Hometowns Need Vision. Here's Your Helper, with Jake Powell
Jake Powell is a researcher in Utah State University’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning. Much of Jake’s work is connected to the Gateway and Natural Amenity Resources (GNAR) initiative which is geared toward communities that are growing due to increased amenity migration in an era when working from anywhere drives people to live and work in beautiful locations. And on that topic, as Jake says: “When it comes to Utah, Mother Nature played favorites.”
GNAR works to connect young gateway communities with older, more established communities so that no one has to reinvent the wheel and everyone can learn from the successes and failures of the others. For example, towns like Driggs and La Verkin can learn from cities like Moab and Jackson Hole. Jake Powell talks to us about how he and his colleagues at GNAR serve as a connection point for these communities to share resources and research.
Jake also walks us through the work of USU Extension generally; how it takes the research out of journals and makes it more accessible to people in their daily lives. And we explore how towns can and should create a vision for their future including the identity they wish to establish and maintain. As Jake puts it: “we are helping communities and individuals figure out how to use design and planning to make places that they care a lot about better.” (7:18)
Jake Powell and David Anderson (Episode 38) will be featured in an upcoming Research Landscapes event “Finding our Sense of Place” on November 18, 2020 at 11:30 a.m. MST. You can RSVP to attend.
