Intelligent Cities/Better Cities
presented by Susan Piedmont-Palladino

We sit at the intersection of two powerful trends: massive urbanization and pervasive information. We are experiencing unprecedented population growth in cities around the world, unprecedented pressures on resources, and an unprecedented ability to know and share information. Despite the fears that mobile communication technology would drive us all into lives of wireless isolation, the opposite seems to be happening. The parks, plazas and open spaces in our cities are returning to the role they filled generations ago: places to share, read, write, gossip, and debate…in short, communicate. What does it mean for the future of our cities that technology is an integral part not only of design and construction but of the user experience?

Sustaining Cities in the Eurozone
presented by Simon Atkinson

Kurt Anderson, in his book “Reset,” argues that America has been in a 1980s time warp. As people only change because they have to, the current crisis could lead to a “renewable of America.” Richard Florida takes a more positivist view that both intelligent people and jobs gravitate to “hip” cities, but still, little is said of “green, smart, and just.” Conversely, a range of European cities and their citizens have established a deep and long term view that city is important, as is the quality of life of all its citizens. Atkinson will focus on a number of European cities that raise questions for the American condition. Stockholm, Amsterdam, Freiburg and London are each places that have shown leadership in terms of “reset” (and where Atkinson has been fortunate to live). In the design of these cities, their architecture and landscape, the quality of life of people, the importance of energy and a revolution in green thinking are aiming to steer a new future. Atkinson will present research, strategies and a series of examples from these communities demonstrating how design innovation combined with new technologies can offer intelligence towards both environmental benefit and community sustainability.

Digital Urban Transformation
presented by Adam Goldberg

Designers will play a critical role in shaping the future’s smart, connected and sustainable cities. It is imperative that designers, planners, politicians and consumers understand the opportunities and challenges of fusing the physical and digital worlds together. Cisco Smart+Connected Communities uses intelligent networking capabilities to weave together people, services, community assets and information into a single pervasive solution. “Smart+Connected” acknowledges the essential role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and embraces the concept of the “network as the platform” to help transform physical communities to digital communities. It also encapsulates a new way of thinking about how communities are designed, built, managed and renewed to achieve social, economic and environmental sustainability. Designers in particular can help craft a vision for smart or digital cities, but to do so will require a knowledge of the technical as well as practical limits of current efforts and an understanding of the direction research is taking for the future city. Conference attendees will learn about the latest initiatives as well as the future concepts for smart cities, and how Cisco and others here in the Triangle are leading these efforts.

Urban Reset in the Nation’s Capital: Seeking to Make the District of Columbia the Greenest, Smartest, most Just City in the United States
presented by Don Edwards

“Don’t say it if you don’t mean it–because it could happen.” Since 1999, Washington, DC, has been explicitly engaged in re-creating itself as the greenest, smartest and most just major city in the United States. In February of this year, 1,700 people, mostly DC residents, spent an entire Saturday seated in the city’s convention center in discussions about how to achieve “One City.” Did all of them participate in what was nothing more than a political stunt as has been suggested? In 1990, the city reported 474 homicides, earning it the moniker of “Murder Capital of the U.S.” In 2011, DC had 108 homicides. DC’s population has grown from 572,000 in 2000 to 618,000 in 2011. What’s going on? Is Marvin Gaye’s hometown seriously trying to become a “beloved community?” How did this bold aspiration unfold? What’s been gained? What’s been lost? What contributions have planning, design and engineering construction made to the emerging 21st century vision of DC? Don Edwards will share transferable knowledge that might have salience elsewhere.

Small, Local, Infinitely Variable: Making Room for Local Production
presented by Jerome Chou

In cities around the country, new condos, office towers, and tourist destinations typically grab economic development headlines. But cities are also incubators for many types of small-scale enterprises that provide job opportunities and neighborhood amenities for a broad range of residents – not just the “creative class.” The Design Trust for Public Space, a New York-based planning and design nonprofit, is currently completing two projects that demonstrate the importance of local production to a diverse urban economy and many other municipal goals: Making Midtown, about Manhattan’s Garment District, and Five Borough Farm, about urban agriculture in New York City. How can municipalities make room for manufacturing and urban farms and gardens, even in the face of real estate and land use pressures? This talk explores the tools that planners, designers, and nonprofit advocates can use to influence public opinion and city officials, and how we can assign value to the seemingly intangible benefits of clustering, community development, and public space.

Portland, Oregon: Taking Local Action on Climate Change
presented by Susan Anderson

Over the past decade, cities around the world have focused on sustainability and climate change as important environmental and economic drivers of change. In this session, Susan Anderson, director of the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability for the City of Portland, will focus on specific actions that Portland has taken to promote a prosperous, healthy and more equitable city – while significantly reducing its carbon footprint. Portland has successfully reduced carbon emissions by more than 25 percent per capita since 1990. And, even with a population increase of more than 25 percent since 1990, total emissions have dropped 6.5 percent. During this same time period, U.S. total carbon emissions have increased by 12 percent with a population increase of 23 percent. Clearly, Portland is heading in a better direction. A series of case studies will be featured that describe urban design, technical assistance, creative financing tools, zoning and code improvements and efforts to change individual and business behavior. Learn specific strategies to develop and implement local climate action plans, and programs focused on energy efficiency, solar, and green building; waste reduction, composting and recycling; green procurement, sustainable food, natural resource inventories, biking and transit use, and healthy, walkable neighborhoods that reduce the need to travel by car. Portland has done this work with a mix of regulatory policies, market based approaches and voluntary actions. Much of the success on reducing carbon emissions has been the result of NOT talking about climate change or sustainability – and instead translating the message to focus on the benefits for overall quality of life, jobs and prosperity, affordable housing and healthy families.

REMARKS

Framing the Issues of Green, Smart and Just
As we prepare to hear presentations from speakers representing a wide variety of urban design issues, moderator Jess Zimbabwe will offer observations on the larger context of “urban reset” and the response to these critical issues by government, industry, professionals and community members.

Observations on Urban Reset
As president of the American Planning Association, Raleigh’s own Mitchell Silver has had a rare opportunity to observe today’s “urban reset” as it is being played out in communities all across the country. During lunch, Mitchell will share with participants how different cities and regions are developing green, smart and just solutions to their own urban planning and design challenges.