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HR&A is an industry-leading real estate and economic development consulting firm with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Raleigh, and Washington D.C.

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�I am honored and excited to serve as CEO. I look forward to leading HR&A�s passionate team of urban development and policy experts, building upon John and Candace�s work advising countless cities, communities, and industries on the most important development and policy challenges in urban America.�
- Eric Rothman

Over the past 40 years, HR&A has grown to a team of over 120 planners, analysts, policymakers, organizers, advocates, economists, lawyers, architects, and urbanists across five offices.

To support our future growth, we are thrilled to announce that Eric Rothman, current firm President, will become Chief Executive Officer on January 1, 2020. John Alschuler, who founded our firm and has served as Chairman, will remain an active Partner and Chair of HR&A�s Board of Directors. HR&A�s Vice Chairman Candace Damon will remain an active Partner and lead the HR&A Board�s oversight of business strategy. This announcement accompanies broader strategic management changes to strengthen our focus on our clients and our growing impact on the vitality of urban communities nation-wide and globally.

Click here to learn more about the exciting changes happening at HR&A, and please don�t hesitate to get in touch. Visit www.hraadvisors.com or contact marketing@hraadvisors.com.

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Despite national headlines, more unites urban and suburban communities than divides them.

As we celebrate Labor Day, we explore how creating a more resilient and equitable manufacturing sector demands collaboration across county lines. It's yet another example of how regionalism will be essential to recovery.

New York City and Inner New Jersey Manufacturers,
Estimated Rent ($/SF) and Space Size (SF)

FROM OUR HOMES TO YOURS

The latest thinking from our team of former public officials, planners, developers, architects, organizers, institutional leaders, and economists. For more, check out our blog.

Confronting the Housing Crisis: As more Americans than ever are at risk of losing their homes, Community Change and the Ford Foundation this week launched the Housing Playbook Project, which will recommend actions that future administrations can take during their first 100-200 days to advance a transformative housing agenda rooted in racial equity and justice. HR&A's Inclusive Cities team is proud to have helped design and launch the project, which will be co-chaired by Dorian Warren of Community Change, Maria Torres-Springer of the Ford Foundation, and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Juli?n Castro. The Housing Playbook Project is accepting your boldest ideas for a federal housing agenda that puts people first here. (Community Change)

Stopping Evictions now: At present, the only thing keeping many tenants in their homes is a loose network of eviction moratoria and renter relief programs that vary by state. In a recent op-ed, HR&A's Sarah Kirk argues that North Carolina - with historically weak renter protections - must act now to prevent a wave of homelessness and unnecessary hardship. (INDY Week)

Correcting the Record: Our August 20 newsletter linked to an announcement by the California State University Board of Trustees that all CSU undergrads will be required to take a course related to ethnic studies or social justice. In fact, the Trustees' action had since been superseded by an act of the State Legislature, which specifies that the required courses must be related to ethnic studies explicitly. We'll explore the CSU debate further in an upcoming newsletter. For now, we regret the error and thank our eagle-eyed reader and friend, Ed Hamilton, for spotting it. (LA Times)

FROM OUR COLLABORATORS

Here's what work from our clients, partners, and peers caught our attention recently.

L.A. County: County offers $100M in renter relief using CARES Act funding

Markle Foundation: Rework America Alliance to help workers emerge from the pandemic better positioned for good-paying jobs

MICD: Adapting streets for pandemic response and recovery (webinar)

Sightline Institute: Portland just passed the best low-density zoning reform in US history

Thinkubator: Virtual Bronx internships put youth first and test a privately funded model

Wake County: County breaks record of affordable housing units funded in 2020

Have something to share? We'd like to feature your organization's work - tell us about it.

DATA OUTLIER

Each week we feature the data work that's capturing our imagination most.

The fortunes of urban and suburban America are closely intertwined, but that doesn't mean there aren't real differences in identities and viewpoints among regional neighbors - differences that planners and policymakers will need to bridge as they work toward regional solutions. We're reminded of a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center that surveyed more than 6,200 urban, suburban, and rural residents. Among its findings: residents of urban and suburban communities place greater value on living in diverse communities, while residents of rural areas are more likely to know (and value knowing) all or most of their neighbors. One common thread: residents of urban, suburban, and rural areas feel that people in other types of communities do not share their values. (Pew)

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How is the Thanksgiving meal like a Just and Resilient Recovery? Click through to find out what's on the menu - and enjoy!

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HR&A is closed today in observance of Juneteenth.

As we reflect on an anti-racist future, we are turning to these resources. We thought you might appreciate them, too.

What is Juneteenth? by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

An actionable strategy for honoring Juneteenth by Hella Creative

How do we respond to anti-Black racism in urbanist practices and conversations? A conversation and additional resources

If you're interested in learning more, consider these anti-racism resources by Good Good Good, adapted from a Google Doc by Sarah Sophie Flicker & Alyssa Klein, complemented by a Google Doc that is a work-in-progress compilation by HR&A Staff.

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Local governments are facing difficult decisions and uncertain futures as their communities, and especially those most vulnerable, are being hit with unprecedented health and financial crises due to Covid-19. The Federal government has begun to provide support but navigating these programs is challenging. We can help.

On Thursday, April 9th from 2:00 - 3:00pm EDT, HR&A Partners Phliip Kash and Jeff Hebert, experienced leaders in disaster recovery and resilience, will be leading Federal Disaster Stimulus: A Primer for Local Governments, a webinar highlighting the Federal programs addressing the current financial crisis, including:

Federal funding streams
Key programs in the CARES Act
How local governments can best deploy funding

Register below to join the session or email us at info@hraadvisors.com for more information.

Register Here

Phillip Kash is a nationally recognized practitioner and pioneer in resilience planning and disaster recovery. A leading expert on urban policy, Phillip works across the country to address two of the most pressing challenges facing cities today: climate adaptation, economic recovery and housing affordability. His visionary plans provide cities and their partners with strategic frameworks to guide their efforts; programs and policies to inform their actions; and implementation roadmaps that ensure projects are delivered.

Jeff Hebert is a pioneer of resilience planning and community revitalization. He works with cities around the country to develop strategies that mitigate future social, economic, and physical shocks and stresses. He is a national expert in the areas of resiliency, redevelopment, equitable and inclusionary growth, and economic development. Jeff was instrumental in the recovery of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina having served Mayor Mitch Landrieu as the city's First Deputy Mayor & Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Resilience Officer, and as Executive Director of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority. In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, he served as the Director of Community Planning for the Louisiana Recovery Authority under Governor Kathleen Blanco.

HR&A''s strategic guidance helps clients prepare for, respond to, and grow from global and local challenges, focusing on the most vulnerable communities. Read more about the Urban Resilience practice here.

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Economic development systems need fundamental redesign.

What could an overhaul of these institutions look like? Are public banks part of the answer? Read two takes on new approaches to systemic change.

Protestors in Chattanooga, TN call out systemic racism following the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis. (Photo: Chattanooga Times Free Press / Troy Stolt)

FROM OUR HOMES TO YOURS

The latest thinking from our team of former public officials, planners, developers, architects, organizers, institutional leaders, and economists. For more, check out our blog.

L.A.'s Racial Legacy: Los Angeles does not have statues of slave traders, but racism shaped its land use and the deep inequities that remain. HR&A Partner Judith Taylor discusses the challenges of equitable development amid structural inequity. (KCRW)

Public Arena: Public space has taken center stage in both COVID recovery and the Black Lives Matter movement. In a panel discussion, HR&A''s Madison Morine discusses the role public spaces play in advancing, or holding back, equitable development. (PPS)

Home Front: For many renters, COVID-19 has stressed already tenuous housing conditions. Join HR&A Partner Phillip Kash and other national housing experts on 6/25 for a webinar on why workforce housing is more important than ever. (Registration)

Volunteers add Medgar Evers' name to a Black Lives Matter mural in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. (Photo: Untapped Cities / Aaron Asis)

FROM OUR COLLABORATORS

Here's what work from our clients, partners, and peers caught our attention this week

Ford, MacArthur, Kellogg, Duke, Mellon: Leading foundations increase COVID grantmaking by $1.7B through first-ever social bond program

Center for an Urban Future: NYC's immigrants are under unprecedented threat and shut out of most government aid

Kinder Institute: Protests, public space and the remaking of cities

Center for Community Progress, Houston Land Bank: Can land banks help limit fallout from the recession - and rebuild more equitable communities?

Opportunity Finance Network: CDFIs awarded $10B in PPP loan funds, as small businesses win extra flexibility to use funds

ULI Washington: Reflection on race, equity, and a mandate for action on diversity and inclusion (Also: BlackSpace Urban Collective's manifesto on inclusive planning and design)

Have something to share? We'd like to feature your organization's work - tell us about it.

DATA OUTLIER

Each week we feature the data work that's capturing our imagination most.

The Black Futures Lab's Black Census Project is the largest independent survey of Black people ever conducted in the United States, with more than 31,000 responses from all 50 states sharing views on political and economic priorities, policing, issues of identity, and more. Among the many survey results relevant to planning and policy professionals, the chart below summarizes the level of trust - or lack thereof - Black respondents reported in various institutions, including many common messengers in urban policymaking.

Learn more from BFP's three Census reports: More Black Than Blue: Politics and Power in the 2019 Black Census, Beyond Kings and Queens: Gender and Politics in the 2019 Black Census, When the Rainbow Is Not Enough: LGB+ Voices in the 2019 Black Census.

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HR&A Launches A Just & Resilient Recovery

The COVID-19 crisis is far from over, but planning for recovery has begun.

A transformative recovery begins with ideas.

A Just & Resilient Recovery is a new, collaborative initiative to translate those ideas into actions to build a better "next normal" for urban life.

The HR&A community has been at the center of urban resilience, recovery and rebuilding initiatives for decades. From New York City's fiscal crisis to the Great Recession, the Northridge earthquake to September 11th, Hurricanes Katrina, Harvey, Sandy, and Maria, we've helped many different communities weather many different shocks.

Times of crisis are times to come together.

As we've worked with scores of clients over the last several weeks to assess uncertainty, take first steps, and prepare for recovery, we're excited to see a growing desire to go beyond a "return to normal," to proactively shape a stronger, more equitable, more resilient urban life.

Over the months to come, we will be using this campaign for A Just & Resilient Recovery to share the latest from our team and elevate the ideas and actions that you are advancing to institutionalize transformational inclusivity and innovation in urban practice.

10 PRINCIPLES FOR A JUST AND RESILIENT RECOVERY

Carl Weisbrod shares principles for economic recovery in cities, drawing on four decades of leadership in the City of New York through a wide range of crises. He shares some premises - the promise of cities is not extinguished, diversity and pluralism are cities' greatest strengths, the COVID-19 pandemic is intersecting with epidemics of inequality - and sets forth the ten concepts that we must all take into account as we advance a just and resilient recovery. (HR&A)

Share Your Priorities for A Just & Resilient Recovery

Read more about this initiative here, follow our thinking on Medium, take a 1-minute survey, and please pass this note along to others working to remake urban life towards a "next normal" that is more just and resilient.

FROM OUR HOMES TO YOURS

We're working from homes around the world and know most of you are, too. Here's this week's roundup of homework from our team of former government officials, planners, architects, developers, community organizers, institutional leaders, and economists.

Federal Dollars and Sense: Jeff Hebert and Phillip Kash provide a primer on what federal support is available - or is likely to become available in the near future - and how to deploy funding most effectively. (Webinar) Bonus: read their Framework to Guide Communities Toward a Just and Resilient Recovery

Time for the High Ground: The COVID-19 crisis is putting some policy on pause - and that may be a good thing. Andrea Batista Schlesinger and Jonathan Meyers on the opportunity we have to address institutional racism through cannabis regulation. (City Limits)

Milk Money: Inequities in food access and security have never been more acute. David DeVaughn and Syed Ali share why the time has come to advance cooperative ownership models in the grocery industry. Disclosure: HR&A is a 100% employee-owned company. (Blog)

FROM OUR COLLABORATORS

These ideas and actions from our clients, project partners, alumni, and thought partners caught our attention this week. Share your organization''s work so we can highlight it, too.

Atlantic Council: "Stories of Resilience" and much-needed optimism

Airbnb: Hosts shelter 100,000 COVID responders

Brooklyn Navy Yard: NYC manufacturers mobilize to make face masks, medical equipment (Also: SITU)

Carnegie Mellon: Teaming up to gather COVID-19 symptom data

Kinder Institute: In post-pandemic Texas, cities will be more important than ever

LAANE: Launching the Healthy LA Campaign

Mother Cabrini Health Foundation: Pledging $50M to support health and social service nonprofits

Nassau County: Laying the Groundwork For Small Business Recovery

New York Housing Conference: Guidance for Affordable Housing and Recommendations for Federal Stimulus

Pittsburgh URA: Changing course in a crisis

The New Localism: Remaking U.S. institutions post-crisis

DATA OUTLIER

Each week we'll feature the data work that's capturing our imagination most. This week, we celebrate first-year Ph.D. student Ensheng Dong, who took all of one night to build v.0 of the map that has received more than 1 billion visits a day, reminding the world that some of our most valuable innovations are fueled by sudden inspiration and the boldness to take action. Read the story.

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Last week, it was #UrbanismOnTheBallot, and, for the most part, urbanism won - see our round up below.

Now, it's time for #TalkingTransition, which promises to turn local government transitions inside out, elevating community voices to shape agendas beyond the ballot box. What questions do you have for the newly elected?

Our team of experts follow up and discuss which local ballot measures passed, which failed, and most importantly, why?

It's the #UrbanismOnTheBallot follow up!

DATA OUTLIER
Voting aids small business

Much of our work is concerned with establishing the value of activation, whether of open spaces or commercial plazas and ground floors. Increased foot traffic at businesses near early voting sites proved our point: civic programming has market and community development value. (Safegraph)

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HR&A Advisors is excited to welcome Derek Fleming to the firm as a Senior Advisor. For over twenty years Derek has worked with communities across the country, managing public-private developments that not only create value for investors but also ensure equitable economic development and preserve community culture. He will provide our current and new clients expertise in deal structuring, negotiations, capital raising, business development strategies and community engagement.

Joining HR&A presents an opportunity to combine my commitment to improving the lives of those people living and working in challenging environments with my extensive knowledge of public and private development. There is an urgent and ongoing need to re-align approaches to development in communities of color: the moral imperatives and economic incentives are clear, but how does one craft the deals to assure successful and equitable outcomes? I am excited to work with cities and private clients to adopt new ways of looking at real estate planning and sustainable development in collaboration with HR&A's partners and expert consultants.

- Derek Fleming

For the past five years Derek has served as Managing Partner of MSDG, LLC, where he and his partner, Miami-based developer Michael Simkins, focus on urban infill and community-oriented sustainable redevelopment projects. At MSDG, Derek co-led a team advising the City of Miami on a redevelopment strategy for the Historic Overtown Cultural & Entertainment District and managed the development and adaptive re-use construction of a historic building for entertainment purposes.

Prior to MSDG, Derek served as VP of Development of MSG, LLC, working with business partner Chef Marcus Samuelsson to launch a global hospitality business. Derek led design, construction and business development for enterprises such as Red Rooster, where he is a partner. Previously, he served in the public sector for 12 years. At Empire State Development, New York State's economic development agency, Derek managed an Empowerment Zone public lending portfolio of $60 million for real estate and business development transactions in some of New York City's most economically marginalized neighborhoods, including Harlem and the Bronx. During his four years as Project Manager for the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, Derek successfully led a team through the entitlement and re-zoning of the 300-acre underdeveloped Mission Bay brownfield site, leading to the development of over 1,500 affordable housing units as well as retail, commercial, hotel and market-rate housing.

At HR&A, Derek will play a leadership role in creating a new paradigm for equitable recovery and development, advising our clients who are grappling with the disparate economic effects of COVID-19.

I am thrilled that Derek is joining HR&A, particularly at this time of urgent need for cities to plan and deliver a just and resilient recovery. Derek's track record as a developer and community builder supports HR&A's mission to improve the quality of life and increase opportunities for people who live in cities.

- Eric Rothman, CEO

In addition to his role as Senior Advisor at HR&A, Derek is senior board member of the Neighborhood Charter School Harlem & the Bronx.

Derek can be reached at DFleming@hraadvisors.com.

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Who wins in the process of economic recovery? Who loses? Who gets to decide?

The world is questioning a lot right now, but unless we are asking the right questions, and asking them now, the opportunity to shape more equitable cities through this crisis will be unfulfilled.

Pittsburgh United and the Economic Justice Circle of Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

HOW ADVOCATES CAN INFLUENCE ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Andrea Batista Schlesinger, leader of HR&A's Inclusive Cities practice, is focused on how we can prevent the "next normal" from looking like the old normal when it comes to the inequalities of urban life. In a plea to advocacy organizations and their funders - and a challenge to leaders in positions of power - she outlines the questions that need to be asked about every seemingly benign decision in the process of economic recovery.

The world is taking unprecedented action in response to this pandemic. Subsequent recovery efforts offer the opportunity to make equally unprecedented strides in combatting inequality. But the clock is ticking. Read Why Communities Must Pay Attention to the Shape of Recovery Now for more about how the decisions that are being made in City Halls and Statehouses now and in the weeks and months to come are likely to reinforce institutional racism and inequality unless the advocacy community gets better organized, more quickly.

Share This Perspective

Read more about A Just & Resilient Recovery on our blog, sign up for this newsletter, take a 1-minute survey about your interests, and please pass this note along to others working to remake urban life toward a "next normal" that is more just and resilient.

FROM OUR HOMES TO YOURS

We're working from homes around the world and know most of you are, too. Here's this week's roundup of homework from our team of former government officials, planners, architects, developers, community organizers, institutional leaders, and economists.

I ? NYC: This week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the creation of an eight-member Fair Recovery Task Force, including HR&A Senior Partner Carl Weisbrod. For a taste of the wisdom Carl brings to NYC's recovery, in an interview with Adam Tanaka, Carl shares lessons from NYC's past recoveries, from the fiscal crisis to 9/11, and how this one will be different. (Blog)

Greener Pastures: "When schools and cities shut down, where did people go? The parks." Erin Lonoff, Connie Chung, Kate Collignon, and Candace Damon argue that parks are critical infrastructure for urban resilience, and park advocates should dig in with shovel-ready park improvement plans that capture a piece of the next stimulus. (Blog)

Engagement Equity: Nationwide stay-at-home orders are accelerating the adoption of digital tools for public engagement. Carl Hooks and Eri Furusawa share best practices for how to ensure digital-first engagement increases inclusivity and impact. (Blog)

FROM OUR COLLABORATORS

These ideas and actions from our clients, project partners, alumni, and thought partners caught our attention this week. Share your organization''s work so we can highlight it, too.

Buffalo Niagara & RTP: How innovation districts are continuing the fight against COVID-19

CHPC: Housing Policy Solutions for NYC's Recovery from COVID-19

District of Columbia: D.C. town hall on business recovery focuses on equity

Gensler: How should office buildings change in a post-pandemic world?

LACI: Public-private partnership pitches $150B green infrastructure package to Congress

Miguel Santana: Former L.A. CAO reflects on fiscal challenges and seismic shifts ahead

PolicyLink: Principles for a common-sense, street-smart recovery

Rice U.: COVID-19 registry tracks the disease's spread and health and economic impacts

Terner Center: Estimating COVID-19's near-term impact on renters

Wells + Associates: Are COVID-19 hotel closures an opportunity for affordable housing?

DATA OUTLIER

Each week we feature the data work that's capturing our imagination most. This week we share a real-time tracker by the app Transit that plots demand for public transit across North American metros. Across all systems, ridership is down 75%, but impacts vary meaningfully by city. As states ease stay-at-home orders in the coming weeks, we'll be watching for what share of riders return to transit and working on how metro systems can best serve the riders for whom quality public transit is truly essential.

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Urban development leadership must recognize the industry's legacy of White supremacy. Some of today's leaders stand in the way.

Last week, we shared HR&A's commitment to anti-racism, a commitment that many of you have also made. Since then, we've partnered with some of you to demand that industry leaders take action.

We have long been members and leaders at ULI, the development industry's largest membership network. Read more about our call for a new ULI agenda.

Recreation of Home Owners'' Loan Corporation "redlining" map for City of Dallas
(HOLC via Mapping Inequality)

FROM OUR HOMES TO YOURS

We're working from homes around the world and know most of you are, too. Here's this week's roundup of homework from our team of former government officials, planners, architects, developers, community organizers, institutional leaders, and economists.

Averting Evictions: Absent federal, state, and local action, millions of renters risk eviction and homelessness in the coming months. Phillip Kash and Arjun Gupta Sarma draw on their work with the City of New Haven to share strategies to keep renters in their homes. (Blog)

Rise of the Rest: Will the post-pandemic economy give a leg up to small, regional metros over coastal megacities, or slow their momentum? Kyle Vangel explores the prospects through the lens of the small city he grew up visiting, Worcester, MA. (Blog)

Housing First: As the housing crisis intensifies amid the shutdown, affordable housing development has also slowed. MassHousing executive director Chrystal Kornegay discusses the current and future state of the industry in a Q&A with Adam Tanaka and Amelia Taylor-Hochberg. (Blog)

Stay Tuned: Join HR&A leaders in two upcoming webinars: TODAY Lydia Gaby will be discussing the digital release of Turning the Heat: Resiliency in New York City's Heat-Vulnerable Neighborhoods with the Urban Design Forum, and on June 25 Kate Wittels will cover the future of office buildings with ACEC in The Buildings We Live and Work In.

Interested in more of our latest work and thinking? Check out our blog or reach out to JustAndResilient@hraadvisors.com

Read more about A Just & Resilient Recovery on our blog, sign up for this newsletter, take a 1-minute survey about your interests, and please pass this note along to others working to remake urban life toward a "next normal" that is more just and resilient.

FROM OUR COLLABORATORS

These ideas and actions from our clients, project partners, alumni, and thought partners caught our attention this week. We'd like to feature your organization's work - tell us about it.

Andre Perry: The devaluing of black property has led to the devaluing of black lives

Brookings: Mayors and governors: This is how you tackle racism

Center for an Urban Future: 6 ideas to boost minority & immigrant-owned businesses in crisis

Collaqate Design: How architects & planners can design justice into America's cities

Data for Black Lives: Black health leaders discuss racism's impact on COVID-19 disparities and calls for action

LISC: To be truly anti-racist, community development needs a reckoning

Projects for Public Spaces: Public space, park space, and racialized space

San Jose: Planning Commission expands membership to address inequitable representation

SPUR: A letter to White urbanists

Toole Design: Silence is no longer acceptable (And from Toole's Tanika Butler: Why we must talk about race when we talk about bikes)

DATA OUTLIER

Each week we feature the data work that's capturing our imagination most.

The Black Lives Matter movement has scrutinized police budgets across the country just as cities and states grapple with historic budget gaps. An analysis of 2017 state and local budgets by the Urban Institute shows that per-capita spending varies widely across jurisdictions. State and local governments spend just over $350 per capita on policing on average, while spending is especially high in Washington, D.C. ($910), New York ($529), and California ($487), where protests have been especially vocal. An analysis by the Center for Poplar Democracy shows a wide spread across cities as well: Oakland ($594), Chicago ($537), and Atlanta ($486) significantly outspend their peers on policing; Baltimore ($772) spends 2X more than Houston ($383) per capita. As public leaders debate budget priorities in the weeks ahead, expect these outliers to raise red flags.

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Communities face two parallel crises because of Covid-19: an unprecedented global public health emergency, and the fastest economic decline on record. For the week of March 28, over 6.6 million Americans filed unemployment insurance applications while confirmed Covid-19 diagnoses continue to sharply rise.

While our public and private institutions rightfully focus on their immediate attention on emergency response, once we emerge from quarantine, we will need to collectively address the underlying economic and social challenges that made Covid-19 so devastating and destabilizing. A post-Covid-19 world can provide the opportunity to create just and resilient communities that can better weather future events.

Our strategic guidance helps clients prepare for, respond to, and grow from global and local challenges, focusing on the most vulnerable communities. Read more about the Urban Resilience practice here.

Send us an email at info@hraadvisors.com

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"Front lines" has taken on new meaning during this pandemic.

We cheer health care professionals, transit workers, operators of public infrastructure, and other essential workers.

As emergency response gives way to recovery, we must also give strength to those on the front lines of small business.

Credit: 2ND Street District

5 PRIORITIES FROM THE FRONT LINES

This week, A Just & Resilient Recovery presents 5 Priorities from the Front Lines of Small Business Recovery, a synthesis of interviews Bret Collazzi and Olivia Moss conducted with nationally leading BIDs, CDFIs, and other community development organizations that are focused on economic recovery on Main Streets, downtowns, and low-income communities across the country. These are the organizations we can rely on to spend recovery funds wisely, deliver aid to those who need it most, and strengthen community bonds precisely when we need to come together most. (Blog) These community-based leaders' ideas - both practical and provocative - about how to advance a Main Street recovery are ones that City Halls, Statehouses, and civic leaders should support to ensure a more equitable recovery.

Pay It Forward: Share These Priorities

Read more about A Just & Resilient Recovery on our blog, sign up for this newsletter, take a 1-minute survey about your interests, and please pass this note along to others working to remake urban life toward a "next normal" that is more just and resilient.

FROM OUR HOMES TO YOURS

We're working from homes around the world and know most of you are, too. Here's this week's roundup of homework from our team of former government officials, planners, architects, developers, community organizers, institutional leaders, and economists.

L.A. On Track: In the first in a series of interviews with leaders of previous economic recovery efforts, HR&A Senior Advisor Martha Welborne draws on more than 30 years of urban planning leadership to discuss COVID-19's impact on the future of mobility and planning in Los Angeles. (Blog)

Risky Business: New business starts have been in decline since the 1980s and never bounced back from the last recession. Giacomo Bagarella shares why promoting entrepreneurship should be a central feature of the next stimulus. (Blog)

FROM OUR COLLABORATORS

These ideas and actions from our clients, project partners, alumni, and thought partners caught our attention this week. Share your organization''s work so we can highlight it, too.

Center for Community Progress: 6 interventions to prevent post-COVID-19 vacancy

Emerson Collective: New initiatives to support California's impacted workers

Greater Greater Washington: Could public meetings be better online than they were in person?

LA County: New public-private partnership brings $28M to county small businesses

New Lab & NYCEDC: New York needed ventilators. So they developed one in a month

NextCity: To combat widespread job loss, stay local and look to import replacement

Perkins & Will: A low-tech, DIY mobile testing solution

Rockefeller Foundation: Launching a Pandemic Resilience Roadmap

Smart Group America: Learning from the 2009 Recovery Act

WMATA: D.C. Metro takes advantage of low ridership to accelerate station upgrades

DATA OUTLIER

Each week we feature the data work that's capturing our imagination most. This week we share a sobering stat from the Federal Reserve's 2019 Small Business Credit Survey: only 1 in 10 small businesses have enough cash reserved to weather two months of revenue loss; for most micro- and minority-owned businesses, it's less than 1 in 20. Last year was the first time the Fed surveyed businesses on this topic. To quote the Fed: "Unfortunately, the scenario posed in this question no longer represents a hypothetical situation."

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Digital adoption is a new resilience imperative: 30 million jobs hang in the balance.

This week we dive into jobs on the bubble - the industries that could support more work-from-home if only for universal broadband, digital literacy, and better software.

Support for these industries' tech adoption is essential to racial, gender, and place-based equity in economic recovery. Read on.

WHERE TECH MATTERS MOST

Last week, we shared a new approach to measuring the economic and social impacts of COVID-19. This week, Kate Wittels - author of groundbreaking work on the NYC Tech Ecosystem, its opportunity gap, and other urban tech programs - and Jessica Jiang share an analysis of which jobs can be performed remotely and which could fall in that category, if only we were better equipped digitally.

Their analysis, Digital Adoption is a Resilience Imperative, provides the analytical underpinning to target investments that can prevent deeper job losses, bring more jobs back more quickly, and prepare for the inevitable future shocks that will dislocate workers from their workplaces in years to come.

Read more about A Just & Resilient Recovery on our blog, sign up for this newsletter, take a 1-minute survey about your interests, and please pass this note along to others working to remake urban life toward a "next normal" that is more just and resilient.

THE CARES ACT IN YOUR REGION

As we work with cities on economic recovery, we're closely tracking available funds. Among the most flexible is $1.5 billion in supplemental funding for the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), which is now offering grants of up to $30 million for recovery planning, small business programs, strategies to diversify economies, and public works projects that support recovery. HR&A Partners Phillip Kash and Jeff Hebert share more on how to access this important program.

FROM OUR HOMES TO YOURS

We're working from homes around the world and know most of you are, too. Here's this week's roundup of homework from our team of former government officials, planners, architects, developers, community organizers, institutional leaders, and economists.

Working for the Workforce: We recently partnered with the New York City Employment & Training Coalition and the Human Services Council to survey 125 nonprofit organizations to understand the current needs of NYC's human services sector. Understanding the condition of urban workforce development organizations will be foundational to a just & resilient recovery. (NYCETC)

Lyfting Up: Jen Hensley - who led the rollout of LinkNYC wi-fi kiosks for Intersection, leads public policy at Lyft, and is a global expert on tech and public-private partnerships - discusses how the recovery will shape urban tech (and vice versa) in an interview with HR&A's Adam Tanaka and Amelia Taylor-Hochberg. (Blog)

Interested in more of our latest work and thinking? Check out our blog or reach out to JustAndResilient@hraadvisors.com

FROM OUR COLLABORATORS

These ideas and actions from our clients, project partners, alumni, and thought partners caught our attention this week. Share your organization''s work so we can highlight it, too.

15Five: Remote work: The new normal?

Austin Schools: Using school bus wi-fi to narrow the digital divide

City of Seattle: 20 miles of residential streets will close to most traffic permanently

Commonfund: Stewardship during crisis: 5 things for nonprofit boards to consider

E Pluribus Unum/Mitch Landrieu: Roadmap to equitable response, recovery & resilience

GGWash: 3 graphs and 2 maps about jobs and teleworking during the coronavirus

Johns Hopkins: Risk calculator for businesses considering reopening or expanding

MICD: How architects and designers can respond to COVID-19

Perkins + Will: Guidance for a return to the office during COVID-19

UT LBJ School: A playbook for resiliency and creating opportunities for all Texans

DATA OUTLIER

Each week we feature the data work that's capturing our imagination most.

This week, we're inspired by Raj Chetty's team at the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights Center. As we featured last week, having real-time, localized economic impact data is critical to a just and resilient recovery - yet challenging as public data releases often lag by weeks or longer. Chetty's Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker expands the local toolbox by aggregating consumer spending, employment rates, and job posting data to track live trends down to the metro level and by sector. (The chart below shows the metro areas where small business employment has been most and least impacted since March: NYC and Omaha.) Seeing how re-openings and restrictions impact these trends in real time over the next several weeks will provide critical information to guide policymakers.

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Collaboration is essential to A Just & Resilient Recovery. We interviewed four collaborators as they lead their organizations through this time and consider the future:

University-Led Real Estate Development with Jonathon Bates of the University of Utah
Jonathon is the Executive Director of Real Estate for the University of Utah (Salt Lake City) and Director of its Research Park. He has been working to adapt the Park's master planning to the current uncertainties, while ensuring that it remains an engine of creativity and growth.

Community Health with Reann Gibson of the Conservation Law Foundation
Reann is a Senior Research Fellow at the Conservation Law Foundation, a Boston-based organization working to protect New England's environment. Reann manages CLF's Healthy Neighborhood Study (HNS), which examines the relationship between urban development and health.

Innovation Districts with Adam Klein of American Underground
Adam is the Chief Strategist for American Underground, "the startup hub of the South." AU fosters startups that diversify economic opportunity and connect entrepreneurs with the rich resources of nearby Research Triangle Park and multiple universities.

Volunteer Organizations with Josh Lockwood of the American Red Cross
Josh, an HR&A alum, is the Division Vice President, Northeast US, for the American Red Cross. Previously, he served as CEO of Habitat for Humanity in New York City.

A Healthy Neighborhood visioning session in 2019 (Credit: Amelia Taylor-Hochberg)

FROM OUR COLLABORATORS

Here's what work from our clients, partners, and peers caught our attention in recent weeks.

CUNY, HERE to HERE: Newly formed New York Jobs CEO Council pledges to hire 100K New Yorkers, 25K CUNY students by 2030

CSU: Students required to take ethnic studies or social justice class under new policy

Dallas Fed: Uneven economic recovery likely in Texas

NMHC: COVID-19 is killing affordable housing, just as it's needed most

PolicyLink: A guide for inclusive processes to advance racial equity in housing recovery

Results for America: How philanthropy can help governments accelerate a real recovery

Uber: I am the C.E.O. of Uber, Gig workers deserve better.

Wells & Associates, NKF: Addressing office tenants' evolving mobility challenges

Have something to share? We'd like to feature your organization's work - tell us about it.

DATA OUTLIER

Each week we feature the data work that's capturing our imagination most.

As unemployment remains historically high in many parts of the country, an interactive tool developed by Pro Publica breaks out the impact of job losses by race, gender, age, education, and income. By charting employment trends over the past six months and the past decade, the data reveals the compounding effects of preexisting racial disparities: Black and Hispanic workers emerged from the last recession with higher unemployment than White workers, even when controlling for income and education level. Today, they face both steeper job losses and, among Black workers, a slower climb back to pre-COVID levels. (Pro Publica)

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New data and new collaborations are essential to a just and resilient recovery. Here are two examples:

Working with Live.XYZ and its unprecedented retail dataset, we built an interactive data narrative to inform NYC''s retail corridor recovery - potentially a model for your city.

Collaborating with City Parks Alliance, we're offering a data-driven approach to reimagining urban parks systems' funding.

We hope you find these useful - and that you'll share them, too!

Families took to beaches and parks this weekend, including the Bronx's Orchard Beach, pictured here. (Photo via Seth Wenig/AP)

Visualization of retail vacancy in three New York City neighborhoods

FROM OUR HOMES TO YOURS

The latest thinking from our team of former public officials, planners, developers, architects, organizers, institutional leaders, and economists. For more, check out our blog.

Guiding Principles: In collaboration with the Ford Foundation, we are proud to share a new guidebook for urban leaders who aspire to build more equitable and resilient communities through recovery, including how to ensure marginalized and vulnerable populations are at the center of recovery planning. (HR&A)

Park Parity: In many U.S. cities, access to parks and open space reinforces the divides caused by racial segregation. HR&A's Madison Morine documents how this dynamic plays out in Dallas and shares principles for more equitable park planning. (Blog)

Empowerment, not Enforcement: Street vending provides and economic economic lifeline for mostly foreign-born, mostly female entrepreneurs, yet vendors in NYC and L.A. routinely face overregulation and overenforcement. HR&A's David DeVaughn and Landry Doyle Wiese on the importance of vendors to a just recovery. (Blog)

Faustino Martinez, a South Los Angeles ice pop vendor, expresses hope despite declining sales. (Photo: Los Angeles Times / Mariah Tauger)

FROM OUR COLLABORATORS

Here's what work from our clients, partners, and peers caught our attention this week

American Underground: Don't count out downtowns and the need for 'places of purpose'

Arsht-Rockefeller: First in global network of 'community resilience pods' addresses food security in Miami

Harris Co., Houston: $56M initiative taps CARES funding to address projected rise in homelessness

LA, Newark, Atlanta: 11 mayors form coalition to achieve MLK's guaranteed income vision

LACI: Nat'l coalition calls for $150B green job stimulus focused on zero-emission vehicles

NDIA: Limiting broadband investment to 'rural only' discriminates against Black Americans and other communities of color

Sasaki: What will college be like in the fall? Strategies, challenges & opportunities (video)

Have something to share? We'd like to feature your organization's work - tell us about it.

DATA OUTLIER

Each week we feature the data work that's capturing our imagination most.

Sometimes having all the data at your fingertips is the problem. In a clear and refreshingly fun feature, CityLab visual storyteller Ariel Aberg-Riger cuts through the "sometimes-impenetrable city budget process" and offers six principles for greater budget accessibility. See The ins and outs of your city budget.

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We humbly stand in solidarity with Black communities that have been fighting for over 400 years against state-sponsored violence and systemic racism in all forms.

A Just & Resilient Recovery began as our framework to help address the economic crisis in cities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to achieve equitable outcomes in the process. The past week has underscored the imperative of racial justice as a prerequisite to the recovery we seek.

We are reflecting on our role as well as that of our field in perpetuating White supremacy. We commit to take action in the coming days, weeks, months, and years to reshape our firm and the ways we work with communities to advance racial justice. As a first step, we have begun convening an Anti-Racism Working Group to hold our firm accountable to the hard work ahead. We have also established a Solidarity & Action Fund, which will invest in anti-racist advocacy organizations and be distributed under the guidance of staff in our Black Employee Resource Group. Moving forward, we commit to reaching out to and learning from our partners and collaborators who have deep experience dismantling systems of oppression and who are helping to organize and support protests, vital reforms, and communities of color.

Below, we have included a framework that HR&A is referencing as we begin the work of becoming an anti-racist multicultural organization. We share this as a resource and a starting point for conversation with you.

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Many places are successfully "flattening the curve," and although more attention is needed to the most vulnerable, more lives are being saved.

As communities increasingly focus on livelihoods, it's increasingly a question of the "shape of the swoosh" of economic recovery:

Over the last month, we've begun to share perspectives on how to effect this change. As we head into the Memorial Day weekend, here are our top five:

10 Principles for a Just & Resilient Recovery
by Carl Weisbrod

5 Priorities from the Front Lines of Small Business Recovery
by Bret Collazzi, Olivia Moss, and Steven Reilly

Why Communities Must Pay Attention to the Shape of the Recovery Now
by Andrea Batista Schlesinger

Measuring What Matters: New Approaches for Measuring Economic and Social Impacts in the Wake of COVID-19
by Shuprotim Bhaumik and Kristina Pecorelli

Digital Adoption is a Resilience Imperative
by Kate Wittels and Jessica Jiang

Catch up on more insights on our Just & Resilient Recovery Blog

FROM OUR HOMES TO YOURS

We're working from homes around the world and know most of you are, too. Here's this week's roundup of homework from our team of former government officials, planners, architects, developers, community organizers, institutional leaders, and economists.

Resilient Houston: Just a month before the COVID-19 shutdown, the City of Houston released Resilient Houston - a framework to prepare for shocks and stresses tied to climate change and other threats. After working with the City of Houston and 100 Resilient Cities to develop this landmark plan, we recently helped develop a COVID-19 addendum, applying the framework to guide crisis response and set up a just & resilient recovery. The addendum provides short, tangible examples of how resilience strategies can be applied to meet the new and amplified challenges posed by the pandemic. (City)

Getting Transit Funding on Track: Mass transit will be vital to reconnecting cities after the pandemic and remains vital to essential workers who rely on transit to commute. Yet the economic downturn threatens the revenue streams (such as sales taxes) that typically fund rail expansions and bus improvements. HR&A Partner Amitabh Barthakur outlines three ways transit agencies can get funding back on track. (UrbanizeLA)

In Land We Trust: As urban communities face worsening housing insecurity, the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Roxbury, Massachusetts, which runs one of the nation's largest community land trusts, is demonstrating the roles CLTs can play in preserving affordability and community wealth. In an interview with HR&A's Adam Tanaka and Amelia Taylor-Hochberg. (Blog)

Interested in more of our latest work and thinking? Check out our blog or reach out to JustAndResilient@hraadvisors.com

FROM OUR COLLABORATORS

These ideas and actions from our clients, project partners, alumni, and thought partners caught our attention this week. Share your organization''s work so we can highlight it, too.

Center for Community Progress: We need code enforcement more than ever to protect neighborhoods and prevent vacancies

Dallas/New York/Seattle: Cities test strategies for restaurant recovery, from outdoor dining en masse to street parklets to public vouchers (Bonus: Rockwell Group)

Detroit/Minneapolis/Philadelphia: How to enjoy Detroit parks safely during COVID-19, Making it easier to turn your block into a place for play this summer and Friendly Fronts toolkit helps "build community one front yard at a time" (Bonus: Knight Foundation webinar series)

Kaiser Foundation: Millions stuck at home with no plumbing, kitchen or space to stay safe

LA City Council: Council approves plans to turn developer fees into emergency arts grants

NYCEDC & MOCTO: Universal solicitation for broadband in NYCHA residences

PFM: Fiscal aid to cities is essential, but must be more than one-size-fits-all

SmithGroup: Reaffirming the intrinsic and durable value of cities in response to COVID-19

UFCW: Grocery workers win COVID-19 testing at Hollywood market with numerous cases

DATA OUTLIER

Each week we feature the data work that's capturing our imagination most.

This week we highlight a just-released report by Make the Road NY that documents COVID's striking toll on the New York region's immigrant communities. Based on a survey of 244 primarily Latinx immigrants in the metro area, Excluded in the Epicenter: Impacts of the Covid Crisis on Working-Class Immigrant, Black, and Brown New Yorkers demonstrates that immigrants are more likely to lose a loved one to COVID, lose their job, live in overcrowded or unsafe housing that increases COVID risk, and (for those who are undocumented or in mixed-status households) lack access to federal financial aid. Make the Road recommends cash assistance, eviction relief, and other support. As they note: "Community organizations can only do so much given very scarce resources . As residents in the epicenter of the pandemic grapple with the grave risk of infection, the dramatic loss of income, and deep concern of displacement, they need urgent action from the federal, state, and local governments." For another voice on the critical role immigrants play in NYC and the depth of assistance needed, see ANHD's recent post: Include the Excluded.

FRIDAY FUN

Heading into the long weekend, we're all thinking about how to safely get in some quality time outdoors, whether in the city (courtesy of our trendsetting friends at Domino Park)...