For more than two decades, CNU has worked to create more inclusive and equitable communities. An early success was working with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the 1990s to create design guidelines to rehabilitate the nation's most deteriorated and isolated public housing facilities into mixed-income neighborhoods that integrate with the broader community.
More recently, CNU has advocated to remove the elevated urban freeways that tore established neighborhoods apart—a true opportunity to reverse decades of community disinvestment.
Walkable neighborhoods built and revitalized by CNU members are safer and healthier for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists. They reduce household expenditures. They increase access to jobs and correlate with greater economic mobility.
Now, CNU is using its expertise to develop design characteristics for just cities, by exploring how strategic transportation investments can support greater equity and equitable development. In October 2014, CNU hosted an Equity + Transportation Summit in NYC to explore these issues.
