Overview presentation on the Design Assistance Program for municipal officials from large US cities.

2. Cities have the capability of
providing something for everybody,
only because, and only when, they
are created by everybody
-- Jane Jacobs
Behind all the current buzz about
collaboration is a discipline. And
with all due respect to the ancient
arts of governing and diplomacy, the
more recent art of collaboration
does represent something new --
maybe Copernican. If it contained a
silicon chip, we’d all be excited.
-- John Gardner
1990s
1960s
Brief History of a Movement

3. Look @ What’s Happening Today
• National League of Cities survey of U.S. Cities (2010) -
81 percent use public engagement processes "often" (60
percent) or "sometimes" (21 percent)
• American Planning Association (2012) – “More than 50
percent want to personally be involved in community
planning efforts, including more than half of Democrats,
Republicans, and independents as well as majorities of
urban, suburban, and rural respondents.”

4. Facilitating Citizen-Led Change
• Local democratic wave during last 25 years
• Decentralization - Neighborhood Council Systems and
Neighborhood Associations
• Aggregation – there’s an app for that. Civic multipliers,
crowdsourcing/crowdfunding
• Citizen-led interventions. ‘Tactical Urbanism’ – start small, scale up
• Empowerment – over 100 Neighborhood College and Citizen
Academy programs

5. The So-called ‘Secrets’ to
Community Success
• Vision
• Process
– Engage the whole community
• Partnerships & Collaboration
– Public/Private, Cross-Sector
• Civic Leadership vs. Political
– Capacity beyond
local government

8. Over 200 ‘DATs’ since 1967

9. DAT Impacts in large cities over the
years…
• San Francisco
(Embarcadero)
• Portland (Pearl District)
• Seattle (Downtown housing)
• Denver (LoDo/16th Street
mall)
• Austin (Downtown
Revitalization)
• Santa Fe (Railyard
Redevelopment/Park)
• Process adaptation in
UK and across Europe

10. Design Assistance Principles
• Holistic, Interdisciplinary Approach to
Community Design (Customization)
• Enhanced Objectivity (Pro Bono Public Service)
• COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION (Citizen Experts,
Authentic Community Process)

11. What distinguishes the DAT?
• We are NOT:
– Another Consultant Team
– A process to produce a
planning document
• “Please don’t give us
another plan. We have
plenty – they all sit on the
shelves. We need
implementation
strategies.” – Almost Every
community
– Government-focused
– “Green”-focused
– Building-focused
• We ARE:
– Public Service in the Public
Interest
• “Consultants work for
somebody. Design
Assistance Teams work for
everybody.”
– Action-Oriented
– Community-focused
– Holistic, Customized
• “It’s about the space
between the buildings, and
the people that inhabit
that space”

12. SDAT vs. R/UDAT
• SDAT is…
– 3 day process
– Costs $5,000 (AIA covers
up to 15K team costs)
– Community presentation
– Report 2-3 months later
• R/UDAT is…
– 4.5 day process
– Community covers cost
of hosting the team
– Community presentation
– Report delivered on site

13. Joke Of The Week
“Except in Detroit,
mayors today have
more fun.”

14. How Does the DAT Program help?
• Transcends local political dynamics – moves beyond
narrow interests and constituencies to broader, shared
community interests
• Re-defines public work to include the whole
community and set the stage for civic leadership and
partnership
• Creates a broad sense of community ownership by
collaborating on an authentic community process
• Builds customized frameworks, action-oriented
strategies and priorities
• Positions a local jurisdiction for major investment
(private, federal, etc)

15. “We have no public resources to
implement”
• Volunteerism = $171 billion (only 64 mill people)
• Total Charitable Giving = $298.42 billion.
• Non-profits = $300 billion in investment into local
communities
• Over half of all states have enacted legislation to enable
private-sector participation in infrastructure projects, where
there is an estimated $180 billion to be leveraged
• Crowdfunding - $1.5 billion in 2011 alone, and growing

16. Recent Projects in Large Jurisdictions
• SDATs:
– Tampa (downtown)
– LA (downtown)
– Detroit (shrinking city)
– Indianapolis
(neighborhood
revitalization)
– New Orleans (recovery)
– Austin (waterfront)
• R/UDATs
– Birmingham (recovery)
– Houston (revitalization)
– Miami (river corridor)
– New Orleans (corridor)
– Rockaways (recovery)

17. Quick Examples – Detroit (2008)

18. Austin – 2012

19. Rockaways, NYC - 2013

20. October 16-18, 2013
• Will produce 21st Century
Agenda for post-
industrial cities
• High-level convening of
300 delegates from US,
Canada, UK, and Europe
• Prince Charles, Shaun
Donovan, Richard
Florida, Bruce Katz, Rip
Rapson, etc