Graduate School
Harvard Kennedy School/Sloan School of Management

Undergraduate School
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Mentor
Stephen Chan, The Boston Foundation and Rappaport Institute Advisory Board Member

Agency
City of Boston, Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics

Supervisor
Jaclyn Youngblood, Chief of Staff

Description of Fellowship
Nick worked in the Boston Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, helping pilot a new technology to map and analyze the city’s curb regulations (think loading zones, parking restrictions, etc.). Understanding these regulations is extremely valuable for planners and other city employees to improve public transportation access, improve safety, make public space more welcoming, and create streets that meet the city’s goals around sustainability, equity, and safety. To test the platform, he walked ~50 miles of Boston’s curbs while taking pictures of street signs, hydrants, and other features that govern how a curb is used. He then evaluated how well the technology translated his data into a geospatial format, identified where this data would be valuable for the city, and recommended how Boston should move forward with implementing a curb data solution after the conclusion of his fellowship.