On Wednesday, April 13th, YIMBYtown will host three rounds of Unconference sessions, giving every participant an opportunity to propose and potentially host a session on the topic of their choice.
Unconference sessions are open-source, developed by conference participants with effectively no input or oversight from YIMBYtown planners. They are often (although no always) devised and prepared during the conference itself, offering space to continue key conversations or tackle topics that were not covered by the pre-set agenda.
Proposals were submitted by participants on Monday, April 11th and have been assigned to rooms and time blocks. You can find these blocks on this page, on the Schedule page, and on the wall of the 3rd floor hallway outside of the ballroom, starting on Wednesday morning.
(The descriptions of the Unconference Sessions below were written by the participants who proposed the sessions, so they may not follow the same formatting or structure.)
9:30am-10:30am: Unconference 1 sessions
Suburbs – where the future is auditioning
Room 294
(Group Discussion)
More people in the US live in suburbs than in urban and rural areas combined and suburbs are outpacing urban growth. Today some suburbs are more socio-economically, culturally, and racially diverse than their counterpart cities but the national imagination and policy agendas have not caught up with the realities of this most common US context.
Since they aren’t going away… how can we love them more? How can we advance equity and anti-racist agendas? What kinds of infrastructures of belonging are needed? What’s working that needs more noticing? What is good about suburban poly-centro city that we have to work with? BYOT (bring your own topic and questions) and move through facilitated dialogues in small configurations and shares, culminating in a final collective futuring exercise.
Facilitated by:
Erica Dorn, Carnegie Mellon University and Suburb Futures
Ken Kinoshita, Vela Projects
Jobs-Housing Balance & Stopping Job Sprawl
Room 296
(Group Discussion)
Low density office, retail, school, and other commercial or institutional development take up lots of urban land and are also hard for transit to serve. Let’s discuss what different places are doing instead to combine housing and jobs. I’ll start off with some examples from California.
Facilitated by:
Alfred Twu
Smarter zoning to bypass local veto
Room 327
(Group Discussion)
California and other states have won with laws to allow ADUs and duplexes. Houston successfully won the battle to reduce minimum lot sizes by allowing the most resistant groups of residents to opt out. Those laws had less opposition because more homeowners saw the benefits. In Seoul, South Korea, a law to allow densification by vote enabled most of the condo construction in the mid-1990s. And in England the national Government plans to implement “street votes” to allow individual streets to vote to upzone themselves and share the benefits.
Are there common themes we can learn? John Myers of YIMBY Alliance recently wrote in the American Planning Association’s Zoning Practice. We will brainstorm about innovative zoning ideas to win over more voters and get change faster.
Facilitated by:
John Myers, YIMBY Alliance
Climate Refugees and Community Resilience: Mitigating Local Effects of Climate Change
Room 328
(Group Discussion)
Climate change is already affecting human populations in significant ways and is associated with large movements of people across international borders. These trends are also occurring within countries, including the United States. Sometimes these relocations can be planned, as is the case with Alaskan villages subjected to coastal erosion. Rapid and forced relocations can occur after natural disasters. These disruptions of communities have numerous negative impacts, including to health, livelihoods, and social relationships. This session is an opportunity for participants to talk about what their cities are doing to prepare for environmental migration, and what can be done to promote social cohesion and resiliency.
Facilitated by:
Sharon Chamard, University of Alaska Anchorage
List Building 101: A workshop on practical ways to grow your people power
Room 329
(Interactive Training)
Managing and growing your list is a key component to organizing. As people are starting to organize, the transition from Google Groups and Twitter DMs can be frustrating and hard to manage. Many free and low-cost tools can make the transition easier and dramatically help you scale up your organizing efforts. This workshop will be especially useful for folks using a variety of communication tools and struggling to figure out how to both grow and communicate with potential activists. We’ll discuss the pros and cons of Facebook Groups, Change.org, Google Forms, Google Groups, Action Network, Slack and more.
Led by:
Laura Foote, ED YIMBY Action
Leora Tanjuatco Ross, Organizing Director, YIMBY Action
Downtown Office Conversions: The Silent Scream
Room 323 (across from 328)
(Group Discussion)
In so many American downtowns, and some Edge Cities, tall office towers with large floor plates sit silent, casualties of the Work from Home movement. The towers are in locations with great walk scores and transit access, and scream out to be part of the abundant housing solution. But unlike more delicately built 100 year old office buildings, these towers are really tough to convert to residential because the water and the elevators, and much of the space, are too far from the windows and sunlight. Do you know how to solve this and enable these conversions? Please help us solve this, and harvest this opportunity. And if we can’t totally solve it today, perhaps we could scope out a path to conversion for this prime urban space.
Facilitated by:
Larry Gould, Congress for the New Urbanism
The Big Tent: How to Build a Broad, Representative Movement (Stories from the Field)
Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom
(Group Discussion)
Most YIMBYs understand that our housing crisis is rooted in our country’s racist history. Even though rectifying this wrong is a fundamental YIMBY value, most would agree that our movement is not as diverse or representative as we would like. This facilitated discussion will give participants the opportunity to share and learn from each others experiences in our collective attempts to expand the tent of YIMBYism. How do we authentically show up in spaces as pro-housing advocates? How do we elevate the voices and needs of those at the front lines of the housing crisis whose experiences are so often not represented or have historically been excluded from the decision making process. This is sure to be a robust discussion that both novice and seasoned organizers will benefit from.
Facilitated by:
Konstantin Hatcher, Senior Director of Community Impact, California YIMBY
10:45am-11:45am: Unconference 2 sessions
Fundraising and Board Selection: Driving Successful Organizations
Room 294
(Panel Discussion)
Participants will learn about different strategies for successful fundraising and board selection. California YIMBY is well-positioned to discuss successful fundraising, since we have a record of raising lots of money from diverse sources quickly. We can also speak to engaging the board, and how setting up a c3 board and c4 board may differ.
Led by:
Brian Hanlon, California YIMBY
Robyn Leslie, California YIMBY
Is “YIMBY” the best identifier for our Movement?
Room 296
(Group Discussion)
“YIMBY” began as a reaction to NIMBY. Do we all identify as YIMBYs? If so, is this an identifier that best serves our Movement’s aims? Should we consider other ways of identifying ourselves and our Movement?
We also have organizations in our Movement that emphasize “Everyone” & “Neighbors” in their names. Meanwhile, when a Bay Area pro-housing group formed & considered a name in 2017, it considered “YIMBY” in it. Hear some data compiled on the “YIMBY” brand during this process.
The room will be organized in a circle to foster this interactive discussion.
Facilitated by:
Alex Shoor, Catalyze SV
Alex Contreras, Happy Cities Coalition
Agree to Disagree
Room 327
(Group Discussion)
It’s rare for two individuals to find perfect alignment, much less two groups or organizations. How do we work, collaborate, and make progress together when we disagree? How do we express our power but also make room for others to express theirs? In this session, Jes McBride – an urban planner and restorative justice volunteer – will briefly share a model of power and openness based on the work of author Adam Kahane, then co-facilitate a group discussion on the examples, opportunities, and challenges of agreeing to disagree in the context of housing advocacy. There will be more questions than answers in this session, so come prepared for a whole-hearted exploration!
Facilitated by:
Jes McBride
Alex Melendrez
Cultivating Legislative Allies: the intersection of policy and politics
Room 328
(Group Discussion)
The housing shortage and affordability crisis is as much a political problem as a policy problem. The YIMBY movement offers a winning agenda of evidence-based solutions from up-zoning to streamlining and tenant protections to homeownership initiatives. But good policy only becomes law if legislators have the knowledge and political will to act. Building powerful legislative relationships is about balancing policy and politics. Join us for a facilitated discussion of strategies to 1) balance policy priorities with political realities, 2) engage and cultivate legislative champions, and 3) identify and elect pro-housing allies. Share your success stories and your hard-learned lessons. Get inspired by your fellow YIMBYs and learn new strategies to bring back home.
Facilitated by:
Melissa Breach, Senior VP / COO CAYIMBY
Jordan Panana Carbajal, Legislative Advocate CAYIMBY
Lightning Slides: 20 Reasons to Hate Parking Mandates & more parking reform talk
Room 329
(8 min “lightning slides” presentation followed by group discussion)
In 20 quick slides, Sightline’s Catie Gould and Michael Andersen will offer a fun, fact-filled, kaleidoscopic case against parking mandates. After that, Parking Reform Network president Tony Jordan will lead a group discussion about the ongoing war on cars.
Led by:
Michael Andersen
Catie Gould
Tony Jordan
Can’t pass reform? Maybe try a lawsuit.
Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom
(Panel/training hybrid)
Sometimes your state legislature or local city council isn’t in a reform mood. But there are still options for getting the change you want. This panel/training will feature two attorneys at the national nonprofit organization, the Institute for Justice, who are experts in challenging zoning laws, including through legal action and other creative alternatives. These attorneys have experience taking on everything from off-street parking requirements, restrictions on RVs, and excessive fines to bans on home based businesses, tiny homes, and nontraditional living arrangements. Learn your rights and how to navigate the justice system.
Led by:
Erica Smith Ewing, Senior Attorney at the Institute for Justice
Ari Bargil, Attorney at the Institute for Justice
1:30pm-2:30pm: Unconference 3 sessions
How to decide what to do, and how to do it
Room 294
(Panel Discussion)
Alex and Dan have both spent close to 15 years deciding what to get involved in, and have learned a lot of lessons on how to do it. We are based in the D.C. region, have worked in various roles across the US, and are familiar with what’s similar and different at local, state, and national levels. We both work on housing, transportation, and land use, and have advanced policies that champion our values of inclusiveness, access, and desegregation. We’ve racked up a lot of wins, but are always learning how to sharpen our successes. We’ll talk not specifically about campaigns, but how we’ve decided to involve ourselves in particular pursuits for more housing and fewer single-occupancy vehicle trips, and how we’ve then made decisions about the strategic direction those pursuits should take.
Led by:
Alex Baca
Dan Reed
Personal and Professional Growth as Organizers and Advocates
Room 296
(Group Discussion)
Pro-housing advocacy and organizing is a deeply personal type of work. This session will be an opportunity for seasoned organizers to share how they built the skills and experiences that have made them effective, and for junior organizers to share the challenges they are facing. We’re all learning and growing here – let’s be open about it!
Facilitated by:
Allan Sadun, volunteer co-chair, A Better Cambridge
After ending exclusionary zoning, what’s our next big goal?
Room 327
(Panel Discussion)
Ending exclusionary zoning is a big goal for the YIMBY movement right now. In our biggest cities, we’ll need to go further to build the housing we need. What’s our next goal to get there?
Led by:
Burhan Azeem, Cambridge City Councilor & AHMA Board
Congestion Pricing
Room 328
(Group Discussion)
We will talk about the ONLY solution to congested roadways. And compare Singapore’s solution to London’s and Stockholm.
Facilitated by:
Michael Nahas
Michael Andersen
The 1 hour startup: Launch your housing startup
Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom
(Group Discussion)
This session is one inspired by the Startup Weekend but because we only have an hour we’re gonna have to move fast.
At the end of this conference this is the session to bring all the pieces together and pitch your idea on how to delivery more housing to your city.
The session will start with some ice breakers, followed by breakout brain storming sessions and then pitches.
Everyone will exchange contact info to continue exploring the pitch post launch with the goal of ultimately delivering more housing
Facilitated by:
Chris Walter – backyard builder
How to use Action Network to manage your newsletter, events, petitions, and more!
Room 329
(Interactive Training)
Are you running your YIMBY group with a hodgepodge of Google groups, spreadsheets, and Eventbrites? It could be better! Learn how to use Action Network to make your organizing easier, more efficient, and more effective.
Training will be led by Joanna Gubman, Executive Director of Urban Environmentalists – an initiative of YIMBY Action. She’s been using Action Network for years and is excited to give you a tour and answer your questions!
Led by:
Joanna Gubman, Executive Director of Urban Environmentalists