Currently I am working for the State of Utah at the Department of Economic and Social Development. The Director Palmer Depaulis was making his rounds with a floor plan in hand. He looked perplexed staggering around my section of honeycombed cubicles and so I asked if I could help. We talked for a brief couple of seconds and I found out that he's trying to consolidate work areas to fit more people into our already cramped space. I quickly told him that in my department we are dividing two areas to provide 2 new employees spaces. He mumbled something about having to tear some walls down and move some staff into the really tiny new cubicles, then he was off.
From a planning student's perspective I felt as though I had been thrown into a mini community under siege by redevelopment. In such a mini setup it became clear to me that the person with the power gets to make decisions for the rest of us and an informal visit from "the man" only fueled a dread for what was to come. I have to fight for my space or be reduced and really is it any different for communities throughout our cities.
Most times the average citizen finds out about a new development project only when they happen to ask the construction worker, smoking a cigarette on his break, what the big hole is for. Now that I have a whisper of the plans the responsibility fall on me to be informed. Inter-office planning is a little more cloak and dagger, with the cloak being an enormous bureaucracy, but I like to think my voice is one of reason and one worth being heard. Obviously Mr. DePaulis was unfamiliar with my territory and so my services as well as the services of other sections on this floor should be at a valuable premium. I think I'll start the non-profit group called "Freedom Within Cubicals."
From a planning student's perspective I felt as though I had been thrown into a mini community under siege by redevelopment. In such a mini setup it became clear to me that the person with the power gets to make decisions for the rest of us and an informal visit from "the man" only fueled a dread for what was to come. I have to fight for my space or be reduced and really is it any different for communities throughout our cities.
Most times the average citizen finds out about a new development project only when they happen to ask the construction worker, smoking a cigarette on his break, what the big hole is for. Now that I have a whisper of the plans the responsibility fall on me to be informed. Inter-office planning is a little more cloak and dagger, with the cloak being an enormous bureaucracy, but I like to think my voice is one of reason and one worth being heard. Obviously Mr. DePaulis was unfamiliar with my territory and so my services as well as the services of other sections on this floor should be at a valuable premium. I think I'll start the non-profit group called "Freedom Within Cubicals."
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