September 21, 2017 By: Mariia Zimmerman

Tags: #AARP, #livablecommunities, #blumenauer, #TOD, #Planetizen, #gentrification, #walkableurbanism, #Railvolution

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Imagine If We Really Committed to Building Livable Communities

Read my latest reflections from this year's Rail~Volution, my pitch for voting on the 50 Most Influential Urbanists, and highlights of new research by AARP and MZ Strategies documenting how states, regions and localities are stepping forward to support transit-oriented development and walkable urbanism. We still have far to go to restore the walkability and vibrancy in our communities so that living well without a car becomes more viable, but many places are stepping up. While a start, we need many more to follow suit.

August 05, 2017 By: Mariia Zimmerman

Tags: #SPARCC, #Enterprise Community Partners, #nrdc, #LIIF, #Federal Reserve Bank, #sustainability, #equity, #equitableTOD, #APTA, #Evicted, #gentrification, #displacement

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Lighting a SPARCC to fight Displacement

Sharing musings on a new initiative MZ Strategies, LLC is proud to be a part of working with an amazing group of partners to launch the Strong Prosperous and Resilient Communities Challenge (SPARCC). SPARCC is designed to support local cross-sector collaboratives working in six regions to develop policies and projects that advance racial equity, climate and public health goals. These six regions – Memphis, Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago, and the San Francisco Bay Area – each have created their own visions for how community-led investment can create stronger neighborhoods that intentionally work to stem displacement and create shared prosperity for existing and future residents and entrepreneurs. Additional thoughts on gentrification, including reading recommendations.

June 19, 2017 By: Mariia Zimmerman

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Marking an MZ Strategies Milestone

Five years ago, I launched MZ Strategies, LLC with the crazy idea that I could bring my passion and almost twenty years of experience in policy and planning to support partners who shared a desire to make communities more inclusive, economically-vibrant and sustainable. Since then, we have worked with a terrific group of partners, communities, and organizations working to achieve this vision. Policies change, shift and adapt to face the problems and assets unique to every community, but common across the nation.

May 15, 2017 By: Mariia Zimmerman

Tags: #TimeToBuild, #InfrastructureWeek, #TLC, #Metropolitan Council, #transit, #Brookings, #RooseveltInstitute, #InThePublicInterest, #CenterforAmericanProgress

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Infrastructure Week: #TimeToThink

Infrastructure is key to the national economy and to the economic opportunity that every Amercian faces. Safe water. Affordable energy. Mobility and accessibility. We have artificially made infrastructure investment a zero-sum game by letting the “no tax” voices win. Infrastructure is the ultimate public good. Public investment in all forms of infrastructure costs the individual user less than paying for it through user feeds, or perhaps not even getting the service if it’s too cost prohibitive for the private sector. Yes, it’s time to build, but even more importantly, it’s time to think.

April 27, 2017 By: Mariia Zimmerman

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MZ Strategies, LLC at the American Planning Association 2017 National Conference

Mariia Zimmerman, Principal of MZ Strategies, serves as Vice-Chair for Metropolitan Planning on the American Planning Association's Regional and Intergovernmental Planning Division. She will be speaking at numerous events between May 5 - 8, 2017 at the National Planning Conference in New York City. Among the topics she will cover, which represent work MZ Strategies is doing with several clients and communities, are emerging best practices in regional planning, changing federal support for innovative planning and community development, regional economic resiliency, and the role of private-sector planners in affecting change.

March 16, 2017 By: Mariia Zimmerman

Tags: #infrastructure, #LentenAppeal, #PopeFrancis, #Trump infrastructure, #transit, #CDBG, #Trump budget, #FY2018 budget, #HUD, #USDOT, #Brookings

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In Response to Trump Budget, A Lenten Appeal for America's Communities

It’s that time of year again. For Catholics, March is Lent, a time of commitment to sacrifice and good deeds. It’s also when we get the annual Lenten Appeal request to tithe in support of the Church’s ability to serve as God’s emissary on earth and help those most in need. In Washington DC, March is budget season. The time of year when the Administration unveils its spending priorities for the coming year and when Congress demonstrates where it will invest the trillions of dollars provided by American taxpayers. This year, the disconnect between God’s priorities and Republican priorities could not be more clear, unless we focus only on the word sacrifice.

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February 10, 2017 By: Mariia Zimmerman

Tags: #regional planning, #APA, #apa2017, #T4America, #MPO

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Metropolitan Planners Leaning In to Make Regions Great

Two new resources spotlight ways planners working at the regional and metropolitan level are leaning in to solve complex social, environmental and economic issues through better use of data, improved partnerships and collaboration, and a mix of innovation, tenacity and leadership. “Emerging Trends in Regional Planning*” released last month by the American Planning Association celebrates the ways that regional planning is evolving across the country with numerous examples of regions large and small tackling water and land resource issues, regional economic development and housing issues, climate change and public health issues through integrated planning strategies. Meanwhile, Transportation For America this week released national survey results detailing how metropolitan planning organizations are developing and using transportation performance measures. Both are useful documents for learning how planners are pushing the envelope, innovating and making great regions.

October 10, 2016 By: Mariia Zimmerman

Tags: #transit, #transit oriented development, #equitableTOD, #equitable development, #FTA, #jointdevelopment, #FordFoundation, #MileHighConnects, #LISC, #Enterprise Community Partners, #CCFC, #LAMetro

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New Publication by MZ Strategies, LLC: Advancing Equitable Transit-Oriented Development through Community Partnerships and Public Sector Leadership

Over the past four years, MZ Strategies has worked with numerous communities to advance equitable development strategies ranging from specific policy initiatives and funding programs, to strengthening multi-sector coalitions, and updating regulatory approaches. Today, we are excited to release a new publication, "Advancing Equitable Transit-Oriented Development through Community Partnerships and Public Sector Leadership." The new report spotlights strategies being used in four regions to create more inclusive communities near transit, and discusses federal tools available to support development of transit real estate assets for affordable housing.

October 03, 2016 By: Mariia Zimmerman

Tags: #sharedmoility, #SUMC, #Railvolution, #eTOD, #Zipcar

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October Speaking and Report Release Events featuring MZ Strategies

This month MZ Strategies is at Rail~Volution in San Francisco, the Shared Use Mobility Summit in Chicago and releasing a new report funded by the Ford Foundation on local and federal strategies to support equitable Transit Oriented Development (eTOD). Follow us on Twitter @MZStrat and check back later this month to download a free copy of "Advancing Equitable Transit Oriented Development through Community Partnership and Public Sector Leadership."

August 15, 2016 By: Mariia Zimmerman

Tags: #equitableTOD, #equitable development, #laddersofopportunity, #everyplacecounts, #phoenix, #richmond, #transportationplanning

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Restorative Justice and Infrastructure Investment: Our Moment of Opportunity

This summer I found myself on a professional journey of self-discovery as I realized the limits of my knowledge when it comes to how race and infrastructure are intricately linked. Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (eTOD) is being led in many regions by multi-sector coalitions to ensure that TOD projects and the planning process itself create communities of opportunity where residents of all incomes, races and ethnicities participate in and benefit from living in connected, healthy, vibrant places connected by transit. Efforts in Phoenix and Richmond underscore the need & opportunity for eTOD to address generations of racial injustice from past transportation and urban planning decisions.

May 13, 2016 By: Mariia Zimmerman

Tags: #regional planning, #regional collaboratives, #usdotconnects, #Metropolitan Council, #TCRPC, #Metro, #APA

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Celebrating Regional Planning’s Golden Anniversary

Regional planning - at the federal level and in many areas of the country - is celebrating 50 years of practice. Yet the role of implementation is something that few regional agencies have the authority to do. By its very nature, regionalism is the art of collaboration. Somewhat surprisingly, federal transportation provisions are often the catalyst for integrated and collaborative planning efforts.

February 26, 2016 By: Mariia Zimmerman

Tags: #FTA, #T4America, #CFTE, #virginia tech, #Buehler, #transit, #transit finance

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We Get What We Ask For: Why America’s Transit Experience Lags Behind

A recent study published by the Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center (co-authored by Ralph Buehler, Kyle Lukacs and Mariia Zimmerman) compares two major transit regions in the US with several European counterparts. The authors found that money -- both the lack of it and the strings attached to it -- is a key reason as to why transit in the United States isn’t better.

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January 15, 2016 By: Mariia Zimmerman

Tags: #economic resilience, #economic competitiveness, #Brookings, #MWCOG, #GreaterWashington, #Great Communities Collaborative, #Central Corridor Funders Collaborative, #regional planning, #regional collaboratives, #collaboration

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Economic Competitiveness Demands Collaboration: Metropolitan Washington’s State of the Region

America enjoys the world’s strongest economy, and our long-term national growth and prosperity depend on strong regional economies. These in turn, rely on tackling the societal challenges that can slow growth and result in disparities across income and racial groups. Just as each region’s challenges, assets, geography and culture are different, there is no one model of collaboration. Over the last year MZ Strategies worked with a number of regions on these issues, including in metro Washington where COG just released its 2016 State of the Region Report looking at Economic Competitiveness threats and opportunities.

January 06, 2016 By: Mariia Zimmerman

Tags: #mixedincome, #affordable housinig, #McKnight Foundation, #Twin Cities, #Metropolitan Council, #Fair Housing, #ULI MN

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Mixed-Income Neighborhoods Require More than Rhetoric: Lessons from the Twin Cities

Given the unmet housing demand in many communities and the strengthened federal guidance to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing, mixed-income housing should be seen as one of many tools in the affordable housing toolkit. Policy makers need to recognize that wishing or mandating mixed-income housing does not make it happen though. A recent MZ Strategies, LLC Policy Brief looks at the experience of three mixed-income project in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metro area. We find that when cities, developers and investors are willing to partner, take acceptable risks, and put their money where their mouth is, successful mixed-income projects can happen in cities and suburbs.