Perry ShoemakerUniversity of Iowa, School of Urban and Regional Planning (graduate program) May 2013; College of law, May 2014
List and describe briefly relevant leadership positions held at the local, regional, state, or national level.
List and describe briefly any relevant planning-related volunteer positions held at the local, regional, state, or national level.
Describe your involvement in planning-related activities (community, nonprofit, planning student organizations, etc.):
My diverse leadership and volunteer experiences have helped me to understand just how multi-faceted planning (and non-planning) issues can be, and how problem-solving requires systemic leadership. I have experienced varying degrees of responsibility, and understand not only what leadership and responsibility entails, but also the kind of support a leader needs to offer his team.
Which APA benefit, activity, or resource do you value most? Please describe.
I benefit most from the conferences and meetings that the APA holds each year. These are an invaluable opportunity to put neophyte and veteran planners in the same room, face-to-face, discussing contemporary issues and trading ideas. While the APA publications are certainly helpful in communicating current events nationwide (especially for planners and students who are unable to make the trip to a regional or national conference), the face-to-face meetings are second to none in terms of spontaneous interaction and livelihood.
In particular, attending the 2011 Upper Midwest APA Conference in Davenport, Iowa, helped me gain a better understanding of both the breadth and depth of planning projects across the region and offered tremendous examples of creative problem-solving. The event helped me to understand my future career and all of the options open to me. The "reality check" these conferences offer are extremely beneficial to students who may be so absorbed in their studies that they forget to take time to fully appreciate just what it is that they are studying.
What do you believe APA and its student leaders can do to assist those preparing to enter the planning profession?
The APA and its student leaders can assist planning students' transition into planning careers by publicizing planning (and related fields) to undergraduate students. Far too many undergraduate students are interested in urban planning subject matter but lack exposure to formal planning curricula at their undergraduate institutions; these students often have no idea that urban planning is a viable course of study at the graduate level. Most students are aware that cities were planned once upon a time, but few know that there are contemporary planning problems that require the diverse talents of the next generation of planners. Many small, private undergraduate schools lack even informal planning curricula, which often leaves students with the impression that no such field formally exists. The APA and its student leadership should reach out to nearby undergraduate schools and actively recruit those schools' best and brightest for graduate planning programs.
At the same time, the APA and its student leadership must find a way to educate communities (major cities, small towns, rural counties) about the merits of planning as a practice. This is not to say that cities need to create scores of internships and jobs for prospective planners. Rather, the current attitude that planning is "a four-letter word" needs to be addressed at all levels of government. Open hostility in some communities has deterred potential planning students from pursuing a career that is both publicly essential and personally rewarding. The APA and its student leadership must make its case at the local and national level and rejuvenate the planning profession's reputation.
How did you become interested in planning?
I became interested in planning because I believe that social and societal inequalities can be traced back to childhood learning and living environments. These environments, in turn, are the product of planning policy and execution, for better or for worse. All politics aside, there are some clear-cut examples of poor planning that will take cities decades to rectify.
For me, the chief example is the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx (New York). Hunts Point sits on a peninsula on the southeastern edge of the Bronx, and is hemmed in by the Bruckner Expressway (I-278) to the west. The neighborhood is host to one of the largest meat- and produce-distribution plants in the country, as well as a myriad of scrapyards, light factories, and New York City's primary wastewater treatment plant. The neighborhood suffers decrepit public housing, overfilled streets, and a noticeable lack of child-friendly green space. Yet children live in this neighborhood, crossing truck-filled streets to get to school. The neighborhood is one of the poorest in the city, and the children are among the worst sufferers of asthma nationwide.
Hunts Point suffers because it was zoned for incompatible land uses. Residential is expected to coexist with industrial, which suppresses housing stock. Residential roadways are burdened with commercial traffic. The only real neighborhood playground is severely overcrowded. While certainly not intentional, these problems were foreseeable. I chose planning as a profession so that I could personally make sure that such a neighborhood never crops up again — and, with luck, to help the people of Hunts Point to reclaim and rejuvenate their neighborhood.
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