Land use policies, access to public services, decisions about where to build affordable housing, historical practices (such as redlining by the U.S. banking system), as well as entrenched social and economic exclusion have shaped the spatial development of cities by influencing how and where resources are allocated and investments deployed. For fortunate residents, the structures and systems in place enable them to access hubs of economic activity, reside in neighborhoods with quality housing in high opportunity areas, and access vital public services and amenities. For those who are less fortunate, it means dealing with social and economic isolation, living in neighbourhoods plagued by poverty and disinvestment, and in areas more susceptible to climate-related events.

This webinar is organised as part of the OECD Champion Mayors for Inclusive Growth initiative and in partnership with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Findings from the forthcoming OECD report, Divided Cities: Understanding Intra-Urban Inequalities (to be launched at the Lincoln Institute’s International Conference on Municipal Fiscal Health), will set the scene by providing a set of comparable income segregation indicators across city jurisdictions in ten OECD countries plus Brazil and South Africa. The case of the Oak Park Regional Housing Center in the Greater Chicago area will demonstrate one community’s efforts to reduce racial segregation over a span of several decades, all while seeing a rise in overall property values. Perspectives from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy will shed light on how land policies and higher levels of government (including regional authorities) can influence segregation outcomes.

Speakers:

• Marissa Plouin, Coordinator, OECD Champion Mayors initiative
• Paolo Veneri, Acting Head of Unit, Statistics and Territorial Analysis, main author of Divided Cities: Understanding Intra-Urban Inequalities
• Rob Breymaier, Executive Director, Oak Park Regional Housing Center
• Jessie Grogan, Senior Policy Analyst, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Participants outcomes:

• Understand the challenges that can result from segregation by income and/or race and the effects on urban development
• Gain insight on some of the underlying land policies and structures that impact and influence spatial inequality and segregation
• Learn some intentional interventions a community has taken to counter segregation and achieve both integration and growth

The world’s municipalities face deeply troubling fiscal challenges, from infrastructure gaps—such as the estimated $3.6 trillion shortfall in the United States—or precarious financial instruments like China’s $3.3 trillion underfunded municipal debt. In addition to the difficulties of meeting existing infrastructure needs, rising urban populations and a changing climate require local governments to make additional, preemptive investments for the future of their communities in order to plan and prepare for growth and sustainability. As cities contend with historic needs, large-scale municipal bankruptcies, such as the crisis in Puerto Rico, have highlighted assorted and ongoing problems, including chronically meager or diminishing city revenues, increasing costs of providing public goods and services, mounting historical obligations, and expanding responsibilities to both higher-level governments and local citizens.

Recognizing these factors, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy launched the Municipal Fiscal Health Campaign in 2015 to help equip policymakers and local government officials with the tools to address their communities’ fiscal challenges. Our activities have included mobilizing transnational research, providing training, sharing policy ideas, and fostering regional and international dialogue. The campaign has engaged global audiences, including members of Congress, leaders within the Federal Reserve Bank, and state and local government officials.

A seminal event in the campaign’s trajectory, this conference convenes leading experts, scholars, and practitioners for an international dialogue to further elevate municipal fiscal health as an issue of global importance.  

Conference Goals:

• Convene academics, practitioners, government officials, and regulators to discuss the state of research and practice on municipal fiscal health;
• Elevate the global importance of municipal fiscal health and create a meaningful opportunity for the productive exchange of ideas among expert stakeholders;
• Raise awareness of the importance of land policy in promoting sound municipal fiscal health; and,
• Enable the sharing of experiences, solutions, best practices, and ideas in municipal fiscal health among scholars and practitioners from different countries.

View all conference materials, including speaker presentations, here.

Conference Sponsors 

*If you are attending the conference and require a hotel room, the Lincoln Institute and its event planner, Drew Company, have acquired a room block at the Westin Book Cadillac. You can indicate your need for a hotel room during the online registration process, and the event planners will book a room for you. The room rate is $199 per night plus applicable taxes and service fees. You will be responsible for the cost of your hotel accommodations upon check out. Hotel reservation cancellations made by Friday, April 27, 2018 will not be charged, cancellations received after this date may incur a one-night charge.