Category: Projects

  • Rezoning for Student Housing near UT Dallas

    Rezoning for Student Housing near UT Dallas

    The image above is an image from UT Dallas’ Master Plan. The subject parcel of this post is specifically designated “Potential Future Acquisition”. Yesterday was a City Planning Commission meeting to consider whether a landowner will be able to build off-campus student housing nearby UT Dallas. Normally it sounds boring and fairly straightforward. Not this…

  • Realigning a Toastmasters District

    Realigning a Toastmasters District

    As a fun side project, I decided to write some code to realign my Toastmasters district. I’m also on the realignment committee so the project will hopefully get some real-world use. For reference, I’ve posted the code here on GitHub: https://github.com/LouisRBurns/Toastmasters_district_realignment The technical details for implementing it are there. Here, I wanted to reflect on…

  • Starting to Playtest the Walkability Game

    Starting to Playtest the Walkability Game

    I finished printing out a set of pieces, wrote some rules, and we finally began playtesting. The goal of playtesting is to figure out what adjustments you need to make to make the game work better. See where the sticking points are. Figure out if the game is unbalanced for certain players or strategies. At…

  • Prototyping a City Game

    If you’ve ever been part of a public participation process you know how deeply unsatisfying it can be. Too often, your voice is reduced to a sticky note or a vote with little discussion or nuance emerging from the process. While learning is one of my greatest pleasures in life, how we learn and grow…