All posts in “News”

Nike Irvin Joins HR&A’s Board of Directors

June 20, 2023 / No Comments

“As a believer in cities as the engines to our equitable and prosperous futures, I’m thrilled to join the Board of HR&A Advisors. HR&A is at an important inflection point, and I look forward to helping the company advance an even more brilliant future.”   

 

HR&A Advisors is pleased to announce Nike Irvin’s appointment to HR&A’s Board of Directors.

 

More about Nike

A lifelong Angeleno with a deep love for her hometown, Nike is a highly regarded leader in policy, politics, and philanthropy in Los Angeles and across the country. A member of Mayor Karen Bass’ transition team, she also serves on many local and national Boards. Nike’s insights, accomplishments, credibility, and experience will be invaluable to helping shape HR&A’s future as the company continues to grow and advance our mission and impact.

 

Nike leads the Civil Society Fellowship, which engages next-gen leaders to build civil discourse across ideological differences through text-based, moderated seminars in Aspen, Amsterdam, the Middle East, and the American South. A member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN), this new Fellowship is a partnership of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and AGLN.

 

Nike previously led the California Community Foundation’s (CCF) grantmaking for six years, overseeing grants to arts, education, juvenile justice, and health. Before this work with CCF, Nike served as president of the Riordan Foundation for seven years. She is active in American Truth and Reconciliation efforts with AGLN and in Los Angeles. Prior to her nonprofit career, she was a Brand Manager for Nestlé and Pepsi Cola. She is a trustee for The Durfee Foundation, the John Randolph Haynes & Dora Haynes Foundation, the Nonprofit Finance Fund, and the Broad Center at Yale School of Management.

 

Nike received a Bachelor of Art in Economics & Political Science from Yale and was named one of the “100 Most Inspirational Alumni” by UCLA Anderson School, where she earned her MBA. Nike is a Marshall Memorial Fellow and a member of the 2004 Class of Henry Crown Fellows within the AGLN at the Aspen Institute.

 

Looking to the future

Working with some of the most innovative clients and collaborators in the world, HR&A is focused on building solutions that address the complex, interconnected challenges facing urban communities. The unifying theme across this work is our passion for building more resilient, equitable cities for the people who live in them — a passion Nike shares.

 

This is a critical time for cities. Our clients are coming to us to help them leverage once-in-a-generation federal funding, integrate emerging technologies, and build tools to chart new paths forward. We look forward to Nike’s leadership and contributions to further expand HR&A’s critical work with clients and communities in over 180 cities, six countries, and three continents.

Urban Land Institute Panel Provides National Insight on Downtown San Francisco Recovery

June 15, 2023 / No Comments

This press release was originally issued by Urban Land Institute.

 

WASHINGTON (June 15, 2023) – San Francisco can create a more commercially vibrant and socially inclusive downtown that attracts a diverse range of industries and employers, advances housing attainability, and promotes stronger leadership, according to findings released today by the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

 

The recommendations are the product of a panel of renowned urban planning and real estate experts convened in May through ULI’s Advisory Services Panel (ASP) offering. The panel is a multi-day program that is tailored to meet a community’s specific needs, wherein ULI members from across the country hold in-depth interviews with local stakeholders and deliberate on potential courses of action before making a final presentation of their recommendations. This ASP represents the first time ULI has worked with the City and County of San Francisco and provides an opportunity for communities across the country to learn from the findings.

 

Following the release of Mayor London Breed’s Roadmap to Downtown San Francisco’s Future, in February the panel was tasked with helping the city prioritize implementation actions and policy changes that will create a downtown neighborhood benefitting San Francisco’s residents, businesses, and the broader Bay Area region. While the panel’s findings are applicable to the entirety of Downtown, the recommendations focused on a 239-acre study area that falls mostly within the city’s historic financial district.

 

“San Francisco has a track record of responding to challenges by collaborating across sectors and thinking outside the box – it’s time to apply that muscle to the Downtown Core,” said panel co-chairs Eric Tao, managing partner, L37 Development in San Francisco, Calif.; and Kate Collignon, partner, HR&A Advisors in Oakland, Calif. “Our panelists have shown us how city government, community groups, and institutions such as ULI can evolve the current narrative of Downtown San Francisco as a place only for business interests.  We can profoundly transform Downtown into a place that welcomes everyone, drives economic benefit, serves as a center for arts, culture, entrepreneurship, wellness, and entertainment beyond 9-5, and reflects the diversity of and is embraced by all San Franciscans.”

 

Sponsored by ULI San Francisco, the City and County of San Francisco, the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing, and the ULI Foundation, the panel provided short- and long-term strategic recommendations for leveraging the city’s existing physical assets, identifying opportunities for financial incentives, and implementing public policy reforms that promote the economic and social health of Downtown, with many of the recommendations aligning with key elements of the Mayor’s Roadmap.

 

Top recommendations include:

    • Pursue placemaking and programming to make Downtown a magnet for residents, businesses, and visitors. Ground-plane activation is needed to help transform public spaces and empty storefronts into vibrant city attractions. Revitalized Downtown community spaces will enliven the neighborhood and provide compelling spaces for arts and cultural expression. The panelists recommended specific Downtown destination zones to meet the needs of current and future residents, workers, and visitors.
    • Ensure public transit provides comfortable, safe, and easy access to Downtown, along with a welcoming arrival experience. Public transit, including Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and Muni are reliable, but the panel recommends an infusion of funding to ensure comfortable rider experiences into and out of Downtown. Enhanced collaboration between the City and BART will be essential to ensure the transit experience, and the surrounding points of arrival downtown, are clean and feel safe.
    • Reduce and restructure business taxes to facilitate a diverse mix of companies Downtown. A meaningful reduction in the gross receipts tax, CEO tax, commercial rents tax, and transfer tax will help the city retain its current employers and help attract new businesses. Mayor Breed has initiated a process to identify broader business tax reforms to ensure the city’s tax structure is more resilient and competitive and that will be informed by the panel recommendations.
    • Incentivize office to residential conversions to address the housing shortage. Building on recently approved legislation to reduce zoning and building code barriers to adaptive reuse projects, the panel recommends providing a bundle of incentives to catalyze conversions in the short-term, with a goal of establishing a basis for purely market-supported conversions in the future. The city should require some level of affordable housing by reducing other taxes and fees. Incentives could include temporarily waiving impact fees or the transfer tax, providing property tax abatement through the Mills Act or other state legislation, and identifying other direct funding tools.
    • Counter the negative narrative about Downtown San Francisco. The panel found the negative narrative about Downtown does not match reality. While the city and Downtown stakeholders have launched a series of focused campaigns to attract visitors and businesses, the city should embark with its partners on a strong and sustained branding and public relations campaign that celebrates Downtown and rebrands it as a vibrant neighborhood, rather than just a business district.
    • Build community and governmental capacity to facilitate action. The panel emphasized the importance of coordinated leadership within City Hall to champion Downtown recovery efforts in partnership with stakeholders and the community, building on the efforts of the Economic Recovery and Regeneration division within the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Enhanced governance and an internal champion will help expedite decision-making and approvals to reduce uncertainty, break down silos, and identify financial tools to attract and drive investment. The panel also suggested building the capacity of Community Benefit Districts (CBDs) to direct public and private resources to implement the recommendations.

     

    “The roadmap the Mayor has laid out for Downtown’s future is a strong foundation for the work we have ahead, and the contributions of this panel of national urban planning experts both affirm and expand upon that vision,” said Sarah Dennis Phillips, Executive Director of the City of San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development. “While we’re already moving ahead on many of the ideas called out by the panel, from business tax reforms and attraction efforts to supporting a diverse mix of arts and culture events, I look forward to collaborating with city and state leaders as well as private-sector and community partners to take further actions.”

     

    Tao and Collignon were joined on the panel by Antoine Bryant, planning director, City of Detroit, Detroit, Mich.; Mike Grisso, senior vice president, development and land planning, Kilroy Realty Corporation, San Francisco, Calif.; Paul R. Levy, president & CEO, Philadelphia Center City District, Philadelphia, Pa.; Nolan A. Marshall III, executive director, South Park Business Improvement District, Los Angeles, Calif.; Rico Quirindongo, acting director, City of Seattle Office of Planning & Community Development, Bainbridge Island, Wash.; Geeti Silwal, principal, Perkins&Will, San Francisco, Calif.; Michael Spies, founder, Fuse Strategies LLC, New York, N.Y.; Sujata Srivastava, San Francisco director, SPUR, San Francisco, Calif.; and Carl Weisbrod, director, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, New York, N.Y.

     

    “We’re grateful for ULI’s work to assemble a team of accomplished industry leaders with fresh perspectives. We’ve already rolled-up our sleeves and begun the work to take the panel’s ideas and shape them into policy,” said Rich Hillis, Planning Director for the City and County of San Francisco.

     

    A summary of the panel’s recommendations can be found here.

     

    For more information, contact media@uli.org.

     

    Photo: Sebastien Gabriel

Congratulations to Senior Advisor Marilynn Davis on her appointment to the American Academy in Rome’s Board of Trustees!

June 9, 2023 / No Comments

HR&A Advisors congratulates Senior Advisor Marilynn Davis on her appointment to the Board of Trustees of the American Academy in Rome! Marilynn will apply her past experiences in advisory roles and on several boards related to the arts, architecture, and cities to advance the Academy’s mission to “support innovative artists, writers, and scholars living and working together in a dynamic international community.” 

 

Click here to  read more about the American Academy in Rome. 

Welcoming the 2023 Class of HR&A Summer Fellows!

June 9, 2023 / No Comments

 

Welcoming the 2023 Class of HR&A Summer Fellows  

The Summer Analyst Fellowship is a 10-week program offering the opportunity to engage in projects and skills aligned with core analytical staff at HR&A.  Fellows have the opportunity to work as integrated members of our project teams and build their skills in market analysis, case study research, econometric modeling, spatial analysis, preparation of real estate pro formas for a range of uses, and public-private structures, and public policy analysis.    

 

Fellows can work from any of our six offices in New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Raleigh, or Washington, DC, and they may help prepare written reports, presentations, and Excel models for clients, as well as firm marketing materials and proposals for new projects. Each Fellow is assigned an Advisor to help set goals and make the most of the experience, and many members of HR&A’s team started as Analyst Fellows. 

 

 

Meet HR&A’s 2023 Summer Fellows! 

 

Alyana Acacio, Summer Fellow  

Alyana supports public-private partnerships to identify infrastructural gaps and implement strategies that build equitable and inclusive cities. 
  
Prior to joining HR&A, Alyana worked on a range of urban intervention projects in Manila. From designing a network of emergency quarantine facilities to managing the Horizon masterplan project, her work focuses on developing strategic frameworks for project design and implementation to serve underrepresented communities. She also brings with her experiences in architecture and education during her time in the Bay Area and Oslo. 
  
Alyana is currently pursuing her Master’s in Urban Planning at Columbia University. She holds an MPhil in Comparative and International Education from the University of Oslo and a Bachelor’s in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley where she minored in Sustainable Design in Developing Countries and received funding to conduct research on homelessness in Barcelona. 

 

Andrew DeFrank, Summer Fellow

Andrew engages in projects and skills aligned to the core analytical staff at HR&A as a Summer Analyst Fellow in the Washington, DC office.

 

Andrew is a Master of Urban Planning student at New York University’s (NYU) Wagner School of Public Service. Previously, he was a transportation planner and community engagement specialist at the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) in Washington, DC. As a transportation planner, he was a deputy project manager on the bus priority team. As a community engagement specialist, he worked closely with the DC mayor’s office, the DC Council, and advisory neighborhood commissioners. Andrew is a writer for 730DC, a daily newsletter focused on local news and culture, and the Wagner Planner, an NYU independent student journal. He also writes as a guest contributor for Greater Greater Washington.

 

Andrew has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with Honors from Colgate University. 

  

Aroosa Ajani, Summer Fellow

Aroosa aims to leverage her experience in the public and private sectors to address complex issues surrounding the development of the built environment and economic equity.

 

Aroosa is joining the New York office as a Summer Analyst Fellow. With a multidisciplinary background in civic engagement, urban planning, and corporate project management, Aroosa aims to take on projects related to her current focus areas of economic development, real estate development, built environment advising, and urban strategy. Prior to joining HR&A, Aroosa spent 4+ years at Dell Technologies in various roles including Forecast Analysis, Procurement Strategy, Supplier Diversity Programming, and Operational Risk and Resilience Strategy. Aroosa has also worked on special projects with the San Antonio Housing Authority and the City of Houston Department of Housing and Community Development. Outside of work, Aroosa developed a curriculum for and managed an annual multi-day workshop for college students in her community to learn about civic engagement and social justice topics.  

 

 Aroosa holds a Bachelor of Science from Trinity University in Business Analytics and Technologies, and Urban Studies. She is currently pursuing a  Masters of Science in Urban Planning from Columbia University.  

 

Elena Castellanos, Summer Fellow

Elena Castellanos is committed to supporting cities in building resilient, inclusive, and just communities.

 

As a 2021-2022 Henry Luce Scholar, placed at the University of Seoul’s Community and Urban Design Lab, Elena studied Seoul’s Seongdong-gu District’s government-led anti-gentrification policies’ impact on Seongsu-dong’s commercial displacement and development. More recently, her research at Harvard’s Asia Center focuses on how recovery and reconstruction efforts post the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami center urban resilience planning.  

 

 Elena’s research at the intersections of space and equity has also led her to study the impacts of the 2008 recession on rural community development in Ottumwa, Iowa, and the uses of urban design as a tool for social exclusion during apartheid in Cape Town, South Africa. As a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research fellow, she studied how feminist epistemology can serve as a tool for evaluating unjust spatial arrangements and aid urban planners in justifying participatory planning methods. 

  

Elena is currently a Master of Urban Planning candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She also graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 2021, majoring in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) and Public Policy. 

 

Eva Phillips, Summer Fellow

Eva is passionate about helping communities leverage data to understand local needs and design solutions that create socially just and economically resilient cities.

 

Prior to joining HR&A, Eva was the Senior Data Analyst of Research & Evaluation at Enterprise Community Partners. In this role, she supported the design and evaluation of housing and community development strategies across the country, providing technical assistance and data expertise. Her projects included the evaluation of an emergency rental assistance program for undocumented New Yorkers and the implementation of a neighborhood revitalization effort in historically disinvested communities. Before moving to New York, Eva helped design and launch the City of Oakland’s Scooter Share Program with a focus on improving transportation access in low-income neighborhoods. She was also a researcher at the UC Berkeley Urban Displacement Project where she studied gentrification, displacement, and California’s housing affordability crisis, developing evidence to support local policymakers.  

  

Currently, Eva is pursuing a Master’s of Urban Planning at NYU Wagner where she is a Bloomberg Public Service Fellow and a Researcher at the NYU Furman Center. Eva holds a B.A. in Urban Data Analytics and a minor in Geographic Information Systems from the University of California, Berkeley. 

  

 

Felipe Urrutia, Summer Fellow

Felipe bridges analytical research with humanistic thought to advance equitable development practices.

 

Before joining HR&A as a Summer Analyst Fellow, Felipe co-founded the Open Source Homelessness Initiative. This project leveraged the power of open source technology to deliver an information-centralizing tool for architects and developers building affordable and supportive housing in Los Angeles. More recently, Felipe has been named an editor of URBAN, a publication at Columbia University that features written and graphic work about the built environment. 

  

 

Felipe is currently a master’s degree candidate in urban planning at Columbia University. His coursework and research focuses on community economic development practices at both domestic and international scales. Before studying urban planning, Felipe pursued graduate coursework in philosophy, focusing on population ethics, metaethics, and moral philosophy. 

  

Felipe graduated summa cum laude from the University of Chicago with degrees in Philosophy and Fundamentals: Issues & Texts. He also graduated from the University of Chicago with a master’s in philosophy, awarded with highest distinction. Felipe is currently pursuing an MS in urban planning from Columbia University. 

  

 

Gertie Ma, Summer Fellow

Gertie brings experience in interdisciplinary analysis and research to support inclusive economic development and public-private partnerships.

 

Before joining HR&A, Gertie worked at Sembcorp Development, a Singaporean land and real estate developer specializing in integrated developments in Asia. Her experience in the firm was wide-ranging, including supporting business-wide strategy reviews, pursuing new business ventures, and conducting feasibility and impact analysis. Through working on several large-scale urban projects, she possesses a strong understanding on the merits and challenges in navigating public-private partnerships. 

 

Gertie holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from Yale-NUS College where she majored in Urban Studies. She is currently pursuing her Master of Science in Urban Planning at Columbia University with a concentration in Community and Economic Development.  

  

Jewel Evans, Summer Fellow
Jewel Evans is an experienced ethnographic researcher of the built environment and public health. She aims to create equitable land use strategy and policy that encourages intentional placemaking for disenfranchised populations. Jewel will join HR&A’s Los Angeles office advancing projects to create equitable communities as a Summer Analyst Fellow for 2023.

 

As a research assistant on projects through Washington University in St. Louis’s Brown School of Social Work and The New School, Jewel has collected and analyzed narrative-based data on individual experiences with vacancy, disinvestment, and land misuse as well as analyzed accessibility of community-based healthcare networks for reproductive care. 

  

Jewel has a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with a focus in Global Health and Environment from Washington University in St. Louis. She is currently pursuing her Masters of Public Health at The Brown School of Social Work specializing in Urban Design. She is a member of the American Anthropological Association. 

  

Sierra Scott, Summer Fellow

Sierra is a Summer Analyst Fellow, supporting the office in Atlanta, GA.

Her interests lie in the interdependence between institutions, and the resulting impact on environmental sustainability, equity, and economic development.

While working for the Southern Economic Advancement Project (SEAP), she conducted research to identify infrastructural gaps between environmentally sustainable policy and application. Focusing on air quality, energy, watersheds, and waste management, she created a database tracking sustainable legislation in these sectors. Additionally, she was tasked with analyzing municipal climate change initiatives in the Southeastern U.S. and identifying applicable funding sources provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. After reading over 300 city plans, she co-produced a report that was subsequently published, identifying almost 150 plans from 38 cities across 12 Southeastern states, and created an appendix identifying 71 funding sources.  

  

In her urban design studio, she was on a team that partnered with the Georgia Conservancy and the Habersham County Government in order to create a growth management plan. For this project she created a Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program for the county and redesigned the county’s zoning map in order to encourage development along industrial corridors.  

  

Sierra has a Bachelor of Science in Music Management and an Urban Studies Minor from the Georgia State University, and a Master of City and Regional Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

  

Trevian Ambroise, Summer Fellow

As a summer analyst fellow, Trevian provides research and analytical support.

 

Trevian is a graduate student studying City & Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design. He is concentrating on Public & Private Development and earning a certification in Urban Redevelopment. In addition, Trevian is interested in the intersection of equity planning & economic development practices to envision more just futures. Before attending Penn, Trevian had experience working as an undergraduate researcher studying historic community development practices at the Center for Louisiana Studies and was an intern for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

 

 Trevian has a B.A. in history from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and will graduate with an MCP from the University of Pennsylvania in 2024. 

  

Member, Urban Land Institute & American Planning Association 

A Post-COVID downtown that better serves Indianapolis residents

June 8, 2023 / No Comments
Rendering: Merritt Chase 

 

Cities across the country are looking to reshape their downtowns to be more vibrant and resilient in the post-COVID world. While Indianapolis has had continued success attracting tourists and conventions to its Downtown, City leadership has been making ambitious moves to build on existing strengths to make the City more equitable and livable for residents, while attracting workers back to their offices. Indianapolis engaged HR&A to develop a coordinated, thoughtful, and impactful model for post-COVID Downtown recovery, focused on placemaking and user experience, equitable development, and equitable programming for local residents.  

 

The City’s Downtown Connectivity and Vision Plan was released on June 7, and the City has committed funding to execute the plan’s first public realm project. The timing of this release is key, as roughly 25% of Downtown blocks are currently being redeveloped with new buildings or improvements or soon to see investment. All of this investment has the potential to create a near-term headache and long-term jumble of projects. HR&A’s plan will inform public and private design decisions with the goal of connecting disparate elements of Downtown. 

 

HR&A acted as project management lead, heading a team that included Merritt/Chase (urban and landscape design), GANGGANG (cultural placemaking, branding and community engagement), DLZ (civil engineering), and Art Strategies (project advisor). The Vision Plan for South Downtown addresses and focuses on circulation, public realm interventions, and the activation of ground floor uses.  

 

Rendering: Merritt Chase 

 

As a component of the Vision Plan for the entire South Downtown neighborhood, Merritt Chase developed a concept plan to redesign Indianapolis’ Georgia Street and close part of the iconic Monument Circle to support public programming, both projects which are now moving towards implementation. Georgia Street and broader investment identified by the plan will improve overall connectivity and pedestrian safety to in turn create a more walkable Downtown that better supports its current and future residents, its visitors (both locally and nationally), and those who work, live, and play in Indy. 

 

In addition, HR&A is supporting the development of changes to City policies and structures that will create long term sustainable funding sources to keep public space beautiful and active long into the future, streamline clunky experiences such as permitting that can be difficult to navigate, and enable ongoing participation of community members in the decision making process surrounding how public spaces are managed. 

 

Read the full Connectivity Vision Plan here.  

 

Press Coverage 

“Monument Circle, Georgia Street going (partially) car-free” — Axios Indianapolis (June 2023) 

 

San Francisco Submits Plans for a Public Bank to Fund Sustainable and Equitable Economic Recovery

May 22, 2023 / No Comments

 

This press release was originally issued by Supervisor Dean Preston.

 

San Francisco, CA — As the city and the country grapple with the ongoing instability and collapse of the banking industry, the San Francisco Reinvestment Working Group advances a plan to create a municipality-owned bank. The Public Bank proposal offers a game-changing tool as the city navigates ongoing concerns with the post-pandemic economic recovery.

 

The plans focus on the next steps and investments that the city can take to create a public bank, including financing for affordable housing, small businesses, and green investments. The
RWG’s approval includes a business and governance plan for creating a publicly owned municipal financial corporation (MFC) and for converting the MFC into a full San Francisco public bank.

 

“As we continue to chart a path to economic recovery and a sustainable economy, the Working Group’s business and governance plans provide the road map for our city to create the first municipal public bank in the nation, a crucial strategy to ensure that our city funds are used to reverse inequities, not perpetuate them,” said Supervisor Dean Preston. “The final plans submitted by the RWG is a huge step forward in turning the public bank concept into a reality.”

 

Traditional private banking has failed to offer sufficient access to financial services for residents and small businesses, especially in communities of color. The consequences of that lack of
access include inequitable economic, employment, health, affordable housing, and environmental outcomes that continue to this day.

 

“If the plan is adopted, San Francisco will be creating the first municipal public bank in California, which will provide a relatively speedy return on investment and serve as a model for other cities. With a $40 million investment spread out over the corporation’s first three years, we can create the infrastructure to benefit San Franciscans and achieve moderate profits that can be reinvested throughout the city,” said Andrea Batista Schlesinger, a Managing Partner at HR&A Advisors. “This plan could help San Francisco achieve significant benefits for people and the planet through a new, financially sustainable model.”

 

The business and governance plans were a year in the making. The Working Group worked closely with HR&A Advisors, leaders in inclusive economic development, who have produced similar public bank studies in Seattle and Philadelphia and led the analysis for the California Public Banking Option Act; Gary Steven Findley and Associates, experts in establishing de novo banks and providing guidance on management, operations, and compliance in California; and Contigo Communications, San Francisco-based practitioners who co-construct solutions that reflect the needs of community members.

 

“The reinvestment working group has done excellent work; throughout this process, they’ve delved into the existing gaps for small businesses, affordable housing, and green energy, especially post-pandemic. Our city urgently needs a public bank for economic recovery, and the plan provides officials with a no-brainer blueprint,” said Jackie Fielder, co-founder of the San Francisco Public Bank Coalition.

 

The plans will be presented to the Board of Supervisors at a hearing in July, after which the Board will take action to formalize and implement the process of starting an MFC and public bank in San Francisco.

 

For more information on the Reinvestment Working Group, visit
https://sfgov.org/lafco/reinvestment-working-group

 

Additional Press Coverage

“SF Takes Big Step Toward a City-Owned Bank as Local Lenders Falter,” The Frisc (May 2023)

 

 

Photo: Shen Pan via Unsplash

Los Angeles Business Council acknowledges HR&A Advisors Partner Paul Silvern

May 19, 2023 / No Comments

The Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) acknowledged HR&A Advisors Partner Paul Silvern for his contributions and support of the LABC Institute’s newest  study “Tackling the Housing Crisis: Streamlining to Increase Production in Los Angeles” which was conducted by Dr. Stuart Gabriel of UCLA and Dr. Edward Kung of Cal State Northridge.  

 

During a period of 13 years, market rate and affordable housing developers faced entitlement and permit approval timing challenges. The report examines how the construction of new housing could have been completed much faster and the number of new units could have been increased significantly if certain streamlining recommendations had been implemented.

 

During the report’s launching event LABC Council President Krekorian stated we have his “assurance that every one of the policy recommendations that are in this report will be advanced in this council, will be analyzed, will be moved forward into the legislative process and I’m looking forward to working closely with you in pursuing each and every one of those recommendations.” 

 

 

HR&A Leaders Discuss Drivers of Energy Efficiency in Affordable Housing in Residential Retrofits for Energy Equity (R2E2) Webinar

May 15, 2023 / No Comments

 

HR&A Advisors Partner Jon Meyers, Principal Callahan Seltzer, and Director Hannah Glosser participated in a recent webinar hosted by the Residential Retrofits for Energy Equity (R2E2) discussing Energy Efficiency in Affordable Housing. Energy efficiency is vital in affordable housing due to its potential to lower utility bills and maintain affordability for residents. The webinar covered energy costs, drivers of energy efficiency upgrades, and offered suggestions for overcoming challenges — helping attendees make a compelling business case to affordable housing owners and developers. 

 

This event was a part of a series of training webinars hosted by Residential Retrofits for Energy Equity (R2E2) for potential applicants to the Department of Energy’s Building Upgrades Prize (Buildings UP). The program is awarding over $22 million in cash prizes and technical assistance to teams with winning ideas to accelerate equitable energy efficiency and building electrification upgrades in residential and commercial buildings.  

 

Watch the webinar and learn more!

HR&A at ULI Spring 2023 Toronto

May 15, 2023 / No Comments

HR&A is excited to engage with fellow urbanists and changemakers at the ULI Spring 2023 meeting to explore emerging infrastructure, technology, housing, public/private partnerships, and mixed-use development that’s shaping the industry. Below is a recap of where you can find us at this year’s event: 

 

Speaking events 

 

May 15, 9:15 – 10:00 am (GMT) | HR&A Advisors President Jeff Herbert will be the keynote speaker at the Resilience Summit alongside Elizabeth Yee, Executive Vice President of Program Strategy at the Rockefeller Foundation. 

 

Event time: May 15, 9:15 – 10:00 am (GMT) 

 

Register now to join us!  

 

 

 

Connect with all of our HR&A attendees at the Spring Summit: 

Jeff Hebert — President, New York 

Eric Rothman — CEO, New York, Public/Private Partnership Council (Gold Flight) 

Mason Ailstock — Partner, Atlanta, University Development and Innovation Council 

Amitabh Barthakur, AICP — Partner, Los Angeles, Public/Private Partnership Council (Blue Flight) 

Candace Damon — Board Chair, New York 

Marilynn Davis — Senior Advisor, Atlanta, University Development and Innovation Council 

Stan Wall — Partner, Washington DC, Transit Oriented Development Council 

Ada Peng — Director, Los Angeles 

Martha Welborne — Senior Advisor, Los Angeles, Placemaking Council 

Partner Judith Taylor and HR&A Los Angeles Managing Partner Andrea Batista Schlesinger discuss their impactful work in LA

May 9, 2023 / No Comments

We sat down with Partner Judith Taylor and HR&A Los Angeles Managing Partner Andrea Batista Schlesinger to discuss their impactful work in L.A. and the opportunity they see in the region for new, innovative approaches to the complex, interconnected challenges facing our cities.  

  

What does it mean to design and execute more equitable neighborhoods and cities? And can you give some examples of the work that you are doing in LA?  

 

Judith: To me, designing and executing more equitable neighborhoods and cities means ensuring that folks who live in these places really have a voice in shaping how their neighborhoods and communities evolve. All too often, it feels like development happens to a community as opposed to a community developing their neighborhood and shaping what they want to see.  

 

For example, early in my career, I worked on a project with Metro supporting the development of design guidelines for transit-oriented development along the  the Crenshaw/LAX line (which is now the K line). Metro owns property along this, and many of its lines, and we spent about a year going to a number of different meetings within the community to help them think through the opportunity and potential of this public investment. That should be the case for every development project. This was back in 2016 and 2017, and I’ve been working since then to shape and refine the tools that we use to give people what they need to really shape their communities and do that shaping for themselves. I’ve spent much of my career really focused on this work. 

 

Andrea: A lot of our work focuses on the acknowledgment that traditional approaches to economic development, policy, and planning have created and reinforced racial divides in cities across the United States, and few places more clearly than LA.  

 

When our firm was founded 40 years ago in LA, there was a prevailing notion that any economic development was good economic development because the country had given up on cities as a result of a very politically driven narrative at that time. But as we now know, those approaches — which were a result of collaboration between public actors and private actors — often resulted in inequitable outcomes that actively harmed underserved communities of color. Those systems colluded to make sure that our cities were planned, experienced, lived, and developed in ways that reflect a deep and structural racism.  

 

Today, what we’re trying to do is reverse the way these systems have been deployed, so that we measure our success, as Judy said, by the degree to which people are benefiting that have been intentionally excluded. For example, when we work to create a public bank that would allow cities to have another financing mechanisms to do what private banks won’t (invest in black and brown communities) that is an equitable approach to economic development.  

 

Since you both work in cities across the country, what do you think are some of the unique challenges facing LA compared to other US cities?   

 

Andrea:  I cannot think of a more interesting place to work right now. There’s a really exciting mixture of things impacting our work here. You have: 

    • A political re-alignment with a Black woman mayor, a progressive city council, and a changed LA County Board of Supervisors; 
    • A robust organizing network with philanthropic entities that are committed to the civic life of the city; 
    • An Olympic game coming, which will be transformative;  
    • A number of other transformative land use projects from airports to rivers to train stations at stake; and 
    • A fascinating set of state policies that could enable local action on things from addressing homelessness to divesting from police. 

 

The list goes on… but the question, of course, is how will LA respond to this moment?  This is a very interesting and fertile moment for anybody that cares about the intersecting issues of policy, economic development, and planning. LA has all the ingredients for something important and significant to happen. 

 

And at HR&A, the people who work in our LA office are people who want to help make significant change happen. They are people who want to take the promise of policy and politics and actually translate it into changed lives and communities.  LA is a lab right now where we can create new approaches that will set the tone for other cities.   

 

Judith: Andrea, I really think you hit the nail on the head. I always tell people that of all places across this country, there’s just so much opportunity in LA. The only other thing I would add is the changing economy and move towards resilience and the green economy. California has a lot of amazing legislation that’s going to stop the use of fossil fuels and cars within the next decade. And Los Angeles has a real opportunity to be an anchor of that as well.   

 

What are you most excited about in the Inclusive Cities practice in LA?   

 

Judith: I’m working with LA County to help them understand if a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) could be potentially deployed in unincorporated areas in the county. This policy would give tenants the first right of refusal on properties where they’re renting before the properties are sold. It would be a game changing policy for Southern California.  

 

There’s a major crisis in Southern California around affordable housing that is impacting very low-income folks, but also for moderate and middle-income folks. This challenge has really impacted communities of color particularly, where home prices are making it extremely challenging for families to be able to stay in LA. 

 

This policy could really give folks a fighting chance to have better opportunities to purchase the homes they are living in and stay within their communities. This ties back to what we were talking about earlier, because ensuring folks have housing in their neighborhoods is the first step in their ability to shape how their communities develop for generations.  


Andrea: The work we are doing in LA for our Inclusive Cities practice is incredibly exciting, and we are growing! We are a group of entrepreneurial people that weren’t born consultants — we come from a wide range of backgrounds and that diversity of experience and perspectives enriches our work and sets us apart. We bring this wide range of approaches, methodologies, passions, and we have found a way to put them to use in the service of making just and equitable cities. 

 

Interested in learning more? Check out our Inclusive Cities Practice and Careers pages.