Mayors Imagining the Just City: Volume 5

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Event Description
Kicking off the fifth annual Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) Just City Mayoral Fellowship—a collaboration between MICD and Harvard GSD’s Just City Lab—speakers will discuss strategies for using planning and design interventions to address racial, social, and environmental injustice in our cities.
Speakers
Jake Day Secretary Jacob R. (Jake) Day leads the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and serves as a member of Governor Wes Moore’s Cabinet. As a member of the Governor’s Executive Council, Secretary Day is the Governor’s senior advisor on housing and place-based economic development. He is also the chief executive officer of the State’s housing finance agency, managing $2.5 Billion in annual spending, $9 Billion in assets, and more than 500 staff members. Prior to his nomination to lead the Department, Secretary Day served as the 28th Mayor of Salisbury, Maryland. Born and raised in Salisbury, he previously served as City Council President.
Tiffany Chu Tiffany Chu is the Chief of Staff to Mayor Michelle Wu. Tiffany comes from a background in design, urban planning, and entrepreneurship. Prior to joining the City of Boston, she was the CEO & Co-founder of Remix, a collaborative software platform for transportation planning used by 500+cities around the world. Previously, Tiffany was at Code for America, Y Combinator, Zipcar, and Continuum. She’s been named in Forbes’ 30 Under 30, LinkedIn’s Next Wave of Leaders Under 35, and featured at SXSW, Helsinki Design Week, the New York Times Cities for Tomorrow Conference, and more.
“D.C” Reeves D.C. Reeves has been mayor of Pensacola since November 2022. His focus is on public safety, economic development and maintenance of city assets. Previously, Reeves was a sports journalist, author, community builder and entrepreneur. He also served as the CEO at The Spring Entrepreneur Hub advocating for small businesses in Pensacola. In 2017, Reeves founded Perfect Plain Brewing Co., which quickly became a staple of downtown Pensacola and one of Florida’s busiest craft beer taprooms. The business expanded to four locations and had over 40 employees before. sold to New Orleans-based Urban South Brewery. D.C.’s community focus led him to serve as board chairman of Visit Pensacola, Pensacola’s tourism marketing organization, in 2021. He was named 2021 Emerging Leader of the Year by the Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce.
Moderator
Katie Swenson A nationally recognized design leader, researcher, writer, and educator, Katie Swenson has served as a Senior Principal of MASS Design Group since 2020. Katie has over 20 years of experience in the theoretical and practical application of design thinking and is a talented global public speaker and thought leader. A prolific writer, she authored Design with Love: At Home in America, and In Bohemia: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Kindness, and co-authored Growing Urban Habitats: Seeking a Housing Development Model. Katie was awarded the AIA Award for Excellence in Public Architecture in 2021. Prior to joining MASS, Katie was the vice president of Design & Sustainability at Enterprise Community Partners, where, as a member of the second class, she led the Enterprise Rose Fellowship. Katie lives in New York City, where she serves on the board of the Van Alen Institute and teaches at Columbia University and Parsons School of Design.
Partners
At the Just City Lab, we ask: Would we design better places if we put the values of equality, inclusion, or equity first? If a community articulated what it stood for, what it believed in, what it aspired to be — as a city, as a neighborhood — would it have a better chance of creating and sustaining a more healthy, vibrant place with positive economic, health, civic, cultural, and environmental conditions? Imagine that the issues of race, income, education, and unemployment inequality, and the resulting segregation, isolation, and fear, could be addressed by planning and designing for greater access, agency, ownership, beauty, diversity, or empowerment. Now, imagine the Just City: the cities, neighborhoods, and public spaces that thrive using a value-based approach to urban stabilization, revitalization, and transformation. Imagine a set of values that would define a community’s aspiration for the Just City. Imagine we can assign metrics to measure design’s impact on justice. Imagine we can use these findings to deploy interventions that minimize conditions of injustice.
With a belief in the power of city design to transform communities, the Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) educates mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities. Since 1986, we’ve offered collaborative learning programs and resources to mayors in order to make a purposeful, positive impact on America.
Harvard University welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the Public Programs Office at (617) 496-2414 or [email protected] in advance of your participation or visit. Requests for American Sign Language interpreters and/or CART providers should be made at least two weeks in advance. Please note that the University will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability.
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