BCLI Issues and Advocates Series

Fresh Thinking about Community and Anchor Partnerships: Creating Shared Value for More Equitable Communities

BCLI — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:57:12 -0500

BCLI Issues and Advocates Speaker Series
Fresh Thinking about Community and Anchor Partnerships: Creating Shared Value for More Equitable Communities
October 19, 2011

We've seen that anchor institutions, such as universities and hospitals, can have a significant impact on community economic development. But how can communities with fewer economic resources catalyze anchor relationships that will serve the particular needs of their community members? And how can leaders within anchor institutions move from a "social responsibility" framework to one that acknowledges the community's integral role in their long-term success?

In this panel, we offer some innovative case studies that allow us to stretch our thinking about the ways that anchor institutions are defined and how they support the communities in which they reside, in terms of both economic development and cultural stabilization, and we provide examples of the kinds of strategic partnerships that can emerge from engagement between anchors and communities when the focus is on the creation of shared value.

Read the speakers' bios and listen to the Anchor Partnerships panel podcast:

Closing the Opportunity Gap: Prioritizing Schools in Planning for Sustainable Communities

BCLI — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:17:22 -0500

BCLI Issues and Advocates Speaker Series
Closing the Opportunity Gap: Prioritizing Schools in Planning for Sustainable Communities
September 21, 2011

Supportive, inclusive educational institutions are essential for vibrant, equitable communities, and access to opportunity-rich education provides a means by which socially and economically marginalized community members can improve quality of life. As we plan for growth within the Bay Area region, we must prioritize high-quality schools as a key feature of sustainable communities.

In addition to classroom education, the level of student opportunity is informed by where and how students and their parents sleep and eat, how they travel to and from school, and the environment that surrounds and supports (or does not support) their general well-being. Equitable decision making on behalf of community education, therefore, includes paying careful attention to those elements outside of the school itself that can greatly impact students' abilities to succeed. Economically stable communities with opportunities for affordable family housing, healthy neighborhoods with clean air, dependable transportation for both students and working parents, and safe routes to school for students who walk or ride bikes are just a few of many factors that can support student success.

Focusing primarily on land use, housing, and transportation, our panelists identify key issues in equitable decision making in planning for opportunity-rich schools in the Bay Area in the face of anticipated high regional population growth. As a group, we share policies and strategies that decision makers and advocates can use to ensure that our growth strategies are sustainable, equitable, and address the needs of low-income families and communities of color.

Read the speakers' bios and hear the podcast of their presentation:

*Jeffrey Vincent, Deputy Director, Center for Cities & Schools
*Marisa Raya, Regional Planner, Association of Bay Area Governments
*Vu-Bang Nguyen, Land Use Coordinator, Urban Habitat

Curbing Sprawl, Protecting Health: Building Housing for the Bay Area's Most Vulnerable Residents

BCLI — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:26:44 -0500

BCLI Issues and Advocates Speaker Series

Curbing Sprawl, Protecting Health: Building Housing for the Bay Area's Most Vulnerable Residents

August 31, 2011

Over the next 30 years, the Bay Area is projected to add two million people to its population-a 30% growth, or the equivalent of adding two-and-half cities the size of San Francisco or about four Oaklands.

Senate Bill 375, the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act, requires regional planning agencies in the Bay Area to prepare for this growth in a strategic manner by prioritizing new housing development near public transportation in order to reduce the amount of automobile-generated pollution in the region, which is currently the single largest and fastest growing source of pollution in the Bay Area. But much of the planned development will take place in low-income communities and communities of color already exposed to high levels of pollution from sources such as highways, ports, and industrial manufacturing. This conflict presents a challenge for regional agencies and advocates who want to both curb urban sprawl and protect the health of those already impacted by environmental injustice.

Our panelists will identify the health and planning challenges associated with transit-oriented development projects in the Bay Area's most polluted communities. As a group, we'll share policies and strategies that decision makers and advocates can use to ensure that such projects are planned, designed, and built in a healthy and equitable manner.

Read the speakers' bios and hear the podcast of their presentation:

Leadership and Innovation in Job Creation

Editor2 — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:03:32 -0600

BCLI Wednesday Night Panel Series
Leadership and Innovation in Job Creation: New Models for Putting Low-Income Communities Back to Work
November 17, 2010

In our final panel of the Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute Wednesday night series, we hear from the architects, developers, and implementers of fresh, effective approaches for quality jobs development for low-income communities -- models that deliver jobs and build community wealth in our struggling communities. In this panel, you'll hear about programs that have succeeded in empowering worker-owners to develop new green businesses, in providing sustaining funds to existing small businesses in order to encourage a vibrant urban core, and in investing in nonprofits that employ, train, and support members of our communities who have the least access to jobs, including the formerly incarcerated.

Specifically, we look at models developed by Inner City Advisors, the Cleveland Model of Evergreen Cooperatives, and REDF; and hear about exciting work in the City of Richmond for support of worker-owned cooperative businesses. Our expert panelists share the details of these programs, including opportunities and challenges for implementation and the short-term and projected results. We talk about scalability and replication, with an eye toward what local decision-makers can do to encourage these types of programs and investments in their communities.

Click on the links below to view the speakers' bios, hear the podcast of their presentation, and download handouts.

Speakers

*Jose Corona, Executive Director, Inner City Advisors
*Marilyn Langlois, Community Advocate, Office of the Mayor, City of Richmond
*India Pierce Lee, Program Director for Neighborhoods, Housing, and Community Development, The Cleveland Foundation
*Jason Trimiew, Director of Fund and Business Development, REDF

Encouraging Community Support for Affordable Housing: Lessons Learned in Pleasanton

Editor2 — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:16:56 -0500

BCLI Wednesday Night Panel Series
Encouraging Community Support for Affordable Housing: Lessons Learned in Pleasanton
October 27, 2010

Community-member attitudes about affordable housing developments can block projects that are intended to help stabilize communities. Disagreements about affordable housing development can also create divisions within communities, increase project time to completion, and even persuade developers that affordable housing projects are not feasible for communities where there is opposition. Community housing goals and needs go unmet, leaving low-income people with few housing choices and likely displacement from the communities in which they live and work.

In this panel, we share strategies for building local support for affordable housing in Bay Area communities. In particular, panelists discuss their work as affordable housing advocates in response to the city of Pleasanton's housing cap. Working with Public Advocates and local community allies, Urban Habitat challenged Pleasanton's policies and practices of excluding housing for low-income families, eventually reaching a settlement in which the city reaffirmed its commitment to nourish lively, diverse neighborhoods, while doing its share to address the Bay Area's affordable housing crisis.

Click on the links below to view the speakers' bios, hear the podcast of their presentation, and download handouts.

Speakers

* Becky Dennis, Organizer, Citizens for a Caring Community and Former Pleasanton City Councilmember
* Connie Galambos Malloy, Director of Programs, Urban Habitat
* Richard Marcantonio, Managing Attorney, Public Advocates
* Michael Rawson, Co-Director, Public Interest Law Project
* Terrell Watt, Owner, Terrell Watt Planning Consultant

Climate Action and Local Decision-Making: Ensuring Benefits for Low-Income Communities and Communities of Color

Editor2 — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:56:26 -0500

BCLI Wednesday Night Panel Series
Climate Action and Local Decision-Making: Ensuring Benefits for Low-Income Communities and Communities of Color
September 29, 2010

We already know that the negative effects of climate change will disproportionately impact low-income communities and communities of color. Increased investments in energy efficiency, municipal water systems, and other retrofit programs to support reductions of greenhouse gas emissions and to address additional climate change concerns can and should also carry with them benefits for low-income communities and communities of color that include job creation.

This panel explores how we can best carry out local climate work as local Energy and Climate Action Plans languish in these tough economic times. Panelist engage in a pragmatic, realistic discussion about how local climate action projects can not only be accomplished through innovative financing, but can also achieve social equity goals.

Click on the links below to view the speakers' bios, hear the podcast of their presentation, and download handouts.

Speakers
    * Vivian Chang, Director of State and Local Initiatives, Green For All
    * Tommy T. Moala, Assistant General Manager, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
    * Romel Pascual, Deputy Mayor for the Energy and the Environment, Los Angeles Mayor's Office
    * Dave Room, Clean Energy Director, Bay Localize