The premiere downtown economic development event of the year, the annual New Jersey Downtown Conference hosts industry experts who provide insights into downtown management best practices, as well as development, business, and retail market trends.

Integrating qualitative practices into planning work also can help support more inclusive planmaking and account for important and persistent inequities present in quantitative data by surfacing the rich, unique, and varied lived experiences of marginalized communities, who in addition to being undercounted in quantitative data, are often excluded from formal decision-making structures and institutions. Ineffective collection and analysis of community feedback can lead to biased conclusions and alienate community members. Adopting a qualitative methodology in your project can help you address these risks, improve your work, and nurture stronger relationships with stakeholders. In this session, the speakers will present an overview of a qualitative methodology for planning and share tools for developing a coherent and practical methodology to collect, analyze, and incorporate qualitative data into your projects. This session’s speakers will draw on their extensive experience with community-based qualitative practices, as well as their diverse personal and professional backgrounds, to share how they approach working with a qualitative methodology in their own work and the impact it has on their projects. Attendees will leave this session understanding how to incorporate a qualitative methodology into their work and projects.

This two-part series will explore three situations of vulnerable communities adapting to and surviving the threats of climate change and urban development and present planning best practices. First, Sally Russell Cox with the State of Alaska will share her work with four communities and the reports she co-authored on a relocation framework and the unmet infrastructure needs of Alaska Native villages due to erosion, flooding, and permafrost thaw. Then, Pat Forbes with the State of Louisiana, will describe the Isle de Jean Charles project. This marsh island has lost 98% of its land due to sea level rise and coastal land loss, which is forcing the resettlement of the community that inhabited that land for generations. The speakers will demonstrate how citizen participation is critical to the relocation and cultural preservation and describe how interagency collaboration is critical to ensure housing affordability and infrastructure planning. This is the first of a two-part series looking at resilience in vulnerable communities. The second part will look at the Gullah-Geechee community and their resilience in the face of urban development encroachment.

The APA Housing and Community Development Division is excited to host a screening of Episode III in the documentary series, the Shame of Chicago - The Color Tax. Premiering last year at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, The Color Tax tells the story of how a system of predatory home contract sales during the 1950s and 60s plundered enormous sums of wealth from the pockets of black families seeking homeownership. But unlike what happened in other cities, Chicago’s families fought back in one of city’s most heart-wrenching and perilous campaigns for racial and economic justice. Reverend William Barber, co-director of the National Poor People’s Campaign, A National Call for Moral Revival writes, “The Color Tax paints with vivid clarity perhaps America's most striking example of systemic racism.” After the screening there will be a moderated discussion around fair housing, exclusionary housing policies and the impacts on minority communities nationwide.

Legacy business programs are also part of a movement to address the “diversity deficit” in the preservation field. Practitioners increasingly call for new ways to document and promote intangible culture (rather than merely architecture) and utilize new media to spread “living history;” foster inclusion and “social sustainability;" broaden the constituency for historic preservation; and ensure that vernacular and underrepresented heritage is not lost.

Join the APA Women & Planning Division for an informative panel discussion about the advantages & disadvantages of the AICP certification, how to apply for the exams, and some basic test tips for future test takers.

Learn how planners can use a free web-based application called Github, used widely in the tech industry, as a tool for knowledge sharing and collaboration. David Wasserman, Data Science Practice Lead at Alta Planning & Design, will provide some background information on the tool and how planners can use it as well as a short demo of APA Technology Division's new Github Repository and how you can get involved. Q&A will follow.

This session discusses architecture and urban planning through the centuries within the seven continents.

This year’s Summit will include one full week of virtual educational sessions, social “happy hours”, short expert talks, coaching sessions, and fun activities for municipalities and schools. Participants will have an opportunity to connect with energy and green product vendors, and municipal professional service providers (e.g. planners, attorneys, engineers) during our new Green Biz sessions.

This session is aimed at planners interested in leading grassroots volunteer efforts in small towns and rural areas. Without the population density or professional staff of urban areas, small communities are often dependent on creative grassroots solutions for providing basic necessities such as food systems, support for those aging in place, children's programs, jobs and energy conservation.