City eyes ‘equitable development’

Mayor hopes workshop leads to better housing, transportation

Mayor Steve Noble hopes a workshop on “equitable development” will lead to, among other things, better housing and transportation alternatives in the city.

The workshop is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday in City Hall, 420 Broadway.

The event is a follow-up to the public workshop held in May 2017 and supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through its “Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program.”

“The purpose of the program was to help the community evaluate its priorities to work toward equitable development and support community goals for housing, local businesses, jobs, transportation, and preserving opportunities for residents,” a press release states.

In part, the EPA defines equitable development as “a range of approaches for creating communities and regions where residents of all incomes, races and ethnicities participate in and benefit from decisions that shape the places where they live.”

Kingston was one of 25 communities nationwide that received assistance in 2017 through the EPA’s Building Blocks program.

“This is a follow-up to a really inspiring multiday workshop we held last May that was supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” Noble said in an email. “We had the opportunity during the first workshop to work with 40 or so community leaders, residents, business owners and not-for-profit partners and dive into some of the key areas of interest.”

But there is more to do, Noble said.

“This was really just the beginning of a much bigger dialogue about the future of Kingston,” he said.

“I’m really very proud of all that our community has done over the past two years, but in the end, we won’t have made any real progress or sustainable change if we fail to respond to the rising issues of inequity in communities across our nation, including Kingston . ...

“While these issues aren’t unique to Kingston, I believe that our interest and commitment to working together is,” the mayor said. “These conversations and working sessions, like the one planned for next week, will be the basis of our Affirmatively Fair Housing plan, which we will have

to develop to maintain our Community Development Block Grant funding in the future.

“In addition, this work and the public’s leadership in the decision making in our community will result in everything from better housing to more accessible transportation to increased

and diversified businesses, and more.”

Noble said the Thursday session will be like others sponsored by his administration.

“As with many of our events, this is a working meeting,” he said. “Participants will be taking the lead in discussing and problem

solving, and will be directing where we need to go in the future.

“I’m looking forward to it and encourage our residents, business owners, local employees, not-for-profit partners, faith leaders and all community members to join in this powerful discussion.”