Neal Richman

Biographical Synopsis

Neal Richman Ph.D. is the Associate Director of the UCLA Advanced Policy Institute, the center for community development outreach, training and technical assistance within the new School of Public Policy and Social Research. Since 1991, he has also been on the faculty of the UCLA Department of Urban Planning with courses on such topics as non-profit development, inner city retail revitalization, real estate and professional planning practice. He received a doctoral degree for his cross-national research on housing provision from the Department of Development and Planning at the University of Aalborg in Denmark where he sometimes teaches a module in planning ethics.

His professional background is in the field of affordable housing development and management, where he managed the rehabilitation/construction of more than one thousand dwelling units in Southern California. Most of these projects were designed as scattered-site, infill developments with the aim of strengthening the fabric of distressed neighborhoods. His development work has relied on expanding resident-controlled housing and broadening opportunities for ownership by lower income households. His development research clients have included organizations in Europe, Africa, South America and the former Soviet Union. His housing development projects have won awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Progressive Architecture magazine and the US State Department for the UN International Year of Shelter for the Homeless.

Currently, as the Associate Director of UCLA API, he has been exploring the use of new information and communication technologies to support grassroots community development initiatives. FannieMae Foundation, Microsoft Foundation, and the National Telecommunications Information Agency are some of the primary funders of his technology program. The Neighborhood Knowledge Los Angeles (NKLA) internet site can be found at http://nkla.ucla.edu. NKLA provides a tool to assist in pinpointing processes of urban disinvestment and has been used by government agencies, non-profit organizations and private developers to support inner city reinvestment and physical improvements. The City of Los Angeles hired him and the NKLA team to produce an entire electronic code enforcement system that relies on the use of palm pilots by housing inspectors. More than $50 million dollars in repairs and rehabilitation have been completed under this activity. These online tools have been recognized as outstanding examples of e-government/e-community by Forbes Magazine and the Rutgers Center for Urban Policy Research.

Identifying sites for inner city re-investment and redevelopment has been just part of Dr. Richman’s work on supporting smart growth and halting further metropolitan sprawl within the region. In partnership with the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), Dr. Richman has also been conducting training programs for government officials, and representatives of private industry on how new technologies will reshape urban development patterns and finance. This training program conducted courses throughout the region on how to use information to promote better development programming. He has produced a website called "Housing Southern Californians" that can be found under the Housing and Livable Places Section on the SCAG homepage www.scag.ca.gov. This project contains an electronic calculator that translates the anticipated population growth for the region into fair-share allocations for local housing development with existing cities. These targets are now being incorporated into local housing elements and HUD-required consolidated plans.

With regard to community planning, Dr. Richman is responsible for the first online electronic tool for neighborhood asset mapping (I AM LA) Interactive Asset Mapping for Los Angeles. Building on an electronic mapping platform, community residents assisted through local youth were able to identify and present online their local strengths and capacities in such areas as culture, environment, housing, economic development, youth programming etc. Low income communities provide an opportunity for investment not because of their need for capital, but because they are the home of many important resources, organizational, institutional and cultural. This work can also be seen on the NKLA site http://nkla.ucla.edu (Data and Maps).

One important outgrowth of this work has been the construction of a new project to strength the dispersed community of disabled people throughout the Los Angeles area. This project is called LILA, Living Independently in Los Angeles, http://lila.ucla.edu. Disabled people with expert knowledge of resources for their community are being hired as asset mappers to share their information. In addition relevant municipal data bases, relating to such as curb cuts, program resources, and accessibility information are being incorporated on a special mapping platform designed specifically for use by this community. According to the project, electronic access needs to be a social right under ADA, in addition to physical accessibility.

Although Dr. Richman is mid-career, he has already had a profound effect in shaping the field of community development, both in terms of his completed housing projects, and increasingly his use of new information tools to promote "smart growth" and "connected communities".

Book Chapters and Research Monographs

"Internet-based Neighborhood Information Systems: A Comparative Analysis." With Danny Krouk and Bill Pitkin, under review for, Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communications Technologies, edited by Gurstein, M., Idea Group: Hershey PA, 1999 (forthcoming).

"Beyond Public-Private Partnerships: Community Development Corporations and Affordable Housing Provision in the U.S.A." for Community Economic Development: Rhetoric or Reality, edited by Alan Twelvetrees, Aldershot: Avebury. 1998.

"From CRA to Community Investment Entrepreneurship: National Policy-Making and the Decentralisation of Financial Negotiation and Investment." For Credit and New Entrepreneurs, edited by Udo Reifner and Jan Evers. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft; Baden-Baden, Germany, 1998

"The California Mutual Housing Association: Organizational Innovation for Resident-Controlled Affordable Housing." with Allan Heskin for Affordable Housing and Urban Development in the U.S.: Learning from Failure and Success, edited by Willem van Vliet, Sage Publications. 1996.

"From Cooperative to Social Housing: The Transformation of the Third Sector in Denmark." for The Hidden History of Cooperatives, edited by Allan David Heskin and Jacqueline Leavitt. Davis, California: Cooperative Center University of California. 1995.

A Menu of Inner City Housing Development Strategies, Johannesberg, South Africa: Urban Foundation of South Africa. 1993.

References for Neal Richman

Denise Fairchild, Community Development Technologies Center, Los Angeles, California Denfair@cdtech.org, 213-763-2520

Michael Bodaken, National Housing Trust, Washington, DC, Mbodaken@nhtinc.org, 202-333-8931

Joe Carreras, Southern California Association of Governments, Los Angeles, California Carreras@scag.ca.gov, 213-236-1856