Yesterday two major New York City community development projects partnered for a day of dreaming big. ReDefining Economic Development NYC (RED) joined with PlaNYC 2030 to bring together community organizations working on environmental justice, affordable housing, and economic opportunity issues. The goal of the event, hosted by Judson Memorial Church, was to be sure these groups offered feedback to PlaNYC 2030, as well as learning about RED.

RED's collaborating partners share PlaNYC 2030's goals of strengthening the city's infrastructure, reducing pollution, and creating more housing and better transportation by 2030. But in the face of an anticipated one million new residents, RED is particularly concerned with the increasing inequalities growth is bringing to New York City's economy, environment, and neighborhood quality-of-life. So the 100- plus advocates and activists gathered yesterday to submit their visions of a New York free of these inequalities by 2030, and ideas on how we can get there.

According to Joan Byron of the Pratt Center for Community Development (an event organizer and RED coordinator), the city's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability welcomed the opportunity to participate with open arms. According to Worldchanging.com contributor Joshua Wiese (that's me), it's great to see both of these ambitious projects collaborating at this level.

For more information on PlaNYC 2030, check out links here, here, and here.

To learn more about ReDefining Economic Development, NYC, check out links here, here, and here.