The Rockefeller Foundation and Smart Growth America Launch National Opportunity Zones Academy

Press Release
The Rockefeller Foundation and Smart Growth America today announced the launch of the National Opportunity Zones Academy, which will help cities drive sustainable growth in Opportunity Zones by attracting socially responsible investment. Five cities so far have been selected to participate: Chicago, Greater Miami and the Beaches, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Norfolk, VA.

Economic development LOCUS

Federal transportation policy is undermining any progress on climate


The conversation on climate change tends to focus on a few big things—electric vehicles, renewable energy, putting a price on carbon. But no matter how much progress we make on those fronts, Democrats and Republicans remain deeply committed to antiquated policy that undermines any action we take on climate change: spending billions to build new highways, encouraging more and more driving.

Uncategorized

Building a family-friendly city


In the conversations about cities, much of the media attention has been focused on young professional or older, retiring Americans. But families with children have been largely overlooked in the midst of our current urban renaissance. There has been some recent debated over whether the number of children (and thus families) is increasing or on the decline in cities, and it got us thinking: what would a place designed for families look like?

Complete Streets Creative Placemaking Economic development Transportation

New zoning makes New Rochelle’s vision a reality


New Rochelle, New York struggled for years to stimulate catalytic development in it’s downtown. Now, this New York City suburb is emerging as a walkable, transit-oriented hub for residents to live, work, and play. A form-based code is making all the difference by spurring new development that is predictable, expedited, and responsive to community interests.

Form-Based Codes

Indianapolis rolls out the red carpet for transit

A Red Line bus stopped at a new station prior to launch.
More than a decade ago, local business and civic leaders in Indianapolis realized that for the city to remain competitive it needed to be better at moving people. Today, after an exhaustive planning process, changes to state law, and a successful local referendum where local voters raised their income taxes to invest in transit, the first major piece of Indianapolis’s transit upgrade is set to open.

Transportation

Webinar recap: Zoning for the maker economy


This past July, we hosted “Form-Based Codes and Small-Scale Manufacturing,” a joint webinar between Smart Growth America’s Economic Development team and the Form-Based Codes Institute. Speakers discussed how different communities are using form-based codes to support small-scale manufacturing businesses. A recording of the webinar is now available and you can also read a short recap below.

Economic development Form-Based Codes

Watch: Creating safer, smarter streets with demonstration projects

Through the Safe Streets, Smart Cities Academy, Smart Growth America worked with three cities to implement temporary demonstration projects to create safer streets. This month, we released case studies telling the stories of these three projects. We also held a webinar with representatives from each of the three cities to share lessons learned from these projects, as well as update us on how the projects have evolved since the end of the Academy. You can watch the full recording of this webinar here or download a PDF of the presentations.

Complete Streets

(Re)coding communities for smart growth


There’s a secret weapon available to communities that want to modernize their zoning codes and help make smarter growth the norm. FBCI’s Codes for Communities is a wide-ranging technical assistance program at Smart Growth America that covers all kinds of zoning reform and guidance on form-based codes. In just two years, the program has had tremendous impact in communities of all sizes across America.

Form-Based Codes Technical assistance Uncategorized