Events

"Better Buses, Better Cities"⁠ —  Transit expert Steven Higashide discusses how to plan, run and win the fight for effective transit.

"Palaces for the People" ⁠— New York University professor and sociologist Eric Klinenberg discusses social isolation, economic and racial stratification, and how social infrastructure can revitalize civic life.

"Building Equitable Cities" — Former Mayor and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros will discuss strategies for inclusive growth, improving urban and social infrastructure and planning for affordable housing.

"The Heart of the City" — Distinguished urban planner Alexander Garvin identifies shared elements of great downtowns, offers lessons from successful and failed projects, and charts a path forward to support downtowns into the twenty-first century.

"Designing for Equity" — Maurice Cox, director of planning and development for the city of Detroit, Michigan, will discuss creative design and community engagement as strategies for long-term equitable development.

Honoring Jeffrey C. Hines | Featuring Dr. Stephen Klineberg

"The Next American City" — Named by Newsweek as one of the five most innovative mayors in the country, four-term Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett will discuss lessons learned from his city's success, Houston's opportunity zones, and the way forward for America's midsize metros.

Dian Nostikasari, a senior research fellow at the Kinder Institute, will discuss two reports titled “Planning from Inside Out: Using Community Responses to Address Transportation, Infrastructure and Safety Concerns” and “Safe Streets, Safe Communities: Walking and Biking Infrastructure in Gulfton.”

Experts discuss how technology, policy and transportation interact, and how they can be used to develop a city that functions better for all communities.

Following a presentation on what the I-45 freeway expansion means for Houston, city planner and urban designer Jeff Speck will be in conversation with Kinder Institute Director Bill Fulton.

Wendie Choudary, a research fellow at the Kinder Institute, will discuss a recent report titled "Neighborhood Gentrification Across Harris County: 1990-2016."

"The Color of Law" — Richard Rothstein, an accomplished scholar of education and housing policy and a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, will discuss how laws and policies at the federal, state and local levels have promoted and enforced the residential racial segregation that exists today.

Rice University is hosting a half-day symposium on data privacy on January 28, 2019, which coincides with Data Privacy Day in the United States.

"The New Localism" — Bruce Katz, co-founder of New Localism Advisors, will reveal where the real power to create change lies and how it can be used to address our most serious social, economic and environmental challenges.

"Trains, Buses, People" — Christof Spieler, vice president and director of planning at Huitt-Zollars and a senior lecturer at Rice University, will discuss and sign his new book “Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US Transit.”

Discover the new features of the Houston Community Data Connections platform and get hands-on training.

"Reimagining the Civic Commons" — Carol Coletta, a senior fellow with the Kresge Foundation’s American Cities Practice, joins the Kinder Institute to talk about revitalizing and connecting public places to form more creative, inclusive cities.

Building on recent research reports by LINK Houston, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, and Bike Houston about safety for pedestrians and bicyclists on Houston’s streets, this summit will provide practical, relatable examples of how Houston can improve walkability and biking in Houston.

"Innovation and the Warhol Economy" — As Rice University and Houston partner to transform the historic Sears building into a bustling innovation district, well-known author and researcher Elizabeth Currid-Halkett joins the Kinder Institute to discuss the importance of cities investing in innovation for a competitive advantage.

Leading national experts discuss flood mitigation strategies—low impact design, green infrastructure and urban-scale greenspace preservation; how they interact with a community’s broader planning efforts; and, importantly, how to best pay for them.