Last month, 30 individuals from 11 regions across the US specializing in regional planning, public health, advocacy, and community development met in New Orleans for the second convening of the Healthy Regions Planning Exchange. After the group first met in New York City in April 2019, cohorts from each region were tasked to explore how to better incorporate health and equity into regional planning, and why it is so important to do so. In New Orleans, we all shared our progress from the past year and described new challenges ahead.
Our participants gathered at the Ashe Power House Theater in the Central City neighborhood. Together we shared stories, discussed new tools for systems thinking, and planned next steps to influence change towards greater health and racial equity. Gathering in one space for face-to-face interactions created a tangible feeling of collective power which is important in movement building.
Across two days of facilitated discussion and practice within smaller groups, participants shared challenges within their regions and workshopped solutions through a systems-thinking lens in order to gain insights on strategy, consider potential levers for policy change, and identify ways to strengthen their spheres of influence among decision makers. The group developed strategies for navigating across different scales of government, getting practitioners on the same page when it comes to racial and health equity, and identifying an appropriate suite of policies to carry forward.
Cohorts from several regions shared the challenge of balancing local policy goals with regional and state government realities. In instances where local and state governments are aligned, cohorts described advancing policies at the state level in order to achieve local priorities. Participants from New York State – RPA, Make the Road NY, LISC Buffalo, PUSH Buffalo, and Greater Niagara and Buffalo Regional Transportation Council – discussed how to advance tenant rights though policies such as prohibiting eviction without good cause while maintaining broader statewide goals of building more housing. The cohort debated how both these goals could potentially be achieved through a statewide advocacy coalition.
Other regions faced the opposite problem where contentions at the state level forced localities to adapt and respond. Notably, the cohort from New Orleans was looking to pass legislation at the state level to create a healthy housing registry to ensure healthier housing conditions for renters. However, this legislation now faces preemption at the state level. Their strategy now is to build a coalition with fair housing organizations across the state to fight back against the landlord lobby.
The symposium also focused on regional approaches to influence decision makers. Participants from the Chicago region – Metropolitan Planning Council, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, and Chicago Department of Public Health – identified the importance of influencing decision makers in the city to center health and equity in planning investments regionwide. Planning Exchange participants from Multnomah County, Oregon – Gresham Redevelopment Commission and Multnomah County Health Department – have been working to connect health and racial equity by resolving disparities in public transportation service available in well-off neighborhoods in and around Portland compared to the City of Gresham.
Both teams identified ways to challenge status quo thinking. The Chicago cohort strategized how to establish a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Cohort as a task force across their region to formalize equity as a value in regional decision making. Multnomah took it a step further by coordinating a Transit Equity Summit to discuss issues of equity around transit, develop a shared understanding of equity among transportation planners and public health workers, and attract new talent into the health and transit world.
Since the symposium, the COVID-19 crisis has amplified and exacerbated the issues that arose during the cross-regional conversations. Existing work on tenant rights has pivoted towards rent holds for all community members who are now unemployed due to social distancing rules. Groups who often focus on local- and state-level policy shifted their advocacy to the federal level to influence the COVID-19 stimulus package. Organizations accustomed to focusing on long-term planning are trying to find ways to make an immediate positive impact.
Environmental inequality and disparities in health outcomes and economic opportunity – major issues that the Planning Exchange addressed in the past year – now matter more than ever as the most vulnerable in our communities are hit hardest by COVID-19. Building on the strategies discussed in New Orleans, we’re continuing our cross-regional conversation, albeit remotely, so we can continue to further racial and health equity during this unprecedented public health crisis.
