Anyone can apply to be a planning commissioner… any age… it is typically an appointed position and you are interviewed by a couple of city councilmembers and or existing planning commissioners to see if you are a fit. The idea being that a city doesn’t want a planning commissioner with a hard bias in any given direction. Your job is to try and best represent the opinion of the residents of your city… along with some smidge of your own personal opinion.

Many of the decisions you make as a planning commissioner are a situation where both sides have merit… and neither is wrong… but somebody still has to make a decision about which way to go. These are the most difficult decisions usually… and why we need balanced and empathetic people on the planning commission that can listen and make educated decisions based on all sides of a given discussion. We need this just as much as we need experienced planning types. Good Luck!

Rock on

Finding charities you like and helping them in some way is good.

That and not taking your possessions too seriously.

I’m not totally sure, but I guess deep, deep down I think I disagree with the capitalist monetary system? And, although I want do make a positive dent in the world, I guess I feel guilty for doing it through a system that I fundamentally haven’t accepted yet? I’m not sure how to pin it down with words, exactly, but I think that’s in the ballpark.

I think this sounds a little hokey, but it’s true… when I was in a kid (early teens?) my parents bought me a pair of Simple shoes. They made me feel exactly like me, unfiltered. Recently, I read a few articles about you on the web (mostly interviews about how you started Simple Shoes). I feel like maybe, just maybe you might have been in my shoe before and understand my little dilemma at more than just a surface level?

Thanks

E