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For Immediate Release Contacts: 5,000 Residents of NYC and Region Sought For 21st Century Town Meeting on Future of Lower Manhattan July 20th Javits Center Event Will Use Interactive Technologies, Face-to-Face Dialogue To Create Inclusive Vision for Rebuilding and Memorial June, 2002, New York City - Up to 5,000 residents of New York City and the surrounding region are needed to participate in a 21st Century town meeting on Saturday, July 20th at the Jacob Javits Center to consider plans for the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan and the creation of a permanent memorial to the victims of 9/11. The meeting will utilize a citizen engagement design that combines intimate face-to-face dialogue with large group interactive technology. Entitled "Listening to the City," the event is being organized by the Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York, a coalition of more than 85 civic, business, environmental, community, university and labor groups, and supported through generous grants from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and other members of the corporate and foundation communities. Participants will have an opportunity to view and comment on up to six alternatives for the site, adjacent areas and related transportation to be released by the LMDC and Port Authority in July as part of a three-phase study now underway. They will also be able to voice their opinions on the process for creating a permanent memorial, which LMDC will announce in July. In addition, participants will be encouraged to share their own ideas and to react to a variety of proposals created by organizations and individuals through the public input process. For more information about "Listening to the City" and to register as a participant for the 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. event, individuals should call 1-800-862-3154 or visit www.listeningtothecity.org. Individuals unable to attend on July 20th for religious observance or other reasons are invited to register - on a first-come/first-served basis - for a smaller event on Monday, July 22nd. "Our goal is to create a great urban space in Lower Manhattan - one that sensitively memorializes the thousands of people who lost their lives and serves the long-term needs, interests and dreams of people throughout New York City, the surrounding region and the entire nation," said Robert D. Yaro, President of the Regional Plan Association. Arthur J. Fried, Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in New York City Governance, added, "'Listening to the City' is exciting not only because it makes a significant contribution to the rebuilding effort, but also because it introduces a new method for bringing rich public input into the large-scale planning process in New York City." LMDC Chairman John Whitehead said, "As an integral part of our rebuilding and revitalizing plans, the LMDC has been gathering valuable input for the past several months from the many constituencies involved with Lower Manhattan. This unique forum will be especially useful in reaching out to gain the views of an additional 5,000 participants in a town hall setting." "Listening to the City" will be the largest town hall meeting of its kind, according to AmericaSpeaks, the non-profit organization that created the innovative model for large-scale public engagement. Participants will come from all walks of life - residents and workers, survivors and families of victims, emergency and rescue workers, business and property owners, citizens and civic leaders. They will reflect considerable age, income ethnic, racial, geographic and gender diversity. "The design allows us to engage large, representative groups of people," said Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer, President of AmericaSpeaks. "It's the ideal way to involve individuals in a democratic planning process for Lower Manhattan, and we think it will serve as a model for 21st Century citizen engagement in public policy." "Listening to the City" builds on a prior, 600-person event devoted to the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan, which took place on February 7, 2002, at the South Street Seaport. AmericaSpeaks has staged over 50 such events around the country for groups as large as 3,700. Led by a team from AmericaSpeaks, the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University, the New School's Milano Graduate School, the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development and the Regional Plan Association, the Civic Alliance has moved quickly to organize the July gathering. A planning team, now occupying office space at 440 Ninth Avenue, is working out the specifics of the event, which will include up to 500 round tables, each with 10-12 participants. Professional facilitators at each table will lead face-to-face discussions, capture thoughts on laptop computers and then wirelessly transmit them to a "theme team." This team will combine the inputs, frame questions and project them on large video screens for the entire group's consideration. Individual participants will then use wireless polling keypads to "voice their opinions" on the questions, with results being instantly displayed. A final proceedings report will be widely disseminated to decision-makers, who have committed to seriously consider its recommendations. To assist in planning and executing "Listening to the City," the Civic Alliance has retained four local firms with the following responsibilities:
About the Event Organizers The Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York is a coalition of more than 85 civic, business, environmental, community, university and labor groups. The Alliance is working closely with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the City of New York to create a bold vision for a revitalized downtown. [A list of Civic Alliance members is available at http://www.civic-alliance.org] Regional Plan Association, an independent metropolitan research and advocacy group, has worked to improve the quality of life in the 31-county New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan area since 1922. RPA recommends policy initiatives and physical and human infrastructure investments and involves the public in considering and shaping the region's future. AmericaSpeaks is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization founded to create innovative mechanisms through which citizens can express their voices on public policy priorities. The Washington, D.C.-based group developed the "electronic town meeting" process and has conducted similar large-scale civic forums around the country, including the successful Pew Charitable Trust's Americans Discuss Social Security dialogue series in 1997 and 1998. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation is a joint State-City corporation formed by the Governor and Mayor to oversee the rebuilding and revitalization of Lower Manhattan. The LMDC is governed by a 16-member Board of Directors - eight appointed by the Governor, eight appointed by the Mayor - and is chaired by John C. Whitehead. To assist in its mission, the Corporation has formed several Advisory Councils and a general Advisory Committee comprised of federal, state and city elected officials, business and civic leaders to represent the interests of various constituencies affected by the September 11th attacks. The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University was established in 1938 and is the largest graduate school for public affairs in the country. Through state-of-the-art programs, the Wagner School educates the future leaders of public, nonprofit and health institutions as well as private organizations serving the public sector. Leading Wagner's efforts on "Listening to the City" are its Center for Excellence in New York City Governance, Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems, Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy and the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management. New School University, with 7,000 matriculated students and 25,000 continuing education students, comprises seven academic divisions: The New School, the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, Parsons School of Design, Eugene Lang College, Mannes College of Music, the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, and the Actors Studio Drama School, as well as the University's B.F.A. in Jazz and Contemporary Music. The Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development (PICCED) works to maintain the strength and health of neighborhoods by elevating the voices of low- and moderate-income communities and communities of color that are routinely left out of the discussion when it comes to making sweeping changes to the City and its infrastructure. For over 38 years, PICCED's community development specialists, planners and architects have worked with communities throughout New York City to articulate and implement strategies for equitable and sustainable development and to uproot poverty. PICCED's work enables organizations based in New York's diverse communities to work in partnership with government and the private sector to shape programs and policies at the community, city and regional levels. |
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