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In New York City and across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color. This crisis threatens to shutter small businesses and expand the racial wealth gap in neighborhoods that already lack access to resources and capital as a result of long-term structural inequity and racism. In response, and in a move to channel the talent of New York’s top design firms into these communities’ recovery, the Urban Design Forum and Van Alen Institute have launched Neighborhoods Now.

This initiative connects four neighborhoods hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic with more than twenty leading design firms. In Bed-Stuy, Jackson Heights, Kingsbridge, and Washington Heights, these working groups will collaborate through August 2020 to develop safe and effective reopening strategies. As the city reopens on a broader scale, this initiative provides the opportunity for experimentation and innovation at the neighborhood level.

Learn more about Neighborhoods Now.