Browse Resources by Type: Translation Paper
Updated by Julia Parzen of JP Consulting, this edition describes how development decisions can help increase civic participation—for the public at large and especially for populations traditionally excluded from decision-making. The paper features case studies of ways funders can promote civic education and participation in development planning. It includes case studies of regional visioning processes that engage resident input, as well as examples of ways funders can promote civic education and participation in development planning.
Angela Glover Blackwell and Radhika K. Fox, both of PolicyLink, discuss the emergence and evolution of the regional equity concept and its use by diverse groups across the country (as a concept, regional equity seeks to ensure that individuals and families can participate in and benefit from economic growth and activity throughout a region). Their framework for action includes four strategies: 1) living near regional opportunity, 2) linking to regional opportunity, 3) promoting equitable public investment, and 4) making all neighborhoods stable, healthy, and livable.
A team from the Center for Clean Air Policy explores the connection between land development patterns, transportation patterns, and air pollution, and how growing smarter can lead to better air quality.
Naomi Friedman, writing for the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, presents a framework for understanding the connections between energy and land use that focuses on two primary issues: 1) how to build, which involves neighborhood and building design, and 2) where to build, meaning that location matters. She also suggests ways for funders to help accelerate the merger of these fields.
A team of writers with public health and smart growth expertise observe that in recent years, sprawling development patterns have drawn increasing scrutiny because of their potential negative impacts on public health. The authors give examples of promising practices to promote health through smarter growth policies and practices, and provide useful funder references on the topic.
Kathleen Blaha, formerly of The Trust for Public Land, describes how new strategies that link parks and greenspace with community development, public health, social justice, access, and opportunity are leading to better decisions about how and where communities grow. She describes philanthropic leadership on these issues, and points to eight funder strategies that support the role parks and green space play in building communities.
Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First, and Mafruza Khan of the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Economic Development describe the implications of sprawling development patterns from the perspective of workforce development. They argue that funders trying to help workers gain family-supporting skills and jobs should consider becoming involved in the smart growth movement.
Dana Beach of the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League makes the case that comprehensive land use reform can become the organizing principle of the nation’s water quality agenda, suggesting strategies that can be taken at the regional, neighborhood, and site scales to protect aquatic resources.
William Fulton of Solimar Research Group and freelance writer Morris Newman argue that the arts have the potential to connect people within a community in new ways, to bring disparate people together, and to tap into a community’s latent creativity.
Writer Tony Proscio describes why the community development and smart growth movements have tended to diverge, and how they might come together around a more effective, common vision. He gives examples of community development projects that have taken shape in explicitly “smart” deliberations with regional authorities and planners.