What did you do this weekend?
Well, 50 high school students from all over North America competed in the ULI Urban Plan National Competition. They adapted their original proposals to be responsive to COVID: accounting for more public uses, reimagining public space, creating a town square, and building more affordable housing.
Watch a panel discussion on "Politics, Engagement, and Activism" that Jess moderated during the University of Washington #pandemicUrbanism Symposium
During the day-long, student-organized symposium, Jess moderated a panel discussion including:
Politics in the Pandemic Era: A Reality Check on Urbanism vis a vis Intergovernmentalism
Jenny Brekhus, Reno City Council
Gentrification + Pandemic: An Exploration of Community Inclusion + Equity in the Changing Public Realm
Ariana Cantu, University of Washington
Stories and Observations From the CID
Carmen Hom, Chinatown-International District Coalition
Environmental Activism in Times of Covid-19 & Finding Ethnographic Pathways to Study It
Mariana Arjona Soberón, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich/ Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society
Top Ten Plot Strategies projects of 2019
The close of 2019 marks the end of the first full year of operations of Plot. We are incredibly grateful to have dozens of partners and clients who are deeply committed to making cities more just, more sustainable, more efficient, and more beautiful. Our goal for 2020 is to continue work and find new projects that center equity and great urban form in projects, plans, and policies for communities.
Here’s a run-down to call out some of the biggest things that Plot was a part of in 2019. Everything we do is made possible by the deep talents, powerful insights, and collegial spirit of our many colleagues, and we look forward to 2020 and wish them all the best in the coming year.
Serving as Curator of the new Public Spaces Fellowship, helping the Foundation market the brand new fellowship program, recruit applicants, set up a process to review over 2200 nominations, and design the learning and peer exchange activities for the two-year Fellowship Cohort. In June 2019, the Knight Foundation announced its inaugural group of Knight Public Spaces Fellows, seven talented leaders with exemplary track records of crafting public space.
Led by: The Knight Foundation
Working with: Lilly Weinberg, Sam Gill, Michelle Woodward, Kyle Kutuchief, Kenny Ma, Anuj Gupta, Robert Hammond, Eric Klinenberg, Kathryn Ott Lovell, Chelina Odbert, Erin Salazar, Walter Hood, Nolan Lienhart, Adolfo Henriques, Theresa Hwang, Mitch Silver, Lynn Ross, Kieran Bowers, Mary Margaret Jones, Cheryl Fosdick, Mathew Lister, Anne-Marie Lubenau, Karen Mauney-Brodek, Amit Price Patel, Patrick Phillips, Jamie Bennett, Kate Levin, Matthew Clarke
The Fellows in New York in October 2019, meeting with NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver.
Serving the cities of Birmingham, New Orleans, St. Louis, and Stockton this year, the fellowship influences economic development policy and practice so that equity, transparency, sustainability, and community engagement become driving forces on any project. The Fellowship convenes economic development leaders from U.S. cities for an annual program of leadership development, technical assistance, peer learning, and team reflection during retreats.
Led by: PolicyLink and the National League of Cities
Working with: Carlos Delgado, Tracey Ross, Anita Cozart, Sarah Treuhaft, Caroline Dietrich, James Feagin, Tene Dolphin, Harold Pettigrew, Max Vargas, Vincenzo Pasquantonio, Rachel Harmon, Louis David, Todd Rufo, Abbie Langston, Jenice Contreras, Valerie Patton, Jean Horstman, Mike Higbee,
The Legacy Cities Community of Practice (CoP) is a peer-to-peer network of local leaders dedicated to addressing the fundamental issues of equity and opportunity in their cities. The cohort assembled three times in 2019 to provide city leaders with the opportunity to discuss common challenges they are facing, share innovative solutions they are trying, and learn about best practices that support access to affordable housing and economic opportunity. In 2019, we served the cities of Akron, Lansing, and Rochester.
Led by: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Enterprise Community Partners, the American Planning Association, and the National League of Cities
Working with: Jessie Grogan, Amy Cotter, Gideon Berger, Carlos Delgado, Jason Jordan, Flora Arabo, Charles Cross, Chantel Rush, Bryan Dryer, Brian McGrain, Bryan Dryer, Dorraine Kirkmire, Dana Miller, Kurt Mulhause, Rick Rynski, Jason Segedy, Helen Tomic, Rawley Van Fossen, Heather Roszczyk, Jason Segedy, Orlando Velez
Charles Cross leads a workshop on community engagement at the March 2019 Community of Practice convening in Akron.
The elected and appointed members of the NLC Housing Task Force at their January 2019 meeting in Washington, DC.
In late 2018, the National League of Cities (NLC) convened a national task force of 20 city leaders to address how communities can better respond to the growing challenge of housing availability, affordability, investment and quality. We staffed the meetings and work of the task force and contributed to the July 2019 report “Homeward Bound: The Road to Affordable Housing.”
Led by: the National League of Cities, DC Office of Housing and Community Development
Working with: Gideon Berger, Jim Brooks, Elisha Harig-Blaine, Mike Wallace, Brooks Rainwater, Polly Donaldson, Danilo Pelletiere, Richard Livingstone, Caroline Dietrich, Mayor Muriel Bowser, Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, Councilmember Albus Brooks, Mayor Lovely Warren,
Serving the cities of Atlanta, Durham, Louisville, Miami, Philadelphia, Richmond, San Francisco, and Washington, DC in 2019, this fellowship convenes and equips city leaders with tools, resources, and expertise to build equitable economies using democratic business ownership through a year-long program of leadership development, peer-to-peer learning, and strategy design support.
Led by: Democracy at Work Institute, National League of Cities
Working with: Zen Tenholm, Shevanthi Daniel, Melissa Hoover, Roodline Volcy, Carlos Delgado, Sandy Lila, George Mensah, Roberto Tazoe, Yvonne Boye, Frank Ianuzzi, Cristina Cummings, Randi Mason, Reese McCranie, Chris Dickey, Theresa Zawacki, Sharon Ebert, Nick Feucht, Leah Fremouw, Reginald Gordon, Jorge Rivas, Kate Merand, Ona Balkus, Thomas Choate, Verná Goatley, Declan Keefe, Philip Payne, Jorge Rivas, Matthias Scheiblehner
The SEED Fellowship Advisory Team preparing to present their findings in Richmond, Virginia, in November 2019
Elected officials at a March 2019 UrbanPlan workshop.
The workshop will enable public officials to better understand the trade-offs and risk at play in the entitlement and negotiation process associated with land use, especially in public/private partnerships (P3s). The UrbanPlan case study is an example of a city-led redevelopment effort where compromise needs to be met between the locality, development team selected in the RFP, and the community. This workshop will again be held in March during the NLC Congressional City Conference in DC, so invite a public official from your community to join us!
Led by: ULI UrbanPlan, ULI Washington
Working with: Sophie Lambert, Ashley Robertson, Shayna Goldsmith (a former student from Georgetown Urban Planning), Gideon Berger, Adam Weir, Carlos Delgado, and Margit Nahra
The National League of Cities hosted the Mayor’s Institute on Legacy City Revitalization in early September in Gary, bringing together mayors, local officials and private sector thought leaders to discuss the issues that legacy cities face.
Led by: National League of Cities
Working with: Irma Esparza-Diggs, Joanne Rene, Kyle Funk, Carlin Daharsh, Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, Congressman Peter Visclosky, Deputy Mayor James Hardy, Deputy Mayor Samantha Harkins, Brian McGrain, Hunter Morrison, Carol Brown, Jeffrey Ferweda, Dennis John, Liz Lang, Richard Leadbetter, Joel Mills, Mandla Moyo, Dane Newman, Karla Henderson, Mike Watson, Cynthia Stewart, Peter Pirnejad, Jason Jordan, Jessie Grogan, Ellen Szarleta, Irina Fursman, Chancellor William Lowe, Clarence Anthony
City leaders and guest experts at the September 2019 Institute in Gary, Indiana.
The public forum panel event in Washington, DC in September 2019.
This public forum and stakeholder symposium explored how to keep people safe in these public spaces, while ensuring they remain active social places that foster civic engagement and openness. The assembled experts included urban planners, first responders, and landscape architects, and the findings will inform updates to the Federal Urban Design Element, which NCPC uses when evaluating plans for public spaces.
Led by: NCPC
Working with: Surina Singh, Marcel Acosta, Susan Silberberg, Richard Cline, Gary Hilderbrand, Tom Gallas, Bob Peck, Leona Agouridis, Diane Groomes, Ira Brody, James Cratty, Captain Robert Glover, Sgt. Martin Wingert, and Len Hopper
We facilitated a working group of super-smart people from many disciplines to come up with a new way to define vehicles (and streets, and pricing, and regulations) that is not on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis.
Led by: NUMO
Working with: Carlos Pardo, Sebastian Castellanos, Jyot Chadha, Harriet Tregoning, Cameron Peltz, Russ Brooks, Robin Chase, Vladimir Angelov, Bruce Appleyard, Dara Baldwin, Deborah Barnes, Kim Bellamy, Stefanie Brodie, Heidi Case, Annie Chang, Will Chernicoff, Dan Emerine, Kenny Fennell, Elizabeth Ferrao, Fernanda Rivera Flores, Lou Huang, Colin K. Hughes, Margaret Jenny, Kimberly Lucas, Muriel MacDonald, Rob McPherson, Stacey Matlen, Bill Mitchell, Timothy Papandreou, Louis Pappas, Mohammad Pourhomayoun, Bennett Resnik, Leni Schwendinger, Heidi Simon, Sharada Strasmore, Courtney Sung, Kathryn Thompson, Vicente Torres Garibay, Shin-pei Tsay, Mitch Turck, Francisco Javier Victoria-Jaramillo, Rachel Zack, and David Zipper
Participants discuss street design on New Jersey Avenue at the March 2019 Streets and Vehicles workshop in Washington, DC.
Jeana Dunlap leads a small group discussion on Championing Creative Collaborations at the August 2019 Women’s Leadership Summit
Hosted in Louisville, this two-day event brought together several hundred real estate professionals from across the central United States, for programming, tours, and professional development on the world of real estate. Jess co-designed and served as lead facilitator of about a dozen “curated conversations” among participants.
Led by: ULI Kentucky
Working with: Gretchen Milliken, Patricia Clare, Christy Jarboe, Gil Holland, Amy Waninger, Denise Mills, Anthony Smith, Evon Smith, Arlene Koth, Kate Hyde, Keyu Yan, Kelly Bonadies, Kelli Lawrence, Jeana Dunlap, Serena Wolfe