Former Seattle Planning Director Ray Gastil is enjoying life as a consultant on urban planning and, lately, as the guest editor of the latest edition of ARCADE. The quarterly magazine on design and the built environment is produced by the Northwest Architectural League with a great standing staff and a guest editor for special editions. Ray was selected for the Summer 2011 edition and chose the theme “The Good Life Reconsidered” and reached out to a variety of guest writers – including me! I chose to write about our ability and responsibility to work with Rainier Beach on a vision of the “good life” that reaches more people. I’m in good company with writers Matthew Stadler, urban gardening activist Amber Banks, Lower Elwha Klallam Nation artist and storyteller Roger Fernandes and others in the pages. As an added bonus you’ll find Jeffrey Ochsner of UW (and the Cedar Park neighborhood) writing on the Washington Shoe Building.
ARCADE is a niche magazine, no doubt. There are a lot of big architecture and planning words used and what some might call “academic concepts” talked about very seriously. I’m way out of my league being in its pages – and it’s great!