Rolling Out the Zoning Workshops!

Yo! It’s right before the holidays and we finally have a little time for an update. We’re excited to report that we’ve been testing out a new set of zoning tools for our advocate and policy friends around the city. They’re helping us to develop and improve the tools before we start mass producing them and distributing them later in 2011.

The activities offer a fun, interactive primer on zoning for use and zoning for bulk, and allow facilitators to look at the potential impacts of rezonings in your neighborhood. For the really nerdy, there are optional modules on more advanced concepts like incentive zoning, contextual zoning, inclusionary zoning, and transfer of development rights.

Thanks to everyone who came to the Brooklyn workshop at Fifth Avenue Committee, the Manhattan workshop at the North Star Fund, and our little toolkit preview at the New Museum.

We’re really excited to keep testing and developing the zoning toolkit. Get in touch if you want to try it in your neighborhood!

Envisioning Development at the New York Immigration Coalition

Our buddies at the NYIC asked us and Richard Lee of Asian Americans for Equality to ‘train the trainers’ at a monthly meeting of housing advocates who work with immigrant communities. CHHAYA was there, Woodside on the Move was there, AAFE was there, Urban Justice Center, a couple other groups…pretty fun!

That’s the way it usual works — NYIC wanted to buy a toolkit, so we did the first workshop with experienced facilitators so they could see it happen step by step. We also have a facilitator’s guide at the back of the guidebook, a ‘how-to’ video posted on the Affordable Housing page of this site, and some sample intro scripts. That’s full service!

We’ve now sold the toolkit to about 40 groups around the city and country — tenant groups, community boards, academic institutions, CDCs, planning organizations, public health departments, and many others.

Envisioning Development at the New Museum

We’ve installed the Affordable Housing Toolkit and an in-progress version of the Zoning Toolkit at the New Museum as part of an exhibition called ‘The Last Newspaper.’ We might try to use their beautiful space for a workshop or two before the show comes down in January. You can see the show for free on Thursday evenings from 7 to 9pm.

In the meantime, I should mention that we’re giving test zoning workshops. If your organization needs to learn about zoning for use, zoning for bulk, contextual zoning, rezoning, etc., let us know. The workshop is fun, interactive, and involves lots of building things with DUPLO bricks.

Envisioning Development at Empire State College

Thanks to Professor Jill Hamberg for having us over to her housing policy and advocacy class at Empire State College. We took a look at income demographics and housing costs in East New York (where two of the students are from) and then really wonked out on housing subsidy programs. It was a great group.

The Affordable Housing Toolkit will now be part of the curriculum every time she teaches the class. The workshop has been conducted for tenants and community members, staff members at housing organizations and legal advocacy offices, high school and college students, and many more. It’s pretty versatile.

Envisioning Development at the West Side Tenants’ Conference

Lucas Shapiro of Housing Conservation Coordinators and West Side Neighborhood Alliance has probably given more workshops with the Affordable Housing Toolkit than anybody other than CUP staff members. He can’t be stopped!

Here he is at the 6th Annual West Side Tenants’ Conference. I’ve been at some workshops on the West Side — they really know their stuff over there.

Thinking About Sale Prices with UHAB

The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB) uses the interactive NYC Income Map as part of their resources to help Housing Development Fund Corporations appropriately price their units in New York City.

As UHAB explains, setting sale prices at affordable levels not only provides much-needed affordable housing in the city, but also increases the financial stability of the building by decreasing defaults on payments.

Head over to the UHAB website to check it out!

Envisioning Development at Sgt. Dougherty Park

Last Sunday, Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (NAG) teamed up with the School of the Future for an al fresco affordable housing workshop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Participants used the Affordable Housing Toolkit to visualize housing costs in Greenpoint/Williamsburg and talk about the efforts there to preserve housing for people at the lower end of the income scale. Did you know that most of the affordable housing there is too expensive for the average family in the neighborhood?

‘Demystifying Affordable Housing’ with the Fifth Avenue Committee

Our pals at the Fifth Avenue Committee used the Affordable Housing toolkit to hold a series of bi-lingual workshops explaining the key concepts behind affordable housing. The sessions went into city and federal definitions of affordable housing, the difference between affordable and subsidized housing, and much more.

The workshops were sponsored by the South Brooklyn Accountable Development Initiative, a project of the Fifth Avenue Committee.

Envisioning Development at Hunter College

Our friends over at the Municipal Art Society got to work with the Affordable Housing Toolkit at Hunter College as part of the Livable Neighborhoods Training Program. The 4th annual event brought nearly 150 New Yorkers together this year to build the skills needed to strengthen neighborhood decision-making and participation.

In addition to affordable housing, participants discussed community organizing and planning for parks and public green space.

For more info on the event, head over to the MAS website

Affordable Housing Guidebook Honored by AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers Competition!

The Affordable Housing Toolkit’s “What Is Affordable Housing?” Guidebook has been selected as part of the “AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers” competition – a collection of outstanding book and cover designs for the year 2009! The book was designed by Glen Cummings (of MTWTF) with Aliza Dzik, Josh Hearn, and Dylan Fracaretta, and features the photographs of Anthony Hamboussi. Congratulations, team!

The book will become a part of the AIGA Design Archives, both through an online archive and in print at the Denver Art Museum and Columbia University’s Butler Library. It will also be shown as part of a public exhibition opening in New York in 2010 and touring across the country and China in 2011.

Check out the winners here.