wearebiodesign

It’s a beautiful day to vote!

To everyone whose work day also looks like this - let’s give each other extra grace and understanding in the upcoming months. As many know, being a working parent/guardian can already be challenging, but many people are now also facing a new reality of parenting, schooling, and working. I’ve noticed patterns of communication from both schools and sometimes employers/businesses that are trying to pretend this scenario doesn’t exist. But, it does and I’m hoping that the acknowledgement of this new reality can all help us grow together as a community.

book “So You Want to Talk a About Race” is really, really good. Read it, reflect on it, and let’s do the work to dismantle systemic racism in the design profession/education system, in our personal lives, and in the world.

This popped up in our newsfeed this morning and made us chuckle and nod our heads in agreement. Happy Monday everyone.

An important part of understanding cities and systemic racism is to learn about their zoning histories. When working as a research assistant in graduate school at the UW studying live and dead carbon stock (aka trees), during our field surveys in Seattle it was noticeable the difference in dbh (diameter breast height/size of the tree) between neighborhoods that seemed historically wealthy vs. neighborhoods with smaller homes and less access to public infrastructure such as parks. At the time, redlining was not a familiar term, and it’s been great to see more research and awareness happening around this racist practice. Street trees and green spaces are vital to human and ecological health yet and ecological equity . It’s clear that even though redlining is no longer a legal practice, the lasting effects of these racist urban practices are still seen today and the distribution of further green infrastructure in cities is often still associated with wealth. Articles like this are a good reminder that if we are ever going to try to heal some of the inequities caused by systemic racism, we must keep fighting for equal access to green infrastructure. Image credit NYT - link to article in bio.