I'm not sure how many of you know, but I did finally find a job here in Rottedam (in August). I work at a small urban planning company called Stipo--based in Amsterdam, with an office in Rotterdam as well. Stipo seems to be this hybrid private/non-profit company that's ultimately private but does a lot of work I consider to be in a non-profit portfolio. We work on strategic and community planning with a special emphasis in partnership building. I guess I should do an entry on working for a Dutch company--I'm sure my managers will love that!
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| Arriving at the incredible St. Pancras Station
One of the projects I have been working on is setting up a 3-day study visit or "exchange" with two partner organizations in London. We got about 32 architects, planners, and urban anthropologists together, mostly from Holland but also a couple folks from London, Spain, and Ireland, and organized a jam-packed 3 days. The theme of the exchange was discovering and learning from the innovators in the 'civic economy' in London. A lot of folks in the planning and community-building world are fed up with Big Government and strongly believe that government (and funds from the government) stifles innovation, limits their creativity, and curbs the extent to which they can reach out to the people.
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With our partners we sought out grass-root organizations who are going against the grain. We focused our energy on the very hip and radically changing East London neighborhoods--where immigrants and low-income families and fashionista hipsters live side-by-side, and where in the same block you see up-scale Michelin star restaurants, degenerate factory buildings, and major Olympics-related urban regeneration.
