Building Something Better: Finding community-led solutions to damaging urban transportation infrastructure
The creation of the highway system in the 60s and 70s did enormous damage to the Chicago region and its neighborhoods.
MPC’s latest report, Reconnecting Communities, captures these historic harms through a human lens: thousands of homes bulldozed, thousands of residents displaced, and higher levels of auto-related pollution, noise and poor health outcomes that persist to this day. More than a retrospective, this new report creates exciting pathways forward, engaging residents at the level of their lived experience to generate community-led ideas designed to reverse the damage done.
In celebration of this landmark collaborative effort, MPC will host a virtual event on Wednesday May 10th 2023 from noon to 1pm.
Building Something Better: Finding Community-led Solutions to Damaging Urban Transportation Infrastructure, features a panel of local stakeholders and national subject matter experts in discussion around the historical harms of transportation infrastructure, their ever-present legacies, and the growing movement to improve these communities through better infrastructure.
Our Panelists:
- Lauren Burdette, Deputy Chief Equity Officer, Office of Equity and Racial Justice, Office of the Chicago Mayor, is charged with engaging all city departments in normalizing racial equity, creating departmental cohorts and leadership opportunities for racial equity work, and embedding racial equity in mayoral policies and initiatives. She brings unique insight from the government side on how ideas and proposals break through.
- Lauren Mayer is Communications Manager for one the most highly respected planning organizations in the country, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). Lauren’s scope of work includes CNU’s Highways to Boulevards program which offers a path forward for communities impacted by burdensome urban highways to repair, rebuild, and reknit. She will help put regional progress in the context of broader nationwide initiatives, namely Freeways Without Futures.
- JeVon Moore, Planning and Investment Manager at Austin Coming Together (ACT), is responsible for evaluating initiatives designed to improve the physical landscape of Austin and all its residents. As a community leader and an active participant in the Reconnecting Communities effort, JeVon brings a specific and authoritative perspective to our subject.
- Audrey Wennink, Senior Director, Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC), has worked in transportation planning and policy for over 20 years. Audrey’s current work is focused on advancing sustainable and equitable transportation, improving transportation safety, and boosting mobility for those of all ages and abilities. She will present the Reconnecting Communities report developed under her leadership and serve as moderator for our discussion.