CHICAGO
—The American Planning Association’s (APA) National Planning Conference heads to Los Angeles April 14–17, 2012. Held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, APA’s National Planning Conference is the world’s largest planning event, attracting planners and leaders from around the world. The four-day conference features more than 200 conference sessions and 65 mobile workshops that focus on a variety of topics such as demographic changes, transit-oriented development, alternative energy, food systems and public health. The conference focuses on addressing the challenges facing cities and communities today, and tomorrow. Designed for planning practitioners, educators, citizens, business leaders, planning commissioners, and elected officials, the conference offers something for everyone, whether you are from a major metropolitan area, or a small rural community. The mobile workshops take conference attendees out into the neighborhoods to experience planning in Los Angeles firsthand. Guided by local practitioners and experts, the tours offer conference participants an opportunity to learn, see, and experience for themselves a variety of planning initiatives such as historic preservation efforts, creating bicycle-friendly communities, and watershed management. The AICP Community Planning Workshop on Saturday, April 14, will focus on the Boyle Heights neighborhood and its need to improve access to food through street vending. Professional planners attending the conference volunteer their time to work with local leaders and residents to identify solutions to eliminate the food desert. The 2012 APA National Planning Conference is made possible with generous support from the following sponsors: Esri; EnerGov Solutions; AECOM; Lincoln Institute of Land Policy; CDM Smith; and California Urban Forest Council.
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