if a community planning effort is to be judged by the degree to which all voices are heard, then anything short of a big turnout is going to feel like failure. Ben Brown talks equitable engagement, and aligning promises with implementation.
"So you’ve finally aligned the stars to get something important done in your community. Maybe’s it a corridor plan that nods to the needs of pedestrians, bikers and transit riders, as well as car drivers. Maybe it’s an ambitious mixed-use master plan for your downtown. Or a revamped zoning code to enable the development and redevelopment everybody seems to want."
"You’re about to wrap things up with a meeting to remind folks of how far you’ve come, how all the meetings and workshops and interim stakeholder check-ins informed the ideas that emerged. You invite questions. And here comes the most predictable one:"
“'I look around this room, and I see the usual faces. White faces. Comfortable middle-class people. But our community also includes lots of people who aren’t here. Who are historically left out of the conversation. Where are they? How can we say we have a community plan when their voices haven’t been heard?'”
Brown goes on to discuss the return on investment of time, money, trust. If you're a group that's been historically left out of the outcomes, you're going to opt out of the conversations.
FULL STORY: Equity, Engagement, Community: Empathy ain’t enough
Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary
Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.
Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024
A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.
Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts
From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.
Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding
The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.
Adaptive Reuse Bills Introduced in California Assembly
The legislation would expand eligibility for economic incentives and let cities loosen regulations to allow for more building conversions.
LA's Top Parks, Ranked
TimeOut just released its list of the top 26 parks in the L.A. area, which is home to some of the best green spaces around.
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.