Susan Wood
A rock is a piece of history, Susan Wood observes. Peer at a cross-section of sandstone, 你可以想象河水的流动将这些物质留在了那个地层中. 地质学让我们回顾过去，帮助解释为什么物理世界是现在这个样子. The better we understand our history, Wood believes, 我们就能更好地预见过去的事件如何影响未来.
Wood reflects on the past when she walks the 16th Street Mall, the milelong, 80英尺宽的脊柱支撑着丹佛市中心，在1982年开放时，这是一个热闹的行人和商业活动的来源, replacing the congested vehicular thoroughfare that the street once was. Now, she can’t help but notice the chips, breaks and discolorations in the gray and red pavers, all part of an I.M. 裴设计的响尾蛇图案，在中心发音，在边缘更分散. The mature trees are losing their leaves. The Mall is showing its age.
人们认识到，该地区的基础设施已经到了寿命的尽头，这推动了对第16街购物中心的大规模重建, with the first stage of that work now under way. At the end of 2024, when construction is complete, 街道的布局将被重新配置，以创造更宽的人行道，并通过RTD的免费购物中心提供中心穿梭服务, one of the largest electric vehicle fleets in the country. The project, conducted in partnership with the city and county of Denver, 解决对行人和商场穿梭安全的担忧，并呼吁更换铺路石, which cost more than $1 million a year to maintain. 丹佛旨在加强该地区的艺术和娱乐，并引入新的街道家具和照明. The ultimate goal: to have locals and tourists alike enjoy the Mall more, by visiting more often and staying longer.
作为RTD的规划项目经理，以及该机构在这个大项目上的环境负责人，伍德参与了近十年的购物中心修复工作，并在项目进入最终设计和施工阶段时仍然参与其中. 她明白保持广场现在的状态已经不可行了. 她还记得1993年搬到科罗拉多州时遇到的购物中心, 那里有充满活力的新餐厅和维珍大卖场，她和她的丈夫就在那里, Joe, sampled new albums.
伍德说:“林荫大道可以做得更多，但我们必须经历这段重建时期。. “And we will get back to that point where it is vibrant and lively and, ideally, more than it is today. It’s just going to take a little patience to get there.”
计划需要从长远的角度来应对眼前的挑战, Wood observes. “很多大问题都不是一天就能解决的, or a week, or a month even,” she said. “It’s going to be over time that we learn. We’re just going to do it with hard work.”
Hard work, Wood added, requires “looking at all aspects of the work we do, how we do it, what the impact is, is it good, is it bad, whom does it impact. We look at resources, then beyond that to potential additional resources. We listen to the community, to what people want and need. 然后我们把所有的东西放在一起，我们开始制定解决方案.
“And it probably isn’t one solution. It’s what we do now – and what we do later.”
伍德相信每个规划师都有这样的想法，想要做出有意义的改变的愿望迫使她在41岁时重返校园，在丹佛大学攻读规划硕士学位. After graduation, she did land use work for Arvada, Lakewood, Greenwood Village, Douglas County and Jefferson County. 15年前，她来到RTD，从事东南铁路延长线和西南铁路延长线的环境规划工作, both part of the FasTracks program. It has been thrilling, Wood said, 成为“该地区最大的事情”的一部分——这些项目的可能性是无限的.
Planning wasn’t Wood’s first love, though: geology was. The Longview, Texas, 她去了贝勒大学，以为自己会主修戏剧，却爱上了石头, being outside, studying what was directly around her. Oil and gas were going great guns in the late 1970s, Wood recalled, and she had a job in Corpus Christi before she graduated. 她发现自己在红鱼湾的一艘船员船上，戴着安全帽，周围都是钻井工人. It was, Wood said, “a novel, interesting situation.”
By the mid-’80s, 油价已经跌到了5美元一桶——伍德意识到，在一个经常与大宗商品价格挂钩的领域工作将不再站得住脚. A wealth of jobs were available in environmental consulting, so she took a hydrogeology class at the University of Texas at Dallas, 在北加州找到了一份环境咨询的工作，并带上了她的马自达RX-7, her cat draped across her shoulders as she drove to San Jose.
Wood’s whole life changed in the Bay Area, she recalls with fondness. She valued the ethnic and racial diversity she found there. She enjoyed running in the mild climate. 她遇到了她的丈夫，一位地质学家，三年后他们搬到了科罗拉多州. 一到科罗拉多州，她就加入了环境工程公司Roy F. Weston, 使伍德能够关闭斯台普顿国际机场，并在丹佛国际机场开放前参观. She thinks back to the excitement she felt walking through the terminal, envisioning it filled with passengers.
Wood’s eye and heart are influenced by the history she carries. 她记得大学里有一节城市地质学课，全班同学沿着小溪散步, 谈论洪泛平原，并考虑地质如何影响土地利用. That perspective convinced her planning was where to focus her talents.
“Planning is about people,” she said. “It’s the impact of everything we do on everybody. 我想我们终于都开始明白了——但我们也在学习如何做到这一点.”
伍德在国家层面参与了美国规划协会的工作, the professional organization representing 40,000 members in 90 countries. 2016年，她有机会共同主持首份关于公平规划的政策指南，她一直对公平的概念感兴趣. That project was completed in 2019 – and the world changed a year later, 包括COVID-19大流行和乔治·弗洛伊德被杀在内的事件, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.
“我想我当时知道的和我现在知道的——我什么都不知道，我以为我知道些什么. Equity has always been an issue in our world,” Wood said. “People are getting it, and it is very polarizing, unfortunately. 但我认为我们看到的这些非常糟糕的事情确实是催化剂. We can do something, but we couldn’t do it until we saw it. And we can’t unsee it.”
伍德说，她对生活的满足来自于她对他人的影响. She grounds herself through running, reading and writing. 她正在为美国心理学协会制定一项关于公平经济发展的新政策指南, and she considers that this work is done best when people are the focus.
伍德说，作为一名计划者，意味着她每天都能在生活中有所作为. “能参与到能有所作为的事情中去，这是非常好的.”