Engaging the Unengaged and Revitalizing Vacant Properties

A community garden in Philadelphia on a previously vacant lot.

On June 21, we’ll be collaborating on a “vacant properties” training project as part of the 2012 Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference in New Orleans. It’s a great team, including Sarah Reginelli (a planner with the City of Albany, NY), Deenah Loeb (the executive director of the City Parks Association in Philadelphia), Jeff Debruyn (of the Corktown Residents’ Council and other groups in Detroit), and PlaceMatters’ Ken Snyder. The training will focus on outreach techniques for reaching the unengaged parts of a community, especially around urban revitalization. The theme is similar to ground that Ken covered in his “The Just City: Making the Invisible Visible” presentation at the Ford Foundation’s 75th anniversary event last summer (“The Just City: A Ford Forum on Metropolitan Opportunity”). You can browse the entire day of the Ford Foundation event, by the way, and there are plenty of worthwhile conversations and discussions in the mix.

If you haven’t seen Ken’s presentation, it’s worth a watch: