Well, it’s been a long time! I haven’t had much time or motivation to write, but hopefully that will begin to change some time soon. Famous last words.
Alert observers who for some reason follow me extremely closely may have noticed that my employer has a job listed that covers my major responsibilities–namely, managing the Boston MPO’s federally required budget plan. That doesn’t mean that I’m leaving Boston or MPO work, though! I’ve been at CTPS for almost five years, and I’m taking on some new responsibilities that I’m very excited about, and that I’ll get to in a moment. But first, apply for the position! It says you’d spend 60% of your time working on the UPWP (roughly accurate, though it’s highly concentrated in the January-June band) and 40% as a resilience planner. There’s likely some flexibility in the second element, but it’s a skillset we need on staff badly. I’m happy to answer questions from anyone who’s interested; you can find me on Twitter or through the contact page on this site. The position is open until October 28.
We’re also hiring for two other positions in my work group, both related to outreach and communications:
—Manager of Outreach and Communications, a newly created position, will oversee a small department. This position is open until October 20.
—Public Outreach Coordinator will work for the new manager and pick up much of our important outreach work, in partnership with other staff members.
As for me: I’ll be taking over lead management of the MPO’s Transit Working Group (next meeting on October 12!) and transitioning into the role of being the MPO’s freight planner. Neither of those is a full-time job and I’ll be doing other things, too, but those will be my core responsibilities. Freight in particular is something that, while I’ve had a long-standing interest in it, is relatively new to me, so please send along resources. Anything on general freight and logistics is welcome (I already know a lot about freight rail, which is a relatively minor player in the Boston area these days), but I’m especially interested in examples of public-sector freight planning.
Gratuitous Pretty Picture
The picture at the top of the post features the old Niskayuna, NY train station, built in the 1840s by the Troy & Schenectady. Now an artist’s studio next to the very popular Mohawk-Hudson Bike-Hike Trail. Picture taken in August.
Itinerant Urbanist 