2017 Urbanism Summit Opening Keynote | George Proakis - Expanding Our Community of Practice
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Transcript of 2017 Urbanism Summit Opening Keynote | George Proakis - Expanding Our Community of Practice
Expanding Our Community of Practice
George Proakis, AICPCNU New England Summit
March 31, 2017
Welcome to CNU New England• A bit about you . . . .
Time to reflect
Some Thoughts about Us• CNU is a unique group of people
• Cross-disciplinary• Team of professionals• Often doing new and innovative things in our fields
Some Thoughts about Us• CNU is a unique group of people
• Cross-disciplinary• Team of professionals• Often doing new and innovative things in our fields
• Regardless of our fields:• Planning• Architecture• Engineering• Urban Design• Law• Sociology• Communications
Some Thoughts about Us• CNU is a unique group of people
• Cross-disciplinary• Team of professionals• Often doing new and innovative things in our fields
• Regardless of our fields:• Planning• Architecture• Engineering• Urban Design• Law• Sociology• Communications
• And . . . we get things done!
But . . . . Every now and then we need to step back
Where are we going????
But, actually . . . here’s the thing
But, actually . . . here’s the thing
We’ve been here before . . . . . . We’ve been doing this for years
We’ve been here before . . . . . . We’ve been doing this for years
• Charrettes
• Small developer strategies
• Tactical urbanism
• Form-based codes
• Missing middle housing
• Skinny streets
• Urban stormwater solutions
What have we done?
What have we done?• Summits: Strengthening our Community of Practice
What have we done?• Summits: Strengthening our Community of Practice
• Awards
What have we done?• Summits: Strengthening our Community of Practice
• Awards
• Building Lean
What have we done?• Summits: Strengthening our Community of Practice
• Awards
• Building Lean
• Imagine and Build
What have we done?• Summits: Strengthening our Community of Practice
• Awards
• Building Lean
• Imagine and Build
What have we done?• Summits: Strengthening our Community of Practice
• Awards
• Building Lean
• Imagine and Build
• Pass on what we know . . . . .
We solve problemsPlacemaking construction is too expensive?• We do tactical urbanism
Development cannot get done?• We train developers to go small
Can’t get the development community to do great urbanism?• We teach or developers to be great urbanists• And we train our urbanists to be great developers
The engineers won’t let us build skinny streets?• We developer new street standards
The zoning codes make it impossible to build sustainable communities?• We write new codes
So, on to our next challenges . . .
1. Getting things done (without depending upon federal support)
2. Addressing the equity / development housing conundrum
3. Tackling the disparity in communities across our region
4. I’m sure there’s more . . . . .
What can we do?Create a multi-disciplinary force of subject matter
experts who put placemaking first
Use that focus on placemaking to create communities that will successfully address environmental
sustainability, economic resiliency, equity, and beauty
Building a New England that can survive and thrive in an uncertain world
But, how??????by learning
and
sharing what we know
within and beyond our community of practice
Six things we all can do to advance our Community of Practice
1. Participate in YOUR OWN community• Be a part of that reasonable discourse
2. Train EVERYBODY that you work with• Turn them into advocates for building great places
3. Share YOUR ideas in your professional organizations• Put a New Urbanism session in every professional conference in New England
4. Write an article, book, letter, or whatever you can• Share your perspective with a wider audience
5. Take on a tactical project (at work or in your community)• Be a part of showing how incremental change works
6. Help us grow the community of practice • Help us develop and operate our events, and spread the word about them