Tony Dastra Email & Phone Number

My work experiences range far and wide. I started working for my dad's gas station when I was a kid and the minimum wage was $5.25, but when I was older I began cutting grass and making balloon animals on the street for cash. Then after a turbulent year being an adult and bouncing around colleges, I realized that I didn't feel a professional direction. I saw where I wanted to be at 40, but not at 30, let alone 25. Thankfully, I realized this and cut my losses and focused on what was most important to me at that time and grew from there.Starbucks' College Achievement Plan was how I afforded my first degree in Political Science, and via public participation in government and a brief experience in property development on the analytics, I realized while designing a garden plan for a customer that I wanted to go back for a degree in Urban Planning to give myself the credentials continue down a more focused path because there is also value in building a robust ecosystem as well as a cool concrete jungle to swing around in. I want to be a part of planning and enacting a vision for a great American city. A place where people want to be for varying reasons, and not simply a place where the money is.I have learned that cities are not just a collection of buildings to be impressed by; cities are not just having green spaces for the sake of having trees amidst the concrete; cities are not just places that have enough people to justify having a public transit system that is only used by those who can't afford a car. Cities are made by the community within them and how they interact with that space, and that changes over time.We cannot always determine the ramifications of our planning decisions once they leave paper and render themselves in reality, but I am convinced that when we put the financial returns as the primary objective of development first and the dividends that the community receives last or as a concession, it may take some time, but nearly everyone involved will eventually lose.I do not believe that if you do what you love you'll never work a day in your life. At 26, I am beginning see the results of my reprioritization over the last seven years. Finding direction and changing course is not an easy feat, but an object in motion stays in motion, and I know now where I intend to have gravity take me. I hope to see you on the event horizon.