This was originally posted on the Massachusetts Housing Partnership blog on October 31, 2018 when I was a Senior Program Manager for the Community Assistance Team there. I’ve reposted here for archival purposes, should MHP choose to remove the post at a later date! MELROSE — While preparing for my son’s first time trick-or-treating after […]
Halloween can tell you a lot about your neighborhood Read More »
Melrose Forward: A Community Vision and Action Plan was developed as a guiding policy document for all future decisions on growth and preservation in the City of Melrose, Massachusetts for many years to come. I led this project in my role as a Senior Regional Planner at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. The plan included
Melrose Forward: A Community Vision and Action Plan | 2015-2017 Read More »
When the Town of Boxborough hired MAPC to update its master plan, I asked: what if the entire plan is an online document, with only a magazine-style summary made available in print? The intent was to make the plan more accessible to residents and town officials, and to offer a resource that would always be readily
Boxborough2030 Comprehensive Plan | 2014-2015 Read More »
In June 2015, Planning Magazine, the membership publication for the American Planning Association, published Manisha’s essay about how she and her family navigated their housing and transportation choices. As a planner and policy-maker, Manisha thinks about the tradeoffs made in her own household, and how these experiences help to inform her lens on local policy.
Planning Magazine Viewpoint Article: “Baby Makes Three (Commuters)” Read More »
I led MAPC’s work in Downtown Lynn, Massachusetts from November 2012-May 2014. This project was the largest single-municipality planning project funded by the MetroBoston Consortium for Sustainable Communities, a grant from the Obama Administration’s Sustainable Communities program, and was supplemented by a match from MAPC. Our project built on existing downtown and waterfront revitalization efforts
What’s Next for Downtown Lynn? | 2012-2014 Read More »
This essay was originally posted on the Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s Planning 101 blog on January 7, 2013 when I was a Senior Regional Planner there. Sometimes the best way to illustrate abstract concepts such as how to live a “smart growth”-oriented lifestyle is by telling stories from personal experiences. I wrote about my family’s
Smart Growth Shopping: Choosing a City Stroller Read More »
Originally published on Planning 101, the MAPC blog, on December 1, 2011, in my capacity as an MAPC Senior Regional Planner. Are there certain places that should never be built upon? This is a question I’ve been grappling with, as a planner and as an American, since visiting a sacred burial ground in the Midwest
Are some places too sacred for development? Read More »
The Battle Road Scenic Byway is a corridor designated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that follows the approximate path of the British regulars during the battles that marked the start of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775 – where the “shot heard round the world” was fired. The byway runs roughly parallel to Route 2
Battle Road Scenic Byway Corridor Management Plan | 2009-2011 Read More »
People’s Homesteading Group, Inc. is a community development corporation in the heart of Baltimore, Maryland, located south of the Johns Hopkins University main campus, north of Baltimore’s historic Inner Harbor, Mount Vernon Historic District, and Penn Station, and northwest of John Hopkins University Medical Campus. The area of focus for PHG’s services is in the
People’s Homesteading Group | Baltimore, 2005-2007 Read More »
During my internship at the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C. the summer after I completed my Master of City Planning degree, I conducted research to support a neighborhood group in Southeastern D.C. working to get their neighborhood designated as a local historic district. I reviewed Hopkins and Baist Real Estate maps, historic