Category: Event materials

Better Buses for Prince George’s

Better Buses for Prince George’s

Posted on by Cheryl Cort
The Bus 028 photo courtesy of Prince George’s Department of Public Works and Transportation

On July 20, 2021, local and regional bus experts, along with stakeholders discussed where we are and where we want to be with Prince George’s bus service.

View the event recording on YouTube.

Speaker presentations: 

Anthony Foster, Chief, Transit Planning, Prince George’s County Department of Public Works & Transportation

PGC DPWT Transit-UpdatesDownload

James Hamre, Director, Office of Bus Planning and Scheduling, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

WMATA Better Buses for Prince Georges PresentationDownload

John Hillegass, Manager, Regional Mobility & Infrastructure, Greater Washington Partnership

GWP RISE Prince Georges Better Buses discussionDownload

This event was co-sponsored by: RISE Prince George’s, Coalition for Smarter Growth, and MetroNow.

Event: Placemaking on Ward 3’s Avenues – What’s in the Streetscape Toolbox?

Event: Placemaking on Ward 3’s Avenues – What’s in the Streetscape Toolbox?

Posted on by Ayesha Amsa

June 22, 2021 – CSG and Ward3Vision hosted an event to learn about the many tools we have to create and sustain lively places on the main streets of our community.  We discussed why streets are important, what makes them comfortable, interesting, useful and inviting, and what models we might learn from. The event also helped the audience understand how affordable housing actually gets financed. The event also helped the audience understand the ‘software’ that helps make it all work.

Featured speakers:

  • Matthew Bell FAIA (Principal, Perkins Eastman & Professor, University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation)
  • Robert Peck (Gensler Architects)
  • Erkin Ozberk (Neighborhood Planner for Wards 3 and 4, DC Office of Planning)
  • Leigh Catherine Miles (Executive Director, Tenleytown Main Street)

Event materials

  • View the event recording on youtube.
  • Presentation slides:
RISE Prince George’s 5/18/21 event with Angie Rodgers

RISE Prince George’s 5/18/21 event with Angie Rodgers

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

On May 18, 2021, RISE Prince George’s convened a virtual event to discuss the future of housing & economic development in the County. The talk was titled: “We can’t have quality economic development without affordable housing: so how do we get it all?” with:

Angie Rodgers, Prince George’s Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Economic Development, and Scott Nordheimer, Co-Founder and Senior Advisor, Urban Atlantic (lead developer at the New Carrollton Metro Station) 

View the recording of the event on Youtube.

 Take the survey: Please answer this brief survey to let us know more about what you want from RISE Prince George’s. 

RISE Prince George’s event with Angie Rodgers – Materials

RISE Prince George’s PPT discussion of mission statement and advocacy theme

New Carrollton Station vision https://greaterwashingtonpartnership.com/capital-region-rail-vision/

Housing Opportunities for All Work Group https://pgccouncil.us/628/Housing-Opportunities-For-All-Work-Group

Housing Indicator Tool: A Dashboard for Measuring Progress Towards Meeting Regional Housing Needs

Missing Middle Housing study: to begin in FY22

Event: Building Inclusivity in Ward 3 –What’s in the Affordable Housing Toolbox?

Event: Building Inclusivity in Ward 3 –What’s in the Affordable Housing Toolbox?

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

April 27, 2021, CSG and Ward3Vision hosted an event to learn about the many tools we have to make Ward 3 a more inclusive, affordable place to live. We discussed: “what is affordable housing?”, approaches and policies like federal and local subsidies, public land, missing middle housing, ADUs, public housing, land use policy, and inclusionary zoning. The event also helped the audience understand how affordable housing actually gets financed.

Featured speakers: Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh; Tracy Hadden Loh, PhD, Brookings Institution Fellow and Greater Greater Washington Board Chair; Stan Wall, P.E., Partner, HR&A Advisors and ANC Commissioner 3F04; Patrick McAnaney, Somerset Development; Andrew Trueblood, Director, DC Office of Planning; David Cristeal, LSA Planning, ANC Commissioner 3F01, Ward 3 Vision Steering Committee and former Housing Director, Arlington County (moderator)

View the event recording on youtube.

Introduction to the Toolbox for Affordable Housing in Ward 3Download
What Does Affordable Housing Mean? by Tracy Hadden LohDownload
What’s in the Affordable Housing Toolbox? by Stan WallDownload
Affordable Housing Development in Ward 3 by Patrick McAnaneyDownload
Planning as a Tool for Equity and Opportunity by Andrew-TruebloodDownload

Smart Growth Social 2020 Photo Contest

Posted on by Emily Maurer

Smart Growth Social will look different this year, but we know the best part is always the networking with fellow creative and committed supporters of better communities. So, we’ll have: 

1) Breakouts to give us all a chance to catch-up and share stories. 

2) A photo contest featuring your favorite examples of placemaking, safe streets, good urban design, mixed-income housing and more.

For the photo contest, the sky’s the limit — we just want to take a moment to appreciate the progress in our communities, even amid these difficult times. Here’s how it will work:

  1. Submit your photos to emily@smartergrowth.net by COB, Thursday, October 22nd. 
  2. Use jpeg format and include the following:
    1. Your name
    2. Date and location of the photo
  3. Photographs should be shared with us with accordance to the terms of Creative Commons attribution licensing standard CC-BY 4.0. as is the case with the Greater and Lesser Washington Flickr pool.
  4. Our review committee will select the standouts for sharing in the breakout where you’ll be able to vote on your favorites.
  5. There will be prizes for the best images from each breakout session! 

An Invitation to Our Supporters

Posted on by Emily Maurer
SGS-Invitation-to-SupportersDownload

September 29, 2020

Dear CSG donors:

We hope you, your family and coworkers are well during this difficult time. We have much to share with you about CSG, our policy work, and our plans for our annual Smart Growth Social.

Smart Growth Social has always been an important event for inspiring supporters of walkable, inclusive urban places, and while this will have to be a “Zoom” social, we believe it will be helpful, restorative and inspiring! Our special guest speaker will be Beth Osborne, Director of Transportation for America, the transportation arm of Smart Growth America. This year’s event will take place on Wednesday, October 28th from 7 to 8:30 pm.

As we strive for a better future, among the reforms we need is a new federal transportation program that prioritizes transit, safe streets, racial equity, health, and fighting climate change, and Beth has been our inspiring national leader on improving the federal program. A former Acting Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at USDOT, with extensive experience on the Hill, Beth has led her team to produce groundbreaking studies of American transportation and much needed reforms. The next federal 6-year transportation bill will be the most consequential of our time, and in a rapid-paced 15 minutes, Beth will lay out our call to action!

But we know you also come to Smart Growth Social for the networking with fellow creative and committed supporters of better communities. So, we’ll have breakouts to give us all a chance to catch-up and share stories. At the heart of this year’s event will be a photo contest featuring your favorite examples of placemaking, safe streets, good urban design, mixed-income housing and more. We’ll encourage all attendees to come to the Zoom with great examples from your communities, which you can post as your Zoom background wallpaper. Then in the breakouts we’ll not only catch up with each other, we’ll talk about the photos and vote on our favorites, reporting out to the full group. First prize in each category will be a gift certificate from your favorite local restaurant.

Registration: Please register here.

Donations: We are not setting a ticket price this year, but when you register, we welcome your donations at the $10, $15, $25, $50, $100, or whatever works best for you.

Host Committee: We also welcome supporters to join our Host Committee at the $250 level. Learn more here.

Sponsorships: We welcome business and individual sponsorships at the $500 level and above. Learn more here.

Your support is important!

Your support for the Coalition for Smarter Growth is what keeps our team in the field. With our policy advocacy expertise and experience, commitment to partnerships, relationships with decisionmakers, and outreach to the community, we fight for and win positive change.

With this letter we are starting early on our end-of-year fundraising push. Individual and corporate donations represent 50% of our annual budget and we depend on your support. We recognize it’s a challenging year for so many in terms of supporting the non-profit groups that you love, but our work to save transit, make affordable housing a top local and state priority, make streets safer, and create inclusive, sustainable communities to address racial inequity, health, and climate change – particularly in our suburbs, is more important than ever.

Earlier this month we shared important updates via our email newsletter on our work over the summer and our ongoing campaigns. You can catch up on all the news here. Highlights include welcoming Emily Maurer to our staff as our Communications and Administrative Assistant, and Bill Pugh as volunteer Senior Policy Fellow leading our fight on climate change, as well as major ongoing campaigns:

  • Emergency federal funding and protective equipment for transit
  • More affordable housing in the DC Comprehensive Plan and Montgomery Master Plan
  • Forums and advocacy for safer streets in Northern Virginia and across the region
  • Hosting Courageous Conversations on the legacy of residential racial segregation
  • Promoting accessory dwelling units
  • Inspiring and working with new coalitions and local groups like the Fairfax Healthy Communities Coalition, Montgomery for All, Liveable Alexandria, and Rise Prince George’s

We look forward to you joining us for our annual Smart Growth Social and to your continued support for our work and personal involvement in making our communities better.

Thank you,
Stewart, Cheryl, Jane, Sonya, Emily, and Bill

P.S.  Please note our new address for correspondence, including mailed donations: P.O. Box 73282 2000 14th Street NW Washington, DC 20009

Event: We can make Ward 3 a more welcoming place

Event: We can make Ward 3 a more welcoming place

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Help Take Down Ward 3’s

Invisible Walls

September 29, 2020 at 7:30pm via Zoom

View the recording of the event here.

Ward3Vision, CSG, and Cleveland Park Smart Growth present a forum to learn how we can address our history of segregation and open up Ward 3 to a greater diversity of housing options

A long and ugly history of housing and land use practices and regulations have segregated neighborhoods by race and class in the District, particularly in Ward 3. These ‘invisible walls’ impact us to this day. 

The legacy of institutionalized practices of discrimination is our present lack of choices in housing types, limited range of home prices, lack of affordable housing, and limited diversity among the people who live in Ward 3 neighborhoods.

Ward3Vision invites you to join us for a  forum to discuss how we got here and what can be done to take down those invisible walls.  We will be looking back at that history and ahead to Comprehensive Plan updates, now pending before the DC Council. We’ll examine how updating the Comprehensive Plan  is an important  step in turning the tide against racism in the District.

Join us to learn about actions you can take to achieve a more livable, equitable and just city. 

Participants in this discussion include

Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh

DC Office of Planning Director Andrew Trueblood and Anita Cozart, Deputy Director, Community Planning and Design

Neil Flanagan, architectural designer and researcher, contributor to Greater Greater Washington, and the Washingotn City Paper; author of “The Battle of Fort Reno”

Dan Reed, urban planner, writer, and contributor to Greater Greater Washington, and the Washingtonian.

Moderated by Matthew Bell, FAIA, Professor of Architecture, University of Maryland and Principal, Perkins Eastman. 

A Ward3Vision event co-sponsored by Coalition for Smarter Growth, Cleveland Park Smart Growth.

Ward3Vision is a group of residents who can imagine our neighborhoods as even better urban places – more walkable, sustainable, and vibrant.

Photo credit: Susan Kimmel

Virtual Stream Walk & Talk

Posted on by Emily Maurer

If you missed our virtual stream walk with the Audubon Naturalist Society and Fairfax County staff, you can watch the presentation here.

From ANS: On September 10th, 2020, Fairfax County staff Charles Smith & JoAnne Fiebe led us on a virtual walk-and-talk of an area around Mount Vernon Plaza, part of Little Hunting Creek, one of the sites of a proposed “ecological spine“. This concept, introduced in Chapter 3 of the Richmond Highway Urban Design Guidelines, envisions how streams can be made part of the community again. Instead of burying streams and building on top of them, how can redevelopment integrate streams and their riparian buffers into walkable, bikeable areas where people and nature can thrive in urban settings?

Tune in to the webinar to hear about the vision for the Route 1 redevelopment and hear about how redevelopment can be tied to creating healthier streams, and therefore a healthier world for us.