The Next Step in the “Big Idea” Journey
Our Big Idea Forum was a great success. We thought you might want to look at the power point presenations from RPA and from ACE. Stay tuned for more information about our Big Idea initiative
Here is ACE’s power point: Ideas– Big and Small
And here is RPA’s presentation on Changes and Challenges in the County’s Demographics Westchester Big Idea Presentation 6-16
Here is ACE’s power point: Ideas– Big and Small
And here is RPA’s presentation on Changes and Challenges in the County’s Demographics Westchester Big Idea Presentation 6-16
We are challenging you to come up with Big Ideas that will be game-changers for Westchester.
- Ideas that foster healthy and resilient communities- economically, environmentally and socially,
- Ideas that promote integrated solutions rather than fragmented and isolated fixes.
- Ideas grounded in the present that inspire responsible actions to prepare for the future.
Given ACE’s mission to help meet critical housing needs, we especially encourage Big ideas to ensure that the people who every day work here and contribute to our economy and society can afford to make this community their home, too.
Are we in Westchester ready for daunting changes on the horizon?
- Signs of rising taxes and public service cutbacks.
- Limited choices in housing and prices that keep the young and first responders out,while forcing the elderly to move and discouraging young families from considering ourcommunities as a place to raise their children.
- Mismatches between current employment and training needs to meet the emergingtechnology and highly competitive healthcare industries, already a major factor in the global economy.
Our cities, towns and villages are rich with some of the most accomplished people in this country, yet few focus on the Big Ideas required to meet our current and future challenges. That is why ACE challenges you to join our Big Idea Initiative.
There are three parts to the Big Idea Initiative:
Our Big Idea initiative
1. Housing Options. Where does that recently widowed woman down the road, the retiree next door or the recent college graduate who wants to return to the town they grew up in, live? Where do your first responders live? We must create new types of housing, creating opportunities for seniors, young adults and workers. We look to models such as accessory dwelling units which encompass accessory apartments, tiny houses as well as apartments above stores and “quad housing” communal and mixed-use housing models.
2. Thrive without cars? How can life in suburbia and northern Westchester thrive without cars? With an aging population and a lack of public transportation how do we develop a non-car transportation plan linking and supplying transportation to those living in our communities? What options are available to us now, what is technology going to look like in 5 years from now? Look at specific towns, municipalities and at regional possibilities to make transportation affordable and useable.
3. Collaboration. Take action: Build a coalition across borders and ideas, taking the affordable housing fight to Albany, the county and local governments. By bringing together a diverse group of organizations, individuals, faith leaders, nonprofits, businesses, institutions and concerned citizens, we will have a depth able to reach and inform those necessary to move the agenda on what affordable housing looks like in the 21st Century. Would you join an alliance?
4. Funding. The Challenge –as typical funding sources for affordable housing dry up or become less user-friendly for projects in Westchester, devise new models of housing finance to fund projects going forward. Create new models of housing finance with new financing that could fill the funding gap:
1. Housing Options. Where does that recently widowed woman down the road, the retiree next door or the recent college graduate who wants to return to the town they grew up in, live? Where do your first responders live? We must create new types of housing, creating opportunities for seniors, young adults and workers. We look to models such as accessory dwelling units which encompass accessory apartments, tiny houses as well as apartments above stores and “quad housing” communal and mixed-use housing models.
2. Thrive without cars? How can life in suburbia and northern Westchester thrive without cars? With an aging population and a lack of public transportation how do we develop a non-car transportation plan linking and supplying transportation to those living in our communities? What options are available to us now, what is technology going to look like in 5 years from now? Look at specific towns, municipalities and at regional possibilities to make transportation affordable and useable.
3. Collaboration. Take action: Build a coalition across borders and ideas, taking the affordable housing fight to Albany, the county and local governments. By bringing together a diverse group of organizations, individuals, faith leaders, nonprofits, businesses, institutions and concerned citizens, we will have a depth able to reach and inform those necessary to move the agenda on what affordable housing looks like in the 21st Century. Would you join an alliance?
4. Funding. The Challenge –as typical funding sources for affordable housing dry up or become less user-friendly for projects in Westchester, devise new models of housing finance to fund projects going forward. Create new models of housing finance with new financing that could fill the funding gap:
Here is what to look for in each of these phases:
- The Forum in June will be to get key information in front of all stakeholders, as well as discovering the needs of stakeholders. The Regional Plan Association (RPA) will give a presentation on their great work on demographic and other challenges in Westchester. The mix of facts and diverse stakeholder dreams will come together around Big Ideas
- At Summer Camp, Partnerships matching community leaders, nonprofit organizations and professional expertise in architecture, land use and design will bring focus to the process of meeting the identified challenges facing our communities,
- where a high school team, a group of seniors and an architectural firm address availability of land and concerns over safety for the elderly in housing development by developing ideas for a community based on tiny houses inserted within a welcoming town or village,
- how a millennials group placing a high value on energy efficiency work with planning experts to show how a parcel of land can be developed with solar panels to compensate for lot coverage
- how a group of architects and planners find a solution on how to incorporate South America’s “half a house” in America much less Westchester.
- Where a group of local businessmen and women join with a group of college student to redefine the phrase “Affordable Housing”
In the Fall, each of the BIG Idea Initiatives are put forward as exhibits and judged for practicality and viability. We anticipate the emergence of great world-class ideas that can be acted on locally.
Let’s dream about Westchester’s future and work to make Big Ideas we can be proud of come true in our small part of the world.
Let’s dream about Westchester’s future and work to make Big Ideas we can be proud of come true in our small part of the world.