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A Framework to Guide Communities Toward a Just and Resilient Recovery

April 1, 2020 / No Comments

Communities face two parallel crises because of COVID-19: an unprecedented global public health emergency, and the fastest economic decline on record, including over 6.6 million applications for unemployment insurance for the week of April 4 alone, and over 16.7 million applications cumulatively since March 21, while confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses continue to rise. While our public and private institutions rightfully focus on their immediate attention on emergency response, once we emerge from quarantine, we will need to collectively address the underlying economic and social challenges that made COVID-19 so devastating and destabilizing. A post-COVID-19 world can provide the opportunity to create just and resilient communities that can better weather future events.

Facing a Duel Crisis
Leading a just and resilient recovery

When COVID-19 struck the U.S., almost 40% of American households were unable to afford an emergency expense of even $400. ¹ Because of this economic insecurity, the impacts of COVID-19 will be felt most sharply by those already in need of support. A just and resilient recovery will improve the well-being of all community members by addressing underlying inequities. Local leaders have the opportunity to recover stronger from this pandemic by taking a hard look at the underlying issues that contribute to the damage from COVID-19 in their community.

Choosing a Just and Resilient Recovery

Organizing principles for action
As the immediate threat from COVID-19 subsides, local leaders will shift their focus from emergency response to recovery. While the timeline for recovery is not linear – and health officials indeed have speculated that the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to recur – HR&A has developed a framework to guide the pursuit of a just and resilient recovery based on our work in past disasters.

Public and private institutions, including government, businesses, nonprofits, philanthropies, and community leaders, should organize their efforts around four phases: 1) emergency response, 2) stabilization, 3) adaptation, and 4) institutionalization.

COVID-19 has shown us that our communities are neither just nor resilient. As local leaders start the recovery process, each community will face a choice to either confront the issues that left so many community members vulnerable and our society as a whole fragile, or return to the status quo. Only recovery processes that address the underlying issues responsible will prepare communities for the next disaster.

Learn More

Phillip Kash is a nationally recognized practitioner and pioneer in resilience planning and disaster recovery. A leading expert on urban policy, Phillip works across the country to address two of the most pressing challenges facing cities today: climate adaptation, economic recovery and housing affordability. His visionary plans provide cities and their partners with strategic frameworks to guide their efforts; programs and policies to inform their actions; and implementation roadmaps that ensure projects are delivered.

Jeff Hebert is a pioneer of resilience planning and community revitalization. He works with cities around the country to develop strategies that mitigate future social, economic, and physical shocks and stresses. He is a national expert in the areas of resiliency, redevelopment, equitable and inclusionary growth, and economic development. Jeff was instrumental in the recovery of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina having served Mayor Mitch Landrieu as the city’s First Deputy Mayor & Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Resilience Officer, and as Executive Director of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority. In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, he served as the Director of Community Planning for the Louisiana Recovery Authority under Governor Kathleen Blanco.
^{1 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, “Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2018.”}

Will American transit recover? Our economy depends on it.

March 26, 2020 / No Comments

Written by Jee Mee Kim and Meg Merritt

Transit agencies are working overtime to solve the near-term operational challenges caused by COVID-19, including shifting priorities to new service patterns and sanitizing protocols. But when the quarantine storm passes, what will our transit future look like in the aftermath of physical distancing? And how can we ensure that transit agencies continue to provide high quality mobility options, particularly for our nation’s most vulnerable populations who are disproportionately impacted by the health and economic crisis resulting from COVID-19?

It is likely that in the near term, American transit will experience lagging ridership recovery due to social distancing norms and a loss of tax revenue streams that fund operations and maintenance. The $25 billion of federal transit support included in the COVID-19 relief package (CARES Act)—the highest of any transit appropriations to date—can buttress operational costs just enough to give affordable transportation options to Americans going back to their jobs and for those looking for work.

This package is a welcome relief in a scary time for transit and a stamp of approval that transit is indeed an essential business. In any economic scenario, functional transit operations are critical to American businesses and upward mobility for the poorest and most vulnerable who rely on affordable and reliable ways to get to work, school, childcare, and basic errands. In a post-COVID-19 world, transit will be a prerequisite to restoring economic health back to our cities and urban communities.

Cities and transit agencies should first focus on targeting their most impacted residents. Despite the infusion of cash provided in the relief package, the funding will not be adequate to restore transit to pre-COVID-19 operations, especially as ridership struggles to ramp up. However, this is the time that transit will be essential to the millions of residents who have lost their jobs. For those whose shuttered jobs reopen, low-wage workers will need transit to get back to their routines. Transit agencies will need to make sure that service is restored across the most impacted communities and explore fare reductions. Cities should ramp up their efforts to improve first/last-mile connections through partnerships and renew their focus on bike, scooter, and pedestrian access to transit.

Transit systems will need to bring confidence back to their riders. Many riders may remain skittish about using transit and standing less than six feet between other passengers. Cities and transit agencies may draw riders back by launching marketing campaigns that provide fact-based, real-time information while highlighting the continued benefits of using transit.

The COVID-19 crisis offers an opportunity to course-correct historical underinvestment in transit infrastructure. After immediate operational gaps are covered by the CARES Act, subsequent federal aid should support major capital infrastructure investments. An infusion of capital investment will address the decades of lagging transit infrastructure investment while also providing jobs. According to a 2014 study by the American Public Transportation Association, every one billion dollars invested in transit can yield nearly 51,000 jobs—offering a four to one economic return. This jump-start would allow cities and regions who are already planning projects—and those that would like to—to receive expedited federal assistance and begin environmental clearance and construction.

We may not be able to visualize a post-COVID-19 future while quarantined in our homes now, but eventually we will get back to a semblance of our prior lives. The decisions we make in the coming days will shape a future in which a healthy economy co-exists with clean air and reduced emissions and congestion. Reinvesting in transit can restore our cities and communities, help Americans in most need get back to their jobs, schools, and childcare centers in an affordable and reliable way, and create new jobs to jumpstart the economy.

Jee Mee Kim is a Principal with the economic development and real estate consulting firm HR&A Advisors.
Meg Merritt is a Principal with the transportation planning firm Nelson\Nygaard.

Over the coming weeks, we will share our thoughts with you about the implications of this crisis and welcome any thoughts you may have. Please contact us at info@hraadvisors.com.

HR&A Advisors’ COVID-19 Response

March 16, 2020 / No Comments

HR&A Advisors is actively monitoring the global COVID-19 pandemic. We are focused on delivering high-quality services for our clients and partners, while ensuring the health and well-being of our staff and the communities we serve.

To date, we have restricted all non-essential business travel. Additionally, our offices will be closed out of an abundance of caution and concern for employee and community health, and our employees will work remotely through at least Monday, March 23.

We know that many of our clients and project partners are facing the same challenges and making similar decisions. Fortunately, HR&A is fully equipped to provide seamless and responsive services to you. We will continue to provide project deliverables, conduct meetings via phone and videoconference, and develop alternative methods of engagement to move projects forward. At the same time, we are evaluating what this different environment means for our clients, now and in the future, and how we can continue to help you solve the pressing and rapidly-evolving challenges you face.

Over the coming weeks, we will share our thoughts with you about the implications of this crisis and welcome any thoughts you may have. Please contact us at healthycities@hraadvisors.com.

Andrea Batista Schlesinger gives master talk at IDA 2019

March 6, 2020 / No Comments

At the October 2019 International Downtown Association Annual Conference, HR&A Partner Andrea Batista Schlesinger gave a master talk on the contradictions and repercussions of “proud urbanism”, the central theme of the fall summit. Speaking in Baltimore, MD in front of practitioners from downtown organizations, city agencies, municipalities, and private-sector professionals, Andrea, who leads the firm’s Inclusive Cities practice, began with the premise that economic development is not a neutral act and addressed how planning and economic development tools have been actively deployed to create and reinforce racial divides.

“It’s easy to talk about in the context of redlining,” said Andrea, who understands a praxis of inclusive and equitable growth as a former leader in government, think tanks, philanthropy, and political campaigns. “It’s less easy to see in the naming of a community as blighted as a means of evicting undesirables to make way for those who are more desirable. It’s less easy to see in the building of a park downtown that makes clear this isn’t for us in its design, in how it’s policing, in the photographs of it on our websites of who’s enjoying it.”

Equitable economic development is about the questions we ask to understand the impact of our work, posited Andrea, and probing the ways planners and placemakers inherit a legacy of American urban racism as well as the class privilege to shape the places and systems in which we live and operate. (She lays out a three-question exercise to think outside the boundaries of a project in minute 9:50).

Rather than relying on traditional policies that position redistribution at the fulcrum of equitable economic development, Andrea implored planners to consider cooperative investment models and new, unexpected partnerships in black and brown communities. A more effective way to address gentrification, displacement, and other longstanding racial divides would be “[a model] that re-imagines the central function of the development and management of a place as a means of tackling inequity,” she clarified.

Check out her master talk on the fallacy of the downtown growth strategy and the importance of redefining the meaning of success to create better policy agendas that think beyond what they build.

Learn more about Inclusive Cities
Learn more about Andrea Batista Schlesinger
Check out HR&A’s Equitable Economic Development and Mobility Strategy for Grand Rapids

Trinity Park Conservancy publishes Equitable Development Toolkit for Harold Simmons Park

March 2, 2020 / No Comments

At the end of January, Trinity Park Conservancy published the Harold Simmons Park Equitable Development Toolkit & Implementation Roadmap. This guiding model for equitable park and neighborhood development, developed in partnership with HR&A Advisors, includes policies, advocacy efforts, initiatives, and partnerships that are grounded in three questions:

How can Harold Simmons Park be built equitably?
How can the project make a more equitable Dallas?
How can we mitigate against the unintended consequences in and around the park?

The toolkit emerged from the Conservancy’s commitment to leverage the $150 million investment in the new Harold Simmons Park, a 200-acre park that will connect three distinct neighborhoods representing a microcosm of Dallas’ extreme racial and income segregation, to benefit the park’s neighboring communities. Some of HR&A’s recommendations address the investment decisions and practices of the Trinity Park Conservancy, such as establishing equitable policies and practices for park management and operations.

The toolkit also confronts the reality that large private investments typically gentrify, displace, and disrespect neighboring African American and Latinx communities that feel destabilizing impacts without receiving the benefits of value creation. Recommendations of partnerships, policies, and investment provide a roadmap for preventing involuntary displacement and promoting wealth creation and community ownership, essential elements of achieving the Conservancy’s equity vision.

Check out the Equitable Development Toolkit here
Learn more about the Harold Simmons Park Equitable Development Plan here

HR&A Advisors names longtime Partner Eric Rothman as Chief Executive Officer

December 10, 2019 / Comments Off

New York, NY (December 10, 2019) – HR&A Advisors, Inc. (HR&A), a leading, national consulting firm providing services in real estate, economic development, and public policy, announced that current firm President Eric Rothman will become Chief Executive Officer on January 1, 2020. John Alschuler, who founded the firm and has served as Chairman, will remain an active Partner and Chair of HR&A’s Board of Directors. HR&A’s Vice Chairman Candace Damon will remain an active Partner and lead the HR&A Board’s oversight of business strategy. The announcement accompanies broader strategic management changes to strengthen the firm’s client focus and its growing impact on the vitality of urban communities nation-wide and globally.

“We are thrilled that Eric will serve as CEO of HR&A as a new generation of firm leaders work on the most pressing issues facing American cities over the following decades, including climate change, inclusive growth, and the impact of technology on our cities,” said John Alschuler, CEO and Founder of HR&A. “Since joining the team over twenty years ago, Eric has played a key role in making HR&A a world-renowned firm known for tackling urban challenges across the country. I look forward to him building on HR&A’s mission to improve economic opportunity, quality of life, and the built environment for people in urban communities.”

“I am honored and excited to serve as CEO and lead HR&A’s passionate team of urban development and policy experts, building upon John’s work that advises countless cities, communities and industries about all facets of urban American life,” said Eric Rothman, President of HR&A. “I look forward to expanding HR&A’s impact on quality of life in urban communities through our groundbreaking work on social inclusion policy, promotion of urban tech communities and innovation places, and strategies for climate change adaptation.”

Over the past 40 years, HR&A has grown to a team of over 120 planners, analysts, policymakers, organizers, advocates, economists, lawyers, architects, and urbanists with offices in New York City, Dallas, Los Angeles, Raleigh, and Washington, D.C. HR&A’s growth into a national, multi-disciplinary consulting firm has been driven by the evolving saga of American cities beginning in the 1970s. The firm has been a driving force in the rebuilding and revitalization of urban cores, increasing economic value and kickstarting development. As catalytic problem solvers working at the nexus of city planning, government policy, and financial feasibility, HR&A provides leading public, private, and not for profit clients implementable plans to create inclusive cities, address economic and racial disparities, and tackle affordability challenges and displacement. HR&A is also at the forefront of advising cities and governments about how to best address the challenges of technology and climate change cities are currently facing.

Among a larger body of advisory work, HR&A:

- Supported the renaissance of Lower Manhattan below Chambers Street into a thriving residential destination
- Turned aging infrastructure into signature parks like Brooklyn Bridge Park and the High Line
- Helped transform Washington, D.C.’s Anacostia Waterfront to bring the Nationals Stadium and a mixed-use district
- Crafted transit funding and transit-oriented development implementation strategies to advance major transit projects on the West Coast, including for Los Angeles Metro and Santa Clara VTA
- Is advising the California State University system on a forward-looking growth framework that builds the skills of California’s workforce
- Is working with Rice University to create a Houston Innovation and Tech District
- Is developing climate adaptation plans and implementation strategies for more than 20 US cities
- Is advising cities and property owners on the creation of inclusive economic development strategies and vibrant innovation districts in cities including Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Atlanta, Houston, San Jose, St. Louis, and Washington

Eric joined HR&A 22 years ago and brings decades of experience in providing economic development and public-private real estate development consulting, servicing governmental entities, and advising on transportation and public finance projects across North America and the United Kingdom. Eric has led the firm’s efforts on the groundbreaking PlaNYC 2030 sustainability strategy for New York, supported major redevelopment efforts for the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.; Union Depot in Saint Paul, Minnesota; and the district adjacent to 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.

Prior to joining HR&A, Eric served as Director of Business Planning for Transport for London. In 2008, Eric was recognized by Real Estate New Jersey as one of their Forty Under 40 rising stars. Eric is a nationally recognized expert in transit-oriented development and serves as Board Chair for the Design Trust for Public Space, Vice Chair of the Urban Land Institute’s national Public-Private Partnership Council, and Board Treasurer for KaBOOM!

Media Contact
For questions or inquiries, contact hra@berlinrosen.com or (646) 452-5637

Read Crain’s New York’s coverage of the leadership transition: Urban planner behind the High Line, Brooklyn Bridge Park names his successor

UNCG set to break ground on new millennial campus

October 10, 2019 / Comments Off

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) announced plans to break ground on its long awaited millennial campus by 2020. The first two buildings to be added to the campus will be a new visual and performing arts center and a research building for UNCG’s health and human sciences faculty. Construction is scheduled to start in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

The full millennial campus extension will create a 73-acre mixed-use innovation district that will serve the university’s growing student body and the surrounding community. It will also allow UNCG to expand its tech programs, including a new master’s degree program in informatics and analytics, as well as attract new economic opportunities from private sector partnerships.

This announcement come three years after the institution was granted permission in 2017 to build a “millennial campus”. The North Carolina-specific designation allows for public financing of university-related research parks in the state’s public institutions as well as private-sector partnerships on university-owned land.

Since 2018, HR&A Partner Bob Geolas and the University and Innovation District team has worked with UNCG to create a roadmap that developed programming, visioning, and governance strategies to unify various properties along the university and city edge and to support economic growth in Greensboro and the surrounding region. These recommendations directly resulted in the approved plan that is now underway.

Read the Greensboro article: UNCG’s first two millennial campus projects will be built along Gate City Boulevard
Check out HR&A’s additional university work in North Carolina: Research Triangle Park

Growing support for public bank in New York

October 8, 2019 / Comments Off

In May 2019, the finance and banking industry publication American Banker reported on growing support for a public bank in New York City. With backing from affordable housing advocates, workers’ rights groups, environmental activists, and credit unions, the ambitious endeavor spearheaded by Public Bank NYC makes the case that New York needs a municipally operated bank as an alternative to financial services contracts with multinational banks whose values and investments do not always align with community interests or needs.

The journal reached out to HR&A Partner Andrea Batista Schlesinger for comment as the co-author of the 2018 Seattle Public Bank Feasibility Study, which considered the viability of what could’ve been the nation’s first city-owned public bank alternative. While the study found that a public bank in Seattle would—at best—require a long-term process with numerous regulatory reviews and restrictive limitations on capital capacities, Batista Schlesinger remains optimistic about creating a new kind of financial institution directly accountable to local values. “There is no doubt that there is more interest in public banks today than I would say even six months ago,” she said. “The idea of local control appeals more and more in this political climate.”

One recent victory for the movement that may not have been imaginable even six months ago is the passage of California bill AB857. This bill will allow city and county governments to legally create public banks, making California only one of two states to preemptively sanction these institutions. As California, New York, and a growing number of localities nationwide demonstrate an eagerness to explore and eventually implement public banks, there is a growing need to understand the intricacies of how public banks can deliver on their many promises.

Read more about the public banks movement in American Banker: In New York, growing support for a public bank
Check out HR&A’s 2018 Seattle Public Banking Feasibility Study

Federal government provides BART’s San Jose extension $125 million in first installment of funds

October 2, 2019 / Comments Off

On August 28, 2019, the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) signaled strong support for the San Jose, California-based Santa Clara Valley Transport Authority’s $5.6 billion Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) extension by agreeing to provide $125m in early funding.

The Santa Clara Valley Transport Authority, more commonly known as the VTA, is the first in the country to be selected into FTA’s new Expedited Project Delivery program, which aims to accelerate the approval process for large-scale infrastructure projects, like the construction of the BART Silicon Valley four-station extension into downtown San Jose. Building on the existing heavy rail system in a highly-congested part of the Bay Area’s Silicon Valley, this project has the potential to catalyze economic development around the four new stations in Santa Clara County and stimulate the Bay Area economy.

The FTA is highly-supportive of the project in part because of its ‘shovel readiness’ and its ability to identify non-Federal funds. HR&A Advisors has been working over the past year to support VTA as it identifies alternative sources of project funding through a strategy to develop its real estate assets and foster broader economic development along the extension.

Read The Mercury News reporting here: Federal government readies to give BART’s San Jose extension first installment of funds
Check out HR&A’s other Bay Area TOD work with Transbay Joint Powers Authority
Learn more about HR&A’s Transit-Oriented Development Practice

Can congestion pricing help cities become more equitable?

July 15, 2019 / Comments Off

Written by Jamison Dague, Jee Mee Kim, and Eric Rothman

This spring New York City took a major step toward becoming the first U.S. city to charge drivers a fee to enter its central business district by passing the Traffic Mobility Act as part of the 2020 New York State Budget. Following in the footsteps of cities such as Stockholm, London, and Singapore, congestion pricing will reduce traffic in Manhattan and help fund New York City’s crumbling transit system, improving mobility options for the 67% of New Yorkers who take the bus or subway each day. And congestion pricing will likely help New York’s poorest residents, 56% of whom take transit to work/school and 50% of whom don’t own a vehicle.

But what works for New York City will not likely apply to all cities—and in some cases, may worsen conditions for a city’s poorest residents (as defined by earning 80% or below Area Median Income). There are a few steps to consider as cities around the country like Portland (OR), Seattle, Philadelphia, and even auto-centric Los Angeles contemplate congestion pricing.

Provide appealing and affordable alternatives. The efficacy of congestion pricing depends on providing viable substitutes for driving. Alternatives should be convenient, reliable, and reasonably priced. For example, in advance of starting its congestion charging zone, London made radical improvements to bus service, replaced much of its fleet with new buses, and offered discounted fares on buses for regular commuters. Upon implementing Singapore’s road pricing initiatives, the city-state increased the frequency of public transport and built more than 15,000 public park-and-ride spaces outside the charging zone to encourage drivers to switch modes.

One size (and shape) does not fit all. Relatively few of New York City’s poorest residents and people of color commute by driving from the outer boroughs into the proposed charging zone. Most use the city’s transit network and failing subway and bus systems disproportionately impact these low-income communities of color. In contrast, 84% of residents in Los Angeles rely on a car, including the 32% of low-income drivers1 who would be affected by any future congestion pricing plan. New York’s model of charging a toll to enter the city center cannot be replicated across the board without thoughtful consideration of local issues and impacts.

Plan for equity. Early and continuous public dialogue should inform an understanding of the needs of a city’s most vulnerable residents, including low income households, people of color, immigrants, and seniors. In Los Angeles, Metro’s board recommended a motion authored by Supervisor Hilda Solis to consult academics, community groups, and local officials to lessen the impact on low income drivers. Seattle recently released a report to study the potential equity implications of congestion pricing. Like sales and property taxes, congestion pricing can be regressive—with lower income residents paying a higher share of their income to the fee compared with wealthier residents. Upfront planning and engagement can also build coalitions to garner broad support for a typically controversial proposal.

Beware of unintended consequences. The Wall Street Journal reported that congestion pricing may boost residential real estate values in the pricing zone by making streets quieter, cleaner, and safer. A 2018 study showed homes inside London’s charging zone are valued at a 3 percent premium, translating into a $13 billion windfall for homeowners. Conversely, some have argued that neighborhoods outside of New York’s proposed charging zone will suffer increased traffic as drivers cruise for limited on-street parking.

Establish an adaptable framework. Despite the political lift necessary to introduce congestion pricing, policymakers should be prepared to revisit and adjust the system to meet policy and equity objectives. For example, Singapore’s congestion pricing system, established more than 40 years ago, has incorporated electronic charging, parking fees, and is currently transitioning to a GPS-based system to refine its dynamic pricing policies. London’s traffic congestion has increased in recent years largely due to a surge in for-hire vehicles, which are exempt from congestion pricing charges and are proliferating with the use of mobile apps like Uber and Lyft. Ensuring the public continues to benefit equitably from congestion pricing requires nimble administration of the system.

Jamison Dague supports the firm’s implementation and management of public policy initiatives. Prior to joining HR&A, Jamison worked at the Citizens Budget Commission as Director of Infrastructure Studies where he provided ongoing economic, budgetary, and financial analysis of public sector infrastructure entities.

Jee Mee Kim is leader in HR&A’s Transit-Oriented Development and Transportation Practice. She works with clients to develop funding strategies, create corridor and station-area plans, and build public support for TOD.

Eric Rothman is a nationally-renowned expert in transportation planning, transit-oriented development, and economic development. Eric works extensively in transportation planning and transit-oriented development and He leads the firm’s work creating transit-oriented development strategies across the United States.