| Community Innovation Lecture Series |
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To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Department of City and Regional Planning in 2008, DCRP and the Center for Community Innovation offered the Community Innovation Lecture Series. All lectures took place from 6–7 p.m. in 106 Wurster Hall (*except as noted). A reception followed each lecture from 7–8 p.m. All were welcome to attend.
Retail and Neighborhood Revitalization Presenters Discussant East Bay Green Corridor Partnership Presenters Discussant The Earth, the City, and the Hidden Narrative of Race Presenter Discussant Monday, December 15, 2008 Health Impact Assessment and Urban Governance Presenter Discussant In this talk, Corburn will draw from his forthcoming book, Toward the Healthy City (MIT Press), which proposes "healthy city planning" as a new form of urban governance. Through case studies in the Bay Area, Corburn shows how the interaction of activists and city agencies have reframed the approach to environmental health, changed the practice of several municipal and regional agencies, and created new instruments and procedures for the implementation of urban policy aimed at the promotion of health as a component of social justice. These actors have developed an instrument for Health Impact Assessment that remedies traditional environmental impact assessment's failure to address health and environmental justice systematically. Ultimately, Healthy City Planning will require not just new analytic tools but a shift in the processes that govern the development and promote the well-being of cities. Monday, January 26, 2009 Strategies for Income Diversity and Spatial Justice: Introducing the Equitable Development Measurement Tool Presenter Discussants Regional anti-poverty strategies have long focused on relocating the poor to the suburbs, with the idea that this will improve the life chances of the impoverished. Yet, these strategies fail to acknowledge basic human aspirations to live in security, in community, or in a revitalized core — and they are making our urban centers far less diverse. This talk examines the loss of income diversity in the Bay Area's urban neighborhoods, and uses three examples from the work of the Center for Community Innovation (in Richmond, Oakland's Chinatown, and San Francisco's HOPE VI project areas) to demonstrate new ways of thinking about mixed-income communities — and new policy approaches to building and preserving them.
The Arterial Divide: Research Findings vs. Professional Norms Presenter Discussants Traditional traffic engineering practice considers the primary function of urban arterial streets to be moving through vehicle traffic, and design standards intended to ease traffic flow and increase roadway capacity have been developed and are now virtually cemented in place. And yet, many of the streets designated as arterials are much more than just vehicle movement corridors for the local communities through which they pass. Many are residential streets or local shopping streets or a combination of both. They are often places to catch a bus, and routes that children and their parents must take or cross to reach school and community services, or neighbors must take or cross to visit each other. Research coming from multiple fields suggests that pedestrian safety and comfort along arterial streets can be accomplished via physical design elements that run counter to the current norm. As well, research suggests that street trees contribute vital environmental services and yet the design standards for arterial streets work against trees. What does the research suggest for a reconsideration of standard practices and, perhaps more important, for the development of new street designs that address the needs of multiple street users and uses?
Urban Sustainability and Community Development Presenter Discussant The “green movement” has provided a window of opportunity for cities to develop in a more sustainable way. What role can the government, nonprofit and private sectors play in ensuring that our urban communities are more sustainable and equitable? This talk will explore the opportunities and challenges that exist in our current political and economic climate to enhance the quality of life within economically disadvantaged urban communities by focusing on four areas—economy, environment, equity and health.
Paul Chan's Unfederated Theatre: Waiting in Post-Katrina New Orleans Presenter Discussants Paul Chan is a visual artist and a political activist noted for his statements about the necessity of separating rather than integrating aesthetics and politics, particularly the need to avoid the instrumentalization of the former by latter. This essay uses Chan's decision to site a production of Waiting for Godot in Post-Katrina New Orleans, framing this project both as a conversation across the domain of visual and theatrical arts and as an opportunity to reflect on what it means to take an aesthetic stance on community engagement.
For 20 years Professor Marcia McNally's teaching, professional practice, public service, and research have centered on two issues in citizen participation: what roles can government officials, individuals, and organized constituencies play in planning and design decision-making; and what tools can enable citizens to make informed decisions. More recently she has focused on the neighborhood landscape as a training ground for activism and collaboration. In her classes she brings together the rigor of a methods specialist with on-the-ground experience to teach students how to systematically and creatively generate and communicate data gathered from a diverse array of sources. Monday, May 11, 2009 Breakthrough Communities: Sustainability and Justice in the Next American Metropolis Presenter Discussant This multimedia presentation features the stories from Breakthrough Communities (MIT Press, 2009), edited by Paloma Pavel and with a foreword by Carl Anthony.
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Fred Blackwell is the recently appointed executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA), a local governmental entity promoting community and economic and physical development in blighted neighborhoods and the preservation and development of citywide affordable housing. Before joining SFRA, he was the director of the Mayor's Office of Community Development, where he oversaw the City's Community Development Block Program focused on economic and service-focused strategies to meet the needs of San Francisco's low-income families and neighborhoods. He holds a master's degree in city and regional planning from UC Berkeley.
Cathy Cha serves as a program officer in the Haas, Jr. Fund's Neighborhoods and Strengthening Families program areas. Cathy has more than 15 years' experience in affordable housing and workforce development. Before joining the Fund, Cathy was a program officer at the Hyams Foundation in Boston, where she managed the $2 million Community Economic Development portfolio. While there, she led the development of a $20 million private loan fund for the creation of supportive housing for extremely low-income families in Massachusetts. Prior to that, she served as project manager at the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation in San Francisco, developing affordable housing and starting the agency's first construction job-training program for neighborhood residents. She has also worked for ICF Consulting in San Francisco, the City of Oakland, and the United Way in Seattle. She serves on the boards of Chinatown Community Development Center and the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. Cathy has a master's degree in city and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. in psychology from the University of Washington, Seattle. 
Elizabeth Macdonald, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley and Chair of the Program in the Design of Urban Places, an interdisciplinary program sponsored by UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design that offers a Master of Urban Design degree. Her research interests encompass urban design theory, history of urban design, history of urban form, public space design, and environment-behavior research. Her writings include The Boulevard Book: History, Evolution, Design of Multiway Boulevards (MIT Press 2002), The Urban Design Reader (Routledge, 2006), and numerous journal articles. Macdonald practices urban design through her firm Cityworks. Recent professional projects include redesigns for Octavia Boulevard in San Francisco, Pacific Boulevard in Vancouver, and International Boulevard in Oakland.
Philip Erickson is a planner and architect with twenty years of experience in community and urban design, land use and site planning, regional land use/transportation planning, architecture, and feasibility analysis. A primary focus of Erickson’s practice is in the reshaping and revitalization of older strip-commercial arterial streets into mixed-use corridors that provide opportunities for shopping, employment, and housing in a more pedestrian-friendly and transit-oriented environment following the principles of the New Urbanism. Erickson founded Community Design + Architecture (CD+A) in 1997 after working for several Bay Area urban design and architectural firms. He is a licensed architect in the State of California with master's degrees in city and regional planning and architecture from the University of California at Berkeley. 
Malo André Hutson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley. His research focuses on community and economic development, regional planning, workforce development, and community health. In addition, Professor Hutson focuses on urban policy and politics and the role of public/private institutions in influencing urban development. Professor Hutson's current research includes an analysis of metropolitan fragmentation and racial residential segregation and its relationship to health. Specifically he is investigating how multiple political jurisdictions within a metropolitan region affect the distribution of resources across racial and class lines. Professor Hutson is also working on a national research project that examines the relationship between the built environment and health disparities. Finally, Dr. Hutson is writing a book that analyzes the role of hospitals and medical facilities as economic generators within central cities.
Romel Pascual currently serves as the Acting Deputy Mayor for Energy and Environment for the City of Los Angeles. Previously, Romel served as the Mayor’s Associate Director for Environment where he served as a key advisor on a number key environmental priorities for the City, including climate change, environmental justice, green economy, open space, brownfields redevelopment, and sustainability. Romel was one of the principal authors of the City’s GreenLA Climate Change Action Plan released in 2006. He also serves as Los Angeles’s representative on several international and domestic city coalitions on climate change and sustainability, including C40 Cities, U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Change Committee; Urban Leaders (Adaptation); and Green Cities (Statewide). From 2001-2004, Romel served as the State of California’s first Assistant Secretary for Environmental Justice for the California Environmental Protection Agency where led the Agency’s efforts in developing the state’s first environmental justice program. Romel also worked with the Urban Habitat Program and the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. He has a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA, and Masters in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley. 
Shannon Jackson is department chair and professor in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (and Rhetoric) at UC Berkeley. She has a Ph.D. in Performance Studies, and a Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies from Northwestern University. She specializes in performance theory; experimental visual art and performance; American studies; sex/gender/race studies; history of disciplines and higher education; solo performance, oral history, and adaptation. Selected publications include: Lines of Activity (2000), Honorable Mention, John Hope Franklin Prize in American Studies (ASA) and Professing Performance (2004), Best Book Prize in Theatre Studies (ATHE) and Best Book Prize in Performance Studies (NCA), plus several essays in journals of theatre, performance studies, and cultural studies. Before moving to Berkeley, Jackson was an assistant professor of English and Literature at Harvard University from 1995 to 1998.
Joshua Simon joined the Northern California Community Loan Fund (NCCLF) as Director of Consulting and Grants in May of 2006. He has worked over the past 20 years with several nonprofit community development corporations to develop and manage affordable housing and community facilities, including the past 12 years with East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC) and prior work with Chinatown Community Development Corporation and the artist’s live work and theater facility Project Artaud. His completed developments include half a dozen mixed-use complexes that combine affordable rental apartments with community and educational uses, including Swan’s Marketplace in Oakland.
Joshua is in his second term as an elected member of Emery Unified School District’s School Board. He received a master’s degree in Real Estate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990 and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture degree in 1983 from the University of California at Berkeley.
Paloma Pavel, Ph.D., is founder and President of Earth House, Inc. She served as Director of Strategic Communications for the Sustainable Metropolitan Communities Initiative at the Ford Foundation. Pavel’s academic background includes graduate study at the London School of Economics and Harvard University. Her research at the London School of Economics addressed South African economics in the pre- and post-Apartheid eras. Her dissertation (Organizational Culture and Leadership) was part of a five-year study by the Carnegie Foundation on the workplace in America, which culminated in the publication Good Work. She regularly teaches at many Bay Area institutions, including California Institute for Integral Studies, where she co-chaired the graduate degree program in Organizational Development. She co-edits the Sustainable Metropolitan Communities Books series with Robert Gottlieb, at MIT Press. 
Victor Rubin, Ph.D., Vice President for Research at PolicyLink, leads knowledge-building, evaluation, and qualitative and quantitative analysis activities to build a strong research base for equitable development strategy, community capacity building, and policy advocacy. Rubin previously directed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of University Partnerships, where he administered grants to institutions of higher education for community engagement and support of students in community development fields. He also served for 13 years as director of Research and Community Programs of the University-Oakland Metropolitan Forum, a partnership based at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was concurrently an adjunct associate professor of city and regional planning. Rubin holds a bachelor’s degree in public affairs from the University of Chicago, and a master’s and doctorate in city and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley.