East of What?

Kelly K. Porter is a brilliant Regional Planner Manager based  in Austin, TX. He came to visit Leila and me in Taipei, and this month he is the guest contributor for the blog. Kelly was born to be  a transportation planner. When we were in Philadelphia, he showed me the many maps his family had gifted him throughout his childhood. Layered on these maps, he had sketched alternative transit routes. I imagined a 7 year old Kelly laboring over those maps, and I have witnessed him discuss the intricate details of transit systems, expressways, and main thoroughfares of any United States city you can name with friends, associates, and strangers.   

Guest Blog by City Planner, Kelly K. Porter, AICP

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For full disclosure, this was my first time traveling to Asia.  And by far, the longest flights I have ever taken (15 hrs from SFO to HKG and 11 hrs from PEK to LAX). As with all travel, I learned a lot about the places I visited, but more importantly learning about myself, my place in the world, and my connection with the people that make the place.  To go from gentrified Austin by way of gentrified San Francisco, where the name of the urban redevelopment game is less about different groups cohabitating, but more of out-right erasure (less violent colonization), Asia was a breath of relatively fresh and authentic air. I say this because although there is evidence of a colonized past and somewhat imperialized present with a bit of white washing, largely the region’s I visited in Asia were all about maintaining and evolving there own uniquely Asian cultures, authentic, yet global.  This post will highlight this Afro-Texan Boy of Fort Worth’s first experience in Asia by my travels to Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Beijing. Also, a caveat, I am a city planner, a foodie, and a total nerd about both.