Designing Utopia: How Story Becomes Policy In California's Cities

Title - Designing Utopia: How Story Becomes Policy In California's Cities

Speaker - Dr. Catherine Brinkley, Associate Professor, Department of Human Ecology at UC Davis

Location - Tandem Coffee & Wine in East Sacramento

Details:

Have you ever wondered why your hometown is laid out the way it is? What if you could peer behind the curtain and see how cities actually work: how they grow, change, struggle, and reinvent themselves? Dr. Catherine Brinkley’s work sits at the crossroads of urban planning, public health, and data science to expose the complex details that shape California’s cities. In this interactive lecture you’ll discover how data becomes story, how story becomes policy, and how policy shapes the world right outside your front door.

Dr. Brinkley brings the energy of someone who genuinely loves cities — their quirks, their contradictions, their hidden systems — and she has a knack for making the machinery of governance feel both accessible and surprisingly fun. Her team at UC Davis has built PlanSearch, a tool that lets anyone explore and compare thousands of city and county plans across California. With one click you can peer into the "genetic code" of how we make (and remake) places, and discover how communities imagine their futures: from climate resilience to housing, food systems, transportation, and everything in between. She’ll illustrate how planners, advocates, and everyday residents can use PlanSearch to uncover patterns, compare communities, and ask sharper questions about the places we call home.

So grab a drink, settle in, and get ready for a tour of American cities you’ve never seen before. Whether you’re a data nerd, a community advocate, or just someone who wonders why your city looks the way it does, this lecture will leave you seeing your neighborhood, and your power to shape it, in a whole new light.

Dr. Catherine Brinkley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of California, Davis, specializing in land-use planning and community development. A recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, Brinkley has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles and leads a landmark initiative from the California Governor’s Office in creating and maintaining a search engine across 2,000+ California’s comprehensive plans – outpacing even Aristotle in plan evaluation. Her research bridges urban and rural planning issues like sustainable food and energy supplies, and has been featured in leading journals and public media outlets. She is trained in both the hard sciences (Masters in virology, veterinarian) and political sciences (urban planning PhD)—offering a unique expertise in articulating these now divergent subjects for current planning initiatives, like California's 30x30 effort to conserve 30% of land for wild habitat.

Check out her PlanSearch: Plansearch.caes.ucdavis.edu

Tandem is a coffee shop by day and a bar by night. They have rotating beers on tap as well as a large selections of wines by the glass. They will have food for sale during this event as well. 

All Common Knowledge events are 21+

Schedule:

6pm - Doors Open - grab a drink and mingle. We'll have trivia questions on the screen and some surprises

6:45pm - Program begins with an intro & prize giveaway

7pm - Lecture begins

7:45pm - Q&A

8pm - Have some wine and meet the speaker, mingle, hang out

9pm - You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here

What to Expect:

Common Knowledge is Sacramento's new bar lecture series. 

At Common Knowledge we believe that learning something new is the most rewarding and fun thing you can do. We're about bringing diverse people and ideas together to have a great time.

This event is open seating so come at 6pm to to grab a drink and a seat. Before the lecture we'll have music and trivia questions on the screen. We'll also have a fun, low pressure "side quest"  so you can win a free drink. 

The lecture will last for 45 minutes and are made for an intelligent, general audience so you don't need any science background to have a great time. After the lecture, there will be 20 minutes for Q&A and then the bar will be open for another hour to hang out, meet the speaker, and discuss the ideas you just heard.

The bar will close at 9pm.

Policies:

All Common Knowledge events are 21+

No hidden ticket fees. The price you see is the price you pay. Period.

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Orders of 6 tickets or more need to contact our customer service team in order to cancel. 

We treat our guests like family so if there is anything you need, just get in touch: info@cklectures.com

Students! We offer a student discount - just email info@cklectures.com from your university email address and we'll send you a 20% off discount code.

Common Knowledge is for everyone! If you want to attend an event but can't afford a full price ticket we have you covered. Just email us at info@cklectures.com and we'll help you out.

Way to go, you know everything there is to know about this event. So what are you waiting for? Buy a ticket already!

Come Drink With Us & Think With Dr. Catherine Brinkley