimby.town.

Never heard of me before this post? come over here and let’s get to know each other better.  This platform doesn’t have a paywall,  but I still need to eat. Buy me a meal via PayPal or Cash App, or many meals via Patreon.

Cities, Cityreads, Jobs

Placebook: Is North Carolina a Poor State?

Forex Money for Exchange in Currency Bank
A lot of this money is foreign. Is money period foreign to North Carolinians? Photo by Flickr user Ep5os De

I ask today’s question about this New York Times article. As usual with Times articles, they take a major national issue, in this case poverty and use one place to illustrate it, this time, Chattanooga, TN. It’s a place that’s on the urbanist radar too, as this year’s class of Next City Vanguards will be gathering there, and it’s the first Vanguard in the South. According to the Census 23% of its 171,279 residents are impoverished. What really stuck with me, was this quote from Chattanooga’s mayor Andy Berke:

“We don’t want the South to be a place where businesses go to find low-wage, low-education jobs. That’s a long-term problem that midsized cities in the South face.”

How does North Carolina fit into this? As a whole, the state has 1,6377,250  of its 9,748,364 people under the federal poverty line and the median household income is $46,000. Our unemployment rate has dropped to 6.7% and that is inclusive of people who are still looking for work and haven’t quit. When you pull the numbers for several major North Carolina cities from the Census, none of them have per capita incomes at the poverty rate and half the households are making more than $30,000 per year. Of course this assumes that households have no more than 3 people in them. Even with the traditional four-person family, only three cities, Jacksonville, Rocky Mount and Wilson have a per capita income that meets the poverty threshold. The more people you add, plus expenses that aren’t adjusted for inflation, emergency situations such as a period of unemployment, an underwater mortgage or some other tragic or financially trying situation can create poverty-like situations. However, on paper, based on the this assessment of the 2 million people in these major cities North Carolina looks middle class, taking into account our lower cost of living, cost of living being things like the basic costs of food and housing, along with taxes and utility bills.  Yet, what about the other 7 million people? Our cities may not be poor, but what about everywhere else? For more analysis head here, where you can see charts and where you can track updates to this information.

In addition, the above quote could be said about my hometown and current city Greensboro. We’ve lost a number of manufacturing jobs. Yet, we have also managed to create jobs. The key is to get people above the poverty threshold and provide the stability for them to stay there. It’s also key that we provide jobs at living wages. It appears some cities are doing more than others if you go by the numbers. However, numbers, nor metaphors and proverbs can begin to tell this whole story.

And with that, your daily news:

Tonight’s Greensboro City Council Agenda. On the agenda, a solar car charging station for downtown.

Guilford and Durham school systems have officially filed suit with the State of North Carolina over the teacher tenure law.

Residents of the Dixie Apartments in Greensboro will lose their homes for a new development on that block.

Several local leaders, as well as representatives from Amtrak, Norfolk Southern and the North Carolina Railroad Company met in Greensboro yesterday to discuss how to keep people off railroad tracks.

The last winter storm claimed a 76 foot oak tree in Greensboro that had been standing since the Civil War.

State troopers have sued for higher pay.

High Point is offering free rent for a retail business for a year in its train depot.

The first Latino Mecklenburg County Commissioner has died.

Attendees of an open government forum at Elon University charge that state lawmakers have not been transparent enough.

Charlotte’s first outlet mall will open on July 31.

Charlotte-Douglas Airport has opened a diagonal runway.

Asheville’s water systems issue is the latest in several attempts by the state to take local control of normally local matters.

The Enka-Chandler fire department has a new chief.

A proposed adult care home in Asheville is looking for a new location.

More on the proposed I-26 Connector in Asheville.

Fayetteville City Council is proposing a new office to streamline business license filings and other issues related to the city and businesses.

What the Harnett County commissioners decided last night.

The Brunswick County commissioners voted last night to keep their current health insurance plans and pay the extra costs.

More Willmington area grocers are allowing customers to shop online and pick up at the store or have it delivered.

Greenville City Council discussed financing renovations to its convention center at their meeting last night.

How to avoid paying to park at Raleigh’s PNC Arena.

Cary held it’s annual Arbor Day celebration on Saturday, as well as sent a laundry list of issues to state lawmakers.

Long-time business owners on Durham’s 9th Street are excited and anxious about all the new development on the street.

And finally, Durham City Council voted on Monday on a downtown business incentive deal.

Cities, Cityreads, DC, Government, Greensboro, Jobs, Links, Rail, Transportation

Placebook: What Is the State of Greensboro in 2014?

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This week, the annual State of Our City Report is out and it’s no surprise to anyone who pays attention and tries to change any of these things. In light of this information, I have a few questions. First, how do we bring jobs and money back on a consistent basis? How do we nurture what we have? And finally how do we keep from being discouraged, resentful, bitter or inadequate in our quest and in light of other cities and industries? Check out the News and Record article here. The full report is here and look for a longer analysis from me in the coming days.

Speaking of city leaders, here’s a really great long form article from Eric Ginsburg in Yes! Weekly on our departing city manager and a nice article from the News and Record on what’s next for Action Greensboro.

And with that, here are a few more news links to get your weekend started:

New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio launching VisionZero plan to eliminate all pedestrian fatalities, which could set a national standard in how we handle this issue.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx addresses the Transportation Review Board this week with a pledge to make bike/ped safety a priority.

Yes, most of the fried chicken restaurant signs in Britain are made by the same man and yes, they all want to look somewhat alike.

Pre-summit thoughts on sustainable cities from the Transforming Transportation Institute, held this week in DC along with the TRB and Transportation Camp.

The Durham Police, in their own words.

Another instance of free speech/congregating turned into trespassing and loitering.

The 11 dollar DC minimum wage is real.

The African American Atllier, one of the city supported art galleries here in Greensboro, celebrates itself in its new exhibit. Uptown Artworks, another emerging gallery, hosts its first major show.Or jet off to this island, which boasts 100 museums.

Next Wednesday: Community Forum on the future of the Renaissance Community Co-op.

If you are running in the city, run in a city park.

I understand why parking isn’t really free, but still, can we not give a break to disabled drivers.

So yeah, this house isn’t real, but what is inside is vital to Raleigh. Meanwhile, Brad Pitt’s “Make It Right” homes in New Orleans need to be made right.

The case for a Chicago-based Obama Presidential Library and the end of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

And finally, take a virtual tour of the new DC Metro Silver Line and get ready for the Capital Wheel.

Alexandria, Arts Districts, Atlanta, Cities, Cleveland, downtown, Durham, Greensboro, Jobs, Links, miami, New York City, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Retail, Transportation

Placebook: Snow, Maybe?

Good Friday morning folks! Some of you are snowed in. Some of you are just cold. Count me in the cold bunch. If you want a good laugh, take a look at my account of what happens when we actually do get snow down South.

Greensboro Skyline covered in snow, January 19, 2013. Photo Credit: Kristen Jeffers
Greensboro Skyline covered in snow, January 19, 2013. Photo Credit: Kristen Jeffers

Whatever is going on outside, be safe, have fun and check out the articles below:

Harlem is on the one hand the home of the graffiti hall of fame and  the other a hotbed of gentrification.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles continues its march towards more transit, more parks and civic engagement.

Speaking of civic engagement, with the performing arts center funded, Greensboro leaders are moving towards deciding who’s going to operate it. Oh, and mark your calendars for all the known street festivals in Greensboro this year.

A sign in Miami tells pedestrians to thank drivers for not hitting them.

Terry Kerns(@terrykerns) documents significant demolitions in Atlanta, some nice, some ugly.

Jim Russell(@burghdiaspora) hasn’t slammed suburbia as much as he’s encouraged and documented the need for people to #makeyourcity and how young people are doing just that.

Kaid Benfield(@Kaid_at_NRDC)came back and elaborated on his comments on traditional downtowns, highlighting the generational gap in views on revitalization. I left a comment, stating the need for us to remain centralized, even if that means being polycentric. Also notable is the danger of having your content syndicated without its proper headline.

I don’t think manufacturing job losses are the reason Big 10 college football teams aren’t having the best seasons right now.

And finally, help this Alexandria, VA woman #FindBen, if he wants to be found. When Cragslist’s missed connections goes artisanal. http://dcist.com/2014/01/find_ben_alexandria_posters.php

That’s it for links this week. Be sure to look out for my 2014 Wishes for Good Places tomorrow just in time for brunch on the East Coast.