Urban Development Institute

Location:

Website: www.udi.bc.ca

The Urban Development Institute is a national non-profit association (with international affiliations) of the development industry and its related professions that is non-partisan in its activities.

With over 600 corporate members, UDI Pacific represents thousands of individuals involved in all facets of land development and planning, including: developers, property managers, financial lenders, lawyers, engineers, planners, architects, appraisers, real estate professionals, local governments and government agencies.

Since 1972, the Pacific Region has been dedicated to fostering effective communication between the industry, government, and the public; and aims to improve both housing and job opportunities for all British Columbians.

UDI Pacific also serves as the public voice of the real estate development industry, communicating with the media on a number of issues. UDI concentrates its activities in three primary areas: government relations, professional development and education, and research. As a "Partner in Community Building," the Urban Development Institute is committed to working with communities and governments to create and achieve the vision of balanced, well-planned and sustainable communities.

The Urban Development Institute, a non-profit association of the development industry in British Columbia, promotes wise and efficient urban growth, good planning and good development practices, affordable housing and high quality commercial and industrial developments.

Urban Strategies Council

Location: Oakland, CA

Website: www.urbanstrategies.org

The Urban Strategies Council is a community building support and advocacy organization located in Oakland, California.

Founded as a non-profit in 1987, the Council works with stakeholders in low-income communities, community-based organizations, and public systems to expand services for children and families, improve health, educational, and other outcomes, and increase employment and economic opportunities

The focus of the Council's work is to support youth, family and community development as a means of building healthy, vibrant communities in order to reduce persistent poverty.

The Council is a community building support and advocacy organization. The Council's approach to its support work is focused on working community stakeholders to build strategies and capacities (including our own) for effective collective action.

We recognize that sustainable change involves not only building strategies and capacities, but also requires the exercise of leadership to build a common agenda for change that will improve outcomes for children and families.

The Council works to build partnerships and alliances across a wide array of community interests.  At the same time, the Council takes leadership in identifying issues that impact urban communities, building understanding of the issues and crafting agenda for addressing those issues.

LA River Revitalization Corp.

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Website: www.larivercorp.com

The LA River Corp will change the course of LA. Our objective is to create healthy, vibrant communities with greater open space, enhanced green infrastructure, and better recreational facilities.

We are a non-profit venture charged with catalyzing responsible real estate and related economic development along the LA River.

Our mission is to transform the LA River to improve people’s lives by carrying out sustainable land use projects, advocacy for river friendly policy, and programs for community benefit.

We are working to create a continuous 51-mile greenway corridor that will run along a restored LA River. Think of it as a linear Central Park—a grand public space that will redefine how we move through Los Angeles.

The LA River can connect people throughout Los Angeles, restore natural habitat in some of the most park-poor communities in the country, and leave an open space legacy for generations to come.

We can enhance the quality of life in a city hungry for green space and strengthen communities by restoring the LA River to a vibrant green corridor that people from throughout the country will want to visit and enjoy.

Greenbelt Alliance

Location: SF Bay Area, CA

Website: www.greenbelt.org

The Bay Area has the best of everything – stunning natural beauty, vibrant cities and neighborhoods, bountiful farms, and a diversity of cultural and economic opportunities. The challenge is how the region handles growth. We have a choice – to create wonderful cities and towns or to spread ever outward, agricultural landscape from development – the hills that offer stunning views, the valleys and streams that provide clean water, the farms and ranches that give us fresh, local food. We help create great cities and neighborhoods – healthy places where people can walk and bike, communities with parks and shops, transportation options, and homes that are affordable. Together these amazing places drive the Bay Area’s economic vitality and quality of life.

At Greenbelt Alliance we believe in collaboration. We bring together residents and decision-makers, business leaders, labor unions and others to find innovative solutions to our region’s growth challenges. We work both regionally and locally, blending expertise with on-the-ground action to help people explore our great region, make their neighborhoods thrive and save treasured landscapes from sprawl.

The places that make the Bay Area special are incredibly diverse, which is why Greenbelt Alliance’s work takes many forms, from saving farms in Santa Clara County and wildlife habitat in Sonoma County to revitaliziing commercial strips in Silicon Valley and Oakland. For more than 50 years, we have succeeded in helping to shape the amazing places of the Bay Area.

At Greenbelt Alliance, we bring people together around the places that matter to them. We envision a future where the Bay Area’s natural and agricultural landscapes that provide so much are protected and nurtured. We envision a future where everyone – regardless of their socioeconomic status – can live in a neighborhood they are proud to call home.

Greenbelt Alliance is the champion of the places that make the Bay Area special. We defend the Bay Area’s natural and agricultural landscape from development – the hills that offer stunning views, the valleys and streams that provide clean water, the farms and ranches that give us fresh, local food.

We help create great cities and neighborhoods – healthy places where people can walk and bike, communities with parks and shops, transportation options, and homes that are affordable. Together these amazing places drive the Bay Area’s economic vitality and quality of life.

At Greenbelt Alliance we believe in collaboration. We bring together residents and decision-makers, business leaders, labor unions and others to find innovative solutions to our region’s growth challenges.

We work both regionally and locally, blending expertise with on-the-ground action to help people explore our great region, make their neighborhoods thrive and save treasured landscapes from sprawl.

We envision a future where everyone – regardless of their socioeconomic status – can live in a neighborhood they are proud to call home.

Greenbelt Alliance’s mission is to make the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area a better place to live by protecting the region’s greenbelt and improving the livability of its cities and towns. We work through public policy development, advocacy and education, in partnership with diverse coalitions.

Grow Smart Bay Area is Greenbelt Alliance’s vision for the region to become more climate-friendly, affordable, and economically competitive, while protecting our farms, forests, and watersheds. By 2035, we call for:

- Fully protecting the Bay Area’s three million-acre greenbelt,

- Directing all new development into already urbanized areas, and

- Accomplishing both in a way that equitably benefits all Bay Area residents.

Local Support Initiatives Corporation

Location: Nationwide

Website: www.lsic.org

Founded in late 1979, LISC is the largest community development support organization in the country.

For almost three decades, LISC has connected local organizations and community leaders with resources to revitalize neighborhoods and improve quality of life.

The LISC model assembles private and public resources and directs it to locally-defined priorities.

Our unique structure enables local organizations to access national resources and expertise and our funding partners to leverage their investment and achieve an impact that is truly remarkable.

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is dedicated to helping community residents transform distressed neighborhoods into healthy and sustainable communities of choice and opportunity — good places to work, do business and raise children. LISC mobilizes corporate, government and philanthropic support to provide local community development organizations with loans, grants and equity investments as well as local, statewide and national policy support technical and management assistance,

LISC is a national organization with a community focus. Our program staff are based in every city and many of the rural areas where LISC-supported community development takes shape. In collaboration with local community development groups, LISC staff help identify priorities and challenges, delivering the most appropriate support to meet local needs.

Building Sustainable Communities by achieving five goals:

- Expanding Investment in Housing and Other Real Estate

- Increasing Family Income and Wealth

- Stimulating Economic Development

- Improving Access to Quality Education

- Supporting Healthy Environments and Lifestyles

TransForm

Location: California

Website: www.transform.org

TransForm started as a coalition of environmental, social equity, and community groups to bring a smart growth vision to life in the Bay Area. We continue to create innovate local models in the Bay Area and are working to promote smarter regional planning throughout California.

Since 2009, TransForm has also engaged in state policy, and from our Sacramento office we are leading advocacy efforts to reform state transportation policy.

Our successes in reshaping regional planning and winning billions of dollars for public transportation, walking and bicycling and affordable homes have been recognized and emulated throughout the nation. Today, we continue to build on our success in the Bay Area and are leading a statewide movement to transform transportation. Billions of dollars for California’s public transportation has been redirected for other uses over the past decade. For almost four years, TransForm has worked from its Sacramento office to provide a consistent voice for the urgent need for sustainable and equitable state transportation policies.

TransForm will host the second California Transportation Choices Summit and Advocacy Day on April 22-24. Hundreds of advocates and organizations will unite to share information and develop strategies for maximizing the impact of our movement. Our top 2013 priority is to get a funding commitment for sustainable transportation and land use from the State’s new Cap and Trade program. Another focus is reducing the voter threshold to 55% for measures that implement Sustainable Communities Strategies and have overall benefits for low-income communities.

The State is facing critical, cross-cutting growth issues such as the disbanding of redevelopment agencies, loss of affordable housing funds, and continued regulatory barriers to transit-oriented development issues. But many of our closest partners have not worked together on state policy. The State is facing critical, cross-cutting growth issues such as the disbanding of redevelopment agencies, loss of affordable housing funds, and continued regulatory barriers to transit-oriented development issues. But many of our closest partners have not worked together on state policy.

TransForm and ClimatePlan are bringing groups together to identify common ground, build relationships, and identify solutions such as developing new funding sources for transit-oriented development that includes affordable housing. ClimatePlan’s state policy group will continue to take the lead in making sure the Air Resources Board’s review of Sustainable Communities Strategies holds regions accountable.
TransForm will partner with allies to ensure the new law prioritizes bicycle safety.

TransForm and ClimatePlan are bringing groups together to identify common ground, build relationships, and identify solutions such as developing new funding sources for transit-oriented development that includes affordable housing. ClimatePlan’s state policy group will continue to take the lead in making sure the Air Resources Board’s review of Sustainable Communities Strategies holds regions to a high standard.

In 2012, TransForm joined with California Pan-Ethnic Health Network to sponsor and pass AB 441. The law requires the State to identify transportation projects and programs that improve public health and health equity and include that in the next update of Regional Transportation Plan guidelines. TransForm is seeking partners and funding to create an on-line,dynamic tool called for our 2012 report, this tool will document successful strategies across California,with updated case studies, measurable outcomes, and more. This can help inform state policy, and create a template of programs for when the guidelines are next updated.

Metropitan Policy Program

Location: Nationwide

Website: www.brookings.edu/about/programs/metro

The Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings is redefining the challenges facing metropolitan America and identifying assets and promoting innovative solutions to help communities grow in more productive, inclusive, and sustainable ways. They are the heart of the American economy. They are also our hubs of research and innovation, our centers of human capital, and our gateways of trade and immigration. Metropolitan areas drive the economy, and American competitiveness depends on their vitality.

More than ever, this is a national imperative as our global competitors move aggressively down this path — boosting exports, investing in innovation, scaling up clean technology, and embarking on large scale transformative projects. In its fifteen years, the Metro Program has become the nation's go-to organization for chronicling the dynamic demographic, economic, and social forces sweeping our country and interpreting what these forces mean for metropolitan areas. It has worked closely with states and metropolitan areas to design a new metropolitan agenda that matches the pace and intensity of demographic change and economic restructuring. It has partnered with corporate, civic, community, environmental, and political leaders to implement this agenda, either in whole or in part through the enactment of meaningful initiatives and fundamental change.

This includes work in a diverse array of states such as Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and a diverse array of metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisville, Miami, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. While the Metro Program conducts most of its work outside of the Beltway, it led a successful federally-focused initiative known as the Blueprint for American Prosperity, which promoted an economic agenda for the nation that built on the assets and centrality of its metropolitan areas.

The Blueprint’s research (Metro Nation)and policy ideas (Metro Policy and the Blueprint Policy Series) informed over ten federal initiatives since 2009. Over the past few years, the Metro Program has continued to influence policy and practice across the country.

Anticipating the toll that the Great Recession would take on metropolitan areas and states, as well as the shifts necessary to move from a consumption-oriented economy to a more productive and sustainable economic growth model, the program realigned its research, policy ideas, practice development, and network-building activities in service of the next economy. This is an economy that is fueled by innovation, powered by low carbon, driven by exports, rich with opportunity, and fundamentally metropolitan in form and function.

It will also produce more jobs and better jobs, as well as more accessible jobs and opportunities for more metropolitan residents. It will also build smarter and more sustainable places that embrace demographic change, technological progress, and a better quality of life for all citizens. Led by co-directors and founders Bruce Katz and Amy Liu, the Metro Program helps metropolitan leadership apply the next economy framework by:

- economically empowering metropolitan areas through rigorous trend and empirical research on the top economic, social and demographic issues

- innovating locally through co-designing metropolitan economic development strategies that build on distinct assets,

- advocating nationally by producing state and federal policy ideas and platforms that are in service of metropolitan areas; and,

r- networking globally by linking decision makers to a global network of trading metropolitan areas.

Streetfilms

Location: Nationwide

Website: www.streetfilms.org

Streetfilms produces short films showing how smart transportation design and policy can result in better places to live, work and play.

Founded in 2006,Streetfilms has become the go-to organization for educational films about sustainable transportation, and inspires action and behavioral change worldwide. Individuals,public agencies, non-profit organizations, schools, and transportation advocacy groups use Streetfilms to educate decision makers and make change for livable streets in their communities.

Streetfilms are freely distributed online, and our nearly 500 videos have been viewed over 5 million times. Thousands of daily viewers watch Streetfilms on our site, through embeds on hundreds of other sites, social media, digital files and DVDs, film festivals, and community screenings.

OpenPlans a 501c3 non-profit orgaization. We are funded by foundation grants, sponsorships and advertising, and through generous donations from readers like you.

596 Acres

Location: New York, NY

Website: www.596acres.org

We build online organizing platforms for land access advocates and facilitators. In New York City we are land access advocates and use one of our platforms.

Hundreds of acres of vacant public land are hidden in plain sight behind chain-link fences in New York City, concentrated in neighborhoods disproportionately deprived of beneficial land uses.

We are building the tools for communities to open all these rusty fences and the opportunities within them to improve the areas they live in by:

- Making municipal information available online and on the ground (e.g. by placing signs on vacant public land that explain a lot’s status and steps that the community can take to be able to use this land.

- Providing education about city government and ways to participate in decisions that shape neighborhoods,

- Assisting communities with legal support and campaign-development on land use issues,

- Maintaining a network that allows communities to share knowledge and relationships with decision-makers, and

- Working with groups after they get access to land to build sustainable community governance as they become stewards of a public and inclusive resource; and

- Advocating for municipal agencies to increase participatory decision-making surrounding public resources.

Center for Neighborhood Technology

Location: Nationwide

Website: www.cnt.org

Founded in 1978, the Center for Neighborhood Technology has been a leader in promoting more livable and sustainable urban communities. In fact, our work focused on sustainable development before the term became as popular as it is today. As a creative think-and-do-tank, we research, invent, and test urban strategies that use resources more efficiently and more equitably.

Over the years, CNT’s work, especially in the areas of climate, energy, water, transportation and community development, has paid off by fueling a generation of community development and learning institutions, earning CNT a reputation as an economic innovator and leader in the field of creative sustainable development.

CNT is an “innovations center for urban sustainability.” We approach our work by participating in three primary activities:

Researching urban problems to build knowledge through tools and activities that change how residents, policymakers, and market actors respond to issues such as efficient use of resources, strategies for reducing pollution, or ways to improve public transportation. Our studies are readily available for use by residents, policymakers, students, and other researchers.

Building coalitions to advocate for public policies that can help address urban sustainability issues.

Designing, developing, and operating economic development demonstration projects to address urban sustainability in innovative ways.

CNT launched two nonprofits that advance our mission:

- CNT Energy, an organization that develops and implements initiatives to help consumers and communities control energy costs and reduce energy use.

- IGOSM CarSharing, a membership-based car sharing organization that provides hourly rental of a fleet of cars located across Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.

Our Urban Practice Consulting offers a unique menu of tools and strategies which can be applied individually or collectively to urban development and redevelopment

CNT has ongoing long-term relationships with a number of organizations with complementary missions.

With the Center for Transit-Oriented Development (CTOD), CNT works on a number of studies for communities seeking to maximize transit resources through more targeted development near transit, especially development that can serve lower- and moderate-income households.

Studies were undertaken for the Bay Area, Seattle, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver, New Mexico and Australia.
With Reconnecting America, CNT continues to promote a national policy for intercity transportation. The partners used the findings of its late ’03 report, “Missed Connections: Financing Intermodal Transportation” to educate policy-makers about what resources could be used to connect the separately functioning transportation modes into a more integrated and efficient transportation system.

As a co-founder and leader in the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) coalition, CNT spent much of 2004 working to educate constituents about the federal “highway bill,” up for reauthorization after lapsing in 2003.

Specifically, the coalition worked to preserve basic federal protections like that which ensures that citizen participation in transportation plans “be early and continuing.” The coalition also helped build public understanding about the importance of efficient, intermodal transportation to reducing the cost of living.

Our LEED-Platinum (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building demonstrates how we work—from innovation to implementation—within a framework that values places.

Metropolitan Policy Program

Location: Nationwide

Website: www.www.brookings.edu/about/programs/metro
www.urban-decay.livejournal.com

The Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings is redefining the challenges facing metropolitan America and identifying assets and promoting innovative solutions to help communities grow in more productive, inclusive, and sustainable ways.

Why metropolitan areas? They are the heart of the American economy. They are also our hubs of research and innovation, our centers of human capital, and our gateways of trade and immigration. Metropolitan areas drive the economy, and American competitiveness depends on their vitality.

More than ever, this is a national imperative as our global competitors move aggressively down this path — boosting exports, investing in innovation, scaling up clean technology, and embarking on large scale transformative projects.

In its fifteen years, the Metro Program has become the nation's go-to organization for chronicling the dynamic demographic, economic, and social forces sweeping our country and interpreting what these forces mean for metropolitan areas.

It has worked closely with states and metropolitan areas to design a new metropolitan agenda that matches the pace and intensity of demographic change and economic restructuring. It has partnered with corporate, civic, community, environmental, and political leaders to implement this agenda, either in whole or in part through the enactment of meaningful initiatives and fundamental change.

This includes work in a diverse array of states such as Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and a diverse array of metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisville, Miami, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

While the Metro Program conducts most of its work outside of the Beltway, it led a successful federally-focused initiative known as the Blueprint for American Prosperity, which promoted an economic agenda for the nation that built on the assets and centrality of its metropolitan areas.

The Blueprint’s research (MetroNation) and policy ideas (MetroPolicy and the Blueprint Policy Series) informed over ten federal initiatives since 2009.

Over the past few years, the Metro Program has continued to influence policy and practice across the country. Anticipating the toll that the Great Recession would take on metropolitan areas and states, as well as the shifts necessary to move from a consumption-oriented economy to a more productive and sustainable economic growth model, the program realigned its research, policy ideas, practice development, and network-building activities in service of the next economy.

This is an economy that is fueled by innovation, powered by low carbon, driven by exports, rich with opportunity, and fundamentally metropolitan in form and function.

It will also produce more jobs and better jobs, as well as more accessible jobs and opportunities for more metropolitan residents. It will also build smarter and more sustainable places that embrace demographic change, technological progress, and a better quality of life for all citizens.

Led by co-directors and founders Bruce Katz and Amy Liu, the Metro Program helps metropolitan leadership apply the next economy framework by:

- economically situating metropolitan areas through rigorous trend and empirical research on the top economic, social and demographic issues;,

- innovating locally through co-designing metropolitan economic development strategies that build on distinct assets,

- advocating nationally by producing state and federal policy ideas and platforms that are in service of metropolitan areas, and

- networking globally by linking decision makers to a global network of trading metropolitan areas.

Cities Today

Location: International

Website: www.cities-today.com

Cities Today is the leading magazine on sustainable development of cities. PFD Media launched the magazine as United Cities in 2010 at the Third UCLG World Congress of Mayors and Local Governments in Mexico City and at the Mayors’ World Summit on Climate.

Having worked on publications focusing on urban development for the World Bank, UN-HABITAT, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank, PFD’s editorial team saw the opportunity to launch the first global publication dedicated to city leaders.

Bringing together the experience of the multilateral sector with that of the private sector and the local governments themselves, the magazine focuses on the challenges and solutions for city leaders and local governments.

Analysis, case studies and features cover transport, energy, construction, public safety, infrastructure, planning, finance, and the use of Information and Communication Technology in urban development and management.

The magazine was rebranded as Cities Today in 2012 to reflect that the magazine was being produced with a new and diverse editorial board that includes not only members of UCLG but also all of the key intergovernmental agencies and city associations active in urban development. Cities Today’s editorial advisory board includes experts from the World Bank, UNEP, UN-HABITAT, ICLEI, C40, FLACMA, ISOCARP and UCLG ASPAC.

This Big City

Location: International

Website: www.thisbigcity.net

This Big City is an award winning social media organisation sharing ideas and encouraging discussion about sustainable cities.

We explore urban trends, ideas and analysis in English, Chinese, Spanish and French here on thisbigcity.net and are active on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr sharing short-form content with over 100,000 followers and engaging in social media events like our #citytalk tweetchat.

This Big City is based in London and was founded in September 2009 by Joe Peach. Joe is Editor in chief and works with This Big City’s clients and collaborators on social media projects.

Leonard Chien is our Chinese Editor, publishing This Big City 城事 from Taipei, Taiwan. Leonard is a professional translator and interpreter who counts Global Voices and Wired as clients.

Alejandro Echeverria is our Spanish Editor, publishing This Big City en español from London, UK. Alejandro is an urban planner and author of the novel The Scorpion’s Symposium.

Felicia Todor is our French Editor, publishing This Big City en français from Montreal (Qc), Canada. Felicia is a retail and urban planning consultant with MDLX Planning, working with institutions and clients from corporate real estate and government.

Alessandro Vino is our Italian Editor, publishing This Big City in italiano from Freising, Germany. Alessandro is a graduated landscape architect who works in urban & public space design.
We publish content from writers across the globe and have collaborated with charities, NGOs, and corporations on social media projects. We also offer Translation Internships. If you want to find out more about working with This Big City click here.

All original content on This Big City has a Creative Commons 3.0 License. We encourage you to republish our articles by following our Attribution Policy.

re:place Magazine

Location: Vancouver, BC

Website: www.regardingplace.com

Re:place intends to be a forum for discussion on relevant issues pertaining to Greater Vancouver’s public spaces and urban landscape.

Re:place intenfs to educate citizens about the workings of the public realm, and to encourage interaction and engagement in cities.

Re:place intends to explore the ever-changing look and dynamic of Greater Vancouver.

The world is urbanizing. Of the 6.5 billion inhabitants of this world, 3.2 billion currently live in cities and the number is forecasted to increase to 5 billion by 2030 – an estimated 61% of the global population. Vancouver, with its reputation for balanced, healthy and sustainable living, is being faced with the challenges of population growth and urban development every day.

This reality makes discussions regarding urbanism and the public realm of the utmost importance, yet there are currently no media in the GVRD where the primary focus is the investigation of these issues.

We aim to change this. re:place is a non-profit organization devoted to facilitating the holistic discussion of relevant urban landscape and public space issues throughout the GVRD.

The re:place team offers a depth and variety of experience in architecture, urban planning, municipal processes, journalism, media relations, design and sales. This organization will strive to shed light on the complex issues inherent to the ideal of sustainable urbanization.