We’re back with another jam-packed Bright Brothers Bulletin with all the news that’s fit for movers & shakers, planners & placemakers. In this issue we’re serving up urban rillniss, and we’ve got a cadre of qualified news, tidbits, trends and new requirements to review with you. Read on to learn about the new beat in bicycle infrastructure, TONS of FREE MONEY in the form of grants, grants and more grants, a slate of ULI initiatives that you may be the perfect fit for, 18 upcoming industry events (including one you cannot attend!), plus a peculiar new RFP requirement that has absolutely zero chance of going awry. 🤖 We hope you round out January better educated, feeling fit and ready to take on the world. Stay warm and keep in touch, kids!
– Your Bright Brothers Team
David Romako / Josh Yeager / Brandi Walsh
Bikes good. Cars bad. It’s an overly simplified mentality, but there are nuggets of truth in this Manichean generalization. And while automobiles are an imperative part of society, supply chain and infrastructure — if you don’t live within an urban core, a 20-minute city or in places without solid public transport — your experience is going to be radically different on a banana seat. But for those of us working in the urban place management industry, we often take our cues and clues from abroad. And while America went big on the auto post WWII, much of Europe is powered by bike, especially in larger metros with ever-growing bicycle infrastructure. Case in point, the “City of Lights” (or should we now call it the “City of Bikes”?), Paris, France doubled the number of cyclists in one year’s time, as a trend towards sustainable mobility, urban renewal and and positive health outcomes converge in a city of over 2.1 million. As the venerated French newspaper Le Monde recently reported, the shift to cycling didn’t happen overnight. However it has been heralded, funded and forwarded by one of Europe’s leading urban champions; Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. She can be credited with many positive cultural contributions to the City of Love. Specifically we can look back to 2015, for instance, when Hidalgo jumpstarted the Parisian love affair with a €150 million investment into cycling infrastructure. Eying things like last year’s 2024 Summer Olympics, and other seminal events hosted in the French capital, Hidlago has been an unwavering net promoter of urban initiatives supporting the environment, sustainability, housing, green infrastructure and more.
So you might say, well yeah, that’s Europe — they can do that there. Pump the brakes! There’s no need to make it an “us versus them” issue. Cycling in the States is also growing, with most major metros investing in upgraded mobility infrastructure like dedicated bike lanes, flex-post bollards and more. Programs like Complete Streets, and Vision Zero offer a glimpse into a Euro-esque future of mobility, while adapting best-in-class practices, policies and procedures. Case in point, NACTO, the National Association of City Transportation Officials recently released its freshly updated “Urban Bikeway Design Guide” packed with technical guidance, community engagement examples, functionality impacts and beyond. Incorporating research and learning from hundreds of North American bike projects over the past decade, the newly-released third edition of the NACTO guide goes well beyond simply how to install a bike lane. The new guide includes, “…the how-to blueprint and strategies for creating a whole bike network for people of all ages, abilities, and identities,” according to Ryan Russo, NACTO’s Executive Director. We know that safe and vibrant streets with multimodal transportation, and accommodations for all those who use and interact with us, lead to economically viable districts and downtowns — so let’s look to Paris for inspiration of what could be, and study the new NACTO guide as we invest in our own places and spaces.
FREE money! It’s grants season kiddies, and that means there’s a lotta moolah on the table for making your district pop! From research dollars to matching funds, and toe-up free Benjamins, we’ve rounded up a few more funding opps for you cats to rock. Awhile back, we were breakdancing for dollars, when we told you about the NEA Challenge America, Grants for Arts and Our Town grants programs. And today, we’re augmenting that list with several additional programs that your comptroller will love. Check out:
The Project for Public Spaces’ Community Placemaking Grants with General Motors offers three nonprofits or public agencies and municipalities in Georgia, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Texas $100,000 each in direct funding to transform key public spaces into lively community hubs that improve street safety and mobility. The grants will also include placemaking technical assistance and capacity building from their highly competent team. Grant closes January 31, 2025.
The T-Mobile “Hometown Grant” is for communities with populations of 50,000 or less, the program provides grants of up to $50,000 to help build stronger, more prosperous small towns and rural communities. Grant closes March 31, 2025.
The NEA is also offering two additional matching-funds grant programs for research, so strap on your monocle and start studying how the Research Grants in the Arts and NEA Research Labs can cost-share with you towards research that supports community-based organizations.Matching funds grants in the range of $20,000 – $300,000 are on the line! Submission deadlines are in March and April 2025.
… that the Urban Land Institute (ULI) was founded in 1936, and has since grown to fifty-two District Councils or local chapters in the Americas, as well as seven national councils in Europe and Asia? ULI boasts over 45,000 members, many of whom are SMEs in their own fields of expertise, and are available to you directly! ULI serves as the “honest broker,” bringing all stakeholders together in an environment free of politics and preconceptions — and focuses on best practices in real estate development, housing, transportation, and related topics, and provides technical assistance in communities via advisory service panels, hosts conferences, produces research and reports, collects and shares industry benchmarks and guidance, and offers learning opportunities and courses. Did you also know that our co-founder Josh Yeager is the ULI Philadelphia co-chair for the local district council’s TAPs committee? TAPs or Technical Assistance Panels are an offering that pairs sponsors with an interdisciplinary team of select members and volunteers who graciously donate their time, knowledge, experience and problem-solving skills to address myriad issues facing organizations like yours today. Think of a TAP as a sort “Justice League” or ad hoc think tank — a team assembled specifically to solve your most pressing and complex challenges. From placemaking to economic development to sustainability and land use, TAPs sponsors present their issue/quandary/conundrum though a formalized application process, and ULI assembles a bespoke panel of around a dozen or so top minds to analyze, examine and develop custom recommendations and solutions for the sponsor. It’s like having a secret super power in your back pocket at all times, and the range of solutions are developed over the course of several days; in-person and with a healthy dose of local, community engagement. The findings are clearly documented by a technical writer, and presented as a report/roadmap, typically within a few weeks. ULI Philadelphia currently has a slate of upcoming TAPs and Advisory Service Panels in the works for calendar year 2025, and we invite you to peruse the list. Know someone who would make a great subject mater expert for a practical TAP? Maybe you’ve been TAP-curious, but afraid to ask. Perhaps your local district council can help you out of a pressing problem you’re currently experiencing. If you’re keen to learn more, please click here. And if you have a sidebar questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to Josh to learn more!
Diana Lind, the brilliant author, journalist and Substacker behind The New Urban Order is a fan fave in these parts. Based in Philly, Diana’s areas of expertise span the globe, and she’s got her figurative finger on the pulse of many issues involving our industry, urban land use, society & cultural trends and beyond. If you don’t currently follow her, please do! We’ve included articles she’s written in previous Bulletins, and this week we’d like thank Diana — and — call attention to one of her projects. In this recent piece, Diana rounded up 17 upcoming events that are germane to our industry — all in one neat, little, tidy post. Naturally you’ll notice the IDA Placemaking and Eco Devo Summit in Cleveland listed, as well as other notable convenings to add to your travel and education budgets in 2025. You’ll also note that she’s hosting a stellar event of her own; in conjunction with several fellow IDA district members in San Francisco for a project she’s working on with the Harvard Graduate School of Design. While her sought-after event is now sold out, she is currently offering a waitlist. This bad boy sold out fast, so don’t sit on this opp! Again, we implore you to sub to her writing. Diana’s proven one of the most approachable, down-to-earth, pragmatic and thought-provoking pundits and luminaries in our orbit today, as urban place management practitioners.
Weird flex, but what could wrong? The City of Detroit, which puts out more than 300 RFPs per year, has now added a requirement that all new RFPs must include the use of artificial intelligence. And while the intent seems to be being at the forefront of urban ingenuity, the requitement itself feels a little half-baked. While tons of businesses are jamming AI down our throats (think social media, mortgage and insurance brokers, banks…et al), the common person doesn’t seem to be all that jazzed about the potential effects or ramifications of a requirement like this. We commend Detroit for being forward thinking, but perhaps let the dust settle a bit before making it a requirement. What’s your take on this potentially controversial move?
“In mobility more than elsewhere, the central issue is supply rather than demand,” says the elected official, who assures that the municipality has “massively amplified the supply in infrastructure.,” — Deputy Mayor of Paris, France, David Belliard
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