Two distressing stories

Written By H. Pike Oliver

I am mostly an optimist. But there are times when I wonder if i am deluding myself. Early on this New Year’s Day morning, I read two disturbing stories. The first article addressed decades of dysfunction and mismanagement at New York City’s main jail complex on Rikers Island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx. The second article reported on the rapidly moving and devastating fires in the Denver area that has destroyed as many as 1,000 homes.

The Rikers Island situation has been brewing for decades as have the Colorado wildfires. The question is are we as a society going to take effective action to resolve the underlying factors that lead to instances of social and environmental chaos?

H. Pike Oliver

H. Pike Oliver focuses on master-planned communities. He is co-author of Transforming the Irvine Ranch: Joan Irvine, William Pereira, Ray Watson, and THE BIG PLAN, published by Routledge in 2022.

Early in his career, Pike worked for public agencies, including the California Governor's Office of Planning and Research, where he was a principal contributor to An Urban Strategy for California. For the next three decades, he was involved in master-planned development on the Irvine Ranch in Southern California, as well as other properties in western North America and abroad.

Beginning in 2009, Pike taught real estate development at Cornell University and directed the undergraduate program in Urban and Regional Studies. He relocated to Seattle in 2013 and, from 2016 to 2020, served as a lecturer in the Runstad Department of Real Estate at the University of Washington, where he also served as its chair.

Pike graduated from San Francisco State University's urban studies and planning program and received a master's degree in urban planning from UCLA. He is a member of the American Planning Association and the Urban Land Institute and a founder and emeritus member of the California Planning Roundtable.

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