City Diplomacy and the Intersection of Law and Planning

Why did you choose to pursue a graduate education in planning?

From a young age, I always loved cities. Growing up in the suburbs of South Florida, its monotony inspired me to find wonder in the chaos of the city. Having lived a few years in Medellín, Colombia, I saw how urban planning could be used as a powerful tool for social change and equity, and that made me consider planning as a passion. During college, I was fortunate enough to cross-register at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and enjoyed pondering the deep theoretical and practical questions inherent in the discipline. After knowing I wanted to go to law school, I felt that my journey would be incomplete without focusing on the field that has, for many years, inspired me. Before planning school, I volunteered as a budget delegate for New York  City’s participatory budgeting and in the city’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and realized that a future in law would be meaningless without planning to provide the substance.

What planning subject or area most interests you?

I am passionate about the intersection of urban planning and law. Planning’s strongest tool to exact change in the built environment is through the use of legislation and regulation.
An urban landscape that embodies ideals of equity and environmental resilience requires planners and lawyers working together to create the legal frameworks that incentivize positive developments. I am particularly interested in how to acknowledge and grow from the racist, classist, and exclusionary past of land use regulations to ensure such legal tools do not automatically entrench established power structures in urban society. Zoning and land use needs to be conceived in a participatory and innovative manner to address their historical shortcomings and create a legal system that rewards public and private interests seeking to create livable and inclusive cities.

What opportunities does your program provide to engage with the community and fellow students?

Our program contains a core curriculum that, from the beginning, encourages our cohort to work together and learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Our program is exceptionally group-oriented, which mimics real-life collaboration responsibilities and helps to develop and strengthen the soft skills necessary to succeed in a professional environment. Our program also encourages us to learn the necessary qualitative and quantitative skills to better interact with the communities we work in. I particularly appreciate how the GSD focuses the first-year core studio on neighborhoods and cities in the Boston metropolitan area to better understand and connect with our new home.

What advice would you offer someone considering a master’s degree in planning?

Urban planning, as opposed to other graduate programs, requires critically thinking about whether this is your professional path. This might sound like a drawback, but in reality, it is what makes urban planning so special. People who apply to urban planning graduate programs, in my opinion, understand and want to further explore the impact that planning has on surrounding environments. As I look at my cohort, I am proud to say that each individual came with a strong perspective as to what planning meant to them and were ready to learn the language and skills to succeed in this field. I would tell people who do not have a design or architecture background not to fret. Urban planning, while visually oriented, benefits from diverse skills, including policy, economics, and humanities-oriented thinking.

What do you hope to do after completing your degree?

I look at my plans in terms of medium-term and long-term goals. At first, I will be working at a law firm in New York City, focusing on real estate transactions and the entitlement  process. I hope to spend three to five years there, learning the trade and developing my skillset in the finance and legal side of real estate while living in the Big Apple. Afterward, I would like to pivot. Because of the hyperlocal nature of land use law, I will have to determine whether I would prefer to live in Miami, Florida (where I am originally from) or stay in my new home of New York City. What I do know is that I would love to begin working in local government to understand the public side of land use and real estate regulation. In the long term, I would like to take my skills to a national or international platform, mainly governmental agencies or organizations like the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development or UN-Habitat. I seek to help develop policy circuits and help cities communicate with each other about their urban innovations as we develop a new form of diplomacy: city diplomacy.