Roberto Rodriguez Torres is a team player, on and off the fields of play.
Rodriguez manages the contract for a team of architects, engineers and planners from Knight Engineers and Architects, who, under contract, manage CDOT ( Chicago Department of Transportation ) Streetscape and Sustainable Design projects throughout the city, he said.
"We rebuild streets and sidewalks in commercial areas throughout the city, making them safer, attracting pedestrian traffic, and encouraging economic development, for a walkable more sustainable city," Rodriguez said.
"Urban planners plan for the development of urban and suburban areas to effectively accommodate population growth by creating more sustainable cities and protecting the environment. Urban planners are the technical experts that advise developers, private property owners and government agencies on decisions they will make regarding where to best locate commercial, residential and industrial land uses, parks, public spaces, roads, and transit based on changes in the economy and cultural trends."
His career goal is to direct a planning department or be a partner in a planning or engineering firm.
"The best part of what I do is that I build urban places that positively affect an entire city of people, but what I enjoy most about my day-to-day experience is making sense of a complicated process," Rodriguez said. "There is a strong sense of satisfaction when you figure it all out and it works."
Rodriguez also takes the team-approach to softball through the Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association ( CMSA ), and he previously CMSA played flag football, too.
"Spending every summer Sunday outdoors, enjoying the weather and enjoying the company of my teammates and friends," is the best part of the league, he said. "I think my favorite CMSA story is how our team went from bad to actually becoming a competitive team … as competitive as a D2 team can be anyway," as D2 is CMSA's lowest tiered league.
He is teammates with his husband.
Their 2015 team was the Scruff Bad News Beards, and Rodriguez played third base and left field. The team finished in second-place for the regular-season and also in the post-season playoffs.
"I was in a troubled relationship some years ago that was negatively impacting other areas of my life," he admitted. "I was beginning to lose contact with friends and family, and I did not like the direction my life was going. I gathered the courage to break it off. That was when I decided to move to Chicago from the suburbs. My life has since changed for the better in every way."
THE STATS
* Age: 37
* Neighborhood: North Center
* Relationship status: Married
* Education: Graduated from Waukegan High School in 1996, then the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in 2001
* Career: Urban Planner for Knight Engineers and Architects.
* Nickname: Berto
* Background: Born in Puerto Rico, raised in Waukegan, Illinois
* Favorite drink: "Jack and Diet."
* Favorite movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
* Favorite TV shows: Mr. Robot, Game of Thrones, Modern Family and Family Guy
* Little-known fact: "I have no middle name, but two last names."