HELLO, I'M
William Khadivi
BA in Community, Environment, and Planning
About
MY BACKGROUND
I’m a Community, Environment, and Planning student at the University of Washington, passionate about creating more sustainable, accessible, and engaging cities. As the creator of SeattleStreetSignage on Instagram and TikTok, I use digital media to spark conversations about urban planning, transportation, and public space. With experience in social media, public sector communications, and sustainability advocacy, including leading the Miyawaki Forest at Longfellow Creek project, I help connect communities with the initiatives shaping their cities. Let’s collaborate to bring urbanism and storytelling together!
Education
WHAT I’VE LEARNED
University of Washington, Seattle
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BA in Community, Environment, and Planning
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Coursework: communications, urban planning, land use, community building, ethics, and transportation planning
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Capstone project: Planned and implemented a Miyawaki Mini-Forest in Delridge, Seattle, while collaborating with Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association and various community and environmental-focused organizations
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Major projects: University Book Store Redesign (lead); Lake City Community Mapping; City of Mukilteo GIS Inventory modernization
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Planned and organized outreach events with Rainier Beach Action Coalition and Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Area
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Study abroad: Paris, France; focus on sustainable urban development and preparations for the 2024 Summer Olympics
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Organizations: Institute of Transportation Engineers
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Experience
WHERE I’VE WORKED
Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT)
May 2035–August 2035
Shoreline Community College, Shoreline, WA
AA in Political Science
Sterling Productions, Marketing Intern
Sep. 2035–May 2035
Riverview University Foundation, Sales Consultant
Individual Study Plan (ISP)
My educational journey through the Community, Environment, and Planning major at UW.
Junior Year
CEP 301
Degree
University Name
The Idea of Community (5)
Theories of community and communal rights and responsibilities. Experience building a learning community within major. Explores struggles for community in every sector of life.
Required readings and discussions in class provoke thoughts on community. At the end of the quarter, we agreed on an expansive definition of community.
C Lit 362
Degree
University Name
Topics in Modern Literature (5)
Explores topics in literature and cultures of the modern world (approximately 1800-present) across national and regional cultures, such as particular movements, authors, genres, themes, or problems.
This class focused on one epic novel: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. We read the entire long book and then explored the meaning and symbolism and how it applies to human psychology and today’s societies.
CEP 302
Degree
University Name
302 Environmental Response (5)
Explores issues of environmental crisis and societal responses. Readings and reflective analysis from broad selection of authoritative sources to develop grounded perspective in ecological literacy and consciousness. Concurrently, experiential education in challenges and practical responses to building sustainable society through participation in community-based environmental effort.
This will be a good course to learn about the issues of the environmental crisis, it will help me to develop a deeper perspective of ecological literacy.
L Arch 353
History of Modern Landscape Architecture (5)
This course explores landscape sites, systems, and symbols from the early 19th century until the present moment, stressing the intersections and entanglements of history with current politics, experiences, and ecologies. Together we will interrogate historic narratives and examine both familiar and new landscapes, while re-centering global geographies and marginalized voices that help us make relevant the past in our Anthropocene “now.” Through creative “lab” exercises, diverse media, and collaborative processes, we will critically examine the writing, production, and performance of landscape and its histories thematically through the diverse lenses of: power and ownership; memory and representation; knowledge and experience; labor and production; materiality and technological innovation; climate disruption and social change; identity and emotion; and race, class, and gender.
In this course, I explored the significance of landscapes and how they are effected by people. Projects included interviewing my mother about the farm she grew up on, exploring the history of Green Lake Park, and creating a film about the impact of I-5 construction in Seattle's Chinatown-International District.
Envir 439
Achieving a Sustainable Society (5)
Building a sustainable future depends on restructuring the global economy and dramatic changes in values and lifestyles. How do race, culture, gender, socioeconomic status, and individual experiences inform our understanding and priorities when it comes to sustainability? How do internalized notions of power and success compliment or undermine our societal efforts to achieve sustainability? In this class, students will explore this territory. We will work in groups to explore one of four arenas for change: food, governance, economic structures, or energy systems – through the lenses of diverse cultural understanding as informed by our readings, class activities, discussions, and experiences.
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This course opened my mind to new ways of creating a sustainable society. My final project proposed a superblock in the U-District and pedestrianizing a block of The Ave.
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CEP 446
Internship (5)
This course aims to supports CEP students graduating and entering the work force through exploration of skills/strengths, workplace norms and decorum, networking and interviewing.
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This course helped me gain confidence in finding a job in the urban planning field. The skills I learned in this course were invaluable in successfully finding an internship.
CEP 303
Social Structures (5)
The objective of the course is to build upon the skills and knowledge delivered in CEP301 and CEP302 to enable students to identify the values, people, and assets that create a place, as well as the public decision making systems
which influence the place. The main takeaways for students after this course should include the ability to describe, in planning and urban design terms, what makes a location become “place”, how public policy affects it, how community participation drives change, and the outcomes of change on both the built and natural environment. They should understand techniques and tactics for describing, mapping, and observing locations, as well as relay their findings in clear, coherent manner in order to advocate or drive change. The course picks up on the teachings of CEP 301, namely understanding community and formal/informal power structures, and CEP 302, namely scientific research of the environment and how this impacts public policy. The main point of this course is to marry the ideas of placemaking from a community level, the technical skills of scientific research and data analysis, with the core question of planning- “knowing what we do, what do we do now?”
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This course culminated in a community mapping project in which our group created a map of Lake City, Seattle based on input from community members. This class was invaluable in helping me gain community outreach skills.
URBDP 370
Reading the City (5)
Through exploring urban planning techniques and philosophers, we learned how a built environment is designed to influence socialization. This class had extensive reading and writing assignments but also incorporated lectures, films, and field trips to locations around campus and throughout Seattle.
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This class was an important look at city planning through a more philosophical lens than I was previously used to. We can influence our cities through intentional choices to bring people together.
CEP 460
Planning in Context (5)
Planning in Context is a real-world, project-based class for CEP seniors. During this class, students will develop increased understanding and competencies regarding team and project management, working from a scope of work, developing professional planning products (written and oral), and working with a client. Students will increase their understanding of the depth and range of urban planning work primarily through the experience.
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In this course, I improved my GIS skills by working on the City of Mukilteo Signs Inventory and Modernization. Our group worked to update, modernize, and strengthen the GIS inventory of the Mukilteo Public Works Department.
CEP 498
Urban Planning Studio (5)
This practicum brings together multiple planning elements within the context of a real-world problem. You will explore planning and design at the city, neighborhood, and site scale for various clients in the public, private and non-profit sectors.
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My project focused on the University Bookstore. University Bookstore: UDistrict, Seattle, WA: Site plan, market analysis and financial modeling of potential redevelopment of existing retail business.
URBDP 480
Planning as a Profession (1)
This course gives students interested in the planning profession an opportunity to understand the different pathways and career choices within the profession. This course will introduce students to guest professionals in various planning careers, how and why they became planners, and highlight key issues, skills used and tips to entering the field. This course focuses on professional practice rather than analytical methods or theory.
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This course was important for me to learn about pathways in the urban planning field. It was also an important weekly venue to ask questions and to network.
CEP 461
Ethics and Identity (5)
This course focused on issues related to ethics and identity and how those ideas should influence urban planning. Through reading, writing, and seminars, we discussed ethics, urban planning, and the importance of human identity.
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This class forced us to look inward and outward to examine how our identities are molded by our choices and by the society around us.
CEP 498
Right to the City (5)
More than half of the human population now lives in cities. People depend on cities for vital needs like employment, housing, transportation, public services, and public space. But who controls the city? Who makes the decisions that shape it? And who should make those decisions? The right to the city is a radical
idea that argues that a city's inhabitants should control the city. Not the market. Not the government. But the people who inhabit, depend on, and care for the city. As such, the right to the city can be seen as a proposal for a radical urban democracy. This course critically examines the right to the city. We will study
both the theory behind it and some of the many concrete initiatives people have pursued to make it a reality. Examples include workers taking over all of Paris for several months, urban movements in Brazil, human rights campaigns, the occupy movement, fair housing struggles, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, shack dwellers' movements, anti-eviction campaigns, indigenous rights to the city, and more.
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This class was an important look at Le Droit à la Ville (Right to the City), the theory coined by French philosopher Henri Lefebvre. Through this lens, we looked at case studies of urban events and had seminar-syle discussions.
URBDP 598
Building Seattle’s Future: Discussions on Social
Change with a Planning Director (3)
This course explores the role of cities in regional growth and the evolving responsibilities of the planning profession, focusing on social equity and justice in urban development. We will examine the importance of community engagement in implementing Seattle's Comprehensive Plan and how good planning policy can foster structural change within existing governance. The removal of single-family zoning is discussed as a strategy to create more equitable neighborhoods and address displacement, particularly for BIPOC
families. Additionally, we will assess the city's success in planning, with a focus on Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD) and partnerships with Sound Transit and local communities.
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Each week, we had urban planner come speak to our class about the sector of planning they specialize in. This class has been important to gain a better understanding of issues in the urban planning field, along with networking.
CEP 473
Digital Design Practicum (5)
This class teaches skills with software tools for graphic design and communication, with a focus on their applications in urban design and planning. Besides learning the tools themselves, you will also be introduced to foundational principles of graphics. The goal is to communicate ideas about people and place effectively and beautifully. This class is only an introduction, but it will prepare you to continue to learn digital design
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This class has been a good introduction to digital design. I have honed my skills with applications such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.