This Washington
Bummer Fizz: Futurewise Co-Director Stepping Down
One place PubliCola does not strive for balanced reporting is when it comes to writing about eco-urban politics. With BikeNerd and Dan Bertolet (and Erica), it's pretty obvious we have a green agenda.
So, we are openly bummed to report that Sara Nikolic, co-Director of Futurewise, is resigning in July, staying on only in a limited capacity to work on specific projects. (Futurewise is the 21st Century name for 1,000 Friends of Washington, the statwide group that was founded to enforce and defend 1990's Growth Management Act. They held their packed 20th Anniversary party at Seattle Center earlier this year.) Nikolic heads up Futurewise's communications and urban policy agenda.
We're bummed that Nikolic, who says she wants more time with her family, is leaving because from our reporting on this stuff—me in Olympia covering things like the Transit Oriented Development bill and Erica in City Hall covering things like city zoning—it's obvious that Nikolic is one of the smartest, most politically sophisticated, action-oriented environmentalists in the field. City planners statewide, from Tacoma to Spokane rely on her expertise on smart growth issues.
There are a lot of smarties in the eco-urban movement (and they like to let you know it), but Nikolic was actually the smartest person in the room. Nikolic has the rare combo of IQ and political IQ that translates white papers into policy. (Full disclosure, I spent an afternoon doorbelling with Nikolic when, between my Stranger gig and my PubliCola gig, I worked on the official Sound Transit campaign in the fall of 2008; Futurewise had loaned us Nikolic.)
Thankfully, one of the other standouts in the environmental world right now is April Putney—another Futurwise co-director (hippies!)—their lobbyist and statewide policy head.
The group has been without a lone director for over a year now, and it's kind of been working. We're not sure if it still will without Nikolic.
So, we are openly bummed to report that Sara Nikolic, co-Director of Futurewise, is resigning in July, staying on only in a limited capacity to work on specific projects. (Futurewise is the 21st Century name for 1,000 Friends of Washington, the statwide group that was founded to enforce and defend 1990's Growth Management Act. They held their packed 20th Anniversary party at Seattle Center earlier this year.) Nikolic heads up Futurewise's communications and urban policy agenda.
We're bummed that Nikolic, who says she wants more time with her family, is leaving because from our reporting on this stuff—me in Olympia covering things like the Transit Oriented Development bill and Erica in City Hall covering things like city zoning—it's obvious that Nikolic is one of the smartest, most politically sophisticated, action-oriented environmentalists in the field. City planners statewide, from Tacoma to Spokane rely on her expertise on smart growth issues.
There are a lot of smarties in the eco-urban movement (and they like to let you know it), but Nikolic was actually the smartest person in the room. Nikolic has the rare combo of IQ and political IQ that translates white papers into policy. (Full disclosure, I spent an afternoon doorbelling with Nikolic when, between my Stranger gig and my PubliCola gig, I worked on the official Sound Transit campaign in the fall of 2008; Futurewise had loaned us Nikolic.)
Thankfully, one of the other standouts in the environmental world right now is April Putney—another Futurwise co-director (hippies!)—their lobbyist and statewide policy head.
The group has been without a lone director for over a year now, and it's kind of been working. We're not sure if it still will without Nikolic.
