TREC recently hosted a workshop for the United Nations Development Program in Brazil (UNDP) and Infra SA, a public corporation that provides transport planning and engineering in Brazil, as they paid a visit to Portland to learn more about best practices for melding housing and transit to better serve residents.
Our daylong workshop brought together agencies working in the area of transit-oriented development (TOD) in the Portland region, including Metro, TriMet, 1000 Friends of Oregon, Community Partners for Affordable Housing (CPAH), and the City of Hillsboro. The workshop included site visits to several sites in Washington County along the MAX Red/Blue line.
"It was inspiring to see everyone come together to share and collaborate ideas," said Nathan McNeil, TREC Research Associate and workshop leader. "The Portland attendees were great about sharing their knowledge and expertise with not only the visiting UNDP and Infra teams, but with each other as well. It was a great reminder of how important collaboration is, especially when it comes to something as nuanced as TOD."
"We truly appreciated the warm welcome and the time everyone dedicated to sharing their knowledge and experiences with us," Monica Azar, UNDP Brazil said. "The discussions and the tour were a great opportunity for us to better understand Portland’s transit-oriented communities and learn from the different perspectives shared throughout the day. It was a very valuable experience for the Infra and UNDP teams."
TREC would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who made the workshop such a great success. UNDP Brazil and Infra SA have returned to Brazil but plan to continue the collaboration and discussion on challenges in the TOD realm, including an international convention to talk about experiences from around the world. Stay tuned for more details.
