Speaking of Metanarratives

Recently, i've been thinking about what the metanarrative of my life has been so far and what it is going to be in the future. Mostly, i've been thinking about this because i'm looking for a new job. More and more, i'm realizing that working in legislative policy is probably not the place for me. And here is why: I want to be the one planning and/or implementing the changes, not so much helping get money for people doing the work. I like ideas put in motion, people and positions that are forward-thinking, and entrepreneurship. Guess how much of that goes on in Congress? Admittedly, not that much.

Speaking of metanarratives, i've been looking back on some of my college education and i'm starting to put together some pieces that seemed somewhat disjointed. Two of my favorite, and largest, college projects involved community development/urban planning issues, which is really the area i'd like to work in. Firstly, I did a semester long research project on the passage of the Model Cities Act, which was pretty much envisioned by LBJ. LBJ's vision for the project was to create a sweeping reform that would make US cities "showcases" for the world, rather than what they often are: cesspools of poverty, crime, and social unrest. Unfortunately, the Model Cities Act had almost no impact whatsoever on city life, mostly because Congress severely cut back its original funding levels. I could go on, but I won't. Secondly, I did a project my last semester of college that considered food security issues and the feasibility of implementing community food gardens in Durham, NC public housing communities. The project was amazing; I got to look at how food gardens around the country are bringing citizens together, creating learning opportunities for youth, and helping communities mature and develop critical resources that will sustain them for the future. Both the model cities project and the community gardens project exposed me to issues related to urban development and community public policy...this is what interests me, and this is what I want to be a part of. The metanarrative will continue and i'll probably continue finding pieces from my past that tie into the bigger story...

that is all for now.

To give you a few cool things to check out if you're interested in these ideas:

http://www.cyburbia.org/
http://www.idealist.org/
http://www.urbaneco.org/index.asp
http://www.foodfromthehood.com/