Preventing Displacement In Transit-Oriented Communities

While transit-oriented development or TOD offers many economic and environmental benefits for low-income communities and communities of color, TOD also has the potential to displace those very same communities. In this session, we brought together elected officials, government staff, transit and housing policy experts, and community organizers from around the region to examine what local and regional policies can prevent the displacement of low-income communities and communities of color, and to identify the strategies and policies that have the greatest potential to succeed in the Bay Area.

Stephanie Pollack - SOR 2011 C. 2011 Scott Braley

Presenter Bios
Stephanie Pollack is associate director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University, where she oversees the Center's research agenda in the areas of transportation policy, transit-oriented development, sustainability, and equitable development. Pollack is also on the core faculty for the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, where she teaches courses in law and housing and transportation policy. Pollack previously co-chaired Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's 2006 transition working group on transportation, and served on Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino's Climate Action Leadership Committee in 2009-10. Pollack currently serves on the boards of Boston Society of Architects, Charles River Watershed Association, Health Resources in Action, and MoveMass. Before coming to Northeastern, Pollack was a senior executive and attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, and was a partner in the strategic environmental consulting firm BlueWave Strategies LLC. Pollack received both a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.S. in Public Policy from M.I.T., and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Jaron Browne - SOR 2011 C. 2011 Scott Braley

Jaron Browne is the Bayview Organizing Project organizer for People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER), a membership organization made up of low-income African American and Latino workers and tenants in San Francisco. Browne joined POWER's staff in July of 2002, and is helping to build a campaign for community-driven, accountable and sustainable development among low-income homeowners and public housing residents. Browne is also an active member of POWER's leadership development projects, and a co-author of Towards Land, Work, and Power. Browne was a co-author for the recent report by the Right to the City Alliance titled We Call These Projects Home, and has been a contributing writer for Urban Habitat’s journal, Race, Poverty & the Environment. Before joining POWER, Browne did organizing and campaign research against racism in the criminal justice system with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Browne was trained as an organizer in Los Angeles at the Labor/Community Strategy Center's National School for Strategic Organizing.

JCarlos Romero- SOR 2011 C. 2011 Scott Braley

Carlos Romero is Mayor of East Palo Alto, and serves as the chair of the city council’s Housing and Economic Development committees and vice-chair of the East Palo Alto Redevelopment Agency. Prior to his election to city council, Romero chaired the East Palo Alto Planning Commission and was chair of city’s Rent Stabilization Board. Professionally, Romero is a housing development and land-use consultant for non-profit and community based organizations. Over the past 20 years, Romero has been involved in every aspect of developing and operating community housing development organizations as a founder, board member, project manager, and executive director. Prior to consulting, Romero headed the Mission Housing Development Corporation, a San Francisco community-based, affordable housing organization, where he oversaw housing and mixed-use development activity. In addition to his affordable housing development skills, Romero has extensive experience as a community organizer in low-income neighborhoods. He has worked on numerous grassroots organ¬izing campaigns ranging from the incorpo¬ra¬tion of East Palo Alto to citizenship and civic participation trainings for immigrants. In 1988, Romero co-founded EPA CAN DO, a community-based housing development organization that has developed over 250 affordable housing units. Romero completed his undergraduate studies in international relations and economics at Stanford University, and was a Fannie Mae Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government.

Recommended readings:
* Maintaining Diversity in America's Transit-Rich Neighborhoods: Tools for Equitable Neighborhood

Community Organizations

Conference Reports and Recordings