Cincinnati Enquirer: Loveland-native rocker now working to protect the environment in California
With her band's tour schedule on hold amid pandemic, UC alumna puts urban planning degree to work
When UC grad Kirsten Bladh moved to Los Angeles a couple years ago, she was still a full-on rock and roller, working at a coffee shop there, between tours with her Cincinnati band, Leggy.
She’s now coming out the other end of the pandemic with a new gig, helping to enact environmental policy changes in California.
Bladh graduated from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning with a bachelor’s degree in urban planning in 2013. Since then, she'd been performing with successful Cincinnati-based punk band Leggy, touring internationally and recording music. Bladh plays bass alongside vocalist/guitaristVéronique Allaer and Chris Campbell on drums.
During the pandemic, when live music was put on hold, she landed a job with California consulting firm M-Group. One of her projects was for Petaluma, Calif., on an ordinance banning the construction of new gas stations, becoming the first city in the country to do so.
“I feel like being a musician actually kind of helped me get the job, because they thought that it was really cool, and they kind of liked that I wasn’t jumping right from school into this job, that I had been pursuing another creative field,” Bladh told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
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