Why?

Channels for community participation are written into New York City land-use law, but the terminology of development can be complex enough to discourage even committed community advocates. As a result, public discussion of development proposals flattens into “pro” and “anti” positions, and many community members who could provide valuable input simply stay silent. Maybe the experts like it that way, but given the large and long-term community impacts of land-use decisions, that’s not the way it should be.

Community education isn’t the only barrier to meaningful participation in the New York City land-use decisions, but it’s one of the biggest. With access to key concepts and technical jargon, community members can develop and articulate positive, nuanced visions for their neighborhood to the experts. More community members participate effectively, and experts get more responsive. Shouting matches can turn into discussions.

How?

The Envisioning Development Toolkit is a set of teaching tools designed to help experts and laypeople communicate. Advocates, policy wonks, community board members, developers, and others can use the tools as a centerpiece for workshops and conversations that describe and clarify problems and propose and communicate solutions.

The Toolkit is visual, tactile, and interactive. Each tool translates abstract concepts and language into straightforward activities and physical objects that let people learn by looking, doing, and listening to each other. Participants teach themselves and others as they use the tools. Concepts and jargon turn out to be less complicated than they seem.

Who?

The Envisioning Development Toolkit is designed by CUP in collaboration with the Pratt Center for Community Development, the Fifth Avenue Committee, and other community-based organizations and policy groups across the City. CUP develops and tests the tools in workshops in communities all over New York.

If you have any questions or a land-use issue that you would like us to tackle, send an e-mail to christine@anothercupdevelopment.org. If you’d like to test a tool or if you’re a designer or educator who’d like to get involved, e-mail john@anothercupdevelopment.org.

This project would not be possible without input from the following friends:

Victor Bach, Community Service Society
Eve Baron, Municipal Arts Society
Amy Chan, Tenants & Neighbors
Glen Cummings, MTWTF
Benjamin Dulchin, Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development
Emily Earle, Pratt Area Community Council
Julia Fitzgerald, Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Katie Goldstein, Tenants & Neighbors
Amanda Huron, Hunter College
Sadaf Khatri, New York Jobs with Justice
Heather Knopsnyder, Pratt Area Community Council
Alison Lack, Good Jobs First
Jenny Laurie, City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court
Richard Lee, Asian Americans for Equality
Dina Levy, Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
Jennifer Levy, South Brooklyn Legal Services
Gita Nandan, Thread Collective
Helene Onserud, Center for Family Life
Juan Camilo Osorio, Municipal Arts Society
Damaris Reyes, Good Old Lower East Side
Elana Schneyer, Pratt Area Community Council
Sideya Sherman, Municipal Arts Society
Jo Anne Simon, Attorney and Candidate for City Council
Elizabeth Sorce, Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
Ericka Stallings, The New York Immigration Coalition
Bob Zuckerman, Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation

Funding for this project has been generously provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Brooklyn Community Foundation, and the Park Slope Civic Council.

Thanks!