Last week, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) hosted its annual Designing Cities Conference here in Denver. Our team members were there throughout the week to discuss transportation issues, share about DSP’s work, engage with decision-makers, and connect with other organizations from across the country.
On Tuesday, our Neighborhood Projects Coordinator, Tanniqua-Kay, spoke on the panel, “We’re All In This Together: Community Engagement, Funding, & Partnerships” to share her experience collaborating with various neighborhoods in Denver and how that has influenced our approach to community engagement that makes the right kind of impact and supports equitable growth:
Because of the systemic injustices in places that have been subjected to discriminatory practices by design, we are given the task to unmask those traumas through the work that we do. The work isn’t about assimilation, the work is about decolonizing the languages and systems that bind people from achieving their highest potential and quality of life. My response is simple: Foster community care in the landscape of your work.
Tuesday and Wednesday, our team worked with community partners to lead a couple of bike tours through Sun Valley. Our Executive Director, Jill, and Outreach Associate, Jace, shared about key infrastructure like the 13th Avenue protected bike lane, the diversity of the area and the challenges it faces as one of Denver’s lowest-income neighborhoods, and how the community is advocating for inclusive development and using art and activation to reclaim underutilized public spaces, like the Colfax viaduct near Empower Field.
Our Policy Director, Molly, supported two “walk-shops,” or guided experiences in the city, about the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI)’s South Central Community Transportation Networks initiative to build out bikeways using a network approach. Molly spoke about the importance of community engagement in transportation infrastructure projects like the Alexis Bounds Memorial Bikeway on South Marion Street, as well as the response to the death of Alexis Bounds in 2019, and how collaborating with DOTI that summer to install art and host events helped elevate the issue and played a key part in the community’s healing:
It meant so much to get to a place where the community could realize their vision of transforming this place of pain to one of light . . . This is all to say, that your job title might be planner or engineer. But, your jobs are much more than that.
Additionally, Jill worked with the national Vision Zero Network to organize a happy hour on Tuesday for decision-makers and advocates from around the country to come together and share ideas.
We’re so grateful for our team’s involvement in NACTO 2023 and we ended the conference feeling inspired and energized to continue our work in Denver.