Expansion of nationwide urban planning knowledge-sharing network of 33 organizations from 11 regions will elevate best practices for addressing racial and health equity

NEW YORK, NY - Regional Plan Association (RPA) today announced the second phase of the Healthy Regions Planning Exchange -- a program focused on promoting healthy communities across the United States through equitable and inclusive urban and regional planning. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Planning Exchange’s second phase will elevate best practices for addressing racial and health equity. Participants will support one another in the development of responses to COVID-19 and collaborate with policymakers to address structural inequities in transportation, housing, land use, and the environment.

For the past two years, RPA has convened this national network of planners, practitioners, advocates, and community-based representatives -- from Portland, Oregon to Pine Ridge, South Dakota, New Orleans, Louisiana and Buffalo, New York -- to develop solutions for reversing the impacts and influence of racism on urban planning and on cities across the US.

“The seeds of inequality run deep, and they cannot cannot be solved by a single policy or a change in leadership,” said Tom Wright, President and CEO, Regional Plan Association. ​“In our 99-year history, RPA’s key focus has been to make places safer, healthier, and more sustainable - for everyone. The Healthy Regions Planning Exchange creates larger opportunities for communities to live full and healthy lives - no matter where they were born or who their parents are.”

Participating Organizations from Phase 1:

• Los Angeles, California: Represented by Alliance for Community Transit, Community Power Collective
• San Francisco Bay Area, California: SPUR, Urban Habitat; Working Partnerships USA
• Multnomah County, Oregon: The City of Gresham, Multnomah County Health Department
• Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota: Alliance for Metropolitan Stability, Frogtown Neighborhood Association, New Americans Development Center
• Thunder Valley Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota: Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation
• Nashville, Tennessee: Conexion Americas, Greater Nashville Regional Council
• New Orleans, Louisiana: Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, Operation Restoration
• Chicago. Illinois: Metropolitan Planning Council, Chicago Dept. of Public Health, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Hill District Consensus Group, Pittsburghers for Public Transit, Just Harvest
• Buffalo-Niagara, New York: Greater Buffalo Niagara Regional Transportation Council, Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) Buffalo, People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH)
• New York Metro, New York: Community Voices Heard, Regional Plan Association, Make the Road New York

Arlene Rodriguez from ARC Associates will continue to serve as advisor for the Healthy Regions Planning Exchange, bringing more than 30 years of experience in social and racial justice work to the project. Three staff members will continue to lead this effort for RPA: Vanessa Barrios, Senior Associate, State Programs and Advocacy; Carlos Mandeville, Research Analyst; and Kate Slevin, Senior Vice President, State Programs and Advocacy.

“Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation is excited to continue participating in the Healthy Regions Planning Exchange,” said Tatewin Means, JD, MA, Executive Director, Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation. ​“As a Lakota-run and women-led organization, we have worked to create positive and systemic change on the Pine Ridge Reservation and raise awareness about structural issues in planning that influence health and equity. The Planning Exchange network helps us to amplify our work and both share and receive knowledge with similar organizations across the country.”

“The diversity of planners, practitioners, and advocates around the symposium tables in Healthy Regions Planning Exchange Phase 1 is now beginning to be reflected in mobility justice and other equity planning efforts here in Buffalo, New York,” said Kelly Dixon, Principal Planner, Greater Buffalo-Niagara Regional Transportation Council. ​“We have a long way to go, but we look forward to Phase 2 to help us deepen the equity work within our organizations and the broader community.”

“The Healthy Regions Planning Exchange symposiums gave us the opportunity to see the creative things other cities are doing,” said Chloe Gurin-Sands, Manager, Health Equity & Planning, Metropolitan Planning Council. ​“More importantly, our group developed a strong, trusting rapport quickly, which allowed us to challenge each others’ personally-held beliefs and paradigms. Each of us left with a new sense of our relationship to planning, our cities, and our collective society.”

“The first phase of the Planning Exchange work delved into the intersections between the planning realms of transportation, the environment, and housing with the social determinants of health, climate justice, economy, health, trauma in the built environment and so much more. The Multnomah County regional cohort is thrilled to move forward with this network,” said Charlene Addy McGee, Racial & Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) Program Manager, Multnomah County Health Department

Since the development of its Fourth Regional Plan in 2017, RPA has upheld health as a central value of our work. The decisions planners make can have significant consequences for the health of communities. For example, COVID-19 disproportionately affects people with preexisting conditions like asthma that can often be related to aspects of their environment, like the presence of a highway or a power plant. Overcrowded housing can also make the spread of COVID-19 more rapid, preliminary research suggests.

Planners and advocates have the responsibility to positively influence community health through equitable approaches to economic development, food security, housing, health access, and transportation access. With this in mind, Planning Exchange participants will strengthen their regional networks and partnerships in the second phase of this work, enabling more effective responses to COVID-19 while beginning to address the roots of racial inequities which affect community health.