Car-free cities, development, and localization with Shail Shrestha

Join Shail Shrestha, founding member of the global Carfree Cities Alliance and Cycle City Network Nepal, in conversation with Local Futures' Carly Gayle and Alex Jensen, to learn how you can strengthen your community's local economy through bicycle- and people-centered transportation planning and advocacy.

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022.  8:45pm Kathmandu  |  3pm London  |  11am New York

This 1-hour session (which may extend to 90 minutes) takes place in Zoom, and will also be live streamed to Facebook. Make sure to join in Zoom if you want to ask questions.

SHAIL SHRESTHA began his social activism as a bicycle activist while he was studying the interconnections of media, culture, and society at Kathmandu University. He became part of building the Kathmandu Cycle city 2020 campaign in 2009, and later became the founding president of Cycle City Network Nepal, which promotes cycling culture across Nepal.

Understanding the deeper co-relations between economy, urban development and sustainability, in 2015 he co-founded the Digo Bikas Institute, a research and advocacy organization committed to promoting ecological sustainability and social equity at policy and community level. Engaged in broader discourse on urban development and sustainability, he has been advocating about the relevance of the ancient urban settlements of Kathmandu Valley as a solution to the global sustainability crisis. He participated in a global assembly of bicycle activists in the World Bicycle Forum 2018 and 2019, and organized the forum's virtual international event in 2020. He is also a founding member and the Nepal coordinator of the Carfree Cities Alliance, a network dedicated to the development and promotion of a car-free urban future. He believes in localizing the economy and is always exploring the interconnections of economic systems and sustainability.

ALEX JENSEN has worked with Local Futures in the USA and India, where he coordinates our Ladakh Project. He is an associate of the Sambhaavnaa Institute of Public Policy and Politics in Himachal Pradesh, India, and represents Local Futures in the Vikalp Sangam/Alternatives India initiative. He has worked with cultural affirmation and agro-biodiversity projects in campesino communities in a number of countries, and is active in environmental health and anti-toxics work.

CARLY GAYLE coordinates Planet Local and the Localization Action Guide. A graduate of Wellesley College, she has practiced permaculture and regenerative design in Madagascar, Indonesia, and the USA, and now lives near Washington, DC. She worked on bicycle advocacy as a trail ranger for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association in 2018-2019 while first starting her work at Local Futures, and is looking forward to discussing the intersection of these passions with Shail.

VOICES FROM THE FIELD is a series of conversations hosted in connection with the Localization Action Guide, featuring people that have hands-on experience with actions that can help build healthy communities, direct democracy and human-scale ecological economies.