TOWARD A JUST METROPOLIS: From Crises to Possibilities

THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 17TH. 6:00pm - 9:00pm.

MetroCenter 101 8th Street, Oakland CA 94607, right across from Lake Merritt BART Station.

Hosted by the Association for Bay Area Governments

How difficult is it to talk to a city planner, a community organizer, an elected official, or a resident?  How can multiple actors with distinct agendas engage in a community planning process?  How can a local community's vitality and challenges inform the regional planning process? This special plenarysession addresses these questions by reflecting upon a previous planning experience and exploring future planning paths. Learn in depth about a major, ten year planning effort in San Francisco to balance local and regional sustainability goals.  Conference attendees will have an opportunity to participate in some preliminary thinking about one of the most critical efforts at regional planning in more than two decades.

We will first review the Eastern Neighborhoods planning process in San Francisco through a panel.  This will be followed by small group dialogues on neighborhood planning issues across multiple voices and places. The purpose is to have an insightful conversation, beyond established boundaries of comfort and language, to recognize and directly address the regional development challenges of equity and sustainability.  The hosts of the panel, the Association for Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the council of governments for the nine-county Bay Area, are looking to take this input into the Sustainable Communities Strategy, a key component recent state legislation (SB 375) that will frame the development of the region over the next decades.

Agenda

6:00 pm Warm up: drinks and music

6:20 pm Introduction

6:30 pm PANEL: An epilogue / postmortem of the Eastern Neighborhood planning process

The case of the Eastern Neighborhoods community planning process can illustrate the intensity of land use struggles, the tension of dialogues across community leaders, developers, and city officials, the complex navigation across various domains of power, and the pain of displaced residents and financial losses.  The Eastern Neighborhoods include the Mission, SoMa, Showplace Square-Potrero Hill, Central Waterfront, and Bayview.  It can also illustrate the role of community organizations shaping the city planning process and the development of neighborhoods.  We are hoping to have an honest and engaged dialogue across community leaders and city officials that participated in the planning process.  Amit Ghosh (previous Chief of Comprehensive Planning), Lisa Feldstein (previous Planning Commissioner)Ada Chan (previous Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition leader), Oscar Grande, (PODER) and Eric Quezada (previous Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition leader) (to be confirmed) will join us for a lively exchange.

7:15 pm Break

7:30 pm Workshop: A prologue to the Sustainable Communities Strategy

Multiple planning efforts are taking place across the region.  Santa Rosa and Gilroy have invested major efforts in their downtown.  San Jose is assuming a major responsibility housing the Silicon Valley workforce.  Richmond and Antioch are addressing the challenges of foreclosure and improving their public transit.  Oakland is building high density housing and expanding its cultural and ethnic diversity.  These multiple efforts are informing the regional planning agenda for the Sustainable Communities Strategy.  This session will facilitate small group dialogues on specific issues (equity, schools, housing, transportation, culture, and the public realm) to identify the key tasks for a regional planning agenda that can be grounded on community development and concerns.

8:15 pm Wrap up – summary of small groups and synthesis

8:45 pm Close session