The Albany Riverfront Collaborative, including Principal Scott Townsend and Senior Planner Adam Bonosky, is a community-led initiative that aims to redesign the city of Albany’s waterfront and remove the Interstate 787 highway. The group’s vision was recently recognized by the New York Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) and the Albany Business Review.
The New York Upstate APA Chapter Awards, presented each year at its annual conferences, celebrate great planning achievement. Albany Riverfront Collaborative’s Re-Envision Albany won the Grassroots Initiative Award. The award honors an initiative that illustrates how a neighborhood, community group, or other local non-governmental entity utilized the planning process to address a specific need or issue within the community.
The Albany Business Review’s Achievers Awards has been recognizing outstanding companies and business leaders for 40 years. The annual event has grown into one of the most prestigious awards programs in the community. The Albany Riverfront Collaborative was recognized as Strategist of the Year for “…bringing together a diverse mix of local people — everyone from community advocates to real estate developers — under one banner to call for a planning process that is inclusive and open to new ideas.”
Read the Albany Business Review feature here:
https://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2023/09/12/2023-achievers-announcement.html
The Albany Riverfront Collaborative’s “Together We Can” project was also recently selected to participate in the inaugural Community Connectors Cohort to support efforts to repair historical damage and inequities through redesigning I-787 and its South Mall Arterial. The group will receive a grant of up to $130,000 to build local capacity to advocate and co-design the project alongside impacted Albany communities. The Collaborative’s key goals are repairing cultural and historical damage from divisive infrastructure, and better connecting local communities. The Community Connectors program will take place over the next two years.
Read more here: Community Connectors Program – Smart Growth America