Please join us!

48th International

Making Cities Livable Conference on

TRUE URBANISM:
PLANNING HEALTHY, AND CHILD-FRIENDLY COMMUNITIES

& Exhibit on

SUCCESSFUL SOLUTIONS FOR HEALTHY, AND CHILD-FRIENDLY COMMUNITIES

Co-Organizers: City of Charleston & IMCL Council

Dock Street Theater
Charleston, SC
October 17 - 21, 2010

Dear Friends:

Children are profoundly affected by the environment in which they live. The opportunity to safely walk to school, play outdoors in a park or live in a healthy environment affects their well being and future development. The physical layout of our communities can promote or restrict active living and healthy development.

I am very pleased to announce the 48th International Making Cities Livable Conference: Planning Healthy and Child-Friendly Communities will be held in Charleston, October 17- 21, 2010. The conference offers an opportunity to get involved in creating child-friendly communities. Towns and cities play a critical role as they focus on building child-friendly green spaces, community places, safe routes, and urban design. This meeting will be jointly organized by the City of Charleston and the International Making Cities Livable Council.

An impressive program of speakers has been assembled. As the Mayor of the City of Charleston, I have helped to lead the efforts of the Mayors Action Challenge for Children and Families, and I have served as a chair for the National League of Cities Council of Youth, Education, and Families. I believe that Charleston will serve as a wonderful back-drop for this conference.

The City of Charleston is beautiful in the fall. While attending the conference, you will have an opportunity to tour our historic houses and neighborhoods, gardens and plantations, walk through the Waterfront Park, and work with leading urban planners and thinkers in the United States and Europe.

We are looking forward to this conference as it allows the City of Charleston an opportunity to share ideas that have helped to make our community more healthy and child-friendly and learn from the solutions which have been proven successful in cities and towns across the world.

I look forward to welcoming you in Charleston, October 17-21, 2010.

Joseph P. Riley, Jr.
Mayor, City of Charleston
July 30, 2009

Invited Keynote Speakers & Presenters

First Lady Michelle Obama
Tom Harkin, Senator, Iowa. Introduced the Healthy Lifestyles and Prevention America Act.
John Sarbanes, Congressman, Maryland. Introduced the No Child Left Inside Act.
Jim Doyle, Governor, Wisconsin. KidsFirst Program
Sven von Ungern-Sternberg*, Former Governor of South Baden, Germany
Randall Arendt*, FRTPI, Landscape/Conservation Planner, Narragansett, RI
Ralph Becker, Mayor, Salt Lake City, UT. Member, Mayor's Action Challenge for Children & Families
Peter Benson Ph.D.*, President, Search Institute, The Banks Building, Minneapolis, MN
Perry Bigelow*, Founder, President, The Bigelow Group Inc., Aurora, IL
Dr. Peter Grevatt, Director, Office of Children's Health Protection, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington DC
Cory Booker, Mayor, Newark, NJ. Advocate for child-friendly communities.
David Cicilline, Mayor, Providence, RI. Advocate for child-friendly communities.
Clare Cooper Marcus, Professor Emeritus, Landscape Architecture, University of California Berkeley
Andrew L. Dannenberg, MD, MPH*, Assoc. Director for Science, Emergency & Environmental Health Services, NCEH, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA
Reid Ewing*, Professor of City & Metropolitan Planning, University of Utah
Lawrence Frank, Ph.D., CIP, ASLA*, Bombadier Chair in Sustainable Transportation, University of British Columbia.
Richard Gilbert*, Consultant on Urban Issues, Toronto, Canada.
Gail Goldberg, AICP, Planning Director, City of Los Angeles
Stanley I. Greenspan, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry & Pediatrics, George Washington University Medical School. Founding President Zero to Three
John Hickenlooper, Mayor, Denver, CO. Child & Youth Friendly City Initiative.
Richard J. Jackson, MD MPH*, Professor, Chair, Dept. of Environmental Health Sciences, UCLA
Cliff Johnson, Exec. Director, NLC Institute for Youth, Education & Families
Stephen R. Kellert, Ph.D.*, Tweedy/Ordway Professor of Social Ecology, Co-Director of the Hixon Center for Urban Ecology, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Bill Klein, AICP, Director of Research & Advisory Services, American Planning Association
John L. Knott, Jr.*, Co-founder, President, The Noisette Company, N. Charleston, SC
Lamine Mahdjoubi, Ph.D., Faculty of the Built Environment, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK
Thomas M. Menino, Mayor, Boston, MA, Co-Founder, Mayor's Action Challenge for Children & Families
Robin C. Moore,* Director, Natural Learning Institute, Prof of Landscape Architecture, NC State University, Raleigh, NC
John O. Norquist, Former Mayor of Milwaukee, President & CEO, Congress for the New Urbanism
David Ramsay, City Manager  Kirkland, WA. Active in ICMA's Healthy Communities Program
Charles Royer*, Former Mayor of Seattle, President, Institute for Community Change, Seattle, WA
R. T. Rybak, Mayor, Minneapolis, MN, Mayor's Action Challenge for Children & Families
Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, US Department of Health & Human Services.
June Tester*, Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute
Ian Thomas*, Exec. Director, PedNet Coalition
Mildred Warner*, Assoc Professor, City & Regional Planning, Cornell University
Sam Bass Warner*, Professor of Urban Studies & Planning, MIT

* Confirmed

Special Charleston Program

The Special Charleston Program is still being planned, and will be included here when finalized.

Special Exhibit

SUCCESSFUL SOLUTIONS FOR HEALTHY, & CHILD-FRIENDLY COMMUNITIES

• Green Places
• Community Places
  
• Safe Routes for Pedestrians & Bicyclists
• Walkable Neighborhoods
  
• Organizational Strategies

If you are interested in participating in this Exhibit, please see the Invitation to Exhibit.

Presentation topics include: (partial list)

• Healthy cities
  Urban planning for physical and social health. Aligning health and planning policies. Shaping the healthy city. Place-based strategies for healthy living. Healthy aging and the built environment. Identifying neighborhoods with populations at high risk of ill health. Healthy land use and transportation policies.
• Child-friendly communities
  Impact of the built environment on children’s health and development. Focusing on communities with children most in need. Ensuring independent mobility through walkable, bikable streets. No child left inside. Contact with nature for health and well-being. Designing nature spaces for children. How the environment teaches children spatial skills, autonomy and self-assurance. Learning social skills in public places. Teens' social development and community spaces. The role of familiar adults. Designing child-friendly neighborhood plazas. Multi-use schools as neighborhood centers.
• Nature in the urban environment
  Importance of contact with nature for health and well-being. Natural urban places for exercise, adventure, relaxation and stimulation. Natural beauty and well-being. Designing and restoring nature classrooms, natural playgrounds, community gardens, parks, wild and incidental nature. Restoring biodiversity. Making nature accessible for all ages.
• Public health and planning issues
  Health effects of sprawl and distressed inner city areas. Obesity and land use patterns. Absence of community and social pathology. Dangers of social isolation for youth and the elderly. Availability of fresh food. Effects of environmental ugliness and degradation.
• Rebuilding place-based community
  Facilitating community through land use and urban design. Complete and inclusive communities. Social networks, physical and social health. Competent community, collective efficacy. Role of community in child development. Social life in public and civic awareness. Community festivals and social well-being.
• Public places for social life and civic engagement
  How streets and squares foster social interaction. Designing and reviving town squares for community social life. Civic plazas to support civic engagement. Beauty and amenity to generate well-being.
• Mixed-use urban fabric
  Mixed use and walkability. New neighborhoods with mixed-use fabric. Urban regeneration through mixed-use infill and restoration. New designs for human scale multifamily mixed-use. Zoning changes to encourage compact mixed use.
• Community participation
  Children and youth participate in public art, neighborhood improvement, restoring nature. Social consequences of participation – building self confidence, community pride, cross-generational networks, developing skills.
• Promoting healthy transportation modes
  Making cities pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly. Bicycle planning principles and techniques. Planning for commuting by foot and bike. Integrating transit and land use for the walkable city.
• Urban villages and towns
  Designing complete towns. Transforming suburban malls into mixed-use town centers. Creating urban villages at public transit hubs.
• Regional planning for healthy cities
  Sustainable regional transportation & land-use planning. Promoting regional identity. Cities and counties collaborate to curb sprawl. Focusing development in town centers. Achievements in limiting big box retail.
• Traditional town planning
  New town planning on traditional principles. Historical models. Regional architecture and identity. Can we learn from Europe?
• Green buildings, green neighborhoods
  Sustainable land-use planning and urban design. Sustainable community development. Green buildings, healthy buildings. Sustainability through regional planning.
• Innovative teaching models
  Integrating public health and planning. Teaching human aspects of architecture and urban design.

If you are interested in giving a presentation, please see the Call for Papers.

Register for this conference

Note: AICP Certification Maintenance Credits available.

Hotel Accommodations

The Renaissance Charleston Hotel is holding a block of rooms at the special rate of $139 for Conference participants. To make reservations, please call 1 (800) 468-3571 or (843) 534-0300 mentioning that you are with the International Making Cities Livable Conference. This beautiful new hotel in the Historic District has traditional Charleston elegance and is within easy walking distance (10 - 20 minutes) of all conference locations.

Arriving in Charleston

Taxis and limos operate from the airport to downtown hotels. (Taxi fare $30-$35.) To reduce your carbon footprint you may wish to take the more economical shuttle service (this may involve a short wait) or order a Green Taxi (843-819-0846). By 2010 Charleston Green Taxis will also have a hydrogen van in service.

Register for this conference