BCLI Issues and Advocates Speaker Series
Working Together: Collaborative Strategies Supporting Economic Prosperity for Low- and Moderate-Income Communities in the Bay Area
October 17, 2012

In 2010, the BCLI hosted one of our most popular Wednesday panels on innovative strategies for job creation, where we heard about new and exciting models that were building wealth and supporting economic development in low-income communities. Two years later, the Bay Area continues to see a lack of job growth and economic opportunity, coupled with dwindling public funds to support workforce and economic development.

In light of the dismal economic climate and limited resources, a collaborative made up of public, private, labor, and non-profit organizations is working to draft a “Regional Prosperity Strategy” for the Bay Area to understand, strengthen, and expand economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income individuals. The goal of the collaborative is to support a sustainable regional economy with good jobs that are accessible for all people, pay a living wage with benefits, provide workers with a voice on the job, and allow workers to advance up a career ladder.

BCLI Issues and Advocates Speaker Series
Protecting Communities, Securing Benefits:
Lessons Learned in Silicon Valley  
September 19, 2012
During the current economic crisis, cities everywhere are courting development to create jobs for their residents and to support struggling local economies. But at what cost is it acceptable to allow companies to move into our communities if they are not providing their fair share of local tax dollars, jobs to local residents, and affordable housing to their workers?

For the first panel of the Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute’s Issues and Advocates Speakers Series, we hear from experts about the impacts of Silicon Valley’s job growth on affordable housing, transit, and the environment, and consider what this growth means for low-income communities and communities of color. You learn how a coalition of local community-based and regional organizations and a non-profit civil rights law firm worked together to gain community benefits from a large corporation that was planning the development of their new headquarters.

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:

• Prerana Reddy, Director of Public Events, Queens Museum of Art
  
• Sam Chapman, Manager of State and Community Relations, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• Juliet Ellis, Assistant General Manager of External Affairs, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

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

BCLI Issues and Advocates Speaker Series

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

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:

• Lindsay Imai, Transportation Justice Program Coordinator, Urban Habitat
• Eli Moore, Program Co-Director, Community Strategies for Sustainability and Justice
• Dave Vintze, Air Quality Planning Manager, Bay Area Air Quality Management District
• Jeremy Liu, Executive Director, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation

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