3A. Leverage the ongoing work of the MPO for monitoring and implementation of
The Tomorrow Plan

Robert Chaskin, PhD & Mark Joseph, PhD UChicago SSA
CWRU Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. The current phase of research, which began in October 2009, has three primary purposes: to interrogate the ideas and assumptions behind the mixed-income development policy and explore the ways in which the strategy is playing out on the ground; to investigate the community-building strategies implemented to create well-functioning communities within and around the new mixed-income developments; and to understand the perspectives and experiences of residents who move into the new mixed-income developments and the ways in which living in these communities is affecting their lives. Go to Website

Reconnecting America, Enterprise and the National Housing Trust, 2010
Reconnecting America, Enterprise and the National Housing Trust have released a collection of case studies examining what cities are doing to ensure that affordable housing isn’t lost as cities pursue transit-oriented development. Go to Website

PRRAC, Philip Tegeler, Editor, October 2011
Describes ways to coordinate housing and education policy, using case study examples to evaluate the success of different techniques. Go to Report

The Edge, Feb 2013
HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research summarizes presentations from All the Best Intentions: Is Affirmative Marketing Creating Integrated Communities, the Feb 2013 FHEO Speaker Series (hosted by HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity) Go to Article

EPA, Office of Environmental Justice and Office of Sustainable Communities, Feb 2013
Shows how low-income, minority and tribal communities can apply smart growth land use and development strategies to create healthy communities, spur economic growth and protect the environment; describes strategies for cleaning up and reinvesting in existing neighborhoods, providing affordable housing and transportation, and improving access to jobs, parks and stores; includes case studies on seven communities across the country Go to Report

This toolkit introduces 28 tools that can help communities and regions begin to reverse patterns of segregation and disinvestment, prevent displacement, and promote equitable revitalization. Go to Website

3B. Make walking, biking, and utilizing public transportation a normal part of daily life

Streets MN, Bill Lindeke, 2013
Describes actions that any city can take, at little expense, to dramatically improve walkability without changing actual roadways. These simple changes include adding red light cameras at busy pedestrian intersections to track automobile infractions of laws; banning right turns on red lights at busy intersections; and banning cellphones while driving to reduce driver distraction. Go to Website

Advocacy Advance + Alliance for Biking & Walking
Indicates federal funding sources for pedestrian and bicycle projects under federal highway and transit programs. The table has been updated for the new transportation law, MAP-21. Go to Website

Details about federal funding sources for pedestrian and bicycle projects Go to Website

U.S. DOT’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in cooperation with FHWA’s Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty. Dec 2012
This report is the first of two white papers highlighting best practices of State Departments of Transportation (State DOTs) and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and their partners to successfully consider health throughout the transportation planning process. Go to Website

DOT FHWA, Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty
Includes information, case studies, training opportunities, and other resources about Health and Transportation topics. Go to Website

Office of Sustainable Communities Smart Growth Program, EPA; Jan 2013
This new EPA report provides communities with a comprehensive guide to tools and strategies that are available for financing and funding infrastructure for transit-oriented development. The report provides examples of how some communities are using specific tools for individual infrastructure components, as well as strategies for combining and bundling tools to create plans that address construction phasing and market growth over time. Go to Report

3C. Make the healthy choice intuitive

World Health Organization- Eastern Mediterranean Region, 2012
Includes good points on how to educate people from many different areas. Go to Report

National Eye Health Education Program
Gain a better understanding of the most effective ways to deliver eye health messages and the most appropriate settings for these messages to reach target populations. See especially Section 2: Health Literacy (starting pg 7 of PDF) and Section 4: Channels of Communication (starting pg 12 of PDF) Go to Document

Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, Department of Health and Human Services, and National Institutes of Health
This report gives different ways on how you can influence or change healthy lifestyles Go to Report

Charles Atkin, Michigan State University, Project conducted for Kaiser Family Foundation, 2001
Reviews the research measuring effects of media-based health communication campaigns, to determine the degree of impact of campaigns on health behaviors and identify promising strategies for increasing campaign effectiveness <> Go to Research

Presentation Companion, Arbitron Inc. and Edison Research, 2011
Nationally representative survey focusing on trends in digital platforms. Explores the expanding digital media and communications landscape with new 2011 data trending usage levels among U.S. residents aged 12 and older. (This summary is intended as a companion piece to The Infinite Dial 2011: Navigating Digital Platforms. For detailed findings, please download the full presentation at www.arbitron.com | Go to Summary

The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 2012
Examines: critical role public health plays in land reuse and redevelopment decisions and many free tools and resources available to assist communities in their redevelopment efforts. Go to Webinar

The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 2012
Examines: critical role public health plays in land reuse and redevelopment decisions and many free tools and resources available to assist communities in their redevelopment efforts. Go to Webinar

Find out if your hometown is built to benefit your health with this nine-point checklist Go to Website

Identifies integrated and flexible approaches to how metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and their partners can successfully consider aspects of health during the transportation planning process. Based on research including four best practice studies, the white paper proposes a framework for MPOs and partners to use to integrate health into metropolitan area transportation planning. The report develops a comprehensive approach both to how MPOs can approach health as a direct, broadly-based goal for their interdisciplinary planning, and how they can consider health during all stages of the metropolitan area transportation planning process. Go to Website

Federal Highway Administration
Linking health and transportation brings together transportation professionals and health practitioners in a collaborative process to improve transportation decisions. They are committed to developing transportation options that promote and improve access to healthy and active lifestyles. Go to Website

Empower more people to take responsibility for maintaining their health is identified as one of our community’s ten health priorities in the Healthy Polk 2020 plan.Go to Plan

Healthy Neighborhoods helps strong but undervalued Baltimore neighborhoods increase home values, market their communities, create high standards for property improvements, and forge strong connections among neighbors. Go to Website

3D. Provide access to healthy food using a regional food system approach

APA, Kimberley Hodgson, 2012
Recent research has begun to examine food access more comprehensively, taking into account the nuances of place, people, and policy that interact and reinforce each other. Go to Report

National partnership of land grant institutions and State Departments of Agriculture dedicated to the development of a comprehensive interactive data base of food industry marketing and business data. Go to Website

A group of Seattle designers, neighbors and city officials have upped the community gardening ante with the city’s first large-scale community garden on top of a 50-year-old parking garage. Go to Website

Sustainable City Network, Jan 30,2013
An aquaponics experiment in Iowa is demonstrating that fresh greens and tasty fish can be produced almost anywhere in an economically and ecologically viable form of agriculture. Go to Website

Eat Greater Des Moines
A community garden and farmers market locator to identify convenient locations to grow or buy local food Go to Website

Eat Greater Des Moines
Features step-by-step instructions, community-building strategies, gardening advice, and many other resources. Go to Website

Eat Greater Des Moines
A local food calendar highlighting opportunities to connect with local food systems and build food security and resilience Go to Website

Go to Website

A net-zero energy vertical farm and food business operation. Includes aquaponic growing systems, sustainable food businesses, and a renewable energy system. Go to Website

North Carolina program to support locally grown food (asks residents and businesses to spend 10% of food budget on local food). Go to Website

Looks at impacts of moving to system that would produce 25% of food for Northeast Ohio region locally. Go to Report

Go to Website

During the 2009 legislative session, two member-based public policy organizations, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility and Rural Vermont, crafted and helped win legislative approval for the creation of a Farm to Plate Investment Program (F2P). Go to Website

The DFPC is an education, advocacy, and policy organization led by Detroiters committed to creating a sustainable local food system that promotes food security, food justice, and food sovereignty in the city of Detroit. Go to Website

Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund
Provides Vermont with a road map to new jobs and increased market share as well as improved physical, environmental and economic health. Go to Executive Summary | Go to Website

3E. Encourage and celebrate place-making and community building opportunities

The Region’s Arts Council (Bravo) is a nonprofit organization committed to strengthening the metro area’s arts and cultural community as a key element of a world-class quality of life. Bravo provides a collaborative focus to nurture and grow the arts by increasing funding through public and private sources. Go to Website

Their mission is to create permanent affordable space for the local arts in downtown Des Moines Go to Website

Places art in public spaces in the community through public and private collaborations. Go to Website

Place Makers, Nathan Morris, November 26, 2012
Cities hinder their own placemaking efforts, wasting time and money by investing in tools, policies and programs that deliver lousy results. Here’s how not to do that. Go to Website

Tool for anyone to find and invest in local civic projects of interest. Go to Website

Describes and records the innovative approaches that NeighborWorks organizations use in revitalizing neighborhoods and serving families, while offering community development practitioners an opportunity to replicate this work in the field. Go to Website

Gives numerous examples of communities and organizations that have begun the transition to more sustainable models. Go to Website

National Endowment for the Arts
Locates and describes various “Our Town” initiatives across the United States. Go to Website

A collaboration of thirteen leading national and regional foundations to accelerate creative placemaking across the country. Go to Website

NEA
The Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD)is an opportunity for not-for-profits, community organizations, and local governments to tackle critical rural design issues by bringing professionals to their community for a multiday workshop. Go to Website

Nonprofit planning, design and educational organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger communities; provides technical and financial assistance; good resource and case study library. Go to Website

Silvie Jacobi, This Big City. 29 January 2013
Discusses: Trade School (Croydon), Zeitgeist Arts Projects (New Cross), Late-Shift at National Portrait Gallery, Wide Open School at Hayward Gallery, Q-Art London. Go to Website

2013
The Parklet Manual is a comprehensive overview of the goals, policies, processes, procedures, and guidelines for creating a parklet in San Francisco. The Manual also serves as a resource for those outside of San Francisco working to establish parklet programs in their own cities. Go to Manual

Jun Kaneko, Des Moines
Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation places art in public spaces in the community through public and private collaborations. Go to Website

Includes case studies; neighborhood within neighborhood organized around shared common space; goal is to promote interactions + “sense of community.” Go to Website

In Los Angeles, billboards have become multi-functional also serving as urban gardens. Go to Website

Go to This Big City Website | Go to Mashable Website

RAFFA Architecture
Innovative street furniture design. Go to Website

The Atlantic Cities, Kaid Benfield Jan 07, 2013
The National Endowment for the Arts, is quietly leveraging small amounts of financial assistance to make a big difference in helping communities across the country become stronger and more alive. Whether in Portland, Maine, Pendleton, South Carolina, the Kewa Pueblo in New Mexico, or another of the scores of locations that its Our Town program is assisting in all 50 states, the agency believes “creative placemaking” can strengthen “community identity and a sense of place, and help revitalize local economies.” Go to Website

Start-up in Raleigh, NC that is developing an urban farm and market built from shipping containers and standard greenhouse components Go to Website

Pop-up pavilion/art installation. The shed-like building coincided with Veterans Day, and is a serene meeting space where veterans and civilians can interact.
Go to Website

Bubba is a pop-up restaurant featuring southern comfort food, lasting three days only. Go to Website

City of Chicago
Aims to create public spaces that cultivate community and culture in Chicago’s neighborhoods through placemaking. Make Way for People supports innovation in the public way by opening Chicago’s streets, parking spots, plazas and alleys to new programming and market opportunities via public and private partnerships. Go to Website

A national day of “park awareness” during which groups organize the takeover of a street parking space and turn it into a temporary park. Go to Website

Collects 100 of the most talked-about trends in urban thinking compiled from June 15 through July 29, 2012 when the BMW Guggenheim Lab Berlin offered free programs in Berlin neighborhoods and online centered around the topic of life in cities today. Go to Website

Author, Dewey Thorbeck
Routledge/Taylor & Francis in January 2012. Rural Design spotlights examples of design approaches that help rural communities make land use, architectural, and aesthetic decisions that enhance their quality of life and the environment. The book connects social, artistic, cultural, technological, and environmental issues that create a rural sense of place. Go to Website

3F. Celebrate the unique heritage and character found throughout the region by promoting historic preservation.

A privately funded nonprofit organization that works to save America’s historic places. Go to Website

Part of the State Historical Society of Iowa, a division within the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. The office’s mission is to identify, preserve, and protect Iowa’s historic resources. Go to Website

Preservation Iowa builds partnerships that enhance our economic and cultural future through the preservation of Iowa’s historic resources. Go to Website

3G. Create Zest

Des Moines Register.com, Michael Morain, Jan 23, 2013
A new report from the nonprofit Bravo Greater Des Moines indicates that arts, culture and heritage groups in central Iowa have grown steadily — even surprisingly — over the last few years, even as similar organizations nationwide stumbled during the recession. Go to Website

Aims to create permanent affordable space for the local arts in downtown Des Moines Go to Website

DElectricity, Marcos Zotes Detroit, MI
Participatory light installationGo to Website

Installation to encourage healthy choice
Go to Website

3H. Other Neighborhood Tools

EPA – Office of Sustainable Communities/Office of Environmental Justice, February 2013
The Creating Equitable, Healthy, and Sustainable Communities report describes how low-income, minority, and tribal communities can employ smart growth strategies to clean up and reinvest in existing neighborhoods; provide affordable housing and transportation; and improve access to jobs, parks and stores. The report also provides smart growth practitioners with concrete ideas on how they can better meet the needs of low-income residents as they promote development or redevelopment in underserved communities. Go to Website

APA
Multigenerational planning is a holistic approach that takes into consideration the needs of all age groups throughout all stages of planning (from needs assessment to visioning, plan making, design, implementation, and evaluation) and how government policies, zoning, and building codes can be changed to ensure generational equality and access Go to Website

EPA-DOT-HUD
One of the goals of the HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership for Sustainable Communities is to help communities develop and support neighborhoods that provide transportation choices and affordable housing while increasing economic competitiveness and directing resources toward places with existing infrastructure. To help support these communities, EPA has compiled this list of useful tools and key resources. Go to Website

Three federal agencies came together to create the Partnership for Sustainable Communities to help places around the country develop in more environmentally and economically sustainable ways. To guide its work, the Partnership developed six livability principles. Go to Website

This guide to HUD, DOT, EPA, and USDA programs highlights federal resources rural communities can use to promote economic competitiveness, protect healthy environments, and enhance quality of life. >
Go to Resources

Includes policy publications, staff selections, application forms, and more information about creativity and neighborhood development. Go to Website

Technical Assistance from EPA. Go to Website

Nonprofit organization that seeks to enable communities to develop sustainably and equitably through land recycling—restoring underutilized, blighted sites to productive use Go to Website

Neighborhoods participating in this unique certification program use guidance from City staff to organize workshops, projects and events that enhance the livability of their neighborhood and reduce residents’ ecological footprint. Categories: Energy, Land, Air, Water, People. Go to Website

Organization founded in 2007, members of 4 neighborhood associations Go to Website

Core principles organized around: civic, social, physical, economic; Roadmap to help communities make own sustainability plan. Go to Report

Philanthropic collaborative of 22 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions; Living Cities harnesses the collective power of philanthropy and financial institutions to improve the lives of low-income people and the cities where they live; includes research documents Go to Website

2012
Living Cities harnesses the collective power of philanthropy and financial institutions to improve the lives of low-income people and the cities where they live. – See more at: http://www.livingcities.org/about/values#sthash.GbP2H9gS.dpuf | Go to Website

Atlantic Cities, Lisa Selin Davis, Jan 2013
Explains the strategies for providing housing for an aging population. Go to Website

Business Record, Joe Gardyasz, May 20, 2011
Coordination between City and school district. Go to Website

U.S. Green Building Council, Land Use Law Center, Pace Law School, Dec 2012
Floating zones, or zoning classifications authorized for future use, are applied to a specific location when a developer demonstrates compliance. These flexible zoning agreements achieve desired development outcomes while saving municipalities time and money on otherwise expensive rezoning initiatives. See the Technical Guidance Manual for Sustainable Neighborhoods for more information on how local governments can use LEED-ND for land use planning. Go to Website

The LISC Institute for Comprehensive Community Development serves LISC staff, organizations and individuals who partner with LISC, and others working in urban and rural communities across the country by providing training and information about best practices, ideas and news from around the field of comprehensive community development. Go to Website

State of California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, 2010
Provides strategies, progress indicators, and resources for planners and decision-makers organized around ten defined community types that reflect the diversity of California communities and the challenges they face in their efforts to maintain quality of life for their residents. Go to Resources