Blog Archives
Join Phoenix think tanks to discuss how community health and sustainability relate
[Source: St. Luke’s Health Initiatives] — According to the Phoenix-based St. Luke’s Health Initiatives, there’s an opportunity for an intriguing collective conversation coming this December. All manner of entities and individuals — grassroots to governmental, progressive to conservative, national to local — have been musing about community health and sustainability. SLHI says it’s time to get together and trade notes.
Join SLHI and co-sponsors Arizona Community Foundation, Local Initiatives Support Coalition, and ASU Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family to explore the dimensions and potential for communities to enhance and sustain Arizona’s collective future.
- Date: December 5, 2008
- Time: 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- Place: Phoenix Airport Marriott, 1101 N. 44th St., Phoenix, AZ
- Cost: $35
LISC Phoenix pushes plan for creating sustainability
[Source: Arizona Republic] — Sustainable communities don’t just happen. They take work, planning, and a web of collaborative relationships to build and grow. That’s the message from members of the Growing Sustainable Communities in the Valley of the Sun coalition. Teresa Brice, executive director of the Phoenix branch of the Local Initiatives Support Corp., a national non-profit agency specializing in neighborhood revitalization, said LISC is focusing on aspects of sustainable communities with examples in the Valley.
Brice, a volunteer presenting the information at village planning committees, groups, and organizations [to date 700 people at 25 venues], said the hope is that when Phoenix begins to prepare a new General Plan, its blueprint for development, some of these strategies for sustainable communities will be added. Components include:
- Mixed land uses
- A variety of housing types with a variety of housing prices
- A mix of independent and national businesses
- Environmentally responsive design
- A variety of transportation choices
- Compact development
- Making places safe
- Promoting healthy living
- Community engagement
For more information on the project and to view related materials, click here. To request the presentation, call Lisa Dwyer, Project Assistant, ASU Stardust Center, at 602-496-1468. The next scheduled presentation is 6:30 p.m., October 14, Travis L. Williams Family Services Center, 4732 S. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ, 602-261-8727.
What’s the status of affordable housing in downtown Phoenix?
[Source: Teresa Brice, Local Initiatives Service Corp.] — With the fall 2008 Arizona Town Hall focusing on Arizona’s housing woes, housing advocates are busy compiling background data and information to help bring participants “up to speed” on the issue before the town hall is held. Regarding affordable housing in and around downtown Phoenix, here are two important recent documents:
- October 2007 downtown Phoenix housing market study by Crystal & Company of Scottsdale.
- June 2008 City of Phoenix staff report (in response to a proposal from LISC, ASU Stardust Center, and Downtown Phoenix CDC).
ASU Stardust Center unveils new website on affordable, sustainable housing
The ASU Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family is pleased to announce its new website. There you’ll find a wealth of research, design, and educational resources and innovations that contribute to creating healthy, sustainable, affordable homes and communities. During the next few weeks they’ll continue to upload more content, so you’re encouraged to bookmark their site and keep visiting. If you have questions, contact them via the “Contact Us” tab.
Stardust Center joins ASU’s College of Design
The ASU Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family, with a mission to improve the growth of quality affordable homes and sustainable communities, is moving from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Affairs to the College of Design. There it will work in partnership with related departments: the Herberger Center for Design Research, the Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory, and the Planning and Design Academy.
The Stardust Center has been involved in two major demonstration homes on the Navajo Reservation (2005) and in the town of Guadalupe (2006). At the end of October, it was selected as the recipient of a $20,000 Urban Land Institute Community Action Grant along with Local Initiatives Support Coalition to develop a presentation toolkit and campaign strategy to engage local residents, business groups, community organizations, and civic leaders in discussions about challenges presented by the population growth of metropolitan Phoenix, as well as realistic solutions and designs for building sustainable, affordable, and healthy neighborhoods.
The Stardust Center’s associate director for design, Daniel Glenn, is working with Chicanos por la Causa on a 47-unit subdivision under construction that uses structural insulated panels, a construction system that speeds on-site construction and creates a highly insulated home that reduces cooling and heating requirements. This project will be the first “Green Communities” project in Arizona.
The Stardust Center will continue to be located at the ASU Mercado in downtown Phoenix and is searching for a new director. Sherry Ahrentzen is interim director. Click here for more information.
