Good evening, everyone:

Apologies for the late arrival, but a number of us – Katie, Kara, Benjy, Bill, Joelle, Kevin W., Jordan, Elwood Hopkins, and I – have spent the day at the Central Valley Community Foundation. We heard about and discussed the extraordinarily visionary work that Elwood and his team of consultants are pursuing to revitalize Chinatown, the efforts of the Downtown Partnership to activate more fully the central business district, and the diverse and inspirational work a dozen community-based organizations are doing in Fresno’s neighborhoods. It was a fascinating and inspiring day. More to come.

But tonight, I wanted to provide a brief preview of the soon-to-be-released (i.e., tomorrow) report that emerged from last year’s Our Urban Future conference, which was the last of the convenings celebrating the foundation’s Centennial year. Many thanks to Jordan for helping pull some of what follows together.

Involving Kresge staff, institutional and organizational partners, and community development practitioners, the event was deeply substantive, provocative, and productive. The premise was that we would draw on the experiences and insights of the conference’s participants to explore what the next generation of urban practice might be – what it might look like to imagine a bolder, more equitable urban future.

It wasn’t a conference ready-made for easy summary. Indeed,  Jennifer Bradley, our colleagues on the American Cities team, and the consulting firm Four Corners have spent a considerable amount of time and thought trying to distill key lessons. The result is anything but a postcard from a vanished era. It is instead a galvanizing reminder of the variety of ways that people across the country are continuing to– despite the considerable headwinds of the current policy environment – find effective and enduring ways to advance equity and opportunity, and even joy, in America’s cities.

The report suggests that the convening – which built on a suite of previous convenings and conversations in a variety of forums – underscored three core priorities for cities:

1. A multi-sectoral, pluralistic approach and the right leadership to organize and maintain it;

2. Community self-determination and creative use of assets; and

3. New and strengthened systems to deliver diverse forms of capital.

That shorthand doesn’t begin to do justice to the thoughtfulness and thoroughness of the report. That will instead require that you take a look for yourselves: it can be accessed here: see attachment. The document does double-duty: as an analysis of the impact of our various Centennial convenings and as a roadmap of what smart and visionary policy work in cities can and should be.  

And it is, at core,  a reminder that as difficult as the work is, it is vital to the long-term health and vitality of American cities.

I look forward to your reactions.

Rip

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