Events: Hear how involving communities in equitable development can advance racial equity
View from DC’s future 11th Street Bridge Park by Ted Eytan licensed under Creative Commons.
Join the Urban Institute from 12:00-1:00 pm on Friday, December 16 for a conversation on infrastructural racism and opportunities to redress racial and ethnic inequities in cities and neighborhoods through equitable development. This panel will build on Urban researchers’ work with the High Line Network and the Harvard Graduate School of Design to consult with infrastructure reuse projects across the nation and to jointly launch the Communities First Toolkit, a process and tools codifying a path for park practitioners to embed equity in public spaces. The researchers will also draw upon their evaluations of the equitable development plans of DC’s 11th Street Bridge Park and the Purple Line Collaborative.
This webinar will discuss opportunities to center community priorities during the allocation of city, state, and federal funds to improve public space, particularly through participatory budgeting. The panel will also examine how local governments and planning agencies can acknowledge historical and present-day disinvestment in Black and Brown communities, leverage data to measure progress in equitable development projects, and funnel new funding opportunities or decision-making power to residents of color. To register for the webinar, please see here.
Monday, December 12
Attend a public meeting about the 11th Street bike lane: Tonight at 6:00 pm the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is hosting a public meeting regarding their proposed concept designs for a protected bike land on 11th Street. The meeting will be held on Zoom. Register to attend here.
Wednesday, December 14
See DDOT’s final design for the K Street Transitway Project: DDOT will hold a virtual project meeting on Wednesday, December 14 at 6:00 pm to show the status of the K Street Transitway Project. The project team will present the final design and identify enhancements that have been incorporated since the last public meeting on March 24, 2022.
The Transitway will feature two separated bus lanes and protected bicycle lanes in the center of K Street from 12th Street NW to 21st Street NW. The new design eliminates the service lanes along K Street and places medians in the center of the roadway. The new medians will feature bus stops with near-level boarding, enhanced lighting, and landscaping with green infrastructure. The project will also include Vision Zero safety improvements, curbside management enhancements, and other streetscape elements.
- Event Number: 2309 202 7343
- Event Password: December14!
- Dial-in Option (Audio Only): 1-202-860-2110. Access Code: 2309 202 7343.
Thursday, December 15
Learn about individual wayfinding in the context of visual impairment and blindness: Wayfinding and navigation allow human beings to fully participate in the environment and are essential elements for leading healthy, economically sustainable, and full lives. People with disabilities, including individuals with blindness, deafblindness, visual impairment, and low vision, including those who use wheelchairs, constitute a sizable, growing minority of the general population yet continue to face significant barriers to community inclusion. This project promises to drive forward the development of standards and innovation in mobile wayfinding as it relates to the integration of indoor and outdoor wayfinding and routing of visually-impaired, blind, and deafblind pedestrian travelers.
This webinar is based on a study funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) and conducted at Portland State University. Read more about the research. For more information about the webinar and to register, please see here.