About

Before Mongi went to Heaven

I am a New Yorker and Californian at heart. I find serenity in the chaotic organization of cities.  Exploring urban settlements gives me a rush similar to what I feel like when I go into a candy store: I want to try and experience everything in site, but first I survey the selection before making my choice. I love the serendipitous moments in cities, even in a city like NYC that I know so well I know that if I pay enough attention there is always something clever to see where I had not seen anything spectacular before - the trick is looking around for "it." But the most important premise of my interest in cities and human settlements is my belief that access is a fundamental human right.

After completing my undergraduate studies in economics and spanish literature at Columbia University I lived in New York and in California working as an economic development and international trade specialist. I gained experience as an economic development manager and community outreach strategist at Columbia University where I helped to increase minority and women owned businesses opportunities and worked with community stakeholders on a Community Benefits Agreement for the Manhattanville special district rezoning. I have helped to bolster international trade, increase foreign direct investment and expand export opportunities from the greater Orange County and Los Angeles regions to Latin America. My efforts coordinating the first joint Bi-National meeting of Orange County mayors, elected officials and business leaders and the five Mayors of the Baja Region paved the way for continued dialogue between both regions. I have also worked with SBA, the U.S. Commercial Service Office and ProMexico directors to coordinate numerous seminars and briefings on economic development and public-private partnership opportunities between the US and Mexico.

I just finished another academic tour at Columbia, but this time at the University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation pursuing my dreams of becoming an urban planner. My master's thesis, “Transit Funding: Why the Politics? A Comparative Study of Public Transportation Infrastructure Funding in New York City and Los Angeles,” looked at regional transportation plans, transportation user fees, local sales tax finance models, transit growth plans, national transportation funding allocations, public private partnerships, environmental and climate change legislation, and the politics behind the successful implementation of transportation capital improvement plans. Needless to say I developed a passion for transportation systems and an affinity to want to increase urban access in cities, while at the same time making cities more environmentally and economically sustainable.

I like to write about political policies affecting planning, infrastructure and sustainable planning, and the role of technology, design and architecture in cities. While pursuing my masters degree I was the publishing editor and a writer for Columbia’s Urban Magazine that covers urban planning topics around the globe. I also write for This Big City, an award winning blog about the role of cities (and city systems) in the world and have been published in Progressive Planning.

I am currently working on research about new approaches to equitable urban access, sustainable transportation, inclusionary housing practices and the role of smart devices and mobile apps in shaping communities in the 21st centuries. 

• Promoting electricity as a basic human right with sustainable energy systems and design practices as the founder of the AC Energy Foundation.
• The impacts of smartphones and tablets on urban access and travel choices. 
• Identifying ways to increase social integration vis-a-vis housing and urban access in current mega-event and the 2016 Olympic Games plans in Rio de Janeiro. 
• The evolution of the transportation planning process from being purely transport and mobility centric to being a comprehensive sustainable city system model that considers access, mobility and equity.
• A re-zoning study in East Harlem, New York City
• The role and need of EV fleet adoption in sustainable transportation policies that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Latin America. 

Favorite Quotes 

... "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious."  Albert Einstein

... "New York was not designed by architects, it was designed by time." Wang Shu

... "This is where it all began...there is where I understood how far I could go."  Pablo Picasso

... "I love Los Angeles. It reinvents itself every two days."  Billy Connolly

... "Though I often looked for one, I finally had to admit that there could be no cure for Paris." Ernest Hemingway

... "A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties." Truman

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Thanks for Visiting!

Claudia P. Huerta, MSUP