Sam,

I too am in the planning program at PSU. Your collegue, Dan Saltzman, and his staff pulled off a coup getting some highly qualified graduate students to carry out the urban agriculture inventroy for the City. (AKA The Diggable City Workshop project). While our intentions were certainly focused on the academics of the exercise, I don't think anyone on the PSU team was unclear about the mutual benfits that existed in the working arrangement with that office. In taking on the task of producing the GIS inventory, we were essentially functioning as an on the ground/working arm of that office. As a result of the DC project, a number of the team have benefitted from the relationships we estabished working on behalf of the Commissioner and the experiences we gained in the process of working with the various bureaus involved.

As Matt suggests above, I would highly encourage your staff to follow suit and reach out to the planning school at PSU to tap the talent that exists there. They are highly motivated, intelligent and in the case of their Workshop requirements, coming to your service at a reasonably priced market rate - read free...

www.diggablecity.org

Kevin Balmer
Urban and Regional Planning
Portland State University