Intro spotlight - Vince YOung
- Tell us a little bit about yourself.
My name is Vince Young and I’m originally from the San Gabriel Valley (Los Angeles County). I’ve been fascinated by cities ever since age 10 when I first went to visit my extended family in Asia. I spent a long time afterwards wondering why my home region didn’t have the same sort of vibrant, walkable, mixed-used neighborhoods as those I experienced on that trip. I still do.
Decades later I’m now a Master of City Planning student at MIT. I am interested in thinking through how we should utilize scarce land resources to move towards more sustainable and equitable futures. Prior to attending planning school, I worked as an attorney at the intersection of law, policy, and health equity.
I’ve lived up and down the California coast including in San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berkeley/Oakland, Santa Cruz; and on the east coast in New York City and now Boston. Nowhere feels more like home than San Diego. In my free time, you can find me at Blacks Beach or at the Hillcrest Farmer’s Market.
- How did you become interested in Circulate San Diego?
San Diego has the most perfect weather in the world. Health, fitness, and being active outside are deeply embedded in its culture. I can think of no better place for an urban transformation so that cars, public transit, bikes/scooters, and walking all have a place. Circulate has been at the forefront of advocating for greater mobility options in this region for decades, and I wanted to be a part of that.
- What’s your most memorable face palm moment? Or what is your biggest achievement to date? Choose one.
My attempt to get back into skateboarding in my 30s. It’s a facepalm (face-concrete, really) for my health but maybe an achievement for the soul? Either way, I sure learned a lot about my health insurance plan.
- If you could choose anyone, who would you pick as your mentor?
Janette Sadik-Khan, the former transportation commissioner for New York City. She spearheaded the creation of transformative active use infrastructure in the city.
I am inspired by her passion, persistence, and imagination in making change happen. It’s often easy to feel defeatist about urbanism in the United States but through her work (and the work of others around the world), I am reminded that nothing human-created is ever immutable. Every single aspect of our built environment was shaped by social decision-making. If we made a world where we circle around North Park for half an hour to find parking or sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 805 to get to work, we can certainly dream of and create a different future too.
