Regional Plan Association today released images, program materials, video and audio files of the 20th Annual Regional Assembly, "Innovation and the American Metropolis," held on Friday, April 16th at the Waldorf Astoria.

Recap the days' events including keynote speeches by Bill McDonough and Adolfo Carrión and the presentation of the RPA Lifetime Leadership Award to Peter W. Herman by New York State Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch.

Additionally, audio files for each workshop panel are available. More materials, including presentations and transcripts will be posted as they become available. We'll be announcing the releases on Twitter, so be sure to follow us

Regional Assembly 2010 Conference Packet:

Program
Speaker Biographies
Lifetime Leadership Award Tribute Journal for Peter W. Herman

The Long Island Index has announced an "ideas competition" that challenges participants to develop bold designs to retrofit Long Island downtowns. Open to "anyone interested in shaping the future of Long Island" the competition encourages submissions from architects, urban designers, planners, students and visionaries.

The competition builds off of the collaboration between Regional Plan Association, the CUNY Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research and the Rauch Foundation, whose efforts resulted in the January 2010 "Places to Grow" report and Long Island Interactive Maps website. "Places to Grow" identifies roughly 8,300 acres of unbuilt land in over 150 village downtowns and rail station areas - prime acreage to accommodate the bold ideas sought by this competition.

The best ideas, designs, images and videos will be selected as finalists and publicized in a broad media campaign. Prizes totaling $22,500 to be awarded to multiple winners. Submissions accepted through June 21, 2010.

To learn more, go to www.buildabetterburb.org.

Regional Plan Association is proud to be part of the Museum of the City of New York's exhibition "Cars, Culture and the City", which opens today. The show traces the history of the auto in the New York region from the early days of elite auto racing to visionary plans for the city to the social and environmental issues that accompany a car-intensive culture - along with their possible solutions. 

The Long Island Index released a report by Regional Plan Association today showing development potential in existing downtown areas on Long Island. The report identified roughly 8,300 acres of unbuilt land in over 150 village downtowns and rail station areas - prime acreage for transit-oriented development. The Rauch Foundation funded the report.

Read the Full Release.
Read the Report. (longislandindex.org)

Read the Newsday article.

In December, the Long Island 2035 Regional Visioning Initiative released a report describing the trade-offs of alternative growth strategies for Nassau and Suffolk counties. Long before most of America, Long Islanders were confronting the challenges of growth in a maturing suburban region. The initiative represents an initial step in bridging numerous municipal, county and community efforts to meet these challenges with an Island-wide effort being undertaken by the Long Island Regional Planning Council (LIRPC) to produce a Long Island 2035 Comprehensive Regional Sustainability Plan.