Seen and heard at the 2018 LOCUS Leadership Summit

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Attendees at the LOCUS Summit tweeting (or checking the conference’s digital agenda on the Whova app).

Last week the LOCUS Leadership Summit: Rebuild America’s Neighborhoods brought forward-thinking real estate developers and investors who are creating sustainable communities together with local elected officials and transportation/land-use planners. The breadth of topics covered at the conference reflected the breadth of expertise among attendees. While the main conference sessions and keynotes were held on Monday (April 23), walking tours, meetings, dinners/receptions, and a lobby day on Capitol Hill with the First & Main coalition of local elected leaders took place in the days before and after the Summit.

Here’s a short look back at what was caught live on Twitter at #LOCUSsummit2018.

Sunday: Walking tour of Silver Spring, MD

https://twitter.com/EDPlymesser/status/988132089152376832

Sitting on DC’s northern border, Silver Spring, MD is an urban community with a diverse and bustling downtown, but it wasn’t always that way.

As we heard on the tour, in the next few years, Silver Spring will find itself at the center of even more transit when the Purple Line light rail and a new enhanced bus route begin service. Read more about the tour here.

Monday: The Summit (and Earth Day)

https://twitter.com/EDPlymesser/status/988389927216996352

LOCUS President Jair Lynch and Oxford, MS Mayor Robyn Tannehill kicked off the Summit with opening remarks followed by a keynote from Majora Carter about (self) gentrification and strategies for sustainable growth and development in “low-status” communities.


https://twitter.com/TMyczkowska/status/988417330614079489


https://twitter.com/sophascho/status/988438010080489472

If those little Twitter snippets aren’t quite enough, we streamed Carter’s whole speech (and the opening remarks) live and it’s still available for viewing.

Sessions during the day touched on everything from revitalization without displacement, to emerging real estate trends, to value capture for transit, to affordable housing.

https://twitter.com/EDPlymesser/status/988442801779167232

Back in March, we announced the finalists for the 2018 LOCUS Leadership Awards. At the Summit, the winners were announced:

Tuesday: First & Main lobby day (#FirstandMain)

On Tuesday, members of the First & Main coalition—a growing group of officials from small and mid-sized communities—went to Capitol Hill to bring their “blueprint for prosperity” to Congress and the White House. While not technically part of the LOCUS Leadership Summit, the members of First & Main did attend the Summit Monday, including Mayor Tannehill.


https://twitter.com/MayorParadis/status/988784916296011776
https://twitter.com/ScottRogers_WV/status/988947198913245185

Read a full recap about the First & Main lobby day and learn more about this emerging coalition of local elected leaders in this SGA post.

So much was covered during these few short days. But for some visitors, simply being in DC offered its own opportunity to try out a plethora of transportation options not found in their hometown: the metro (subway), circulator buses, dockless bike shares, and electric scooters.

Our sincere thanks goes out to everyone who attended the Summit or came out for the other various events. Here’s to taking what we learned back home and creating more equitable, prosperous, and sustainable communities.

LOCUS