Webinar: Planning for an Equitable Recovery with Limited Fiscal Resources

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It has been a challenging year for so many as COVID-19 continues to spread throughout communities and policy makers grapple with the resulting economic crisis — and simultaneously confront deep racial and spatial inequities in cities across the United States. While these financial and social issues are not new for many legacy cities, the pandemic is creating a new set of challenges as residents — particularly residents in lower-income communities of color — are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and its impacts.

But legacy cities are resilient and have strengths that will enable them to weather these crises. Research has shown that more equal places often fare better economically than their more unequal peers. That is why planning to advance equity is not only possible but necessary for an inclusive and meaningful recovery. This webinar will explore how legacy city leaders can pursue low-cost, high-impact planning efforts to get on the path to inclusive revitalization and foster a more equitable recovery from COVID-19. This webinar will offer early findings from research by the Greater Ohio Policy Center on strategies for smaller legacy cities to advance equity in their work, as well as stories from leaders in legacy cities that are already advancing equity in their planning without major new investments, including:

• Baltimore, Maryland, which has integrated equity into its capital improvement planning process, and
• Louisville, Kentucky, which is starting to take. on the legacy of exclusionary zoning practices by reforming its municipal zoning codes.

This webinar is presented by the Legacy Cities Initiative at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Speakers 

Emily Liu, Director of Louisville Metro Planning and Design Services, City of Louisville

Stephanie M. Smith, Assistant Director for Equity, Engagement and Communications, City of Baltimore