Coastal Weekend . . .

In the interim between now and when Coastopolis actually experiences its full fledged "launch" I think what I'm going to try and do is jot down certain notes, ideas, impressions and musings about coastal planning and management, coastal living etc. etc. Coastal stuff in general, which I'll probably continue once the site is up, but for now, will hopefully keep people ( i think i have about three readers ) coming back and checking in. If you do have any comments I would love for you to share them, I'm discovering that the more collaboration and feed back that I receive from individuals the easier the process of getting this thing off the ground is going to be . . .

. . . last weekend I found myself in Seaside, OR. After the conference wrapped up I spent one day exploring Portland by bicycle, and Saturday traveling to the coast and getting my first taste (in ages) of the Pacific Ocean. The water was a brisk 60-something degrees and the waves off of the main beach were probably in the 3-4 foot range with the occasional 5-6 foot set to keep things interesting. I had rented a 10'2" surfboard from Seaside SurfShop and while it was a total beast to ride around, it was a lot of fun to be out in the water paddling again. The only unfortunate side-effect of spending roughly three hours surfing is that in my urgency to get into the ocean, I forgot to put on any sunscreen and now my face and head are red and crispy.

Sunday morning I woke up to seek out donuts which would have been an excellent way to start the day. It was cool and misty and I donned my borrowed sweatshirt to head out and seek my prey. I walked down the Promenade and made it to Broadway, turned onto Columbia and walked back and forth. I found the place that claimed to sell donuts, but they were a far cry from what I wanted, resembling little circular funnel cakes . . .

Anyway, the point is that I was walking around looking at all the stuff down on Broadway and wondering how it got that way, and how will it all end up. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the town or area, Broadway is full of cheap souvenir shops, junk-food eateries and arcades. Not exactly the most eloquent statement of urban design or American mercantilism. And yet, this pattern is repeated over and over in beach towns on both coasts. Far be it from me to decry the look and feel of what seems to be a fairly popular tourist destination, but what I couldn't help but wonder is what are the forces that shape the look and feel of certain coastal communities
and where do these places fit into the overall scheme of "sustainable" development along coasts?

To be sure, the coast of Oregon has plenty to worry about beyond whether or not they need one more or less purveyor of plastic sand castle buckets and vinyl pirate flags . . . Dead zones, fisheries management issues, not to mention politicians that could care less are all things that the state (as well as most other coastal states) have to contend with (and that's just what i could drum up on a quick google search for this week) . . . I don't have the answers to anything, I guess that's the whole point of this particular project. I attended a conference once where the goal wasn't necessarily in "developing solutions", but rather in getting to a point through discussion and exchange where you might be able to ask the right questions.

I arrived in Baltimore this morning having left Portland Oregon last night. Before boarding the plane I had a real urge to buy a book and ended up choosing Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. I read it in one night. Now, a blog on coastal issues might seem a strange place to bring up a novel about a crime spree in Texas, but I'm going to recommend it anyway. Its a page turner and a great read, but its also about change and reflection and how people look at what mattters and what drives us to do the things we do. Which for me, is what the coast has always been about anyway.

CZ07 wrap up.

Well it's all over now. It was a really great conference and I'm glad that I attended, even if it was a little stressful getting out here, and slightly expensive to say the least. I think I made some pretty good connections and made some new friends that were very encouraging about Coastopolis. The challenge now will be to keep in contact with them all, hopefully they'll be swinging around the site of their own accord and checking up on me . . . I'm going to mash the last couple of days together, and then include some pictures of the thing. More than giving some sort of play by play of the events, I think this'll just be genereal impressions and mention of certain sessions that really stood out.

I'll start with David Hart @ the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant. His work with the Great Lakes Circle Tour Coastal Access Guide is really well done. And for my former classmates, a mapping geeks dream come true. In fact his work brings up some interesting points that I won't get into right now, but I was definitely pleased to see someone @ CZ07 exploiting some of today's technologies to enable resource users. Another individual presentation that had something of that component was the Coastal Transects Analysis Model. Ratana Chuenpagdee
used to be at VIMS (before I ever got to Virginia) but is now @ Memorial University, where apparently, they're doing some really cool work. I spoke to her briefly after her presentation and, like Hart, seemed to "get it" when it came to using the web as something that, not only might provide information, but be harnessed as a tool for a whole host of coastal management & planning applications. I look forward to being in touch with both of these two and might even have to hit them up for advice or "advisory" for Coastopolis.

. . . someone else I think I have to give a shout out to is Thorne Abbott over at the County of Maui planning department. They too seem to be up to some interesting things over there, and though Thorne didn't present anything at the conference we none-the-less had some very interesting discussion about the state of land-use planning along coastlines. A quick search of the APA & ULI websites and its easy to see that the coasts aren't their foremost priority . . . although APA does have a link to Tim's book, which is nice to see I guess.

Anyway, its a beautiful day in Portland OR. And even though I've got tons of work to do, its not like I'm out here all that often so I'm going to go rent a bicycle and do some exploring. I'm including some pictures of the conference. Hope you like 'em.

hmm. they seem a little boring . . . well, trust me, it was fun.

CZ07 pt. 4

. . . these things are exhausting. I had every intention of writing a wrap-up of yesterday when I got back yesterday evening. I stepped out for a little walk around the neighborhood, lay down in the park and totally fell asleep, the grass tickling my newly bald head. I woke up from my brief nap fairly more relaxed, but thinking about coastal management issues non-stop for 12 hours will wipe you out. Needless to say, I wasn't really in the mood to fire up the laptop and go into it all again . . . but now that I've had several ounces of coffee and the day is new here goes . . .

. . . yesterday was another "action packed" day of sessions beginning with a presentation from "the Hawaiians" and alot of the great work being done by the ohana or community of coastal managers out there. The guys at PRiMO are really organizing some amazing work, which would be too difficult to go into here but I recommend you check out the site. Karl Kim at UHDURP presented some neat work, as did Nathan Wood from USGS. Both were on hazard planning and mitigation. I'm trying to find some links, perhaps I'll have a big summary entry when the week is out with everybody's info.

. . . but again stealing the show (in my mind anyway) was Kalani Souza. Somebody dropped out of the session and Mr. Souza was asked to discuss his role in PRiMO and the importance of including the cultural and community aspects of these sorts of things into plans and bureaucracies. Again he managed to explain the matter in his own style, ukulele in hand and using traditional Hawaii'an story to make the point. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to introduce myself to him but perhaps today I'll get a chance to say hello and maybe even get his take on what I'm trying to do.

. . . the second session I largely attended because Rob Thompson was presenting. Rob was one of the reasons that I ended up @ URI and then ended up in UVA. He was Austin's professor and has always had a frank and humorous look at a number of matters. His work isn't too shabby either, but his surfing stinks. I'm kidding of course. His work is great. Actually, the work he presented was some interesting research on beach access done using a Trimble unit much like the one that I recently had acquiring for the Architecture school, so I'll have to get some more info on that to share w/ Dr. Phillips.

. . . finally there was the session about the future of Coastal Management . . . which is a huge can of worms and one that has great implications for Coastopolis but given the fact that I already missed Mr. Jack McGowan discuss his wonderful efforts at SOLV and the role of citizenry in coastal management I'm going to have to save that discussion for a later date . . .

CZ07 pt. 3

Ok. I'm going to get the complaining out of the way first thing and then get to the rest of the post, but I feel that something has got to be said . . .

. . . NO FREE WIRELESS IN THE CONFERENCE AREA!?!?!?! WTF!?!?!?


. . . that's it. that's all I'm going to say about that. The conference has been pretty good so far. I've sat in on some pretty interesting sessions, each of which gives me new ideas and enthusiasm for the potential of Coastopolis. Yesterday's Plenary session included Leon Panetta doing a great job in reminding us what an incredibly important task coastal planners & managers have before themselves, stating it was as important as life itself, because at the end of the day, that's exactly what's on the line, the life of our coasts and oceans. Ruckelshaus (HAPPY 75th Sir!!!) described the efforts being undertaken by the Puget Sound Partnership in cleaning up that part of the world. Both of them made a point of making it clear that there are ALOT of factors that go into successfully protecting these areas, and they have nothing to do with petty politics or partisanship.

. . . I also attended a great session that had as a participant Kalani Souza a hawaiian practitioner. It was entitled "Conserving our Cultural Heritage" and was really great, I'm glad I ended up in there. I had originally stepped into "Targeting the Public . . ." but it was so full that there wasn't even room to sit on the floor. That's another of my complaints I guess, many of the sessions are beyond capacity. Regardless, I managed to get into the other session and was pleasantly surprised by his performance and the heartfelt words that really encapsulated why so many of us are so passionate about these part of the world . . . because they're holy, and speak to our souls . . .

. . . anyway, I'm already running late. I'll try to post some more later because that certainly wasn't all that happened in the day, I managed to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones too. All good things for Coastopolis which keeps me up at night thinking about its potential.

CZ07 pt. 2

Well, its getting late for east coast time and its high time I go to sleep but wanted to jot down some notes before hitting the hay. This afternoon I went to the conference center and registered and then ducked into the Surfrider Foundation meeting that was going on. I arrived a bit late and couldn't stay too long but it was nice to be among surfers and like minds again. I'm guessing there'll be alot of that feeling this weekend. On the way out I also ran into Don Robadue from the Coastal Resources Center @ URI, and my old stomping grounds. It was good to see him as well, even if most of what he works on goes right over my head, he's a neat guy and always into some interesting project or another. If i get the chance I'm definitely going to try and pick his brain for ideas and impressions on Coastopolis. There are more than a few "public outreach" sessions at the conference this year, and I'm also thinking that it may prove beneficial to attend a few of these as well, seeing as how thats kind of the whole point of the site, making it easier for stakeholders to connect and enabling wiser choices to bubble up through the power of the web and networks. I spent some time tinkering tonight and might have a sort of customer survey up soon so I can get some feed back from people that I meet at the conference. I know that I'm in way over my head on this thing but seeing familiar faces today and getting a taste of that enthusiasm made it seem like so long as I gave it my best shot my efforts wouldn't be a total waste.

Coastal Zone 07

This week I'm attending Coastal Zone 07 in Portland, OR and will more than likely be covering my experience on these pages to see how it goes. I attended this biennial conference in 2003 in Baltimore, MD and it had a great impact on my choice in "careers" . . . where else do people attend professional conferences in shorts, hawaiian shirts and flip flops? That wasn't the only thing that I came away with from the experience, however. CZ03 was definitely a big push in convincing me that I could find really satisfying work in the "coastal zone." While four years ago I attended not knowing all that much about the field and being pretty naive about how things worked, I look forward to approaching this year's conference with a slightly more sophisticated outlook and the possibility of making contacts and working on leads toward, dare I say it, gainful employment. Furthermore, I'm going to kind of float the idea of Coastopolis and see how it is received with people, and potentially make some friends that would be willing to help with content and/or development. We'll see how successful I am. I wish that I had much more completed on the site to show to people, but these last couple of weeks have proven slightly less productive than I would have liked. Prehaps tonight I can add a bit more content and/or spruce up some of the pages and have a bit more to offer than what is currently up.

Anyway, I just checked in to the HI where I'm staying and am headed down to the conference center to register now. We'll see how it goes.

Inaugural Post

Well here goes nothing. This is the first post of "the website" I'm trying to launch, Coastopolis.com.

Its an idea that has been bouncing around in my head for awhile but for various reasons I haven't had the chance to do anything to develop the idea and get it off the ground. The first time that it occurred to me (roughly) was back when I was applying to graduate schools and was having a hard time finding information about "coastal planning." . . . the whole story of why I was researching coastal planning is a long one that perhaps I'll share someday, but for the time being the point is that I was having difficulty finding a place that had good web resources and links and would point me in the direction I wanted to go.

The best resource at the time (around summer 2002) was the coastal-management site that was maintained by Robert Kay. However, if I recall correctly, that was mostly based on the resources for his book and was heavy on the management side of things and was internationally (UK & Oz) focused. Again, this was awhile back and I don't recall it all that well . . .

The next time that I got real jazzed about the idea for the site was over a conversation with Capt. Austin Becker, and its to him that I need to credit the term "coastopolis." (thanks Capt.) At the time, he and I were working for URI's Coastal Resources Center and the both of us were researching different aspects of coastal planning, coastal use etc. Again we came across the issue that there wasn't a central community or forum or clearing house on the web that had connections to the myriad of different characters that have to do with life and living on the coast. Take a look around, if you find a real good one then I'll save my energies and quit the project. But I bet you won't find one . . . (I hope) . . .

. . . So that's where Coastopolis.com comes in hopefully. A place where coastal managers, coastal planners, coastal developers, coastal dwellers and coastal visitors can connect, learn about and engage in a more productive and perhaps more sustainable relationship with the coast.

The site is very much a work in progress, and as I'm learning (the hard way) getting a website started has alot of challenges and the learning curve is steep. At the moment I'm going about it largely by myself, but hopefully the people that are adding their energies to Coastopolis will grow and it'll evolve into something useful and pleasing and exciting and fruitful . . . just like coast. Thanks for stopping by.