City Nestmaking

A “just right” amount of ballast provides steadiness so people can choose where they want to go—and choose a course to get there.

Images in this episode can be found in this blog post.

Reflection:

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It feels good to fight and argue, but when there’s no pressure to convince others or be convinced, we listen in ways that allow us to improve our communities.

Images for this episode can be found in this blog post.

Reflection

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Beth Sanders and Yasushi Ohki explore how being a land developer can be good for a community’s well-being, rather than the maligned role many believe.

Yasushi innovates, pilots and demonstrates new housing forms with a dogged entrepreneurial spirit. He believes that building housing can be an opportunity to develop community well-being for individuals and the wider community. For over 22 years, Yasushi has worked in the land development industry, including greenfield development, infill residential construction and project management. He brings to his work a love of urban design and a keen eye for how people interact with architecture, combined with a sensitivity to the realities of building construction and maintenance. He continues his community development work by establishing a trio of sustainability-oriented organizations: the Green Violin Community Development Company, the Rose Cello Affordable Housing Society, and the Prairie Sky Property Management Corporation.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

Here's what Yasushi says about himself: "A degree in Civil Engineering and a second one in Architecture allowed me to have a career in land development in my home city of Edmonton, where I moved to when I was a young child from Vancouver where I was born to Japanese parents. I am currently advocating, educating, and co-creating housing options for affordable housing in and around Edmonton through my non-profit community development company, Green Violin."

Reflection

City making, the weaving of city building and city caring, only happens when we have a social habitat in which we choose to weave these perspectives together.

Images for this episode can be found here.

We only organize together if we are in the push and pull of conversation,

Images for this episode can be found here.

An impromptu check-in invited awe in self, others and a beautiful place.

Images for this episode can be found here.

Receiving a big award made me notice how integrity and values shape my life and work, from the scale of me to the scale of communities, neighbourhoods, and cities.

Images for this episode can be found here.

Think about an activation like a guided meditation. You can listen to them in order or in response to your intuition--which one catches your eye?

Is it possible that being more honest about what I don't know and what I don't know how to do makes me feel less scared? It looks like radical honesty with my ski patrol colleagues makes me feel less scared. And more capable, too.

NOTE: You can find a video of the chair lift ride mentioned in this episode in this article.

There are two kinds of inconceivable: 1) the one I tell myself isn’t possible and 2) the one I can’t imagine. In this episode, Beth reveals a 35-year-old wish that came true and where that wish fulfilled is taking her.

There are great images that accompany this episode; they can be found here.