Last Post

This will be my last post on this blog, as it was a requirement for a class that I have taken this past semester. I enjoyed the blogging experience, but I just don't really have time to keep at it. Maybe one day I will return to the blogger, but who knows. For now, its just time to graduate and get outta school for good. Hope you enjoyed reading my blog and I hope you found something useful in it.

David

Graduation/Job Search

I am graduating on Saturday, December 18th and then it will be time for me to join the real world. It is not exaclty the easiest thing to do! At this time of the year (end of the year; holidays) it can be really tough to find a job. Local governments just don't have the money to give to entry level people like myself. It makes the job search tough, and at times, discouraging. But I know that the department that I am coming from is a great educator and the job placement is really high. I know in time I won't have to work at Weis Markets anymore and I guess that is the right outlook to have. I guess I am just rambling about how many people have difficulty finding a job right out of college, especially in this profession. If you are soon to be a graduate, you should be prepared for that. Once you accept it, it makes the reality easier. Some people give up way to quick and its people like that who find themselves without work for much longer periods of time. I know my luck will change soon, and thats only because I am going to put a lot of work into it. If you are having some bad luck, just know it will eventually work out for you, too.

Comp Plans

Anyone else is planning enjoy the concept of comprehensive plans as much as I do? I dont know what it is abou them, but I just think they are so interesting. I think it is neat how people put down on paper plans for the future of an area. These plans include resources, transportation, development, and the comprehensive plans are used as guides in these areas.

The only problem that I have is that in Pennsylvania, these plans are not legal documents. The really have no bearing on the decisions made by people in cities and counties across the state. That, to me, is a shame because of all the time, money, and effort that goes into making these. All of that for something that can just be tossed aside anyway. Right in the MPC (The Municipalities Planning Code, which is the bible for planners in Pennsylvania) it states that county decision makers need not adhere to things outlined in the plan. Basically, the plans are just a guide, although I wish they could be something more. If you don't want the farms in a certain part of the county to be developed, then put that in the comp plan and make it legally binding. It would be a great way to limit future growth, especially in areas like York, Bucks, and Chester counties. These are the counties surrounding Phhiladelphia, and the fastest growing places in the state. If they could make a plan and state areas to be protected, then they could be, if it were legally binding.

This was just my little rambling about comprehensive plans. This came from the fact that I just recently did a project regarding Bloomsburg's Master Plan. I love them, but I hate how worhtless they essentially are.

Geography Knowledge

I found a neat article that dealt with students in American schools getting a better grasp on geography and the spatial realm. This, to me, refers back to a post I had about Roger Anderson not too long ago. Because of people like him and teachers like him, kids are learning more and more about the world. This article was based on a report that had contents from over 25,000 students in more than 1,100 schools across the country. The sample taken, obviously, was very large and can give us a good idea about the rest of the population. This article talked about elementary school students really getting a feel for the subject, which is a good thing because eventually they will be in high school and go on to higher education. Hopefully some of them will continue their love of and knowledge of geography into the future. We need a society that is well in tune with spatial problems because it is only these people that can solve them. And lord knows these problems just keep growing and growing and growing...

Park Rec and Open Space Plan

In my Geography of Recreation, Tourism, and Sport class which I have this semester, we had a guest speaker today. It was Ann Yost, who is a landscape architect for a private consulting firm in York County, PA. She came to discuss the Columbia County Park, Open Space, and Recreation plan, which is currently being developed with her firm and the Columbia County Planning Commission. I had done my internship at the CCPC over the summer so I had been exposed to this plan and its workings beforehand. It was an interesting discussion and she showed the class some pictures and described how a plan like this is developed. What I liked was that I knew what she was talking about as I had been with her during the time she had taken the pictures and evaluated the Counties existing recreation oppurtunities. Doing work like this is very interesting, and although my actual class is boring, it seems like it would be somehting I wouldn't mind getting involved with.

CCPC

During the summer, I completed an internship at the Columbia County Planning Commission. This internship, along with a bi-weekly seminar, was worth 15 credits toward my graduation requirements. This allows me to graduate in December, a semester early, which is pretty awesome. Definitely counting down the days now.

Anyway, the internship ran from May through August and I learned a lot of interesting things. This internship definitely prepared me for the "real" world, which is all too close now. I did a lot of subdivision and land development work and I also attending public meetings. Public Planning meetings can become really heated and funny, but fortunately (or unforunately?) I didn't have to experience any like that over the summer. Regardless, I had been involved in some pretty heavy debate throughout the summer between surveyors and the planning office. I also learned a lot about legal issues.

It was definitely cool to be in the working world, unfortunately I wasn't paid as I would be in a job situation. There wasn't always something interesting for me to do but I still had a great experience. The people I worked with were great and they helped me a lot. They didn;'t treat me like a slave, which is an experience a lot of internees have. I would work there if I had a shot because it was a really great environment. I would recommend the Columbia County Planning Commission as an internship to anyone in the planning field who lives near Bloomsburg. It is a good experience that you can take a lot out of.

Geography IQ

I found a neat article by searching Google News that was about a guy who wanted to devote his life to increasing American's geography IQ. Apparently Roger Anderson quit his job as fiber optics engineer to spend his time educating people in America about geography. He was dissapointed by the United States' poor showing at the international geography competition at that time. He has created a geography puzzle and is selling it throughout the country and he offers online geography competitions. Anderson really feels that people don't know enough about other places in the world. He says that people in other countries know all about the geography of the world because they have more time to travel and therefore spend a lot of time learning about the world in school.

Anderson definitely has the background and experience to devote his life this way. He said he visited 40 countries as a boy. I have been to 2, and one is the United States. I just think that it is really interesting that someone cares so much about geography that he would completely alter his life so that he could at least try and educate others. Geography is a great subject and hopefully more people will take his lead and either teach, or try and learn.

Interactive Map of Cleveland and Others

While searching the internet for interesting things related to geography, I came across this little gem. This is a neat website, GISusers.com, and this portion of the website is showing stillframes from various county planning agencies who utilize GIS. The first photo is of the base layer of an interactive map of Cleveland. As you sort through the gallery, you come across other interesting pictures. A description and web address is included for each gallery item, so you can link to the site and mess with the GIS software yourself. This does a great job of promoting the importance of GIS and as well as giving some advertising to county agencies. The Cleveland map is neat because you can click on the map to gain a street level view. Clicking on government buildings and parks also give added information to the user. This is a great information resource for anyone who wants to know about one of Ohio's major cities. Another one that I found to be neat was the SFViewer, which allows you, in a similar fashion to mapquest, to type in a block or an intersection to find a mapped location. It can be a neat little toy to play with for those who like geography and are really, really bored. Well, I enjoy it, at least.

City Revitalization

While I am on the subject of our governor and efforts to revitalize PA, I found an interesting article dealing with such revitalization in our state's smaller cities, well, smaller than Philly or Pittsburgh. This article explains Governor Rendell's approach to urban renewal in our cities, which is something that has also come from the findings in the Brookings Report.

The problem that people see with the governor's initiative to resuscitate our state's cities is an obvious one: money. Many politicians also view his new plans as simply revised attempts at failed past policies. But who is to say they would fail this time around? Well, those same politicians say that borrowing and spending so much money in a fashion that the government deems proper is not the right way for our state to go. As one person said, if it was a winner, PA would economically be one of the top states right now, but we are not.

In my opinion, some of the opposition the governor faces is foolish. Grant Gulibon, senior policy analyst at the Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives in Harrisburg, says that we should not blame urban sprawl for all of the problems we face. He says that we should not condemn people for their choices on where to live. The only problem with that uninformed way of thinking is that is EXACTLY the problem. Cities are spreading out entirely too far, eating up precious agricultural land and causing society to live in places dependant on roads. That forces us to consume gasoline at the alarming rate that we are and it adds to the already troublesome problem of air pollution. But the real problems, in terms of cities in decline, is that it takes away from the core of cities. Inner cities die while people who work in the city live in the same colored and shaped houses many miles away. That is the main reason our cities are in decline right now and if more people would wake up and see the problem, than perhaps we could facilitate a solution.

Gulibon goes on to say that the way to renew our cities is not to to allocate government dollars to community redevelopment programs. That is the only way I see and maybe if opposition such as this, which is extremely poor, wouldn't arise, programs like the ones Rendell initiated would be in place, and our problems could be solved.

Growing Greener II

Growing Greener II is an $800 million plan to revitalize the Pennsylvanian economy and position the state as an attractive place for future industries. This plan was set forth by Governor Ed Rendell, but I found this article from a Lancaster news source that discusses the difficulties arising with the plan.

Since Rendell set the plan in motion early in 2004, he has focused his attention to gambling legislation in the state of PA as a different, less attractive way of spurring business growth. The article suggests that the republicans in office are now to blame for the hold up of this plan, which was originally envisioned by republican Tom Ridge.

Pennsylvania, accoriding to this article, has 11,000 brownfield sites to clean up, 2,000 acid-leaking mines to clean up, and 375 farms to preserve, among many other things. This holdup in the beuracracy of the state certainly isn't helping things along. People are split on thier ideas of how to handle Growing Greener II, and that is where the main problems arise. Some people, such as Sam Smith, the House majority leader, feel that this action should be done on a "pay-as-you-go" basis, which others disagree with. Pennsylvania's environmental and economic problems run much deeper that a simple half-strength approach won't do.

The Brookings report identified the need for PA to start changing, and the initiative was there, but many lawmakers are having a hard time understanding how important it really is. It definitely hurts the state and time is running out to fix the problems.

AAG

Another interesting thing to get involved in, if you have an interest in geography, is the Association of American Geographers. I am not a member and I don't know to much about it but I have heard about it within my major and i have taken a look at the website. There are thousands of members nationwide and they deal with interests and theories in geography. Another major aspect of this association is that it deals with geography education. A professor of mine annually attends their national conference and she always comes back with interesting things to do with her classes. She always has great stories to tell as well. This association gives does a lot of what the APA does so I think I may one day join it. If you are an educator in the geography field than I would strongly suggest you join, as far as I can see it is greatly beneficial. By becoming a member, you are opened up to various options such as newsletters, periodicals, and, perhaps most importantly for my purposes, job openings. As with the APA, becoming a member is also a great thing to put on your resume. Anything to make yourself more marketable after graduation is a big-time bonus. Like I said, I think I may have to one day join this association, but for now I don't quite have the monetary assets to do so. But just something else for you to look into if you are in the geography field.