October 8, 2009
National expert on urban policy to deliver lecture, participate in forum
Bruce Katz, vice president and founding director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, will deliver a free public lecture on The Great Recession: What Comes Next for our MetroNation at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct., 13, in 130 Kane. Advance seat registration is available here.
Katz also will participate in a round-table discussion — an invitation-only event — with regional leaders on the future of Seattle’s prosperity and regional stability at 8 a.m., Oct. 14, in the Hughes Penthouse Theatre. Katz’s lecture and the panel discussion are both part of the University’s NEXT CITY: Sustainable Urbanization initiative, which will provide a forum for conversations across the UW and within the regional community to plan for a healthy and sustainable metropolitan future.
Katz regularly advises national, state, regional, and municipal leaders on policy reforms that advance the competitiveness of metropolitan areas. He focuses particularly on reforms that promote the revitalization of central cities and older suburbs and enhance the ability of these places to attract, retain and grow the middle class. Recently, he served on the Obama transition team and as a senior advisor to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.
In his lecture, Katz will discuss the broad economic forces affecting our country and argue that metro areas like Seattle’s can lead the way forward in adopting a new, low-carbon economic reality and creating sustained and shared national prosperity . For this to happen, he says, Seattle and other cities need a new kind of partner in Washington, D.C. and their state capitals.
The round-table discussion will be moderated by Denis Hayes, president and CEO, Bullitt Foundation. The panelists include Katz; Gene Duvernoy, president, Cascade Land Conservancy; Daniel Friedman, dean, UW College of Built Environments; and Joni Earl, CEO, Sound Transit.
The roundtable will explore such questions as:
- What are examples in the Puget Sound region where a metropolitan approach to sustainability is already working?
- What kinds of issues should be tackled across municipalities and counties, and what are those best approached at the neighborhood, town, or city level?
- How can our region best work with universities and research institutions to address sustainability?
- How does the current economic environment work against sustainable urbanization, and how does it provide opportunities to rethink the way our metropolitan areas work?
The round table forum is sponsored by the UW, Puget Sound Regional Council, Cascade Land Conservancy, City of Seattle and the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce.
Katz’s visit is sponsored by the Jessie and John Danz Endowment. He is a guest of the UW’s Department of Geography and the Graduate School.
The NEXT CITY initiative is sponsoring a series of five lectures over the year. Future speakers include: Hedrick Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter; Robert Fishman, professor of architecture and urban planning at the University of Michigan; and Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone. More information about the series can be found here.
