1. BALTIMORE Sustainable Cities Initiative Seema D. Iyer, PhD
2017 American Planning Association Conference
New York, NY
#SDGBaltimore

2. Last year UN member states adopted 17 sustainable development goals

3. SDGs: A global aspiration the world commits to achieving by 2030

4. Meetings/ Consultations Endorsements/ Adoptions
Raising Awareness
Choosing Indicators
Meetings/ Consultations
Endorsements/ Adoptions
Tracking Progress
Setting Goals
Global process to articulate and refine the SDGs
Getting UN member states to agree
Subset to develop implementation strategies specifically for Cities
Connecting the SDGs to Habitat III
2. All things that many people in Baltimore, quite frankly, don’t know anything about.
There are other things going on locally
Civil Unrest—several community listening sessions
Political change—locally and nationally
Existing Planning processes mandated by the city, state and federal governments

5. Sustainability Plan Update
Science of Muddling Through
Mayoral Transition
Sustainability Plan Update
Vital Signs 15
Consent Decrees ?
Collaborative Rationality

6. 17 SDGs may be divided among the key agenda ideas
Baltimore
17 SDGs may be divided among the key agenda ideas
PEOPLE
PROSPERITY
PLANET
PEACE
PARTNERSHIPS
HOWEVER, ALL SDGS ARE CONCERNED WITH SOCIAL, ECONMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL OUTCOMES

7. Timeline Listening-to-the-Listening
September 2015 – UN Sustainable Development Summit at which the UN General Assembly convened and ratified the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
October 2015 – The SDSN reached out to and brainstormed with team to establish a collaborative engagement in Baltimore–
University of Baltimore, College of Public Affairs, Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance-Jacob France Institute, University of Maryland National Center for Smart Growth, Communities Without Boundaries International (CWBI)
December 3, 2015 – First meeting of SDG Executive Team (SDGET) consisting of key technical specialists from city agencies, civil societies and non-profits, and academic institutions
March 3, 2016 – CWBI First Community Meeting to engage local organizations
March 4, 2016 – SDG Sustainable Communities Initiative Working Group Discussion
May 24, 2016 – SDG Sustainable Communities Initiative Working Group Discussion
June 4, 2016 – CWBI Community Meeting
July 21, 2016 – Baltimore Data Day
Listening-to-the-Listening

8. Choosing Indicators: Guiding Principles
Reliable
Available (Now or Future)
Explanatory Power (Parsimony)
Actionable
Aligning local priorities with global/SDG targets
Coordinating indicators with existing/parallel processes envisioning Baltimore’s future
Data is accessible and actionable and from a valid, reliable source
Baseline measures can be tracked over time

9. History of Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance
Baltimore partner of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership
Now 36 partners across the US
Advanced information systems with integrated and recurrently updated community indicators on neighborhood conditions in their cities
“Democratization of Data” Overcome the resistance of local public agencies to sharing data
Moved to the University of Baltimore
in 2007

10. Actionable Indicators
16 Goals; 57 Indicators
Examples:
Percent Children Living in Poverty, disaggregated by Race (#SDG10 #Equality #Inclusion)
Liquid Asset Poverty (#SDG1 #EndPoverty)
Percent Earning a Living Wage (#SGD8 #econgrowth)
45 Minute Commute Time (#SDG11 #SustCities)
Length of time in jail pretrial for misdemeanor offenses (#SDG16 #JusticePeace)

11. Engagement and Feedback
Website
Online Surveys
Social Media
#SDGBaltimore
Posters
Final Report

12. Baltimore Data Day 2016 7th Annual Baltimore Data Day
Business Center, University of Baltimore
July 22, 2016
9-3pm
200+ community-based, foundation, technology, government and academic attendees
About Baltimore Data Day  day  
Pre-Day session
July 21, 2016
Sustainable Development
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Baltimore Branch

14. Endorsers University of Baltimore Baltimore CASH Campaign
Central Maryland Transportation Alliance
Baltimore’s Promise
211 United Way
Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers

15. Next Steps
Calculating baseline data for chosen indicators—i.e. % Earning a Living wage
How to use Open Data portals to track indicators over time for the public
Better connections with the City’s Sustainability Plan and future Comp Plan?

16. THANK YOU
Questions? Comments?