The University of Oregon’s Sustainable City Year Program (SCYP) is recognizing 10 years of offering solutions to cities and communities across Oregon. This year, SCYP will partner with the Lane Transit District to explore projects like climate responsive design, bike shares, and tourism.
The Sustainable City Year Program is part of the UO’s Sustainable Cities Initiative (SCI). Co-director and City & Regional Planning professor Marc Schlossberg said the program started on a whim a decade ago. After years of success, cities across the globe are adopting similar models. They’re turning to students and universities for ideas.
“I teach classes on bicycle transportation. One year when we worked with the City of Redmond 15 of the 17 primary recommendations that students came out with got put into local policy and practice within six months,” Schlossberg said.
The SCYP includes students and faculty from various majors like architecture, journalism, and public administration. Delany Wood, a second year Masters student in public administration said she’s excited to work on projects related to bus accessibility.
“Sustainability and equity are really cornerstones of planning and transportation especially, so being able to further those principles in the project are so important,” Wood said.
The Sustainable City Year Program estimates around 40,000 hours of work will go into more than 20 LTD projects. All of the projects were determined by needs of LTD.
“There’s a lot of change happening, and so getting the student perspective on what’s out there and what will be sustainable in the long run is probably what I’m most excited to hear from the classes,” LTD Development Planner Jennifer Zankowski said.
The Lane Council of Governments, PeaceHealth Rides, Cresswell and Cottage Grove are also involved with the partnership between LTD and SCYP.
