Chris Ortolano, Community Organizer

Welcome to BuiltOnAir, a podcast and video series about all things Airtable. Each episode, we talk with someone active in the Airtable community to discuss their experiences and showcase an interesting way they’ve used Airtable in their work.In this episode, we talk to Chris Ortolano of MilwaukieRIP, a community outreach organization that works with urban planners and other community members on land use and transportation planning efforts in Milwaukie and Portland, Oregon. Chris has been active in his community for over 20 years, and specializes in summarizing for the greater public the important takeaways from the many, many public meetings relating to a planning project. We discuss some of the biggest issues faced by Milwaukie today, the benefits of infill development, and the challenges to creating affordable neighborhoods through city-driven initiatives. Chris shares his perspective on common roadblocks to the implementation of planning initiatives, such as access to public transit and community weariness to change.In a major city like Milwaukie, there could be many different agencies attempting to tackle pressing issues like housing affordability at once, but these agencies may not always be working in tandem. Chris shares with us his solution, which uses Airtable to store, categorize, and share information on the numerous planning efforts going on in the City. His Urban Planning Tracker base allows him to have a contact list, a meeting tracker, and a precedent library in an all-in-one easy-to-use solution.See Milwaukie RIP’s Facebook pageConnect with Chris on LinkedInSign up for the BuiltOnAir newsletter!  View the video demo from this episode  BuiltOnAir is sponsored by Openside. Openside's newest product, On2Air Forms, is the Airtable forms solution you've been looking for. For a limited time, get On2Air Forms FREE when you purchase the On2Air Actions Zapier connector at openside.com.