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President's MessageSpring is here at last, after what has seemed like a year of winter. The harbingers of this spring are very welcome: children walking to school, restaurants open again, and long lines of people at COVID vaccine stations around our communities. If it means that we are returning to “normal”, it’s almost great to get stuck in traffic again! This last year has been a doozie! Many of us have had our jobs impacted. We are vainly stuck trying to make a community planning process warm and engaging through the cold, detached medium of Zoom. More significantly, some of us weathered a brush with COVID, or lost friends and loved ones to the virus. Just about everything that seemed normal about our lives has become challenging. But we are slowly coming back to life, and the “new norm” needs us more than ever. COVID has changed our communities in fundamental ways that we are just starting to understand. As the “change agents” that planners are, we are now called upon to jump headlong into this new world to help our communities become better than they were before. I recently learned of a pretty appalling example of how planners have overlooked our inaction in allowing the sad social disparities that were prevalent in the development of our communities 50 years ago, and that linger on today. So, clearly, we have work to do. As a national and state association, APA and APA-WA are exploring opportunities that will help guide, promote, and advance the concepts of equity, diversity, and inclusion within our profession, as well as within our professional practice. Please lend your voice to these important conversations and be part of shaping a better future. Nancy Eklund, AICP APA WA President |