Michael Woo is an U.S.-born and ¨Ctrained urban planner and local government official whose focus on sustainable urban development and transportation
Woo was the first trained urban planner and the first Asian American elected to serve as a Member of the Los Angeles City Council, the 15-member governing body which sets policy for the City of Los Angeles. For eight years, Woo oversaw land use, transportation, and basic municipal services in central Hollywood and surrounding neighborhoods comprising a highly ethnically diverse district of 235,000 constituents. Woo initiated the Hollywood Redevelopment Plan, the 30-year-plan which laid the legal, financial, and planning framework for the current revitalization of the historic Hollywood area. He played a pivotal role in planning the route and station locations of the Metro Red Line subway. Woo chaired the City Council's Transportation and Traffic Committee.
Woo gave up his City Council seat in 1993 to run for Mayor of Los Angeles. Out of an initial field of 24 candidates, Woo ultimately was the second-place candidate, receiving 46 percent of the citywide vote in the June 1993 municipal run-off election. In a highly contentious and nationally-observed campaign, Woo was endorsed by President Clinton, The Los Angeles Times, and the Los Angeles County Labor Federation (AFL-CIO), and raised $3.5 million in donations for one of the most high-profile campaigns ever run by an American of Asian descent in the U.S.
Woo continues to be a leader in urban planning activities. Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa appointed Woo to the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, a key municipal decision-making body whose members cast votes on proposed development projects which may have citywide impact. On the national level, Woo is chairman of the Board of Directors of Smart Growth America, the national advocacy organization promoting smart growth and sustainable development policies.
For the last three years, Woo's research interests have extended to Chinese cities. He has been an outspoken voice calling for more sustainable approaches to urban growth in China. In 2005, Woo was invited by USC's School of Policy, Planning, and Development to be co-instructor of the school's Beijing Lab, bringing 31 graduate students to Beijing for two weeks of collaboration with Peking University students examining an urban planning challenge in the Xidan Beidajie area of Beijing. He was invited to submit a paper for a conference sponsored by the Center for Sustainable Transportation in the China Ministry of Communication, and he has given talks on sustainable urban development and transportation at Peking University, Nanjing University, the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, and the Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design. The Los Angeles Times published his article "L.A. All Over Again" on the implications of China 's growing demand for oil. Woo has been invited to give a luncheon keynote speech at the upcoming 20 th anniversary conference of the International Chinese Transportation Professionals Association (ICTPA) on May 27, 2007. For the last two years, Woo has taught a combined graduate and undergraduate seminar in the UCLA Urban Planning Department on "China's Urban Sustainability Challenges." He also is an adjunct instructor at USC.
Woo received a B.A. in Politics and Urban Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and earned a Master of City Planning degree from the University of California, Berkeley. At Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, he was a Fellow of the Institute of Politics.
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